Training Log Archive: Funderstormin

Following a leisurely breakfast, I took the kayak out to explore Cat Lake. The reservation system said that the site we had booked was the most popular on the lake, and after paddling by the others, I could see why! Most of the other sites were small and overgrown - I don't think this area gets used much, which is kind of a shame as it's really lovely! We were the only ones on the lake for the whole weekend.

Were it not for the bugs, I would have been curious to check out the portage trail at the other end of the lake, but I knew better!

Amber, Iris and I headed out to a campsite in the Algonquin Highlands Water Trails for the weekend. I'd never been in there before so wasn't sure what to expect. We started from the Little Hawk Lake access point and enjoyed a relatively calm paddle across the lake to a 950m portage where we learned how the bad the bugs could get this weekend! Iris was the only one appropriately dressed for the portage, covering every possible inch of exposed skin. Amber and I learned by Monday!

Under normal conditions, this would be a lovely portage, relatively flat and well used. With the bugs it was a bit of a get through it as quickly as you can sufferfest! Once we made our three trips through Mosquito alley, we had a short paddle across Cat Lake to our lovely, large, three level campsite at the end of a point. We were there in time to set up before happy hour and had a lovely evening and fire.

Browner and I met at Puslinch for a lovely little ride followed by a parking lot picnic. There is SO MUCH POISON IVY in there! For some reason, I feel I've become less susceptible to it in the past couple of years after a long phase of being infected even by looking at it. But there was tons at Turkey Point a couple of weeks ago and I never got a single bump. Let's see if I'm eating my words in a couple of days!

Roberta (my new bike) and are rebuilding the branches of the Trust Tree after our crash a couple of weeks ago.

C • Poison Ivy Resistance 1

Two of my running goals for this year were to try a Happy Trails event and to try a fixed time event. I was able to combine them both at the Sunburn Solstice! I signed up for the half solstice several months ago, which was perhaps a bit ambitious given my training, but I was curious to see how it would go and what my brain would think of running the same loop for an extended period of time.

I decided my goal was to do 32km, which is 10km longer than my longest run so far this year. In retrospect, I could have been more ambitious with this, but wanted something challenging but realistic. If I'd set out to do 40km and my achilles hadn't cooperated, I would been disappointed with myself. I finished my 32km with about two hours to spare, but at that point, the lure of taking my shoes off and a cold beer was much stronger than the pull of another loop or two!

It was a hot day and my strategy from the beginning was to take a short break in between each lap to get out of the sun and drink something cold. As the laps went on, so too did the length of the breaks! I had some friends volunteering and it was easy to spend a few minutes chatting with them. So my chip time was around 5:30 but my moving time was 4:40. There was lots of walking as the laps went on.

Happy Trails did a great job and I'd not hesitate to sign up for one of their events again. Everything about the organization was top notch. I am not so sure about the fixed time events though...I got pretty bored by about loop 5! What I didn't like about this particular course was that there was a long out and back section with two-way traffic. Although some other runners told me that they found this part encouraging, I preferred the first section where I could be on my own. :-)

Timato came with me and had a great day in the heat, racking up 65km for second male and third overall. It was pretty cool that the overall winner in the half solstice was a female, who put down 73km with a smile on her face the whole time!

Roberta and I had our first crash early into the ride when I underestimated the width of her handlebars climbing over a root on some singletrack and got knocked off by a tree. Didn't hurt my body, but definitely shook my confidence for awhile!

Took advantage of the rain coming later than expected and hiked from the campsite around one of the trails. Picking a tick off of Greg's leg definitely gave me some PTSD! Gave myself a good scrub in the shower afterwards!

C • Ugh 1

Tooling around some trails at Turkey Point, getting to know Roberta (my new bike's name).

Old Mill 5K in Ancaster. I had proposed this as a fun night out with Mrs. Tiny, and we were happy to run into Anvil there as well. The weather was perfect, but I've been sick for a good chunk of the past week so this did not feel easy. It's a pretty hilly (but scenic, for road) course that I think I last ran in about 1999 or 2000!

Checking out a forest tract on the way home from camping with my nieces and nephews.