Training Log Archive: Bash

TOC Mob Match
Long Sault Conservation Area

This 90-minute Score-O was my first time orienteering at Long Sault since it's 130 km from home. But today was the Orienteering Ontario AGM so I wanted to be there. Glad it gave me an excuse to explore this interesting area!

Here's a Where's Waldo puzzle... Spot The Bash.



The density of points was a little higher in the southern half of the map where the start/finish was located, so I decided to pick them all up first instead of grabbing the distant high value controls first. There were several ways to bail out to the finish from the north end. I was fairly certain that I couldn't clear the course so aimed to maximize points instead.

I woke up tired from yesterday's anaerobic dash to the Wild B.O.A.R. finish line, and my regular dose of coffee didn't wake me up. But my legs felt decent while racing - except for a minor ankle turn - and my nav went well other than #17 (the loop-de-loop at the bottom of the Garmin track).

There was also one moment near the end of the race when I thought, "I've been on this trail too long - I should have hit a junction by now. Hmm, could I have ended up on this parallel trail by mistake? If so, there would be a control just off the trail to my left... Oh yay!" Yeah, that's how navigation ought to be done. P.S. Kids, don't try this at home. Learn to read your map instead.

A nameless Attackpointer with only one L in her first name (hint, hint!), a sense of humour and a flair for dramatic sports photography called out that I only had 2 seconds left to make the time limit. After yesterday's public shaming at the BOAR, I was *not* going to be late today so I flew the last 10 meters to the finish control - and finished with over 2 minutes left. :) As you can see, I frightened the children.



2nd woman behind Galyna, 1st female masters. Huge congrats to Funrun on the overall win; he was the only one to clear the course!

Thanks to Jamie, David, 1L and all the TOC volunteers for a fun morning.

And thanks to the folks who attended the OOA AGM and especially to everyone who agreed to serve on the board of directors. I'm excited that this year we voted in the maximum number of directors, the majority of whom were not sitting on the board 12 months ago. Lots of fresh energy!

Wild B.O.A.R. - the 3rd edition of the Best Race Money Can't Buy.

Once again, Goose prowled the lesser known nooks and crannies of Caledon, King and Vaughan to create a top notch adventure race for his friends. It's a ton of work, and the craziest thing is that this is his own birthday party.

Teams are assigned by the Race Director, ensuring that spouses are separated. This year Tiny was my assigned partner - great news indeed, as we have raced together before. Team costumes are a key part of the event, and their preparation typically takes more time than the race itself.



This year, in honour of Phatty's and Leanimal's upcoming move to France, the theme was "Europe Bound". I think the idea was that we would all dress up differently like the United Nations but I guess we're not that original since France was by far the most popular choice. Leanimal and Coach LD were French maids, 'Bent and Crash looked like a couple of movie stars, and Phatty and Biker Rob wore rude Euro short shorts in hot pink (over their tights). Both Scooby and 'Bent sported big fake moustaches... you get the idea. Costumes need to be semi-functional as sportswear since we are required to wear them for the first leg of the race - and we don't know what discipline that will be until race day.

In keeping with their French theme, 'Bent and Crash raced with a bottle of wine and a baguette.



It's impressive that Leanimal finished the race with her doily still on her head.



Tiny and I decided to dress up as Phatty and Leanimal after they've lived in Europe and sopped up the culture for awhile. We wore Salomon everything - including the white "compression shorts" favoured by Europeans but not popular in North America, for some strange reason. (Since neither of us owns such a thing, we wore tighty whitey boxer shorts with dozens of little hexagons painstakingly drawn on with a Sharpie.) We had lots of other compression wear, some real and some fake - and nice bright Euro colours. I had a long blonde fake ponytail, a tiny pack and the tow rope around my waist to haul "Phatty" off the start. Tiny had a 30L pack full of water containers with "Weeanimal" sticking out the top of it. (The doll was wearing clothes intended to be worn by Mr. and Mrs. Tiny's actual baby, who should be arriving in the next couple of weeks, so Tiny had some incentive to take care of her.) I'm holding her here before the race.





Oops, I managed to miss the start by dashing back into the house to drop off $200 sunglasses that were part of my costume. (It was too cloudy to wear them and I didn't want to lose them.) We started with a Matrix where we each ran through the subdivision to pick up a control. Then we returned to the river and put our canoes in. I remember being hypothermic last year so I put on rain pants, warm jacket and toque for the paddle - so glad I did! The Humber River is never a relaxing paddle - shallow with current, tightly twisting, lots of rocks and woody debris. I was in the stern which was a test for my injured rotator cuff. In the bow, Tiny took good care of little Weeanimal.





At one point my fake "Leanimal" long ponytail got caught in the branches of a tree overhanging the river. Hammer will laugh because I had my map and compass around my neck while paddling (not such a great idea), and the cords were tangled in the ponytail, and I nearly got strangled as the current swept me along. Luckily, the ponytail ripped off my head and I survived. I managed to grab it and reattach it to my head since it was essential to follow the race rule of staying in costume until the paddle was finished.











Racers didn't spread out much in this section, although one team took an (ahem!) illegal portage. (Btw all the portagers pictured below were legal). We saw the leaders leaving the TA so we were not far back but we left in 5th place of 6 teams.









Tiny navigated like a rockstar throughout the bike section, and we were in 1st place when we returned to the TA with two of the optional checkpoints! The biking was an interesting network of trails through the old Woodside Conservation Area which apparently was a big deal 50-60 years ago.

Thanks to last night's heavy rain, there was a lot of muck and I went down a couple of times when my front wheel slid out - including once on my injured shoulder - boo. There were some really steep hills and it was hard even to walk up them with our bikes clogged up with heavy mud and our feet sliding backwards. But mostly, the trails were fun and rideable - kinda cool since it's an area close to home where nobody thinks much about going riding.



Unfortunately, my bike wasn't shifting well at all. The mechanic had mentioned that I'd need to ride it awhile to see whether it needed a new cassette along with its new chain. Yup. When I didn't need to shift, it felt really smooth with its nice new cranks and chain.



Leanimal didn't realize you could just walk around the gate by the TA. ;)



Goose served coffee at the TA - mmm...



The car trunk aid station included homemade cookies, bananas and dark chocolate M&Ms, amongst other things.





The final section was a mostly off-trail trek/run with more optional CPs.



'Bent joined us partway through since his teammate Crash's feet had turned into blocks of ice and she thought it best to drop out. We'd planned to hit two optional CPs but missed one of them and had to move on, given the race's tight 4-hour time limit. More hill climbing, more running and a mad dash to the finish behind Tiny on a tow rope. I glanced down at my Garmin at one point and it said we were going 16.5 kph. I believed it. Goose and Mrs. Tiny stood at the finish line cheering us on and we made it... at 4 hours and 6 seconds. So we were the best ranked of all the teams that DNF'ed - which was everyone.

Amazing potluck race dinner afterward and an inspired rendition of "Happy Birthday". Great event - better than a lot of races I've paid for - and a really fun day with friends. Thank you, Goose and have a great Birthday!

Thanks to GHOSLO for an inspired idea! Yes, former World Rogaining Champion [edit--->] and North American overall champion (only female team in history to win 1st overall at NARC!) Pam James lives in Halifax now and yes, she needs a teammate for the Eco-Endurance Challenge. Yahoo! Her multiple Canadian and North American orienteering gold medals may come in handy too. Do I even need to pack a compass? :)
http://ecoendurancechallenge.ca

My Specialized mountain bike got out of the hospital today, and with the Wild B.O.A.R. coming up on Saturday, I wanted to take a quick spin.

The bike was given a major overhaul. When I arrived to pick it up, the mechanic commented that it's obvious I'm a racer. Aw shucks - I blushed, fluttered my eyelashes and looked down modestly. Then he elaborated: It's obvious because racers can't wait for decent bike conditions; they ride when they have to. They treat their bikes like crap, riding through big mud puddles and getting grit everywhere. And then they ride them again without cleaning them properly, forcing the poor bike mechanic to replace a bunch of parts during the annual tune-up. Oh. Yup, I'm a racer, all right. :)

Cool, hilly morning run to Glen Haffy and around the conservation area, then back again. Took a short break to check out the carpet of violets in the forest at Glen Haffy. Today's goal was to keep a relatively consistent pace, i.e. finish at the same pace I started at, plus or minus some hills. Garmin says it worked. (The slower bit in the middle is mostly "K2", a long climb.)

I ran into a man with poor social skills at the stile in Glen Haffy. It was a weird conversation but maybe he just thought he was funny. He was likely harmless but I changed my route from that point to avoid running into him again.

There are as many ways to train for an ultra as there are ultrarunners. One of my ideas leading up to my first 50-miler was that I wanted to get to the point where a 2-hour run didn't feel like a big deal, i.e. it wasn't a "long run". I got there but for the Death Race (125 km), that probably needs to be bumped up to 3 hours or longer. 16 weeks to go!

It was one of those days... Can't say much but it involves one of the worst projects with which I've ever been involved, and it has to be done because other people screwed up really, really badly. I needed a pre-dinner run with BulletDog in Palgrave West to clear my head.

Yesterday we had gusty winds all day with some really wild blasts around dinnertime. According to the news, they were 90-100 kph. Here was the view outside our front door after dinner last night - a heavy cast iron table with an umbrella counterweight base - blown over with the umbrella closed.



After 'Bent - my husband who spent 78 hours in 2011 doing strength training - had gone outside several times for various reasons, here was the view outside our front door this afternoon.



Don't worry, honey - it's just cast iron. I've got it. ;)

The trail through F&M's was hit hard in the area where the forest fire passed through.





When BulletDog and I reached the last blockage, I was seized with the desire to do something useful that would show immediate visible results - the opposite of much of my day. So I turned off the Garmin and spent 10 minutes attacking this pile of trees with my bare hands. Not only was it cathartic, it cleared enough space for an easy duck-through. Hike-a-biking will still be a pain though since the main fallen tree is at upper thigh level.



And then a wonderful run in the forest in the evening light. 7C is an ideal temperature, spring flowers are coming up, the trails are dry, the hills felt great and I'm lucky to have first world problems. Life is good.

What Google would look like if it had been invented in the 1980s - ah the painful memories. P.S. It really works.

I've posted photos and reports from Wilderness Traverse course testing on Wednesday. If you're interested, you can either scroll back or click here.

Congrats to Zoolander and Hermes on finishing the Boston Marathon on a very tough day for racing! :)