Training Log Archive: 'Bent

Bah- sore throat and feeling sluggish today. Also some poison ivy from trail work. Think I'll skip the morning training.

Commute to work and home on the Omega via the newly cleaned-up singletrack with Bulletdog. Nice cool evening!

Easy run home in the Treks. Knee's not too bad after all the racing on the weekend.

C • Maybe the MRI cured it 2

Misc warmups and cooldowns all weekend.

Foggy and humid night lap. At least I knew where the tricky roots were this time, and lights and bike worked perfectly. Second half of the course had dried out a bit. I caught a lot of riders, but a few screamed past me on the singletrack especially. This was the only time I had to get off on the final big climb, when I slid into a rut.

Having a much better lap- I had the lines figured out around some of the nasty roots and was able to ride them- until I got a flat after the Goat Path. Not fated to break an hour. Got it re-pumped pretty fast and it held, and brought in a respectable 1:04. Wonder how fast it would be without the flat?

Note- according to my HRM download it was only about 3 minutes stop, so probably not a sub-hour lap.

A couple of the guys weren't feeling like riding, so I took the Victory Lap. Usually pretty laid back on the post-noon lap, but there were some hard riders out. Finally sunny, but roots still like oiled plastic, and gummy rutted clay here and there.

Our non-competitive Sloan team (Sloan Wobbly) had fun, which is what we came for. Some fairly new riders got lots of experience in tricky conditions, but at least not a muck-fest like last year.

3-Pin's Sloan Steady were pretty consistent, with Julia bringing in strong laps, Tom doing well, and 3-pin going under an hour twice on a single-speed. 3 of his 4 laps were faster than mine!

Kudos to the amazing Crash too, or should we change her name to Crush?

24 Hrs of Summer Solstice.
Pouring down rain at 12, so they delayed until 2PM and I got back from my MRI not long after.
Chico did a great job of armouring much of the trail, but conditions were pretty treacherous on the first 1/3 of the lap, with gluey clay coating bald exposed off-angle roots. On the uphills, that's *the* recumbent killer, so I had to get off several times and push when I slid out. Never crashed or torqued my knee all race though.

Felt like I was riding a lot slower than the fast laps I was throwing down in training all year in dry conditions, and i think the muck hits me harder than the short bikes.

Still pleased with my lap- fastest of the team, and only 3-Pin on the "fast" team was quicker.

Easy cruise to make sure the bike and knee still work.

Just a short workout.

Spent the evening with Joe and the gang clearing the Palgrave Singletrack with weedwhackers etc.

Workout #3 plus extra leg strength

Easy commute- managed to miss the storms, but the sunset ride home was a steamy tropical jungle.

Pouring in the AM so no commute.

Ride down to meet the 24hr crew and pre-ride. I thought the plan was an easy ride, but the Tuesday race started a bit behind us and 3-pin brought the pain. I held my my own on the 'bent but Hillflyer and I couldn't drop him, even though he's on a singlespeed! Should be a fun team.

Actually, it's split into 2 teams and with my MRI / knee I'm on the gimp squad.

Easy ride in with Bulletdog

Brotherhood Of The Trek run home.
Knee's a bit sore after.

Nice bike ride with Bash. Picked up Coach LD en route to the Shed and back at a pretty decent pace, and met almost everyone we know in Caledon. I think Bash listed them all in her log.

Legs felt pretty good after Friday's hammering. Great day out.

Workout #2 + let strength + part of Hard Core

Short run in Palgrave West.
Felt so nice and light running in the FFs, but I was aware of my knee and didn't want to push it too far.

C • Bender has his treks now to... 2

Out to Albion, around the 24hr course and the sections not on the course as well. I really put the hammer down on the first 90 minutes, but the legs were pretty pooched after grinding big gears up the hills so I rode the rest easier.
Chico's working like crazy, bulldozing the muck-field in front of the campsites, re-routing etc.

Looks like he saved the biggest hill for the last 2km. I remember barely making it up in the past, and lots of folks walking, but it's a middle-ring climb today.

The Witch of Albion singletrack section (the fast and flowing one) is closed due to an attacking bird! I'd heard from a patient that there was a falcon or goshawk divebombing people there.

C • goshawk 1

To work and back via singletrack and 3 pond swims for Bulletdog. Saw 1 pack of riders, and a very surprised deer on the trail.

Pouring down rain so no morning ride.
Workout #1 plus leg strength.

Easy commute with the Bulletdog.
Legs are a bit slow, but the knee doesn't mind biking.
Nice to be back on the 'Bent!

LAMM day 2- Early morning bagpiper, and we started in foggy, rainy weather.

My knees were *both* sore, and I was slow right off the bat. Bash had to dial it back to wait for me on the flats, and I was even slower picking my way down the descents- ow, ouch, ooh, oy.

The scenery was very cool in the mysterious fog, with amazing crags and little meadows. We saw lots of deer too. There was one long ascent where I was able to march along pretty well and felt OK, but the whole day I was lagging back with a death-grip on my poles, so I really couldn't handle the map unless we stopped. Despite the nasty wind and rain we were always warm and comfortable in our Salomonalia- Paclite and Fastwing on course and Pertex in camp

Bash was a superstar- doing 99%+ of the nav, leading the way, chatting with other teams, being patient with my pace, and I was basically baggage, especially as I groaned down the steep hills. I ended up wearing the strap right out on one pole, but did spare my knee the worst of it by going slowly and carefully. The only running I could do all day was the final 50M finish chute, and that was a pretty pathetic shuffle.

We finished in 66th again out of 84 which isn't bad for walking a running race.

Despite my issues I'm really glad we did it- it was still spectacular, a well organized and fun event, gorgeous location, and "racing" together is always great.

C • 15.5 hours of mountain marathon 5

C • You're too hard on yourself! 2

Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon day 1- See Bash's log for details and tons of pics.
Perfect, sunny Scottish day.

We were given a huge laminated map with lots of controls marked, but only found out which ones were ours for day 1 after we were bussed to the start and had punched the start control, then had to mark them down.
Lots of climbing, and most of the B course left us behind pretty quickly as they jogged off. Still, we hiked along pretty well. Fantastic scenery, perfect weather.

The controls were subtle and hard to find, but Bash was on her game with solid and confident nav, and I was able to do some final honing in for a few of them. We ran a few km on a road around to one control, where the pack went up-and-over, but it seemed to work for us.

Early in the day I was keen to go faster, and my knee felt good, with my poles, compression tights and advil. Different story later on- by the last hour of the first day my good knee had taken a lot of pounding as I favoured it, so both were hurting. Bash was jogging ahead lightly as I dragged behind, asking her to slow down, while teams passed by. The 200M shuffle- jog to the finish was nasty.
Not really surprising given that I'd done virtually no running for 7 months.

Camp was fine- we were warmer than in Sweden thanks to our Salomon gear and my 1lb down sleeping bag. There was a huge crowd of racers around a car with the World Cup soccer game on the radio!
I was wondering how my knee would do the next day, as it was sore around camp.

Most folks were in C, D or Score-O categories. Glad we didn't do A as planned before I got injured!

We were 66th out of 84 on the B course. Not surprising given how little we ran, and how slow I was at the end. Oh, and my dropping my map at a stream and realizing it only after 5 minutes of hard climbing didn't help either.

Incidentally, I carried less water and used a Steri-Pen to treat one bottle at a time on the course. It only takes 45 seconds, plus all the time to go back and find the map! I was surprised to see folks just drinking from the streams, given all the sheep shite everywhere and the odd carcass we saw.

Got this taper/ rest-the-knee thing dialed. Long winding spectacular drives in the Highlands, visiting castles and battlefields, and carb loading via soy mochas, drams of scotch and local seafood.
At least we know where LAMM is now- Glen Fyne, near Inverary, ancestral home of the Campbell clan, and that's where we're staying.

First soggy day in Scotland.
We decided to bike the trails near Avimore, at a place I can't pronounce or remember. Nice destination ride to a spectacular loch, AR style riding through some creeks on rocky ATV trails and some smooth bike trail.
Different riding a hardtail with hub gears- I can see why Phats.jr likes the simplicity even thought this was just an 8spd.

Late lunch at Bash's idea of heaven- a great cafe with superb coffee, great meals and excellent baking connected with a really good outdoor gear store.

C • 8spd * 1.75 10

Easier knee-sparing hike around the Quiriang, a mordor-esque rock formation near the coast of Skye. Fog added to the mystique, and even some nav challenge.
Some cool drives and castle visits too, and the fog burned off for another gorgeous day.

Fantastic day hiking in the Black Cuillin mountains in perfect sunshine. Gradual slope gave way to the steepest hiking yet, and an astounding view from the ragged ridge at the top. We happened on a summit party where a fellow had just completed climbing all 283 Munros, and offered us Champagne. We've climbed 6 now. My knee wasn't as well behaved today.
I tried CWX tights which helped but got me some odd looks.

The hike was followed by the Talisker distillery tour, then a wonderful seafood dinner. Maybe some real Scottish weather tomorrow. Oh well, my knee needs a break.

Beautiful sunny day, so off to climb 3 more Munros. Excellent hiking , no crowds, fantastic views and my knee behaved pretty well.

We've decided to drop down to the B course at the LAMM , but not drop out.

Bash and I set out to climb the UK's mightiest peak, Ben Nevis.
We hiked at a good clip past perhaps 200 hikers into the cloud and fog. At the summit we could barely see 50M between cairns, but still a fun trip.
Trotted down out of the clouds and driving rain.
I'll see if the advil and poles and 6 days off save my knee.