Training Log Archive: 'Bent

Workout #2.

Easy trot to work with the 2 dogs.
I was hoping for a much longer run, but a huge thunderstorm made me late, and I ended up running straight to work in steady rain.
Probably a zone 2, except for T-dog's exploration breaks.

Yep, it's ride-in-the-basement-and-watch-the-TDF season.
Rode up Col de Galibier with Vino this morning.

Finished up the stage and another one on an easier spin when I got home.

Nice trot into work before the heat and smog get too bad.

Workout #1. Back to the high numbers again.

Hard Core Monday. We've moved it to the basement for hot smoggy days.

Hot, smoggy day after a hard race- good day for nothing more than stretching and balance work.

Took the 5/5 Podium 'Bent bike into Gandalf's workshop for some upgrades before the big races start.

Event: Emergency Services Adventure Race (ESAR)
 

ESAR - Emergency Services Adventure Race

Emergency Services Adventure Race.
Last year we won this race. The organizer politely hinted that perhaps it would be nice to not bring experienced racers to destroy the fire, police, ambulance and military teams. Mind you, there were some tough AR teams this year- Children's Wish is captained by Glen E, who races with the mighty LSN, The Padre and Gazelle were racing against us on Team Hunger with a top male triathlete, and Canadian Hardcore were there fresh from winning the Storm 2-day.

I managed to get 2 young friends, VO2Max and Britt to race with me, the day after their highschool prom. Britt's on the National Junior XC ski team, and V-max is on the XC development squad, and races O-cup MTB. Still, it's about more than fitness. V-max and I did the plotting and he did all the bike nav. Britt was the paddling navigator.

We started on bikes at Albion Hills. Luckily we managed to make it to the front, and within minutes were by ourselves out there. I had to work ha-a-a-rd to keep up with V-max in the singletrack on my recumbent, but we left Albion in 2nd place, behind CW.

In Palgrave we had 4 orienteering controls, where we spiked them all and moved into the lead.
Britt's a fantastic runner but has never had to bushwhack or cross a river. We got her through despite her plans to take off her shoes to keep them dry. Later she was wishing for more rivers to cross. We were pretty well matched in this run.

A dirt road ride next where V-max gave me a bit of a tow up a couple of hills (He's way smaller than me), then into the Dingle and a hard trail climb to Glen Haffy. There we had 15 minutes to catch a fish in the pond, but could leave immediately if we caught one. I was looking forward to a 15 minute break, but 6 minutes in I managed to catch a minnow about 2cm long! The staff confirmed -it's a fish- so with a loud "Fish On", off we went.We saw 2nd place CW coming in as we left.

Some good bike nav by V-max and a long, hot, hilly road ride to the Orangeville Resevoir. I took another tow up a hill or two. The only place I was faster was on the downhills and headwind sections.
Onto the canoes to find 3 CPs. We had a huge lead, but went searching for a CP on the wrong island in thick nasty bush, to Britt's horror. Pate ran into an attack-goose. Children's Wish had caught up and saw us finally go to the right island. Considering all our paddling practice consisted of 10 minutes in a backyard pond, we did quite well and kept our lead. Even with the nav error, my teammates were loving every minute.

Next a short bike ride with Britt setting a hard pace, then orienteering at the Goodyear Scout Camp, which is Glen E's training area. They passed us in transition and we were neck-and-neck, but we outran them and found a nice dirt road instead of a bushwhack.
Finally, a beautiful but hilly run on the Bruce Trail in Hockley Valley. With CW right behind us, my legs were running out of gas. Britt was prancing along like a deer, so I towed behind her for about 1.5 hilly km. At the finish we did a climbing wall, then a stretcher carry to the line. Just as we finished CW came over the wall, so it was a close win!
I got to cheer in the Hunger lads and the Tree Huggers from Venus, who both won their categories as well! THFV were 9th overall, in a really tough race. The Padre described it as a real hammer-fest.

My teammates never stopped smiling or saying "This is so awesome", even when I was back there doing CPR on myself. I certainly pushed as hard as I could to keep up.
Vmax did a perfect job of bike nav, and they were both well organized, and patient waiting for the old guy.

C • Congrats 2

Hardest bits of ESAR.

Power Yoga DVD -let's call it 20 at 1.

Easy jog to work. Once again, tapering for a race. It seems like when we race every weekend, the rest of the week is either recovery or tapering, with maybe one day of intervals etc.

Biked down to Albion, around the North trails and back. Trails are in fantastic condition and without my 7kg backpack the bike's climbing really well, even after yesterday's hill intervals.
Lots of bugs if you stop, but heard lots of great birds too.

Easy ride to work and back. Wasn't even dark on my ride home at 9!

Finally, no rain!

Commute home to my hill training via Red Dog 3. Bulletdog knows this trail very well by now.

Up and over the Pond Hill in Palgrave and back- repeat.
Last bit of hill training before ESAR. Note- my HRM seems to be wonky- it's reading low and intermittent.

Workout # 3 and extra stretching.

Hard Core monday after a long drive from Ottawa.

ECOC Long course.
Absolutely no pressure, and I managed to run this one pretty much on my own or leading other orienteers on the same course, so I got to make my own mistakes.
Beautiful run in the gorgeous Gatineau, with some nice long legs to enjoy the scenery. I had 5 of the fastest splits, and was actually on track to do well until one silly error where I went from 8 to 10, a long way back to 9, then back to 10, so I was 7th/12. Like I care. Main thing was that I had fun and didn't get stressed or PO'd.

Quick morning paddle before heading off to the O-meet.
Technique's coming back nicely, so I enjoyed it despite the rain and cold.

ECOC Short course.
I was having more fun until I ran into other orienteers on the same course, and started getting off track.
Surprisingly little stress though, managed to take my time where needed and not panic. Had 3 of the fastest splits, but was inconsistent. 8th/11.

Easy jog-hike with the 2dogs, re-tracing some of the controls in the short course where I made errors. Got to see exactly where we went wrong, which I always wish I could do.

Paddle with Bash and the 2dogs around the lake that's our home base for the ECOC.
Used canoe paddles to stay dryer. The rain held off more or less.

Bike with Bash in the Gatineu. Great easy ride on nice doubletrack, but with all the rain it was pretty muddy. We didn't get rained on too much, and the forest was nice.
We'd hoped to do a lot more riding, but with loads of rain and cold temperatures it wasn't inspiring.

Workout# 2. With all the racing I've been either tapering or recovering instead of doing my strength workouts.

Speed intervals. 3' on, 2 off, 4' on, 2 off, 3' on etc.

The rest of the run before and after the intervals.

From reading about intervals today on AP, sounds like I should have worn my HRM to ensure I'm not above Lactate threshold for these speed intervals, or if I am I should have longer recovery and shorter intervals.

Took the bulletdog on the Red Dog on the way to work.
Threatening weather on the ride home, and I had to meet with the Tree Huggers Generations ESAR team to sit in a boat with them before the race, so it was a short ride back.

Easy jog-hike home with T-dog.

Feeling really bagged today after a hideous commute for my lecture at U of T and a hard weekend, so I skipped Hard Core, much to Bash's scorn.

Hilton Falls Hardrock.
I went into this tired from yesterday's race and really didn't care how I did. It actually went reasonably well until I made the mistake of reading the CP number on 9 which was wrong and got a little confused, but less profane than some other orienteers were.
I met Bash hobbling on a re-sprained ankle, who was planning to walk the rest, so I used the excuse to skip a loop and do the last bit. I decided to try the direct bushwhack routes as an exercise rather than my "take trails then attack from corners etc.". I took my time, still made errors but had fun.

For cooldown I I took down the controls from the gruelling short course Mr Pither put up as a warmup.

STORM The Trent - 2-day, 130 km, solo adventure stage race

Storm the Trent
Bash and I did this solo. We saw there was a paddle start followed by bike, so I donned my lifejacket (full of water and food) under my pack full of water and running shoes, and changed into my hard soled MTB shoes. Well, the start was a surprise 20' orienteering run to 3 CPs in the bush. Even with the shoes and heavy load I was doing OK until my pack exploded, so it was a poor start.
In my kayak I managed to catch up to all but the first 4 boats after a zone 4-5 effort. Gazelle was leading the race!
After a poor transition (My huge expedition kayak paddles well but is a beast to schlep) was a fairly long road bike leg, which went well enough but I only reeled in a couple of the leaders. This was followed by the advanced section, bike-O. I wasn't expecting this, and hadn't realized how tough it is on my 'Bent to read a map flapping around my neck. A handlebar map holder can't work for me. Also no scale on the map. Naturally I made a couple of huge nav errors, and met Bash part way through (Deja-vu from last week?) The running section went fine, as we both took shortcuts through the bush. I saw JeffW leave the transition, and knew he was leading the masters, so I rode and ran pretty hard on the last 2 sections, but trailed him by 55 seconds at the finish.

I was reasonably pleased with 2nd Masters, given that I had a race full of errors. Probably 6th solo. First overall was Phatty, and Gazelle was 4th after a bike nav problem.
Once again, the invincible Bash was only 10' behind me and blew away all the female teams and most of the others. A Caledon sweep of the solos!

All in all, a nice race. Trickier nav than I had expected from a "marked course" race, and more bushwhacking and muck-running too. Some very pretty trails and very nice terrain in general. Dunno how Mr STORM does it- running 3 races in one weekend. He looked happy but more tired than the racers!

C • trent 2

Easy spin with the dogs to shake out bike bugs.

Workout #1. A little pressed for time.

Such a great day out. I rode down to Albion and around before work. With my backpack and laptop I was a bit careful on the big bumps, and had to skip some sections as I ran out of time.

Wildlife report for Bash- ravenous mosquitos are a great incentive not to stop.

Moonlit ride home. Now for some tapering for a big weekend coming up.

Nice trot to work. Legs still feel a bit slow.
Wildlife report- Rose Breasted Grosbeak flew right next to me and Bulletdog, and I heard a Rufous Sided Towhee and a Brown Thrasher, as well as a Broad Winged Hawk.

Well, I guess my legs are now fully recovered, as I ran a PB home on the old route!

Cool down after a quick run, with some silly walks etc.

SAC Paddling-

I just saw the splits. We were 28th at CP1, 25 off the bikes due to nav issues, but we tied LSN for the second fastest paddle split, right behind SRS! The lads worked hard all right reeling in other teams, as we moved up to 9th overall.

Ride to work and back the longer route so Bulletdog got 3 swims in.

Hard Core Monday with Bash.
Not too bad today.

Easy spin with the dogs to loosen things up after the SAC.
I tried to ride the Treehugger singletrack but someone has spent a lot of time obliterating it with hundreds of logs and branches. Oh well, easy come easy go.

Event: FAR SAC Adventure Race (8hrs)
 

Fenelon Falls SAC.
I raced with Team Hunger (Gazelle and The Padre).
We got sucked in with the pack way off course on the initial bike leg, worked our way back then made another big error later in the biking.
Some fairly mucky and rocky biking, but the 'Bent worked well until I got a stick in the rear derailleur and my shifting went kaput. I managed to kick and bend it into some semblance of function.

We managed to keep smiling, and fight our way up from 28th to top 10 thanks to some good nav in the trekking and a strong paddle followed by a hammer-fest on the rail trail, but we did just miss the advanced cut-off.
We knew we were back on track when we met the female TreeHuggers in the trek, who of course had clean nav. all along.

Good enough for 3rd male, 9th overall.
Great teammates, and we used all our tow systems, bushwhacking and paddling tricks to top advantage.

Kudos to Tiny's team, who were 1st co-ed and 2nd overall(!) and to Bash, Crash and Gazette, who were 2nd female and well up overall.

Nice easy run to loosen up the legs a little. Also did a whole whack of stretching.

Commute's quicker without dogs. Drizzly morning

Rode to my environmental meeting. Much nicer weather this PM.

Rode back in the dark from my meeting. Beautiful night ride with loud frogs everywhere, marred a bit when my pack strap wrapped around my rear disk, bringing me to a screeching halt. Managed to extricate it, but the strap's ripped of, disk's a little bent and I had to back the rear brake right off. Lots of work before the race tomorrow to re-true the disk.

My Polar 720i drowned last week when paddling. I sent it in to Polar, and got a brand new one shipped to me very fast!

Workout #3

Easy ride to work on a gorgeous day.

Moonlit ride home. Nice night.

Got a ride to work today so I took the long way home. This is to and from my speed intervals.

Speed intervals. No HRM so I'm just guessing.
3 on, 2 off. 3 on, 1 off, 4 on, 2 off, 3 on, 1 off.

Bulletdog and I took the Red Dog singletrack to work.

We threw in some sets on the Pond hill in Palgrave on the way home.

Rest of the ride.

Hard Core with Bash.