Training Log Archive: 'Bent

CN MTBO, directed by the lovely Bash.
I had a fairly good outing- I tried to take my time and nav carefully, and it mostly went well in this complex area. Glasses and repositioned map board were much better.

I still messed up once at 3 when I ran into a bog where the trail was mis-drawn a bit, and once again when I got caught up with LeAnimal and Mike and got drawn along a little too quickly. Much better on my own as always.

Finished wa-a-ay behind Tiny and Millhouse, but that's to be expected.

Very well run event (even though I'm biased). Every control spot-on, and always several route choices. Good use of the terrain, started on time, good treats after, lots of prizing.

Warm up + picking up controls after the MTBO. Got a flat in the last 1/2km so had to hoof it back.

Nice run out to Glenn Haffy with Hingo and Rob. Not at 4:30 AM with K/O.

Out around Palgrave East with Bash and Bulletdog.

Part of workout 3 + core

Literally running errands in Toronto.

On the pedal mower. Bulletdog accompanied me. I left T-dog in as we just got back from a hike. She demonstrated her displeasure as she stole a full baguette in a feat of agility from the counter and scarfed it down.

C • I must see this thing at some point! 5

Since my brachialis won't let me do a full workout, I did bits of workout #2, bits of a Link workout, some core work and some leg work on the ball.

Nice quick run to work, with extra hills up the Charlevoix loop and a couple of intervals on the Pond hill, in the light rain and brilliant green spring leaves.

Bulletdog and I took the quick route to work but the long way home.

Partial workout due to the odd elbow/forearm thing, + core work.
Tried some hammer curls and reverse curls, but even the lightest weight hurt.

Easy spin with Bulletdog- her knee seems fine.
Second lap testing options for MTBO with the map board- I moved it down and to one side so I can see around it on the 'Bent. I also will use my rx glasses.

Rodney Yee Flexibility- ouch, the legs are a bit tight.

Sulphur Springs 25K. Given what we did last week, this went OK- just under 5 min slower than last year. I think I still finished 13th overall and 7 in my age group, but results are messed up due to a nav error many folks made.
I think next trail race I'll try to negative split- I faded a bit through this one.
Got the kinks worked out by Jilldo after.

Beeyoootiful day.
Saw lots of the usual suspects out there. Caught Spaff, who was going so fast on his 100miler I thought he was a 25K runner!

C • Good Job! 4

Was going to do strength today but my left forearm/elbow is still sore.
I thought it was from they kayak erg, but I've been off it for a couple of weeks. Thumbs of Death isn't sure what it was.

CN MTBO training night. Includes biking to Albion and back, and picking up controls.
Other than having my rear brake cable snag and lock the wheel and dropping my SI at the bottom of a thick bikewhack hill (an overgrown trail near 9) and having to go back to look for it, this was a fun outing.

Not my ideal sport- I had a hell of a time reading the map while riding as on the 'bent the board has to be vertical, blocking my view of the trail. Lots of nav errors even in such a familiar area.

I still have to say the course was well laid out and CPs were in logical spots, and I certainly had fun. Even saw some spots I'd never visited before!

Still resting the Bulletdog. Legs felt fine today.

Mogollon Rim Rogaine Day 2
After messing around too much looking for a trail up the canyon at night (My error- the lake was longer than shown on the map) I was starting to get my "useless nav at night" mode. We had a frustrating night due to some mis-mapped roads, but couldn't seem to get back on our game in the daylight, and some combination of heat, altitude, blisters and just headspace had us spending hours looking for 2 controls unsuccessfully, at which point we pulled the plug.

We ended up getting less than 500 more points in the last 16 hours, our worst Rogaine ever. We ended up with 1390 points (We were hoping for over 2000). Last time in Arizona was our first Rogaine, and even with me being altitude sick we did far better. Oh well, still had fun racing with Bash and enjoyed the scenery.

C • I see you finished with 15 minutes to spare 2

Mogollan Rim Rogaine - see Bash's log for extensive write-up and pics.
Rugged country with open pine forests and some 200m deep canyons.
We did the West part 1st with the biggest climbs and spiked everything before dark- almost 1000 points. Feeling fine even with heat and alt. Just a few blisters due to the fine dust.
The wheels fell off when it got dark- wasted lots of time getting out of the canyon via steep and sketchy route after not finding the trail.

Nice hike with Bash around the Christopher Creek area below the impressive Mogollan Rim, a 1000foot version of the escarpment. Saving the feet for tomorrow's Rogaine.

No bulletdog today- still needs to rest.

Bulletdog's a quadruped again. Scared the heck out of us though.

Let's hope Hammer recovers as fast.

Via SW singletrack in Palgrave, without Bulletdog.

The rest of the Red Dog sigletrack home.

Easy run with Bash around Palgrave East.

Bulletdog came along too. Somewhere in the last 500M she seems to have re-injured her knee, emulating Hammer. It's a bad weekend for athletes and their joints, but lets hope both of these (And Travellinga's) prove to be only temporary aggravations.

Rest of the "missing Link" workout + core work.

Run to the big fallen log with a whack of tools, saw and schlepp it off the trail (Barely- heavy sucker) then a couple more small missions in the woods between the thunderstorms.

Storms wouldn't let up, so we rode in the basement instead of doing a long run. Bah. Feel sorry for all our buddies racing today.

Part of K/O's Link workout and some other stuff.

Nice run to work with Bulletdog in light rain.

Home the short way.

Part of workout #2, but cut short for more biking time.

Fantastic day for a ride out. Down to Albion, and around all the north trails and a bit of the south, with my laptop etc stuffed in a bag on the rack.

The North trails are in great shape, unlike my climbing legs.

For Slice:
The birds were chirping, the frogs were croaking, Turkeys trotted across the trail, skies were blue, forest bright green, the vast mountain vistas of the Albion Hills were breathtaking.

Night ride home

Nice ride home via the Red Dog Singletrack on the Omega. It doesn't handle big bumps as well as the big bike, but I'm getting the hang of tight singletrack with it. The new mods are working well, and my foot doesn't hit the wheel on tight twists now. Still not the racing machine I'd hoped for -yet.

Took the Omega to work and back. Legs felt fine today, despite some steep climbs and a little early-season towing on the weekend that I wasn't trained up for.

Volunteering at the Deerhurst Highschool race.
Dogrunner rode up with an emergency- we need BIcycle Repair Man!
Donned my cape and unitard, and dashed off to help a girl's team do a chain-otomy as the Bobkittens swooned at my manly abilities.


Fun times watching the kids go by.

FAC Deerhurst with Bash and Shifty. Good race for us, despite challenges.
Better details to follow on Bash's log, but for FB...

Bash wasn't sure about this one- some vague controls that might be a crapshoot.

We had some bike issues on the first leg- Shifty's bike no-shifty etc, but we passed some teams on the paddle and got out right behind Tiny's MBR.
On foot we had a small nav issue with a misplaced CP, hit some trails behind the airport, and between Shifty and Bash we found the way to CP4 without too much trouble, unlike a lot of teams.

We leapfrogged Sophia's team quite a bit. Back on the bikes then trekking again, and Bash found us the vague CP8 "Intersection of 3 trails" nicely, jumping ahead again. Off to the advanced CP8A- some thick bushwhacking but again Bash and Shift got us over a bridge and on the trail to 8A in first co-ed, 4th overall. Heroic Shifty swam the icy river, and Tommy Hillflyer helped him out on the far side. Unfortunately Shifty's legs seized up after the icy swim so I towed him on the run, very glad it wasn't me cramping after a swim. He couldn't even go on tow on his bike, so I ended up pushing his bike riding mine 1-handed for a few km while he limped along. MBR blew past us. I thought we might have to bail, but Shifty's so tough- he, walked then jogged up the hills, recovered enough to ride, and we rode and towed through the remaining CPs, passing MBR again thanks to Bash's great nav. We ended up in a race to the finish but 10 seconds behind MBR for 2nd co-ed and 5th overall. Hillflyer's boys were a few minutes behind us.

Good teamwork all around- Bash's nav was great, Shifty swam the nasty creek and helped with nav, and I towed where I could.

C • Thanks :-) 2