Back from la-la land!
Raced a little women-only not-quite-sprint tri on the 10th, which went ridiculously well considering I've done <500km of cycling all year. Swim was the best I've done in years - no navigation issues, and damn fast (for me). I'd taken my tri bike out for the first time in a year on Thurs evening to make sure all was ok, and it was...until I hopped on at the mount line and discovered my rear derailleur was completely fuct. Had to hold the bar end shifter in place if I wanted anything but the smallest cog, and there are a lot of lumps and bumps on the course that meant I never quite knew what gear I'd be in when I landed. I just hacked along as best I could, actually surprising myself with a faster bike split than I could have imagined...especially in these conditions:
Yep, pissing rain! Ah well - it was the same for everyone. Really shocked myself with my run split: having done nothing but ultra since fall last year, all my training and racing is slow as shit. Imagine my surprise when I ran 3sec/km over my 5k PR pace for the 4k at the end! I haven't run that fast in at least 2 years - crazy. Overall quite pleased with 7/30 in my AG and 30/184 O/A - might very well be my last tri, but it seems like a good one to go out on.
Saturday night: punk show with some absolute legend bands. Sunday: packing all day for next adventure. Monday morning: heartbreak, as we are left with no choice but to take one of our kitties for her last ride. RIP, Tough - you were the sweetest, fluffiest little goofball ever.
Less than an hour later, we were on our way to Kawartha Highlands to soothe our souls with 5 days of backcountry canoeing.
Mist on the water at first light each morning
Fat, bright moons overhead each night
Days on the water moving from place to place, collecting firewood to keep us warm
Portages from lake to lake - we passed through 6 lakes in 5 days
Setting up camp in a different spot each night
Lunch at the foot of a waterfall
The occasional beaver swimming past (we also saw moose, coyote, herons, loons, and tons of chipmunks)
And sunsets.
Extracting back at our insertion point on Friday, we drove half an hour up the road to Silent Lake Provincial Park for another 2 nights of drive-in camping.
We hiked a bit of gorgeous trail on Friday evening to see a beautiful sunset over Silent Lake
We also tarped ourselves in ridiculously well because they were calling for rain all day on Saturday.
I managed to get dinner (grilled pork chops & asparagus with cornbread), dessert (cherry cobbler), and breakfast (sausage, duck egg & cheez biscuit bake) all made on the fire before the rain set in at 10am Saturday morning.
We got out and hiked a couple of lovely trails in the park anyway.
And were back to our campsite when the most torrential downpours came through, keeping the fire going all the way through from Friday evening to Sunday morning.
The rain finally quit around 10pm on Saturday, so we pulled our chairs up by the fire and made s'mores. Packing up on Sunday, the sun finally came out again for the way home.
Arrived home around 7:30pm on Sunday evening, and as of yesterday evening everything has been washed and packed away...for about 2.5 weeks until we go backpacking in October.
This week's goals:
- swim x 1
- bike x 1
- run x 5
- core/strength x 4
I need to get my ass back into ultra shape - have one more 6-hour race on Oct 29th!
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ill advised racing inc.