Training Log Archive: brycec

Event: WARA USD Rogaine
 

USD with tRicky and Tash.

I had planned 3 courses for them for when they arrived - 49km straight line, 59km and 62km - Quickly decided against stupidity and took the shortest option. Prepped and ready to go pretty quickly from that point.

HH - 34 - probably should have gone down to fence but cut in early and hit it reasonably flush

34 - 96 - Already had something annoying my right foot as if something digging into it - I tried clearing it a number of times - it appears (in post rogaine light) it may have been a bite of some type and was annoying for the full race. 96 was easy just straight up the hill was a bit painful.

96 - 72 - I was still getting head in game and tried to go up wrong watercourse - but Ricky put us right. sadly the next niggle started being an issue - had a stomach issue all week and it clearly decided now to be the time to fix - and was crampy as hell/ pretty unpleasant this continued for the whole race. We looped around 72 - we must have just gone in before we hit it before.

(looks at the map - 64 might have been a better start - oops)

72 -82 - 53 -104 nothing really remarkable from memory hit these all pretty cleanly and we had settled into our groove.

104 -94 - on the cut through the plantation got a bug in my eye - which was only removed at around 4pm on the Sunday - needless to see - this annoyed me as much as the gassy tummy.

94 - 101 The earlier part of the eastern track wasnt there - we used farm land most of the way up - came into the control and went back up hill rather than further down - felt maybe slightly outta pace but generally happy with it.

101 - 71 - 106 - 24 - 91 - 43 - 62 - Very clean and making decent pace to our first water drop. I think at this point we where about 10-15 down on schedule but in good form.

62 - 93 - 52 good grabs - but here I started to notice that Tash was beginning to struggle - she had flagged much earlier she had a bad foot codine had taken care of it for a while but I think it was starting go but a challenge and she was starting to drain.

52 - 100 probably our poorest nav of the night - and really not bad - we missed to the north did a bit of a hunt and then headed south behind Ricky - found the control pretty quickly and gave it away to a few other teams.

100 - 66 Contoured around perfectly

66 - 51 nothing remarkable except the steep bloody rocky spur.

51 - 21 played dodge the electric fence got 21 and headed back to fence again

21- 42 I knew now we where about 30-45 down - and I was assessing cuts - after diving under the electric fence again we made our way across to 42 - I think this is when Tash and I both hit the Gel's for a bit of extra umph. I know I was certainly feeling the 2-4am blues about now.

42 - 90 after a short debate as to whether to cut 90-50-70 and go 30 - 61 Ricky had confidence and pushed us on relentlessly :P It was at this point I realised if I ever did a solo with Ricky I would have to accept/expect to be completely broken by him because there is no early cutting haha. as it turned out 90 was easy grab

90 - 50 - 70 - 61 - all these went very smoothly and by 61 we had been chasing a team for a while and had wheeled them in considerably - we were now about 30 mins off pace so not as bad as I had thought with sunrise not too far away. We had resolved to drop 76 which would get us back about 1.5km which was a good chunk of that 30 mins potentially.

61 - 81 I looped us a bit far east on the climb but generally pretty clean

81 - 65 got within 3 minutes of team we where chasing, so they went to another control #rude.

65 - 74 Tash starting to really fade with her knee causing some grief.

74 - 86 apparently we never came here on the e-punch - bs - that was the open riverbed that looked like a fire had gone through it - broad with the hill to the east. Control on 1 tree int he open middle of the river bed. Take that e-punching.

86 - 105 I got severely geographically challenged and had to sit back and not nav and completely trust Ricky on this leg - I think I got thrown by taking off night kit and eating a sandwich. tisk tisk.

105 - 45 - horrible bloodly leg! that bush was crap - was glad to be through it and onto trail to 45.

Dropped 95 - 73

45 - 63 Long downhill leg - Tash was looking sore now and I was really feeling for her. I had the obvious foot pains and my ankle had tweaked a tad on the bush leg but generally wasnt an issue - my left eye was still bugging me :P and my stomach was really the biggest challenge. This cut should put us right back on time. 63 was an easy grab.

63 - 75 looking right on time schedule for this leg. The patrol car hadnt been to 63 for 4+ hours - lucky no one had been waiting there! On the section of pine plantation at the start of this leg I decided I needed to stop trying to make it to the finish before sorting my tummy out - told the others I would catch them up. A large contribution was added - which was instantly relieving - but I had to run to catch up to others which wasnt ideal and actually re unsettled my tummy by the time I caught up :( We made good time to his point getting there as I predicted on time budget to get our final two points.

75 - 83 good and clean I was debating 55 or HH Ricky thought we could make 55 and I technically agreed - but I wasnt sure ti was worth the pain and Tash was really struggling - asked her what her preference was and it was a clear response - HH we went.

83 - HH - nice road march home.

Post mortem - everything seems to have held up pretty well which is great. really thankful for Ricky and Tash for letting me join their team - really enjoyed the race with them. The pace was nice for me - challenging enough without breaking self. I felt like I had 5-10 more in the tank but would have been a mighty effort on my part to execute those 5-10.

New kit - Spike light was nice for flood and never ran out of batter - spotting with it on the move just didnt feel practical at all as it was way too bouncy - the hand torch however did a fantastic job. Watch performed well - but wont make a 24 hour race will still have to use two for that - interestingly pretty close on the gps accuracy between the two of them.

Didnt say good bye to anyone as I knew I needed to get going asap post results to try make it home before imploding - however before I got to end of Albany highway my tired levels had slipped to dangerous and I couldnt let myself continue and pulled over for a rest. after an uncomfortable cat nap I continued and was good until the freeway roadworks which almost got the better of me with the slow speeds. home safe though and after a few hours sleep - right as rain!

Well done to setters and vetters really enjoyable course/race real shame on low numbers - wonder how many there were last year before this got canned. be interesting to see if the $40 dropped numbers further.


oh and 6th over all 2nd mixed - exceptionally happy with that given our effort s- was expecting 5th or 6th and one of the mixed levels. so met's expectations there :)

C • TBT 5

Uneventful - only a 1 way journey today most likely.

C • Unidirectional journey 4

Took it easy and it seemed to go faster - go figure!

Starting to enjoy this light smash home - if only I could fit in more distance and still make it home before 6.

Slow and steady - low cadence sadly because of how slow it was. 67. ouchies. need to go long and falt and get some 80s happening again.

C • Reminiscing 3

Went home via lovekin as had a work colleague point out she was faster on the descent than me and I couldnt have that - Went hard at it and relatively sure I smashed that out of the park.

Dicey moment when a cop car pulled past me as I exited my sprint component - hoping they came down forrest because otherwise I am a lucky man - I was definitely over 40.

Otherwise cruisey ride home - bit warm out there.

C • Over 40 2

Well - almost saw a bike get cleaned out on a round about - 30cm would have been generous as the car decided to attempt to overtake at the start of and during the round about.. - he had some fierce words with the 4wd post the round about then the 4wd who almost cleaned him out again when trying to turn left across his path - well across him as he was next to the car. at that point... I think ti would have been well worth a double juffy slap in the side panels - but he rode on.

Otherwise uneventful ride.

A few strains and pains from yesterday and the numerous times a rolled my ankle over was showing a little today.

Took Thomas road rather than subi and train line - feels decidedly more dangerous but certainly quicker. Something about cars going past at 70km/hr makes you cycle faster.

Incident free huzzar.

Legs feeling a tad sore post the weekend :(