Training Log Archive: P-K

Event: RockstAR Adventure Race
 

ROCKSTAR 2017

Taking MW out on his first race (well he did one maybe 10 years ago back when Frontier AR still ran races but not since then) along with RB. The one wrinkle this year is I got a bad case of food poisoning Monday night and with only 5 days to recover I knew I'd spend most of the day suffering.

Race started with a trail run back down to camp in place of the longer marked bike and it did a fine job of spreading teams out. I call it a run but it included sections like this:

We decided to jump in the canoe right after the run in order to minimize shoe changes and also because this year there were a lot of points out on the water. Several checkpoints involved bushwhacking a few hundred meters off shore but we got in and out of all of them pretty easily.

I made the call to leave one checkpoint behind because to be honest I didn't think we'd be even close to clearing the course, that turned out to be a mistake that I'd regret later as it was pretty gettable and we ended up 2 CPs short of clearing. To be honest between my food poisoning and MW racing his first AR I really thought we wouldn't have a shot...

We enjoyed the paddle a lot, and also used a different paddling config that we normally did (I paddled up front) which we may very well use at WT because it worked so well.

Next was the bike and this was where I really felt the effects of Monday night's plague...just had no power or speed on the bike. The other guys weren't even peddling and I could barely keep up.

Either way we did the out and back on the main road (grabbing off road CPs along the way) and then turned right on Lakota which is one of my favorite trails at Bark Lake. We were just in time to run into the four hour races and saw lots of dads/kids out on their first AR experience together. My favorite was the dad/daughter we passed where daughter was clearly having a rough time and dad looked up at us and said "we're good, just lots of life lessons being learned here today". Isn't that the truth about AR?

RB riding Lakota....like a boss.

We finished off the day with a great trek around the NE section of the course as well as the W leg to grab the CP on the red trail.

We were definitely walking more than running the trails but still managed to make good time.

The bushwhack loop to grab 81 was awesome and included a tough little spot where the water levels from this year had changed the swamps pretty dramatically from what the map showed. It cost us at least a half hour but we figured it out and grabbed 81. But the slow down cost us 71 (the 2nd one we missed). It was heartbreaking because we probably only needed another 20 minutes to get it but the time penalties are so severe it wasn't worth it to then be late.

We timed it out pretty well and cruised back in 7 minutes under the cap with a score than was good for 2nd place in the Male 3s division.

It was a great day and perfect weather. MW had a great attitude all way through and was well prepared and well trained for the day and of course RB was a beast and carried all of us.

9W until WT!

Loaded up the 32L Osprey and slogged out a run. Probably 20lbs.

Dropped the pack at home and added a 5km without the weight.

Felt like I was moving faster once I dropped the bag...checked the GPS and it turns out I wasn't really....damn legs.