Training Log Archive: KFish

Registered for ROC Letchworth A-Meet

Qstarz at 5s recording interval

Syd and I drove up separately as she had a busy day at work and wasn’t sure how early she could get there. 7:30 race briefing and 10 pm start. I got up there around 4 and set up the tents, and readied the gear I could, but I didn’t have bikes or the cooler, so there wasn’t a whole lot I could do. I shut my eyes for 20 min, but didn’t get much rest. We had almost enough time with the maps (13 of them!) to fully formulate our plan, and ended up folding them into 3 map cases in such a way that we would only need to open a map case to refold once near the very end.

Bike 1: 16 min, 2.7 mi
No prologue which meant this was a mad dash to the first TA. In order to save time I forwent the helmet light and just used the handle bar light so I wouldn’t have to transfer helmet to headband, but I quickly realized this meant I couldn’t watch my bike computer. Not a big deal since everyone was headed the same place, but not a recommended configuration. And I did manage to blow by the TA, mostly to avoid causing a pile up. Mad chaos at the TA.

Trek 1: 1:12, 3.4 mi, 9 cp
Race did not get off to a good start, as most people chose the same first point, so we were stuck in a line of traffic that we couldn’t get around. It led us to 3 just fine, but incidentally lead us to 2 instead of 1, which we meant to be headed for. Luckily the crowd started to thin so we could get back in our own game for 4-9, although we did cut in from the road too early and hit 5 instead of our intended 7, so we did the E loop in reverse of our plan. Passed a lot of people by luck at 8, which we hit right on but was hidden in trees, so lots of people scattered throughout the reentrant looking and not finding, and we got out without giving it away. Despite the craziness and sloppiness, we still got back to the TA in 3rd and had a fast transition back to bikes.

Bike 2: 32 min, 7.3 mi
This time I just threw my helmet on over my headlamp – not the most comfortable, but it worked for such a short bike ride, and definitely better than going blind. Straightforward and feeling pretty good. Caught second place Gear Posers in TA.

Trek 2: 3:22, 10.1 mi, 8 cp
Linear trek from paddle take out to paddle put in following the North Country Trail with CPs varying distances from the trail itself. Our goal was to maximize trail running and go for easy attacks. Started out at a jog with Gear Posers up the road, but on climbing the first hill they got ahead of us. Then we bobbled 11 and caught up to MRA at the punch. We would go back and forth with MRA, Gear Posers, and Don’t be a Chad throughout this trek, often seeing lights in the distance or behind us, but not really sure who was who. We assumed all three teams had gotten ahead when we bobbled 15, drifting too far west, but then Gear Posers punched 16 at the same time as us. We jogged with them for a long ways towards 17 but eventually fell back. At one point we are pretty sure we heard a bear – definitely a large, pawed animal padding through the woods not far from us. When we finally made it to TA3 we were surprised to find both Gear Posers and Don’t be a Chad in TA as well, with MRA having shoved off 10 or 15 minutes ahead. Overall this trek went mostly well with a few small nav bobbles. My IT band started bothering me again (much sooner than at Nitro – not good, need to get better about stretching and exercising it daily), but I was able to stave off any debilitating pain by taking ibuprofen.

Paddle 1: 2:01, 10.7 mi
I had measured the paddle at about 9 miles, so we were assuming the worst and mentally prepping for 3 hours in the boat. Got nervous when it started out extremely shallow and envisioned a lot of dragging, and the water was frigid! Luckily once we found the main channel it was deep and never had to get back out of the boat. Syd called the paddle “terrifying”, I think I’d use “exhilarating” and definitely the most fun paddle I’ve done in an AR. We started at about 3 am (pitch black), and there was lots of steam coming off the water. This made it very difficult to tell which direction you needed to turn until the last minute, and in several spots you could hear rapids but not see where they were, so you just had to hope for the best. In other spots weird currents would push you in crazy directions without much you could do about it. It was eerie and beautiful and serene and a little scary all at once. It was mentally reassuring knowing that Gear Posers were behind us, in case we tipped (we’re pretty sure they would have helped?). I’m also convinced they purposely stayed behind us to see which direction our lights turned because in a number of instances they got pretty close and then fell back again. We reached the take out much sooner than expected, and despite not seeing them the entire paddle, found ourselves again in TA with Don’t be a Chad. We transitioned as fast as possible while shivering uncontrollably. I put on my bike jacket, and syd traded hers for her rain coat, gear we had almost left behind entirely but very glad we didn’t. Didn’t touch the cooler we had left in our gear bag, hot soup would have been more welcome!

Bike 3: 3:54, 30 mi, 9 cp
Luckily this bike started with a pretty big climb out of the river bed, which helped to warm me up. Things were mostly straightforward until the ST at Big M. We had originally planned to maximize roads (2 track), but the roads were quick sandy and the trails were rooty but hard, so we abandoned that plan and just did what made sense based on distance. Syd did a good job of keeping track of where we were and the only bobble was headed out to 23 where we hopped on a horse trail instead of the bike trail. We knew it had to lead us in the right general direction, but it wasn’t the best riding. After we got to the CP we took a 3 min sit break. This was the start of being a little physically tired, although we popped back up and kept going without too much trouble to finish the ST. We did push up a few sandy hills on Koon Rd and up to the fire tower. We didn’t see any other racers this entire bike ride, so we assumed MRA and Chad had gotten sufficiently ahead of us, and Gear Posers were a bit of a wild card since they started behind us but could have chosen a different route. On this bike we did some singing, and then a game of “if I could have anything right now” (Syd: oreos, Kevin: Diet Coke).

Trek 3: 1:35, 3.7 mi, 7 cp
We rolled into TA 5 just as MRA finished this section, so we knew they had an insurmountable lead, with Don’t be a Chad about 30 min ahead. To our surprise, we were greeted with none other than oreos and diet coke, thought we had died and gone to heaven. My knee had been feeling good on the bike, but could feel it back on my feet, so I appealed to Syd for minimal climbing, which seemed to cause the most problem. She delivered, taking us along spines and limiting the entire section to only 2 big climbs, which was great. We didn’t run at all (mostly cuz of knee) so we dropped a little more time from MRA, but we kept up a good fast walk and returned back to the TA still in 3rd and not having seen anyone out there.

Bike 4: 3:18, 27.4 mi, 4 cp
A sprint to the finish, right!? WRONG. This was the never ending bike ride of doom. Doing plenty good on time so we chose the north route for the one extra CP (obviously no regrets with 4 hours to spare at the end), but man was it a struggle. All the roads were so sandy and our legs just had no oomph left. Part of the problem was we were anticipating a 2ish hour bike, so we started slacking on drinking, eating, and electrolytes, which is never a good thing. Need to be better about keeping up with them until the finish line. The other part of the problem was we had it in our heads that from N3 to the finish was all nice paved roads, which we should have known was not true because we had ridden some of them already!!! Not thinking straight. Syd actually let me take her backpack for a while (first time ive been in better shape than her!), but eventually it was slowing be down too We kept looking over our should expecting all 25 teams (realistically probably just gear Posers) to ride past us as we crawled back. There was no adrenaline, no exhilaration, nothing. Kind of a soul crushing end to a good race. Maybe it would have helped if we had seen someone in the last 8 hours. When we finally made it back we discovered we had held on to 3rd place, and watched the next two teams roll in half an hour back (so we had a cushion, but it definitely shrunk).

I was nervous going into the race (ok, I always am) for 2 main reasons: starting after a full day without even a nap, and cuz sheltowee kicked my butt 2 weeks ago. I felt pretty good until the very end, lending credence to the idea that that was due to the bee stings. Despite a shaky start Syd was able to not let it affect her mentally and once we were able to start running our own race it went really well. Water, food, and fueling was all good. It was chilly in the night and starting to get hot in the day, but neither affected us too badly. I don’t think there is anything we could have done to improve upon our 3rd place finish ceding to 2 teams clearly stronger at biking that us.

We’d love to make it back to MARs long races in the future as the race and the community here is what propelled us into the sport and helped us get to the point we are at today. But in case we don’t make it back as often as we’d like, its been an honor to race with and against the people here in MI and I’ve learned an incredible amount from all of you.

C • Great finish! 2

Event: Michigan Adventure Race: Epic (6 or 18 hours)
 

Suunto Ambit3 Run using 60s recording interval

87.22 miles

(For comparison to Q starz)

I, on the other hand, prefer morning exercise.

Headed down to Pitt to find a house!

C • Best of luck 4

I really like this ride, the way its split up makes it go pretty fast and its a great mix of disciplines. Should have done it more while we were here. Went in the back way through the badlands this time and it was much nicer than the front entrance to the park.

C • Badlands is the best entrance!! 2

5.9
5.10-
5.11 woot woot
5.10
5.11- with only 2 falls, woot woot.

good day at the gym for me

trail run at the arb. Wore a pack with 3 textbooks for heat training.

I forgot to pack syd's bike shoes. she gave it a go with sneakers on her clips but understandably couldn't make it work so we called it early.

To compensate for our failed MTB attempt

Feeling fully recovered and surprisingly good. Going to miss this run

Going to try to make a concerted effort to spend part of the heat of the day every day outside doing something in an attempt to get more comfortable in the heat.

Took it pretty easy today, and it wasnt too hot, but better than nothing,

5.9
5.10
5.11-
5.10+

Event: Sheltowee Extreme 12 hr AR
 

Sheltowee Xtreme 12 hr
Medical Withdrawal

We pulled in at about 9 pm Friday evening and got our maps. We were told that there was a printing problem with the grid lines, so instead of plotting UTM it was going to be copy from a master map. Turns out coming in so late probably saved us a lot of time and headache with regards to plotting. We started devising a strategy - it looked like it was going to be almost entirely biking with a few bike drops to grab points farther off trail. The N section was far more lucrative so we were planning on clearing that, hopefully leaving 3-4 hours for the paddle to the southern section, where they would transport our bikes by pontoon boat. There were a few interesting controls - 2 min video control, double punch, thank a volunteer, MS-2 pack at a far out control for the taking.

We got to bed before midnight and got up at 5:30 for a 8 am start about half an hour away. Got most of our gear ready, drove over, and finished staging bikes and bins. The pontoon boat arrived late, so the race didnt actually start until 8:40. RD seemed unhappy with boat rental place for this.

Got off to a good start with a few km bike warm up before starting a chunk of the sheltowee trace singletrack biking trail. The trail was mostly in good hsape, although we hit many downed trees blocking the way so a lot of on and off. Rocky and rooty trail, but mostly flat. Picked up 4 controls bingo style with only a few wrong turns when the trail wasnt labeled well.

From the end of the ST we made a quick stop at the grocery store for a CP and then headed off to the farthest out bike point, 30, ,which was on nice gravel roads. On the way back out we tried to pick up a trail that had been added to the map, but got freaked out by private property sides and barking dogs, so we ended up coming all the back out ot the main road and taking the longer route around. We were able to find the correct trail from the other side, so we made quick work of that control and the next one farther down the trail.

We were in high spirits at this point, about 3 hours in and thinking clearing was still possible. We dropped our bikes to do a foot section for 5 points that included a swim across a river, an AR first for us. This section was approachable by bike from the north, but it would be significantly longer bike and the same amount of foot travel - definitely worth it to carry the PFDs and do the swim instead. The water was like bath water and not even very refreshing. The trek proved very difficult. Navigation went mostly well, but we were traveling through thick rhododendron and holly and up a rocky reentrant that we kept having to climb in and out of due to getting stuck by cliffs. I had syd take over naving for one point for a quick break. Despite going mostly well, this trek ended up derailing my race because we forgot to bring electrolytes and it took longer than our anticipated 2 hours. Additionally, I disturbed some bees and ended up with 6 bee stings, ,which I think also attributed to some of my illness later on.

We biked back out and I was definitely starting to fade. I tried pounding electrolytes, and syd carried my pack for a bit. We stopped at the grocery store again, picking up some cold water and free ice cream. We were 6.5 hours in at this point. After this break we hopped back on the sheltowee trace mtb trail and headed north for about 3km to pick up the double punch. Unfortunately i took a turn for the worse and eventually told syd I need to stop and rest. This turned into about a 1 hr + long stop, a nap, and then a lot of puking. Syd was great in helping me through this. We were about as far from a road as we had been the entire day, and didnt have much option but to get back out. So we took it very slowly going a few tenths of kms at a time, with syd carrying two packs and pushing two bikes and me trudging zombie like. It took another hour and a half just to walk back out like this. We were lucky to come out at the road to find a race volunteer had just pulled in and could drive us back. Had a medic take a look at me while sydney packed up our stuff, but ultimately I just needed some cool air and sleep before I could stomach anything. Ended up skipping town and getting a hotel room, skipping the banquet.

Things that went well:
My nav was pretty good
I think our strategy was sound

Things that didnt go well:
Heat
Bee stings
forgetting electrolytes

Definitely some lessons learned in this experience, and some I hope I dont need to repeat. It is a huge bummer dropping out of the race, but I couldnt ask for a better race partner in terms of helping me through it and taking care of me.

C • No electrolytes and six bee... 5

C • Trivia 1

Miscellaneous putzing

Testing out the new hardware
(Cassette and chain, Qstarz data logger)

Looks like it thought i was in outer space or something.

C • 6*10^-4 c 1

top rope and bouldering. not overly successful

Felt like we were being lazy recently so threw in a run after climbing.

A creak in the handlebars and a gear skipping. Took the shop and ended up with a new chain and cassette and a lot of lube.

Loon Lake Mountain. Starting the Fire Tower Challenge in the ADKs. Actually a really fun little hike with some nice views. we were able to run the first 2 miles with a gentle grade, which was also pretty fun. Had the mountain to ourselves.

Down the mountain. Ran the last 2 miles

Roads in NY are so nice!

Canal Trail

Open water paddling is so boring

From my cottage to my uncles house for my grandma's 80th bday party. Super fun bike ride with some great hills, and roads with wide shoulders and/or not a lot of traffic in beautiful farm country. Kept a pretty good pace too. Luckily we got a ride back :)

knee seems completely better