Training Log Archive: iansmith

Easy bike following Ali on roller skis. My body and stamina felt ok on the bike (Ali's road bike), but I felt pretty wasted after we stopped. It may take some time for my body to replenish after the adventure yesterday.

3x15 pushups with Ali
3x25 tuckups

I am feeling fatigue from the adventure race. My energy and stamina have not yet recovered.

The orienteering component of the Bitter Pill Adventure race, which consisted of three loops of three, six, and one (+ three bonus) controls respectively. GPS track from Bgallup, who brought his 305.

C • bitter pill 1

The biking component of the Bitter Pill adventure race, on good, rental mountain bikes. The distance was about half single track, half fire roads/roads.

The swimming component of the Bitter Pill. We were required to wear PFDs - and to carry them throughout the race. There were two controls in the middle of a lake; our team was not adept at swimming. Keja, our third team member, had a particularly heavy backpack that became waterlogged, and was considerably slowed. I fell back to keep the group together, and started to shiver as the lake sapped my warmth.

Morning out and back along the Minuteman; my partially charged Garmin died after 45 minutes. I spent a bit of time waiting for traffic lights on the way to the Minuteman, which reinforces my conviction that bike rides shorter than two hours along the Minuteman aren't really worth it. Still, it was invigorating to get out this morning, and conditions were lovely. My bike needs a bit of maintenance - it's dirty, and making the occasional funny noise.

I'm not sure if the motivating high from morning exercise will wear off later in the afternoon, but this seems to be a fantastic way to focus my efforts and energies for the day.

Bgallup and I went to Metrorock for a productive session of let's-make-Ian-doesn't-kill-bgallup-when-he-tries-to-belay. I hadn't been climbing since June 2010 with Team Brisk, and Ben spent a bit of time refreshing my memory for the belay test. Chris, the belay evaluator, was generous in his instruction and passed me despite a few really dumb errors. Ben then tested my technique by falling about a dozen times on a 5.6.

My climbing technique is still motivating by brute force rather than finesse, but with some tips from Ben, I started to rely less on my arm strength and climb more elegantly. I started on 5.6s and worked my way up to a few 5.8s before the gym closed. Ben rocked several 5.10s and entertained me by yelling at the wall/course designers/universe a few times. Indoor top roping is a fun diversion, but it is too antithetical to my broader athletic goals to indulge more than occasionally. Surprisingly, my forearms are only mildly fatigued 12 hours after the session.

C • Team Brisk 1