Training Log Archive: NormalAndrew

Second Trek section. We figured we could nail most of the optionals, except one. Started out rough...our second optional, straight out of the camp we took forever to find. The features in PA are so subtle, makes it hard to pinpoint things. I was sucking it. We weren't working well as a team, and decisions were getting fuddled. I was sucking it hardcore. Finally decided to move on, and I stumbled upon the CP. Ugh. From there, Garret helped located the next one when I was convinced we had gone to far. Bad day. We got on a fireroad, and the long hike out. Was slow moving, though we had a decent shuffle going most of the way. Nailed the last optional CP, and started our final climb and long descent to the next CP. When we hit a major trail junction we ran into Team SOG...they were done. One of their teammates had hurt his knee, and it was swollen up like a balloon. Sucked for them, they were doing well. We realized at this point we could probably place 3rd, but weren't really proud of how that was going to happen. Everyone was hurting, but moving fairly well.

Fun paddle down the Yougiheny river (I probably mispelled that). Hit a few rapids along the way...got stuck on more rocks then you'd imagine. Apparently Garret and I are fatties. Mindy and Ryan were in their boat, Ryan on nav. Had a nice 7min nap at the first CP while we waited for Ryan and Mindy to get themselves unlodged from some rocks. Team was not moving fast. We took awhile to locate the second optional CP as we started looking a little too early. Garret was in the back for the first half of the kayak, then I took the rear. Not an easy raft to steer, though I had fun with it. Was good to get off the water though, and back to faster racing...I was starting to falll asleep out there.

Last trek started with a rather long portage with the pack rafts and our gear. Dropped off the kayak gear and hit a shop for some awesome breakfast sandwiches and burrittos, helped our spirits and energy levels. Bean got us back together and refocused us on the race...we needed it. Ran over to the rappel which we finished off fast. Then, back to the trails and a few of the optional CP's in some major heat. I had been expecting this heat leading up to the race, but this was the first time it really got hot. Muggy and in the 90's for sure. Ryan took the nav at this point. Traveled through Ohiopyle, got our first optional fairly quickly, though didn't attack it well. The second one took awhile as well, after an initial false turn, we took some time to locate the correct area for the CP. Got up and out of there in a crazy downpour of rain...fully drenched at this point...though nothing new. My feet were screaming...having been wet the whole race, I was getting worried about them. We started our long descent back to Hopi Camp and the TA. Along the way I requested a stop at one point to take a look at my feet. Was a little embarrassed later on when I saw Mindy's feet, as they were much worse.... I think we were all happy to be off our feet...and back on bikes.

Started the last bike leg before dark, long climb out. Hit a great spring along the way, took our chance and rehydrated as well as filled all our bottles. The climb out took a fair amount of time, and we began a fairly long descent into Confluence just as the light was fading. Had to have our lights on for the last few hundred feet. Got on the Allegany passage, and started putting down a fast pace. The clouds then burst, opened up, and poured on us like I haven't experienced in years. I could barely see, lucky the trail was uninterrupted, flat, and straight as could be. We trained it up, and finished off the first 9mi straight with no stops. Felt good. Got several CP's solidly, my nav was finally back, and there weren't any real problems. When we got back up into the highlands we were treated to a lot of lightning shows in the distance, rained on most of the night, and hit with chilly winds throuhout. Huddled in a barn at one point so I could re-do my maps a bit. Mindy and Ryan were suffering from the cold a bit, got their space blankets out to warm up. We had trouble finding a trail to an optional at one point...post race google maps showed we didn't quite go far enough....ugh. I made a few poor route choices after as I was doing it on the fly, and didn't have enough of the map folded out in front of me. Probably added a few miles and a few hundred feet of climbs, nothing horrible. Eventually we got to a CP by a gas station, so we stopped in and refed ourselves, bought some water, etc. The last optional CP was North of the Finish (past it), with two options on how to get there. We opted to head back through the resort, as we knew those roads existed, and that they were largely paved. Heard afterwards that that was a good move. We ended up retracing some steps from earlier on in the race. Nav'ing there I was off again, as teammates were pushing on decisions, threw me off. My motivation was a little low, Bean and Ryan took over and got it. We scouted out an optional trek that was to follow this bike section, located it, and bombed back to the finish for the TA onto the last Trek.

I pulled a total bonehead move coming into the TA and shifted into a stupid gear...causing me to break my rear derailleur, a spoke, and get a flat. Was mad at myself...so had to run the last few hundred meters with my bike on my back. Started switching into shoes, mad at myself feeling like I'd let down Garret too many times in this one. He called it there, feeling like we didn't have the time to go get that optional CP on the trek. Was the right decision in the end for sure.

Tough race. Learned a lot...made a lot of poor decisions. Was good to get the team together, so many valuable lessons learned there.

GRML is next...

C • tough race and good job 1

Event: Equinox Traverse
 

Fast start to the Equinox Traverse. We kept up with Tecnu 1, first CP was about 10mi in, got it before Tecnu 1, but that was the last time we'd have the lead in this one....by far. Got a little messed up heading to CP1a, our first optional, but quickly corrected (a little more time with our maps and gmaps would have prevented this). We got messy at 1A as I didn't have it on my supplemental map (almost ran by it), and then we attacked without a plan and got a little seperated from eachother....early race jitters I guess.

Had a tough time on a few of the CP's, but got them all which felt good. It rained on us for several hours of this trek, so were wet most of the time. This first trek beat us up a bit. We needed to work together to get through it. Lost out supplemental maps about 3/4 of the way through. Got to the TA before our 10hr guess, we were stocked about that. Still, an hour back on Tecnu 1 and Salomon, though Salomon had skipped one we heard.

Got on our bikes pretty fast. We had our second set of packs ready to go, so was a pretty quick swap to get moving. They were heavy...as we had to take everything we needed for the rest of the race. Ryan, Bean and I were sporting solid 30lb packs. Had a few climbs at the start, then a long descent to a descent climb. That second climb...I bonked...hard. Never hit the wall like that before. We had to stop. I couldn't function, I felt like absolute shit. At this point I questioned everything...why the hell I was there and not in bed with Julia, I wanted to quit. My confidence was shot, I felt like I'd already been having a bad nav day, and I was upset at my race. I was barely able to stand beside my bike (head was down). I barely stomached some food, Garret took a bunch of my extra weight (don't know how he did that), and we pushed to the next CP. I was not of much use, so Ryan and Bean took over on the nav for this one. We weren't able to find it...still not sure why, even when looking at google maps after. The sun set, and as we left that unfound CP, I started to reawaken. Had managed to down some food, so felt a lot better. We started pounding the trails a little harder, and finally got some rythm and flow. Ryan was working his bike computer, I was solid on maps, everyone was bombing descents, and working together on climbs...then I got us lost. We were climbing out of a river valley, and after what seemed like forever, I realized we were not on the trail I thought we were on. We were higher then we should be, and not travelling in the right directions anymore. After spending some time on the maps, I figured out where we were...we had possibly missed a trail in the valley. So...we made the decision to head back down...mistake. Got down, still couldn't find a trail (though after the race, found out I had found the trail..though at the time Garret and I weren't convinced, and didn't want to risk a lengthy bike whack). So...you guessed it...had to head back up. This really destroyed the team mentally. Though we had a solid 4 person tow going, and really knocked it out fast. It also rained on us a lot of the time we were down in that valley. Warm rain, but, just kept us wet.

At this point we knew we weren't going to be able to knock out most of the optionals on the bike. We eventually got into the next CP, and decided on a course of action. Ryan and Mindy were hurting a bit, and tired. We gave ourselves a time cutoff and went. Got on some shitty single track trails that slowed us down in Ohiopyle, and ended up with no time to get more optionals...sucked. Got down into Hopi Camp for our next TA in the early morning hours...sun was back up at least! Switched to foot.

C • Run to work! 1