Training Log Archive: mayer22

TA back to bike.

Mostly downhill road ride with one big climb to the start/end of the packraft leg. Nothing tricky or interesting.

TA to packraft legs.
Our packs were mostly packed already but we did have some gear swapping and route planning to do. And with the pack switch we left the passport in TA.

Trek portion of the packraft leg. We weren't paying attention at the start and started on the wrong trail and took a few minutes to recover. Packs were heavy. Started with a monster climb. I carried the heavy pack up but Earl started feeling better after a bit of shwacking across the top and we switched in order to do some more shuffling.

This section again was a bit tricky as some trails weren't there or as mapped. We were careful and pretty clean. We ended up catching Rootstock after they had a navigational mistake. We both caught ourselves from making another mistake as we thought we were on the Rim trail but were actually on a trail just above it. After we got the CP we started off running and pulled away a bit. This is when I started to really go downhill. Couldn't run anymore and had to walk most of the way to the put in. Felt light headed but couldn't seem to get enough food and water to fix it.

Realized after the race that Earl had packed a 100oz bladder in one of the bags that we carried the whole leg without realizing we had it. Especially when I was struggling and could have used more water.

Downed some water at the put in and got myself caught back up.

Unfortunately, Kristin who let us use her raft didn't give us the inflatable floor (to save weight) but this meant we were sitting in about 8-12" of water. We were hitting rocks that were 1 foot underwater and you couldn't see above water. Earl had a lot of trouble moving us through the water but luckily was able to make the most of it with his expert WW guiding skills.

I was having to jump onto the edge of the boat to keep us from dragging as much and wasn't watching the map. I got distracted and realized that we passed the first CP on the river. I wasn't watching super closely and wasn't even sure where we were. Plus we were running short on time. There wasn't much to do other than keep going and try and recover for the next CP. We stopped where I thought the next CP might be but couldn't see the huge reentrant. Rootstock told us we were a ways away so given our slow pace, our inability to navigate efficiently, and our limited time we decided to drop the other CPs on the river. We really could have gotten these just following other teams (i.e., Rootstock). The last one was super easy but I think we were a bit demoralized by the boat issues and the missed CP.

We paddled straight into TA as it started to rain.

Got out of the boats. We were stiff and I got cold quickly. I wasn't wearing much. I put on a jacket but needed to be moving. TA staff was worried but I knew I would be fine once I started moving. But I couldn't put my shoes on by myself and needed help holding the map to see our route. Earl took care of me and most of the TA cleaning (stuffing gear into our bag) and I tried to stay warm.

Straight forward road ride to the finish with one big climb.

As expected I warmed up mostly just on the rail trail. Warmed up the rest of the way on the big climb. Our pace was pretty comfortable on this last leg. We finished with quite a bit of time to spare and obviously should have just taken the time to get the other CPs. It is a bummer we missed the first one to begin with.

Got even warmer after the 20-minute shower.

Two Rivers AR

Rootstock GPS Log

Two Rivers AR with Earl
First 24hr event in 2 years. Earl struggled a bit early on physically and I struggled with some stomach/head stuff that slowed us on the packraft leg toward the end.

The weather was cool with the potential for rain. I was concerned it was going to be a hot race and this was definitely better. It also enhanced the course as it was around so many big water features.

Since we were 2P male we weren't really racing anyone but were still wanting to do the best we could. Due to some issues with the packraft we were moving slow and ended up missing a CP and having trouble navigating in the raft. We were also worried about time thinking we needed 1.5-2 hours to get back (only took 1) so we dropped all the river CPs. We probably could have gotten the remaining ones, especially since we could have just followed Rootstock when needed. It actually ended up letting the next 2P male team get close to us. But we actually did the exact same course as Rootstock and finished a few minutes before but didn't stop for the river CPs.

My watch lasted just long enough. It died 3 minutes after we finished :-O

Prologue
Earl and I split up. I got the farther CP and the closer CP on my way back. Earl got the lonely CP.

I was the first one back from the long leg and so we were the first ones to leave on the trek.

The first half was navigating over a ridge to a creek. The second half was traveling down the creek. Controls were placed in the creek but not plotted so we had to stay in the creek and were constantly checking behind trees, rocks, and stumps. We ended up missing one of the controls that was tucked along the bank that we looked over as we walked directly next to the creek to avoid a sketchy part of the creek. When we got to the next CP and realized we missed it we knew where it must have been and other teams confirmed it. We received a 30 min penalty for missing the control.

The creek run was really fun. The creek was awesome and beautiful although at times it was harder to enjoy it because we had to be paying so much attention to watching for controls, as well as making sure we didn't fall. I took 3 good spills and Earl 1. We made really good time though. We went into the creek at the same time as Rootstock and got to TA 35 minutes ahead.

Got the rest of our maps.
Only planned out the next leg.

Got onto our bikes and I immediately realized I had forgotten to mount my map board. So we figured Earl was going to need to do more of the navigating on bike.

Lots of road riding at the start and then got to a small "MTBO" section through a mined area. Earl was struggling a bit on the bike (I was starting to tire a bit too) so I took the nav of this section and just held the small map. Luckily everything was printed on 8.5x11. We struggled with one point as the trail didn't seem mapped and the topo lines didn't seem right either but I think I may have been misreading the map.

This ended up leading us back to reattack another way. During this reattack we came across a doe and fawn who had literally been born hours ago. It was wanting to follow Mama Earl. We scared it off and as we were about to leave we saw a black bear standing up looking for the fawn. We scared that away too.

We were sure to be careful on the rest of this section as the trails weren't always perfect. We took extra time on one other CP. As we were leaving this section I got a flat. As I was putting my wheel back on Rootstock and Untamed passed us. We ended up catching them on the downhill to TA.

TAd with the other teams and decided which way we were going to attack the large Ocourse.

Started shortly before dusk and finished shortly after dawn

We left TA just after Rootstock going in the same direction. We caught them after 2 CPs just as it was getting dark. We then took alternate routes attacking the next set of CPs. It was mostly a matter of determining what were your prefferred attackpoints. Our route had one difficult attackpoint. We ended up muffing it a bit. We attacked from slightly N of the intended AP and then veered N on the bearing missing the control location. The clue/feature was mounds and we found some small mounds so we were checking them and wasted about 35 minutes. We eventually decided to try a different AP. On our way out we came across what was clearly the intended mounds and quickly found the CP. Without the mistake we would have come out of this section of CPs 5 min behind Rootstock.

We chugged along for the next section. We had a less than optimal, but still clean, attack as we made our way to the first CP in the swamps. The second one we had trouble with because some of the clearings weren't marked on the map but seemed to match. We searched W of the CP for about 20 min and then realized what the problem was.

Ran down the hill to TA and had a tiny delay looking for the CP next to TA.

Homeplace w/Skip
Trying out and honing in a new pack and trying to stretch out my hamstring and adductor which I seemed to have pulled on Tuesday.

Got to check out some of the spurs I haven't been on for a while.

New @ McCoy 2.5'
Test run with Julia's packraft in my pack. Wasn't carrying any food or my helmet but everything else. Wasn't bad. Had to make some adjustments just after I started. Also would be good if I could secure my PFD a bit better.

TA at Kay's house like a couple weeks ago.

New @ McCoy 2.5'
Paddle back to McCoy Falls.

Water was a little lower than last time. Started my watch late again. Stopped to top off just like last time. Went right over the falls.

Mostly good. Seems to have taken an extra minute over the flat stretch.

A jet flew right through the gap in Gap Mtn. Tried to get a pic.