Training Log Archive: syd

Night run down Green.

Trails around home.

Bike to the corn maze

Apparently you are allowed to leave the maze...that would have saved me quite a bit of time. Oh well. It was still fun. Navigation was pretty easy.

Bike home from the corn maze

Loops A and B at Highland. Went a lot better than the first time we were there, but still lots of room for improvment.

Trail run at the Arb

Whew it's been a while. Finished a new 11- without falling. Did 2 or 3 other 11-. Didn't lose as much as I thought I might have, although my arms were pretty shot by the end.

Went out for a morning ride on the trails at Olsen Park. There was a lot of dew which made it rather slippery. And lots of spiderwebs...always spiderwebs. Did a loop hitting most of the trails (red/white to blue to red? to black/blue) in 18:49.

Night run!

Treadmill

Event: SMOC Bishop Lake
 

SMOC Meet at Bishop Lake

Trying to rely less on trails while navigating. This course was nice because it really forced me to do that. Walked most of it, jogged a bit on trails and more toward the end. I got tripped up on 6. Saw a couple guys heading up a hill, so silly me I thought I should follow. It was not the right hill. As I was heading back out toward to trail to figure out where I was I stumbled on 12 (what are the chances?). So reoriented myself and found 6 without any more trouble. All was well for a while. Then 9....ugh. Wasn't where I thought I was as I crossed the trail. Wandered around for a while before finally going back to the trail to figure out where I was. Every time I've done an o-course here I mess up on this same section of the map. The rest of the course went smoothly. Really happy with how I did.

Attempt #2 at the rock rings. Did the 10 stages over 20 min (1/min, 1 min break). Went a lot better than the first time!

Made it to TA2 before our support crew...wasn't a problem though. We just dropped our bikes and headed out on the Island Lake o-course. My navigation was spot on for this section, which was pretty exciting. We jogged a little bit on some of the downhills. Note for future races: run more on the orinteering sections.

Headed back to TA2 and met up with our support crew. Grabbed our paddles and lifejackets and headed out to the canoe put-in. Trek felt like it took forever. We also almost missed the turn off...won't dismiss the extra maps next time.

Made it to the canoe put-in and We Will Survive came in right behind us. We stayed ahead of them until the dam then they pulled away. The paddle across the first lake went well, the sun was coming up and everything was good...then it went downhill from there. We both struggled mentally on the river paddle.It just felt like it was taking forever and there was so much downfall. I didn't measure any distances since there were no intermediate checkpoints, but I won't make that mistake again. It would have helped a lot to have an estimate of how far we had left. Started raining when we made it to Ore Lake, was a decent headwind on the way to the take out.

At TA3 our support crew had warm soup ready for us! Got on our bikes and headed to the single track. I really struggled here, was dehydrated from the paddle. I need to figure out some way to easily drink while paddling...

Made it to TA4 and the final o-course. Made a couple navigation mistakes on the first few points. Very carefully navigated to the remaining ones without any more mistakes. Caught back up to We Will Survive and also saw Dirt Skirts while we were out there. Found the energy to jog the last few points.

And then we were on the final bike leg! Thought another team was right behind us so we gave it all we had.

Finished 5/11 overall and 1/4 2 person co-ed. Great finish for our first longer AR! We had a blast and will definitely be doing more long races in the future :)

Event: Lucky 21 Adventure Race
 

Lucky 21 AR

Our first overnight AR! We learned a lot about racing longer distances. There are definitely things to improve on for future races, but overall it went really well. And we had fun :)

Started off with the orienteering course at Howell. Made one navigation mistake in the maze of trails, but luckily (and I still have no idea how) we ended up at a different control that made our route a little more efficient anyway.

Hopped on our bikes to head to TA2. We had no idea how well our bodies would last for 21 hrs, so we took this section fairly easy. A few teams passed us. In hindsight, I would push harder throughout the whole race.

C • i dont know... 4

Thought we should test out night biking before Lucky 21. Mostly paved with a few miles of single track. It went well, our helmet headlamps worked great.

Attempted a 10 min/10 step routine. Took closer to 20 min and I was only able to do the full time through step 5 or so.

Hiked a big loop to hit a bunch of lakes/waterfalls. Alberta falls, the loch, timberline falls, lake of glass, sky pond, lake haiyaha, dream lake, nymph lake, bear lake (Rocky Mountain NP). Sky pond was my favorive.

Greys and Torreys Peaks in the Rocky Mountains. Our first 14ers! Both were ~14,200'. The hike itself wasn't that enjoyable. Felt like we were hiking in slow motion with the altitude and it was all rocks, only the first ~0.5 mi was below the treeline. Pretty cold, I'd say it was in the 30's, and very windy. The views from the top were amazing though!! Made the hike worth it. So different from the ADKs.

Hiked back down the dirt road from the trailhead to the car, all downhill.

Hanging Lake (CO) - Elevation practice

Dillons reservoir

Hiked up a dirt road from the car to the trailhead. Feeling the altitude. Set up our tent there (11,000').

Needle Spring (Canyonlands NP)

Upheaval Dome (Canyonlands NP)

Rim walk (Canyonlands NP)

Nature walk, Ottos trail, Window Monument trail (Colorado National Monument)

Dead Horse Point State Park

Loop hitting most of the trails. Trails were so different than what we are used to in MI. Lots of rocks and sand. The rocks were pretty fun. Rented a bike with 29" tires and full suspension, it was awesome. I now want a new bike...

Moab Brand trails

Stuck with the easy trails. It was mid-90's, no shade and full sun.