Training Log Archive: syd

Short out and back.

Checked out a new portion of the GAP trail. Felt like it took forever to drive there, so I don't think we'll be back that often.

Trot to shake out the legs. Felt pretty good once we got started.

Trek 2 (o-map)

We had the option to start with a foot section on an orienteering map or one on a USGS map. The o-map clearly had more points in a shorter distance, so we opted for that first. Kevin was feeling good and willing to navigate a few points while I ate. I was feeling sleepy so had some caffeine. It tasted awful, but I perked right up. I took back over the navigation and then made an error on CP4. There wasn't really any good attackpoint, so we cut in from the trail a little too late. It was so thick. We finally hit an area of rocky ground that I was able to use to relocate and after bashing through more bushes hit the CP. Whew. That gave us a healthy respect for the green on the map, so from then on my plan was to stick to white woods as much as possible. It started to get light around CP6 and the navigation went smoothly for the rest of the points.

Trek 3 (USGS)

Made it back to the TA with some time to spare, so we decided to head out for a few points on the USGS map. Hit CP30 and CP31, but were worried about leaving enough time for the bike to the finish so didn't end up getting CP32. We should've gone for it.

Bike 2

To the finish! These were some of the nicest trails of the whole race. Kevin was feeling great, so he towed me up the hills on the road. Grabbed the last few CPs and zoomed down the last hill to the finish line.


Our longest race to date! A challenging bike section, especially that bike whack, but overall I really enjoyed the whole race. And Kevin felt great the entire time, which was awesome!! I never felt bad, but there were a couple times where I didn't have a lot of energy. After eating I was able to recover. We weren't official finishers, but I was pretty happy with how we stacked up against the other teams.

Event: USARA Nationals
 

USARA Nationals - Topo the Mountain with Kevin and Andy Brown

Maps were handed out at 5 a.m. and we had a few hours to plot points and figure out a plan. I thought it would feel rushed, but we had plenty of time. We boarded the bus at 7:30 and once we arrived at the start we got our boat configuration figured out. They couldn't get the speaker working, so we sang the national anthem, which sounded pretty bad but was neat. And then we were off! We had a 100 m dash to our boat and then another 100 m with the boat to the water.

Paddle 1

There was one obvious CP to hit first and we headed that way with almost all of the other teams. It was neat being on the water with that many other boats. We are terrible at paddling and/or had a slow boat because we were at the back of the pack getting to the first CP. Oh well, some day we'll own a canoe and improve our paddling. We were next to a team for a bit that was lamenting their decision to try using a beach ball as the middle seat. I found that pretty comical. The navigation was pretty straightforward for this section and with the mass start we were basically following the line of boats to each CP.

Trek 1

About halfway through the paddle there was a foot section where each team received 2 maps and 2 passports and could split up to get the CPs. Cool idea. Andy and I took half the points and Kevin the other half. We zoomed through the course with no issues and got back to the canoe only a few minutes after Kevin. Good timing!

Paddle 2

Finished up with a few more paddle points and then a hike up to the TA.

Bike 1 (KOM)

Started off with a ride along the river over to a rail trail. We were zooming along the rail trail when Kevin announced he had a flat. Oh man. Couldn't find anything in the tire, so we replaced the tube...and that one also had a hole. Why does this always seem to happen? Second time was the charm and off we went. After CP10 there was a manned river crossing. With our bikes. Awesome! Whoever they used to measure 'chest height' was clearly taller than me. It was over my shoulders in the middle, but my bike floated so it was actually pretty easy to cross. After the crossing was the first big climb. It was all on paved/dirt roads so really wasn't bad. Pretty nice view from the top, it would be awesome in a couple weeks once the leaves start turning. After descending we decided to take the road over to the next mountain, instead of the trail, and just do the quick out and back for the CP. Dropped our bikes at the bottom and trekked up to the top for another nice view. Back to our bikes and then we then had to contour along the hill for quite a ways on a rocky trail. This was my least favorite part of the bike. We were on and off our bikes quite a bit. After hitting CP19 we stopped at a gas station with a bunch of other teams to refill on water. Andy said he wasn't feeling great, so we got him to eat a bit and hoped it would pass. We then had one last climb on the KOM section. Ended up dropping our bikes again and hiking up to CP20. In hindsight I think we should've taken our bikes up this one. Night fell as we were hiking back down and we then had a final big road climb up to CP29 to finish out the KOM section.

Bike 1 (con't)

Biked along the top of the gorge for a while. It was a nice break from climbing, but the rocky trails bounced me all over! We then descended back down to the rail trail for a short stretch. At CP23 we searched and searched for the flag. After investigating all the nearby ruins for at least 15 min we decided it was missing and just continued on. It wasn't missing.... it was tucked behind a ruin and we never saw it. Bummer. Pushed our bikes up the super steep hill to CP24. Andy found the flag without alerting the 3 other nearby teams and we started the bike whack. It was up a steep hill covered with loose boulders, which then turned into thick bushes. I felt bad for my bike. Can't say I enjoyed this, but I definitely felt adventurous! Once we finally got to the trail it was actually pretty nice to ride. I took us down the wrong two-track briefly on the way out. Stupid mistake, there were so many signs that it was the wrong way. Made it out to CP27 and only had a little ways to go on bike! Andy was feeling terrible by this point and said he was considering dropping. We got him to eat again and hoped that with the worst of the biking behind us he might start to recover. Biked along the rail trail picking up CP28 and CP29. At CP29 there was a second water crossing or the option to take a longer route around. Andy said he was done, so we continued along the rail trail to the road where Kevin called the RD for a pick-up. As we were waiting a second team showed up that said they were all dropping. Once Kevin and I confirmed that there was a ride coming and that we could leave Andy with the other team we headed out on our bikes for the short road ride up to the TA.

Quick spin to test out Kevin's bike.

ROC Falls Classic - Letchworth - Red Y

Really enjoyed this course! Terrain and course design were great, woods were runnable. Since taking routes around didn't really work for me yesterday, I focused on just going straight wherever it made sense.

Hit 1 spot on, off to a good start. Drifted a little on my way to 5, but hit the big reentrant to the NE so easily corrected. Followed the creek from 8-9, which was slow going. The other option was climbing, running along the top and dropping back down. That probably would've been faster, but I think avoiding climb was a good choice for me. Only real error was on 17. I thought I had drifted on my bearing, so hopped on the trail and expected I'd be able to see the flag from there. I didn't, so overshot and had to backtrack.

Legs felt a lot better than I expected, definitely better than yesterday. Happy with my navigation and route choice. Saw a lot of people running everywhere in the woods, which was fun.

Day 2 - Red Y - Splits

Event: Falls Classic - Letchworth State Park
 

ROC Falls Classic - Letchworth - Red Y

First few controls went well. Made an error on 5, the shortest leg of the entire race...I always seem to do that. I must have ran right by the correct reentrant without looking in and didn't realize it until I had way overshot. 5-6-7 involved going down a very large, steep hill and then right back up. Not fun. From 8-9 I went down to the road and back up. Found the correct hill, but I wandered a bit before I found the flag. Just had no energy left for the second half. I hopped on trails/roads a lot, but with how slowly I was moving I should've just gone straight. One more small error on 14, but I hit the stream just W and corrected quickly.

Overall I was happy with my navigation, I only had a few small bobbles. I could've picked better routes to avoid climb throughout though.

Day 1 - Red Y - Splits

Arms/core.

Bouldering.

A couple loops around South Park. There was very little traffic, which was nice. Good hill practice!

Around the neighborhood.

Event: WPOC - Keystone
 

WPOC Keystone State Park - Red

Beautiful day for orienteering! Went pretty well overall. I caught Kevin at 4 (I had started ~5 min behind him) and then really messed up 5. Drifted too far S when I cut down from the powerlines and didn't realize the nice ride that I crossed led right to the flag. So I wandered around by the stream for a bit before reattacking from the road/trail junction. Caught Kevin again at 9 and we went back and forth through 14. He was faster on trails, but I was more accurate. Pretty good representation of our strengths :) We split on the way to 15, I went around to the N planning to take a two track. I didn't find it, but the woods were nice. Punched 15 and saw Kevin wandering as I headed to 16. Didn't see him after that. I enjoyed the nice downhill run to the finish.

Really happy with how my legs felt on the hills. Although this park wasn't nearly as hilly as the previous one.

A tour of the bike trails through Pittsburgh. Beautiful day for a ride!

Checked out the nearest climbing gym. It was really nice. Mostly bouldering, but lots of space, good routes, and windows!

Down the road and back. This run felt kind of flat...making progress on getting used to hills!

Trotted up and down a big grassy hill. 10# pack.

Warmup time/distance added from Kevin's watch.

Arms and core.

Will hopefully check out the local climbing gym this weekend.

Trot along the Montrour trail. Mostly gravel, but it may have been paved at one point because it was pretty solid. Legs felt decent although that probably would not have been the case if I tried to go up any hills!

Trek 3 (to Finish)

The volunteers were letting racers shelter in the back of the moving truck that they were using to shuttle bikes, which was fantastic because it started to pour shortly after we arrived. Kevin was beat, so he changed and then I let him sleep for 30 min or so. He finally started to feel better after he woke up and ate some food, so I talked him into hitting 2 of the CPs on the last trek that were on the way to the finish anyway. I had packed our rain pants and layers I thought we wouldn't need in our gear bag, just in case, and we ended up wearing everything. It was cold and wet, but once we started trekking we warmed up a bit. This final leg was, again, up a huge hill. We opted to take the road route, instead of the trail, which I think was a good choice. I started to get really sleepy just before dawn, but Kevin finally perked up so he took over navigation for a bit. Finished with lots of time to spare.

This was an awesome location for an AR. We had some amazing views of the finger lakes (should've brought a camera!) and the terrain was great. Our lack of fitness really showed with all the hills. Considering we stopped for at least 1.5 h for Kevin to sleep, we didn't do too poorly. The maps were nice, but we did have to add a lot to them. CPs were in the circle, but usually required a bit of searching once we got there. It was a fun race, just a little lacking in structure. Finished 8/22.

C • and here 2

Event: NYARA The Longest Day
 

NYARA Longest Day 24 hr AR

Arrived at the finish location just before 5 a.m. Saturday morning. Received maps when we checked in and had a couple of hours to prepare and plan before we boarded buses to the start. Kevin worked on getting all the gear together while I studied the maps. There were a number of corrections to make to CP locations and trails to add. As usual before the race it felt like we had too much to do in too little time, but we were prepped and had a solid plan by the time the buses arrived. Felt like the bus ride took forever, but once we arrived we just had a short trek down a gravel road to the start location.


Trek 1 (Prologue)

Prologue was a short trek with 3 CPs, packs not required. Started off in the opposite direction of most teams. Attacked the first CP, but I wasn't confident we were in the right spot, so we went back out and came in from a different direction. Turned out we just hadn't gone far enough down the creek. Silly mistake, but I didn't think about how much area the circle covers on a 1:40k map. Next 2 CPs went fine and we got back to the TA in 2nd, right behind UNE.

Paddle 1 (Hemlock Lake)

We quickly transitioned to boat and then paddled up most of the length of Hemlock Lake. There was one CP along the way that I was a little worried about locating, but we were able to see the point it was near for most of the paddle, so it was fine. The lake got a little choppy as we got farther N, but we had a nice tail wind.

(Time is for prologue and paddle, but distance is just the paddle.)

Trek 1 (Hemlock Lake to Canadice Lake)

Put in at a boat launch on the N end of Hemlock Lake and then had to trek to the next lake over. It was almost entirely on trail with one CP along the way. Trotted along a wide gravel path that followed the lake for a while and then had to climb over a massive ridge. Located the CP on the way up with no trouble, although it was a little farther up the reentrant than I was expecting. And then down the other side. Got passed by a few teams through here. We needed a few more weeks in Pittsburgh to work on our hill legs! Our strength is accurate navigation though, not speed.

Paddle 2 (Canadice Lake)

Put in at the N end of Canadice Lake and had 2 CPs to grab on our way S. This lake was smaller, so it wasn't nearly as windy as the first paddle.

Bike

Next up was the monster bike leg. The volunteers at the TA were awesome, they pointed us to our bikes (way better than searching through them all) and offered us snacks! Hopped on our bikes and the first section was a short ride up to Harriet Hollister SP for a bike-o section. Up being the key word...it was a good example of what was to come. Made it to the park for a bike-o section that was awesome!! A big network of trails we had to navigate through. The map was pretty accurate and we didn't make any errors, just a few inefficient route choices.

After we finished the bike-o we had a ~50 mile road ride to the next TA. So many monster hills.... it seemed like we were either flying downhill or pushing uphill. It was a mix of paved and dirt, with the dirt roads in good shape, but the hills were just brutal. Once the sun went down Kevin really started to struggle, he wasn't feeling great and was really tired. We ended up stopping a couple times for him to close his eyes for a few minutes and were moving so slowly. We'll need to come up with a good caffeine solution for future races. It also got cold and pretty windy. Thankfully we had packed a few extra layers so we were warm enough (barely). It started to rain around midnight (I think?). We finally made it to the last TA around 1:30 a.m., way later than our estimate.

C • Great job! 4