Training Log Archive: syd

Trek 2

Started off with Gear Posers, but they got ahead of us on the climb to CP10. Bobbled CP11. We didn't go quite far enough and briefly explored the wrong spur. Caught up to MRA here and went back and forth with them and Gear Posers for the next few CPs. Saw Richard's team as we were headed to CP12 (they were headed to CP11). Had a second bobble on CP15. We followed a bearing from CP14, but drifted way to the W. Smooth sailing after that! Trotted on trails for the majority of this section. Also pretty sure we heard a bear trundling through the woods at one point, tried not to think too hard about that one.

Paddle

Arrived at TA3 and were surprised to see Gear Posers still in transition and Don't Be a Chad arrive a few minutes after we did. Had my bike jacket in my pack and decided to put it on for the paddle, great decision. This paddle was crazy. It was so foggy! Fun, but it was stressful hearing rapids and not being able to see anything. I was happy with how fast the paddle went by, the river must have been really flowing.

Bike 1

I was freezing when we got off the water, we were both shivering uncontrollably. I had packed my rain jacket in our bin, so swapped jackets and gloves which helped. I was glad the bike started with a big uphill! This bike went well. Navigation was pretty straight forward and we were feeling decent. We had originally planned to maximize roads, but they were so sandy that we ended up riding more on the trails. Inadvertently took a horse trail on our way to CP23. I finally warmed up here and took off my jacket. The bike up to CP25 was a bit of a struggle.

Trek 3

Arrived at TA5 as MRA was finishing up the trek. Kevin and I had just been discussing what we wanted to eat, I wanted an Oreo and Kevin wanted Diet Coke. And there were both at the TA!! After a mood boosting snack we headed out on foot. Goal was to minimize climb. Kevin's knee was bothering him, so we didn't run, just tried to keep up a good trekking pace. I enjoyed this navigation and picked routes so we only had to climb big hills twice.

Bike 3

Ugh. The never ending bike ride to the finish. We thought we were close, but it just kept going. We were both pretty beat and hadn't seen another team since TA4 (except for MRA, but they were so far ahead), so motivation was pretty low. So much sandy two track and I think the entire bike was uphill. Let Kevin take my pack for a bit, but he wasn't doing much better than I was. Just kept waiting for a team to pass us. But no one did! And we finally rolled in to the finish in 3rd place :)

Event: Michigan Adventure Race: Epic (6 or 18 hours)
 

Caberfae, MAR Epic Edition, 20 h AR

Practiced my defense presentation Friday afternoon and then headed up to Caberfae. I was hoping I would have time for a quick nap, but it didn't happen. Arrived at 6:30 and had just enough time to eat dinner and get gear ready before the briefing at 7:30. Mark was a little long winded with the briefing. Received the maps and were able to plan out the bike routes and order of CPs for the treks. Felt more rushed than I was expecting.

Bike to TA 1

Started off with a short bike to TA1. Fun start, everyone was cruising along.

Trek 1

People everywhere dropping bikes at TA1. We weren't that fast in transition, so ended up behind a big pack headed to CP3. We weren't able to get around and ended up letting the pack lead us to CP2 (we were headed to CP1...). Not a big deal, but kind of frustrating. At least we ended up at a flag and not lost somewhere. People started to thin out after this so we were able to do our own thing. Jogged down the road, cut in a little too early and ended up hitting CP5 instead of our intended CP7...so that was two wrong flags in one section.... Did the rest of the loop in reverse of our original plan and things went much better. Still ended up in 3rd leaving TA2. For future rogaine style starts I should plan a route that I expect to be less popular.

Bike to TA 2

Another short bike over to TA2. Caught up to Gear Posers in transition.

Trot around the neighborhood trails. Exercising in the morning still isn't really my thing.

Biked up to ILRA, did a loop of blue/yellow, and then back home. Quite an enjoyable ride. Not too hot and we didn't get rained on!

Should have paddled, but really didn't want to wrestle with the boats and the gym has A/C.

5.9
5.10
5.11+
5.12 Only made it 1/3 of the way up
5.11+

Pretty successful day.

Hill loop of the Arb from Gallup.

My bike shoes didn't make it in the car. Gave it a try with my sneakers, but they were slipping off the pedals on the downs and the ups so didn't make it very far.

Take 2. Right shoes this time.

Trail run from from Leslie. Nice afternoon, legs felt great. Have a big spot of poison ivy on one leg from this weekend...of course.

5.9
5.10
5.11
5.11-
5.11

Much better than last time. Finished all the routes.

Event: Sheltowee Extreme 12 hr AR
 

Sheltowee Extreme 12 hr AR

Drove down to KY on Friday evening. Checked in when we arrived (~9 p.m.) and received our maps. We were originally supposed to plot all the CPs, but there was an issue with the printing so we ended up just copying all the points from a master map. Fine by me! After we had our map copied we went and set up our tent and then figured out our strategy. It was a very open format, CPs in any order by any mode of travel. There was a larger NW portion and then a smaller SE portion, separated by the lake. If you wanted you could have your bike sent to the SE portion on a pontoon boat and then you could paddle over and use it to collect the CPs. We decided to tackle the NW section first since there were more CPs and then get what we could of the SE points with the time we had left over.

KFish was lead navigator for this race. We wanted to get some practice in that configuration to be prepared for longer races where I might not be able to navigate the entire time. It was weird being in charge of the punch and clue sheet. We started off on bike and headed to the singletrack section first. There were 4 CPs placed along the trail, unmapped. These sections always stress me out, but we found them all with no trouble. Trail was decent, a few down trees we had to maneuver over.

We continued on bike for a section of paved/gravel roads. Tried to find a two track from one direction, but there were lots of private property signs and barking dogs, so gave up and came in from the other direction. We then dropped our bikes for the first foot section. It involved a short swim across a river to get to the trekking points. First swim in an AR! It was fun. Although I was looking forward to a nice refreshing swim and the water turned out to be quite warm. This trekking section was slow going - really thick and lots of cliffs to navigate around. KFish nailed the navigation though! I also saw the biggest spider of my life. Gross. This trek was the beginning of the end. We forgot our electrolytes at our bikes. And on the way back to the river ran into some bees. I was only stung once, but KFish got stung 6 times.

Swam back across the river and trekked up a monster hill to our bikes. Hopped on our bikes and on the way to the next section passed a small store. KFish was not feeling that great, so we bought some cold water and rested for a few minutes. Next up was a 3 km bike out the Sheltowee Trace. Trail was in good condition and we were able to ride the majority. We got all the way out there (of course) and then KFish said he was done. He was pretty sick, so we sat for a while and then very slowly made our way back out to the road. Luckily a volunteer was pulling in to the parking lot as we got back and he gave us a ride back to the finish area. So, a DNF, but I'm just happy we made it back out from that trail.

Overall, KFish did great on navigation. We decided we prefer to stick to our usual roles (I don't like following bearings, KFish doesn't like AR navigation), but if I'm struggling we are now both confident that he'll be able to take over. I think our strategy was sound, so we are improving there. Thumbs up for swimming in AR, would totally be up for that again. Lots of AR firsts this race. Most of which I hope we don't need to repeat!

Easy spin to test out the bike. Still a bit creaky.

C • miles on the bike? 2

Started with toproping. 5.9, 5.10, 5.11 (didn't get very far)
Switched to bouldering and finished a few V2s.

Was feeling lazy.

Sooo humid.

Shaking out the legs after a long day in the car.

We finished the 46ers in the ADKs and were looking for a new set of mountains to hike. KFish proposed hiking the ones with fire towers. To kick that off we started with Loon Lake Mountain. Trotted the first half and then speed hiked once it got too steep. Nice little hike. And good views from the top!

Hiked down the steepest section and trotted the rest. Saw one other hiker when we were almost back to the car.

Found some nice quiet roads. And successfully avoided the rain.

Along the canal path. Deer flies were driving me crazy!

Lake was nice and calm. Beautiful morning.

Biked from KFish's cottage over to one of his relatives lake houses. Roads were so nice, smooth with wide shoulders. Hit traffic and a bunch of stop lights in Auburn, but other than that it was pretty calm. Nice scenery.

Short out and back before dinner.