Training Log Archive: glewisIn the 7 days ending Aug 14, 2021:
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Saturday Aug 14, 2021 #
Event: Bitter Pill 12-hour AR
6 AM
Adventure Racing 11:12:33 [3] 48.21 mi (13:57 / mi)
Bitter Pill AR with Cliff and Matt + Kate, Tom, Evan.
The Bitter Pill is a long haul for me for a 12hr race (7-8hr drive each way). Rebekeh and Noah were planning on coming with me to make it a fun long weekend, but they decided in the weeks leading up to it that they (understandably) had enough road tripping for the summer. I was able to rationalize the crazy solo-drive with the wonderful prizes from GMARA as well as my need to reconcile with the embarrassing finish to my only prior Bitter Pill. I figured that I couldn't lose to Cliff, Tom and Evan again if I raced with them this time! The plan was the race as a super team and stick together unless there was a pressing need to slip apart during the day. Tom would take the lead on the nav, I would backup, and Matt would straighten us out when we couldn't make up our minds.
We had a fun little cabin about 30 minutes from the start line for the weekend that was perfect for staging. I got to bed around 11 and set my alarm for 3. Sleep was hard to come by.
We arrived at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center around 4:15 in a full-on downpour. Fortunately the rain subsided for check-in and didn't pick up until later in the race. We found a nice place indoors to prep our maps as we got ourselves ready. The race unfolded in a really fun manner: trek, bike, big trek, bike, small trek, MTB, paddle. We had all switched to flat pedals for faster TAs, and we were encouraged by our choice after seeing the layout. After all the necessary actions pre-race we settled into the 5:45 pre-race meeting and were ready for the 6:00AM start.
Trek
This functioned as a prologue. We got a trail map with 6cps as the race began. The trails were a combination of singletrack, pavement and grassy trails. Tom was super confident and led us perfectly through the section. I wasn't able to get my head around the trails before we set off and was happy to follow. I offered some help here and there with subtle things but never had as firm of a hold on the map at that speed as Tom did. The only point that gave us any trouble was D - it felt like it was a bit misplotted. Most of these were hit in lockstep with UNE, but we pulled ahead of them on our last CP (E). We arrived back at that TA after ~40 minutes. I was covered in sweat and had to remove my trekking pants before we set out on bikes. The temps weren't crazy hot, but the humidity was driving me nuts.
Bike
After getting ourselves situated with our large packs (carrying paddle and pfds) we set out to the north on the longest bike section that would take us to the crux of the race. I ended up in the lead here, going back and forth with Matt and Evan to pace the team. We hit a few of the early hills with a bit too much pace, but those teammates who suffered for it were able to recover rather quickly. I can't recall exactly where it was, but towards the beginning of the ride my rear shifter fell off of my handlebars. Quick inspection showed that a bolt had back itself out - I wish I had looked for it but instead got a ski strap from Matt and got the shifter reattached enough to ride. Tom, Kate and Evan had slowed up enough for us to get caught up within a few minutes. CPs 1-5 were on this leg, and we hit each of them right with UNE. The only challenge was CP3, which was marked as a stream but was tough to locate from the road. We spent a few minutes looking around for it before finding it - I imagine that it might have tripped up some other teams a bit more. We kept pulling hard and arrived in the TA around 8:15, after ~100 minutes of riding.
Trek
This was clearly set up as the crux of the race. Lots of elevation, many CPs (some in tough locations) and loads of route choice. Tom had the great idea to find out which was UNE was going and choose the opposite so that we could break away from them on our own merit. John said that they were going counterclockwise, so we set out on the road to CP 15 in the opposite direction. We found CP15 just as the rain began again in earnest. With the rain came lightning and thunder. It was tough to see and hear each other as we set off towards CP14. This ended up being our worst CP of the day. We used Tom's bearing and attack but unfortunately relied on the pace count that I dictated. The CP was located on a very subtle reentrant, and we found one but never found the flag. We followed it for awhile as it turned some strange directions. We eventually agreed that we weren't in the right reentrant, but we couldn't find ours on the map anywhere. After losing most of our momentum and wasting tons of time we decided to head up the mountain to CP 13 and reattack once we had our bearings. We did located CP13 with ease, where Cliff and I chose to put back on our trekking pants to help combat the fields of stinging nettle. We made a team choice to go get 11 while we were up at elevation before returning down to 14. When we finally finished that move we find CP 14 right where it should have been. (Post race track analysis shows that we were early on our first attack. We hunted around in the right direction but never got there. Tom's personal track shows that he was probably within 50m of it at one point before giving up the chase) We probably lost ~45 minutes on the CP, maybe more considering how it changed out route choice. From there we moved super slowly to CP9, so slowly (~25min for 1 km) that Tom was convinced we had missed it. Fortunately we had an obvious backstop of sugar maple sap lines that we found before find the CP. I heard that this gave most teams loads of trouble. We trudged uphill to 8 from there, hitting with the Dev Squad.
At that point the team had a small little pep talk with ourselves and realized that we needed to get back to moving quickly. With some pep in our step we began to fly through the rest of the trek, nailing each CP perfectly, going X, 6, Y, 7, and 10 before needed to readjust for 12 as we found fields of rough thorns. The same was waiting after CP12, but it was short-lived as we punched through to the TA. We were a bit dejected, convinced that we were ~1hr behind UNE after the slow speed and big bobble. To our surprise, we heard that we were in the lead still - no one else was back yet! Our spirits lifted, we passed the mandatory gear check and got out of the TA ASAP!
Bike
I took the lead on the map here as we began this short section. We passed loads of teams here: there had been a suggested time to leave the TA of 1PM, and we got out at 12:30, meaning that most short course teams were already biking. CP16 had a steeeep climb! We decided to bikewhack through it to save ~4km of riding. This ended up being the best choice, as we found an unmapped trail that led us straight out to the road. CPs 17 and Z were simple to find, and from there we powered into the next TA.
Trek
We arrived in this TA with a bang - I nearly toppled the tent as I hit it with my paddle! After a profuse apology, with refilled with the fresh spring water and set out with our pfds on a small supplemental map. CP 10 involved a simple trek into a river. CP 19 was in a nasty swamp but simple to find. CP18 involved a slow trek through a swamp. After Kate used her super-vision to spot the flag we headed back towards the TA through terribly slow terrain. High plants and grass covering a stinky swamp. The nastiness stopped once we got into the woods again, where we moved more quickly back to TA. I really didn't mind this section, but it seems like many other racers found the swamp to be more memorable and demoralizing that I did.
MTB
More spring water and we shot out on roads back towards Craftsbury. We soon had some trails to ride to find a series of 3 CPs, one of which involved Cliff and Tom to take a refreshing swim into a lake. The rest of us used this as a chance to get refueled for the fast finish. The last 4 CPs on this leg were on the supplemental prologue map. I led the nav here, riding at the front with Matt. We both were very uncomfortable on the flat pedals - I felt like a major accident was only a moment away. The team did a good job moving here, pairing the different trails together to move as quickly as possible. Tom chose an excellent attack for the last CP, and from there we rode into the paddle TA.
Paddle
Cliff had accidentally forgotten his paddle blades in the car, so he grabbed a canoe paddle as we quickly left the TA. I rode in the middle on Matt's portable canoe seat while Matt naved from the front. We switched paddles back and forth to figure out the best way to use the canoe paddle. My shoulder and elbow were bothering me after an unfortunate slip'n'slide injury from the prior week, so I ended up using it in the middle seat. Probably not the best choice, but I was in too much pain to use a kayak paddle efficiently. The 4 CPs were simple to find, and the two boats stayed together well. We returned to the paddle TA after just over 1 hour.
From there, we quickly remounted bikes and rode to the finish line, arriving as the overall winners after 11:12. No other team cleared the course, and we later heard that UNE had an even worse time on the trek than we did. The post-race tacos were perfect, and we enjoyed the time to relax and chat before getting some sweet prizes at the awards ceremony!
Thanks to GMARA for a great race!! Super fun time with the whole team too. My nav felt great. Also really happy with my nutrition - no real issues for me at all. Feeling ready for nationals!!
The Bitter Pill is a long haul for me for a 12hr race (7-8hr drive each way). Rebekeh and Noah were planning on coming with me to make it a fun long weekend, but they decided in the weeks leading up to it that they (understandably) had enough road tripping for the summer. I was able to rationalize the crazy solo-drive with the wonderful prizes from GMARA as well as my need to reconcile with the embarrassing finish to my only prior Bitter Pill. I figured that I couldn't lose to Cliff, Tom and Evan again if I raced with them this time! The plan was the race as a super team and stick together unless there was a pressing need to slip apart during the day. Tom would take the lead on the nav, I would backup, and Matt would straighten us out when we couldn't make up our minds.
We had a fun little cabin about 30 minutes from the start line for the weekend that was perfect for staging. I got to bed around 11 and set my alarm for 3. Sleep was hard to come by.
We arrived at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center around 4:15 in a full-on downpour. Fortunately the rain subsided for check-in and didn't pick up until later in the race. We found a nice place indoors to prep our maps as we got ourselves ready. The race unfolded in a really fun manner: trek, bike, big trek, bike, small trek, MTB, paddle. We had all switched to flat pedals for faster TAs, and we were encouraged by our choice after seeing the layout. After all the necessary actions pre-race we settled into the 5:45 pre-race meeting and were ready for the 6:00AM start.
Trek
This functioned as a prologue. We got a trail map with 6cps as the race began. The trails were a combination of singletrack, pavement and grassy trails. Tom was super confident and led us perfectly through the section. I wasn't able to get my head around the trails before we set off and was happy to follow. I offered some help here and there with subtle things but never had as firm of a hold on the map at that speed as Tom did. The only point that gave us any trouble was D - it felt like it was a bit misplotted. Most of these were hit in lockstep with UNE, but we pulled ahead of them on our last CP (E). We arrived back at that TA after ~40 minutes. I was covered in sweat and had to remove my trekking pants before we set out on bikes. The temps weren't crazy hot, but the humidity was driving me nuts.
Bike
After getting ourselves situated with our large packs (carrying paddle and pfds) we set out to the north on the longest bike section that would take us to the crux of the race. I ended up in the lead here, going back and forth with Matt and Evan to pace the team. We hit a few of the early hills with a bit too much pace, but those teammates who suffered for it were able to recover rather quickly. I can't recall exactly where it was, but towards the beginning of the ride my rear shifter fell off of my handlebars. Quick inspection showed that a bolt had back itself out - I wish I had looked for it but instead got a ski strap from Matt and got the shifter reattached enough to ride. Tom, Kate and Evan had slowed up enough for us to get caught up within a few minutes. CPs 1-5 were on this leg, and we hit each of them right with UNE. The only challenge was CP3, which was marked as a stream but was tough to locate from the road. We spent a few minutes looking around for it before finding it - I imagine that it might have tripped up some other teams a bit more. We kept pulling hard and arrived in the TA around 8:15, after ~100 minutes of riding.
Trek
This was clearly set up as the crux of the race. Lots of elevation, many CPs (some in tough locations) and loads of route choice. Tom had the great idea to find out which was UNE was going and choose the opposite so that we could break away from them on our own merit. John said that they were going counterclockwise, so we set out on the road to CP 15 in the opposite direction. We found CP15 just as the rain began again in earnest. With the rain came lightning and thunder. It was tough to see and hear each other as we set off towards CP14. This ended up being our worst CP of the day. We used Tom's bearing and attack but unfortunately relied on the pace count that I dictated. The CP was located on a very subtle reentrant, and we found one but never found the flag. We followed it for awhile as it turned some strange directions. We eventually agreed that we weren't in the right reentrant, but we couldn't find ours on the map anywhere. After losing most of our momentum and wasting tons of time we decided to head up the mountain to CP 13 and reattack once we had our bearings. We did located CP13 with ease, where Cliff and I chose to put back on our trekking pants to help combat the fields of stinging nettle. We made a team choice to go get 11 while we were up at elevation before returning down to 14. When we finally finished that move we find CP 14 right where it should have been. (Post race track analysis shows that we were early on our first attack. We hunted around in the right direction but never got there. Tom's personal track shows that he was probably within 50m of it at one point before giving up the chase) We probably lost ~45 minutes on the CP, maybe more considering how it changed out route choice. From there we moved super slowly to CP9, so slowly (~25min for 1 km) that Tom was convinced we had missed it. Fortunately we had an obvious backstop of sugar maple sap lines that we found before find the CP. I heard that this gave most teams loads of trouble. We trudged uphill to 8 from there, hitting with the Dev Squad.
At that point the team had a small little pep talk with ourselves and realized that we needed to get back to moving quickly. With some pep in our step we began to fly through the rest of the trek, nailing each CP perfectly, going X, 6, Y, 7, and 10 before needed to readjust for 12 as we found fields of rough thorns. The same was waiting after CP12, but it was short-lived as we punched through to the TA. We were a bit dejected, convinced that we were ~1hr behind UNE after the slow speed and big bobble. To our surprise, we heard that we were in the lead still - no one else was back yet! Our spirits lifted, we passed the mandatory gear check and got out of the TA ASAP!
Bike
I took the lead on the map here as we began this short section. We passed loads of teams here: there had been a suggested time to leave the TA of 1PM, and we got out at 12:30, meaning that most short course teams were already biking. CP16 had a steeeep climb! We decided to bikewhack through it to save ~4km of riding. This ended up being the best choice, as we found an unmapped trail that led us straight out to the road. CPs 17 and Z were simple to find, and from there we powered into the next TA.
Trek
We arrived in this TA with a bang - I nearly toppled the tent as I hit it with my paddle! After a profuse apology, with refilled with the fresh spring water and set out with our pfds on a small supplemental map. CP 10 involved a simple trek into a river. CP 19 was in a nasty swamp but simple to find. CP18 involved a slow trek through a swamp. After Kate used her super-vision to spot the flag we headed back towards the TA through terribly slow terrain. High plants and grass covering a stinky swamp. The nastiness stopped once we got into the woods again, where we moved more quickly back to TA. I really didn't mind this section, but it seems like many other racers found the swamp to be more memorable and demoralizing that I did.
MTB
More spring water and we shot out on roads back towards Craftsbury. We soon had some trails to ride to find a series of 3 CPs, one of which involved Cliff and Tom to take a refreshing swim into a lake. The rest of us used this as a chance to get refueled for the fast finish. The last 4 CPs on this leg were on the supplemental prologue map. I led the nav here, riding at the front with Matt. We both were very uncomfortable on the flat pedals - I felt like a major accident was only a moment away. The team did a good job moving here, pairing the different trails together to move as quickly as possible. Tom chose an excellent attack for the last CP, and from there we rode into the paddle TA.
Paddle
Cliff had accidentally forgotten his paddle blades in the car, so he grabbed a canoe paddle as we quickly left the TA. I rode in the middle on Matt's portable canoe seat while Matt naved from the front. We switched paddles back and forth to figure out the best way to use the canoe paddle. My shoulder and elbow were bothering me after an unfortunate slip'n'slide injury from the prior week, so I ended up using it in the middle seat. Probably not the best choice, but I was in too much pain to use a kayak paddle efficiently. The 4 CPs were simple to find, and the two boats stayed together well. We returned to the paddle TA after just over 1 hour.
From there, we quickly remounted bikes and rode to the finish line, arriving as the overall winners after 11:12. No other team cleared the course, and we later heard that UNE had an even worse time on the trek than we did. The post-race tacos were perfect, and we enjoyed the time to relax and chat before getting some sweet prizes at the awards ceremony!
Thanks to GMARA for a great race!! Super fun time with the whole team too. My nav felt great. Also really happy with my nutrition - no real issues for me at all. Feeling ready for nationals!!
Tuesday Aug 10, 2021 #
1 PM
Run (Trail run) 46:26 [4] 4.35 mi (10:40 / mi)
shoes: Topo Ultraventure (grey/green)
Hot hot hot run at Cheslen. Had to stop and walk a few times. Legs didn't feel the freshest.
Monday Aug 9, 2021 #
4 PM
Bike-Trainer 50:00 [4]
Super sweaty ride at home. I felt great yesterday (injury-wise) and just as good today. Super happy about that.