Training Log Archive: cmorse

57 minute penalty assessed - started at 9:57. Would only see one team all day today (the eventual winners) around control #66. Other than that, skied all day, had a good route planned out, had to cut #45 & #65 in the far SW corner to stay on schedule but otherwise pretty clean route. Very glad we planned our route today to give us a straight shot back on snowmobile roads as we really needed to hustle to finish with 5 minutes to spare. Had we been skiing backcountry at the end it would have been bad, very bad...

Rough route - actual distance higher due to perambulations not shown in gmaps point to point route.

#62 - starting an hour after everyone else, we had a nicely tracked trail heading NE from the HH. Once we got across the stream (bridge out) we struck out eastward to control, following snowshoe & ski tracks of earlier teams.

#57 - pretty much due S following a snowshoe only track. Didn't ski directly on their path due to snowshoe tendency to wander around more whereas skiing is easier in a straightline. No problems

#33 - Out to road and across to Alice's Alley ski trail - alas, no more fresh tracks. But a nice ski nonetheless and much easier skiing here than backcountry as I could just concentrate on stride rather than negotiating small hills, deadfall, marshes etc... Turned in one reentrant too early windng up on the N edge of circle before reading the fine squiggle in the contours and correcting up and over spur - maybe 2 min lost.

#36 - back out to ski trail and continuing S, crossing stream, up hill then following forest boundary to control - no sign of anyone out here and 3-4" of fresh powder obscured most of previous days tracks.

#76 - S along marsh (some snowshoe tracks faintly evident) to Tucker Rd (snowmobile) and a fast pace on road to forest boundary, 600m in to control, and back out to Tucker Rd.

#31 - continue on road to easy control

#34 - ditto, with second half skiing on snowy shoulder of major paved road.

#66 - a long, but fast ski retracing our route on Tucker Rd to Alice's Alley, turning S on untracked ski trail. A series of pretty hairy steeps (down) and tricky stream crossing, then back up the other side and striking out W along top of large reentrant - supposedly a trail up here, but none we could locate. Partway in we passed the eventual winners coming our way - so from there in it was easy to follow their tracks.

#54 - back out the way we came in, however the other team was turning N, so we were back to untracked, and often difficult to follow ski trail. But read the contours well and right in.

#73 - many teams had been to #54, just not from our direction, so exiting we had a good trail to follow S. When we got to stream, the other tracks seemed to wander along the stream quite a bit and we presumed they were coming the other way and looking for a crossing point, so we bailed on their tracks and headed out to paved road. skied the shoulder for a bit, then cut in at forest corner in untracked snow, found a decent stream crossing point and hit control cleanly.

#44 - left control W (no tracks) and took a less than straight line getting there, but eventually got out ok. North, then West on paved road shoulders, then in at forest corner and hit control cleanly (tracks leading in).

Decided to cut #65 & #45 in order to shorten the route and get back on time

#47 - back to road, then in at forest boundary beyond river crossing, up to Winona Way trail where we picked up a good track leading to control.

#35 - no trail leaving #47 the way we wanted to off into the woods, a bit of wandering and slow negotiating unmapped marshy lands, then encountered a stream with no good crossing points, turned W and eventually came out to Hawley Rd (snowmobile) Back to quick skiing on snowmobile paths and in/out of #35 easily.

#75 - in on ski trail with good tracks to follow - a bit of a delay crossing unmapped stream, but then into control just fine.

HH - North on Winona Way (ski trail) missing right turn and ending up on road a bit west of intended. skied road (paved with snow cover) back to Bargy Rd (snowmobile) and pressed hard on snowmobile tracks to beat the deadline. Back with about 5 minutes to spare. 1380 out of 1900 possible points, 28 of 38 controls. 5th place.

No major injuries or complaints - shoulders and elbows sore from poling for two days.

Event: CNYO Snowgaine #15
 

CNYO Snowgaine with Frank Boscoe from Albany. Rain all the way up, until we got within about 5 miles of Winona, then snow reappeared quickly. Drove up to HH and did a little test of conditions to see what the best options were, then back to Port Ontario to our motel.

Half hour for briefing, map study and to file intention sheets - we quickly whipped up a loop figuring we'd do half a day on skis, half snowshoe to see how it went.

#67 - attacked this a bit later than I would have otherwise, but a clean route in across a smallish marsh behind another team (eventual winners), exited via the route I though we should have come in on - saved a couple minutes probably, but I fell and dropped my map and had to retrace my steps to find it, so we probably lost 5-6 minutes backtracking...

#43 - 75% snowmobile trails, clean attack, no problems

#32 - didn't have this on the original itinerary, but added it on the fly - S to ski trail (not broken out, but easy skiing), overshot attackpoint slightly probably cost 90s, otherwise clean.

#72 - retrace route on ski path, some serious downhills in rough terrain (I'm not a backcountry skier at all). Parts of the trail were melted down to bare earth and running water. Had to circumvent a lot of deadfall, but otherwise ok.

#63 - slow leaving #72 - terrain vague, felt longer than it should have. Eventually out to ski trail and snowmobile road, down to river crossing, then in along forest boundary. A lot of steep difficult hills in here - more than shown on map. Eventually got there...

#55 - slow exit from #72, skied on shoulder of road, then up and around - long way around, but skiable all the way as opposed to very steep and a questionable stream crossing on the direct route.

#71 - ski trail for a bit, then contoured around hill - lots of fallen trees, slow going...

#46 - another team had skied the forest boundary so we went that way on exiting - much cleaner, but more climbing. Back to snowmobile road then up across broad hill - seemed to take a lot longer than it looked like on map - pretty vague hilltop, but knoll with control quite obvious when we finally got there.

#40 - steep descent (bare booted this one), stream crossing then headed N (should have gone due E to road), next stream crossing had to be bare-booted and waded - no fun at all... followed by a steep climb up to control.

HH - (about 6 hours in) north to road, some road skiing, then walked to HH to swap skis for snowshoes. Lost time on out and back and transition
but my legs had good strength, but the backcountry skiing was taking a serious toll on ability to control skis (ie I fell down a LOT).

#50 - ran road, the snowshoes on snowmobile paths to just above control, into woods and post holing 3-4 feet in some places, ok in others.

#60 - back to snowmobile trail, cross river then north up slope - going ok but Frank noted that his heart rate was much higher than when skiing. Probably better per/km pace, but at too high an effort to maintain?

#70 - sketchy ski-trails (not maintained apparently), both getting tired at this point.

#51 - pretty straight shot and easy, beginning to worry about time - try for #30, or stick to roads and run back (slightly longer, but faster).

#30 - seemingly easy control about 1000m N of hashhouse - made the decision to go for it even if we incurred a couple minutes penalties. Got to the control just fine, only to find no one else had been here all day. So there would be no convenient herd path back to the HH and on top of it the snow was really soft and post-holing extensively. At one point crossing a stream on a snowbridge/downed tree I went straight through and into the stream - probably took 2-3 minutes to extricate myself and continue the slog. Wound up 19 minutes overtime which would mean almost an hour delay for starting on Sunday. Damn...

Looking forward to the weekend with some trepidation. It's been 9 years since I rogained and I finished up the last one in a state of flu-like crap & would take almost 6 years before determining that Lyme was behind it and my subsequent loss of endurance fitness. I feel pretty good these days though still being treated for chronic Lyme but I think that phase of things is nearing the end and time to climb back into the rogaine saddle.

But it's looking to be a cold, wet slog of a weekend.... oh boy...

No opportunities today. Ate a big taco salad for lunch - tasty & reasonably healthy, but a ton of calories. Then Hayden chose Red Robin to go out for his 10th birthday dinner where I succumbed to a burger that certainly had way too many calories. Probably regret it when I get on scale tomorrow AM

{edit - 2400 calories over my 1900 base today - would had to run 20 miles or so to erase that gluttony}

on a positive note I have to drop car off for service in the morning so I'm going to force myself to run the long way home, maybe even venture into the woods....

The return of Tuesday AM Hill Sessions. Wasn't sure I'd be able to keep up with the boys, so went early to get a head start. Lots of ice on the paved portion at bottom, avoidable ice on upper parts. Did almost two trips before meeting up with Bruce, Mark & Tony. Finished up that trip and then ran a hard downhill to catch up with them. Turned around at the pavement on the third trip to join them. Felt pretty good and after 4 was going to just pad a short bit to make it 10 miles and make up for the skipped pavement, but went ahead and did another full pass making it just short of 5 reps. Felt real strong coming back up the last one as the sun rose in the east. Actually felt stronger at the end than the first couple. I think I'll be feeling a bit stiff today though...