Training Log Archive: Bash

Huge congrats to Carbon's Offset who completed the challenging Superior Traill 100-miler this weekend. He has earned all his UTMB points - plus an extra point just for kicks - since doing his first ultra just 3.5 months ago. Awesome.

Event: Logs Rocks and Steel - A Multisport Adventure
 

Splits are up now. I finished exactly half an hour slower than last year, and the difference was almost entirely the bike leg - some of it due to the wet trail but mostly because I haven't been riding enough this year. Tsk tsk.

Paddle 5th/18 solos (male & female)
Bike 12th
Run 7th
Overall 6th

Yup, it's pretty clear what I need to work on!

Salomon Logs Rocks and Steel multisport race

The day before, the weather forecast was so bad, it was laughable. We were supposed to get up to 50 mm (2") of rain in a 24-hour period. 'Bent and I stayed at my brother's cottage and listened to rain drumming on the metal roof all night, which sounded much worse than it actually was. (Although to be clear... it *was* a lot of rain!) I awoke at 3:45 a.m., and my mind was so active that I couldn't fall back asleep. Ugh, not a good start.

I'll admit that in those sleepless hours, I briefly considered making excuses. After all, I had the sniffles and my bad ankle has been feeling pretty sore lately. But after a cup of coffee, I snapped out of it and realized that the weather was a terrific opportunity for a gear and clothing test, even if it wasn't ideal for racing. The forecast improved a little too. We ended up having steady rain for a couple of hours, then a few hours of clouds with occasional spitting rain followed by a hurricane with wind and rain blowing sideways. Fortunately, when you're out in that stuff, it's not nearly as bad as when you're indoors looking out a window.

'Bent and I were doing the Championship Course solo for our anniversary weekend celebration. 'Bent had suggested racing together as a coed team but it would be a shame not to paddle our nice boats. I also figured it would be good for 'Bent to get a chance to race solo since he has been cramping in races this year for some reason, and it would be interesting to see what would happen if he just raced his own race.

The pre-race briefing was indoors because God forbid Getawaystix should get damp in such weather. ;) If you look closely, you may notice the extra padding I'd stuck under my hat so I could portage the kayak by balancing the hard seat on my head.



We started on the water - 14 km paddle with three short portages. I'd offered 'Bent the surfski, and I used my JKK Eclipse kayak, which goes a little slower for me.







Frankenjack shot off from the start as if he had jet engines in his boat. Incredible! You can just see him at the right side of the photo - the last race photo he and I appeared in together. And technically, only my kayak's bow is in this photo - not me. :)



I think FB was 2nd solo using Will's fast tippy Cobra. Even he probably didn't see Frankenjack on the 2nd loop though!



LosDobos and Susan shot ahead in their canoe, paddling really well.



Frankenjack hit the dock with nobody in sight behind him.



Two of my three portages were just plain silly. On the first one after 3.5 km, I paddled in with 'Bent and Coach LD but fell a few hundred meters behind them when things went haywire on the trail. My paddle slid mostly out of the cockpit, and when I grabbed it, my head slid forward so the boat was off-balance. I couldn't see anything and ended up going off onto a side trail, then had to merge in behind other people. The whole time, I was worried about slamming the boat into an unseen tree, damaging both it and my head.

On another portage, one of the front airbags kept falling out and I had to grab it over and over. I couldn't see and went off the main trail *again*. Sheesh.

At least I avoided the trouble I had at the camp's high dock last year when volunteers helped the racers ahead of me, then got busy and weren't able to help me get out of my tippy kayak right away. It's virtually impossible to keep my kayak upright at that dock on my own so yesterday I scoped out a shallow place beside the dock where I could get out without help.

That was the second portage and the only one that worked well for me. This time it was 'Bent and Coach LD who had trouble at the dock, and I was able to sneak by them as a result. When this pic was taken, I was about 75 m behind them and over to their left (beyond the right side of this photo) aiming for the shallow water. I didn't appear in any photos here, which makes me think about that dentist who faked all his good marathon results. Really, I did paddle two loops - honest! :)



Harps was taking photos as we came by on the portage.



'Bent discovered that the surfski doesn't portage as easily as one might think!



'Bent was obviously not feeling great on the paddle, as I was able to stick with him and eventually pulled out of the water ahead of him. The SI control is over a hill about 400 meters away from the place where we dropped our boats so I knew he would win the split. Rather than competing for marital bragging rights (which 'Bent felt I'd already earned), I stayed at my boat doing half my transition there, putting all my paddling gear into the boat. I remember last year that it was bulky and just got in the way when I took it all to the main transition area.

I was pleased when our good friend Coach LD entered the race again, since the tough competition would push me to work hard. We're pretty evenly matched on a paddle leg like this but this year it was Coach LD who had the bad luck at the high dock instead of me. We overlapped in transition.

I knew she would pass me soon enough, as she is much stronger on the bike, and she had 52 km to build a lead. However, I would have the advantage on the final 17 km technical trail run, so the question was whether there would be enough race course for me to chase her down. It was going to be fun trying, and I told Coach LD that she and her orange jacket were going to be my carrot all day!

The universe unfolded as it should. Coach LD passed me within a few kms, and the race was on. Even with the ridiculous amount of water on the course, the dry summer meant good trail conditions for the most part. Most of the rock provided great traction, even when wet. I've had a couple of bad endos this year so I did the first half of the ride cautiously until I finally began to trust that most puddles were rideable because of underlying rock.

Even though conditions were far from perfect and I was far from fast, I loved riding the bike course even more than last year. The LRS bike leg is a great ride - so much variety, and it's a real treat to ride on the Torrance Barrens, Ontario's answer to Moab.

Here's the 'bent bike that gave 'Bent his nickname!



At this point (the 1st bike aid station), he was riding with Coach LD.



I didn't see many other people on the bike. About half an hour after Coach LD went by, I passed FB at the side of the trail fixing a flat. He'd had a great paddle so that was sad. When he finally passed me a few kms later, I was happy to see him - partly because I like to see a friend doing well and partly because I'd made a deal with myself that I would stop to pee as soon as he passed me. Believe me, I was cheering for him to get that flat fixed quickly. :)



A few minutes after he went by, I was passed by a man who said, "Did you see that guy? With the jacket?" So... that would describe most people on the race course but I knew he meant FB so I nodded. He said, "He passed me on this super technical section, and he was going so fast, you would have thought he was riding a gravel road!" Yep, that was FB, all right.

Tom and Julia passed me just before the aid station on the Barrens where Harps and Will were volunteering. (A number of these pics are Eco's finish line photos - thanks!)


This was late in the bike leg and I was surprised that I hadn't seen them before - and that I'd only been passed by 2 solos and their team. Since paddling is my best discipline and biking is my weakest, I usually count on seeing a lot of people on a ride like this. The conditions must have held back some of the better riders today, I guess.



One person who is not affected by weather conditions is Coach LD. I asked Harps how far ahead she was. "20 minutes". Crap! That was the worst kind of answer. If Harps had said "1 hour", she would be clearly out of reach, and I could sit back and try to cruise to 2nd place. Or if he said "5 minutes", I could keep riding the same way I had been, and I'd probably get that time back on the run. But a 20 minute lead is in the twilight zone - not big enough to concede when there's 33 km left, including the one discipline where I should do better. However, it's a damned big lead, and it meant that I would need to start pushing harder. I would have been happy for my friend to win but neither she nor I would want to compete based on anything but our best efforts.

When I got to the two sets of train tracks on the road back to Camp Pine Crest, I slowed down and put a foot down. I was thinking of my friend Erin with the metal plate in her wrist from last weekend's bike accident. At the 2nd set of tracks, I noted that there were no flashing lights, and I glanced both ways out of habit. There was a truck coming along the train tracks toward me! He stopped in time but it was a surreal moment.

I took a little longer at the final bike/run TA. I refilled water and food, emptied some items from my pack to reduce weight, and changed to a light technical T-shirt. I apologize to all, as this act was undoubtedly what brought on the hurricane rains and winds that hit us 20 minutes later.



The jacket came off within 15 minutes and it probably would have been wise to put it back on again when the hurricane struck, but I didn't.



I haven't been doing as much technical riding as usual for the past few months, and as a result, my knee started bugging me during the ride and continued on the run. Other than that, I felt great. With rain blowing horizontally at times, there was incentive to keep moving. On the southern trail section of the out-and-back leg, I saw the 2nd place solo running toward me followed by 'Bent a short time later. He looked like he was feeling great and running well - awesome!



With Coach LD's lead on the bike, I wasn't sure if there was time to catch her but if I did, I thought it would likely be around the 2nd bushwhack in the last 5 km of the race. Suspense!

But unfortunately, I found her at the halfway point of the run on the connector trail between the main snowmobile trail and the Barrens aid station. She had gotten turned around relative to the course markings in there. *Such* a letdown for both of us since we were having a great head-to-head race, and now we would never know how it would have turned out. We chatted and I led the way to the aid station.

I considered running together to the finish but I wanted to see my time on the run compared to last year, so I told Coach that I would ask Getawaystix to just make it a tie between us. She protested but it wouldn't feel good to win under the circumstances. I should know... this is the 3rd year in a row where I have won LRS but another woman (or women) on the podium has had difficulty following the course, so it doesn't feel like a real win. Unfortunately, it didn't end up being possible to adjust the results since another woman in the open category finished between us.

Aside from that, I enjoyed the run. It was a treat to feel cold and wet after a ridiculously hot summer. I had good energy and just felt happy to be alive running around in beautiful terrain in a rainstorm. My training has been different this year - less multisport and more long slow runs. If there is one thing I've improved at (and there may *only* be one!), it's running when I'm tired, so this final leg of the race was exactly what I've trained for.



It was great to see friends at the finish line. 'Bent was there, all tidied up since he had been there for 55 minutes. He was 1st masters, 3rd solo overall.



Hermes handed me a frosty beverage. Funderstorm, Iris and FB were there too.







Frankenjack, the male champion, had been in for well over 2 hours. He had taken off on the paddle as if there were jet engines in his boat. In the end, he beat Eric Batty's male team by less than a minute - what a battle!



They are extremely competitive bikers and runners, and that's why Frankenjack purposely built up such a ridiculous lead on the paddle. It worked!



Frankenjack and Team Batt-Kins shook hands then jumped in the lake together. Awww, so sweet to see these fierce rivals playing nicely together. ;)



I didn't see Amber till after the finish but it sounds like she had a tough day out there on the bike. Next time!



Camp Pine Crest always treats us well, so we got yummy food after the race, and it was great to chat with so many good friends who were racing or volunteering. I have to give an extra shout out to the volunteers... So many of them are friends who are also racers. It was awesome to see them and to benefit from their generosity in giving back to the sport. Thanks, all.









And thanks to Getawaystix for putting together this excellent event which, amongst other things, included some behind-the-scenes work with town council that was a little stressful and time-consuming. Although I don't work on LRS, I do get to see how much effort is required to put on an event like this. Only a small percentage of race organization is the fun "glamour" stuff - course testing, greeting top racers at the finish line, etc. We are really lucky to have some top race directors living in Ontario and putting on quality events for us - thank you!



P.S. Thanks to DoubleDown_on11, Eco and Harps for the photos.

"LRS" tomorrow:

Light Rain Showers

Nope, let's be honest... Lightning & Rain Storms

Lake Rising Steadily

Legs Really Slow

Love Rocky Singletrack

Long Run Solo

Lotsa Racer Socializing

Happy 16th, 'Bent! Note the wedding support crew approaching in various types of watercraft. No surfskis though. :)

Crash invited me for a chatty morning trail run around Palgrave East and West with Skye-Dog. It was humid and warm but the forest is definitely starting to look autumnal. The huge climate-change-enhanced patches of lush poison ivy are starting to turn yellow around the edges. I won't miss them!

We checked out the big new map sign and discovered that the trail use designations are different from what the TRCA agreed upon with the advisory committee. The designations can't have changed that much; the sign must be wrong. Currently, there is a random kilometer of mountain bike single track in the middle of the conservation area with no bike access permitted from the trails it meets at either end.

A Garmin stop was required in my final kilometre to move a huge pile of horse poop off the trail that 'Bent and BazingaDog will take home tonight. What does it take for equestrians to recognize that horse droppings = feces that can carry nasty diseases?

A neighbour once picked up a bunch of garbage that was dumped nearby and found enough identifying information to be able to mail it to the person who had dumped it. Hmm, I'm getting some inspiration about these big piles of poo...

Fyi the Three15er rogaine on Sept. 29 in Washington State has just received approval as the 2012 North American Rogaining Champs with three weeks advance notice. Kinda makes you wonder if the designation of "championship event" is supposed to mean something. I'm on the committee that makes these decisions, and I presented my point of view a few weeks ago but avoided the vote since I didn't want to be a Grinch and take the opportunity from other people. I am one of the people who had planned all year to do this event, then finally bailed a couple of weeks ago since the website only became active one month before the event. I know there were others who abandoned their plans as well.

Conditions have improved substantially since wintry weather forced organizers to short-course last weekend's Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. My only question is... has Salomon stopped sponsoring Kilian Jornet? He looks a little, um, short of gear this morning.

For the 3rd time this summer, my car spent a full day at the Subaru dealer in Toronto. Today was supposed to be the end of it - a brand new catalytic converter replaced under warranty. The morning rush hour trip was nasty - 1 hr 40 min of stop-and-go driving in fog, construction and heavy traffic. I only had a couple of small errands in the city, and I was restless thinking of all I needed to do back in Caledon.

My phone rang after almost 6 hours. Turns out the mechanic broke the new catalytic converter when he installed it. They need to order another one. The car will continue to emit stinky toxins and stall at dangerous times. It will have to be taken back to Toronto for a 4th full day.

I felt strangely calm. The service manager explained it to me several times using different words; I think he figured I didn't grasp the situation since I wasn't upset. This surprised even me since I'd been dreading the trip to the city so much, but I guess if you've done wilderness tripping or adventure sports, or if you've just lived long enough, you get used to the fact that sh!t happens and it doesn't help to throw a tantrum; you just deal with it.

Adventure athletes run into this all the time. Your tire goes flat, your teammate feels nauseated, the best part of the race course has to be cut out because of water levels. All of us have been there. I can definitely remember a time when I would have reacted with frustration, and it's cool to realize that my experiences have moulded me. (Or maybe I've just gone mouldy!)

We also gain perspective. Instead of the service manager on the phone, this could have been someone telling me that a family member had been in an accident or that my blood test showed cancer. Or I could be pinned under a rock in a kayak or I could be in deep wilderness with an injured friend. Or I could live in the third world and never own a vehicle.

Having a piece-of-crap car is not such a bad problem to have.

Maybe we could attract new people to our sport by marketing the Zen of Adventure Racing!

On a less philosophical note, I visited my friends at the Salomon Store today and contributed to Phatty's salary. Some of the fall/winter merchandise has arrived, although there is much more to come between now and mid-October. Bargain alert: There are 50%-off racks of clothing, and some types of shoes are marked down significantly. For men, there is now a Salomon bike jersey and bike shorts - cool looking but even the XS jersey was too large for me.

Not happy with your marathon PB? Try the new Paul Ryan Marathon PB Calculator ;)

So sad for my young friend Erin who came up from Calgary to support me at the Death Race. She's in the hospital in Kamloops today after hitting railroad tracks the wrong way during a weekend bike ride. Wrist is badly broken - heading in for surgery. :(((

As a keen cyclist, she was pleased to report that her bike seemed to be OK. It's still at the local fire hall, she thinks.

Traditional Labour Day paddle and picnic with the Doughty family - Coach LD, Goose, KD, Pops and Susie. I did a couple of kms on the surfski, then switched to the stern of a whitewater canoe with Goose's Dad in the bow. Pops is a very experienced paddler so my job was easy. It was a treat to use a single blade canoe paddle in a canoe for a change - something we don't get to do when we're racing. Beautiful weather, great picnic, Dairy Queen, Starbucks... a nice celebration and now I'm ready to go back to school. The only minor problem is that I don't *have* a school.

'Bent and I are both doing Logs Rocks and Steel solo for our wedding anniversary. (We're such hopeless romantics!) As my gift to him, he gets to use the surfski. I love the cockpit of the Epic V8 and think it's possibly the most comfortable boat I've ever paddled. 'Bent has very little body fat, none of which is on his bum, and he finds the surfski uncomfortable. He wants to install a padded seat with glued-on velcro attachments while I want the cockpit to stay smooth and chafe-free. Our discussion on the drive home today was getting serious and veering perilously close to an (N+1) solution. Then he said, "If only there were a way to use suction cups so I could remove it completely when I'm not using it." I foolishly said, "Something like our gel shower mat would work."

So now I'm getting ready to have a shower on what's left of our mat. The rest of it has disappeared outside to be used in an Important Manly Project. I just saw 'Bent portaging the surfski across the yard, apparently testing how comfortable the shower mat feels against his head. Fellow LRS competitors, I must warn you that he seems extremely well prepared. ;)