Training Log Archive: mayer22

We left TA 2 min ahead of Quest. We rode the trails around Telemark with them just behind us. I occasionally could see their headlamps. When we got to CP 23 we chose to attack from the S. We measured from the intersection and got right to the spur but couldn't see it. So we kept riding. We saw Quest coming the other way (Did they get the CP already and we are now in 2nd?). We quickly realized we were now too far. We rode back and this time I could see the spur. But no sign of Quest (Did they miss it too?). We rode all the way to the intersection before we saw Quest turning around to get the CP. We lost 5 mins but Quest lost close to 15 min. Our lead was now back up to 13 min. By the time we got to TA it was back up to 17 min (but we didn't know that).

Another short OCourse. I again had a zoomed-out map. I was pretty active on assisting on this nav but Biz was still leading. No room for mistakes.

The woods were much thicker which meant slower travel. Maybe not a bad thing since we seemed to be moving slower anyway. Biz pushed as much as he could though. Mari again carried his gear.

We had two minor adjustments we had to make on the last two CPs. Only costing a minute or so each though.

We ran into Quest just before the farthest point but we only had one point after that. They had to get 4 on their way back.

Biz tossed his shoes at the end of the trek.

We felt pretty good about our lead but still pushed the pace the whole way back to the finish. We got back to the finish before Quest got back to the last TA. They finished about 40 minutes back. Rib was another 3 hours back.

Event: USARA National Championships
 

Tracker GPX

USARA National Championships w/Mari/Biz

1st place finish. The weather was perfect. The course was excellent; physically and mentally technical. Lots of great teams were there. The first stage had 5 legs that could be completed in any order. Quest, Rib, and us (the final top 3) all chose the same first 3 legs. After fixing a broken cleat right after the start we pulled away from Quest (and Rib) after Quest made an early mistake on Leg 1 and we were able to slowly extend our lead. When we got to the big O-Course at night Biz started having major stomach issues. Our pace dropped significantly. Mari took his pack and we shuffled where he could and kept moving but when we finished that section Quest was now only 2 minutes behind.

Biz sucked it up and really put himself through the wringer after that. We then both made a mistake on the next bike leg (crossing paths as we did so). Our mistake may have actually saved them from catching us. We were able to minimize our time lost and got a bit of a lead back going into the final O-course which we mostly nailed and rode in for the finish/win.

We chose to do this leg first because we had to start with a bike leg to cluster the paddle-trek-paddle (minimizing transition changes) and we didn't want to start with the singletrack (worried it might be crowded).

Once we got on our bikes I wasn't able to clip in. Turns out my cleat was falling off. We were right in front of the lodge but the race had started so we couldn't get anything from our cars or room. Luckily Mari had a cleat screw. It took us <3 min to take care of business and get rolling again. Rib and Quest both went this way. We passed Rib early and they stayed close behind. We were able to almost catch back to Quest before the "TA."

Short orienteering loop over some old iron deposits. It made the compass go wacky a few times. We were right next to Quest for the first 4 controls then Biz opted to get the last two in a different order. It paid off as we put 16' into them.

I was able to carry a zoomed-out version of the map while Biz navigated. I mostly was just keeping him honest and getting a sense for where I should go to punch the dipper.

Rode back to the TA the exact same way. Same time, so a tad slower w/o the cleat fix.

We then wanted to get the long paddle out of the way as it was already starting to get windy. The wind was also going N-S and this was the paddle that had more N-S.

As we started we saw the teams that started with this leg (not a bad idea) getting to the last CP (i.e., Rootstock(s), Bones, and BEND(s)).

We had a pretty good tailwind on and off for the first third but slowly started shifting to more of a headwind.

No major issues or excitement. Just a long lake paddle.

Transitioned to trek which was easy from paddling.

This was a pretty short orienteering leg. We had to run a little ways from the lodge to get to the section and then collect a few points. We also got to see what some of the ST trails we were going to ride were like. We saw lots of other teams walking the trails.

I had a zoomed-out map again but Biz pretty much handled the nav for this section as well.

Second paddle. Mostly E-W but we did have one big headwind after the far E point.

We surprisingly didn't see Quest at all on this leg. We weren't sure if they had opted to do the bike instead or not.

Singletrack loop with some pretty technical trails. Everything was rideable but sometimes it was slow. This section took longer than we had expected. We only had to pass a couple of other teams on the trails.

The ST leg led us right into more ST riding to the O-Course with multiple CPs along the way. Following along on the ST was tough at times. We started just before dark.

After we got CP 2 we bailed to the ATV road to get 3 and used it again after 3 to get around the lake. Rib took the ATV road all the way to the road and saved some time. We missed this shortcut :-( Then we took the Birkie trail up to the high point (CP 4). After getting CP5 Biz took us on a shortcut to the TA.

We lost 5 mins at both 2 and 5 by attacking the wrong feature initially.

We didn't know but we started this section with a 58' lead on Quest.

This was the major portion (crux) of the race. We got an orienteering map (no spare map for me) and had 16 controls spread out. 2 by themselves in the corner. Biz and I decided on a route and we were off. I convinced Biz to get 14 on the back half which seemingly turned out to be a bit of a mistake (5'-10') because it would have allowed us more time on the road. Both Quest and Rib did it that way.

Biz immediately had trouble pushing the pace. His stomach wasn't settled and he couldn't eat anything. After a couple of controls, we suggested taking his pack. Mari took it so I could continue to punch the controls without extra weight. We moved as best we could but it was really just a shuffle on the downhills and flat trails but walking everything else.

We lost a couple of minutes at 18 and 7 but lost 20 min at CP 8. Everything else was clean. We did struggle to find a good route back to the TA though. Quest put 10 minutes on us just on our way back to the TA.

We came into TA 4' ahead of Quest (losing 54' minutes total on this stage via mistakes and a slower pace)