Training Log Archive: mayer22

Felt good for most of the race. Nose started running a lot at at night during the last leg as it got cold. And my throat was getting a little hoarse in the last couple hours.

After the race finished and I showered and napped I did not feel good.
Tried to get more sleep and aid recovery the rest of the day.

Transition to trek. Long TA. We were a bit cold and had to clean up the boats.

Final long trek. We started 5 or so minutes after CP0. It was incredibly efficient and clean. We started seeing CP0's lights at the 4th CP. We passed them just after the 5th with better use of dead reckoning that weaved us through the areas marked with heavier vegetation. 2 CPs later we lost them and they made some mistakes after that letting us pull away.

We also passed Odyssey early on in the trek.

My nose started running a lot and I started feeling a little sick to my stomach. I got some saltier foods from Kristin which helped manage it to the finish. Towards the end my throat started to get pretty sore as well.

Adrenaline Rush w/Kristin/Earl/Michael
Came in still a little sick but felt good. Actually meant I was a little easier on the training coming in than I had planned. This was my first time racing with Michael and my first race with Kristin in 5 years.

Overall I think we had a great race. Navigation was super clean (only lost 15 minutes to navigation errors). I lead most of the race but had great support and double-checking from Michael and Earl. Michael caught a big almost error on the last trek (saving us 10-15 min). He let me briefly lead him astray on the first bike though. Kristin was super strong, wonderful, and supportive as always. She also got some great pictures.

Earl's bike broke pretty much at the start. Fortunately for us, the race was short on biking (only 32mi). Earl managed to power his way through it. I carried what I could for him and gave him lots of pushes. Michael did a bit of towing as well.

The race was great training for me. I did a lot of work (navigating, punching, pushing, and carrying extra gear) but the others stepped in whenever I needed a break or time to eat.

The design of the course was really neat and fun. Lots of options on the big paddle/trek leg and the orienteering was really good, especially on the last trek. I wouldn't have minded some more biking but glad we didn't given the mechanical issue we had.

The big issue was that the RD underestimated the benefit of portaging (especially given the windy conditions) and downplayed it. We were told that portaging shouldn't particularly increase your chances of winning. Considering we had 2 boats to worry about I figured it would just be easier to not have to worry about and mess with portage wheels so we didn't even bother finding or bringing them. We didn't even look at the option when we received the maps since we had no wheels. After the race looking back at the map it seemed like a pretty clear choice to portage and the results confirmed that. The portage saved 6 miles of paddling (into a headwind) and only required 4.5 miles of portaging on roads. But more importantly, you were able to collect all but one CP in a window on the portage saving yourself almost all the trekking for that window (~1 hour).

After talking with the course vetter, it seems part of this oversight was due to a last minute change that moved the start of the paddle and made the portage choice a bit more obvious.

Prologue

Mountain bike around Fairy Stone State Park. We chose to take a different route to CP 2 and made a wrong turn. We recovered to find other teams struggling on trails that weren't fully mapped. After realizing this we figured out the correct trails and were in the lead. Earl had trouble on the climb as he wasn't able to use all his gears.

At CP 4 inspected his rear shifter and realized it wasn't working. We tried taking it apart and fixing but it wouldn't work so we converted it to a 2-speed.

Spent 15 minutes on the repair.

We came into the next TA behind several other teams.

Short orienteering course. We executed cleanly and passed back all but 2 teams.

A mostly road ride to the boat launch. 2 short sections of dirt road. These were actually preferable because it made the limitations of Earl's bike less exaggerated. We did what we could to help him on the road sections.

We pulled into the boat launch right after Odyssey and right before Rootstock who both were preparing for a portage back down the road we had just ridden up.

Transition to Paddle

Paddle down the northern arm of the lake to our first CP window. The wind was pretty bad. Earl and I were moving faster than Kristin and Michael so we tied the boats together. At times this helped keep our boat straighter but occasionally they pulled us off or when we got blown it was harder to recover. It still was definitely more efficient.

Cleared the whole window and an extra CP that saved us significant paddling later.

Passed the spur for the last CP. Only lost about 5 minutes.

Back in the canoes to the western arm of the lake and our second CP window. This is when we were paddling into the strongest wind.

We passed Odyssey going the other way and got our first sense of how much ahead the teams that portaged would be.

Cleared this whole window and another CP again.

Paddle across to the southern shore getting one CP on an island on the way.

Cleared this whole window with just one stop. I wasn't sure if that was the best choice or not and still am not convinced either way. I guess that means there wasn't a major difference.

Finally started paddling with the wind (which seemed to settle just a little). Making our way to TA. There were several CP to collect but they were all at or near the water.

Transition to bike

Got to TA 1.5 hours after Rootstock which was a lot of time to try and make up. CP0 arrived at TA just after us. And they got to do the trail section in the daylight.

We started the bike just as darkness fell so we needed lights right away. We had some trouble getting a sense for the map scale and trails. It took us a little extra time to find the first CP because of that.

We also had some trouble getting to and leaving the second CP because the roads in the camp didn't match the map incredibly well. CP0 caught us while we were figuring this out.

We effectively did the rest of the trail riding with CP0 having some trouble w/ CP 26 but figuring it out separately.

After CP26 it was all a road ride. Earl was able to ride his 2 speed well along the trails and it didn't seem to slow us down significantly. That changed on the road. We saw CP0 ride away from us. We actually were able to catch them on the climbs. Earl really pounded his pedals and I pushed him when the hills got a little too steep or long.

We managed to come into TA only a couple of minutes behind CP0 but 2 hours behind Rootstock. We lost 30 minutes in the dark on the MTB trails (13 min in the campground). Our road ride was actually a few minutes faster.

Transition to Paddle

The last paddle section. The wind was incredibly strong and a bit dangerous. Fortunately, we started with the wind at our back but even a slight crosswind was brutal at this speed. By the time we turned back towards the wind it had settled just a little such that it wasn't dangerous. Given the stronger winds we figured it was safer not to tie the boats together. We weren't moving with quite as much speed given it was dark. The nearly full moon lit everything up though and headlights weren't needed on the water. It was beautiful.

We got out of TA a couple of minutes before CP0 but they picked a better landing spot for the first CP and we followed them around the lake for the rest of the CPs. They pulled away on the way back to TA as Michael and Kristin were falling asleep a bit.

Most of the CPs were on the water or just off of it.

Still feel pretty good. Moved into my sinus a bit.
My ears were feeling it as I drove down the mountain to the race.

Homeplace w/Skip
Easy shakeout run. My legs felt good and running cleared out my head a little bit but still a little stuffy.

Feeling considerably better.
Mostly gone from throat. Moved into my ears a little.
Took another brief nap today.

BROC Meet @ Heritage w/Z/Nut/E

Full moon rose as we finished.

Throat really rough today and feeling it in my head.
Lots of work and lack of sleep isn't helping.
So I skipped some work meetings today and took a long nap instead.
Drove to class today instead of riding.

Catching E's cold.

Homeplace w/Skip
Hills. Pushed the first couple and then just tried to keep moving on the rest. Time was the same as last year.

It was warm for Skip but there was a decent amount of water on the mountain. He was pretty wasted when we got back though.

Feeling it a little in my knees still. I think it's the downhills.

Ride in. Light pack.
Stopped to get tested. Legs a bit tired but loosened up.

Ride home. Light pack.