Training Log Archive: inTIMidator

Mountain program level 10

Easy spin, no HR

Stupidly stayed up to late

Team was strong and we played well. After some of our run backs I think Brad Jacobs might be giving me a call.

Burning the candle at both ends, up late working on one work project only to get up "early" for a formal tender closing today...let the fun begin.

Made the mistake of reading everyone's report from Saturdays SSR and I got to excited to sleep thinking of things that I could have done better.

Light body weigh exercises. Legs still stiff from SSR.

Easy spin to help flush out the legs.

Event: Salomon Snowshoe Raid
 

Ever think long and hard about what we do? If I didn't want to play in the snow today I wouldn't have to be typing this at 5:00am...who am I kidding, it's way too much fun.

This was my first Rogaine so I didn’t really know what to expect. Luckily I was sitting at a table with Tiny and I could eaves drop a little insight, sorry Tiny. In the end it didn’t help much though.
My group’s intention was to run as a group of two teams as three fourths of us race together in the summer. Sadly one fell ill and couldn’t make it to the race so we raced as a NOR solo and a team of two.
Knowing that we wouldn’t be super fast we wanted to pick up Map 2 as quickly as possible. Our route was 136, 137, 138, 139, We were concerned about burning time on 204, 207, 211 due to the hills so from 140 we hit 203, 164, 205 and 206 before heading back for Map 2 picking up a few stray cps along the way. We were about 5 minutes late but were not too concerned.
Once we saw Map 2 our plan was to head north grabbing 63, 64, 92. From there we would grab CPs of opportunity on our way back to the finish. Sadly I started to bonk at this point due to my cold and the lack of food/water (dumb mistake). My slow jog really slowed and we had to start walking. We hit 132 and 120. Given my condition we aborted on 104 despite it being close by as the climb back up the hill was going to be a challenge. At 120 I got super disoriented and had to let one of the others nav. us back to the main trail as I couldn’t figure out which way was up (a little scary for me to experience).
From 120 we were running short on time and picked up 95 before heading back to the finish. Sadly we didn’t really know how the cutoff times work in a Rogaine, we thought we had to be back in the 3hrs or we would be DNF so we high tailed it and skipped the remaining flags on our way home. We finished 8 minutes to spare and could have likely picked up 61 for a few extra points but seeing the results it wouldn’t have made a difference.
Lessons learned:
1) The guys I was running with were great sports and helped encourage me when I was down, this included pushing my slow butt up some hills and taking my pack on the slog back to the finish.
2) Take some time to think outside the box. Looking back now at the map it looks like taking the road and getting the flags in the area of 65 might have been more time efficient, I have not totaled the points for these flags but it might have been worthwhile for us.
Thanks to GetawayStix and your staff for hosting a great event.

Could definetly tell I havent curled for a while. Super close game ending in our favour.

Cold is nearly gone. I have developed a cough that doesn't seem to want to go away.

Achilles or the blister on the back of my food is still sore so Instead of running I hit the spin bike.Spinning on the stationary bike at work using the "Mountain Program", set to level 9 (don't know of what). I had my GPS watch for recording my HR and I think I was getting some interference from the machine, sometimes they would be in sync and other times they weren't.

Should have put a little more focus on form to add some realism, found myself flopping like a fish a few times on some of the harder hills in the program. Legs were nice and tired after.

Spin on the trainer. Last winter I had focused more on longer duration lower intensity spins but through the racing season I found that my legs had no punch (previous years I would go to a spin class once a week). This year my winter rides will have some more intensity.

30min spin on level 3. Allowed me to keep a 28-30km pace on the small ring with a cadence between 85-90. Started to loose focus around 25min, likely to do elapsed time and time of day. Had some discomfort from my right ankle, either the blister or the pressure from my shoe on my Achilles I don't know which.

Felt a little broken from yesterday so went with some lighter weights. Spent some extra time on the stationary bike post workout.

First run in snowshoes, didn't take long to pick it up. Used maps from 2012 and 2013 for practice. Was interesting orienteering in the snow, I almost found that the snow eliminated one of my senses, the Raid should be a good challenge.

Bushwhacking uphill in 18"-24" of snow is exhausting. Definitely out of shape after not much activity over the holidays due to a cold.

I ended up with a largish blister on the back of my right ankle.

Cold is finally breaking and I am starting to feel like a normal person.

Was able to sleep longer than my typical 7hrs. Definetly improving.

Finally starting to feel like a normal person again, tire of laying on the couch.

Cold has not broken, think this might be a sinus infection.