Training Log Archive: britty327

The final ride was a straight shot down the GAP Trail. The guys were sleepy, but we managed to keep the rubber side down all the way into Ohiopyle. We finished 4th coed/5th OA. We had a fun weekend racing together...it was our first race with Mark. The Ohiopyle area is really beautiful...I could do without all the out and backs, but at least the area was new to me. Thanks to Doug and his fantastic volunteer staff for putting on a Memorial Day Weekend adventure!

C • Thanks for the report, 5

Back on the road, we went past Laurel Hill and Seven Springs. I've only done 1 AAS race, and this was familiar territory. We moved into Forbes State Forest and voluntarily opted for O&B3 to the Paterson Spring CP because the loop didn't look like a better option. A solid road ride took us through O&B4 and eventually to our entrance point for Bear Run Nature Preserve. For this, we were supposed to follow flagging through a series of trails to the TA. We were able to follow it for a few K and then promptly lost it. Several intersections weren't flagged, increasing the fun/frustration level. Once the flagging dumped you into the Bear Run trail system, the streamers ended, and you were just supposed to guess your way back to the TA. You had to make it to the TA to receive a trail map. This was a disaster for some...we got lucky and didn't waste too much time.

We received a Bear Run map with 6 CPs all located close to trails. It seemed most teams attacked this CCW, but we went CW. This played in our favor, as CP2 was mishung 200-300m. For our direction of travel, it was short, so we came across it early. I bobbled the northernmost point in a creek, entering the woods too far east. We followed the creek and pinged it. The rest of the course was uneventful, although we took a slightly scenic way back. At least it was flat :)

We left TA just behind UNE after saying hello to all our other Rev3 teammates. By now, we knew the trails by heart, so getting back to the flagging was no problem. The flagging section was lots of hike-a-bike (and O&B5) back to the road. From here we headed to the town of Confluence, where we enjoyed another gas station feast, wraps and ice cold Coke. There, I discovered a secret to wrap deliciousness. BANANA PEPPERS. As we were getting back on our bikes, we saw UNE. That flagging is a doozy. We rode into the paddle TA at the Middle Yough with them. Prior to the race, we were told we would be kayaking the Class II/III Lower Yough. JK. Middle Yough again.

The paddle had a cutoff of 6PM, which many people missed and essentially DNF'ed from there. We hopped in our duckies and enjoyed the refreshing water for awhile. I was with Mark, and he may have dozed off a few times. He had killed the overnight bike nav, and I didn't mind if he caught a few min of sleep. He woke up for all the rapids :)

From the take out, we had to portage the boats across town to one of the outfitters. The boys were awesome and carried both boats, so Dusty and I only carried the gear. Then we ran back to our vehicles for some dry clothes.

At TA, we copied 4 CPs in the Sugarloaf area onto our maps. We were to collect them on foot and end up back at our bikes at the paddle put in. The first 3 CPs were straightforward and mostly a road trek. CP2 was ~300m short of its plotted location. From CP2, we bushwhacked an 800' climb up a spur to get to Fire Tower Rd. We were told at TA that this flag was being moved onto the main trail. However, we met Team Ripkin AR at CP2, and they told us it was moved to another trail. We checked the first 2 locations and finally found it where Ripkin told us it had been moved to. UNE somehow ended up behind us again, and we trekked the long downhill back to TA mostly together.

Equinox Traverse with Dusty, Jeff, and Mark. Lattanzi emailed us a few days before the race about joining forces. We said of course. We received 2 maps 2 hours prior to the start and proceeded to transpose CPs and out of bounds roads to each. We were given about 2/3 of the course at this time. It was a bit of a scramble to get all of our gear ready for staging and also plan a route in the short amount of time provided. We had an oasis box but did not know where/when/how often we would see it until we got maps. The course covered some very familiar territory for those who have done an AAS race or 7 in the past. Fortunately for me, it was all new terrain. We decided the night before that Mark would nav the bike since he was the fastest rider, and Dusty and I would do the foot.

The start was a group roll out from Wilderness Voyageurs in Ohiopyle, which immediately started climbing. No actual CPs for this section, just yelling out our race numbers to trucks parked on the side of the road. We caught an obscure trail which eventually got us to the rail trail and into TA at Mill Run.

From the Mill Run Reservoir, we headed west towards State Game Lands #51. I grabbed the first CP on the island, so my feet were wet for the rest of the race haha. Prior to getting to the game lands, we had a 6-7k run on the rail trail. Hardly any trails were mapped, but as soon as we crossed the bridge, we were able to find one that took us up to the ridge line where most of the CPs needed to be attacked from. Basically, if you could find a trail, you could find the CP not far from it. We headed all the way west grabbing points, then dropped down to a contour trail for the final overlook CP. It was misplotted on the master map but easy to find. From here, my plan was to take the trail as far as we could (hopefully all the way to the bridge and rail trail). Instead, we bushwhacked straight down the mountain to the RR. From the overlook, the RR looked like a rail trail because there were people running alongside it. When we got there, we realized it was active tracks, so we bushwhacked through the woods parallel to it, since traveling along tracks is illegal. The last K or so we had no choice, but it turns out almost every team used the tracks. We tried. From here it was back on the rail trail to the TA for out and back #1 (O&B1) of the race. Let's keep a tally of those out and backs.

The next section was a bike orienteering leg of sorts. The only requirement was that you had to be finished collecting CPs north of Hwy 31 when you checked into TA3 no later than 3AM. All TAs had time cutoffs. At this point, we were in 4th behind AAS, Odyssey, and UNE. NYARA and No Boundaries weren't far behind. Jim Driscoll killed it solo all wknd and crushed the course. We headed back down the rail trail (O&B2) to roads until just before dusk when we entered Roaring Run Natural Area. Here, we settled in for a 900' hike-a-bike climb. Dusty was really fatigued and hurting, and we took a break at the top to regroup. She's a tough one, and it didn't take long before we were back at it. We decided to drop the 2 farthest points in the NW corner because we didn't think we were moving fast enough to make the cutoff. We felt even if we did make it, we would be chasing every cutoff for the rest of the race. Time management was key for the wknd. Mark made awesome decisions on the bike nav, and we always seemed to be making good forward progress. We moved through Shafer Run and many snowmobile trails before hitting pavement and eventually CoGo's, the oasis that was TA3. We rode in with Odyssey and found that AAS had been in TA for an hour giving a teammate a rest. Both of them had cleared the course to that point, so they would battle it out for the next 24 hours. The employees graciously gave us all the free coffee we could drink, and we fueled up on such things as hot pepperoni rolls, green apple licorice, cinnamon rolls, Lunchables, and Gatorade.

Event: Equinox Traverse
 

More Ohiopyle. Came across Cucumber Falls which was totally unexpected and beautiful.

Through Ohiopyle. Took Beech to the Kentuck campground then back via Grand Gorge.

Ran to the Battlefield from the Rev3 warehouse. Couldn't find the actual trails at the battlefield. Pretty disappointing. Lots of uneven tractor prints and grassy field bushwacking.

To/fro CFW

WU- foam roll, 2x(5 pullup, 10 swing), 2x(10 pushup, 10 GS), dislocates, squat clean WU

Work up to heavy Squat Clean
85x3, 105x2, 115x2, 125x2, 135x1

For time:
15,12,9
Hang Power Clean (75)
Wall Ball (14)
Rest 2min
15,12,9
Push Press (75)
Med Ball Clean (14)
9:52

CD- Samson lunge, kickbacks, 2x(20 situp, 30sec hollow hold)