Training Log Archive: kpoireIn the 7 days ending May 1, 2011:
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Saturday Apr 30, 2011 #
Event: Frontier Adventure Challenge
10 AM
Adventure Race 6:47:00 [3]
Pre-Amble
The race was the Frontier Adventure Challenge. It was listed as a 35-40km race with finishing times of 5-8hrs. This is the first AR since June of last year when I did Planet Adventure 24 - it was nice to be back racing.... Raced with T.Rex and CN and we were Feet in Motion. This was another training session in preparation for RTNX.
Pre-Race
The race was in Huntsville and we drove up Friday evening after work and got there a little late but we still took the time to sort our TA bags along with personal gear before going to bed. We were in a sweet location just next to Race HQ.
We got to Race HQ on race morning right at 7am so we could fill out all the appropriate paperwork, do the gear check and collect our map and CP information. We had about an hour and a half to plot the points and plan our route before the pre-race briefing. From 7am until the start (10am) we were always doing something (weren't rushed but weren't sitting around either). We took all of our TA bags and bikes to the tennis court which we would come through three times on the day so we laid it out so everything was accessible.
Trek
The first stage was a short run up a maintenance road near the top of a ski hill. Our plan was to get power up the hill and get back down before it became too much of a Gong Show at the boat launch. I think we were the second or third team back to the TA, where we quickly threw on our PFDs, grabbed our paddles and middle seat and ran to jump into the canoe...
Canoe
The canoe... ugh! It was a flat water paddle with hardly any wind and no waves. Couldn't ask for a better day on the water but it was definitely a struggle for us. We canoed out to CP 3 and got the mandatory point before making our way to the Advanced Point A. By choosing to do this, I think we doubled our canoe leg. In hindsight we probably should have skipped this point but if nothing else, it gave us some training time in a discipline that we are weak at (gotta think positive.. ;-) ). We were all pretty wet when we got out of the water and I was glad to be done. I think we were one of the last teams out of the water...
Bike
...but there were still a few teams in the TA when we got there and a lot of them were still there when we left. I think we were pretty efficient in the transitions (I don't like to lallygag in the TAs) and T.Rex was good at getting us out quickly. I changed shoes and threw my trail shoes in my pack to be used at the later trekking sections.
There was one route decision we had to make along the way. There was trail marked on the map that was probably a third of the length of staying on the road and we decided to take a look at it when we biked by and make the decision then. When we got to it, it wasn't much and decided to keep to the road (a very good decision because we talked to a team afterwards that took it and it was a nightmare...). The bike route was a lot of long rollers. Lots of nice climbs. We passed a couple teams along the way and leap-frogged with some others. It was mainly asphalt road with the last few kms on dirt road (almost like a logging road, I suppose)...
Trek
When we got to the TA, there were a lot of bikes already there so we found a little corner and dropped our bikes and helmets. I decided to keep my bike shoes. I was pleased with that decision, the ground was such that the biking shoes didn't hinder my movement too much. We followed a trail for a bit and got to a point where I thought we needed to drop down from the high point down to the river below. Unfortunately, I dropped down way too early (about 700m early) and it cost us a lot of time. We contoured around a high feature and I expected to get the CP but it wasn't there. We kept moving North and eventually found our selves back on the trail down by a very fast moving creek (I thought it was the river but CN told us that it was a creek - too small for a river). We eventually found the 'goat' path to CP 6 and made a bee-line to CP 7.
This was a pretty easy find but was in a nasty location. Right in the middle of a swamp on the river. To get from CP 7 back to our bikes we had to cross the swamp. The water level started out okay - about waist high and then went up to the chest and then back down to the knees. We were probably 15ft from the edge when I stepped off and it was over my head. Time to start swimming. The water was frickin' cold. It took my breath away and I could already start to feel it in my hands. We eventually made it to the other side - any time longer could have been even nastier. ST had the same sensation with the constriction of the chest and CN pulled her out quickly. Once out of the water, it didn't take long to warm up again as we were climbing out of the river bed to the high feature.
I didn't pay enough attention to the map going to CP 6 (and didn't properly pace count) and having the 50ft contours on the map really threw me off as I thought the high feature that we were contouring around was the 300ft feature but it was only a 100-150 ft re-entrant... It felt like we lost an hour (it probably wasn't, but definitely felt like it...) - big, big mistake.
Bike
... another nice and fast transition (just had to throw on our bike helmets) and we were off. Passed a few people in the transition area again. The trail wasn't on the map, so we just had to follow the muddy road to CP 8. The first little bit wasn't bad but then we hit a lot of mud and water. One puddle was way over my crank. The mud was playing havoc with shift and got 'gear suck' a couple times at the most inopportune time. It would have been great to be on a single speed (which CN was). Passed quite a few teams on this leg but we were racing the clock to make it to CP 8 by 3pm. If we got there by then, we could do the second Advanced Section, otherwise, we had to head back to finish the rest of the mandatory section. We missed the cut-off by 3min... so back we headed. The route back was along most of the same route we took earlier in the race so I could put the map away and just concentrate on pedaling.
Hit some pretty good speed on the down hills (saw 65.7kph on my bike computer at one point) and grinded on the ups. Again passed a few teams on this leg and got into the last TA in pretty good condition...
Trek
... another quick transition. T.Rex and CN gave me their mandatory gear so they didn't have to carry anything. I put on my trail shoes, I think I remember fig cookies being handed around but not sure. A quick swig of water and we were off on the last stage of the race. We skirted in between two ski hills and then went to the top of the northern hill and followed the ridge of the spur down to CP 10. Hit it pretty much dead on. Even though we did a bit more climbing to drop back down to it, I am confident I made the right decision. Especially hearing that other teams had major difficulties (and some didn't find it) with it.
From here to 11 it showed that a trail connected the two but it didn't but we were able to skirt along a golf course up to CP 11. On our way to 11 we met a team coming the other way and I almost started second guessing myself but knew we weren't even close to it so we kept chugging along. It was on a rock outcrop and there were a few in that area but we happened to stop near it and when we looked up, there it was. From CP 11 to 12 it was a straight line shot of about 200m but mainly straight up. We saw a gazebo at the top of a high feature and thought it would be there but it wasn't. It was listed as on a 'high feature near trail intersection' but there were 3 or 4 in the vicinity so we searched around for a few minutes before I spotted it in the distance in the woods.
Next it was straight down to the road but half way down we hooked up with a trail and followed it for a bit. Once on the road it was a couple km run to the finish. We were moving pretty good once we hit the finish line and found out we were the first team to cross the finish line (but because we didn't do the second advanced there would be other teams ahead of us in the standings). Was very pleased with the nav on the this portion and will be interested to see how much time it took us (if we have a split for this stage).
Post-Race
Not sure how we placed but I think we will have done quite well overall. I think we finished right around 7hours. Either way it was a great day to be racing again. The weather was outstanding. It was nice just hanging out at the finish in the sun and cheering on the other teams come in.
They had a great spread of food set on after the race and the best tasting beer ever :-) Perhaps the beer was a bit too good tasting...
Random Thoughts
Film Crews. CBC was all over the course filming for their documentary '1 Day' that will air in August sometime.
Fuel / Nutrition. Didn't eat a lot during the race but don't feel it really brought me down. I think I 'ate' the equivalent of a couple scoops of Perpetuem and perhaps 500ml of water. Definitely can't do that for RTNX but was okay for today. No cramping or GI issues, which was good considering it was a bit warm.
Paddle Clothing. Need to invest in something better for RTNX if we are going to be in the canoes for say 13hrs - definitely don't want to be cold and wet...
Paddle. More work required...!!
Body. Feels good today and will definitely be ready for the ride and run tomorrow morning.
Transitions. Very well. I thought we were well organized. T.Rex was cracking the whip - which was good. I have done races in the past where it didn't go well and wasted valuable minutes.
The race was the Frontier Adventure Challenge. It was listed as a 35-40km race with finishing times of 5-8hrs. This is the first AR since June of last year when I did Planet Adventure 24 - it was nice to be back racing.... Raced with T.Rex and CN and we were Feet in Motion. This was another training session in preparation for RTNX.
Pre-Race
The race was in Huntsville and we drove up Friday evening after work and got there a little late but we still took the time to sort our TA bags along with personal gear before going to bed. We were in a sweet location just next to Race HQ.
We got to Race HQ on race morning right at 7am so we could fill out all the appropriate paperwork, do the gear check and collect our map and CP information. We had about an hour and a half to plot the points and plan our route before the pre-race briefing. From 7am until the start (10am) we were always doing something (weren't rushed but weren't sitting around either). We took all of our TA bags and bikes to the tennis court which we would come through three times on the day so we laid it out so everything was accessible.
Trek
The first stage was a short run up a maintenance road near the top of a ski hill. Our plan was to get power up the hill and get back down before it became too much of a Gong Show at the boat launch. I think we were the second or third team back to the TA, where we quickly threw on our PFDs, grabbed our paddles and middle seat and ran to jump into the canoe...
Canoe
The canoe... ugh! It was a flat water paddle with hardly any wind and no waves. Couldn't ask for a better day on the water but it was definitely a struggle for us. We canoed out to CP 3 and got the mandatory point before making our way to the Advanced Point A. By choosing to do this, I think we doubled our canoe leg. In hindsight we probably should have skipped this point but if nothing else, it gave us some training time in a discipline that we are weak at (gotta think positive.. ;-) ). We were all pretty wet when we got out of the water and I was glad to be done. I think we were one of the last teams out of the water...
Bike
...but there were still a few teams in the TA when we got there and a lot of them were still there when we left. I think we were pretty efficient in the transitions (I don't like to lallygag in the TAs) and T.Rex was good at getting us out quickly. I changed shoes and threw my trail shoes in my pack to be used at the later trekking sections.
There was one route decision we had to make along the way. There was trail marked on the map that was probably a third of the length of staying on the road and we decided to take a look at it when we biked by and make the decision then. When we got to it, it wasn't much and decided to keep to the road (a very good decision because we talked to a team afterwards that took it and it was a nightmare...). The bike route was a lot of long rollers. Lots of nice climbs. We passed a couple teams along the way and leap-frogged with some others. It was mainly asphalt road with the last few kms on dirt road (almost like a logging road, I suppose)...
Trek
When we got to the TA, there were a lot of bikes already there so we found a little corner and dropped our bikes and helmets. I decided to keep my bike shoes. I was pleased with that decision, the ground was such that the biking shoes didn't hinder my movement too much. We followed a trail for a bit and got to a point where I thought we needed to drop down from the high point down to the river below. Unfortunately, I dropped down way too early (about 700m early) and it cost us a lot of time. We contoured around a high feature and I expected to get the CP but it wasn't there. We kept moving North and eventually found our selves back on the trail down by a very fast moving creek (I thought it was the river but CN told us that it was a creek - too small for a river). We eventually found the 'goat' path to CP 6 and made a bee-line to CP 7.
This was a pretty easy find but was in a nasty location. Right in the middle of a swamp on the river. To get from CP 7 back to our bikes we had to cross the swamp. The water level started out okay - about waist high and then went up to the chest and then back down to the knees. We were probably 15ft from the edge when I stepped off and it was over my head. Time to start swimming. The water was frickin' cold. It took my breath away and I could already start to feel it in my hands. We eventually made it to the other side - any time longer could have been even nastier. ST had the same sensation with the constriction of the chest and CN pulled her out quickly. Once out of the water, it didn't take long to warm up again as we were climbing out of the river bed to the high feature.
I didn't pay enough attention to the map going to CP 6 (and didn't properly pace count) and having the 50ft contours on the map really threw me off as I thought the high feature that we were contouring around was the 300ft feature but it was only a 100-150 ft re-entrant... It felt like we lost an hour (it probably wasn't, but definitely felt like it...) - big, big mistake.
Bike
... another nice and fast transition (just had to throw on our bike helmets) and we were off. Passed a few people in the transition area again. The trail wasn't on the map, so we just had to follow the muddy road to CP 8. The first little bit wasn't bad but then we hit a lot of mud and water. One puddle was way over my crank. The mud was playing havoc with shift and got 'gear suck' a couple times at the most inopportune time. It would have been great to be on a single speed (which CN was). Passed quite a few teams on this leg but we were racing the clock to make it to CP 8 by 3pm. If we got there by then, we could do the second Advanced Section, otherwise, we had to head back to finish the rest of the mandatory section. We missed the cut-off by 3min... so back we headed. The route back was along most of the same route we took earlier in the race so I could put the map away and just concentrate on pedaling.
Hit some pretty good speed on the down hills (saw 65.7kph on my bike computer at one point) and grinded on the ups. Again passed a few teams on this leg and got into the last TA in pretty good condition...
Trek
... another quick transition. T.Rex and CN gave me their mandatory gear so they didn't have to carry anything. I put on my trail shoes, I think I remember fig cookies being handed around but not sure. A quick swig of water and we were off on the last stage of the race. We skirted in between two ski hills and then went to the top of the northern hill and followed the ridge of the spur down to CP 10. Hit it pretty much dead on. Even though we did a bit more climbing to drop back down to it, I am confident I made the right decision. Especially hearing that other teams had major difficulties (and some didn't find it) with it.
From here to 11 it showed that a trail connected the two but it didn't but we were able to skirt along a golf course up to CP 11. On our way to 11 we met a team coming the other way and I almost started second guessing myself but knew we weren't even close to it so we kept chugging along. It was on a rock outcrop and there were a few in that area but we happened to stop near it and when we looked up, there it was. From CP 11 to 12 it was a straight line shot of about 200m but mainly straight up. We saw a gazebo at the top of a high feature and thought it would be there but it wasn't. It was listed as on a 'high feature near trail intersection' but there were 3 or 4 in the vicinity so we searched around for a few minutes before I spotted it in the distance in the woods.
Next it was straight down to the road but half way down we hooked up with a trail and followed it for a bit. Once on the road it was a couple km run to the finish. We were moving pretty good once we hit the finish line and found out we were the first team to cross the finish line (but because we didn't do the second advanced there would be other teams ahead of us in the standings). Was very pleased with the nav on the this portion and will be interested to see how much time it took us (if we have a split for this stage).
Post-Race
Not sure how we placed but I think we will have done quite well overall. I think we finished right around 7hours. Either way it was a great day to be racing again. The weather was outstanding. It was nice just hanging out at the finish in the sun and cheering on the other teams come in.
They had a great spread of food set on after the race and the best tasting beer ever :-) Perhaps the beer was a bit too good tasting...
Random Thoughts
Film Crews. CBC was all over the course filming for their documentary '1 Day' that will air in August sometime.
Fuel / Nutrition. Didn't eat a lot during the race but don't feel it really brought me down. I think I 'ate' the equivalent of a couple scoops of Perpetuem and perhaps 500ml of water. Definitely can't do that for RTNX but was okay for today. No cramping or GI issues, which was good considering it was a bit warm.
Paddle Clothing. Need to invest in something better for RTNX if we are going to be in the canoes for say 13hrs - definitely don't want to be cold and wet...
Paddle. More work required...!!
Body. Feels good today and will definitely be ready for the ride and run tomorrow morning.
Transitions. Very well. I thought we were well organized. T.Rex was cracking the whip - which was good. I have done races in the past where it didn't go well and wasted valuable minutes.
Friday Apr 29, 2011 #
Note
The graph of my log looks like it is giving me the finger.... Wonder if that is a sign ;-)
8 AM
MTB 30:00 [3]
Drove most of the way and biked the rest...
Thursday Apr 28, 2011 #
6 AM
Cyclocross Bike 55:00 [3]
A hard time dragging my butt out of bed this morning. Went to bed a bit later because I was watching the hockey game! A nice ride in. Mind was tired but the legs felt good.
4 PM
Cyclocross Bike 1:05:00 [3]
Lots of branches on the trail from all the wind and one tree down across the trail. Lots of action on the part of the ride. There were about 12 cop cars and 3 or 4 fire trucks at various points along the Ottawa River. Not sure if they were doing a water rescue from the river - not sure.
When I got home, a big pine in the front of our house had crashed down from the high winds (missed the house by a few feet) and our trampoline in the back yard went flying into the woods (and I just put it up this past weekend...). Our neighbours also had a couple trees come down (one caught the edge of their garage).
When I got home, a big pine in the front of our house had crashed down from the high winds (missed the house by a few feet) and our trampoline in the back yard went flying into the woods (and I just put it up this past weekend...). Our neighbours also had a couple trees come down (one caught the edge of their garage).
Wednesday Apr 27, 2011 #
6 AM
Cyclocross Bike 55:00 [3]
A nice ride in
7 AM
Run 48:00 [3]
shoes: Mizuno (Inspire 6)
The normal figure-8 around the Parliament. 3 x Monster Hill + 1 building.
4 PM
Cyclocross Bike 55:00 [3]
just a ride...
5 PM
Trail Run 2:30:00 [3]
shoes: Inov-8 (Roclite 285)
A bit longer than planned. Somehow got caught in a vortex on trail 22/34... was listening to my music and not paying attention and think I somehow looped back on myself as I saw the same radio tower (I think) a couple times. Eventually retraced my steps back to #4 and headed back. Frogs were very vocal tonight. Saw two owls. Almost needed my headlamp due to my error - 10 more min and I would have had to dig it out. Snow is almost all gone and trails are still nice and muddy. Very warm and thankfully missed the rain (and I believe they were calling for 3cm hail in the area as well).
music playlist: XTC, Rob Zombie (somehow missed 'y' - d'oh). And because I forgot to load 'a' - I listened to Eddie Vedder a couple times (ironically the soundtrack to 'Into the Wild...)
music playlist: XTC, Rob Zombie (somehow missed 'y' - d'oh). And because I forgot to load 'a' - I listened to Eddie Vedder a couple times (ironically the soundtrack to 'Into the Wild...)
Tuesday Apr 26, 2011 #
6 AM
Cyclocross Bike 55:00 [3]
After the three day hiatus from training, the legs and mind is fresh and ready to go... The normal ride to work with a bit of rain but warm-ish.
4 PM
Cyclocross Bike 50:00 [3]
just a ride...