Training Log Archive: 'Bent

ARC Hardwood Hills Winter Adventure Race

I did this race with 3PinJim and The Gazelle. This was my first time doing a winter race with an open team, all of us of similar strength more or less. Also my first time as main navigator for the team. Bash has written up an excellent report, and since she raced close behind us it's a pretty good indication of our race too. We didn't nav as cleanly as she did in the first snowshoe orienteering section (lots of fun, btw and I wish it was even longer) , but ran more and came into the TA seconds behind our nemeses the Milton Basment Racers, with me working hard to keep up to the other guys on the road run. On skis we had some trouble, as The Gazelle is fleet on foot but new to skate skiing. He was fast on the flats, but 3Pin and I both gave up fairly quickly when trying to tow uphill. Still, he's a trooper and we made it through. I made a bad decision to take a slightly longer but flat route back, but it was in the sun and slow as molasses.
TA to bike, then the snow tubing (a welcome break) then back on bike. We all bike and hike-a-bike the same speed, and 3Pin did the bike nav. Nice mud facial attempting to ride the paceline on the melting sludge.
Back to skis for the Ski-O section, despite the mock wails of protest from The Gazelle. I had traced the ski trails on the O-map, so this went pretty well for 2 of the 3 CPs, but I overskied one by 200M, uphill too. One of the solo racers hadn't traced the ski map and was hopelessly confused, so he asked if he could ski with us. Little did he know! We met the crafty Bash as we left CP14, who had skipped a tough climb by doing a little ski-bashing around instead. She finished a scant 6 minutes behind us. Bash Rocks!
We finished as 3rd team, behind LSN of course (Hammer's team), MBR- Tiny, Mr Pither and Pocket Rocket- who had a really solid race and clobbered us on the skate skis, and we were also beaten by 2 solos. Not a big turnout for this race, but some strong teams. One of the more enjoyable winter races, I think in part due to the orienteering in interesting terrain.

Note-
1:14 zone 5
1:49 zone 4

Workout #1, fairly easy, + some stretching and balance.

Too nasty outside to ski or snowshoe. Trying to toughen up my neck for riding the wedgie MTB (vs my recumbent) at the AR this weekend. Actually, the time went by pretty quickly for a change.

Last chance to skate-ski at Albion for this year.
I did the 3km yellow trail first, in 11 minutes. It wasn't groomed for skating (or much of anything really). Next I did the black trail (21 minutes for about 6km), after realizing there's no way to skate there from the chalet unless you go backwards on the trails. They were more variable, from slowish snow to glare ice to bare ground take-off-the-skis-and-run-down. I just managed to keep it to a zone 4.

Warm up and cool down. I can't seem to skate at level 1 ever.

Icy trails this morning. The fields had melted and re-frozen last night, so I was able to skate a bit on my slow waxless classic skis. Probably only 2 more days of ski-commuting left this year.

Leisurely ski as Bash dropped off the T-dog on her way to recon Horseshoe. Hills are icy, but the waxless skis worked well enough on the rest.

Better get a little cycling in before the winter AR. Like this will make a difference! About 25 min at level 3, but averaged a 2 with warmup/cooldown.

Easy ski to work on waxless skis. Tracks are frozen solid, and some are hard to ski in. A bit tired from the weekend.

Another leisurely "recovery" ski home. Snow's still OK.

Warm up run with Hammer and MrPither, plus run home from the Thomas.

Thomas Palgrave.
Home turf wasn't all that much help, but the handicap was useful! Knowing the terriain made for some smooth flow, and the race went OK except for a poor choice in the box. Hard going off trail.

Line- O training with Bash on the basemap for Palgrave.
It's a lot easier to navigate at a slow pace rather than running myself silly.