Training Log Archive: Mr Wonderful

Event: Wilderness Traverse
 

C • WT report coming? 13

Wilderness Traverse 2017, with BNM, BCB, and TCG

I came into the race with high hopes, and a score to settle.

My first WT, in 2013, was about survival. We had a bout of tire troubles as MarkVT flatted and reflatted. We had heat as the full sun of the hydro cut biking taxed me and I lied to the nice nurse and said I felt fine. We fumbled with 1:50k trek legs. Still, we almost made the final cut off, about an hour too late to jump in the boats. Given our rookie status, a short course wasn’t the end of the world.

We returned in 2014, more hopeful. However, we were too conservative on foot, taking safe but long ways, and then the heavens dumped 4 in (10 cm) of rain which turned us into bike pushers instead of bike riders. That and two monstrous, hallucination-inducing climbs had us not entirely disappointed (in the moment) to miss the trek cut off back over those hills by a pair of hours.

Now back in 2017, with more nav chops (I thought) and a strong team - BNM, fresh off a top ten at USARAs, the indefatigable Brenda, and the always finding-something in the well Tizoc, we had a chance for the full course.

As always, I love the way the race is organized. There is no BS. A week or two ahead of time, you get the general course notes with discipline order, bin availability, and estimated durations. Then on race eve, you get your maps, and if you figure out what page your next CP is on, you can see the gist of the course, which is usually straightforward since there aren’t too many TAs. 45 minutes later, a little Q&A and then you are off to plan your routes.

We planned something sensible and were able to get to sleep by 11 or so. I love this race! With the start on site, we didn’t even have to get up early. No plotting, and the race has something unique called “gear bins”, which are transported to various transition areas so you aren’t self-supporting 30 hrs of gear from the start. More races should consider this.

Opening Trek

We knew we had a long race, so we deliberately sat on the pace. I begged Brenda to bear with us. She is so competitive; I imagine she was dying inside. But, even by #2, we moved up a few spots efficiently. Then we bobbled #3 slightly, failing to correctly sweep the hill, instead going doing the road (easy walking, my nemesis) and trying to cut at the top, and finding a few extra incorrect tops where we popped up. No harm done, just a couple minutes lost, well that and a BNM ankle twist.

TA1

We transitioned reasonably quickly her, just shoes and then onto the bikes.

Bike 1

This was a riot. I’m not sure if there were any shortcuts to the trail. We took the road around, since that seemed easiest. On the trail, we found some puddles, and here I got my feet wet which would remain the case for, oh, the entirety of the race. At one point, we were in a multi team mixed up pace line dodging monstrous puddles. I’m amazed no one crashed. We did see one derailleur hanger succumb to the submerged rocks. But it wasn’t ours!

TA2

We arrived here and switched to trek mode. I believe we took the Snowpants route around the lake, rather than back to the junction and over that bridge looking thing. We elected to cut cross country to #6, which got us TEN spots higher in the rankings, despite a stop for some of my stomach troubles. Tizoc crushed the nav. We were pumped.

Then we went to 7, which was a problem. T and I have an issue where if one designs a route, and the other executes it, it doesn’t seem to work as well. The veg looked a little thick off the trail that sort of pointed to the island, and the compass didn’t say the trail was too wrong, so we continue along it further than originally designed. Then with the 1:50k, when we did get off, I think we lost swamp counts a little bit. There was a lot of “300m more to the lake!” and then another swamp. I panicked, and we decided we must have missed to the south and would bail north. By luck, this put us in exactly the right spot. The swims were not bad. Some teams stripped down, but we were wet and still comfy from all of the deep swamps we’d crossed, so I just walked the first swim (could touch). T took my pack for the second, then swam back and towed BNM and I both across. Monster!

To 8 was not my finest moment. I thought I had the bearing right, but I missed a bit south, and we hit a swamp. Unfortunately, this swamp had easy walking along its edge, so rather than cut more deliberately to the cut out road, I went with it. Then it sort of hit a deeper larger swamp, with no cut visible. We should have went north into the woods, but rounding corners is always good and the southern woods *looked” higher than the swamp, so we went there, only it wasn’t and it was miserably, super slow, deep back-in-the-mangroves. I destroyed a lot of team morale here. One cannot imagine the joy upon seeing a man-made object denoting the cut road, even if we figured out we’d lost the 10 spots we picked up by 6.

TA3

This was not our finest or fastest TA. Pre race, we had a 15 minute target time, and this ran over a bit. I was frustrated - as the wise JayXC had told once asked, “Why change in a 24?”, I was pretty quick to swap over. Others had chosen more substantial clothing changes and this took longer. I get antsy - this is a character flaw, I’m working on it. Then when we finally left, we forgot a helmet, but hadn’t made it far so we retrieved it from the truck, no harm there.

Bike 2 (the long one)

This went mostly well, other than I think we have some room for improvement. This leg featured some “mini TAs”, where we stopped to adjust clothing. Or stopped to have a snack. Or stopped to go to the bathroom. (washroom in Canadian?) I think we should adopt the MRA philosophy of “you can stop, but we’re not, so catch up”. Perhaps something to discuss ahead of the next race to align expectations.

T had not seen the need for full suspension until after 9, which was choppy. But that wasn’t the hardest bit - allegedly the trails were dry (dryer?) during testing, but today they had frequent deep mud holes, which we usually didn’t attempt to ride. There was a lot of mud. Enough that I even suffered a chain issue: it got lodged between the bosses for my removed granny ring and the bb shell. Eventually (I think in 45 seconds, BNM says in 45 minutes) figured out I could lever the chain onto the chainring and I stood on it and it popped out. Hooray!

So we continued and rode through more mud. Eventually, we came out to a gate, hopped it, and encountered an angry land owner, who was possibly on the phone with Bob as we passed through. We apologized a lot but never stopped, and slide over the next hill to adjust layers, as had a number of other teams.

Sadly, as we worked towards 11, I could start to do the math. We figured four hours to paddle to the mini trek TA, so we needed to arrive at the paddle TA by 11:45 and be out by midnight. But we were not going to arrive by 11:45. Or by midnight. I still haven’t quite figured out where the time went - my slop to #7 was maybe 30 minutes, my slop to #8 was 30 minutes, TA3 was good for 15 minutes…..was that all of it? Plus maybe I should be able to bike faster.

I had been good on layers with just a t shirt, arm warmers, tri shorts, and tights, but as my hopes faded, my warmth did as well so I donned my new rain jacket for the final push to the paddle TA.

TA4

Next year, unless we have practiced TAs, and have an agreed plan. This was more like 45 minutes. Granted, many teams took longer here - it was cold, it was going to be a long leg (8-14 hours), but I felt ready after a bit less than that and got a bit antsy.

Paddle

Fog! I was a bit tired after the bike, so I gave T the map. He got us across the bay, but we could not find the exit, so he gave me the map back. This was tough! I reset us in the corner near the exit, and we brute forced it. You could not see 10 m with headlights on. With headlights off, you could see distance ridge tops, but no detail. So to find the exit, you had to be on top of it. Once we exited the bay, it was a bit easier. I went more frequently without lights. We managed our way around and headed north. But, we were again looking for quite small cuts with no visibility. I missed, and we ended up in a cove. Another team joined us. Their navigator and I argued about our location. She was certain we were well north of our position. I argued we weren’t yet at our position. We were both wrong, but we decided the best we could do was to push hard west and find a way out, after confirming that the road signs in one of the yards did not indicate a road.

Success! We were out! Brenda believed in me as we paddled north. The other boat asked a lot of questions that I interpreted as “we don’t think you know what you are doing”. I don’t know that they meant it that way, but that’s how I took it. “I’m getting us to the CP! Everything is believable!” Brenda continued to concur with me. I don’t know if she had faith, but she either did or faked it and that empowered me to keep after it.

It was a huge relief to find a road sign indicating we’d arrived at the bay that contained CP13. Foolishly, we took a mini TA here, despite being a few minutes from the CP. Team pre race strategy for next time, or me adjusting expectations. It was soooo good to arrive at 13.

We needed to arrive at 14 by 4 am to do the trek, which was not going to happen. It was getting lighter, but cuts were still hard to see, so we made a few bobbles to find bay exits. The portages were wild - one was 1200 meters up and over a ridge on essentially single track. With a canoe on one’s shoulders. With a pack set for 10 hours of water and food.

As daylight continued to spread, the navigation got more and more fun. It was possibly my favorite navigation experience of the year, reading the islands and paddling along. I did not put my map as away as one would do in a multisport tri! We go to 14 three hours late, and turned to the finish. A three person team wrecked us quickly as we left 14. I feel bad I didn’t try to race them more. We caught and gapped a male team, so as we did the last few miles we started to fall out of race mode, with our position set. Navigating the islands remained fun, even when I used the wrong map and didn’t quite hit one of the portages right.

Some things went very well:

* BNM and BCB were hyper accurate pace counting machines. They should be banned, not gps watches!
* Arm warmers were awesome - I had the minimum number of clothing adjustments, and those were great.
* I ate less sugar (fewer shot blocks). The trail mix and bars were so dry that I drank a lot to get them down, and I stayed well-hydrated.
* No cramps from my 2 per hour Endurolyte strategy.
* Our pack sharing worked well
* Bladder on pfd was great for staying hydrated on the boat, so glad I rigged it up this time

Things I’d do differently:

* Agree on TA plan and practice it. When cold and wet. So we are all in agreement, whatever the plan is.
* I suck at following long bearings. I can work on this I think.
* I was way too fat. I swore I wouldn’t race over 200 lbs (91 kg), but I did anyway, and by 20 lbs (9 kg), which is just dumb. I have to get this eating thing sorted.
* I should have eaten more in the boat. BCB can paddle it straight from the front, and I failed capitalize on her prowess
* I think we run bike pace lines wrong. Instead of riding at 50% energy at 14 mph fragmented and lining up to ride 50% energy at 15 mph, we line up and ride 60% energy at 16 mph, and get tired faster and then the line breaks up all the time from struggles
* I should swim more ahead of time for confidence. It was fine and I shouldn’t have worried so much.
* BCB has too much bike strength. I should have had her tow me more often even if I didn’t need it for team pace, because I could have been fresher for navigation, BCB could have stayed warmer, and we would have held the pace line together better
* I’d try to get everyone to hot swap packs and try not to change, for super fast TAs. I will likely hot swap next time. I have enough packs, I just need a few more rain pants and rain jackets and bivy sacks.

Aftermath

Immediately after the race, my feet swelled and hurt. I do not know what did me in:

* Newer Cascadias I hadn’t worn much
* my weight + canoe + pack on portages
* feet wet and cold for 22 hrs

But they tingled for two weeks afterwards. They don’t outright tingle now, unless I think about them or take a shower.

Also I probably need a new chain, but I had one ordered anyway. :)

I am eager to return. I think this team, with better team management and if I had navigated better, could have come awfully close to full course, and if not, certainly could have broken the top ten (better Michigan’s current best finish of 11th, from my team in 2014). So I look forward to WT in 2018. I may not race as much generally in 2018, so it’s my focus - full course / top ten / best ever Michigan finish or bust. If there is a better 24 hr race on this continent, I’d like to know about it, but that’ll be a tall order, competing with true route choice and live tracking!

C • Awesome race, awesome write... 1

Felt slightly like pedaling in molasses. Less zip this am. I think I will split Wednesday into: home and then back Thursday am, sort of make a taper out of it.

Noooooo flat again leaving work. And I haven't stocked worked with any kind of useful pump at the office, nor did I acquire a C02 system yet, so I pumped until bored and rode soggy back home. So between that, the security guard chatting, one of the other supervisors reminding me about the dead body found near the office recently, etc. it was not the speediest process to get home.

Tiny hole on the non rim side near the valve. I couldn't find anything in the tire. I don't know when I got it - early would explain the molasses feeling, but I don't remember hitting anything, although since it seems like in Wayne County the #1 hobby is throwing glass out of one's car window, anything is possible and maybe I did.

I tried stopping at the Segway / bike rental place for some of their "free air", but the employee had "never seen one of those before", with "those" being the rare and unique presta valve that only 100% of the roadie bikes that roll past the shop would be be sporting.

May pick up a Schwalbe Marathon Plus (can take a thumb tack and not get to the tube) at REI on my food spree later this week. Else the taper starts early for WT!

C • Do they make tubeless or so... 5

Six hour Fall Challenge racers got an email from the RD. A highlight:

His two leisurely test paddles down our Clinton River stretch took 45 minutes, "not at race pace". Fastest yesterday was an hour, most almost 1.5 hrs, one team two hours.

C • that was some email huh! ... 3

Corn Maze O Sampling. Found a few map errors, and Inkscape is cooperating so I can take them out. Nothing major, just a few missing little bump outs and one extra bump out.

The return of Quiet Riot, 10 years after its short-lived two race AR career.

Allison was a fantastic teammate, taking all of the day's challenges in stride.

Jens was a terrific navigator, and a terrible strategist, not realizing that it was a terrific 8 hr course with just 6 hours, and I didn't start skipping enough early, so like 9 of the other 12 teams, we were over time by 20 minutes - 15 had I not tried to use my phone to text the RD that we were okay, just late - my phone hates humidity :( Had we skipped paddle #2, I think we would have been second right at Pat^2, but nowhere near Broadbear.

Last o section looked fun and up my alley, so I'm kicking myself for not getting back to it.

As long as the nasty gash from tripping on a rock during the first boat walking paddle section heals up WT, I'm good!

Event: USARA Nationals
 

Crudely easy until Ann Arbor Trail, mildly uptempo until Outer, relaxed finish. Beautiful weather. I need a better battery charging regimen.

Favorable winds and/or the training is paying off? Hard to complain about a sub hour cruise at sub maximal effort when AP says that it's:

92°F (feels like 97°F)
Humidity: 47%, Winds: 9mph

Slightly more hard surfaces before heading to the track. Trying to balance between not getting hurt but being flexible enough that at upcoming inconvenient times, three miles of 'crete won't be a game-ending move.

Outdoor hamster wheel. Foggy enough at start that I couldn't see the other end of the straight 100 m away.

lunch walk around the trash heap

Single blade testing with Allison for Saturday. Cruising speed just above 4 mph, good enough!

Beautiful morning for riding.

I didn't quite hit my departure time target, but directional improvement. I passed an amazing number of cars on Hines at Outer, which means I was barely +20 mins versus driving.

I see that optical HR is somewhat more decorative than functional.

Ride mostly felt good, and I think this ends up near the top of the heap.

Damp at start but no rain. I should still install fenders and frame save.

Police were parked slightly hidden by a bridge near Stark and easily picked off one from the throng. The speeder didn't even look to be going that fast, noted for caution/cruise control setting.

Wince, sit, collect one's self level ankle roll exiting #9 yesterday seems fine today, woo woo.

Course was fun, but I curse myself for not being up to the challenge. I should set some sort of 5k time standard before I travel that far.

Slightly befuddled after drifting too low to #8 trying to avoid climb, and completely befuddled en route to #10, since I'm not sure where that bridge was. Track should be interesting to check. Route to 12 probably was too far out for slow running/walking, but it was flat.

FR225 for comparison.

Day 2 - Red X - Splits

Event: Falls Classic - Letchworth State Park
 

FR225 for comparison

Oof, big climb to #2. No mistake to #2, I was just slow. Well, I was 30 m east but recognized the bigger hill and adjusted. Then clean but just awfully slow until 9, while I was talking to myself about how the course was too easy, I missed and then doubled back incorrectly. Then 10 was awful, somehow careened around the corner and ended up at the earth wall. I must be mindful of sliding downhill. Were I in shape, I think half the course had viable "climb to road, attack from water stop/trail junction" options. But I was not, so contouring I did.

Fun, glad I drove out, other than reminding myself I should really run more and eat less.

Day 1 - Red X - Splits

Fall Challenge 6 hr Teams:

1. Must be Nuts

Broadbear + 1 have won sooo many six hours races. Home-ish turf?

2. Grab 'Em By the CP

Steve's been navigating well

3. Navi Savvy

Ross is fit

4. Quiet Riot!

Good nav + Allison's ready for running, but lack of bike seat time will hurt. Still could pull off first F across the line I think if things go well.

Open to discussion, first pass.

C • I mean friendly competition... 3

Thought about a jog, ended up buying a furnace instead.

C • good thinking again. 3

I planned to bike in, but forget my tire was still leaking. I looked at it this morning, and sure enough, that long screw poked a tiny hole in the opposite side of the tube as well. I tried to replace the tube and the tire wouldn't cooperate (uneven seating) in the dim light of the garage, so I canned it for today. Due for a run anyway I suppose.

~~

Novi shared my train underpass idea, but it was shot down in some study. See Page #6

http://www.cityofnovi.org/Community/Ride-and-Walk-...

FR225

Another section paddle of the Huron with BNM, this time with me parking at Dawson and her biking from McCabe. Didn't even need headlamps to start. Canoe campsites at Island Lake were full up! McCabe section lived up to its reputation with extra deadfall, good boat practice.

JayXC has ridden Lakeshore/Tree Farm more than I have, so I attempted to start to remedy this.

My favorite part was the pump track.

I chickened out of the crater.

One longs for a pedestrian underpass. Bootlegging the train tracks seems like a better choice than either Beck or Novi Rd and 96 intersections. Yes, you can go waaaay over and take the one MUP, but by then you'd used the mile roads so much it can't be safer.

To the train tracks, where my glove deactivated the watch. Dear Garmin, I want a lock that doesn't lock screen scrolling, but only locks recording to active.

C • Bike commuting 1

Jens, why so slow?

Well, first was the longest train ever. Ten minutes?!

Then, a coworker said he'd meet me at a certain guardrail. I wasn't at work yesterday, and I'm not a caller, so it was never last minute re-confirmed. Despite my super sprint after the train, I was five minutes late, and waited ten, no coworker.

Out to the department picnic.

Continuing up Hines home from the picnic, with optional dirt bumps and a failed attempt to locate a barn sale.

Since I know how things work for me...I stopped by the SOS to upgrade to an enhanced driver's license in order to return from WT...and found my missing passport within 24 hours, which was my real goal anyway. Just a $50 stupidity tax.

C • good thinking. 1

Not entirely successful lunch hike. Hike was cool, but too long for the pace / time allotted / lines as Westborn. Wicked huge trees though (will update later with photo and Mr Wonderful for scale).

Half dozen of these in just the section we did:

C • Oak? 1

Not sure why HRM didn't cooperate.

Also not sure why HR didn't cooperate - start was not insanely aggressive, but I still flirted with overrev and suffered.

A little bird told me my sister posted a facebook rant about how cyclists wants the same rights, but don't follow the rules. It is probably for the best that I'm unable to respond. While discussing this with the little bird, I watched cars speed, run stop signs, run right turn reds without signals....

This was going to be moderate up for a mile or two every so often until I overrevved by Inkster. Then things went downhill when my tire found this...in Detroit.



I got the tired changed, but getting the tire up to pressure with my mini pump was not the most fun thing I've ever done, so maybe I should consider CO2 or keep a floor pump at work or something...

C • Bummer..... 2

I quickly tired of working the mini pump, so I rolled whatever....2x? psi up to Plymouth. Ride quality was fantastic, but perhaps not my most efficient trip back up the Middle Rouge.

Adventure paddling with dear daughter. There is somewhat of a weight difference - on the order of 150 lbs, and there was a bit of a breeze, so I had trouble going straight, even when I switched to kneeling. Still fun though.

C • Su 1

I parked at Wayne County's first national park and biked up to the put in.

Scouting the put in

Nice paddle from Willow to the Huron's end. Beaver, many turtles, heron...

The portage at Flat Rock is interesting. BNM called yesterday, but they did not leave the gate open, so we recalled today, and they opened the single gate...to let us get from the river to the river.

No idea why Garmin acted up. I did accidentally pause it, but at 2:30 not after two bends. :|

C • Nice paddle. 2

I thought I hustled a little, although the time would suggest otherwise. Pleasantly cool.

Looking at riding Tues and Fri next week. I think driving to A2 on Thurs for weights + Bird Hills + I suppose also class may be better than biking over there. That raises the interesting question: What's the better schedule?

Option A:
Monday: Bike to work
Tuesday: Modest jog
Wednesday: Jog or paddle or erg
Thursday: Bike to A2
Friday: Modest jog
Sat: 2-3 hr bike
Sun: O training

Option B:

M: bike
T: jog
W: bike
R: A2 weights + jog
F: bike
S: 2-3 hr paddle
S: o training

B omits the quality long bike, but does have better paddling. Leaning towards B.

Wonderful afternoon. Occasional favorable winds!