Training Log Archive: Mr Wonderful

One wonders if one's family would be down with a week in San Fran, at the conclusion of which the family would go back to MI and the dear writer of this post would remain behind for the rogaine champs (teammate needed).

313-327-3063: Hi, you've been preselected for an opportunity to take a trip to some tropical destination.
JC: Oh, I'm so glad you called. I live in a world without the internet from which I could purchase anything I want at any time. I have to wait for people to call me in order to obtain things.
313-327-3063: May I ask with whom I'm speaking?
JC: I was led to believe I was preselected. Was I not preselected? I'm not sure if the selection process is as rigorous as I was led to believe if you don't know I am.
313-327-3063: We have your number as {my phone number}. Is that correct?
JC: No.
313-327-3063: Would you correct it?
JC: 86
313-327-3063: OK
JC: 7
313-327-3063: OK
JC: 53
313-327-3063: OK
JC: 0
313-327-3063: OK
JC: 9
313-327-3063: Alright, now I just need to confirm that you're between 28 and 65 and have a credit or debit card?
JC: Oh, sorry, I'm 66. Does that mean I'm no longer qualified?
313-327-3063: We can offer some exceptions. Are you married? We can qualify 65-76 with a spouse.
JC: I'm 77 and have two spouses, do I still qualify?
and call ends

C • I set my phone to priority ... 3

C • Bahahahah 6

Took it easy again so as to not push too much after the race but still get some stuff done. Beautiful weather, no jacket = refreshing.

Kayak operational! My replacement hatches arrived, so now I can tip the boat without sinking it.

My target application is midweek, shorter up tempo paddles here, which is only ~3 miles away (or 35 miles round trip if I threw it on before work to save the out and back). So I haven't decided if I'll improvise some foam blocks, or spring for saddles or something.

This was intentionally:

Event: Michigan Adventure Race: Epic Edition
 

w Tizoc Barbara and Stina. (This is a joke as T and I just ran into them a lot, which was nice.)

Hemmed and hawed a bit about entering - I've been pretty wrecked at o meets, since apparently I don't have enough base to take three months off. But Silver Lake was so scenic, so I pitched it to Tizoc:

I'm really slow, if you want to go slow, please join me, if not no worries.

So he joined on the condition we would go slowly.

However, he is still quite strong and we pushed, harder than I can currently handle.

Probably ran the first o too fast. Oh well.

I need to do some terrain study in this area. Or learn to adjust to `1:24. The steep hills made some distances take a long time, and others were poof! instantaneous. Plus there's a lot of interesting up / down to sort out.

We skipped #11 Lighthouse on the way out in case we would later be pressed for time. Although in hindsight, I wish we hadn't; it goofs up the leaderboard so much to do points in any order, and head -to-head is more fun.

Biking went alright, I don't think I was too slow on the way out.

We should have been slightly faster - we could have caught the MRA ferry. But we hadn't swapped bike for trek gear yet, so we decided to take the next boat...which wouldn't start. Those minutes lost...enough for #35? Perhaps!

Trek was really bad for me. Couldn't quite perk up for a while, eventually got to more like 80% than 100%, it's weird.

Paddle was challenging. I was glad I brought a single blade as that made steering easier in the twisty bits. I am soo rusty!

We narrowly dismissed the channel to the correct channel and had a challenging reed whack. Thankfully, T continued to be the work horse, and pulled the boat while I crawled on my hands and knees to the channel.

Bike back was going well - we kept debating the lighthouse, and despite cramping flares, decided to get it because maybe there was enough time to clear.

Final o section was rough for me. I was pretty shot. And it was hard to get started at the start, confusing place, which meant climb. So much climb. Probalby should have grabbed T's back for a lift earlier, but too much pride or ignorance. Given the cards we were dealt (my lack of fitness), I think skipping #35 was the right call, since grabbing it is no guarantee we nip S & K anyway, and was fraught with risk of too much back and too little of my energy.

Satisfied with 4th overall - given my state, that's the best we could hope for. Exceeded what I hoped for even. T was amazing and carried us to that place by force of will and his unstoppable climbing legs.

Very well designed course I thought. MarkVT is really good at his job!

C • 4th overall with "no&q... 4

I could hug MarkVT for having such a minimal equipment list that I might even be legal tomorrow.

C • Hug? 2

Just sittin' around, getting random occurrences of what feels like someone inserting needles into my ankle (top side, about where the highest shoelace eyelet is on the outside of the food). Usually subsides quickly, thank goodness, as it is brilliantly sharp.

It was interesting to wake up to this searing pain at some wee hour this morning. Ow ow ow.

Beautiful morning, perfect temp, and Hines wasn't closed for rain (I believe I'll go through anyway if it is?).

I still have a lot of cycling etiquette to learn - for example, it must be okay to silently creep into someone's draft for five miles. Upside is I hustled to drop him (and may have run through extra puddles), which was unsuccessful but a good push.

I believe sub 55 is possible with training and lights.

Speaking of lights, Haggerty is 35 mississippis. I should try to learn them all.

C • It's never ok 2

So that's what Igor meant about muggy.

Passed twice by much faster guys. No slow folks to earn points back. -2

I beat the thunderstorms, maybe not by much!

General club promotion ad seems to be dying, down about 30% right now (30 likes per week instead of ~40). Not sure if it's too tired (same ad for a year) or we are saturating, since we are now approaching top US club like levels. Something to keep an eye on anyway.

Route analysis posts continue to blow up. And I think I have a faster, easier way to do them, so I'll try that next. Maybe one per week during the off season is something to consider.

We are still not fully converting the fanbase into attendees, but I'm not sure how seriously to take that this spring since three meets were plagued with rain or cold, and one had mother's day (still pushed high 60s). The two fair weathers had robust turnout.

Plus, if we do get more to turn out, we'll need a more efficient starting scheme.

C • Do you think 2

Event: SMOC Island Lake Recreation Area Regular Meet
 

Hung up some white and yellow while Tizoc finished up orange and other outliers.

You can asterisk my performance today as I didn't realize I was setting the GO (and getting brief exposure to a small segment of 8-9). Given its prominent location in a high visibility area, that was probably less a factor than having course set here previously.

I'm feeling more spry. HR was not as insane for a given pace, which was nice to see.

The course reminded me a bit of some A meets I've been to - move physically on a large feature, but then really have to seal the deal in the circle, unlike our normal glacial technique where circle or circle + is not always so tricky or precise or without as much reference.

With Voit out of the official picture and rumors of no Igor, I made one dumb error that luckily broke in my favor:

2-3, I should have gone around. Trying to bang it from a potentially fight-y top was probably too bold, conservative was the order of the day I think.

Screwed up 8-9. I think my route was okay if the features were easier, but they weren't, so going through the parking lot a la Steve Simpson was better, since then you could key off the Cooper hill (the tall sandy hill with the double knoll) and bear straight at it, rather than the "eventually hang a right" that I did.

Then I screwed up #10, thinking straight would be okay, but progress was slow on the line and I thought maybe I overshot, so I dropped down, confirmed and popped up but too slowly, good for a couple minutes.

Also bobbled #13, choose wrong isthmus, then didn't get off it right, then the one I chose was slow going - I think a longer route was faster.

Swamp 15-16 aw yeah.

Good equipment choices:

I was going to run in shorts and gaiters for heat, saw Tizoc's legs, and switched to a pants.

Pre-gamed with (2) endurolyte extremes.

Carried a 190 calorie smoothie pouch thing, took a big hit before the water stop (took one cup) and then a little more later when I needed a pick me up.

ILRA is a runner's course, so I wore running shoes to minimize pounding.

Afterwards, while milling about, I knocked back a gallon of gatorade. no lie.

C • good job :) 2

Topped off water stop (used by several courses, warm day), staged game camera), and staged video camera, then restaged video camera shorter when I saw it blew over.

Pickup four from the early loop.

I really wanted to post something inflammatory in the WUOC selection thread, then this weekend's service was about using your words for good....damn it.

C • Unbelievable 1

Return trip went well!

I think sub hour is possible with slightly improved fitness...although I'd need just about as many greens as I got today!

For next time, I should try to:

* lock my car at the office
* wear a helmet (that explained the cool feeling I noticed)

C • But if you change your pace 4

This was glorious!

My dream come true, since pitching a move to Plymouth.

Then classes got in the way. But today it finally happened: I biked home from work. On my new-to-me very lightly used Surly Disc Trucker, a steel touring bike. I don't have any of the stuff for it yet, like racks, fenders, panniers, etc. but it was good enough to get home with a light backpack.

I felt so good I did the slightly longer route through the Old Village, rather than the 50' of grass to Plymouth Road.





Pictures are of Wilcox Lake, with Wilcox coincidentally being my m-i-l's mother's maiden name. Not sure if related or not yet.

Tomorrow I can ride in and rinse off, and then I have access to my car.

The Trucker might make a MarkVT race race bike, since it's light and rolls fast.

Woooooooooo hooooooooooo!

C • Excellent choice of bike. 2

It's mentally rough being this out of shape. I try to focus on: all I need is a good Rage and maybe a nice fall A meet, and this is just the first step, but it's rough.

C • The best part 3

cooldown

HOLY CRAP

Cris and Barbara destroyed me by idling themselves around Yellow. Any uphill was heart rate spike city. I have no biking fitness, this felt awful. I thought about leaving after this. Holy crap.

The super nav sport ladies of TNT welcomed me to their Green loop ride. I asked to just do Blue while they roared around, but they graciously would have none of it, so I took it out and tried to keep them from being too bored. I had to jump a few roots for style points. I swear I'd also do this if solo. It is a training ride after all, and that's good training.

Heart rate was through the roof as well. I could not get up any hills with incurring significant cardio taxing. Humbling. This pace should be barely 120 bpm, regardless of what bike. Time to get after getting fit!

Crashed once. Late in the Yellow portion, fatigue had me winging around the the outside lines, and I found soft dirt that grabbed my front wheel. Thankfully being on flats, I could jump off, presumably with great flair but you'll have to check with Sydney to be certain.

C • Flair 3

Received two comments in one day about unsync'd main website and supporting sites (smoc-runs and FB). Perhaps a further topic for 2017 annual meeting.

One could envision a perfect world, with all the current static content, but events page with multiple edit access, and then it would be cool to have more features, like member payment, event registration with payment, etc.

C • Just move everything to smo... 1

Hiked up to the radio tower, taking a few photos along the way.

C • Like 1

Pick up the c with the cams w/ BNM