Training Log Archive: Mr Wonderful

Gear bins loaded. No turning back now. Only the niggling worries about what should be in them, and what shouldn't be in them.

Awake! Time for a little light breakfast, loading the pack, and hopefully blissful slumber on the ninety minute car ride to Kalkaska.

Nothing wrong with the points, just a navigator who couldn't deal with an unmapped trail on #3. Decent route and execution to one of the later points though.

Rain was intermittent and heavy. Too hot when not rainy with rain jacket, and very interested in rain jacket when cold rain came down.

Overshot the lightly signed feature, had to double back. Five minutes lost?

Intermittent rain during this segment as well.

The river moved with a bit more current than one is used to from the Huron. Water pushed us over to the bank where a nice evergreen shrubbed tipped us over. It was somewhat brisk. Fortunately we retained possession of all key items.

A mostly successful, if sluggish, bike leg. The loose surface on many gravel roads demoralized the party, resulting in horrendously slow travel speeds. The North Country Trail has sections of bloody spectacular riding, some sections of awesome terrain but crazy hard riding (such as where my teammate went over the bars, narrowingly missing a tree!), and areas of just obnoxious riding.

My nav here was kickin' - we pre measured most point to point distances with my new scalex map wheel, and unless it was detailed single track, it was spot on, so much that a solo rider joined up with us for a while after we located two points in a row that he struggled with. Ultimately, his superior speed caused him to head off on his own.

We had a few quibbles on the NCT single track near the river - Scalex distance was often 20% short of actual. I kept coming back to "what topographical reason do you have to dispute my suggestion to keep going?" And they were panning out a bit, which was nice.

the only decent chunk of gps log...I need to rig up something. maybe it was squeezed off? who knows, argh.

Points mostly just off the North Country Trail. Given our slow other legs and lengthy transitions, this put us in full darkness. It was hard to adjust to the scale in the dark; also, USGS's out of date trails can be tough. I think many of these would've been easier in the day, because it was hard to gage the topography in the dark.

We executed a great plan for one point, but then followed in by aimless wandering to avoid some river hiking. Lots of time lost, in a length out and around, which ended up being very fern-filled and slow.

This leg also included the most terrifying moment of the race for me (other than wondering if Jeff broke something or was impaled on his crash), was a night river swim around midnight. I stripped down to my bike shorts, put on my pfd, and lugged my crap across the Manistee. It was so chilly! So you are freezing, drifting down current, feeling like you are making no progress...terrifying. I was sure I was going to drown or be swept out to see. Then I got far enough to stand up on the other side. I put dry clothes back in and was not too chilled.

Event: Adventure Rage
 

We are up in Cadillac. So far the only thing we know we forgot is the waiver - I think we can recover. Quite rainy right now, and a bit cool. Should be interesting. Three hours until check in.

C • A good way to finish up the... 1

Many teams here now. Directors gave me a surly look when I tried to slide into the meeting room before the 5 pm check in time, so I milled about. Lots of familiar faces. Rain has stopped, still a bit cool.

Maps plotted; briefing imminent

Unintentional rest day. I didn't get a chance to prep my gear last night, so I used my normal exercise slot to do that. This will probably not ruin the race.

Now the panic of "what am I forgetting?" The required gear list is covered at least.

Daybreak #12

Sometimes it is fun to follow my wife's surges, since she seems to have no interest in me holding the pace she asked me to hold.

1 mile paved @ 3.6 mph
1.6 mile dirt @ 5.4 mph
1 mile paved @ 3.8 mph

Might be a rough season. Every o or AR event weekend is a potential tournament or otherwise for dear daughter's team. Maybe I should run red, then do orange at the meets I am able to attend, just for more practice.

Daybreak #11. Also proof of concept for new school workout program.

Whew, long day. I pretty much got my garage in order (less disarray?) from about 7 am until 5 pm. It was that bad. It's better, but imperfect. I learned I should not acquire any additional hobbies. Garages just fill up so fast. And I still can't even park in there, just the wife's Mini. I do think there's just enough room to squeeze in one of these in there (in orange).

1 mile paved @ 3.6 mph
.6 mile paved & 1.4 mile dirt @ 5.3 mph
1.1 mile paved @ 3.8 mph

It was very humid; noticeably higher heart rates at all times other than initial warm up walk (probably because it was slow).