Training Log Archive: Work4justice

Event: USARA Nationals
 

USARA Nationals with sony (Jeff Woods) and joe (Joe Brautigam). Second in Master's and ninth overall.

On a Tuesday morning in August, I had been messaging with britty327 about other races and she asked what I was doing for Nationals, and I shared that had qualified but had to pass at the time because of a work commitment, and that actually I was kind of bummed to miss it. By the end of the day I was talking to Jeff about joining their team. Yeehaw!

Fast forward to the race! For sure I was nervous about racing with their caliber. Joe is an amazing navigator, Jeff is a tough and experienced racer, and they were both so supportive and confident, it made it easy for me to have confidence and do my best.

9a Paddle 1 ~18mi
We got to the race start, pulled out our gear and got the boat settled. Jeff seemed humored by the fact I could not wrap my brain around how the 3rd seat was going to work. It did. Like everyone else plowed to the first point and made our way around the Reservoir. Jeff had to work very hard to keep the boat going straight because it kept pulling right.

We got to the O section which was interesting in that teams could split however. It was first discussed that Joe and Jeff would nav and I would paddle the boat. I couldn’t help but think that I have navigated before, but I haven’t paddled a boat solo before. I mentioned I could navigate the couple points that were discussed. I went for those, Jeff got the boat to meet me, and then we went to pick up Joe. Here is a video of that: https://www.facebook.com/pg/USARA-103010286401391/...

Then, on to the last paddle points and TA to the bikes—included a hike up to the bikes. Holy moly it started to get warm.

2p Bike KOM/ Mauch Chunk Ridge - State Game Lands #141 - Penn Haven Mtn ~62mi
We thought we could be done in 11/12 hours. Headed to the rail trail and I hung back for about 10k before mentioning I could be in front if that would be helpful. So, once we were full on the rail trail, I took the pull on and off on rail trail and roads. What a beautiful day and scenery. We got to the river crossing and it was so slick and the water was deep and fast. It was so awesome. I was super nervous, but it worked out.

Then, it was through town to start the KOM. I was feeling really good. And thankful that we didn’t have a sh*t road to climb. I had also remembered to spin the hills. Joe and Jeff kept telling me to slow it down, spin it out, that there was a lot of race left. My problem is when I see a team in front of me I want to go go go.

We kept on with the two tracks, rocky trails, etc. I did learn a lot about riding rocks, spinny spinny was the way to go and voila! I was moving much better. My legs were noodles with some of the trails/descents we were doing, and waaaaaay too much time passed without proper eating or drinking. Jeff noticed I was not as perky and I told him I wasn’t feeling all that great—combined nerves and not eating. He said “just start eating whatever you can reach.” I think in the next 15 I had 2 gu and a sleeve of bloks. Blech. Once we got out of the game lands, we got water and I had a chance to slam a Gatorade, eat a sandwich and some cookies. I also opened a couple of cliff bars and put them in my top bar bag so I could easily eat about every 15 minutes for the next bit. We headed over to the next climb, bumped the trails there…more rail trail then to 23/24 and the supplemental map. There were teams everywhere, Joe got sorted, we punched 23 and headed up the hill to 24.

Jeff had fun with it “Hey Barb! Come to Pennsylvania with us and we’ll have a few laughs!” Yeah, come to Pennsylvania to push your bike around the woods and drag through creeks! I was not down with the steep descents.

I thought the best biking was on the supplemental maps. So fun.
Joe and Jeff went back and forth about the 2nd river crossing. There was a way around, and I think it would have taken us another 10 to go around. We had this ridiculous climb onto the RR trestle, and in hindsight I think we could have assembly line passed the bikes up. I really struggled and Jeff helped. We made it to Hickory Ridge by 1a!

1a Shades of Death O ~13mi
My TA took about 15 minutes…needed to change, wanted to lay out a few things to see if they could dry and to be sure to only take what was absolutely necessary. Once we got going, keeping with Joe was key. And he clicked off point after point. I helped as I could with pace counting, food reminders, etc. We met up with the JMK group of UNE and moved together.

6a Trek ~16mi
We had really, really wanted to clear this section, but ran out of time. Joe’s nav was once again spot on. I had a bit of a low point and Jeff had my pack for a little bit there. There was one point that was a head scratcher, and I can’t seem to pull the data off my logger. Plan to consult with Rick Waldo on that. We had to leave two points.

1p Final Bike ~9mi
There were three points left on the bike and we heard that Rootstock did it in 1:04. I think we were all a little nervous about making it back in time, and we did it in 1:13.

What an experience. I learned so much, and have more appreciation for the mental side of the sport. Joe and Jeff were incredibly helpful and supportive every step of the way.

C • FANTASTIC! CONGRATULATIONS!! 8

Dropped FTP to 170.

Pretty day! Saw one of SafeHouse's supporters along Warren and biked with her a smidge and chatted. That was nice.

Ended my ride at the store and this was heading home with my AS1 grocery getter loaded up. :)