Training Log Archive: abiperk

Day 2 of Snowgaine.

After serving our 45 minute penalty, we set off on the southern map, beginning with a run out to the 60-pointer on the western edge of the farm property. The safe route for that was an out-and-back, but we saw that there were two roads that looked to connect off the map. We confirmed on our drive in that morning and decided to run around to the first cluster, rather than backtracking (the RD later told us that it was a Joe B kind of move). Ended up being an easy rolling downhill run through the valley, and we were entertained by a pack of dachshunds playing in a field.

We intentionally dropped the two lowest point values in that first cluster and continued on in a counter-clockwise direction to the southeastern quadrant. We were treated to wide open woods today, after the thick vegetation from yesterday. We were able to run or shuffle a lot, which allowed us to pick up three points we had originally planned to drop.

From the SE cluster, we headed north, dropping two 20-pointers along the way and coming into the finish with four minutes to spare.

Brent and John made great work of the maps and we felt really good about our collective strategy for the weekend. Looking back, we probably wouldn't have made any different decisions. My quads were pretty beat up by the end and my right achilles was cranky, but otherwise felt okay.

Finished second in the coed division and fourth overall, behind lots of strong Canadians (yes, JayXC, you're basically Canadian at this point...)

C • Congrats! :) 3

Event: 20th Annual CNYO SNOWGAINE
 

Day 1 of Snowgaine.

Racing with Brent and John Courain of NYARA, whose legs come up to my chest... I realized early on that it was better to follow Brent's track through the woods than John's.

We were one of only three teams to opt to take the northern route on the first day. Started with a punishing 15-ish kilometer road run to the far northeastern cluster. Once we entered the woods, we found a lot of deadfall and boggy marshes, so it was slower-going than we anticipated, but Brent and John's nav was smooth and we made good decisions on route choice. We were the only team on Day 1 to get to that far cluster, and it ended up having our favorite CP of the weekend -- at a frozen waterfall.

We got lucky with a beaver dam at the creek crossing, which kept us dry-ish, but we had several opportunities to get wet the second half of the day. We decided to drop an outlying 60-pointer at the north end of the map and ended up leaving two others on the final cluster to make a straight line back to the start.

We got back to the start at 4:45pm, 15 minutes late and so started Day 2 with a 45-minute penalty. It was the right call because it allowed us to grab the three CPs in that last cluster.

Happy to have gotten the long slogs out of the way on Day 1 when we were fresher.

To GA and then off to Snowgaine. Started with about 15 pounds in my pack, added another 10 in groceries and race food for the last couple miles.

Not quite sick, but definitely not quite well either. Taking another day off in hopes of fighting it off before this weekend's (snowless) Snowgaine.

C • Feel better 2