Training Log Archive: abiperk

Get Stoked 24-hour Rogaine with Brent and Jim.

There were 56 CPs on the map -- apparently same number as last year, covering only 60% of that course. Even with that, RD Mark Lattanzi suggested he wasn't sure it was clearable.

We thought that if we ran it cleanly and efficiently we'd have a chance, and so we approached our strategy and route choice with that in mind. Started off sweeping north and west and generally moved well up and down reentrants and spurs, reentrants and spurs. As Brent said, 24 hours of hill training. None of the climbs were crazy -- few over 500-600 feet -- but they were unrelenting. Mark had estimated 15,000 feet and 35-40 miles to clear the course. Somehow we ended up high on mileage and low on elevation -- numbers were from Jim's suunto GPS.

Early afternoon, we had two significant nav issues, each time traveling up the wrong reentrant and having to traverse across the neighboring spurs to the correct ones. We estimated that it cost us about 2 hours of daylight race time.

Rain began around 5pm, which was actually a welcome relief from the thick humidity of the previous nine hours, though we all got cold pretty quickly.

6pm to midnight were our finest hours of racing. Smooth and efficient nav and swift travel as we raced the sunset and then moved into night. Also the first time on the course where we could get on trails/roads and actually run anything. Despite the climbing, we all felt strong and steady throughout and ran (or shuffled) trails, roads, and open woods for the duration of the race.

Midnight to 4am pretty deflating, a combination of tricky nav, inhospitable conditions (dense fog, persistent rain), no reflective tape on the CPs (why Lattanzi, why???), and the usual nighttime sleepies. We dropped a couple points, then a few more, and just couldn't locate at least one that we're positive we walked right by (I repeat -- why Lattanzi, why???). Still, we were running everything that was runnable and moving reasonably efficiently off-trail, and we managed to salvage at least a handful of the points we attempted.

Sunrise lifted our spirits and we had a strong final climb of about 500 feet up to a ridgeline, then ran the ridge up to the summit, and grabbed the last four points en route to the finish.

Ended up collecting 47 of the 56 points, which we felt good about, given the conditions and those early bobbles. Enough to earn us first place and some cool handmade clocks.

We're pretty sure that the course could have been cleared with cleaner nav throughout, better weather, and a little bit of reflective help overnight.

Overall, a fantastic event and a great early-season challenge. I should note that Mark did promise reflective PVC for next year's race. For anyone thinking about doing this race, we pulled out our trekking poles about 20 minutes in, and they became our best friends for the next 23 hours.

After this weekend, I'm even more excited for our Itera roster -- Jim, Brent, Mark, and me.

C • Itera 4

C • amazing 2

Event: Get Stoked Rogaine
 

Shakeout run.

Windy and humid with an oncoming storm, started raining just as I pulled up to the house. Rode a mix of surface roads, trails, and towpath. Had fun chasing some roadies on the SRT on the way home. Caught two guys -- one complimented my speed on the mountain bike, the other got pissed and blew by me yelling something about going too slow... and then I caught him again :)

(Still need that new battery, so overall mph was faster than recorded.)

C • Chicked. 4

To GA to celebrate Z's birthday with her class. Two years old today!

Lots of hurry-up-and-wait in heavy traffic. My bike computer needs a new battery, so this is overall time rather than ride time.