Training Log Archive: abiperk

The trek down Brandon, through to the end of the bike, was the lowest point in the race for me. I continued to struggle nutritionally, my knees were sore, and I was just in a bad head space.

In the middle of the final ride, I fell asleep on the bike and swerved toward the right lane -- just as a mac truck was inching over into the left. If not for the tug of Jim's tow, it may have ended very badly.

I held it together into the TA, then advised the guys that I would be taking a couple minutes to cry - more an emotional release than anything. I did, then wrote the requisite team blog, and slinked away into a dark closet for 30 minutes while the guys managed the TA.

The final major leg of the race. I managed to pull myself together after the quick sleep, and we actually had a great trek. There were two discrete sections to it, each with two CP's. We made quick work of the first half -- one of the best splits in the field, it turned out -- and came back down to the road around 4pm. We were all cold and wet at that point and a bit anxious about going back up into the mountains in those conditions. We spent a few minutes searching for a protected spot (a shed, a house, etc...), and were ultimately rewarded with the Climbers Cafe, a pub/b&b right along the Kerry Way. We had actually passed it on a drive before the race, and Brent remembered it a couple hundred meters before we spotted it.

We stopped for about an hour to eat and warm up. The guys each had a guinness (their second or third of the race? Gotta love Irish pubs), and Jim fashioned us all vests out of our AMK bivvy sacks.

Sacked out at the hotel.

We thought we'd left ourselves plenty of time for the ferry but we hadn't accounted for the wind. I stayed on tow the whole time and Brent was on for stretches as well - without it, we were being blown out from under our bikes. Without Jim's help, I would never have made the ferry. We got there with about 15 minutes to spare.

I enjoyed the adrenaline-packed ride but was totally wrecked by the time we got onto the ferry, and was still struggling to take in calories, especially while hooked up to a tow. We paused for a couple minutes when we got off the boat to change into dry(-er) clothes, and again a handful of kilometers later when we finally decided to check my brake.

Turned out, it was completely locked up -- wouldn't even make it one rotation when I spun it. Which helped to explain why I was so tapped out, and also further affirmed Jim's superhuman strength.

Brake finally fixed, we continued on, riding reasonably efficiently and stopping every 60 minutes for a 5-minute fuel break.

We battled winds the entire day and finally made it to the TA at Mount Brandon around 3pm.

Following a sluggish TA, where we chatted with Rob Howard and debated our post-trek food/sleep plans, we had an out-and-back on Mount Brandon. Brent's stomach revolted on the way up and he left a trail all the way up the mountain (thank goodness for med kit drugs!), but he recovered like a champ and was positively giddy at the top, where winds topped out at over 70mph.

We had a slow trek down and then learned that there were no rooms at the TA/b&b. Not a fun moment. We ate soup and sandwiches and debated our options...

...and then the owners offered us their living room. It was cold on the concrete floor, but dry. A couple hours of fitful sleep.

The next 10 hours were mildly absurd. We fought the weather and also rows and rows of unmapped rocks that totally stalled us in our tracks.

I also basically stopped eating around 1am Friday morning. One minute, I was fine, the next, I couldn't choke any food down. I thought it was just a wave that would pass but should have been far more attentive to it. I remained in a hole through the rest of the race.

Finally, at 5:15am, we cried uncle, pulled out our bothy bag, and bedded down until dawn, when we hoped to be able to see a clear path out. Between the storm, the cold, and the nutrition, I was in pretty bad shape by this point, and the second the bothy went over my head, I was out. I don't think the other guys slept at all.

When the sun rose, we got a better view of the landscape. We headed in the wrong direction for a bit but then righted ourselves and found the channel that took us south toward the river into Galway. The wind and upstream currents made it painfully slow, but ultimately we made our way to the portage waypoint on the river.

In hindsight, that failed sleep in TA cost us steeply on this leg. Had we transitioned to the water right away (and had we been able to fight off sleep monsters) we likely would have been off the water by the time the storm rolled in.

C • bothy bag! 2

Because of the weather, they canceled the portage and paddle across the Galway Bay and instead transported our bike boxes to the takeout. From there, we rode through the town to the Kinvara Community Center and the proper TA.

When I took my bike out of the box, the front brake pad had fallen off. Brent and Jim put in a new one, and Brent mentioned it was particularly tight, but it seemed to be riding okay when I tested it. As soon as we rolled out of TA, though, it was clear I didn't have any power, so Jim handed me the tow and we booked it to Kinvara. I should have checked the wheel more closely at that point.

Quick TA catnap. Surprisingly restful for 30 minutes.

This ride took us through the caves, up and over a berm, and along the coast to the Cliffs of Moher. The best riding of the race.

We learned at the Kinvara TA that the 24-hour ferry crossing had been canceled and that we'd be relying on a commercial ferry that ran only from 7am to 9pm. There would be a timed out dark zone for anyone who got to the ferry site after 9am. We'd have to be on the 7am in order to be able to complete the coasteering stage (and therefore stay full course).

We knew we wouldn't be able to get to the crossing by 9pm, but we also didn't think we'd be able to find any lodging nearby by the time we did arrive, after midnight. So, we forewent the time credit and instead stopped at a hotel about 8km from the Cliffs of Moher. We arrived at 9:30pm and were greeted by the Bob Kittens. We got the last room, and even though the kitchen had already closed, the manager managed to scrounge up some pizzas for us.

I ate a couple slices and also had some hot milk, hoping that it would settle my stomach.

First major trekking leg, in the Twelve Pins. There were supposed to be 5 checkpoints covering roughly 50km and 5000 meters of elevation. The 5th CP was canceled even before the leg began, so we focused on 1-4. We moved really well through this section and Brent and Jim were near-flawless on nav. Took about 20-30 minutes to find CP1, but we learned later that several teams took 3+ hours to zero in on it. The weather was relatively benign here, and the terrain was impressive. Steep high-stakes pitches and rocky, cliffy terrain. We made it down from the third CP and had a brief conversation about whether to stay on full course and get the fourth -- no one was seriously considering dropping it, but we were becoming a little bit anxious about our ability to make the next time cutoff.

Turns out, so were the race organizers -- when we got out to the road, we were met by two volunteers who told us that CP4 had been pulled as well. "Everyone is moving too slow!" they told us. Instead, we had a long trek around on roads and double track trails to the TA.

IT band was still tight, but I knew I'd have a couple days off it, between paddling and biking, so I wasn't worried.

We went back and forth several times on whether to sleep in this TA. We were all reasonably awake when we got there but were worried about whether sleep would be easy on the upcoming 70km lake paddle. We set our alarms for 2 hours, set up our tents, and tried to sleep. In hindsight, it was a bad decision - there was a busy road right next to the TA and plenty of busy-ness from the other teams. Brent didn't sleep at all. I got about 45 minutes, and Jim and Mark got 30-60 apiece. After an hour, we called it, packed up, and got ready to go.

Lough Corrib paddle down to Galway. Brent was pretty sleepy when we set off and it took us a little while to stop fussing and get moving, but once we found a rhythm, we moved really well through the evening. Brent and Jim continued in one boat and got to powwow about nav the entire way down the lake -- both said it was some of the most engaging and challenging paddle nav they've ever done. Mark and I kept ourselves awake with stories and riddles.

At midnight, we were thinking that we'd be done the section between 2am and 3am. Then, a storm rolled in and our progress completely stalled.

Prologue Run through Westport. It was supposed to be 3.5k around the town, after which we'd pick up our gear and continue for another 1.5k to the paddle put-in, so we were a little confused by the 34 minute sprint. We later learned that the local police changed the permit in the hours before the event, so they had to extend the route substantially. A preview of what was to come :)

C • WOW 10

The first stage of the race was meant to be a 50k sea kayak from Westport to Derrynasliggaun. We learned at the captain's briefing before the race that instead of traveling with the tides, we'd be paddling against them - in both directions. There was also a storm brewing, so the Coast Guard would be monitoring the conditions and evaluating the route.

Brent and Jim took one boat and Mark and I were in the other. We made quick work of the first several kilometers -- and found ourselves surrounded by seals!! -- but when we turned into the open water, the combination of tide and swells took its took. Mark got pretty seasick about halfway through. We tried various strategies of towing and tracking behind Brent and Jim, but it was slow-going. Ultimately, we were pulled off the water roughly halfway through the intended course and rerouted onto a beach run.

We were REALLY happy to have drysuits on this leg.

Beautiful run along the beach, and unexpectedly one of the nicest sections of the race. We were hanging with a couple Irish teams and caught a couple other groups. At the end of the run, we got timed out for 45 minutes because our gear hadn't made it around yet.

Small issue here that became a bigger one later in the race -- I'd worn shoes that had 500-600 miles on them. Good for 50km of paddling, less than ideal for 20km on sand. My left IT started nagging in the final steps of this run.

The tides were too strong for us to continue up into the harbor, so they had us paddle across to another point, then drop our boats and continue the leg again on foot.

Finished out the stage on foot. IT band was still tight, but we all really enjoyed the flow of the revised Stage 1.

Event: ITERA Ireland (ARWS)
 

Out and back run/trek on the Kerry Way with Brent and Jim. Good to shake out our legs, and a nice opportunity to get a feel for the terrain and vegetation in the area. Didn't run into any checkpoints.

C • Good luck! 4