Training Log Archive: abiperk

Event: Maine Summer Adventure Race
 

Third Annual MSAR, the first at 24 hours. I raced with Joel and Brent as Rootstock, with Jim, Nicki, and Brian racing as Rootstock 2. We went in with plans to hang together unless and until it didn't make sense anymore. The race started at the entirely civilized hour of 10:00am, which meant that we had time for a leisurely breakfast with the Adventure Dogs at the Wiscasset Woods Lodge before heading over to Hidden Valley for maps. We had about 45 minutes to digest the course, and then there was a quick briefing and one final gear check before the countdown.

Leg 1: The day started with a foot loop at the Hidden Valley Nature Center, where the race has finished each of the last two years (and started in 2016), and included a bonus memory-o at an unknown checkpoint. Brent and I had a good sense of the general lay of the land, but other than CP5, on a pond that we'd visited in 2016, the rest of the section was totally new to us. CP5, where we went first, ended up being the entrance to the memory-o. We were hanging out with Glen Gibson during that stretch, which meant three sets of maps and four strong navigators among us, and we moved well through CPs A and B. Then we headed for the reentrant where we expected to find CP C. We were the first group in there and spent at least 20 minutes looking before anyone else joined us. Eventually, there was a hoard of people combing the woods, with no luck. We stuck around entirely too long, losing an hour of time on the clock before bailing, and when we got back to the TA, we were among the last teams in. We were pretty demoralized at that point, but were told that two groups had stumbled upon the flag in the wrong spot, and that the RDs would sort it out.

Leg 2: From Hidden Valley, we had a relatively short ride through the smooth, bucolic Maine roads. It was warm and sunny, and everyone was cooking a bit, but we rode efficiently and enjoyed the occasional breezes.

Leg 3: A bigger foot-o in a wilderness management area - 13 CPs, estimated at 12 miles, I believe. The day was heating up quickly and we were all out of water by the second or third CP. We ran into Mercators and GOALS filling water at a small pond just below CP7 (not the beaver pond) and decided to pause as well. We wasted a little bit of time when one of our Source bladder seals took a swim, but luckily Jim was able to fish it out, and before long we were on our way. It started to become clear in the middle of this section that our teams should probably split up, but it was another six hours before we finally pulled the plug on the Rootstock Superteam. We got out and were surprised to find that we'd put a fair bit of time on NYARA, the first team to start the section, and that UNE was still in TA. They left before we did and put some time on us on the next section.

Leg 4: More road riding, with some fun trails thrown in. We were empty on water coming out of the foot section and had intended to stop in Augusta to rehydrate, but before we got to town we passed a house with two kids playing outside. I approached and asked them if we could borrow their hose, and they were more than happy to oblige. Their parents were a little bit more dubious when they came outside, asking what was going on, but when we explained that we were in the middle of a race, they warmed up, even offering us gatorade (which we accepted) and gu (which we politely declined). We invited them to the finish line at Hidden Valley the next morning, but they weren't able to make it.

Leg 5: We rode to a cemetery in the middle of Augusta for the start of a mountain bike loop on an eduro course from a race earlier in the day. When we arrived, Kate pulled me and Brent aside to tell us that we needed to call home because something had happened to our dog. We spent a pretty tense 10-15 minutes talking to my mom and sister and sorting out some medical care (everything ended up being fine, if costly) and then headed into the woods. I wasn't really able to focus for the first part of the ride, so I took the rear and just followed along on Nicki's line as I settled back down. The trails were super fun, but what was meant to be a relatively straightforward ride, with four flags hanging along the taped course at distinct left turns, became more complicated when the mtn bike organizers started taking down the tape. It felt reminiscent of last year's Two Rivers, when the person at the cemetery-o decided to sleep in that day instead of unlocking the gates as he was supposed to. So, we got to ride a little bit of extra trail and spent a fair bit of time staring at maps. It made for a different kind of challenge, and we had a lot of fun. Toward the end of the loop we started running into teams going in the opposite direction. It turned out that when Kate found out the tape was being pulled, she told everyone to go whatever way they wanted along the course.

Leg 6: This was just a quick ride past the capitol building and along the Kennebeck Rail Trail. A hard final push as a team of six before we separated off.

Leg 7: An urban foot-o in Gardiner. It turned out that Joel and Brian had had dinner there the night before the race, so Joel pointed out all the sights as we ran through. We made a couple poor routing decisions here, namely walking across a long and semi-precarious elevated railroad trestle instead of doubling back to the roads, and we putzed around for a little while looking for the adorable Fairy Village on the towpath, but nothing that cost us too much.

Leg 8: Time to get off our feet! It was well past dark when we shoved off on the Kennebeck River, and we settled into a nice rhythm, headlights off, enjoying the star-filled sky. We used the roads on either side to help orient us toward the two checkpoints and ended up spiking them both pretty precisely. We were hoping for more favorable tides, but still enjoyed the little bit of a push that we got from moving with the current. We paused briefly at the end of the section to grab a new passport, and then paddled across the river to a takeout on Swan Island.

Leg 9: Swan Island foot-o. This section, like the last foot, was a ton of fun. Lots of route choice and opportunity for bushwhacking. Brent continued to work his magic on the maps, and we ran all but the most technical overland areas. We saw four headlamps in the distance toward the southern end of the island and knew that it had to be Untamed. We just weren't sure which direction they were heading. At 3:45am, we left the woods for one of the many fields and noticed the first glimpses of sunrise -- I love Maine near the summer solstice! We ran into UNE for real with 5-6 CPs to go, and then again as we were searching for CP32, our last point, which we bobbled just a little bit. From there it was a mad dash back to the boats. We hit them first and started to organize ourselves. We knew we wanted 90 minutes for the final bike, which meant we had about 2.5 hours to work with.

Leg 10: There were three points left on the water in what was essentially a big loop around the island. We knew the first point would be no problem, but the second one was an additional 6-ish km downriver, and coming back we'd be going both against the current and against the tide. We talked for a few minutes and then decided to start moving. We paddled back across to grab a new passport and then set off, looking over our shoulders as we strategized. We saw UNE hit the dock 6-7 minutes after we did. We hit the first point, in a small cove, and then started off toward the second, still waiting to see what they were going to do. Brent and Joel thought we could make it. I was more dubious but ultimately agreed that we should give it a shot. The danger, of course, was that we'd make it halfway down, decide to turn back, and then if UNE only went for the first, we'd lose any time we'd had on credit from the first section. It turned out that they decided to push for it, too, eliminating that risk. Either we'd make it back or we wouldn't, but they'd likely suffer the same fate. We got to the point 50 minutes after we started the section and then started working our way back north. We dug pretty deep against the tides, which got stronger as we paddled up-river, and ended up putting some time on Untamed on the water. We pulled off the water into TA just after 8:00am, having left the last CP on the course.

Leg 11: All that remained was a 15 mile ride back to the finish, with two CPs to collect along the way. We rode steadily but didn't kill ourselves, confident that we had enough time to get back, and also confident that UNE wouldn't catch us (and that if they did, we'd still have some sort of time credit on them, but our hope was that that wouldn't have to come into play). We coasted into Hidden Valley with ~20 minutes to spare and got to cheer in the final handful of teams as they came across the line, including UNE, who made it with 7 or 8 minutes to spare.

Overall, we had a great time. It was a ton of fun getting to race with the whole Rootstock crew for the first half, and we loved crossing paths with so many other teams along the course. We all had some dips with the heat, but I think we managed it well and kept up with nutrition and hydration as best we could. Personally, I felt about as good as I ever have on bike, and solid on foot and paddle, too. 36 hours later, I'm contending with dozens of bug bites and some pretty gnarly chafing along my sports bra line, but structurally I'm feeling good. Next up, Untamed!

Thanks, Kateness and Strong Machine, for giving us an excuse to come to Maine every year (and for a fantastic weekend of adventuring!).

C • Congrats! 7

6x90sec push

Followed by a quick family ride around the neighborhood to test out the new Weehoo trailer.

Focus on lower back and IT bands. Both were tight.

Another DVOA mid-week sprint. First of two courses (though this was Sprint #2). Time and distance are approximate, based on when I remembered to start/stop my watch.

The course started with a 16-point micro-o in an area roughly 25 meters by 15 meters. I made two costly mistakes here. First, I didn't have a compass with me. Apparently that would have helped significantly. Second, I spent five minutes in a 8x8 meter area looking for a flag that didn't exist instead of going to look at the flag that was a few meters away. Absurd, looking back on it.

Once I got onto the actual o-course, it went much more smoothly, though I was pretty demoralized by that point.

Second course (Sprint Course #1). Ditto on the approximations of distance and time.

Zoe and Brent were waiting for me at CP2, having already run this course and were en route to the playground. Zoe, in an effort to be helpful, insisted that the next point was down a trail to the west. It was not. But I became so befuddled by the distraction that I literally spent two minutes standing in place trying to reorient. Once I found my footing, I was fine.

A lesson that I've learned way too many times -- don't let other people distract you when you're navigating (even cute four year olds).

C • I’ll be 2

EZ spin, with a little bit of wind to keep me on my toes.

Wanted to take advantage of the perfect weather we're having, so I convinced Zoe to ride her balance bike up to the Trolley Car for ice cream. Her longest ride by far!

(Time includes standing in line -- forgot to stop my watch)