Training Log Archive: Anvil

Had to head up to the Ancaster Community Centre to pay for a room booking, so did headwaters loop whilst I was up there in the blizzard.
Super sweet, no other footprints out there (was a little concerned there may be hunters out there, even though they aren't meant to be out there on Fridays). Up Wall of Voodoo, back along old Headwaters and up Spring Valley trail. It's been too long.
Taking close to an hour to drive back home, less enjoyable.

ARK setup.
There was some guy playing a guerilla game of golf on the 17th fairway where I wanted to put up flags, so headed out and did the east loop of the Summer rally. Some of the mapping really sucks on Chedoke.
Finished putting flags out, headed back along the Bruce and finished off with a Bannistairs. A lowly 4:16, but felt excellent doing so. Looking forward to a tough winter of TNTs (need to whip them back into shape after tonights pissweak effort).

ARK set up + running during. Feeling OK.

Better again. Chowing down on vitamins, garlic, juice and all things green in the fridge (which is pretty hard, as most green things in our fridges are actually brown).
2 days is enough to be sick for, anything more is just whiny. Good thing my immune system is still ruggedly Australian.

C • ruggedly Aussie 3

Feeling better than yesterday. Considered a short run at Fireman's after setting up ARK, but as I got out of breath climbing a hill we'd be sending 6 year olds up four times, decided against it.

Event: O-Cup #1 - Kickoff (Kelso)
 

O-Cup kickoff at Kelso.
My brain was on another planet today. Really bad nights sleep, woke up feeling like I was coming down with the flu - hoping it was just the lack of sleep.
Bad route choice up the mountain, then entered the first box in the wrong direction. Just followed Aaron, the Griz or AdventureGirl! (bad move on that last one) for all of it. Occasionally tried to navigate myself, but that was always a bad option. Did the dirty move and out ran them on the easy final couple of controls - sleazoid.

C • Route up Kelso? 8

Respectable starting time smt, with Dr. PBV, menzies, Jonkins, Trix and Bruce.
DV was gorgeous with a light dusting of snow. Trails a bit slippy in places, but generally awesome. Trix gave Bruce some good lessons on mega-fauna harassment.

What what! Climbing at Gravity with Dang and menzies.
Possibly a little too soon after WTM as I re-strained a shoulder muscle stretching for a hold a little too far out of reach - but enjoyed it.
Started with 2 easy routes; was climbing next to a group of kids having a birthday party so felt a little self conscious - but was easily dominating them so wasn't so bad.
Lots of fun, will defo do more. Pretty sure my forearms are already bigger.

Cruise up the Dundurn stairs then ARK set up. Tired today.

ARK setup. I heart Chedoke.

Jogging during the ARK nav course in KW.
No lasting damage from the weekend. Forearms the worst, abs sore from the cramp and top of right foot from an awkward impact. Will be ready to dominate the O-Cup on the weekend.

C • Climbing gym membership 11

So WTM thoughts.
The main thing that went wrong was seriously underestimating the difficulty of the obstacles and upper body fatigue after 6 hours of racing. As I've never had trouble with them in regular races (since the longest I've done was 1.5 hours), it never once entered my mind that that would be a problem. When talking with Trav the night before I left, he mentioned never going anaerobic - it never happened whilst I was running, but the way I attacked the climbing obstacles in the first loop - I was fast burning what little furniture I store in my arms and chest.
What I would do differently next time would be slower in general over the whole course:
Take advantage of the broth and warmth in the aid stations from the second lap onwards
Warm up in the showers immediately after each lap - so there's no need to take off all your wet gear to warm up in the pit (and then have it freeze on you :/)
Take all penalties (either an extra 200m run or an ice plunge 'Arctic Enema' obstacle) whenever that was an option to conserve arm strength.

Just those little tweaks would have allowed 5 laps easily and I think 6 or 7 were within reach (at that point the distance may have become more of a factor, so it's hard to say what would have happened there)
Definitely a learning experience, I would like to do it again next year to do better - it's one of those unfinished business things.

C • Right?? Isn't that amazing 8

WTM Lap 4.
Got up at the coldest time of the night (-3) and headed out with Joe. We toyed with a 1am loop, but I was still cramping and feeling sick from the amount of food I'd eaten.
New plan was to stop at each aid station and have a cup of broth. Again slow to start up, but having shorter targets made this final lap easily doable and I never cramped once!
At the second station met a guy who was on his 7th lap, told me if you finished before 10am (24 hours) your result wouldn't count. Threw me for a loop, as at that point wasn't planning on a 5th and that would mean I'd have to stretch this lap out to 5 hours to count in the overall results. Hung out in this station for 45 mins until I decided just to go ahead and finish the lap, results be dammed. When I met them again at the next station his supporters told me they'd checked with the finish and were wrong, as long as you finished the lap your results would count.
So trotted along happily after that. The rest had been good for me and I managed all the compulsory obstacles no problems (took most of the alternatives on the penalty obstacles though). Some were super icy and scary, but was very happy to find that Balls to the Wall had been closed outright as it had iced up so much it was impossible/dangerous to complete!
When the sun came up, it the radiant heat was so invigorating!
Felt very good running the final mile and was seriously contemplating doing a 5th as I still had over an hour to start it if I wanted. Decided against it as 1) I didn't want something bad to happen and end up disqualified, 2) didn't want push my luck and end up broken.

C • Great report 9

WTM Lap 1.
The fun lap. After seeing 50 people or so sprint off at around 4min/ks, I decided to not follow Tiny's advice of sticking to the leaders, so settled into an ultra cruisy pace.
Nothing much to report here, the mile markers seemed to come up quickly, cruised through all the obstacles effortlessly, no issues with the water temps and lots of good banter with the other competitors. Only failed 2 obstacles, the second Funky Monkey (I can't do monkey bars when they are wet) and the Dong Dangler (single suspended rope across water), which just required a short swim and loss of dignity.
Already started passing people huffing, puffing and walking after mile 2.

C • Tiny's Advice 17

C • Dong Dangler 2

WTM Lap 2
Feeling fresh after the first lap, so quickly headed into the pit, grabbed my small bag full of supplies, a PB wrap and chugged a Boost and 2 salt tabs and and kept going - trying not to loose momentum here. Remove a layer as I was far too hot on the first lap.
Was the same deal as the first lap, feeling really good and no obstacle problems. Started to feel the tinge of a cramp about half way though climbing a ladder so grabbed a baggie of salted nuts. Damn, full of gross water so grab a baggie of chips. Damn, full of gross water so grab a baggie of trail mix. Damn, full of gross water so grab an unopened pack of Shot Blox. Damn, full of gross water (WTF - it was sealed!). A little worrying, so eat a banana at the next aid station and a baggie of sharkies and continue on.
All good until about mile 7.5 when disaster strikes. Half way up the cargo net out of Pirates Booty (a 75m swim followed by 5m-ish climb) my legs gets tangled in the netting and I cramp up bad trying to get it out. I'm no stranger to cramp so I just stretch out my leg and wait it out.
Then it gets bad, the short time I'm hanging up there, not moving in the breeze and I'm suddenly conscious of how cold I'm getting and how tired my arms now are as they're supporting most of my weight as I try to get my legs out. Eventually I free my leg, but can't hold on any more so drop into the water and start again. Cramp hits again and I get tangled in the net as I drop down and need a lot of help getting out.
Now I'm getting worried, this is a compulsory obstacle and if you don't complete it, they take your chip and you're out (I find out later that this was the obstacles that caused the most disqualifications). As I jump up and down trying to warm up one of the officials says, you know you can just climb that ladder over there - pointing to a wide spaced ladder on the edge of the edge of the platform :/
I make short work of it and continue on, but am now shivering as I run. Nothing else is a problem apart from the cold, but I make it back into the tent to warm up and get some salt into me. (If I'd only known about the showers at the finish line I think the race would have gone quite differently from here).

WTM Lap 3
Spent about an hour warming up and eating, but glad I did so. Hung my wet stuff out to dry a little as I may need it later and got totally dry gear on, including a shorty wetsuit.
Started with Sierra who I'd travelled down and was starting her second lap, though she was fighting ITB issues, so we didn't stay together for long.
Slower pace for the first 20 mins, was very hard to get going after resting for an hour and I'm also very aware of how weak my upper body has become - anything involving climbing is becoming difficult. Cramping is also becoming commonplace from about 1.5 hours in.
Ran a large chunk of this section with the eventual 3rd woman, really impressed with her mental attitude - I'd been just behind the first place woman on the 2nd lap so I when I tried to estimate how far behind she was, her only comment was something like 'I'll be going all through the night, no point worrying about what others are doing'.
Pirates Booty this time was a non-issue, I take it slowly and methodically and use my elbows as hooks instead of my useless hands. Success!
Quite cold after the second lake swim, so stop in one of the first aid tents as it's heated to discover there is heated broth in there! Drink a cup and pour another on my feet and warm up nicely.
However, the kicker this time was the next obstacle, Balls to the Wall, a rope climb up a 10m-ish wall. Had no problem with that the first times round, but my exhausted forearms were could not hold on the entire way up and the footholds were starting to ice up. After 2 failed attempts gave myself a talking to, took off my gloves and knowing I only had one chance to do this with bare skin on a frozen rope and this was another compulsory obstacle, I climbed over like I was on my first lap! It was this point where I realised how large the mental aspect was.
Start to cramp up badly on the Mud Mile (10+ trenches you have to jump in and scramble out of) and decide to take another long break to eat up again, let my forearms recover before a 4th and change again. Final nail in the coffin was getting back and finding most of my clothes frozen.
Cramping became very bad in the next 15 minutes, including ab cramp, which is something I never want to experience again. Decide going out again wouldn't be wise - mainly though worry of not being able to complete a compulsory obstacle and getting disqualified.

Event: World's Toughest Mudder
 

From Chedoke down to Casa Sudden to drop off some SI stuff, then up Dundurn Stairs and back down Chedoke Stairs.
More ARK setting up after that.

C • Toughest! 40

Back at Chedoke for ARK. 35mins out on the Bruce until it hits James St, then back along the various roads along the top of the escarpment.
Not an especially interesting loop, but it's just so perfect running conditions right now, you can help but enjoy it.
Followed by 25 mins of ARK set up. Never realised it before, but I'd say Chedoke is probably one our best areas - especially for ARK after dark.

Setting up and a bit of running for ARK. Zero aches and pains from yesterday - maybe this training regularly thing has something going for it.
Discovered my waterproof gloves really need a new name tonight, soaked through. Good to know before the weekend!

Event: 2012 Salomon Raid the Hammer
 

Raid the Hammer 2012 on team Where Are We? with Chris and Jeremy, for those wondering who these guys are - Chris was on my zombie team last for last years RtH and Jeremy is another guy from The Ontario Triathlon League - both pretty accomplished City Chasers.
We were really well matched, no one ever fell drastically behind - Jeremy had a little trouble technically in the Rocky Horror sections, but for most of it we were side by side.
Plan was just to run our own race at our own pace and ignore what the other teams were doing, which is excatly what we did - the splits look like it was a head to head battle the whole way, but I was never really conscious of the other teams - it felt we'd always seem to pull away from one of them, then they'd suddenly be on our tail again - frustrating!
Only 3 mistakes of note and all under 30 seconds and a stop of 2 mins to tape up a blister that was forming.
First scramble, N4, N2, N1, N3 - first tiny mistake on route to N2, not turning off the Bruce at a bend, but tiny!. Got back to #1 in sight of the other teams, headed out to C and back with a crowd of people in my wake (you're all welcome). Got back 15s before Jeremy who'd been to A and we were off, right with VanBatKins, who disappeared into the distance instantly, an event that happened 3 or 4 more times during the day!
S1 and 2 were fine, the road run was a slog to begin with, but took the time to eat (ended up being my only food of the day) and drink and look at the next stage.
No problems at all in Brant, except the blister stop (in which about 5 teams appeared!), really, really nice forest in there (shame so much of it is private property :/).
Did the second scramble A, B, D, E, C. Took a gamble on the green going A-B and it paid off, thick but easy to move through/not thorny. Helped finding B by a big group of Half Raid teams loudly celebrating finding it :). Second sighting of VanBatKins here.
The climb up to the Aid Station was the beginning of the hurt. We took our time here and were treated to our 3rd VanBatKins run through :)
Again no problem with the Nav in the final section after this, it helped I'd done the GHO monthly training back here sometime in March/April - everything was kinda familiar.
Final road/trail run was agony - don't think I've ever sustained such a high HR for so long. This was the only time we were really racing the other teams. No chance on taking the lead from JVD and co, but both other eventual 3rd and 4th place teams had a team member that was really struggling so we put the foot down as hard as it would go and got enough of a gap to finish enough in front the other teams to take 2nd (totally unexpected, I thought we had a chance at 3rd! if we were lucky).
Really enjoyed the course, I remember when I saw it at registration some people would be disappointed with all the trail and road running, but I think the fact that each Raid has a different focus from year to year is one of the appeals - you never know what you'll get.

C • Congrats! 10

33% of an SMT. Just trying to get the body clock into the Raid time zone.
Perfect running conditions.

Finally got out and collected the stands from the far end of the P2P course.
Not as bad as I recallled - picked a much better route this time from 6-7.
Perfect day to be out, no need for any type of gloves.

C • 6-7 2

ARK setting up again. Had planned to run after, but got as far as Groundhog Hill and found sitting on the bench staring out at the Deeve more appealing.
Colder again tonight that yesterday, but I didn't even have my favourite gloves to keep me warm.

C • feel good.... 1

Nothing special, just a lot of jogging round in the cold.
Super duper cold. Only had one glove (my new favourite), so had to switch it from hand to hand - thankfully it finally stretched out enough by the end of the night.

C • Stretched out enough... 4

Brucing down at Niagara.
Not the nicest section (west of Fireman's Park), but I did get to run over a highway *and* though a tunnel - so not all bad. Pretty chilly out.

Event: New York Marathon
 

Running in the Deeve getting footage for a project of Dr. PBV.

Out of the blue, woke up this morning with a sharp pain in the recently injured MCL. Scary, but went away as soon as I moved it a second time. Maybe the marathon cancellation was a blessing in disguise if that's what a 10k will do to it.
Lesson: Stay off roads.

C • New York 4

Road-2-Hope 10k
Just a blast - if I had to miss NY, this was a fine replacement.
After feeling horrible on the warm up, everything fell into place nicely. A little too fast on the first km, but we recovered nicely and stayed consistent for the rest of the race (a little faster than our goal pace, but not like that's a bad thing!). I was a little worried about my pace bunny ability, but it went off well.
After about 3k, I suggested we work up to the pack of about 10 guys who'd formed around Reid Coolsaet about 30m up. This ended up being a great strategy - as soon as we were ensconced in the crowd, it instantly became easier. Tried to make sure I was always next to Reid or slightly in front whenever there was a photographer.
Pushed the pace in the final 2k, the pack had withered by then - I knew we'd done enough to all go under 40 and decided I wanted to catch the couple of guys in front. Duane and Trav were never far behind when I looked back and pumped out awesome times. Super was also comfortably under 40, not bad for a fat guy.
Like Supe says, racing with friends is where it's at - the final 2km is always such a death march, but shared pain is a great motivator.

C • Did you wear the gombie shorts 6

C • Nice! 7

Easy little taper run before tomorrows race. Tried to spy RtH tapes, but no avail. I can confirm there is nothing out there on the route I took today.
Thanks to Dr. Chewy for dropping me off in Waterdown - magic trails the whole way to Dundas. Grindstone Creek is a gem.

C • Stands 3

Shadowing Dr. Chew on last nights nav training. Discovered a few flaws in her techniques that will hopefully prevent future disasters.

C • Good! Train my teammates! 4

TNT. 3 x zombie loops at temp pace, roughly 6:30-7:00 mins each.
Fun running the second half through the woods. Trix and her owners showed up before the 3rd rep, but didn't run. Weak sauce.