Training Log Archive: ebuckley

Devil's Challenge Adventure Race (Wisconsin). About 9 miles on the Wisconsin R. with Yvonne in the big old rental canoe, but using our kayak paddles. Navigation was pretty easy since we could see other boats ahead of us. 10th of 30 teams out of the water. Dave Frei made a whopper of a parallel error and was way behind us.

Cycling portion. Did all the pulling with Yvonne behind. Good tempo on fairly hilly terrain, but we held a bit in reserve. Good thing because right at the end they made us do...

Uphill Time Trial. 10-minute bonus to the fastest team and 5 minutes to second. We were more concerned with just getting up the thing (it was steep enough that Yvonne was running out of gear). I gave her about 15 hand slings in the steeper sections. We ended up with the fourth fastest time. Dave Frei and Mike Lapero had the fastest time to take the bonus. We were second into the exchange zone with the lead team still there. Dave and Mike showed up just as we got off the bikes and beat us onto the orienteering course.

Blue Mound (1:10). Yvonne felt pretty bad after the climb, and I was tired from all the pulling, so we decided to be slow and accurate in the orienteering. The course (set by Kevin Teschendorf) was a good quality Red course as opposed to the usual crap they throw into adventure races. We were a bit shocked to be the first ones out of the woods, because we hadn't seen Dave or Mike. They boomed a control badly and came in just as we were getting back on our bikes.

No controls on the way back - just hammer to the finish. Only one climb, but the last 10 miles were exposed to a stiff wind. We were first in, but had to sit on pins and needles for 10 minutes to see if Dave and Mike would get back in time for their bonus to put them ahead. They showed up 11:30 after us looking pretty beat. They pushed very hard on the first bike section to make up for the mistake in the boat and didn't have anything left to fight the wind. Including transitions our winning time was 6:32:08. Death match is tied at 9-9.

SLOC Thursday O Training at West Tyson (1:10). I was the only non-beginner, so we basically did a nature walk while I pointed out things on the map. About half an hour of line-O followed by six yellow-level controls which we did as a group. ST=705/1253

Warmup jogging around the park.

Forest Park Pace Series. Predicted 21:30. I actually made a wrong turn and had to sprint to get back on pace.

About 20 minutes of cornering practice with Yvonne, followed by some steady efforts on an undulating loop through the park. Yvonne is still dropping back just a bit on the downhills and fast corners, but is really fast on the uphills and flats. I think we're ready for this weekend. It will be interesting to see how difficult the course is. The pre-race notes imply that it will be hilly.

Actually, this was in a canoe with Yvonne, but we used Kayak paddles. Pretty easy pace - just getting used to working together. Fortunately, we both paddle at about the same cadence so no adjustment is necessary.

More drafting practice with Yvonne. After spinning for a bit on some winding/rolling roads, we hammered the flats along the Meremac at 25-27 mph. We'll go slower than that on Saturday, of course, but it was good practice for her and a decent workout for me.

Teaching Yvonne to draft. We're entering an adventure race this weekend that will have road cycling instead of mountain biking.

Sometimes I forget what a gifted athlete Yvonne is. I've taught dozens of people to draft. Usually it means riding around a parking lot in the small ring and having them come off your wheel every time you put any pressure on the pedals. After a few miles easy, Yvonne bolted herself to my back wheel in a cross wind on an undulating road and stayed there while I ran the pace up over 25 miles per hour. This is a woman who doesn't even own a road bike (she's on a loaner for this week). This weekend's race will be a lot more fun knowing I can actually push in the bike section.