Training Log Archive: HammerIn the 7 days ending Oct 1, 2018:
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Monday Oct 1, 2018 #
Skiing 20:00 [3]
WINTERness Traverse training starts today on the ski erg. ;-) No seriously why are there so few winter adventure races?
Upper body feels fine but right hip and left leg (knee, hamstrings) are sore.
Upper body feels fine but right hip and left leg (knee, hamstrings) are sore.
Sunday Sep 30, 2018 #
Adventure Racing 25:00:00 [3]
WTF! Wilderness Traverse Finisher. We took our time and didn’t care if teams passed us and that helped Tarno, Bent and I to achieve the goal of completing the full course. Unfortunately the heart and soul of the team, Browner, had to pull out after the paddle. She was the organized team member that was the glue that kept us all together earlier in the race. AR is cruel.
28 hour total time minus ~3 hours of resting at CPs and TAs. Thanks to team team mates Bent, Browner and Tarno for the most enjoyable 24 hour race I’ve done (and likely the last).
The following is kind of a race report for me and the AP crowd to read and remember from (Bash do not post elsewhere).
CP1: Tried hard not to get caught up with the fast pace off the start of some teams. We had a good route and found the yellow trail early. Ran by a spot I had been before with Bash testing the WT'12 course. But we weren't paying attention and then lost the yellow trail quickly. So just set a bearing to the CP and hit it. Quick swim across the river to a pretty spot.
CP2: Yellow trail west then south. got caught by MBR and we tried jogging with them but realized that was silly as we would burn up (or puke) so then power walked across valley and straight south along a vein of open rock. Hit the lake about 50m to the north. Surprised to be relatively close to the lead teams despite not running.
CP3: Surprised to be ahead of Stoked Oats. Too bad the race wasn't only 2 hours long. ;-) We transitioned quite slowly to the first swim and then I had to toe Tarno. Yeah he was holding my foot since he was having panic issues. So impressed he did the swim to help save my knee for later in the course.
That was hard upper body work (we should have used a tow rope) but the water was good medicine for my swollen knee (and saved a few km of walking). We then took our time on the other water crossings as Tarno was very cold and panicky. Had a nice chat with the volunteers at CP3.
CP4: An easy leg to CP4 as we elected to just take the trail. If it was 15 years ago I would have been more aggressive. Really need to revisit this area. Nice trail to run.
TA1: Took our time and ate some food and listened to good tunes compliments of the awesome volunteers. Thought about switching to shorts. Happy I didn't as the upcoming bike would be long and muddy (or is epic a better word?)
CP5: So. much. mud. Heather may have caused me to face plant in the muddiest of ponds early in this section. It was so slick that it was hard to ride too close together. Tarno tookniver on nav but there were so few decisions to make the mind think about direction. instead it thought about being tired, muddy and hungry. I stopped eating which didn’t help. Heather kept making sure I was Ok. It was so nice to get to CP5 and the Timbits. It gave me short lived new life.
CP6: The ferry at the start of this leg was a welcome break as I have a lot of trouble eating so I gobbled down some corn chips. Yum. Shortly after getting off the ferry it started to rain and Heather smartly suggested we stop and get out our rain gear. Good idea as temps dropped. At about that time I started not feeling well so Tarno gave me two electrolyte pills which made feel like barfing. Such a rookie mistake trying something I hadn't trained in training. I went from bad to worse and wasn't enjoying the biking. There was no real nav decisions and it was just a tough section of trail. I started to realize that I wasn't going to be able to finish. Tarno and Bent pushed my bike up the hills. Team work. Our goal was to get to TA2 by 7 and I think we arrived there just after 7:15.
TA2: It was cold and windy but the volunteers were awesome. Hot chocolate, cupcakes, chicken noodle soup. But once drinking and eating was finished and I started to change clothes I got sick again. There was no way I was going to continue. I told 'Bent that I was very likely going to pull out. He then said that the rest of the team would have to pull out too and that kinda made me feel I had to continue. It was great he did it but I wasn't happy at the time so I kinda went for a short walk. Had a short cry and tried to pull myself together hoping my tummy would recover while paddling. (It would). We spent a whopping 45 minutes in the TA. A record for me for sure.
CP7: Our pace in the canoe felt easy and as such I recovered quickly but i had trouble reading the map and the not so great photo copy didn’t help (i should have used the topo map). Lost lots of time because of that at the third portage. I could only see two bays on the map. There were three.Frustrating. My bad. My mistake (a big one too). Got passed there by a few teams there including one that doesn’t seem to race with a spirit of friendliness or enjoyment (I’ve experienced their shitty behaviour before). Oh well. Once that happened my attitude to the race changed. i was feeling great and we had a HUGE buffer for time cut offs. Completing the full course having as much fun as possible and at a comfortable pace is the key.
We all (except Bent) has light issues and struggled with the CP7 portage. We had the option of breaking a leg or breaking a canoe. But when we got to the awesome volunteers we decided to stay and enjoy the conversation and fire and some team members took naps.
CP8: Pretty straight forward paddling here though I'll admit to being nervous paddling by a water fall. You could hear it but couldn't see it. The portage at CP8 was advertised as being worse than #7 but we managed fine. Funny thing was that we only saw the required red flashing light on the back of the team in front of us when their team got close to each of CP7 and 8.
CP9: Back to visit our great volunteer friends from CP3 earlier in the day. They asked "Can we interest you in a seat by a fire and some beef stroganoff?" We said "Yes, absolutely" and they were surprised with our answer as apparently the other teams just raced through their CP. These guys were awesome and it was honestly hard to leave. I was jealous I wasn't volunteering to be honest.
CP10: I had predicted this CP location (as well as the next TA) but that didn't help getting there. Still had to do the paddle. Richard was getting sleepy and I think slept a bit on this leg. The wind was picking up off GBay so there was no margin for error. Nav was straight forward we did a good job with the long portage into Healey Lake. It was great to have another campfire at this CP. Bent had a 6-8 minute power nap here while I tried to get warm.
CP11: Short portage into a narrow lake and then just west to the marked portage that you could see from about a km away. on the portage into Wood's bay we decided to check out the forest for our attackpoint to going to CP12 a little later. Easy paddle to the Pete's Place shoreline (175m above sea level). Picked up some garbage from earlier teams and then portaged to the TA.
TA3:
More to come.
Do it again? Hard to say. Now that i’ve completed the full course that goal is checked off. Sure we could try to go faster but that is a big jump that would require more training as a team and life seems too busy for that. But part way through the race Tarno and I took a moment together to remember some great orienteers we have lost recently - AZ, BG and M-C. When great people leave us far too early adding more adventure to our lives and working less makes so much more sense. So maybe I’ll be back with the goal of trying to finish the WT in under 24 hours next year.
28 hour total time minus ~3 hours of resting at CPs and TAs. Thanks to team team mates Bent, Browner and Tarno for the most enjoyable 24 hour race I’ve done (and likely the last).
The following is kind of a race report for me and the AP crowd to read and remember from (Bash do not post elsewhere).
CP1: Tried hard not to get caught up with the fast pace off the start of some teams. We had a good route and found the yellow trail early. Ran by a spot I had been before with Bash testing the WT'12 course. But we weren't paying attention and then lost the yellow trail quickly. So just set a bearing to the CP and hit it. Quick swim across the river to a pretty spot.
CP2: Yellow trail west then south. got caught by MBR and we tried jogging with them but realized that was silly as we would burn up (or puke) so then power walked across valley and straight south along a vein of open rock. Hit the lake about 50m to the north. Surprised to be relatively close to the lead teams despite not running.
CP3: Surprised to be ahead of Stoked Oats. Too bad the race wasn't only 2 hours long. ;-) We transitioned quite slowly to the first swim and then I had to toe Tarno. Yeah he was holding my foot since he was having panic issues. So impressed he did the swim to help save my knee for later in the course.
That was hard upper body work (we should have used a tow rope) but the water was good medicine for my swollen knee (and saved a few km of walking). We then took our time on the other water crossings as Tarno was very cold and panicky. Had a nice chat with the volunteers at CP3.
CP4: An easy leg to CP4 as we elected to just take the trail. If it was 15 years ago I would have been more aggressive. Really need to revisit this area. Nice trail to run.
TA1: Took our time and ate some food and listened to good tunes compliments of the awesome volunteers. Thought about switching to shorts. Happy I didn't as the upcoming bike would be long and muddy (or is epic a better word?)
CP5: So. much. mud. Heather may have caused me to face plant in the muddiest of ponds early in this section. It was so slick that it was hard to ride too close together. Tarno tookniver on nav but there were so few decisions to make the mind think about direction. instead it thought about being tired, muddy and hungry. I stopped eating which didn’t help. Heather kept making sure I was Ok. It was so nice to get to CP5 and the Timbits. It gave me short lived new life.
CP6: The ferry at the start of this leg was a welcome break as I have a lot of trouble eating so I gobbled down some corn chips. Yum. Shortly after getting off the ferry it started to rain and Heather smartly suggested we stop and get out our rain gear. Good idea as temps dropped. At about that time I started not feeling well so Tarno gave me two electrolyte pills which made feel like barfing. Such a rookie mistake trying something I hadn't trained in training. I went from bad to worse and wasn't enjoying the biking. There was no real nav decisions and it was just a tough section of trail. I started to realize that I wasn't going to be able to finish. Tarno and Bent pushed my bike up the hills. Team work. Our goal was to get to TA2 by 7 and I think we arrived there just after 7:15.
TA2: It was cold and windy but the volunteers were awesome. Hot chocolate, cupcakes, chicken noodle soup. But once drinking and eating was finished and I started to change clothes I got sick again. There was no way I was going to continue. I told 'Bent that I was very likely going to pull out. He then said that the rest of the team would have to pull out too and that kinda made me feel I had to continue. It was great he did it but I wasn't happy at the time so I kinda went for a short walk. Had a short cry and tried to pull myself together hoping my tummy would recover while paddling. (It would). We spent a whopping 45 minutes in the TA. A record for me for sure.
CP7: Our pace in the canoe felt easy and as such I recovered quickly but i had trouble reading the map and the not so great photo copy didn’t help (i should have used the topo map). Lost lots of time because of that at the third portage. I could only see two bays on the map. There were three.Frustrating. My bad. My mistake (a big one too). Got passed there by a few teams there including one that doesn’t seem to race with a spirit of friendliness or enjoyment (I’ve experienced their shitty behaviour before). Oh well. Once that happened my attitude to the race changed. i was feeling great and we had a HUGE buffer for time cut offs. Completing the full course having as much fun as possible and at a comfortable pace is the key.
We all (except Bent) has light issues and struggled with the CP7 portage. We had the option of breaking a leg or breaking a canoe. But when we got to the awesome volunteers we decided to stay and enjoy the conversation and fire and some team members took naps.
CP8: Pretty straight forward paddling here though I'll admit to being nervous paddling by a water fall. You could hear it but couldn't see it. The portage at CP8 was advertised as being worse than #7 but we managed fine. Funny thing was that we only saw the required red flashing light on the back of the team in front of us when their team got close to each of CP7 and 8.
CP9: Back to visit our great volunteer friends from CP3 earlier in the day. They asked "Can we interest you in a seat by a fire and some beef stroganoff?" We said "Yes, absolutely" and they were surprised with our answer as apparently the other teams just raced through their CP. These guys were awesome and it was honestly hard to leave. I was jealous I wasn't volunteering to be honest.
CP10: I had predicted this CP location (as well as the next TA) but that didn't help getting there. Still had to do the paddle. Richard was getting sleepy and I think slept a bit on this leg. The wind was picking up off GBay so there was no margin for error. Nav was straight forward we did a good job with the long portage into Healey Lake. It was great to have another campfire at this CP. Bent had a 6-8 minute power nap here while I tried to get warm.
CP11: Short portage into a narrow lake and then just west to the marked portage that you could see from about a km away. on the portage into Wood's bay we decided to check out the forest for our attackpoint to going to CP12 a little later. Easy paddle to the Pete's Place shoreline (175m above sea level). Picked up some garbage from earlier teams and then portaged to the TA.
TA3:
More to come.
Do it again? Hard to say. Now that i’ve completed the full course that goal is checked off. Sure we could try to go faster but that is a big jump that would require more training as a team and life seems too busy for that. But part way through the race Tarno and I took a moment together to remember some great orienteers we have lost recently - AZ, BG and M-C. When great people leave us far too early adding more adventure to our lives and working less makes so much more sense. So maybe I’ll be back with the goal of trying to finish the WT in under 24 hours next year.
Thursday Sep 27, 2018 #
Skiing 15:00 [3]
Ski-erg and then some stretch and roll.
Knee allergic reaction swelling update: Cortisone shot on Wednesday seems to have helped but still swollen. I can walk now but jogging is difficult. I'm doing the WT race no matter what.
Knee allergic reaction swelling update: Cortisone shot on Wednesday seems to have helped but still swollen. I can walk now but jogging is difficult. I'm doing the WT race no matter what.
Cycling 10:00 [3]
easy ride to test the knee and check out all the fixed up stuff on the bike. all good
Note
6PM: Easy walk on Gula Stigen. Hmm. Not great. Because the knee is swollen I get a hyperextension like feeling every few steps if the ground is uneven and the back of the knee tightened up quickly. Its gonna be a vitamin I kinda race.