Training Log Archive: StijnIn the 7 days ending May 26, 2018:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||||
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | |||||||
Saturday May 26, 2018 #
3 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 8 MTB) 8:00:00 [2] 58.0 km (7.3 kph) +944m
shoes: Merida Big Nine TFS 500
We had heard rumours of a straightforward final bike leg and all I can say to that is #fakenews! Thick mist had descended over the farm when we left transition and it was very tricky finding our way out to the main road via a confusion of sandy tracks and ploughed fields. Then there was an incredibly steep pass followed by a 10km section of mostly unrideable sand. Stephan always has the last laugh ;)
Sunrise was again spectacular over the low-lying mist as we were climbing up and over the Gifberg Pass. On the steep descent of the pass, we had one final obstacle to deal with as John's tyre developed a leak at the valve which the slime wasn't sealing. We eventually put a 29er tube in his 26-inch wheel which sorted out the problem, but then couldn't get the rear wheel back on as the thread on his rear axle had stripped, meaning the skewer wouldn't lock the wheel into place. Kev pulled some bush mechanics here and cut some new thread, just managing to get the wheel to fit in on the now-shorter axle.
Anyway! Last 20km of bloody-corrugated gravel roads and we were rolling through Vanrhynsdorp to the finish line. Seth thought there would be nothing much waiting for us but since we were the final full course finishers, just about everybody had turned up to welcome us home. It was insane! And massively overwhelming!
It was such an incredible way to top-off our 146 hours on the course. A very rewarding race as we had work together as a team to pull it off. My 4th attempt at an expedition race and it feels good to finally get that full course finish on what, by all accounts, was a very tough course. We placed 29th out of the 52 starting teams.
If you're still reading this, you deserve a medal! Here are the links to most of our GPS tracks along the way:
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452299
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452261
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452250
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452227
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452182
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452162
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452141
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452121
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452118
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452104
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452095
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452086
Sunrise was again spectacular over the low-lying mist as we were climbing up and over the Gifberg Pass. On the steep descent of the pass, we had one final obstacle to deal with as John's tyre developed a leak at the valve which the slime wasn't sealing. We eventually put a 29er tube in his 26-inch wheel which sorted out the problem, but then couldn't get the rear wheel back on as the thread on his rear axle had stripped, meaning the skewer wouldn't lock the wheel into place. Kev pulled some bush mechanics here and cut some new thread, just managing to get the wheel to fit in on the now-shorter axle.
Anyway! Last 20km of bloody-corrugated gravel roads and we were rolling through Vanrhynsdorp to the finish line. Seth thought there would be nothing much waiting for us but since we were the final full course finishers, just about everybody had turned up to welcome us home. It was insane! And massively overwhelming!
It was such an incredible way to top-off our 146 hours on the course. A very rewarding race as we had work together as a team to pull it off. My 4th attempt at an expedition race and it feels good to finally get that full course finish on what, by all accounts, was a very tough course. We placed 29th out of the 52 starting teams.
If you're still reading this, you deserve a medal! Here are the links to most of our GPS tracks along the way:
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452299
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452261
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452250
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452227
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452182
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452162
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452141
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452121
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452118
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452104
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452095
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move220452086
Friday May 25, 2018 #
12 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Sleep) 1:04:00 [0]
Took another nap at midnight.
1 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 7 Hike part 3) 3:47:00 [2] 5.7 km (1.5 kph) +70m
shoes: Asics Gel Fuji Trabuco 6 #2
The early hours of the morning was our slowest section and we were now really just stumbling along, getting closer to the the 10-night-km target. Despite the slow pace, we were quite keen to push through to dawn to maximise our chances of making the cut-off, but we hit a really nasty section of thorny bush that we just couldn't find a sensible way through and eventually made the call to sleep at 5am hoping things would be easier and faster with daylight. We had covered about 11 river km during the night (GPS seems to have overread a bit at 15km due to signal bounce) so things were looking very tight.
5 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Sleep) 2:10:00 [0]
Slept in the rain under a tree until dawn..
7 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 7 Hike part 4) 13:30:00 [2] 32.6 km (2.4 kph) +746m
shoes: Asics Gel Fuji Trabuco 6 #2
Progress was much easier in daylight again and we soon found our way through the wall of thorny bush and onto gradually better and better game paths. We came across the father & son pair from Reunion not long before we hit the road and they were keen to tag along as they had only had 10 mins sleep during the night and were struggling to navigate. We ended up doing most of the rest of the race with them and it was great chatting and sharing stories of our (mis)adventures during the race so far.
We made decent progress along the road and reached CP31 with 5 hours left to cover the remaining 7km to the abseil cutoff. The marshall assured us it would only take us about 3 hours so we were feeling a bit less stressed about the cut-off. It was still quite a rough slog up through the thorn trees to reach the Rooibos farm fields on the plateau above but once we had reached the easy tracks there, we could relax, take it all in and amble over to the abseil, which we reached 90 mins before the dreaded cut-off. Mission (mostly) accomplished. Relief!
The 100m abseil was spectacular as we had timed it with sunset and was the perfect reward for all the anxious slogging we had been doing over the previous 30 hours. The foot was now very much off the gas and we strolled our way into T7, where we decided to have a long sleep before the final 57km. Who wants to deal with sleep monsters on the bike when not absolutely necessary anyway!? ;)
We made decent progress along the road and reached CP31 with 5 hours left to cover the remaining 7km to the abseil cutoff. The marshall assured us it would only take us about 3 hours so we were feeling a bit less stressed about the cut-off. It was still quite a rough slog up through the thorn trees to reach the Rooibos farm fields on the plateau above but once we had reached the easy tracks there, we could relax, take it all in and amble over to the abseil, which we reached 90 mins before the dreaded cut-off. Mission (mostly) accomplished. Relief!
The 100m abseil was spectacular as we had timed it with sunset and was the perfect reward for all the anxious slogging we had been doing over the previous 30 hours. The foot was now very much off the gas and we strolled our way into T7, where we decided to have a long sleep before the final 57km. Who wants to deal with sleep monsters on the bike when not absolutely necessary anyway!? ;)
9 PM
Adventure Racing (EA Transition 7 and Sleep) 6:29:00 [0]
Lazy transition with about 4 hours sleep in the middle.
Thursday May 24, 2018 #
12 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Sleep) 3:25:00 [0]
Good sleep but a pity about the mozzies...
4 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 6 MTB part 2) 4:22:00 [2] 43.0 km (9.8 kph) +660m
shoes: Merida Big Nine TFS 500
Got going again at about 3:30am and I was almost immediately hit by a really bad bout of sleep monsters (right after a 3h sleep, really!?). Battled through those for about an hour until finally feeling more or less awake again. The now combined team of the 3 Tumbleweeds guys and Franco from Premier Hotels caught us on the climb as they had slept at T5 instead. Same story with Team Nyamazela who caught us just before T6, which we rolled into at about 8am. Raining again...
8 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Transition 6) 2:00:00 [0]
Maps to plot, blisters to dress, lots of weight to load up with 15 litres of water between 3 of us for the team and entire loaves of banana bread to consume ;)
10 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 7 Hike part 1) 8:33:00 [2] 20.0 km (2.3 kph) +211m
shoes: Asics Gel Fuji Trabuco 6 #2
The equation was now pretty simple. There was a 6pm cut-off at the CP33 abseil the next day, which meant we had 32 hours to cover the 52km of mostly bushy riverbed. Sounds like plenty of time, but given that the winning team Blizzard had taken 24 hours for this leg, we knew things would be tight. Now that Seth had gotten to the final big leg, he was in high spirits to carry on and at least give it a shot as a full team - maximum respect to him given the pain he was going through! The rest of us focussed on teamwork: mainly carrying weight and scouting the best route ahead so it would be "plain sailing" for Seth.
We made steady progress during the initial daylight hours, with some slow-going in the Doring River section but picking it up again after CP30 once we turned into the main tributary canyon. Just before it got dark we had some serious bundubashing to do and got concerned as to what we'd have to fight through during the night. We decided to use a few naps during the night, both to stay fresh and give feet a bit of a break. We took our first one just as it got properly dark.
We made steady progress during the initial daylight hours, with some slow-going in the Doring River section but picking it up again after CP30 once we turned into the main tributary canyon. Just before it got dark we had some serious bundubashing to do and got concerned as to what we'd have to fight through during the night. We decided to use a few naps during the night, both to stay fresh and give feet a bit of a break. We took our first one just as it got properly dark.
7 PM
Adventure Racing (EA Sleep) 39:00 [0]
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 7 Hike part 2) 4:47:55 [2] 9.4 km (2.0 kph) +94m
shoes: Asics Gel Fuji Trabuco 6 #2
The terrain was surprisingly forgiving for our first section through the night so we slogged on, slowly ticking off the kilometers. I had worked out that we needed to cover a minimum of 10 or 11km before dawn to give us a shot of covering the remaining distance to the abseil the next day. This worked well to motivate us as were getting closer and closer to the required distance in our zombie slog state.
Kev was blasting the tunes again with his entire playlist on shuffle, so when we bumped into Tumbleweeds again (who had just had a short sleep), they were a tad confused by the Imagine Dragons / Kongos / ACDC / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star combo they had been hearing ;)
Kev was blasting the tunes again with his entire playlist on shuffle, so when we bumped into Tumbleweeds again (who had just had a short sleep), they were a tad confused by the Imagine Dragons / Kongos / ACDC / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star combo they had been hearing ;)
Wednesday May 23, 2018 #
4 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Sleep) 3:23:00 [0]
A very chilly sleep in a random cave in the Cederberg, waking at dawn to continue up to Sneeukop.
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 5 Hike part 2) 10:39:00 [3] 26.1 km (2.5 kph) +882m
shoes: Asics Gel Fuji Trabuco 6 #2
We started out with the most memorable sunrise lighting up all the cliffs that had been giving us trouble the night before :) With the help of daylight, we were able to find a sneaky scramble passage through the cliffs and finally onto the jeep track below Sneeukop. The tiger line had been slow, but had probably only cost us an hour longer than what the 7km detour on the path would have... plus we got extra adventure value!
We bumped into BUCO coming down on our way up the final Sneeukop gully, took our summit selfie and picked our way down through the slow-going boulder field back down to the jeep track. John had Seth on tow for most of the rest of the hike and we were able to keep up a decent pace, all things considered. At one point a rescue helicopter started circling above us and landed right in front of us, checking if we were ok and asking if we had seen the team with the apparent head injury near this location... turns out it was a bit of a misunderstanding in the end as the team had managed to get the person out themselves.
Tumbleweeds caught us again near the Middelburg hut and we spent the rest of the hike with them as they also had one of their team struggling with a sprained ankle. Seth was in quite a dark place in the last few km of this hike and was starting to make noises about pulling out as he was holding us back. We urged him to at least do the next bike leg as that would be some rest off his feet for a while..
We bumped into BUCO coming down on our way up the final Sneeukop gully, took our summit selfie and picked our way down through the slow-going boulder field back down to the jeep track. John had Seth on tow for most of the rest of the hike and we were able to keep up a decent pace, all things considered. At one point a rescue helicopter started circling above us and landed right in front of us, checking if we were ok and asking if we had seen the team with the apparent head injury near this location... turns out it was a bit of a misunderstanding in the end as the team had managed to get the person out themselves.
Tumbleweeds caught us again near the Middelburg hut and we spent the rest of the hike with them as they also had one of their team struggling with a sprained ankle. Seth was in quite a dark place in the last few km of this hike and was starting to make noises about pulling out as he was holding us back. We urged him to at least do the next bike leg as that would be some rest off his feet for a while..
6 PM
Adventure Racing (EA Transition 5) 2:00:00 [0]
There was a bit of a delay with the bike washes and services which made this a long one yet again.
8 PM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 6 MTB part 1) 4:33:00 [2] 49.2 km (10.8 kph) +601m
shoes: Merida Big Nine TFS 500
Up and over the very gentle Nieuwoudtspas and then along the Clanwilliam Dam via a very corrugated gravel road. Steady slog, with some more tunes to keep us awake. Stopped in Clanwilliam for some pies from the local convenience store and then found a great spot to sleep in the braai area of the local Bowls Club.
Tuesday May 22, 2018 #
5 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 4 MTB part 2) 12:11:00 [2] 135.2 km (11.1 kph) +1837m
shoes: Merida Big Nine TFS 500
Set off in the dark to get through the rest of the monster MTB leg - at least it looked like it was all pretty straightforward along gravel roads through the Cederberg. It started raining shortly after we got going and there was plenty of rain and mud for the rest of the ride, wreaking havoc with our brakes and drivetrains. There were 2 big passes right at the end of the ride which saw quite a bit of bike pushing, but we managed to roll into T4 at Whuppertal about 45 mins before dark. Some great views along this section of the ride and a spectacular sunset as we were cresting the last pass.
5 PM
Adventure Racing (EA Transition 4) 2:23:00 [0]
Some maps to plot and Seth's blisters re-dressed but quite a slow transition anyway. Started resigning myself to 2+ hour transitions at this point. At least there were only 7 of them in the race!
7 PM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 5 Hike part 1) 8:12:00 [2] 16.4 km (2.0 kph) +1196m
shoes: Asics Gel Fuji Trabuco 6 #2
Seth called a quick team meeting before the start of this hike to ensure that we were all on the same page as to the state of his blisters. He could only hobble at best, so we all committed to helping him as much as possible (carrying his pack, towing, etc) and fully focussing on getting the whole team through the full course even though the hikes would be very slow. We summarised it as saying that the hikes would just be like overnight hikes with mates from here on out :)
I had really been looking forward to this hike in the Cederberg and it did not disappoint! With all the rain, the rivers were really swollen, which made the first section through the kloof just out of Whuppertal quite challenging and slow. Once we were on the path out of Kleinvlei, we made steady progress up the big climb though and Kevin started playing some tunes - our secret anti-sleep-monster weapon for the rest of the race. The mostly-full moon was reflecting off some rocky buttresses all around us. Must be a spectacular place which I'd love to see again in the daylight.
There was a long 7km detour on the way up to the Sneeukop CP if you wanted to stay on paths, but with our slow pace, I thought taking the the 2km tiger line would be a better option. We were very quickly getting cliffed-out in the dark and the going was very slow, but we forged on ahead until finding a little cave shelter at about 4am where we stopped for a sleep.
I had really been looking forward to this hike in the Cederberg and it did not disappoint! With all the rain, the rivers were really swollen, which made the first section through the kloof just out of Whuppertal quite challenging and slow. Once we were on the path out of Kleinvlei, we made steady progress up the big climb though and Kevin started playing some tunes - our secret anti-sleep-monster weapon for the rest of the race. The mostly-full moon was reflecting off some rocky buttresses all around us. Must be a spectacular place which I'd love to see again in the daylight.
There was a long 7km detour on the way up to the Sneeukop CP if you wanted to stay on paths, but with our slow pace, I thought taking the the 2km tiger line would be a better option. We were very quickly getting cliffed-out in the dark and the going was very slow, but we forged on ahead until finding a little cave shelter at about 4am where we stopped for a sleep.
Monday May 21, 2018 #
12 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 3 Hike part 1) 3:54:00 [2] 17.1 km (4.4 kph) +200m
shoes: Asics Gel Fuji Trabuco 6 #2
This hike took us straight across the Knersvlakte - a dry, scrubby plain with very subtle contour detail making navigation in the dark pretty challenging unless you had a good handrail to use. So we stuck to roads, paths, fencelines and riverbeds, with the occasional compass bearing to cut a corner. Made one 20min nav error when we followed one dry riverbed to early looking for the "bend in dry riverbed" CP19 only to find the freaking Grand Canyon of dry riverbeds just 100m further along ;)
3 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Sleep) 2:44:00 [0]
We had planned to sleep about 3 hours every night and started on the first night at a sheltered spot in the open for the last few hours before dawn. Was well-timed with the hiking pace starting to flag a bit.
6 AM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 3 Hike part 2) 6:01:00 [2] 25.1 km (4.2 kph) +420m
shoes: Asics Gel Fuji Trabuco 6 #2
I think we lost about 3 places while we slept during the night but started hiking well again in the morning. Had an amazing view at the first real hilly valley on this hike at dawn and bumped into Park Rangers on the way up to CP20. Seth started having issues with blisters here and I advised that he stop to sort them out but he said he'd take care of them at transition. I should have insisted as this was the turning point for the rest of our race. I put him on tow for the last 10km of this hike which at least helped keep the team together and moving slightly faster.
12 PM
Adventure Racing (EA Transition 3) 1:48:00 [0]
This transition felt pretty long at the time, but with the 198km bike leg to plot across 8 x 1:50000 topo sheets, I guess it wasn't that bad.
2 PM
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 4 MTB part 1) 9:04:00 [3] 63.6 km (7.0 kph) +888m
shoes: Merida Big Nine TFS 500
This was the monster 198km MTB leg so we set off with plenty of food from transition, expecting to take a full 24 hours or more (top team time estimate by Stephan was 16h30m). We had a choice between 2 CP22s here, the one involving a 2km bike portage and the other an extra 20km of cycling. We didn't feel like making a long bike leg even longer and thought "how bad could the portage possibly be?". Pretty freaking bad it turns out!
The issues started before the portage though with a long section of really sticky muddy farm tracks that seized our wheels and made the going very slow. This meant we only hit the portage as it got dark and then promptly lost the path on the way up. I can confirm that carrying your bike through dense thorny bush up a steep slope is just about the worst thing you can do with your time. Luckily we found the path again about halfway up which made the progress a bit faster again. Still took about 4 hours for those 2km making the extra 20km cycle by far the better option. Kev was a hero in this section, motivating, helping with bike carrying, path scouting, etc. It was one of those crux moments in a race where the team could easily have slumped, lost hope and lost loads more time but thanks to Kev's hustle, we kept it mostly together. The portage did unfortunately claim his map board though..
Once on top it was a pretty straightforward ride down to Nieuwoudtville, where the mutton pies and some warm sleep were waiting for us!
The issues started before the portage though with a long section of really sticky muddy farm tracks that seized our wheels and made the going very slow. This meant we only hit the portage as it got dark and then promptly lost the path on the way up. I can confirm that carrying your bike through dense thorny bush up a steep slope is just about the worst thing you can do with your time. Luckily we found the path again about halfway up which made the progress a bit faster again. Still took about 4 hours for those 2km making the extra 20km cycle by far the better option. Kev was a hero in this section, motivating, helping with bike carrying, path scouting, etc. It was one of those crux moments in a race where the team could easily have slumped, lost hope and lost loads more time but thanks to Kev's hustle, we kept it mostly together. The portage did unfortunately claim his map board though..
Once on top it was a pretty straightforward ride down to Nieuwoudtville, where the mutton pies and some warm sleep were waiting for us!
11 PM
Adventure Racing (EA Sleep and Faffery) 5:45:00 [0]
Got about 4.5 hours sleep in the office of the church hall - we meant to sleep for less but think we either slept through an alarm or there was some confusion as to what time it had to be set for. The rest of the time was spent eating mutton pies, Seth dressing his blisters (which had now gotten really bad from doing the bike portage in bike shoes) and general faffery. I was pretty frustrated with the slowness but it was like farting against thunder ;)
Sunday May 20, 2018 #
9 AM
Adventure Racing race (EA Leg 1 Hike/Run) 2:53:00 [3] 19.7 km (6.8 kph) +285m
shoes: Asics Gel Fuji Trabuco 6 #2
Expedition Africa 2018 with Kev, John & Seth on Team Charnas. The race area was the Namaqua West Coast and Cederberg so we were expecting some dry conditions and long sections. The goal (as always) was to finish the full course without falling foul of any cut-offs along the way. Always great to be in a race with so many teams (52) since there is always activity around you and plenty of camaraderie amongst the teams.
The first leg was a 20km run/hike up the coast from Doringbaai to the Olifants River Mouth with loads of checkpoints to get in the detailed rocky coastline. Gloomy, misty weather, but great conditions for a cool run. We settled into the mid pack and kept things comfortable. One route choice at the end where we took a slightly longer route around the river mouth to avoid the wade/swim into transition. Still very muddy/swampy along our route though.
The first leg was a 20km run/hike up the coast from Doringbaai to the Olifants River Mouth with loads of checkpoints to get in the detailed rocky coastline. Gloomy, misty weather, but great conditions for a cool run. We settled into the mid pack and kept things comfortable. One route choice at the end where we took a slightly longer route around the river mouth to avoid the wade/swim into transition. Still very muddy/swampy along our route though.
12 PM
Adventure Racing race (EA Transition 1) 23:00 [0]
This was pretty much the only transition we hustled at for the entire race - most of us put on full waterproof kit as we were going to be paddling into a headwind and into the night...
Adventure Racing (EA Leg 2 Paddle) 10:20:00 [2] 49.0 km (4.7 kph) +50m
The first 3 or 4 hours of this paddle were just horrendous. Straight into a strong headwind with the tide still coming out and the kayaks constantly strafing to the left. Ugh. Don't think we were going much faster than 2 or 3 km/h. Once the river started narrowing a bit we could get some shelter from the wind along the sides and things started looking up. Took one short portage as it was getting dark to cut a river corner - didn't really gain or lose us any time over those paddling but was a nice butt break and timed well with having to put lights and glowsticks on anyway. Don't seem to have gained or lost any positions on this paddle.
11 PM
Adventure Racing (EA Transition 2) 59:00 [0]
Not a bad transition considering we had to change out of wet kit, plot new maps and there was braaied snoek and sweet potatoes on offer ;)