Training Log Archive: silkychrome

how about we move Nats to STL? weather is beautiful here. everyone can stay at my place.

EZ. sorry i have been sucking on the blog lately. amazing what happens when you actually like your job! on my count i owe all y'all:

Cowboy Tough Day 3
Cowboy Tough Day 4
World Rogaine Champs
Thunder Rolls 24hr
OT100MTB
Berryman 16hr
and soon-to-be USARA Nats 30hr.

...not to mention the THREE other races in October...Burnin, Perfect 10, BTEpic. uff-da.

in consolation i offer you a photo album of Berryman: https://www.facebook.com/silkychrome/media_set?set...

C • You need to lose a few... 3

CW w Jeff and David. SO EARLY. dragged myself out there and was actually quite grumpy at the start. but 2 seconds of running w the best teammates eva solved that. now, feet up!

C • No way 7

2 laps at CBL w Jeff, Carrie, David, Mary, and special appearances by HH, CPay, and Peat. garmin says 2200' climb, strava says 1000', AP says 1600'. hm. anyway first lap i took it EZ and was reminded what a finesse-y trail this is. second lap i pushed a little and it felt good. rode the rock garden and drop off for the 1st and 2nd times ever in my life!

EZ jog w David and Jeff at CB.

to Uncle Bill's to have breakfast w new friends from Wild Raven Adventures, before dropping them back off at the MS River.

https://www.facebook.com/wildravenadventure

C • Unreal NA canoe trip! 2

who schedules a clinic at 8pm on a Friday? Mountain Hardwear does. so i went for a run. lindbergh-essex-doughtery ferry-ballas-adams-lindbergh then around the 'hood behind the shop to get distance up to 6mi. i need to improve my KW route repertoire...bill_l can you help?

anyway this run was BALLER. everything about it...happy. gotta keep this mojo for 8 days.

home.

to PD

WU:
foam roll, 2x10 AS, 2x10 SD, 2x10 pushup, 2x15 DBPP 2x15#.
THEN:
4x(30/30) DBPP 2x8#.
THEN:
work up to 95# BS
add 2x10# chains
5 rounds of: 3x BS, 5x jump (18" box, 24" box, broad, 24" box, broad), rest.
THEN:
3 rounds of: 20m walking lunge w 2x20# KB, 10x GHD, rest.
THEN:
5 rounds of: 5x pull-up (purple band), 30sec FLR on rings, rest.

home.

into work.
Q: could the weather be more beautiful today?
A: no. no it could not.

home from work w JZ and Gino after Pint Night.

busy day at work yesterday = no trainin = EK stressin. luckily Peat wanted to get some morning miles at Chubb so I joined him for no-stress shreddin. worked on tech stuff and i rode a lot more than i thought i could!

EZ home on the warrior princess. legs feel good but it was nice to have gears.

day drinking in STL w Sami11, Space Monkey, and the Sonas :)

Event: Fool's Gold 100 (NUE)
 

Event: The Berryman Adventure
 

Berryman 16hr w Jeff and Doug and guest starring The Garrison on the maps. we thought we blew the race after coming out of the second trek 60min down on BW/GJ/WEDALI and Fusion. there was still a lot of course left but those are seriously strong teams. kept racing our race and got lucky that the race came down to strategy - no one cleared and there were two different route choices to finish line. Jeff was in bad shape (overheating) and we chose to skip 3 trek CPs (1 point each) in favor of getting 3 bike CPs (5 points) on the way home. we executed our plan including sensational nav by Mike, took care of each other, and escaped with a W. and thousands of seed ticks. and 1 bee sting.

TREK 1, CPs 1-7, 3.5k, 0:41
fast and furious start as expected. traded lead w Fusion/Kuat and Bushwhacker/GearJunkie/WEDALI (aka "whackadalians") on each CP it seemed like. eventually F/K pulled ahead. my legs were decidedly un-snappy for this entire thing and i just tried to hang on.

PADDLE 1, CP 8, 6k?, 1:13
put-in second behind F/K w Whackadalians in sight behind us. me/Jeff and Doug/Mike. i felt like we paddled great and actually kept up w F/K who are excellent paddlers. some logs and low water to negotiate but Jeff crushed it as usual.

TREK 2, CPs 9-24 rogaine-style, 15k, 4:28
on the paddle we discussed our route choice and decided that we would go the opposite direction as F/K to try and get away from them in the woods. after the take-out, they went south so we went north. longish flat run to the attackpoint for CP18 made it clear that Whackadalians went south as well. Mike nailed the (micro? haha) nav and the pace was fast, i was proud of us for keeping the pedal down w/o competition in sight. my legs were still grumpy but i just kept eating and hoped they would improve. started looking for others around the half-way point in the loop but didn't see anyone. then got stumped by CP23 "broad spur" and had to re-attack at least 5 times. we all knew we were hemorrhaging time but stayed calm and worked together to eventually find it. knocked out the last 2 controls and came into TA bracing ourselves for bad news...

PADDLE 2, CPs 25-26, 8k?, 1:31
...and it was bad news - Whackadalians over 1hr ahead of us w F/K 15min behind them. uff-da. we were also all hot and out of water so took a few minutes to go swimming and drink up. then into the boats for more paddling on the Gasconade River - SO BEAUTIFUL. we saw a bald eagle up close. took some extra time to deal w seed ticks that were on everyone's legs. still felt really good in the boat - a new experience for me!

TREK 3, CP 27, 1k, 0:11
quick TA, still about 1hr behind Whackadalians, we ran up the hill, Doug's achilles was unhappy but thankfully this was the only spot it affected him.

BIKE 1, CPs 28-34?, 15k?, 1:56
Jeff and Mike plotted while Doug and I prepped bikes/packs. rode out onto some sketchy sketch singletrack w lots of hike-a-bike but i actually was loving it once i let some pressure out of my tires. a well-shifting bike works wonders! we weren't especially fast but didn't waste any time either as Mike guided us through a spiderweb of trails.

BIKE 2, CPs 1-6, 15k?, 1:54
back into Race HQ for a new map, new passport, and new set of CPs. i was so happy to see that there was TONS of race left - a glimmer of hope that we might actually catch someone. that, plus race staff told us F/K was only 30min ahead now (but Whackadalians still 1hr up). loaded up on calories and rolled out onto more sketchtastic singletrack. loved it. finally some gravel to close out this leg.

TREK 4, CPs 7-19, 10k?, 2:42
we started this at sunset (1900). final race cutoff 2300. here is where strategy came in. the remaining trekking CPs were all optional and a few were worth 2pts. then, there were 2 main options for the final bike, a short one worth 0 CPs/0 points and a longer one worth 3 CPs/5 points. we figured we could get 5 biking points faster than 5 trekking points so we gave ourselves a deadline to start that final bike - 2130 - leaving us 2.5 hours to maximize our TREK 4 points. we planned a route and got after it. some tough veg right off the bat, but Mike really shone in this leg. roads did weird unmapped things, terrain got subtle, and of course it was DARK but he was on fire! Jeff also started to get really hot. like, worse than i've ever seen him. i took his pack and Mike found a cool puddle for him to sit in for a few minutes. scary, but he held it together for the last few km back to TA.

BIKE 3, CPs 20-22, 15k?, 1:16
the volunteer was stingy w info but i pried out of him that F/K and Whackadalians were still in the woods. good news for us! we rode out on the long way home. it seemed like first 5k were all downhill and that really helped Jeff cool off. CP20, easy. CP21 was hard, we stopped to map-check and lights rode up on us...F/K!!! oh no!!! we chatted for a second but they decided to continue on as we back-tracked. turns out back-tracking was right as we found the trail junction we needed to lead us straight to the CP. then we just had CP22 left which was a repeat from earlier in the day. Doug tried to make it interesting w a spectacular endo into a mud puddle, but he wasn't hurt. Mike deservedly made the final punch and then we rode to the finish. i thought we had beaten F/K but no idea what Whackadalians had done on TREK 4. turns out they had 2 bike mechanicals and went the short way home so we were ahead on CPs.

such a good lesson to never stop racing. it was hard to keep motivated being that far behind to such good teams but we did it. good practice for Nats!!

C • Congrats! 6

EZ breezy beautiful.

the long wydown loop in the Missions w SFOE insole. coming to the realization that my trusty Cascadia 7s probably won't last another season. wahhhhhhh.

LV night ride w Mike, Jake, and Chris. Jake worked on the SegSlayer today, new chain, brake pads, cables, headset, and RD pulleys. wow. HUGE difference. also swapped tires and the 1.9 i have in the back did better than expected in the singletrack. ready to rock!

hiccups the first mile.

an extra mile trying to find my wallet. it was in my pack the whole time. duh.

C • I lost my phone once 3

the uj EZ jog, stopped just a hair early to get groceries.

to work.

back home. 9mi is the perfect length commute.

WU:
5min row, foam roll, 2x15 AS, 2x10 SD, 2x20m lunge, 2x15 GHD sit-up.
THEN:
5 rounds of: 2x FS/BS 85#, 3x FS/BS 75#, 5x FS/BS 65#, rest.
THEN:
5min AD to flush legs
THEN:
6 rounds of: 20sec row sprint w 70sec EZ row recovery. all sprints 85-90m.
CD:
5x30sec FLR on rings.

kept weight on the conservative side for FS/BS super-set and it was just the right amount of challenge. i'll prob be sore tomorrow tho... that's 100 squats total! good thing it's a Monday. getting super-stoked for Foundation in December, and Gym Jones seminar in May!! time to save some pennies.

C • Gym Jones? 6

EZ ride home in the mist. pretty wet but oddly calming. legs needed a spin real bad.

chill ride w Jeff and Carrie. SegSlayer is getting totally overhauled so rode the SS. beautiful day, tons of people out at CW. Blue Ribbon, Zombie, and Bluffview.

C • CW 2

EZ solo jog at CW. just getting a little time on feet in. up River Scene the hard way and down Lone Wolf.

after race directing 0500-1000, i stopped at GF on the way back to the shop to run w Jeff. knocked out Jeff's usual 12 mile loop (only 11 garmin miles) just chatting EZ. except we both hit the last climb hard and it was awesome. managed to stay in front but probably only bc Jeff had already ran 10k that morning clearing the race streamers. also i got to drive the AS Sprinter van around. woohoo!

55F. brrrr.

C • Brrr here too 9

course marking w Todd for tomorrow's 10k. we jogged a little.

w a headlamp for the first time in a while. long way to PD, misty morning.

WU:
5min AirDyne, foam roll, 2x10 AS, 2x10 GS 20#, 2x10 SD.
THEN:
3 rounds of: 10x front raise, 10x lateral raise, 10x reverse fly. 8# DBs.
THEN:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of: RDL 36#-61#, plank pull, pull-up (purple band), bench dip, push-up.

w Brett. upper-body focus was good for recovery, also a huge weakness of mine.

slight detour on way home for coffee.

into work

jog around kirkwood. legs felt like poo.

EZ jog. low back, triceps, and top of quads are tight but nothing bad. evidence that i didn't go to the well on Saturday when i had the chance. obvi im still bummed about losing the battle when it was so close all day. in the long run it's probably better but short-term it's still sad! but a good learning opportunity as always. had a good talk w Dwayne and there is some fire in my belly!

EZ home from work. again, feeling much better than i should be.

Event: U.S. Rogaine Championships
 

Event: OT100 MTB P2P
 

Event: Gateway MS150
 

OT100MTB. all singletrack except for 1/2 mi gravel opener and 1mi gravel bypass at mi36. had a good ride, was within 30sec-2min of SS Kate all day, just didn't have the legs to go with her when she attacked at mile 87. 2nd overall.

C • Nice work! 10

EZ around ze block. humid.

it's getting dark in the morning :(

checking for the creak, Jake fixed it! singletrack in FP was overgrown and FULL of spiderwebs.

EZ. a little tight from PD yesterday but not nearly as bad as last week. whew!

WU:
foam roll, 3x 60sec FLR, 3x5 SLOB squat 20", 2x20m lunge/SLDL combo.
THEN:
3 rounds of: 5x SLDL 55# each leg, 10x eccentric GHR, rest.
THEN:
5 rounds of: 20m sled hop 135#, 100m row sprint, rest.

grateful i didn't know what the sled hop was before today. kept the row sprints all under 23sec.

to/from PD

EZ. body felt slow but heart was happy. rest week did me good.

new tires for the OT100 on the SegSlayer and i needed to make sure they'd hook up good on the gravelly stuff, so went to CW and rode around. they worked great.