Training Log Archive: Bash

Raid The North Deerhurst adventure race, Day 2.

The biking was exhilarating, but not exhilarating enough to keep Bent awake, unfortunately. He started seeing double and veering in odd directions, which is never good when you are riding on roads. We took four nap breaks - with the slight problem that I don't nap. I just get chilled in my wet cycling clothes - brrrr! We had a couple of problems where mapped back roads didn't exist in real life, but for the most part, we were going in the right direction - slowly.

At sunrise, we met up with our awesome support crew, had some food and coffee, then headed out on foot toward a beautiful rappel site overlooking a lake. We bushwhacked back to a road, then followed roads and ATV trails for a several hours until we reached the Big East River, where we had to travel in the riverbed (no more than 2.5 m above water level) for over an hour. With the switchbacks and the varying water depths, this was actually kind of fun, except for all the sand we got in our shoes. Then we switched to canoes and paddled for hours to get to downtown Huntsville, where people were watching us as they sipped beer at pubs. It was tempting to stop, but we still had another hour of paddling across lakes to Deerhurst Resort.

Friends met us at the finish line and whisked us over to the banquet, which everyone else had finished. Luckily, the buffet was still well-stocked, and because this was a Deerhurst Resort meal, it was really, really good. In fact, I'm not sure that food has ever tasted so good to me (remember that I'd eaten nothing but gel, chips and sports drink for the past 6 hours). We went to our motel and were overjoyed to discover that the final leg of the Tour de France was on. Unbelievably, after following it so closely all month, I fell asleep with the TV blaring, shortly after the riders hit the Champs Elysees. However, I was able to guess who won.

As for me, I'm grateful that the North American Rogaine Championship is next week, because I really need to get back on the horse and try again.

Raid The North Deerhurst adventure race, Day 1.

In theory, our team planned to peak at this race, but as it approached, I didn't have a good feeling. When race day arrived, we seemed jinxed from the start. Bent's painful, infected finger started ballooning, and he needed to get antibiotics. Changing bike gears hurt him. The Minister arrived with a splint on his arm from dragon boating, I think. Hingo had a killer headache all night and threw up hours before the race began. I felt good and the mapwork went smoothly - except for losing Hingo partway through.

The race began on foot north of Algonquin Park. We ran 8 km along ATV trails and, much to our surprise, found ourselves in an unexpected swamp along with a number of other teams, instead of at the tiny lake where CP1 would be found. Teams took their own approaches to relocation from there. The sad and embarrassing truth is that our team never made it to CP1. With 20/20 hindsight and discussion with other navigators who faced the same problem, I can see what happened. The ATV trail on the map only matched the ATV trail on the terrain for part of the way, then we spent the last 2 km on an unmapped trail, unbeknownst to us and everyone else. When there are 120 people running in the same direction along a road in the dark, there is a tendency to assume that things are going OK and to forgive some differences between the trail and the terrain. ATV trails are always a bit dubious on topo maps anyway. Because I didn't doubt the trail as much as I should have, we made corrections based on my assumption that we were north of the CP, which is what most teams thought. Unfortunately, we were south. We finally bushwhacked east, hoping to hit some features, and knowing there was a road to act as a backstop and give us a known attackpoint to return to the CP. Finally, we ran out of time and will, and returned to the start, where we caught a ride to the TA. :-(((

Lessons learned:
1) Keep actively navigating in a crowd, even if it means that everyone passes you. (Although sometimes you do this at your peril, based on my experience in other races, because the teams that follow the top teams often get to CP1 fast.)
2) Challenge all assumptions. Consider the reliability of the information they are based on.
3) Remain constantly suspicious of any trail, regardless of how well it has corresponded with the map so far.
4) Bring an altimeter.
5) Track distances, times and bearings religiously - even on CPs that look easy, as this one did.

From there, we moved ahead to a 6-hr paddling section, mostly along a shallow, rocky, twisty river. Hallelujah, I actually made a good nav decision by portaging 2.5 km along a logging road. The course designer figured that it saved 1-2 hours, and most teams didn't do it.

As the final light faded, we hopped on our bikes for what turned out to be 100 km on rolling paved and gravel roads. It was such a treat to be out in cool air after the steamy summer we've had! On good days, Lance says that his bike "has no chain". Well, tonight my bike had no chain. It didn't hurt that our route was predominantly downhill, even though we had a few climbs to warm us up.

Raid The North Algonquin

Another one of those rest days that wasn't intended to be a rest day... All the packing and gear-fiddling required for a 36-hr adventure race has made me nostalgic for the elegant simplicity of orienteering! We have a first-time support crew, so I offered to bring all the stuff they will need, plus I've booked the accommodation, coordinated the travel details, bought the team's food for transition areas, etc. All while recovering from jet lag and a red-eye flight from B.C. Phew - is it any wonder I'm always exhausted at the starting line? (Given that the race starts at midnight this Friday, I expect that everyone will be pretty tired.)

Trail ride in Palgrave Conservation Area. My favourite bike mechanic made some major improvements to my bike while I was at COCs. It rides like a dream now and makes me climb like Spiderman, but I need to test all the gears, stretch the cables and so on. Unfortunately, I will do terrible things to it in this weekend's race, so my poor bike will be back to its usual condition by Monday.

The trails suffered a lot of erosion damage from the deluge that flooded our basement while I was in B.C. The wild raspberries were at their peak today and the mosquitoes mostly stayed in hiding. The only wildlife was a group of 8 horses and their riders, whom I met several times because they didn't follow the trail directional arrows. They weren't any happier to see a biker than I was to see 8 horses - especially ones whose riders were clearly inexperienced at controlling their animals, so I had to dive into the poison-ivy-filled woods to make sure that none of them got hurt. Other than that minor inconvenience, it was a great day to be out in the woods! (There aren't many bad days.)

Weight machine - upper and lower body workout while watching the final TDF stage in Les Pyrenees. Last strength workout before RTN this weekend. Hope I've done enough to prepare for some power paddling!

Red eye flight home from Vancouver with awesome northern lights, but very little sleep. Ontario is still having a nasty heat wave, and I'm already looking forward to our next trip to B.C. in just 12 days. I was too groggy to be effective today, but I need to change gears fast and prepare to leave on Thursday night for the 36-hour Raid The North adventure race.