Training Log Archive: Bash

North Am Rogaine Champs, Day 2...

We headed out for our night controls, which went smoothly except in one place where we got fooled by one of the many unmarked streams. Backwoods Girl did an awesome job relocating there, and we only lost 10 minutes or so. She felt like crap, but marched along a bit more slowly, staying in close contact with the map - except on a couple of occasions when she warned me that she wasn't. The deal was, we would get to Camp 12 – a horse camp – and find a place for her to take a longer nap and try to shake off the bug.

We snuck into their dining hall around 3 a.m., and stayed until after 4 a.m. I couldn’t sleep, so I stared at the map looking for alternate routes, but couldn’t find anything better than our original plan. The nap hadn’t cured BG sufficiently to make it seem like a good idea to set off on a 10 km loop with 1800’ feet of climb. So we picked off a few random controls along the main road leading back toward the base camp, not getting too far away in case we had to bail out. BG was suffering because her stomach was empty, and she couldn’t eat or drink, so she was hiking with no fuel. She wanted to continue to be competitive for as long as possible, but finally it became clear that we had to go back and let her rest, so we checked in two hours before the finish. Fortunately, we had done just enough. Our last control was worth 50 points, and that was the margin by which we won the female category of the North American Rogaine Championship!

1st 8 hrs – 710 points
2nd 8 hrs - 410 points
3rd 8 hrs (actually only 6 hrs) – 190 points
Total – 1310 points

If it weren’t for the Bash Rogaine Partner Curse, it would have been cool to see what we could have achieved in the overall standings, but we are happy with how we did in difficult circumstances. It was awesome to race with a navigator I trust so much while remaining heavily involved in the nav myself. BG is mentally and physically tough, and a great partner.

A lot of teams we know had problems, including 'Bent's team, where 3Pin had IT band pain that slowed him down. Most people were smiling though, and hopefully GHO will get another good crowd out for a future rogaine.

Event: North American Rogaine Championships
 

Backwoods Girl and I teamed up for this rogaine in beautiful – and very hilly - Allegany State Park. She taught me to orienteer a few years ago, and I’ve done a number of overnight races in recent years, so I looked forward to blending our respective skills.

Thanks to the practice in our rogaining workshop, the route planning went very smoothly. We put the map on a board and used coloured pins to mark high- and medium-value controls, then wrapped a calibrated string around them to represent our route. We decided to go with a main route of only 50 km, thanks to stories we’d heard about the difficulty of the terrain. We had an optional loop we could add at the end if we got that far. This was by far the most realistic plan I’ve ever made for a rogaine, and that made things go more smoothly on the course. I madly calculated points per kilometer, and made small route adjustments to improve that measurement. Backwoods Girl reviewed the route for elevation gain/loss and made adjustments so the route made more sense in that department. Then we had a brainstorm and decided to do our route in reverse. We would travel through the roadless west side of the park in daylight, then follow a gravel road that would give us nice attackpoints for a series of night controls. Then, in a burst of morning energy, we would do a hilly loop in the southeast quadrant and return to the base camp.

It started out amazingly well. Backwoods Girl and I alternated jogging and walking along the road to get our first control, then headed up the ridge for a long, hilly walk in the woods. We didn’t talk about it – we just started working together efficiently. One of us would announce that we were pace counting, and the other would lead on the bearing, which both of us would take. We’d discuss the features we were seeing and whether we thought we might be drifting, and whenever we both got nervous, we knew we would see the control within 15-20 seconds. During daylight, we only made one error of any size. We were chatting and got distracted, then had to backtrack 6 or 7 minutes through stinging nettles that were so tall we had to lift our arms over our heads as we walked. The flag was right in the middle of them. Ow, ow, OW. Otherwise, we hit everything pretty well. Our goal was to push as hard as we could until darkness on the first day, knowing that our performance would be best during that period.

We got to the water control we’d expected to hit shortly before dark, but there was still so much light that we did another two controls and made it most of the way to a third control. Then we stopped for a break to put on warm clothes and take a half-hour rest. Unfortunately, Backwoods Girl had been hit with the Bash Rogaine Partner Curse, which causes anyone who rogaines with me to fall ill or get severe blisters. Her stomach had started to act up, and we hoped that a time-out would help it.

Checking that all of the flags were still in place for tonight's Caledon Navigators training night. I'm less fatigued than yesterday, but I've got a few sore muscles today. Hope I'm mostly recovered by the time this weekend's rogaine begins! We had a decent turn-out for our training night, and there were some solid efforts by relatively new orienteers doing a challenging course. Much thanks to Rocky for working with me on this. Next time you'll be the one hanging the flags! :-)

In a continuing effort to sabotage my tapering for this weekend's 24-hour rogaine, I went out at 8:30 a.m. for some Albion Hills single track with 'Bent and Gazelle. The first half of today's ride was anaerobic as I pushed to keep up with the guys, then I sent them off ahead as planned, and did a gentler forest loop before returning home. I am now officially exhausted. It turns out that a Tim Horton's ice cap at 4 p.m. is a great way to prepare for an evening race, but the combination of caffeine and adrenaline had me awake till 3:30 a.m. That, plus higher intensity effort than usual in recent days, has wiped me out. I'm going to do as little as possible before Saturday. I've got to check flags on a 4 km O course tomorrow, but I'll go as slowly as the bugs will let me.

Ancaster Old Mill 10K Race.

But Bash doesn't run on pavement, you might say... and you would be right. It's a long story, and the bottom line is that it's Hammer's fault. :-)

I had to search the house for shoes that would be appropriate for a road race, and finally settling on cushioned Reeboks that I've only ever used in indoor fitness centres. It was a bit strange to just dress for the weather, without worrying about long tights to avoid poison ivy or eye protection to fend off sticks. It was a tough call, but I didn't use the Active Ankle either, since I was afraid of new blisters from different shoes.

At the start line, I realized that my heart rate was high just because it felt weird to be there. I had no particular goals and no reason to be nervous, so I did some deep breathing and talked myself into calming down - and right then, the cannon went off right beside me to announce the start and I nearly jumped out of my skin!

The first half of the course is pretty hilly. Until 5 km, I was on track to break 50 minutes, which would have been cool, but I tired myself out and got slower in the second half. At the bottom of the longest hill, Hammer, Meridian, Griz and SuperWes were there to cheer me on, which was great timing, since I needed some inspiration as I looked uphill.

I tried to pick up the speed in the last kilometer in an attempt to pass a couple of women 30 meters ahead, but I had nothing left in the tank. Crossing the finish line, I felt light-headed and even read my time wrong. It was nice to see Bender cheering at the finish, and it was great to see Coach Sudden, who finished an amazing 6th of about 360 runners, just two days after pushing hard in the Barebones long orienteering race.

Results are already posted. I went into this with no expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised to finish 3rd of 24 women in my age category, and 19th of 144 women overall. I still feel like an impostor when surrounded by runners, so I am very happy with those results. All the same, I can't see myself doing another road race any time soon. Too boring!

After the race, a bunch of us went back to Hammer's place for a bender - which in my case consisted of one beer, a slice of pizza and a donut. It was a nice summer night to sit on the deck, relax, and listen to everyone's stories. Nice to see Hammer back in town, if only temporarily.

Hard Core Monday - not feeling energetic today.

After very little sleep on Saturday night and a late bedtime last night after travelling home from Edmonton, I was looking forward to sleeping in this morning, especially since I have a 24-hour rogaine in a few days. Nope. Phone rang at 7:25 a.m. - an in-law who had dialled the wrong number. Argghhh.

I took my ankle in to see ThumbsOfDeath, who tortured me for half an hour. This sprain is taking a lo-o-o-ong time to get better. At least my Active Ankle hasn't given me any new blisters since I moved the lower strap up higher.