Training Log Archive: BashIn the 7 days ending Mar 25, 2012:
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Sunday Mar 25, 2012 #
10 AM
Mountain Biking (Trail) 4:30:00 43.81 km (9.7 kph) +771m
Magnificent 7 ride - wow! Harps has provided a detailed description of the ride in his log. In a nutshell, this is a relatively new route that links newly built and existing trails. It's scenic and incredibly diverse; it gets tougher as you go along. If I could only do one ride around Moab at this time of year, I would give Mag 7 a slight edge over Porcupine Rim - although ideally, I would do both!
We started at the Gemini Bridges Rd. parking lot off Hwy 313 west of Moab. Big thanks to Amy and Sara for dropping us off!
The first section of new single track took us past Bull Canyon.
So fun and rideable!
'Bent crashed on a short rocky climb in this section - the first fall of the weekend for any of us - and banged his bad knee. The first single track was a mix of rock and loose sand that sometimes caused his wheels to slide out in unpredictable ways on slopes. When the trail became rockier after the first hour, he had more control and started blasting ahead like yesterday.
The first stretch of trail is marked with yellow paint at irregular intervals.
Harps put on a clinic in Slickrock-style riding.
We took a break at the Gemini Bridges rock formation. Beautiful shapes and colours!
When I'm added to the photo, you can appreciate the scale a little better.
Another stop at Bride Canyon.
Around this point, we saw a sign that suggested turning back and provided considerable detail about the implications of continuing. The rest of the route was only for "Experts with Endurance". Hmm, well, we have endurance... There were different variations of the sign as the trail continued but when it became too late to bail, the signs stopped appearing.
Just as the route became tougher, it also became more difficult to follow. Markings weren't always easily visible and other jeep trails confused matters.
Luckily, we had two navigators working on the problem.
The route loses over 600 m from start to finish but Garmin says that our elevation gain was almost 800 m. Although one should never trust a Forerunner on altitude, there was a lot of climbing and descending so that doesn't seem far off.
My rental bike is great but it only has two front chain rings so I'm missing the biggest and smallest gears I have at home. I missed the big gear a little coming down from Porcupine Rim but today I missed my beloved granny gear. Normally, I can spin up almost any hill even if I'm reduced to a crawl. With this bike, I had to push so hard that my knees started to hurt and I had to walk some slopes that I could ride with my own bike. This does not bode well for riding the Slickrock Trail.
We eventually reached the top of the cliff where we could look down onto the main highway into Moab.
Note that only one of us had a beet-red face after this climb.
Since we hadn't brought our paragliders, we followed the trail away from the cliff and made our way toward the Poison Spider jeep trail which would eventually take us down the cliff to our car - but not for awhile yet!
'Bent was in his element in the rocky stuff.
We met surprisingly few other bikers - and they were all coming up (maybe because they didn't have Amy and Sara to drop them off at the top!)
We met some jeeps and ATVs. It is insane what they do in those vehicles.
Some of the Jeep/ATV riders looked surprisingly unadventurous - older couples and families out for a nice Sunday drive.
We came across a gravestone with numerous offerings - coins, gels, flowers, Chapstick, etc. It was the grave of Mary Jane Francis, age 7. I looked her up, and legend says that she was killed by a poison spider. The trail was named after this incident. Tradition dictates that passersby should leave an offering to ensure their safe passage. We didn't know but we would have left something for sure!
The scenery changed as we lost elevation.
Toward the end, we had to walk sections of the Poison Spider jeep trail because the sand was so deep and fine. (Note that Harps hopped onto his bike when I mentioned that I was going to take a photo of the guys walking.)
Amazing, tiring, tough ride. A day later, I feel it most in my arms. I should have done more push-ups!
Once again, Harps' log is the best place to read about the trail itself. Thanks for organizing an excellent weekend for us, Harps!
We started at the Gemini Bridges Rd. parking lot off Hwy 313 west of Moab. Big thanks to Amy and Sara for dropping us off!
The first section of new single track took us past Bull Canyon.
So fun and rideable!
'Bent crashed on a short rocky climb in this section - the first fall of the weekend for any of us - and banged his bad knee. The first single track was a mix of rock and loose sand that sometimes caused his wheels to slide out in unpredictable ways on slopes. When the trail became rockier after the first hour, he had more control and started blasting ahead like yesterday.
The first stretch of trail is marked with yellow paint at irregular intervals.
Harps put on a clinic in Slickrock-style riding.
We took a break at the Gemini Bridges rock formation. Beautiful shapes and colours!
When I'm added to the photo, you can appreciate the scale a little better.
Another stop at Bride Canyon.
Around this point, we saw a sign that suggested turning back and provided considerable detail about the implications of continuing. The rest of the route was only for "Experts with Endurance". Hmm, well, we have endurance... There were different variations of the sign as the trail continued but when it became too late to bail, the signs stopped appearing.
Just as the route became tougher, it also became more difficult to follow. Markings weren't always easily visible and other jeep trails confused matters.
Luckily, we had two navigators working on the problem.
The route loses over 600 m from start to finish but Garmin says that our elevation gain was almost 800 m. Although one should never trust a Forerunner on altitude, there was a lot of climbing and descending so that doesn't seem far off.
My rental bike is great but it only has two front chain rings so I'm missing the biggest and smallest gears I have at home. I missed the big gear a little coming down from Porcupine Rim but today I missed my beloved granny gear. Normally, I can spin up almost any hill even if I'm reduced to a crawl. With this bike, I had to push so hard that my knees started to hurt and I had to walk some slopes that I could ride with my own bike. This does not bode well for riding the Slickrock Trail.
We eventually reached the top of the cliff where we could look down onto the main highway into Moab.
Note that only one of us had a beet-red face after this climb.
Since we hadn't brought our paragliders, we followed the trail away from the cliff and made our way toward the Poison Spider jeep trail which would eventually take us down the cliff to our car - but not for awhile yet!
'Bent was in his element in the rocky stuff.
We met surprisingly few other bikers - and they were all coming up (maybe because they didn't have Amy and Sara to drop them off at the top!)
We met some jeeps and ATVs. It is insane what they do in those vehicles.
Some of the Jeep/ATV riders looked surprisingly unadventurous - older couples and families out for a nice Sunday drive.
We came across a gravestone with numerous offerings - coins, gels, flowers, Chapstick, etc. It was the grave of Mary Jane Francis, age 7. I looked her up, and legend says that she was killed by a poison spider. The trail was named after this incident. Tradition dictates that passersby should leave an offering to ensure their safe passage. We didn't know but we would have left something for sure!
The scenery changed as we lost elevation.
Toward the end, we had to walk sections of the Poison Spider jeep trail because the sand was so deep and fine. (Note that Harps hopped onto his bike when I mentioned that I was going to take a photo of the guys walking.)
Amazing, tiring, tough ride. A day later, I feel it most in my arms. I should have done more push-ups!
Once again, Harps' log is the best place to read about the trail itself. Thanks for organizing an excellent weekend for us, Harps!
Saturday Mar 24, 2012 #
Mountain Biking (Trail) 3:15:00 [3] 38.0 km (11.7 kph)
Porcupine Rim trail with 'Bent and Harps. This is a classic - the favourite Moab trail of many riders. It did not disappoint.
Porcupine Rim is mostly a downhill trail that takes you from a high point down to the town of Moab. It's still early in the season so it isn't possible to go to the very top of the route. We drove up Sand Flats Road past the Slickrock Trail and other beautiful trails and campsites. We parked near the Kokapelli Trail which we climbed in sticky mud to get to UPS (Upper Porcupine Singletrack). There was still snow around.
At the junction with UPS, we were at an altitude of 7,800'. Our lungs noticed the oxygen deficiency! Moab, our destination, was at 4,000'
The scenery along this route - and all around Moab - is spectacular.
At first, we were riding rocky singletrack. The riding felt something like the new Logs Rocks and Steel course on the Torrance Barrens.
Like many trails in Moab, much of this section of Porcupine Rim travels along a cliff edge - sometimes really close to it! I'm impressed there aren't more accidents. (Btw, does anyone else think 'Bent was tooooo close to the edge?)
Beautiful riding!
Our first taste of "double black diamond" rated trails was The Notch - a short, steep descent where even the hike-a-bike was tough.
This was the section where we saw the most snow on the trail.
The trail opened up into rocky double track - lots of little ledges to climb and drop off.
Somewhere along the line, I got a flat. Kind of a weird one - the valve stem snapped off the tube. The bike shop put slime in our tubes to make it easier to recover from cactus thorns and the like, but that didn't help me! Thanks to Harps and 'Bent for handling the rather complicated repair.
Two cyclists in this photo.
Harps was in charge of nav. There were other trails in the area, and we had started at 1:20 p.m. so we didn't have time to mess up. (Thanks to Harps, we didn't.)
Eventually, the Colorado River came into sight. Around this time, we started the most technical single track of the day, much of it quite exposed.
Amazing day of riding! My neck and lower back were sore for awhile from being rattled around so much, but it faded away during the evening.
Sadly, my Garmin has totally forgotten about this ride for some reason but Harps posted the route from his Garmin.
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/sessiondata.jsp?sess...
We had a fast food dinner at Milt's Diner, owned by former pro adventure racer Danelle Ballengee. Last but not least, we headed 35 km north to visit Charlotte Vasarhelyi, who was running the 24 Hours of Moab trail race. Her husband Chris had finished the 12-hour race and was supporting her through the night. We chatted with her briefly between laps, then kept Chris company for awhile. She was hoping to run about 100 miles in the 24 hours!
Porcupine Rim is mostly a downhill trail that takes you from a high point down to the town of Moab. It's still early in the season so it isn't possible to go to the very top of the route. We drove up Sand Flats Road past the Slickrock Trail and other beautiful trails and campsites. We parked near the Kokapelli Trail which we climbed in sticky mud to get to UPS (Upper Porcupine Singletrack). There was still snow around.
At the junction with UPS, we were at an altitude of 7,800'. Our lungs noticed the oxygen deficiency! Moab, our destination, was at 4,000'
The scenery along this route - and all around Moab - is spectacular.
At first, we were riding rocky singletrack. The riding felt something like the new Logs Rocks and Steel course on the Torrance Barrens.
Like many trails in Moab, much of this section of Porcupine Rim travels along a cliff edge - sometimes really close to it! I'm impressed there aren't more accidents. (Btw, does anyone else think 'Bent was tooooo close to the edge?)
Beautiful riding!
Our first taste of "double black diamond" rated trails was The Notch - a short, steep descent where even the hike-a-bike was tough.
This was the section where we saw the most snow on the trail.
The trail opened up into rocky double track - lots of little ledges to climb and drop off.
Somewhere along the line, I got a flat. Kind of a weird one - the valve stem snapped off the tube. The bike shop put slime in our tubes to make it easier to recover from cactus thorns and the like, but that didn't help me! Thanks to Harps and 'Bent for handling the rather complicated repair.
Two cyclists in this photo.
Harps was in charge of nav. There were other trails in the area, and we had started at 1:20 p.m. so we didn't have time to mess up. (Thanks to Harps, we didn't.)
Eventually, the Colorado River came into sight. Around this time, we started the most technical single track of the day, much of it quite exposed.
Amazing day of riding! My neck and lower back were sore for awhile from being rattled around so much, but it faded away during the evening.
Sadly, my Garmin has totally forgotten about this ride for some reason but Harps posted the route from his Garmin.
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/sessiondata.jsp?sess...
We had a fast food dinner at Milt's Diner, owned by former pro adventure racer Danelle Ballengee. Last but not least, we headed 35 km north to visit Charlotte Vasarhelyi, who was running the 24 Hours of Moab trail race. Her husband Chris had finished the 12-hour race and was supporting her through the night. We chatted with her briefly between laps, then kept Chris company for awhile. She was hoping to run about 100 miles in the 24 hours!
Friday Mar 23, 2012 #
Note
slept:2.5
Usual short night after packing and cleaning for house/dog sitter. Airport in chaos due to striking Air Canada workers. The good news: We're not on Air Canada. The bad news: Our plane is broken and they've unloaded us since the first fix didn't work. I'm not a happy flier, thanks to a grad engineering course that scared me. This doesn't help. Wonder how long it took Harps to drive...?
Thursday Mar 22, 2012 #
Note
I love BazingaDog but he's in the doghouse now after trying to give me whiplash. He was sniffing the leaves one moment, then he shot off so fast that my first warning was the hard yank of the leash in my hand, which pulled all the muscles down the right side of my back and jerked my neck backward suddenly. Not nice. That ended our walk since I didn't want to be out in the woods if weird symptoms started to appear. So far there doesn't seem to be much wrong that isn't in my imagination. BZDog is *such* a puppy.
Wednesday Mar 21, 2012 #
Running hills (Trail & Country Road) 1:15:19 11.62 km (6:29 / km) +299m 5:45 / km
shoes: Salomon SLAB-3 XT Wings
Dee advised me awhile ago to choose an ultrarunning weakness to work on, then plan a structured workout every week to address that weakness. My #1 weakness is handling sustained downhill pounding, and I'm not too great with heat either. So today was a workout to deal with both of those issues.
I'd read on some ultra site about the idea of downhill running intervals where you push hard on the downhill and use the uphill for recovery - even walking if you want, since you will probably do that in a long race. I gave it a try today and ran the uphill "recoveries" slowly without walking. Over time, the goal would be to rest less on the uphills but the emphasis is always on the downhills in this workout. The hill I used on Coolihan's Sideroad is about 1 km long and close to home - not too steep and flattens out briefly in a few places. Elevation delta = 60 m (197').
Warm-up - 2.6K on the Bruce Trail up K2 and north to Coolihan's Sideroad, then a short distance west to the Maple View sign. This route gains the same elevation as the hill interval but does it more slowly.
Downhill interval - to the lowest point, about 1.07 km - focus on not braking, good posture, fast cadence
Uphill recovery - as easy as uphill running can be
Cooldown - 2.6K back on the Bruce
What I learned... My downhill intervals got faster each time (pace 5:16, 4:40, 4:29) so this is something worth practising. Uphills still felt harder than the intervals though - go figure. Overall, the workout didn't feel hard enough so I either need to drive farther to a bigger hill or just do more reps of this one.
I'd read on some ultra site about the idea of downhill running intervals where you push hard on the downhill and use the uphill for recovery - even walking if you want, since you will probably do that in a long race. I gave it a try today and ran the uphill "recoveries" slowly without walking. Over time, the goal would be to rest less on the uphills but the emphasis is always on the downhills in this workout. The hill I used on Coolihan's Sideroad is about 1 km long and close to home - not too steep and flattens out briefly in a few places. Elevation delta = 60 m (197').
Warm-up - 2.6K on the Bruce Trail up K2 and north to Coolihan's Sideroad, then a short distance west to the Maple View sign. This route gains the same elevation as the hill interval but does it more slowly.
Downhill interval - to the lowest point, about 1.07 km - focus on not braking, good posture, fast cadence
Uphill recovery - as easy as uphill running can be
Cooldown - 2.6K back on the Bruce
What I learned... My downhill intervals got faster each time (pace 5:16, 4:40, 4:29) so this is something worth practising. Uphills still felt harder than the intervals though - go figure. Overall, the workout didn't feel hard enough so I either need to drive farther to a bigger hill or just do more reps of this one.
Note
It's been two months since the nice folks at Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc raised the bar for entering their trail running events in France in August 2013. This was a positive change since there were lotteries for all their events this year, and this should reduce the number of applicants slightly. Runners now need 2 points to apply for the "shortest" of the 4 events, the 98 km CCC. They need 7 points to apply for the 166 km UTMB. I'm aiming for the latter, and the puzzle pieces are all in place now.
I already have 2 pts from The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler Championship in San Francisco and I'm attempting to get 8 more points this year:
June 16, Ohio North Face Mohican 100 50 miles, 2 pts
Aug. 4-5, Alberta Canadian Death Race 125 km, 3 pts
Oct.13, Pennsylvania Oil Creek 100 100 km, 3 pts
I can DNF any one of those races and still get 7 pts. If I have 7 pts before Oil Creek and my body hasn't recovered from the rogaine two weeks earlier, then I won't do it. If I DNF all three races, I will still enter the lottery for the CCC in 2013 with the 2 pts I already have. (Although if I can't finish any of these races, I should seriously question whether ultrarunning is for me!)
P.S. Some of these races are sold out but not all - and I love company on road trips! :)
Next step: make some AR plans. Storm the Trent solo is coming up but there should definitely be more!
I already have 2 pts from The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler Championship in San Francisco and I'm attempting to get 8 more points this year:
June 16, Ohio North Face Mohican 100 50 miles, 2 pts
Aug. 4-5, Alberta Canadian Death Race 125 km, 3 pts
Oct.13, Pennsylvania Oil Creek 100 100 km, 3 pts
I can DNF any one of those races and still get 7 pts. If I have 7 pts before Oil Creek and my body hasn't recovered from the rogaine two weeks earlier, then I won't do it. If I DNF all three races, I will still enter the lottery for the CCC in 2013 with the 2 pts I already have. (Although if I can't finish any of these races, I should seriously question whether ultrarunning is for me!)
P.S. Some of these races are sold out but not all - and I love company on road trips! :)
Next step: make some AR plans. Storm the Trent solo is coming up but there should definitely be more!
Tuesday Mar 20, 2012 #
Running (Trail) 1:19:30 11.55 km (6:53 / km)
shoes: Salomon XA Pro Grey
As often happens on the last day of winter, I felt overdressed. You know... shorts, sleeveless top, that sort of thing. BazingaDog and I headed to Palgrave East where we ran a lot of twisty, rolling single and double track. Horses have damaged a few trails, and some of the double track is really muddy but almost all of the single track is ready to ride.
It was so hot that we took two intermissions so BazingaDog could learn how to swim. He hasn't had many opportunities yet but compared to our other dogs, he hasn't seemed keen on it. 'Bent tried to convince him to go in the river in yesterday's hot weather with no success. We know he has a little terrier in him but he is mostly a Lab and - darn it - he should love to swim.
All it took was for me to throw a piece of dry grass out into the pond. He took a flying leap after it and became a swimmer in that moment. In fact, it was all I could do to haul him out of the pond after awhile to continue our run. Nice to see a happy dog exploring the world in a brand new way!
It was so hot that we took two intermissions so BazingaDog could learn how to swim. He hasn't had many opportunities yet but compared to our other dogs, he hasn't seemed keen on it. 'Bent tried to convince him to go in the river in yesterday's hot weather with no success. We know he has a little terrier in him but he is mostly a Lab and - darn it - he should love to swim.
All it took was for me to throw a piece of dry grass out into the pond. He took a flying leap after it and became a swimmer in that moment. In fact, it was all I could do to haul him out of the pond after awhile to continue our run. Nice to see a happy dog exploring the world in a brand new way!
2 PM
Note
Oh fergawd's sake, Republicans! Why aren't more people freaking out about the return to the dark ages for women in the U.S.?
From the Idaho Senate yesterday, where they were discussing the proposed pre-abortion mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds that seem to be sweeping the nation:
"The sponsor of an Idaho mandatory ultrasound bill, state Sen. Chuck Winder, made some highly controversial comments Monday during his closing arguments, suggesting women might falsely use rape as an excuse to obtain an abortion."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/chuck-win...
This is clearly insane yet the ultrasound issue is taken totally seriously. When a female politician responded with a bill to regulate men's reproductive health by proposing steps to be taken before a man is given Viagra (e.g. cardiac stress test), it was treated as a joke or received with indignation. Sure, I'm willing to bet she has a sense of humour - but still... can you spell "double standard"?
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/bi...
Oh, and Rush Limbaugh is complaining about Sandra Fluke potentially costing taxpayers money for contraception? Well, it turns out that the bigger cost is likely his own Viagra, for which he was once detained by authorities due to suspected prescription fraud. But people don't use the same vulgar word he used to describe Ms. Fluke when they're talking about men who want to have sex, do they?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/june-carbone/how-wer...
Rant over. Note to self: Must stop reading U.S. news.
From the Idaho Senate yesterday, where they were discussing the proposed pre-abortion mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds that seem to be sweeping the nation:
"The sponsor of an Idaho mandatory ultrasound bill, state Sen. Chuck Winder, made some highly controversial comments Monday during his closing arguments, suggesting women might falsely use rape as an excuse to obtain an abortion."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/chuck-win...
This is clearly insane yet the ultrasound issue is taken totally seriously. When a female politician responded with a bill to regulate men's reproductive health by proposing steps to be taken before a man is given Viagra (e.g. cardiac stress test), it was treated as a joke or received with indignation. Sure, I'm willing to bet she has a sense of humour - but still... can you spell "double standard"?
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/bi...
Oh, and Rush Limbaugh is complaining about Sandra Fluke potentially costing taxpayers money for contraception? Well, it turns out that the bigger cost is likely his own Viagra, for which he was once detained by authorities due to suspected prescription fraud. But people don't use the same vulgar word he used to describe Ms. Fluke when they're talking about men who want to have sex, do they?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/june-carbone/how-wer...
Rant over. Note to self: Must stop reading U.S. news.
3 PM
Note
A couple of months ago, I posted a link here to a book I'd ordered: "Conquering the Canadian Death Race". I don't recommend it; I learned more by talking to Dee, STORM, M&M, Hansel, Zoolander, Turbo, Slowrunner, Bender and other Death Racers. If you are a fan of spelling and grammar, it will drive you insane. In the bad old days, authors had to work with publishing companies and professional editors - not a bad idea.
A few examples:
"Not to hot and not to cold." (an entire sentence describing weather)
"For all intensive purposes..."
"Focus on quality vs. quantity and you will your improvement will be more noticeable."
Augh!
A few examples:
"Not to hot and not to cold." (an entire sentence describing weather)
"For all intensive purposes..."
"Focus on quality vs. quantity and you will your improvement will be more noticeable."
Augh!
Monday Mar 19, 2012 #
Running (Trail) 32:50 [2] 5.1 km (6:26 / km)
shoes: Salomon XA Pro Grey
First time in *ages* that I could run in my fave training shoes - Salomon XA Pros! BulletDog and I just did an easy loop around Palgrave West. There are still some slow, mucky sections but most trails are relatively dry and rutted with deep footprints, hoofprints and bike tire prints from last week's mud. We met up with 'Bent and BazingaDog on their commute home; all of us were panting and sweating in this crazy March summer weather!
9 AM
Note
A lot of us know Jason "The Hammer" Lane from adventure racing. Here's a 5-minute video about his preparation for the 2012 Race Across America. He's aiming for the solo win.
http://vimeo.com/38619333
(Password is RAAM2012)
http://vimeo.com/38619333
(Password is RAAM2012)