Training Log Archive: mayer22

Tough ride to TA4. Stopping every 20 minutes or so for 5-10 min to try and let Earl eat something.

Left just before Odyssey. Saw Untamed riding towards TA3 on the way out and realized they either forgot a CP or got the other points early.

Big climb at the end and a descent along a flagged trail into Bear Run.

Earl was shivering when we got to BR so we didn't spend too much time there.

Odyssey showed up at TA just before we left. Started just trying to get Earl moving and stop shivering. He was having trouble walking but we were worried he would be too cold sleeping. We found a sunny spot on the way to the first CP and stopped for a 15 min nap. This seemed to turn things around. We awoke to Odyssey passing us. We traveled with them to the next CP and found it without cluing them into it. The next CP was misplotted by about 150m. Had a little trouble but not too much. By this point Earl was coming back to life (about 10 hours after losing it) Got the last 2 CPs without any trouble. Arrived at TA just ahead of Odyssey.

Infected toe was real painful for most of this run. Was almost hoping Earl needed more rest or needed to stop. I was limping noticeably. Faded a bit towards the end of the trek. Still happy to get back on the bike.

Left Bear Run with a long trail climb. After that was a little riding along the ridge and then a major descent in Confluence and rail trail to Ramcat. Toby lost his front brake on the descent. This worried us for potential steep descents later on in the course (luckily there weren't any). Odyssey passed us during the bike maintenance.

Quick paddle on the Middle Yough in duckies. Put in right next to Odyssey. Disappointed we didn't get to do the Lower Yough as planned or even both but we were a bit sleepy so just happy to get the paddle over with painlessly. Odyssey pulled ahead a little bit because Earl and I were slowing Julia and Toby down.

Got to WV a few minutes behind Odyssey to find out there were only 4 CPs left. Immediately turned up the urgency. Plotted and left alongside Odyssey. Entered the first trail ahead of them and didn't see them again.

Took a direct route from CP1 to 2 through the strip mine. Missed the small road in the strip mine that I wanted but took an even more direct route that was probably just as fast.

Shwacked up the heinous reentrant from 3 to 4 to minimize time.

Toe was doing better but feet were starting to feel all the miles and moisture. Ran down Firetower to the bikes.

Pedal to the metal from Ramcat to WV on the Railtrail for the win.

Overall a good race. Earl had some stomach problems and my toe was looking like it might be a problem at times but we worked through all issues and set ourselves up for a strong finish and the win. Good weather and a lot of new terrain made for an enjoyable event. Gave JP a great bachelorette party and two rides up to Maple Summit.

The course had to be rerouted the night before due to concerns about the water temps. Originally planned to start with a paddle down the Lower Yough, Rappell and O course at Camp Carmel, then river swim across to what was the first Ocourse, and finally pick up bikes at Camp Christian. Instead we had a neutral start and an eventless bike ride out to Camp Christian for the first Ocourse. The end of the course was tweaked as well to make up for some of these early changes.

Started the race at 10am after only having the maps for 2 hours and having to transpose several points and off limit roads. We were able to plot a preliminary route for most of the course but a lot of that ended up changing on the fly as we had realizations of better choices.

Enjoyed the neutral start up the climb. It kept things more in control without blowing out our legs at the start. Untamed slipped off the front before I noticed but so I wasn't sure if they were ahead or behind. Right before the rail trail to the TA the mapped road dissappeared. We took our own way to the rail trail and probably lost a minute or two. Rev3, Odyssey, NYARA and Untamed were all in TA when we got there.

Tried to stay in contact with the other teams. Saw 2 of them on their way back from a 400m out and back. Passed NYARA and Rev3 on a rail trail run to the actual Ocourse. Climbed the unmapped ridge road to the top and saw Odyssey and Untamed at the next CP. Stuck with or just behind them along the points on the top of the ridge.

After we got the last CP we took the mapped road back to a CP we already punched (killed me that we wasted 40 min getting this CP earlier b/c we had trouble getting down and back up to the ridge). After passing the van we made our way up to the ridge and then tried coming down the east reentrant instead of the ridge. Road took us down to the creek and then we walked through a small but beautiful gorge. Popped out down the rail trail saving ourselves at least a mile. Apparently a wash with our poor route to the top of the ridge and time lost in the reentrant.

My infected toe started bothering me on the way back to TA. Just in time to get off it for a nice long ride.

A long bike ride to "TA4" at CoGos. Not a lot of ST and purposefully avoided as much as we could.

As we left TA 3 I had a realization that we could maybe ride the rail trail to RR. We stopped and checked the map. It looked good. We asked a local and they confirmed. This saved us significant time and allowed us to jump ahead of all the other coed teams and saved significantly climbing in our legs.

Untamed and Odyssey pulled int RR right behind us. We then made another on the fly route change. Instead of pushing our bikes up a ST trail we opted for a steadier longer climb on what looked to be a rideable trail. Fortunately the trail was rideable. Unfortunately it had easily 40 unrideable creek crossing. To the point sometimes it wasn't worth mounting to ride 100 ft to the next one. This had it's own damage on our legs.

We ended up passing Untamed (who was leaving the CP) as we approached the CP prob 10 min behind. Without the creek crossing it probably would have been a wash but again saved our legs. We were pretty sure Odyssey was still behind us and they were.

Moved north to the Mt Streams area with Untamed in in sight. They made a different route choice off the bat which allowed us to "pass" them.
I was having a little trouble eating so we stopped for about 15 min to recover and then started up again as it got dark. We saw Untamed again before one more big climb and then had a big descent to CoGos.

When we arrived we started shoving food down. Earl abruptly stopped and couldn't eat anything. We ended up spending 1 hour there reviewing maps, trying to get some food in Earl, and resting our eyes. Odyssey arrived as we were preparing to leave and informed us Untamed had gone off in another direction that we couldn't figure out.

Event: Equinox Traverse
 

Chiro/ART

Run w/Zitch/Skip. Decided to shwack through a new area and stumbled a cross a well maintained trail on a neighboring property with an old companion trail on one of the Homeplace properties.

Was able to take the map for a little bit of map work sans compass.

Podiatrist - had an infection next to my left big toe from last week's unexpected run down steep hills in old shoes.
http://ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_10132/p...
It seems to have cleared out and the doc agreed. Good to go.

Also got some feedback regarding the tightness in my L Leg. He doesn't seem to think its related to the foot. He did say the upward flexion in my big toes is limited, even more so in my right, and that keeps me from walking/running properly. It may bother me down the road. He suggested an orthotic with extra big toe support if it did ever bother me.

Ride home. No pack. Felt good.

Acupuncture