Training Log Archive: brycec

#77 we went straight at 77, pretty sure we had a stop on the track though where I took on caffeine shot, food, Panadol, body glide, the works. We got 77 very cleanly – this certainly helped get my head right back in the game. It was however on this leg that we left the burnt out area which meant looking at our options

We dropped 25 and 86 because it had been thick bush around 77 and now was time to start to pull back the 2+ hr time loss we now had. Realistically had we hit 76 earlier we probably been 1-1.5 down and been reasonably happy with that.

#67 – across the water course onto the track and down to another water drop – I needed it as I had missed 66 water as I had enough to get to 67 then.

#97 - Out onto Murray road and heading west – really felt like we were heading out into oblivion – still very cold and wet – Dave gave me another tow here to help with both our warmth and obviously speed. In at 97 from track bend and pace counted this to keep my mind occupied – hit it smack on.

#28 – For a 28 pointer on the furthest SW point of the map I think it was a tad rough. We found it just fine and only searched for about a minute in the circle but the intention sheet showed only 1 other team and there had been 3 or 4 coming here from the previous control. Obviously people had struggled – and fair enough too it was a hard control.

#109 – Up the track until the intersecting track – we debated it a little but happy with it in the end and then attacked – followed the gully straight up and an easy grab in the end.

#89 – We went straight line over the hill down the spur and up onto the knoll and hit it clean. This was our original midnight mark – having only dropped 3 controls and not finding 1 we were happy to note only 2hrs 30 down. But time still slipping – lots more stopping and declining speed. Still burning about 1hr at 76.

Dropped 29, 99 and 39 in an attempt to pull in an hour or so.

#59 – Up the hill and into the saddle then across the road and onto 59 and the clean av continues!

#38 – Figured we would go straight at it – what a debacle – perfectly at it until we hit the thick bushes around the water course and a watercourse that actually had water in it. We fought through the scrub which was incredibly difficult and got turned around in there a number of times – ended up going through the water course 3 or 4 times each time the depth varying between shin(mainly) to thigh (once) high and often almost falling in and struggling to fight the scrub to get back out. Eventually said I am staying on bearing and getting the 20-50m I need no matter what and punched our way through. We would have taken at least 20 minutes to go about 50m here – it didn’t feel like it but the trace doesn’t lie on timestamps! This may (I cant remember when but it was between midnight and 6am – might have been before this – in fact thinking about it I am pretty sure it was, may have been the control or two prior) be where I hurt my left ankle/Achilles, certainly didn’t help it. For those who recall this was also the ankle I f***ed on the last rogaine and took weeks to come good. Control after that was a piece of cake.

#105 – Exiting 38 I realised something wasn’t right with my shoe.. it was loose.. oh S**t those unbreakable Kevlar laces had snapped on my left shoe. Awesome just what I needed on my sore ankle a loose shoe on uneven terrain. Tied simply pulling it tighter and tying a knot with the two broken ends and just managed to get something weak in place. Anyway at least it was a nice road walk for a while and again I jumped on the tow rope to eek a bit more speed out of my legs. We attacked in from the road junction and went straight at it – apparently there was a large 200x200 m clearing which we never found but we certainly found the control after hunting slightly up the water course from it.

#58 – On exiting 105 I realised shoe was broken again and said to Dave “hey here’s a thought maybe I should loosen my laces this time before we tie the knot” – lol the brain makes mistakes when tired – impressed I even thought of that even though it was such common sense. Back towards the track but angled more at 58… except this meant we hit the dense bush and watercourse that we had at 38 just further north. We looked in a few spots to cross because the veg was practically impossible to break through before I said we are walking around this we wont have to go far south to do so. 2 minutes later and about 75m diverted we were around it and onto the road. Much better than wasting time break through bushes again. Fixed the shoe here – full let off the tension and tied a long loop from tip to toe on 1 side with 4 knots – it stayed put for the rest of the day and only 1 knot came loose from this point… shoe felt a bit weird because of this setup but it enable it to be fastened properly again  Onto the track around to 58 and as there was a track I would imagine there was a tow. Found a reasonably vague junction and decided that was our attack point and in we went. Was a clean hit here too.

#107 – Straight out to the road and onwards to 107 – bearing was perfect infact straight as an arrow to 107 only problem was we stopped because it looked like the edge of the hill not a prominent gully – we went back then south then sw to track then up track then took a punt on what might be the gully and it was… sad thing was original trace had us only 20m short of the control on first attack – god knows how we didn’t see it. Lost about 30 mins here event though it had felt quick. The comedy of errors for the last few controls – with breaks for my shoe, the 30 mins relocating here and 30 mins on river crossings and slower pace saw us drop a bunch of time here. I didn’t realise how significant it was but it really was a bad section of course for us and the 2am -6am time slot claimed us without us even knowing.

Dropped 69

#88 – rapidly becoming light spirits certainly lifted – even though by now I was in some serious level of pain and it was only going to get worse. It was mainly the ankle/Achilles which was owning me uphill and downhill – flat was fine, rolling it wasn’t < but when is it ever!. Straight at 88, over the hill down to the water course and up the other hill… cause up/downhill was soo much fun! Yup rest of day was going to be awesome. We veered right on 88 but it was an easy find just took longer than it should have – being able to see terrain actually made the nav harder! Haha

#68 – Straight out to the road and back on the tow rope – worked at reasonable pace around to the water drop. We discussed out plans from here. With 5hrs 30 remaining and me knowing I was rapidly going downhill with the ankle now. Also really needed to add a large contribution to the landscape and had wanted to for about 1hr but knew didn’t have time too and wasn’t really urgent so added it to the list of discomforts and moved on.

Dropped 108, 98, 79, 78,106. We had planned on the road to 68 to modify this to 79, 78, 106 however looking at this with the time we had left I said I would be more comfortable with 240 points close to hash in case we need to get back and that would give us an option to cut short – were as the above would mean a hard line into HH at the end and some serious hills to get those 3 points. Logic prevailed and we headed east. (This was annoying because I really wanted this corner but it was the smart move – Also because it had a swampy watercourse which we didn’t know what it would be like to get across and we didn’t want to lose time up in it). My make up 240 points was on our original course but cut short from 85. Will detail below.

#48 – So to 48 we went, felt like a long leg with not much going on – got there pretty smoothly.

#96 – Massive ascent and was hard going – was very painful and to make matters worse I was sick (another 1 mouthful special) on the way up :( really not great now. I was pretty much zoned out of the race from this point and just focused on surviving and doing what we needed to cover the ground required. That said I was focused on doing as much as possible now regardless of the pain I put myself through. Located 96 easily.

#57 – We drifted right and too far south – I think Dave had switched off the Bryce filter because I may have been dribbling nonsense – but I had been saying that on this leg – at least it was an easy correction… but F me that was a steep gully – was so awesome going down it when it was slippery and the pain was just yay for fun styles. Went slowly as I am sure you could imagine. Got to the control and saw our first team in person that we had seen since xyz at 5pm the previous day… it was now about 8:45am. It was Shotrat – and he remarked at how happy I looked to be out there… well yes I was positively spritely at this point :) They disappears up the hill… forget that nonsense. As we went onwards

#46 – This took us to a track then a powerlines – It was about now we realised we had just about 9+km in the 3hours and my pace was making that a close call. I knew I had to dig deep and it was time to do so. Up the hill to 46 as hard as I could – we hit some bush and fought our way through it but came out good and in front of new time budget by about 3 mins.

#54 – Down the hill from 46 and broke into something faster than a walk but slower than a jog, but as we crossed over and started the climb we found a dodgy trail and I was game enough to call for the tow rope and tell Dave to go hard and hard we went. Pulled in 8-10 mins on something we budgeted 25 mins for. And found it clean too.

#36 – Down the hill and again into this awkward canter, across the water course and over the spur – even helped a team out on the way. They followed us into 36 and we quickly grabbed it and exited due north.

#64 – Straight to patrol road track and onto the tow rope and going hard again. I jumped off the rope a tad early as I thought we were at the control site and also was starting to feel very spanked from the massive increase in workload with how I was feeling. Were now looking really good for time.

#85 – This was the real goal to ensure we got this control – our last big control, skirted the bottom of the hill and we dropped the pace back to make sure we got it alright. Also so that if we needed a big finish for whatever reason we could. We drifted right on this a bit – but had seen teams coming out of it so roughly knew here to go and sure enough over a rise and there it was.

With 1.5hrs in the bank Dave floated trying 93. I vetoed it hard because I was now pretty much flat lining with pain in my ankle and other part where starting to give grief in a much worse way. I knew it would completely break me getting it and was too much of a risk for the points vs the alternative which was 24 and 19. So we dropped the rest of our planned route which was 93, 42, 33, 83, 52, 53, HH.

#24 – Pretty much with the time left decided to back right off. Might not have been smart as body allowed itself to show its full displeasure to its current position. Another big climb and it almost had me heavin for a third time. On the way to 24 found the team we guided into 36 asking us if we were looking for 85 in the saddlish area. – Concerning - . 24 was an easy enough find though which was good.

#19 – Could have just gone home but I said lets get it weve got time. So a long trudge up the hill to the correct track then on the tow rope along that track until the control. It was on this leg I told Dave properly how bad I was just before midnight and didn’t need to explain how sore I was now because that was evident. We had a laugh though and thought all the way back to the start about the 3 girls calling our mistake without evening knowing it HA. Grabbed 19 and headed home.

HH – was on tow rope most of the way there and off just to cross into the finish. Came in with about 35 mins spare. Then a quick chat as we got all our gpses checked in – thankfully no phone calls from Emma! And then a bee line to the portas. Thank god. Haha. Got changed out of the wet shoes and socks – foot damage was clearly evident, fresh top and a jumper then to the fire we went – made a burger had a coke and a beer then straight asleep in my chair waking around #40 in the results… good timing eh. 30 min power nap was so nice.

Turns out the last 10 pointer was worth it as it tipped us into 3000 category. We also picked up 1st mens and 1st overall. Which is a 1st time for me on both accounts in any format. So truly stoked, even though we may have got some luck with some other teams having bad runs with injury/illness out there but that’s all part of it. Lucky none of the top peeps where there too :P.

Quick chat with Tooms and Jen just before leaving – Tooms promptly reminded me I need to swim 200m for him. Straight into car and home via Paul’s where I grabbed his kayak to store at mine and we had another 20min power nap as I had started to feel doozy on that first leg of the drive. Then to Daves and home. Unpacked. Dinner. Discovery of GPS malfunction. Some TV until I couldn’t stay upright and a 12 hour sleep :)

Post mortem - Monday
Not happy about the shoes – feel annoyed they only last about 70hours of wearing and 325km.
Havent done my glutes work for 3 nights – feel guilty – sorry Tooms!
Injury status –
Toenails are rooted particularly the big toes – more than 70% damaged on each – likely to go.
Blistered are small or non-existent
Leg are reasonable/to be expected
Ankle hasn’t given me grief today surprisingly.
Chaffing from pack not too bad but annoying.

Interesting on weight in on Monday – had gained weight (small amount) lost about 3% body fat and gained 3kg fluid. Interested to see how it all balances out over next few days.

As always think that’s all but probably could say more. PS Tooms asked for 5000 words so there is 5121 – hope youre happy (5124).

C • Well done 28

Event: WARA 24hr Spring Rogaine (Schools Champs)
 

So my gps died so I have taken Daves trace, but his gps was wildly inaccurate it was out at 105km before we started cleaning it got it to 89.5km but still know there was loads of inaccuracy in there. So best guess is 82.5 given mine died at 68km 19hrs and typically under records.

Picked up Dave Saturday morning and got down to the rogaine about 9.15 – gave us 2hr45 for the planning, which we strung around once a few small modifications and where good to go. Planned 92km which dropped 7 controls and over 4k points. We didn’t know what the terrain would be like but we suspected given the contours 90km was going to be a stretch for us.

While Dave transposed the course onto his map I wrote an intention sheet out and handed it in… say what – well Emma is 37.5 weeks atm, we had a sat phone and I was giving the setters an intention sheet so if Emma couldn’t get me she could get me and they would know roughly where to look.

Anyway we were ready well before the start so had a brief break and chat before getting going. Of course it started to rain just before the start – good times.

Anyway we rolled out on our planned course, straight out to the track and turned right and cruising along mowing down the slow walkers. I commented to Dave “geez that’s brave” gesturing towards a school girl in short shorts and no gaiters and as I did so she almost instinctively turned around and said to us – “hey you guys are going to 19”, we kinda laughed and said no #23. Her team of 3 stopped dead in their tracks and started looking at their maps as we cruised past them. I heard her say to her friends – “nar we are definitely on the right track – how embarrassing would it be getting the first control wrong”. I looked down at map, up at road, down at map… “hey Dave… we are walking towards 19” Dave quickly took a bearing, confirmed and we turned 90 degrees and quickly disappeared into the bush. HA … how embarrassing indeed. Shocking start too.

#23 – so our recovery was less than perfect we strayed well to the right which had us having to swing back to the point once we hit the correct trail. A few teams still getting to the control but most people had rolled through.

#74 – Pushed hard out of 23 wanting to make up on the lost 15 minutes and just hit really dense bush which was horrible but at least not prickly. Once through it though was some light jogging in the open area down onto the flag. Kinda wished we had used the track because the bush had been slow.

#32 – Easy track hike, a bit of jogging but mainly just consistent fast walking.

#92 – Over the knoll and down to 92, we went off to the south slightly to hit the big decline and then looped around onto the spur. My control spotting was certainly in form already spotting some at >100m and this was one of those – this trend continues for most of the race.

#82 – Back out to the track and until the track bend to the west – via the bush from there and straight up to the knoll – nice and clean.

#75 – Down to the fence line however this was horrible and overgrown so back up the hill a bit into more suitable scrub and along the hillside we went. Trace says we drifted north a lot – I am pretty sure this was an error I didn’t correct in the trace – even though I know we drifted north a little just not that much. This was also our 2 hour mark and we were 5 minutes up so we had pulled back our time from our mistake but had worked pretty hard to do that. Along the tracks until the small track intersect. I felt we hadn’t gone far enough to get to it but we agree we had so went back to the intersect we had passed and went into the bush – couldn’t really find the point and then searched off to our right for a while – again trace wildly wrong for this section so had to remove most of it but we were lost in here for a little while – back to where we turned right and then went up the hill a little further and to the left. There was another team looking and as they walk past us to where we had been I spotted it way down the hill and way to our left. Quickly went down to it – in retrospect I think that track we came in off was wrong.

#103 – a tough climb and loads of teams searching for the control – once we had got onto the spur we knew it was just more climbing to do – the control wasn’t really visible for more the 5m and when I spotted it I got Dave attention be he had spotted it pretty much same time – we were going to try ninja in and out but there was too many people around and even our lack of noise wasn’t enough as we were surrounded and soon the other teams had the control. Don’t like giving away controls.

#62 – nothing special here just down to the road and along. Easy easy

#45 – Took track to t-junction and attacked from there – straight to top of spur minimal fuss.

#65 – Again fairly clean onto this knoll was nice to have a few clean legs of nav as we had fallen about 15 mins behind schedule from #75.

#76 – Down the hill from 65 we drifted to our left slight but we knew about it – crossed the first road and continued, found the river but never saw the trail along it. Shortly after found a track which we thought could be the ‘fire break’ in the very open land – silly thought really. We followed that track and kept searching south of it with the odd glance north – track went for ages and then we hit a T-junction clearly well past our point. We tried to work out where on the track we were and thought it was north-east of the control, took a bearing SWish and went in the distance the control should be – land felt right but no control, headed north a bit but not until we hit the track – we turned east and went back to the relocation track. We hit the track south of where we had last time but we hit on a clear fire break – we went back in on the fire break but it stopped being a fire break after a short distance again before we hit the track we had used originally. I refloated the idea that maybe the control had been north of that track – We went north and over the track and found another firebreak and trail. Oo convincing, we decided to follow it west for a short while and saw lots of teams near this area but none of them looked convincing and we didn’t follow any of them. After a short while we decided enough is enough we had wasted an hour searching and where now over an hour down on time. Looking at the trace now (without the map in the background – reads I am still guessing where control was) – our original bearing was right but we slid off it maybe 500m short and onto the track shortly after that. The relocation effort one went in the perfect distance precisely in line with where control would be and had we got relocation location right we would have hit the control :P had we headed north and extra 200m would have hit it. 2nd relocation bearing was right for the fire break – had fire break continued or we followed that bearing we would have hit it after much more distance. 3rd attempt with North then the turn west – we were 100-150m too far north. Basically we danced around this control… bloody vague features.

#43 - Anyway annoyed and frustrated we left and there was a team in front of us we were sure who until the next control when we realised it was xyz. At least the relocate was easy enough that time… technically we could have got 76 right once we knew where we on the patrol road but we wanted to move on and get points going again. #43 was an easy attack from the bend in the track.

#73 – Decent to the river and entry into the burnt out section. The ground was soft and a bit slippery but ok. Incidentally at this point we were wet only from the plants as rain had held off. Huge climb up to top of the hill and then nice and easy along the spur and onto the control.

#84 – Easy leg and we hit the control at 6pm but about 1hr15-30 down on time budget.

Dropped #34

#72 – Straight toward 72 after first drop of what would no doubt been many. We had decided we would do all the controls in the burnt out area because the ground was open and faster moving as well as easier spotting – switched into our night kit quickly mid leg and made our way up onto the hill – We slide onto the broader spur 1 over by accident and lost some time there debating if we had – but eventually bit the bullet and went over to the other spur and it wasn’t long until we found the control there.

#102 – Down to track and then attacked in from there, missed it slight to the west but Dave was onto it straight away and corrected onto it while I got myself sorted with food and stuff before calling me over to the point.

#22 – We missed the first track and hit the river – went due west up the hill and hit the track north of the bend, then followed track north of oob until it ended. Then in towards 22. Saw some lights in the (extreme) distance which was the first signs human life we had seen since xyz. 22 was an easy river junction.

#94 – Down to track and along until the river junction then up to 94, got it clean.

#63 – Down to the track again and then up the track – I think this was the first time we busted out the tow rope and Dave gave me a lift up the hill until we found a good spot to cut in north to cut the corner and onto 63.

#44 – Back along the road and a quick bearing from the junction to hit 44 flush.

#104 – Now my memory starts to go a bit fuzzy – but ill do my best I am sure it will only get worse from here as my fatigue started to kick in (yes at 9 hrs). Rain/drizzle had well and truly set in by now and had been the case maybe for and hour or two – but I really remembered zipping up and putting the jacket hood on during this leg as started feeling a tad cold. Which I generally don’t. We made our way around the top of gully/watercourse and then over to the fence line and along the fence- direct line at 104 and hit it nicely.

#37 – Almost straight north and a pretty easy grab in the end.

#95 – Filtered up into the gully using the western incline – I thought we had gone too far west and turned us east but quickly spotted the point back in the west 100m away so not too much deviation. We had also crossed our 8pm time mark at about 9.50 – so we had slipped a little on the pace at night but generally we were holding the gap. Mainly because the nav was clean and spotting was fast and more so because it was quick ground in the burnt out area.

#56 – Just straight at it, crossed the powerlines and up onto the spur. We hit just a tad south of point but was not sure – while I got a rock out of my shoe and got some food out etc etc Dave had a quick look south – I had thought it was North and when he returned it was a short scout 1 min north before we got it.

#66 – Down to road and flush onto the water.

#87 – As we were leaving the patrol car was coming so we stayed on track a tad longer to say hi. We got cake – happy days. Then up to 87 we got sucked into the gully just before ours but quickly realised and moved onto the second gully and found it easily.

#47 – Long road walk – and I think it was here (pretty sure it was here) that I had entered a really dark patch. My feet where feeling like they were blistering from being wet so long and I was cold and not warming up – I had been sick (1 mouthful styles) after 1 of the recent climbs and the last two bush controls hadn’t been flush (even though really they had been pretty clean it was enough to niggle there weary midnight mind). I told Dave I had slipped into a pretty bad zone, probably should have told him how bad as I was contemplating – going back to water drop and stopping, injuring self on something to warrant stopping and/or praying Emma called so we could pull out – my issue really wasn’t the factors above… it was I don’t know how I can do another 12 hours. Anyway Dave asked if I wanted a tow on the road which I knew would help me so I took it and we started chatting about something completely different which was his work field trips. It was sufficient to pull me back from the edge in the 1-1.5km we had on the track and us then nailing 47 helped no end. Probably close to the darkest ive got on a rogaine – that cold rain certainly didn’t help! Weird because usually my dark points come because I am too tired or too sore or navs just not happening and none of those where the case – just mentally out of the game.47 was bang on midnight.

After the slackest week ever - feeling quite rested but also lethargic - looking forward to blowing out the cobwebs this weekend.

Most soreness/injuries are just niggles atm so hopefully should pull through ok after the 24.

So I feel like I've fallen off the wagon - the last months worth of training have been lack luster with lots of drops. Supposed to be hardest two weeks last week and this. And this week I'm 0 from 3 days with really no good reason not to train.

Can only put it down to 4 weeks cycles too long getting worn down too much and losing sight of the finish line amongst other priorities.

Going to cruise through this week have a huge rogaine (getting my head into the space for a 24hr), recover then just do rid bits until the birth.

Post that I think I'm going to put together 2 weeks on 1 week off plan which focuses on core/arms/paddling. Restarts the riding and eases on running - shins still giving me grief even with the level of rest they've been receiving. Doing glute exercises every night without fail but would have hoped after 3 weeks there would have been some marginal improvement there but apparently not... Lot of years of being the wrong way though... Will continue to work my ass.

Took the day off - a few sore spots - could've trained but mindful of rogaine this weekend (reads was slack)