Training Log Archive: KFish

Out with W4J and Syd. Not sure what we did to offend W4J, but I think she was trying to kill us :-). I brought up the rear for the vast majority.

Great ride, we need to enlist partners for motivation more often.

New shoes were good, but I think they changed geometry a tad so i need to raise the seat and maybe adjust cleat position.

13 lbs pack.

C • Climb 3

100 warm up
250
12x50 @1:10
250
500: 9:51
250
50 warm down

Went surprisingly well considering residual calf muscle pain the last 2 days + swim this morning. Tired legs, not the fastest run, but kept it under a 10 min/mile pace :)

Epic North Map 4, 1, 2, 5, 8 (reverse order from yesterday). No running left in me today. 4 was much easier from this direction.

Event: Michigan Adventure Race: Epic Edition
 

MI Adventure Race: Epic Edition, Ludington, MI

I was so excited for this race, and it didn't disappoint. Catered to our abilities with 3 big trekking sections and mostly road biking, so we set out with the goal of doing some damage.

Trek 1: 5.67 miles, 1:37
Syd was on nav and did an awesome job. Unfortunately we picked the more popular CCW loop which meant going at everyone elses pace for the boardwalk to the first 2 points. Not a big deal as I probably would have gone out too fast otherwise. Took a shotcut to 2 around the W end of the pond, and from there only saw scattered teams. 1 We interpreted as a hill not a valley, so added an extra hill climb there, then 4 we second guessed our distance doubled back, and did circles for a few minutes. Oops. The rest we finished pretty cleanly and on the run back to TA1 saw MRA biking out, 2 Flew a bit behind them, and WAR just behind us, so we figured we were still near the top.

Bike 1: 13.7 mi, 0:58
Made a strategic choice to skip 11 and 14 optional bike points for 2 reasons: 1) If clearing wasn't going to happen go for the higher density foot points and leave the decision for after the paddle, and 2) get the ferry to avoid a potential bottle neck. Worked pretty well, we pushed on this bike harder than we normally do biking, with Syd staying tucked in behind me for most of it. +1 person reeled in. Second ferry across (2 flew was first we think).

Trek 2: 7.8 mi, 1:59
Loved this section, as it was new to us. Never done long distance point to point on foot. Syd nailed the nav. When we had long distances we popped out to the road and jogged, seemed like the faster option despite the very open woods. Got a little confused when we headed NE from 17 and hit a road labeled 5540 – confirmed during flag pickup that this road is mapped incorrectly (also wrong on google maps). Took a sloppy bearing from the road to 18, but hit it right on so it worked out ok. Saw 2 flew ahead of us on the way to 17 and 19, but they were struggling to keep pace.

Paddle 1: 7.9 mi, 2:14
Oh paddling. Maybe some day we’ll do a race where the paddling goes ok. We were first to the put in (:o) since we skipped the 2 bike points. About 10 minutes in my paddle got stuck between a bush and me, and we continued moving with the current so it bent to about a 30 degree angle. Tried to bend it back and fatigue cracked in half. Awesome. We were just far enough down stream that trying to get back to get a rental wasn't an option. Great, 7.5 miles to go… Had experience trying the canoe/kayak paddle combo at Epic ’15, and already knew it didn't work very well… Also considered duct tape (didn't have any) or trying to jam a stick in each side, but the hole wasn't very deep. The current carried us down stream to the lake, so the first half wasn't so bad. When we got to the lake we spent a few minutes trying to figure out which of the two islands we needed to get to, then tried a few bad left turns that took us back too far north. Eventually decided to get all the way to the lake then look for a channel from the south. Found one very hidden by reeds that took us right to the island. Grabbed the point and booked it out as fast as we could to avoid giving it away to anyone, which I think was successful. Passed 2 guys in a kayak between 21 and 22, not realizing they were racing (what!? Passed 2 dudes, with 2 paddles?!), but they pulled into 22, so they must have gotten past us while we went for 21. Switched the real paddle and the broken half every 10 minutes for the lake.

Bike 2: 10 mi, 1:31
Gloriously out of the water! And we had maintained our “lead”, first out of the paddle. We were doing well on time so we hit 14 and 11. Saw three bikers that looked suspiciously like MRA going S on Jebavy as we were coming down Angling rd, so we knew our lead was lost because they had already gotten 11. Kept up as good a pace as possible, but I was having intermitten leg cramping, and Syd was fading mentally and physically. The wind off the lake was pretty brutal, and the sand on the road up to 11 didn't do us any favors. Still, pretty happy with our speed on this section.

Trek 3: 5.5 mi, 1:45
Syd needed a brief break, so we stopped to plan. I filled up the water (why did I fill 100 oz bladder to the brim for the last 2 hours?) and consolidated to 1 pack. Figured this was going to be close, but planned to hit all of them. After about the hike up the first big dune Syd had come back mentally, and I tanked mentally and physically. Went clockwise jogging on trails when we could, but I cant imagine our jogging pace was very fast. Traded off the backpack every now and then. Things were going pretty smooth until 32, where we just couldn't find the matching water or the flag. After back and forth for about 10 minutes we decided we were running out of time and just had to skip, looking like we weren’t going to clear it. Finished up 27 and 31, where Mr. W confirmed they had hit 32. OK, gotta try again. Had 20 minutes to get back to 32 and the finish, so we set a time limit of 5 minutes to find 32. Luckily we hit it right on, and had to have come within 50 ft on our first attempt, just didn't see the flag. Booked it back to the finish as fast as my severely cramping legs could manage and had a whopping 6 minutes to spare.

Body management was terrible. Over 10 hours I ate 2 packs of shot blocks, 2 gu, and half a bagel. Ummm… not enough. I think the heat compared to recent training made eating even less appealing than normal. Also didn't take any electrolytes besides 2/3 a bottle of Gatorade on the bikes. Felt absolutely terrible after, and I have no doubts about why. I NEED to get better about this.

On the plus side, we learned how hard we can push, and that's pretty hard. I’d love to get our bike speed up above 15 mph, and we aren’t that far. Jogging trails I think gives us an advantage on foot that makes up for our nav mistakes. Paddling… maybe some day. Guess its time to buy a CF paddle…

3/74 overall, 1/17 2 coed, 3/3 to clear the course.
Total Milage: 19 by foot, 32 by bike, 8 by paddle

C • fantastic 4

Tapering for race and building distance for other race

100 warm up
250: 4:55
750: 14:53
100 cool down