Training Log Archive: nicki

Event: Canadian Death Race
 

Awesome awesome awesome experience. 6th overall female. Very happy with my results for a first offical ultra marathon. It was definitely tough out there with only a 40% finish rate. I had an amazing support team and it was just incredible to be part of the adventure science crew. The final leg was my favourite as I finished strong after recovering from a horrendous leg 4 over Mt Hamel.

C • Well done! 8

Ahhhh......
a nice way to start the day at 6.30 am.

C • Good Luck! 1

Now there's a nice way to deal with the pre-race jitters. Claire and I took racing kayaks out on the res, after we waited out a lightning storm, and it was awesome....except my arms a little sore now.

Ultra easy social run with Pither, Rich and Lois up on the Benchlands in Canmore.

OK...now I'll really start resting.

A sweet little run with Pither through Edworthy and COP trails. Probably should be totally resting but this weather is just so amazing, I can't help myself.

We then spent a good 20 minutes sitting in the Bow River under sunny blue skies and "icing" our legs in the somewhat tepid water.

I LOVE TAPER RUNS!!!! I felt so great and fresh out there. Ran an out and back on Lake Minnewanka with the speedy Ellie. Good pace. Nice hot temperature. Speactacular blue sky day. I am one very smiley girl. We talked LOTS about death race, both of us being a bit nervous yet excited. 5 days until go time.

A quick run to catch the end of Bernie and Ross' run around the res. I caught them shortly after I reached the south side. Hot hot hot. Nice to spin the cobwebs out of the legs. Wishing I could run in the mountains instead!!

Hard to gauge for exactly how long I ran, when you break it into 15 second bites of filming. Lots of "action", "cut", again, "action", "cut" up on Nose HIll with Esther for the Death Race documentary. Fun times.

Must run must run......

Enjoyed a lovely spin of the legs up on Nose Hill getting chased by a lightening storm.

C • Commute to where? 3

Taper day 4. Slowly going insane.

A veritable adventure. I had a fantastic day out there racing with a couple newbies who were great fun and great sports. My goal was to make sure that Monica and Stan had the day of their lives by not getting lost, by finding good routes, and by avoiding unecessary suffering. I also secretly hoped to finish in the top 10 teams. All was accomplished.

It started with a trek up to the top of Kicking Horse Resort to the Terminator summit as the sun rose on a spectacular morning. The views were unforgettable. We pretty much went straight up a series of ski runs, which was a good way to gain elevation very quickly, but not easy travel. The mountain bike trails were faster. Oh well....we are fast on our feet so we still managed the summit in the first 3rd of the pack (27 teams and 26 solos). Joined the ridge trail over to the restaurant utop the gondola to collect bikes and boot down on some swoopy and easy downhill singletrack.

Back at the resort I chose to take the 12k of pavement all the way down to the TA on the river, but lost time because there was a short-cut down a trail that I didn't trust. Still glad for our decision as it didn't required any nav and we avoided the swamp crossing.

Back onto our feet and we had to run over to Canyon Creek. 2 route options here....wind your way through the magical Moonraker trail system, or boot up the gravel road under the blazing sun. I thought they were comparable in terms of time so chose the shady, pretty, single-tracky way and even though it was about twice as long, it was to become a highlight of the race for us.

When we arrived at the zip line, I was a little horrified to find we had lost about 7 places and were now definitely in the back half of the pack. Claire picked up 40 minutes on us and overtook. I kept my disappointment to myself. In any case, the zipline soon shattered any gloom...what a ride. Probably one of the coolest things I've ever done...right up there with skydiving. EPIC EPIC EPIC.

On the other side of the 250 m zip we bombed down the ridge to the river....losing yet another couple of places because I refused to run on a gravel road....we got to the boats only to discover that we had missed the enduro cut-off by 10 minutes. A blessing in desguise...

We headed off for the 9km paddle (instead of the 40 km one) back our bikes and finish off the day with a bike-O. Being that we still had 4 hours left in the race, I kindly asked Monica and Stan if they would be willing to accompany me on a grand sweeping loop with lots of elevation to collect as many optional controls as the time allowed, rather than head back to the resort. They were both very fatigued and the beer and burgers were almost wofting down the mountain but they agreed so we went back out for 3.5 more tough hours. As it turns out, most of the teams on the enduro did not make the 8pm finish cut-off and all but 1 team on the regular course abandeoned the bike-O controls and so we miraculously jumped from 15th (or thereabouts) place right up to 3rd place team.

Monica and Stan, in their first every adventure race, learned the most imporant lesson of AR.....never ever EVER give up.

UBC Sprint event.

I love this map, despite the fact it screws with me every time. Made lots of medium errors today and the legs were completely shattered but still had fun.

An oxymoron in racing: long sprint event at Stanley Park. Nothing like red-lining it for 43 minutes. A great race and I FINALLY got on the podium. So, I'm 2 for 9 in terms of successful orienteering races during this O-tour extravaganza.

Jogged home from Stanley Park to John's place. Shattered! Just got to push for another 5 or so days and then I get to start my taper/rest.

Not really sure how long I was out there making a dog's breakfast of the 1st leg of the relay. I did make it back before the forced mass start of leg 2. What a shit-show. But.....there's always the next race......

Middle Distance at Brandywine. A very cool map with ultra technical terrain. Loved the detailed navigation but had difficulty moving through the course with any kind of speed greater than a slow walk. Was really trying to protect my ankles, knees, feet....and in the end, the only casulty was my new shoes which got a huge hole ripped down the side (and a good bruise on my foot). I made one big mistake, that was magnified by the slow terrain.

I'm starting to get very bagged. Passed on the run up Whistler Mountain with John in exchange for a shower and lazy afternoon.

Looking forward to having fresh legs again.

Super fun sprint race in Whistler Village. I completely stuffed one of the controls so put me out of the rankings. What a great place to orienteer!

Run into Cheakamus Lake and up Heim Pass until we ran out of time. Tried to keep up with Louise, Nate and Ian but they had fresher legs and are much faster anyway.

Event: Barebones 2010
 

Lost Lake Long Course.
I was bagged. And it was very hot. And I couldn't be bothered, so I quit the race at the 11th control (out of 24) and went for a swim in the lake instead.

A big day on the feet with lots of elevation in VERY hot conditions (31 degrees). Up Grouse Mountain on BCMC trail, then north over ridge to Goat Mtn and then down into Hanes Valley. Some very fun boot skiing on left-over avi slope. That dropped us into the headwaters of Lynn Valley which eventually took us out to Baden Powell connector back over to Grouse. phew! I was dying but a good training day.

Ran into Ellie Greenwood on the BCMC......she was just whipping up Grouse as a warm-up 2 days before Knee-Knacker......psycho machine girl! Watch her win the whole thing.

C • she almost did! I'm going t... 2

A great run with Louise in PSP on a hot morning. It was "shirts off" kind of weather, that's for sure.

C • shirts off? 2

A short ride in Squamish so that I can do Half Nelson again while John did the toonie race. I took off up the fire road behind the race and got to the top in 8th position among the women. Maybe I should have dropped into the race course descent to see where I finished!

Was too in the mood for a meander so pretty much walked from English Bay Beach back to John's place.

Very lazy run around Stanley Park and Waterfront in Vancouver. Gorgeous warm day. Saving some legs for this evening club run with speedy Louise

Sprint Race. REDEEMED!! Had a 99.9% clean race. It was only my leg speed that held me back.....damn that ultra training! Finished 3rd Canadian W-Elite which made me very happy.

Had a smile on my face the whole drive to Vancouver.

C • sprint 1

Sprint - Course 7 - Splits

Long Course Orienteering. And I thought yesterday was a train wreck!! Completely blew this one, but enjoyed almost the longest time on my feet out of all the elite girls. 3rd to last.

Long - Course 9 - Splits

Event: North American Orienteering Championships
 

Middle Distance Orienteering. Train wreck on control #2. Made at least 10 minutes of mistakes.

Middle - Course 9W - Splits

In to Skoki Lodge on a bit of a grey day. Got rescued by LL maintenance guys after we nearly ran into a grizz with 2 very new cubs. Exceptionally cute, especially from the back of the truck as we were shuttled by.