Training Log Archive: LeanimalIn the 7 days ending Aug 23, 2008:
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Saturday Aug 23, 2008 #
Adventure Racing 8:00:00 [4]
Adventure Racing 2:00:00 [4]
Night stage
Friday Aug 22, 2008 #
Adventure Racing 10:00:00 [4]
Thursday Aug 21, 2008 #
Adventure Racing 8:00:00 [4]
When we first took a look at the race schedule for the 2008 season it didn?t look like we were going to make it to the Coast Raid in Quebec. Pete and I were both keen to go to Africa to race the Bull and that meant that the timing wouldn?t work for the Quebec race. In the end Pete had a conflict with work so the Bull was out and the Coast Raid was in ? I think it was meant to be! What a race! The organization, the scenery, the weather, and the people on the lower north shore of Quebec made this experience one that I will never forget.
In order to ensure that all of our gear arrived in time for the race Pete and I booked our flights for the Saturday before the Thursday race start and planned on meeting Sean and Andrew there in time for a trip to Gros Morne National Park for the day. We arrived in Deer Lake with the Treehuggers (Barb, Richard, Kristen, and Tim) and over the next couple of days all of us bought the rest of our food, sorted our gear, and headed up to Gros Morne for a great day of hiking.
Tuesday morning the school bus arrived at our hotel to pick us up along with some of the many volunteers and other international racers to head north for about 300km to St. Barbe where we would take the ferry over to Blanc-Sablon, Quebec. The bus ride was a little scary as I watched our tired bus driver do head bobs the entire way but we made it safely and we shuttled over to the local school to set up camp for the next day or two before race start. Here we sorted gear some more and waited as more racers arrived from places like France, Italy, South Africa, the States, and Brazil. The atmosphere was friendly as people got comfortable setting up camp in the gym.
The way the race worked was over the next four days we would have four day stages and one night stage which took place at 10pm on the 3rd night. All days had an Extreme section that required making a cut-off for. Over the stages our team completed the sections in approximately these times.
Day One: 8 ½ hours
Day Two: 10 hours
Day Three: 8 hours
Night stage: 2 hours
Day Four: 8 hours
Without going into detail of every day (mainly because I can?t remember) I will say that I found the stage format difficult on the body and a bit stressful from a preparations perspective. We didn?t get our maps for the next stage until we had completed the current stage. So that meant when we finished day three we got the maps for the night stage then and not until we were finished the night stage that night at midnight did we get the maps for the following day that started at 7:30am. Lots of prep to do and not much sleep, especially for the navigators.
What I did LOVE about the stage format is the interaction that we were able to have with the other racers and with the communities. I was absolutely blown away by the reception that we got in the communities along the way. We stayed in towns with a population of 30, yup 30! And in these communities the people prepared delicious buffets of food (fresh fish, salad, beer!) for all of the racers and staff and volunteers. This was a lot of people considering there were far more volunteers and staff than racers. It was truly unbelievable! In a town called Middle Bay there were a group of women who had t-shirts made up that said ?Middle Bay welcomes the Coast Raid? and had us all sign them. When we arrived at a traverse section outside a town called Brador the ENTIRE town was on the bridge watching and cheering as we rode through?..it was like we were celebrities. These people were very excited to have us experiencing their region and it was an honor to be there. I will never forget the generosity and warmth of the people on the north shore.
What can I say about the terrain. It was spectacular. I did take a few photos but not enough and none that will give it justice. I think the Treehuggers have a few that will blow people away though. When we arrived in Blanc-Sablon it was cold and rainy and the wind was ripping off the ocean. I was concerned that the next few days would consist of a miserable push through punishing terrain that I would never get to see because of the fog and rain. It couldn?t have been more different. The sun was out for four days straight (something that Gladys in Middle Bay told us rarely happens on the North Shore) and the water temperature was much warmer than the 4 degrees we were prepared for. The ocean was calm, the wind was tame, and it was absolutely stunning out there. There weren?t any trees like we have here but there was a lot of soft moss to get through. That sounds nice but after hours of running on what feels like a trampoline with very little rebound the legs start to get a little tired and running becomes a lot more difficult than it already is. The goal was to stay high but the rocky ground didn?t last long and there were always patches of tuckamore to get through. I have to say that it is really difficult and frustrating to try to trek thought trees that grow vertical from the ground then take a 90 degree turn to head horizontal just where you can?t see them and then head vertical again to make it look like you are just heading into a patch of normal vertical trees. I actually got stuck in a patch that required Andrew to head over and help me crawl out of it.
We had controls on peninsulas jutting out into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with the waves crashing on the shore, on the peaks of rocky mountains with views that were breathtaking, and some next to old fishing huts that stood all alone on a shoreline with nothing else in sight. It really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and the journey we had was incredible.
As for our race we had our good times and our bad. The good times far outweighed the bad and after the first day it was obvious to us who our competition was. There were only 6 four person teams and although we usually like to race against all teams, including the duos it was clear that the teams from France, Italy, and South Africa were in a league of their own. Their pace was furious and their navigation was spot on?? Team Asics from Quebec had beat us to the finish line on day one by 15 minutes and Team Yogaslackers by half an hour. We had lost some time on the first trek that we couldn?t get back and so the races over the next four stages became a game of minutes. Day two was worse. We had paddled well off of the start line and got to the first trek with the first couple of teams. After nailing the first two controls we started to head back to the boats with Asics right on our tail. Things weren?t lining up exactly as Pete would have liked but I looked at the map and justified what we were seeing?..and then Asics asked us if we had CP3. Pete replied ?Yes? and we watched their navigator curse and swear. I asked Pete to check our map and that?s when we realized we had missed a CP way back on a peninsula??oh no! Both of our teams turned around and tried to make up the time. We recovered well and by the time we got back to the boats we knew we were far behind. The mistake cost us the better part of an hour. Here?s where we made our final bad decision of the day. On the way across the bay on the paddle the side wind was picking up and slowing our progress quite a bit. Pete and I looked at the map and decided that we were close enough to high tide to go around the back of the island and try to get more protection from the wind. It would involve a small up-an-over a road but the protection from the wind would be worth it. Well we weren?t close enough to high tide and ended up dragging our boats through thick shoe stealing mud that slowed our progress. We came out the other side behind Asics again and even further back from Yogaslackers. At the end of day two we had lost an hour to Yogaslackers in total and finishing just behind Asics were now about 25 minutes behind them?..not a good day for us.
We had a good third day and led the four person race for most of the day until the final trek. In the race instructions it said to bike from TA3 to TA4. For most of us this means you have to bring your bike with you to the TA. For this race the TA?s are set up to give the race organizers an idea of who is where. So when we were headed down a muddy hike-a-bike trail and saw some of the race leaders had dropped their bikes along the way we told ourselves that we had to bring them with us since it was a biking section. This was not the case and in the end we had to carry our bikes back and ended up finishing seconds behind the Yogaslackers. A little frustrating after pushing so hard all day and wanting to beat them to the line but oh well.
That night we had three hours to complete a bike/trek rogaine and we knew it would be interesting when off the line we went one way and the Yogaslackers and Asics went another. We nailed all of the CP?s except one that took us a little longer but when we crossed the line neither Asics or the YS were there?..now we watched the clock. In the end we moved into second by 35 minutes but were still down on first by 40 minutes. The nice thing about the stage race is that when you have developed a friendly relationship with your competition like we did with Asics you get to see them more often and can encourage each other on despite the competition.
Day four was going to be tough. We were all tired and I was feeling a little nauseous and we had quite a bit of time to make up. We didn?t have a great transition to paddle and couldn?t quite catch the leaders who were all together on the trek, including Asics and YS, but when we got to the ropes Andrew and Pete flew through to get us on the bikes right behind the leaders. And then once again Andrew took the draft, I grabbed on, and he hammered to catch YS and Asics. Pete navigated us flawlessly through the bike matrix and then we were off to Labrador for some more trekking CP?s. With Asics and YS hot on our tails we got two more CP?s on a rocky peninsula with the waves crashing ashore as the wind picked up. Our last CP in Labrador had us ride 3 km along the shore and rather than backtrack to the town and around we decided to climb with our bikes up to the road. This was pretty difficult as we tried to avoid the tuckamore and had to pass our bikes to one another while we scrambled up cliffs. I was worried that we were going to lose valuable time to Asics but as it turned out they had also climbed and so heading in to the final two CP?s in Blanc-Sablon we were close together although we didn?t know it at the time.
After making a decision on how to approach the final CP?s and having grabbed the last one we were running back to our bikes and saw that Asics was right in front of us and already on their bikes. The race was on! The headwind was fierce as it ripped off the ocean and I could hardly keep up to the boys as they ran for the bikes. Andrew packed my shoes in his pack and we jumped on the bikes to try to catch them. With only a couple of kms to go it was a struggle to catch up but we did. Just as we reached the finish line at the school all 8 of us screeched in to cross the line together. After four days of racing side by side we managed to beat them in time but it was hugs and handshakes all around as we celebrated making it through a tough course.
Many of the people from the villages that we stayed in along the way were there and we were happy to hold our Ontario and Canadian flags up high for some finish line photos.
A truly great racing experience in so many ways. If you ever get a chance to do an Eco-Aventure event ? DO IT! They are an extremely well run organization with a great passion for adventure.
I already miss the people out there and was quickly reminded of the difference between there and here as I walked to Tim Horton?s on Wednesday morning and was almost run over by a woman as I tried to cross the street on a green light. I felt my blood starting to boil and then reminded myself that I said I was going to try to bring some of that East Coast attitude back home! I?ll do my best.
In order to ensure that all of our gear arrived in time for the race Pete and I booked our flights for the Saturday before the Thursday race start and planned on meeting Sean and Andrew there in time for a trip to Gros Morne National Park for the day. We arrived in Deer Lake with the Treehuggers (Barb, Richard, Kristen, and Tim) and over the next couple of days all of us bought the rest of our food, sorted our gear, and headed up to Gros Morne for a great day of hiking.
Tuesday morning the school bus arrived at our hotel to pick us up along with some of the many volunteers and other international racers to head north for about 300km to St. Barbe where we would take the ferry over to Blanc-Sablon, Quebec. The bus ride was a little scary as I watched our tired bus driver do head bobs the entire way but we made it safely and we shuttled over to the local school to set up camp for the next day or two before race start. Here we sorted gear some more and waited as more racers arrived from places like France, Italy, South Africa, the States, and Brazil. The atmosphere was friendly as people got comfortable setting up camp in the gym.
The way the race worked was over the next four days we would have four day stages and one night stage which took place at 10pm on the 3rd night. All days had an Extreme section that required making a cut-off for. Over the stages our team completed the sections in approximately these times.
Day One: 8 ½ hours
Day Two: 10 hours
Day Three: 8 hours
Night stage: 2 hours
Day Four: 8 hours
Without going into detail of every day (mainly because I can?t remember) I will say that I found the stage format difficult on the body and a bit stressful from a preparations perspective. We didn?t get our maps for the next stage until we had completed the current stage. So that meant when we finished day three we got the maps for the night stage then and not until we were finished the night stage that night at midnight did we get the maps for the following day that started at 7:30am. Lots of prep to do and not much sleep, especially for the navigators.
What I did LOVE about the stage format is the interaction that we were able to have with the other racers and with the communities. I was absolutely blown away by the reception that we got in the communities along the way. We stayed in towns with a population of 30, yup 30! And in these communities the people prepared delicious buffets of food (fresh fish, salad, beer!) for all of the racers and staff and volunteers. This was a lot of people considering there were far more volunteers and staff than racers. It was truly unbelievable! In a town called Middle Bay there were a group of women who had t-shirts made up that said ?Middle Bay welcomes the Coast Raid? and had us all sign them. When we arrived at a traverse section outside a town called Brador the ENTIRE town was on the bridge watching and cheering as we rode through?..it was like we were celebrities. These people were very excited to have us experiencing their region and it was an honor to be there. I will never forget the generosity and warmth of the people on the north shore.
What can I say about the terrain. It was spectacular. I did take a few photos but not enough and none that will give it justice. I think the Treehuggers have a few that will blow people away though. When we arrived in Blanc-Sablon it was cold and rainy and the wind was ripping off the ocean. I was concerned that the next few days would consist of a miserable push through punishing terrain that I would never get to see because of the fog and rain. It couldn?t have been more different. The sun was out for four days straight (something that Gladys in Middle Bay told us rarely happens on the North Shore) and the water temperature was much warmer than the 4 degrees we were prepared for. The ocean was calm, the wind was tame, and it was absolutely stunning out there. There weren?t any trees like we have here but there was a lot of soft moss to get through. That sounds nice but after hours of running on what feels like a trampoline with very little rebound the legs start to get a little tired and running becomes a lot more difficult than it already is. The goal was to stay high but the rocky ground didn?t last long and there were always patches of tuckamore to get through. I have to say that it is really difficult and frustrating to try to trek thought trees that grow vertical from the ground then take a 90 degree turn to head horizontal just where you can?t see them and then head vertical again to make it look like you are just heading into a patch of normal vertical trees. I actually got stuck in a patch that required Andrew to head over and help me crawl out of it.
We had controls on peninsulas jutting out into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with the waves crashing on the shore, on the peaks of rocky mountains with views that were breathtaking, and some next to old fishing huts that stood all alone on a shoreline with nothing else in sight. It really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and the journey we had was incredible.
As for our race we had our good times and our bad. The good times far outweighed the bad and after the first day it was obvious to us who our competition was. There were only 6 four person teams and although we usually like to race against all teams, including the duos it was clear that the teams from France, Italy, and South Africa were in a league of their own. Their pace was furious and their navigation was spot on?? Team Asics from Quebec had beat us to the finish line on day one by 15 minutes and Team Yogaslackers by half an hour. We had lost some time on the first trek that we couldn?t get back and so the races over the next four stages became a game of minutes. Day two was worse. We had paddled well off of the start line and got to the first trek with the first couple of teams. After nailing the first two controls we started to head back to the boats with Asics right on our tail. Things weren?t lining up exactly as Pete would have liked but I looked at the map and justified what we were seeing?..and then Asics asked us if we had CP3. Pete replied ?Yes? and we watched their navigator curse and swear. I asked Pete to check our map and that?s when we realized we had missed a CP way back on a peninsula??oh no! Both of our teams turned around and tried to make up the time. We recovered well and by the time we got back to the boats we knew we were far behind. The mistake cost us the better part of an hour. Here?s where we made our final bad decision of the day. On the way across the bay on the paddle the side wind was picking up and slowing our progress quite a bit. Pete and I looked at the map and decided that we were close enough to high tide to go around the back of the island and try to get more protection from the wind. It would involve a small up-an-over a road but the protection from the wind would be worth it. Well we weren?t close enough to high tide and ended up dragging our boats through thick shoe stealing mud that slowed our progress. We came out the other side behind Asics again and even further back from Yogaslackers. At the end of day two we had lost an hour to Yogaslackers in total and finishing just behind Asics were now about 25 minutes behind them?..not a good day for us.
We had a good third day and led the four person race for most of the day until the final trek. In the race instructions it said to bike from TA3 to TA4. For most of us this means you have to bring your bike with you to the TA. For this race the TA?s are set up to give the race organizers an idea of who is where. So when we were headed down a muddy hike-a-bike trail and saw some of the race leaders had dropped their bikes along the way we told ourselves that we had to bring them with us since it was a biking section. This was not the case and in the end we had to carry our bikes back and ended up finishing seconds behind the Yogaslackers. A little frustrating after pushing so hard all day and wanting to beat them to the line but oh well.
That night we had three hours to complete a bike/trek rogaine and we knew it would be interesting when off the line we went one way and the Yogaslackers and Asics went another. We nailed all of the CP?s except one that took us a little longer but when we crossed the line neither Asics or the YS were there?..now we watched the clock. In the end we moved into second by 35 minutes but were still down on first by 40 minutes. The nice thing about the stage race is that when you have developed a friendly relationship with your competition like we did with Asics you get to see them more often and can encourage each other on despite the competition.
Day four was going to be tough. We were all tired and I was feeling a little nauseous and we had quite a bit of time to make up. We didn?t have a great transition to paddle and couldn?t quite catch the leaders who were all together on the trek, including Asics and YS, but when we got to the ropes Andrew and Pete flew through to get us on the bikes right behind the leaders. And then once again Andrew took the draft, I grabbed on, and he hammered to catch YS and Asics. Pete navigated us flawlessly through the bike matrix and then we were off to Labrador for some more trekking CP?s. With Asics and YS hot on our tails we got two more CP?s on a rocky peninsula with the waves crashing ashore as the wind picked up. Our last CP in Labrador had us ride 3 km along the shore and rather than backtrack to the town and around we decided to climb with our bikes up to the road. This was pretty difficult as we tried to avoid the tuckamore and had to pass our bikes to one another while we scrambled up cliffs. I was worried that we were going to lose valuable time to Asics but as it turned out they had also climbed and so heading in to the final two CP?s in Blanc-Sablon we were close together although we didn?t know it at the time.
After making a decision on how to approach the final CP?s and having grabbed the last one we were running back to our bikes and saw that Asics was right in front of us and already on their bikes. The race was on! The headwind was fierce as it ripped off the ocean and I could hardly keep up to the boys as they ran for the bikes. Andrew packed my shoes in his pack and we jumped on the bikes to try to catch them. With only a couple of kms to go it was a struggle to catch up but we did. Just as we reached the finish line at the school all 8 of us screeched in to cross the line together. After four days of racing side by side we managed to beat them in time but it was hugs and handshakes all around as we celebrated making it through a tough course.
Many of the people from the villages that we stayed in along the way were there and we were happy to hold our Ontario and Canadian flags up high for some finish line photos.
A truly great racing experience in so many ways. If you ever get a chance to do an Eco-Aventure event ? DO IT! They are an extremely well run organization with a great passion for adventure.
I already miss the people out there and was quickly reminded of the difference between there and here as I walked to Tim Horton?s on Wednesday morning and was almost run over by a woman as I tried to cross the street on a green light. I felt my blood starting to boil and then reminded myself that I said I was going to try to bring some of that East Coast attitude back home! I?ll do my best.
Wednesday Aug 20, 2008 #
Road Riding 1:00:00 [3]
To Labrador and back! I love saying that.
Monday Aug 18, 2008 #
Trekking 4:00:00 [2]
Gros Morne hike.