Training Log Archive: fletch

Transition to MTB Bonus: 17 minutes (0:12)

Got off the walk trail to find out that we were early enough to face the pleasure of a 'bonus' loop to make sure we didn't get to the second paddle before light. Not real excited, but knew the other 2 top teams would be doing it so if we didn't do it we would be third at best, wheras there was a big enough gap behind us that if we did do it and crashed badly, as long as we finished the course we would be third at worst, so we didn't really have a choice. The major problem was not that the 2 bonus checkpoints were 'somewhere on the Greenbushes walk trail but we're not telling you where', it was the fact that that particular walk trail wasn't needed for anything else, so I had cut it off our tourist brochure and left it back at race HQ, so we headed out just behind Hageby's heroes once more hoping to either not lose them, or manage to follow the trail markers a bit better than we had done earlier whilst walking. Passed HH part way round and our only issues were Evo's fading and disappearing lights (pulled out of the socket a couple of times whilst he was at the back and we didn't notice until we'd left him alone in pitch darkness trying to sort himself out.

Got round the extra 15km loop well...

MTB Bonus Loop Split 1:17 (1st) (1:20 2nd)

and set off on ther MTB leg proper (26km) . Starting to feel the pinch a bit here and 20 odd minutes behind the Yogi's but the ride was on good quality trails and most of it was along a railway line, so it was mercifully flat. Caught sight of Yogi's light early, and despite a small error heading to the railway bridge (over the river, not the track as I had anticipated) we had all but caught them by the time we rode down the powerline trail and into the lext transition.

MTB Rail ride Split: 1:35 - 1st (yogis 1:58, Hageby's 2:07)
Transition to trek 14 minutes (0:11)

Headed out onto the next trek (13km) seconds in front of the Yogi's who managed to be even slower in transition than we were. Got to a track junction to find that the track on the ground went 90 degrees to the one on the map, but the sign by the side of the road that read "This way" (no I'm not joking) gave me confidence that the track would do the opposite two sides of the square to what the map suggested and that's what it did. Track got us to within 200m of the checkpoiont, then spent the next hour searching in vain for it, despite clearly identifying where we were. Yogi's got confused by the dodgy tracks and joined the hunt after about 20 minutes and Hageby's Heroes turned up some time after that. After searching for about an hour, we grudgingly pulled the pin and left, leaving behind the 2 teams that found the dodgy checkpoint and cost us the win last year...

Feeling pretty downcast and wondering if they would stumble across the checkpoint, we trudged slowly through the next couple of checkpoints as the sun came up. Got through them without any difficulties, before starting to run again, although admittedly much slower than we had been. Had a tough slog up another 100m ascent, but fortunately this time through farmland. The rest of the trek was pretty uneventful, and if we had nailed the first checkpoint and kept our pace up, we may have been into the transition to the final paddle by the time in got light. It was a bit different having to pull a boat across the river on a rope to get across the river to transition, but a welcome alternative to swimming...

Trek split: 3:43 - pretty meaningless to compare. Gained an hour on Yogi's and 40 minutes on Hageby's heroes...
Transition to paddle 40 minutes (0:20)

We knew we needed a pretty substantial lead given our paddling issues from the previous day, but had a very slow transition, largely due to a leaking boat so we pumped up an extra and got on the water about 8:40am. We couldn't really remember whether the paddle was 14km or 18 (which it was) and I'd long since lost the course description booklet, but it was going to be longer than the first To Evo's and my amazement Wade and Blacky looked like seasoned pros with the seats set up right and were outpacing us for much of the first half of the paddle and despite tiredness my spirits were lifting greatly. As the arms got tired, it got harder to control the kayaks through the rapids. I nearly drowned myself when I hopped out into (deep as it turned out)flowing water to get the boat over a log and was being pushed into and under a log, before desperately managing to scramble back into the boat, and Blacky and Wade capsized again after hitting some ti-trees. Wade floated downstream with his paddle and Blacky's pack, and Blacky managed to get the boat untangled after the tow-rope fortunately got stuck on something and stopped the kayak disappearing. We got sorted and got going again relatively quickly. 3 hours was as long time to be paddling, but it was nothing comapred to my horrors of the final paddle last year.

Paddle Split 3:04 (2nd) (Yogi's 2:46)
Transition to Run: 0:04

We parked the kayaks at the base of the bridge at the south side of Bridgetown, grabbed our gear, tried to get the legs moving again and jogged slowly up the hill to the town hall to claim line honours and begin the nervous wait to see whether the other two teams would find the checkpoint.

Run to town Split: 0:07

Yogi's came in about 45 mniutes after us, without checkpoint 29 and seemed sure that Hageby's Heroes had also missed it, and that turned out to be true. The checkpoint wasn't found by any of the 5 teams that completed the full course, so will be interesting to hear if Murray found it afterwards.

There were times out there where there was plenty of cursing and thinking that if the maps were of a similar quality in a few weeks I would retire from AR's, but within hours of finishing I was far happier once again and contemplating next year.

As I write this (Tuesday am) I am feeling a little sleepy still, but not particularly sore and assuming I don't end up with a stressie in a week's time like last year, I'll make plans to be back.

C • Effort 1

Event: Espresso Adventure Race
 

Must start the write-up with a few massive thank yous. Firstly to our sponsors - Shotz sports Nurtrition who supplied the vast quantitites of carboshotz and electrolyte drink that got us through the race without bonking and Paddy Pallin who again helped with the supply of our race gear.

Also a big thanks to Wade and Blacky who really didn't know what they were signing up for as late replacements for our overseas teammates. Really gutsy to see it through as strongly as they did, especially after the early paddling misadventures. I could feel their frustration too at not knowing what to do when I was standing around with the one copy of the map looking confused and wondering where to go. It's mentally very tough to stay focused when you don't even have a good idea of how far to the next checkpoint let alone the detail of how you're going to get there.

Started with an 11km metro rogaine around Bridgetown. Got an early taste of what to expect with the map quality when the first road we followed up our first hill heading to our first control disappeared well before it did on the map. Map was of gazetted roads, not constructed ones. Pete really wanted to push the pace, but it was clear that triathletes don't get quite as much hill training in as orienteers/AR racers. Clean loop. About an hour. First into paddle transition.

Leg 1 Metrogaine: 59 minutes (1st)
Transition to paddle: 23 minutes (0:19)

Paddle transition was fine and got onto the river for 15km paddle just in front of Hageby's Heroes, only to be quickly passed as Blacky and Wade tried a bit of circle work in the boat they'd never even seen before. Not too long into the paddle, They got wrapped around a rock sidewards, capsized and their packs floated off down the river. Happy that the packs floated, otherwise it would have been race over. By a little over halfway through the paddle we had probably dropped out of the top 10 as teams came storming past our zigzagging boats and we decided it was worth the punt to portage 700m up and over a steep hill and a few fences to cut 4-5km off the paddle. Glad we saw the team in front of us starting the portage because I thought we'd probably gone past the point to do it by the time we got there.
Turned out to be a winner of a move as we were amazed when we pulled into transition in 5th and found out that all of the 4 teams in front of us had also portaged.

Padlle Split: 2:16 (5th - 1:41 fastest)
Transition to trek: 15 minutes (0:07)

Out onto first trek (15km). Saw the team in 4th cut through the private land we had specifically been told to avoid at both the pre-race briefing and the transition area, but they then proceeded to walk straight past the first road junction and we moved into 4th. Blacky was really struggling with the hills here as he had spent half the previous paddle effectively with no seat and sitting on his pack, as well as being frozen and having all his gear soaked when he lost his pack, but a gentle push up a couple of the hills and we still made good progress. Had 3rd in sight by the first checkpoint and passed them heading out to the next, but got confused on some indistinct tracks and were lucky to see the Yogis leaving the checkpoint as we cut vaguely back towards the right spot.

Was most of the way to the next one, when I decided we'd been baching uphil for too long and bailed out at 90 degrees where we could see the edge of the pine plantation. Then proceeded to turn downhill and travelled a dew hundred or maybe more metres before realising we needed to go the other way, so back up the same darn hill again. Cost a good 10-15 minutes. On way into checkpoint realised we were within 100m of the track we were originally heading for when we bailed. Grrr. Stoopid. Next checkpoint involved a 200m plus climb over 1km with the bottom quarter of it covered in blackberries. Almost gave up and tried another route, which would have cost us big-time, but last attempt found a pathway through to where the vegetation opened up a bit. Got to the top and spent a long time hunting for a broad knoll (250 x 100m dead flat?) before stumbling onto it and heading off just ahead of the Yogis. Hageby's in front, dunno where second was at this stage. May have been us.

Trek Split: 3:55 (1st by 11 minutes)
transition to bike: 18 minutes (0:16)

Came into transition onto the bikes for the first time in time to see Hageby's leave, and obviously in second place. The MTB was a rogaine style. Had to get all of the checkpoints but the order was up to us. Had been a difficult choice during planning whether to risk going a shorter way where there were a few tracks that didn't look like they quite linked up or go a longer, safer way that finished with a bitumen road ride. We chose the safe option and it didn't really pay dividends, but this wasn't helped by our route involving a track that didn't exist and the ensuing hunt for it, then longer detour and our inability to see a checkpoint on the corner of a dam that we stopped within 5m of first time past, then spent another 5-10 minutes looking for. Lost time on the other checkpoint too, when I got confused by a track that didn't quite follow the fence it was mapped along, and was lucky to spot the checkpoint when we did. Probably lost a good 20-25 minutes for the leg, but split was still surprisingly competitive.

MTB Rogaine Split: 2:04 - 3rd (leader 2:00)
Transition to trek: 20 minutes (0:10)

Still in second and a similar length of time behind at the end of the leg, but significantly slower in transition and left onto our trek around the Greenbushes walk trails about half an hour behind. Got through checkpoints on the mine lookout (before the drunk teenageers arrived) and old courthouse cleanly and headed onto the mining trail loop, where we ran into hageby's who had been brought undone by the inaccuracy of the toursit map we were using. We spent considerable time with them hunting along in the bush off the side of a fire trail before finding the little trail marker that pointed us onlt the right trail. Yogi's passed us both here and took the lead. Got through the rest of this loop with a few minor navigation issues and climbing a few extra mull-heaps, but nothing too serious. Came into transition a couple of minutes clear in second after running a but harder from the last checkpoint at the railway station back to the Greenbushes 'swimming pool' and transition. About 1am when we arrived.

Trek split: 2:18 - 2nd (Yogi's 1:45)

Same session as last Tuesday except an extra minute between reps. Meant to be a bit quicker, but didn't want to kill myself so paced Tooms for a steady hard run.
8:50
9:03
9:07

C • Sweet of you, thanks! 2