Training Archive: ToomsIn the 7 days ending 2007-07-08:
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Sunday Jul 8 | ||
| Adventure Race 13:54:00 [2] | |
| We'd picked our main competition out before the event - we'd figured Ricky's team would win (all male) and Karen's team would be very close to us, possibly 2nd and maybe 3rd. We'd pretty much discounted the other teams as they didn't have any recognisable navigators. It turns out Ricky's team avoided the rogaine and just did the 9k straight to the next transition - so they were ahead of us 'on the course' whereas Karen's team aimed and got 5 of the rogaine controls and we assumed were behind us on the course but ahead of us on elapsed time (due to bonuses). One control we did find was hanging 3.5m off the ground and 5m off the track in the scrub - shame that these first-time organisers didn't quite "get" the whole idea of putting controls in (a) fair places that could be navigated to and (b) hanging the controls clearly as described.
After the first MTB and its numerous 20m contours we treated the planned route with scant regard and instead entertained much wider route choices that looked more rideable. This was a much better ride although Fletch and Jen had a couple of falls on the wet branches. No nav troubles until we turned down an unmapped track that was within 70m of the one that we wanted. After about 30mins of not having a clue where we were we ended up walking up a long steep westerly hill and T-junctioned with a north-south track on a spur. Amazingly there was only one spot that these features matched and we took a punt and located the control without too much trouble. Then Fletch's crank worked itself loose.... fortunately we'd on a whim packed a Leatherman and this had a pair of pliers on it and Fletch was able to tighten it up a few times. Our team recomendation was to purchase a decent bike for the next event.... The next trek only had 3 CPs to find, the first of which was 50m off the Bib track on a creek junction. Unfortunately on the ground the creek was 200m or so from the track and every step of the way a tangle of thick vegetation and fallen logs. We spent 50mins searching and then left. Apparently a few teams found it by chance. Not impressed. By this time the organisers were getting the gist that their 16-18hr anticipated winning time might be a bit out ie. it was 730am and we still had 50ks of MTB, 17km of paddling and 8km or trekking to go! They only let 10 teams start the dodgy trek and sent the rest onto the mtb (which they also cancelled the need to find CPs on). As we started the ride the heavens opened properly as we were motoring along the bitumen. Jen was in good shape now and we overhauled 3 teams on the way and were back in the lead for line honours. Somehow we'd caught and passed Ricky's team on the Bib track without seeing them?? Some awesome fast downhills to the paddling CP here, the rush made us all smile again! Onto the final paddle, 3 or 4k or so to a portage which cut off 11km. It looked almost undoable due to the height of the ridge and weight of the boats but it only took about 10mins to get over - the 4m drop to the water was interesting on the other side and took some careful manoeuvering between Evo and I to control the lowering! Then we had a few km to the edge of the map and the TA "just off the map". An hour later we realised that the TA was just off the edge of the NEXT map!! By now Fletch was exhausted and our boat was lagging a long way behind Evo and Jen's. We couldn't alter the combination though as the river had a lot of obstacles and we needed those two in the same boat to complement each other's strength and steering abilities. Amazingly we weren't caught and we headed into the final pissy little trek still 'virtually' in the lead. No troubles with the two CPs and by halfway through the leg Fletch warmed up enough to undo his rain jacket hood. Evo was awesomely strong here, towing Fletch up a massive hill by himself as I just didn't have the strength to assist. Jen kept up with us well and we jogged down the powerlines from the last control to the finish in 26 hours apparently 'looking fresh'. Appearances are deceptive though! No results out yet but we think although crossing the line first we will be beaten by Karen's team who should have enough time bonus to overhaul us and we may be second. Definitely the best well-knit team I've done an AR race with and no-one was a passenger or had any bad moments of significance. We pushed well running and MTBing and finished strongly. Top effort by Jen and Fletch for whom it was their first adventure race. We didn't have any trouble with the wet weather thanks to our gear from Paddy Pallin Perth and Carboshotz kept us fueled-up awesomely, HUGE thanks to both. | ||
| C • Not by chance 2 | ||
Saturday Jul 7 | ||
| Event: JWOC 2007 | ||
| Event: Caffeinated Adventure Race | ||
| Adventure Race race (Caffeinated) 12:00:00 [2]** | |
| Maps were handed out about 930am and we had to have all 3 gear crates packed and all bike and paddling gear up at HQ by 11am. We immediately split into two pairs for this with Fletch and I doing the map-stuff and Evo and Jen sorting the crate logistics - they knew what crate to have at each transition and sorted the gear appropriately. They did their job well and we never had any trouble with forgotten gear. The hardest part was protecting the 12 maps from the forecast showers and rain - we had that sorted at 1150am, scant moments before the start! In fact, making the briefing was a minor achievement in itself after Fletch's incidental testing of his parent's jeep's skid-pan handling capacities on the clay-surface road on the way into rego on Saturday. We had a good look at a tree on the left, then the road, then the river valley on the other right all the while travelling in the same direction along the road. In the ensuing brief silence as we aligned the front of the car with direction of movement you could pretty much hear the click of 3 bike helmets being fastened...
The race was trek, mtb, paddle, rogaine for time bonuses, mtb, trek, mtb, paddle, trek. The first mtb was really tough, lots of pushing the bike up hills and Evo made himself very useful here in pushing two bikes. We made a nav error which called for walking another monster climb up the same hill (damn!) but even after that saw the lead team a few minutes ahead after their own drama somewhere. We started the canoe about 5mins behind them and it got dark about 40mins into the paddle - negotiated logs and ti-tree in the dark on a flowing river is, shall we say, interesting! Next was the rogaine - 7 or so controls up for grabs with each giving you a time-bonus. ie. your time across the finish line would have this subtracted. We decided to only aim for 4 of them as the map looked flat and the tracks questionable. It was, and they were, and we even missed one after spending a lot of time traipsing around in chest-high swordgrass and thicket. We held together well as a team, Evo and I were duo-towing Jen in the first run and we were evenly matched in the two inflatable canoes. It started raining after dark and rained on and off pretty much till midnight. After the paddle transition we never saw any other teams until daylight the next day. | ||
Thursday Jul 5 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:10.0 (rest day) | ||
| Lazy morning - slept in, took dog to beach then cleaned my bike. Work till late then will pack all my AR stuff and head down to the event tomorrow late morning with Evo, Fletch and our diesel engine Jen. | ||
Wednesday Jul 4 | ||
| Running long (Herdsman) 1:07:00 [2] 12 km (5:35 / km) | |
| ahr:132 max:157 slept:9.5 shoes: Brooks | ||
| Just a shorty tonight to make sure I am about as rested as sensible for the weekends rainfall-fest down in the Blackwood valley. Wil didn't lose his keys tonight. Saz did 35mins beforehand and then ran strongly with us to give her over 100mins... if she learns to read a map my $250 is looking shakey..... | ||
Tuesday Jul 3 | ||
| Running warm up/down 37:03 [1] 5.73 km (6:28 / km) | |
| ahr:131 max:153 slept:8.0 shoes: Brooks | ||
| Bold Park Pool down to City Beach and return. Wet in short squally bursts and very very blustery westerly straight off the ocean - no sand flying though, all the loose sand has long-gone after a week of this weather! | ||
| Running (Beach) 18:01 [4] 4.4 km (4:06 / km) | |
| ahr:153 max:163 shoes: Barefoot | ||
| 3x800 with 3mins rest
3x400 with 2mins rest 4x200 with 30s rest Beach sand was pretty hard but the wind was squally which made it awkward at times. I ran pretty hard and felt good, but have to admit that I only held Saz off by between 1s and 5s on the 8s and 4s. In the 2s she was as fast to start with but with the short recoveries I had the better of the latter part of each 200. Scary how quick she is running... frustration epitomised for her unfortunately. | ||
Monday Jul 2 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:9.0 (rest day) | ||
| Just a quiet day. Surprised I have pulled-up from Sunday's orienteering fine given my lack of sustained hard running over the last few months but pretty motivating. There's not much locally to look forward to on the local calendar though, I'll get to events on nice maps where I can. | ||