Training Log Archive: Mounty

Godzone report part 2
Hmm. Finding time to finish the report is proving challenging. Thanks for the tummy bug Tom.

Leg 5 – Ride (sort of), 100k?



The trek finished mid-afternoon at a very nice TA with lots of sun – prime conditions to encourage pfaffing. The next ride looked harmless enough on the map, with the exception of a trackless section adjacent to river. We guessed (correctly) that we might be getting our feet wet there.

We headed off for a nice hoon section through paddocks, whence it soon became clear that the hike-a-bike section wasn’t the only place we were going to get wet feet – with the all too regular arrival of creek crossings. Crossing cold creeks was starting to show itself as the theme for the week. We rode thru the first couple of CPs in good time as light faded and arrived at a ridiculously gratuitous river crossing (and back) as it got dark. Grr.

The next section was probably our worst of the week, losing lots of time – not from getting lost, but just getting bogged in crap. The course included a long section thru tussock grass flat ground adjacent a wide river, with sections trackless on the map. There is always an element of luck with AR courses as to which sections you do in the dark. We had some good timing later in the week on foot, but got smashed here. Looking at the tracker, from CP 9-11 took Robbie and co from 2pm-5:30pm. We spent from 6pm to 2am doing the same thing. We mainly got bogged on the stretch down to CP 11, spending a shedload of time dragging bikes thru a big tussock marshy area wondering where the track that was supposedly due to start on the map had got to. Slightly annoying to see the set of lights that were an hour behind us on the hill at CP10 come rolling in together at CP11. Having said all that, spirit remained high as we trudged through the slop as there comes a point that you have to laugh at the silliness of it all. One conversation that still resonates was whether walking for a long period with numb feet was going to bite us later on. It turned out not to be a problem in the race, but 2.5 weeks later and my feet still have plenty of numb spots recovering slowly.

So, 2am and time for some more ‘traditional’ riding. Downside was that ‘2am brain' had arrived. Having not slept the first night, we recognized that a sleep was important but didn’t stop in the nice pine next to CP11 and instead rode on for ‘one more’ CP. Just as it was too late we realized this was stupid as we were about to climb 600m in to a cold evening. We arrived at CP 12 to find a wet/steep uninviting location and were forced to continue on. We also crossed paths with a team who shall remain nameless giving the finger to the 100m rule, having sent one person in on an out and back to collect the CP. On politely mentioning, were told to f**k off.

Our search for somewhere to sleep wasn’t gong very well, and as we rode on snow started to cover the ground. Whoops. At 4am we decided to just stop else we weren’t going to get in a kip before sun-up, and spent a lovely couple of hours on a wet slope of tussock. I actually slept quite well.…

The next morning began with an ironically butt-freezing descent to warm-up, followed by a succession of ‘issues’ in ascending order of seriousness.

First up I dropped my chain, and was surprised when I couldn’t turn the pedals upon remounting. Looking down was rather surprised to see a tangled piece of metal intertwined with the front chain ring. Wtf? Long story short, there is a disc of metal that protects the frame around the bottom bracket – it had got mangled in with the cogs, and took quite a bit of allen key tough love to clear.

Then Hugh got a flat.

Then Hugh broke his shoulder.


We were riding downhill thru farmland on a non-descript grassy track when Hugh elected to alight from his bicycle at the front exit for a very rough 50km/h landing. Not good. Fortunately, our team included a pharmacist and a chiropractor to help. Unfortunately, initial feedback from said chiropractor was along the lines of “yeah, it’s pretty f**cked aye – it feels crunchy and displaced”.

From a mechanical perspective, the main issue was that Hugh couldn’t raise his arm from the shoulder at all – turns out the rotator cuff was damaged too – but the arm itself worked OK. From a pain perspective, I think Danielle cracked open the ‘special’ section of the first aid kit.

Hugh jumped on his bike ‘to see how it goes’. Unfortunately the first test was a rocky downhill, which did not look pleasant. Amazingly, he gradually got going again and we eased our way back to something resembling usual operations reasonably quickly. Cementing his reputation as number 1 tough bastard, he proceeded to race for the next 2 days with arm in this state without complaint. I think it is fair to say that ‘Hugh was impressive’. The one topic not discussed, but on everyone's mind was that we had 2 long paddles ahead of us.

The rest of the ride went OK, and we had some fun dicing with MDs. Mild frustration at the last CP as the map was wrong, before rolling in to a picturesque river side TA for lunch.



Leg 6 – Trek, 50k
Similar to the first trek, the map suggested an easy-ish start with 2 big ridge crossings promising to be the crux of the leg. And the first leg, up a picturesque river in the afternoon sunlight was indeed rather luverly. We picked off the first CP at a trot, and then were faced with a route choice of either continuing up the river for another 10k or climbing 600m to a ridge-top, and descending again at the end. Bloody hard to know from a 1:25000 topo map as a foreigner. Would the creek continue to be nice, would the ridge-line be quick or rough tussock, would the climb thru’ green be slow? God knows.

We continued up the creek as there were signs of a marked trail with reflectors which we thought may go to the hut with the CP, with plans to bail up the hill if it got rough. The creek stayed nice for about 3k, but then got narrow and the trail disappeared at which point we bailed up the hill – to find we had dropped an hour on the 2 kiwi teams behind us who had gone straight up. Doh.

One advantage of coming high is that we could see the route choice options for crossing the first big ridgeline. Given that one of the 2 options we had penciled in was covered in snow, we elected to take the other.

An awkward issue arose as it got dark. I mentioned earlier that I had light problems on the last trek. Cleverly solved them by switching to my other light (used on bike) at the last TA but in doing so forgot to bring the headstrap to hold the light to my head. Oops. Macgyver time. I strapped the light-head around our compulsory penknife, then zip-tied the penknife to holes punched thru my cap. Then placed a mini mars bars between the light head and cap peak for stability, and tied together with ankle tape. Worked a treat.

We met up with Wayne Oxenham on the approach to the next CP, and had some fun racing to find it. Issue being that CP as on a hut, and it was cold and time for a nap. Bashing around thru junk, we found the CP by following the smell of smoke and managed to get bedded down on the (small) floor next to a fire just as Wayno stuck his head in the window hopefully, but was forced to set up tent. Hehe.


An enjoyable ridge climb followed after an hours sleep, with distant company for entertainment. At night it is impressive how well you can see lights of other teams even when a few km away. We picked a good route (finally), and descended in to ‘fridge valley’ in the early hours of the morning. The next bit looked straightforward on the map – 8k along a river in the big valley with a track for much of it. It didn’t prove to be that straight forward – mainly because the track kept crossing the river (a lot), and it was bloody cold down there. I’m talking -5 to -10 cold with a heavy, crunchy frost. Time for numb feet again.

Bit of a battle with sleepmonsters along here, with some great hallucinations and Seamus teaching me the words to the kiwi national anthem to keep awake. At 4am we faced a bit of a dilemma – we were about to attempt a ridge crossing that would be sketchy in the dark (ask Blackheart), but it was too cold to stop and sleep in our minimal compulsory gear. Fortunate to come across a tiny hut ‘the dog box’ but with a big chimney we stopped and lit a fire for an hours sleep. Fond memories of the dog box – it was fun.

Anyway, up and in to a glorious sunrise and the crux of the leg – cutting up a valley in an attempt to cross the big ridgeline. Sketchy! It rough, steep and uncertain as to how to get out at the end. We got the lower section well, and emerged above the treeline in to a great big pile of steep matagauri. 2km of crash and bash – the worst part being the Spaniard plants hiding amongst the brambles. Best described as a ball of knitting needles. Got hammered thru here, and I put the map down my pants for ‘protection’. We made it thru eventually, and climbed out a narrow chimney of scree to be met with a spectacular view – and a bit of a hustle to meet the cut-off time for the end of the leg. It also got social with Wayno showing up again and Richard Anderson’s crew. Nice to chat.

Just when all seemed good, Seamus started to slow with feet issues. He had some weird trench foot thing going that did not look too nice. Given the trekking to come we elected to stop for half an hour to dry them out in the sun – a good call in hindsight as he came good quick, but we had to run to make the TA in time.

We arrived at the TA with 20minutes to spare in a tight group – 6th to 10th who all relaxed as the door closed behind us with all teams behind short coursed. Terribly slow in the TA as a result, but good news given Hugh’s shoulder that the next paddle had been cancelled.





Leg 7, MTB 140km
This ride was shortened, and the paddle removed as the organizers were kidding themselves when they set the course. Slight miscommunication at the TA though – Hugh passed on message that the ride would be about 60k, when it fact it was still 100k. Whoops. Result was heading out with probably not quite the right mindset and lean on food rations.

Easy for a while along a dirt road, then pfaff time looking for a track turnoff to the lake. Lost an hour looking around in the dark. In the end we had stopped at the correct turnoff originally but had been hesitant because of i) a sign saying absolutely no entry and ii) the fact that there was no track there but a paddock packed with sheep. Frustrating. We rode for the next section on a narrow track along the lakeside, where I struggled with the sleepies for a couple of hours. I kept getting hallucinations that we were riding along a track in Vietnam dotted with regular villages – to be honest it was rather cool, but slow.

Highlight was falling asleep, and suddenly snapping awake to find that a) I was riding in a paddock, and b) no-one else was in sight. Dis-orienting moment when I wondered if I’d fallen asleep and ridden off the course for god knows how long. Relieved to find the others not too far away, and that we were supposed to be in a paddock. Funny.

Stopped for a decent sleep at the next CP on the understanding that we would have a long night tomorrow, then rode without incident thru to the beginning of the mountain trek.

We arrived to be told that it was too windy to head up in to the mountains and the next leg was cancelled from now on. This kind of broke the race for us. Wayno and us had slept on the course, while Richard and another team had slept at the TA. The other teams were ‘deemed’ to have started the next leg (even though they were still at the TA) so it all became a bit social as we were told to ride to the start of the paddle.

Great 30k ride together with Wayne and his chicks, cruising along on a beautiful morning chatting about the week that was. Some fun in to the paddle TA, as some of Wayne’s crew came from that there and set a cracking pace in to town. Entertaining sprint finish thru the streets, and bewildered looks from TA volunteers as we came screeching in under the banners laughing. Good times.

Leg ‘I lost count’ – Paddle 50k
And so to the finish, a 50k paddle down the lake to Queenstown. Slight catch being that Hugh only had one functioning arm.

In hindsight, this leg was one of the most fun I’ve had. Scenery was amazing, Hugh looked hilarious sitting in the back paddling with one arm while Seamus busted a gut in the front and a 25kt tailwind was blowing up a sensational following sea – which proved to be a saving grace.

The AR boats surfed surprisingly well, so Seamus and Hugh were able to maintain a decent pace despite being short an arm. I think the split was only 20min slower than Blackheart over 6hrs in the end.

In short, we had an absolute ball surfing the day away. Highlight being seeing who could launch on to the biggest wave as the helicopter came past (very!) close for some actions shots. The wind steadily built, peaking at the point about 30k in where we were hit by 50+ knot squalls. The wind was so strong it blew the water flat – knocking the tops off the waves. Have never seen that before. Rather spectacular.

In the end, we surfed our way all the way in to central Queenstown and a 1.5k run up the hill to finish- pizza and champagne awaiting.

Quite the adventure. Forgetting the race, it was a spectacularly awesome way to really 'live' the NZ countryside. Have been to NZ many times before, but not in that way. Memorable stuff. Big thanks to Danielle, Hugh and Seamus – first time out and had the team thing going well. A bit of shoulda/coulda/woulda on the result front. Looking at the tracker, our speed was OK but lost chunks of time getting bogged on a few occasions around the course. Given that Hugh was broken though, pretty happy to get to the end as a full team. I was certainly rusty having not done this for a while, but in to it by the end. Unfortunately, no more plans for races so I guess the rust will just steadily return. :-)

The hardest part of the whole week was starting a new job back in Sydney 2 days after we crossed the finish line. Tough!

C • super write up mate. better... 6

Commuting experiment. Drove to Neutral Bay (Montpelier) and ran to the Quay. Running on flat OK, struggled bigtime on anything that went up.

Slow signs of improvement with the numb toes, but the piggies who went to market are dragging the chain.

Trotted back to the car, to find a note on the windscreen from someone that had reversed in to it. Grrr.

Probably a premature return to kick-boxing. Wore the hippie shoes to protect the numb feet - worked OK.

Godzone

It’s been almost 2 years since my last adventure race (XPD in Cairns), so it felt unusual yet oddly familiar to find myself once more on a Saturday morning loading stuff in to black trunks and estimating how long salami, cheese and sun-dried tomato’s would keep if left to their own devices. Queenstown this time, and the promise of cold weather added a new dimension to the packing dilemma – thermals or spaghetti for the last free corner of the box.

Packing this time was more relaxed time-wise but harder as we hadn’t been given the maps, only a very rough course overview, so a bit of guess work involved in deciding to where to place the favorite shoes. Etc. What was clear was that (i) we were going to be spending a lot of time on our feet, and (ii) given that I had brought zero gear to NZ besides race gear I was going to be walking around in paddling booties all Sunday. To bed by 10:30pm, ready for the Sunday morning bus ride to the ‘mystery’ start.

Given that we were in Queenstown and the first leg was to be a 20km paddle, you didn’t have to be a rocket surgeon to guess that we were off to Milford Sound. Sure enough that’s where the buses headed, with a social 5hr Sunday drive affording the AR fraternity to catch up and swap stories of silly races around the world, before things got serious with the map handout just short of the Milford ferry terminal at 6pm. A few hours of contacting, measuring and wondering why Steve Gurney was dressed as a rabbit then off to bed in the race tent at 11pm for a 3am wakeup. Ouch.
The main takeaway from course planning was that the organiser had clearly been optimistic in his planning - this was gonna be long.

Leg 1 – Paddle, 20km



We actually began with a ferry ride doing the first leg in reverse up Milford Sound, not that you could see much at 4am, to be deposited on a rocky beach at the base of cliffs where the Sound meets the sea.

A fleet of shiny new kayaks sat waiting in the dark ready to be abused by people without the motivation of ownership to look after them (no wonder communisim didn’t work). Quick adjustment (attaching my cunning footrest – a plank of wood from the Queenstown hardware store), then off for a mass start in the dark.

Controlled mayhem as 70 identical boats headed off in the swell, with the biggest challenge working out which of the other 69 boats contained your team-mates. As the dawn began to break we confirmed that it was in fact Seamus and Danielle behind us, and settled in for some serious ‘enjoying the view’.

Milford Sound in indeed pretty speccy, and even more impressive from a kayak. Hugh and I were debating how this rated on the ‘best AR paddles’ list, when the Sound took offence we hadn’t rated it #1 and served up a pod of Dolphins to join us for the last 3rd of the paddle. Not just ‘dolphins over there’ type thing, but ‘dolphins under the boat, next to the boat and Seaworld aerial show off the bow type thing’. Truly awesome.

Rolled in to the TA with Blackheart, threw the kayak clothes in to the boat for later in the week, and a quick nudie run over to where the bike (and nix) were waiting.

Great start to the week.

Leg 2 – Road ride, 50km
On to the bike for a checkpoint-free, bitumen spin down to the canoes. Only catch being a 1000m climb and 1.2km long tunnel along the way. Sensational climb, and something I would hesitate do outside a race given the narrow road and proliferation of buses. Would have been even more fun on a roadie and without a pack. Hugh did a Cancellera for the rest, which made for a rather pleasant ride for the rest of us.




Leg 3 – Canoe, 36km
Last leg of the ‘prologue’ before the real legs started. Few hours of speccy scenery, chilly river and unfamiliar paddling with canoe blades. Don’t think Ill trade the ski for an OC-1 any time soon.




Leg 4 – Trek, 50k
Game on. Even on the 1:50,000 map it was obvious this was going to be a doozy. Real mountain country, and long legs more about route choice than checkpoint finding.

A few annoyances to get started – a loose connection in the light cord meant my light kept turning itself off, the slipperiest shoelaces I’ve ever made the mistake of wearing (even ankle tape didn’t help) kept undoing themselves, etc. but trotted up the hill in good spirits before the first challenge.

Must have been about 9pm when we reached the ridge on the first range and our first real taste of mountains. Together with MD’s we found ourselves walking up the spine of a very(!) narrow spur, scree underfoot, big drops on each side and 50-60kts of wind (sailor Hugh’s estimate) doing its best to keep things interesting. Pretty happy with the extra pair of fluffy tights I’d bought in Queenstown at this point. Then a sketchy scree traverse that I’m glad it was dark for, before descending down in to the relative calm but bush bashing valley on the other side.

Then a blur of up/down, creeks, ridges until dawn broke at a little hut and CP5. Highlight of the evening was Seamus (who hunts) trading calls with a nearby Stag for about an hour to keep awake in the early hours. Apparently we were up for a fight or a f*ck if we crossed paths.

The rest of the leg looked pretty straightforward on the map – over a hill, then 15k on a track. Only catch being that when 20m contours get close to touching each other on 1:50,000 its gonna be real steep. We climbed a scree slope that looked ridiculous from the bottom but turned out to be rather fun, then copped a few delays getting cliffed out attempting to head down the other side before hitting some beautiful open beech forest – very Lord of the Rings.

The 10k ‘track’ at the end turned out to be a muddy, windy groove reminiscent of tracks at O-Ringen so no easy finish, but rocked in to TA4 sometime early-afternoon in about 6th? Place and going OK. Not thrilled with our speed with too much stopping and hesitation - still getting to know each other as a team - but happy to get through without major dramas, good feet and everyone pretty fresh.





To be continued.....

C • I never saw what Mt Snowdon... 1

Slow Killarney loop. Felt like I was running at altitude and toes numb, but great to be out in the bush again.

Will get around to writing a Godzone race report one of these days. Short version finished 9th in 4.5 days.

Of most interest is the diagnosis of Hughs shoulder that came through yesterday. Dislocated fracture and buggered rotator cuff, after a bike crash on day 2. That he raced on it for another 2 days is rather impressive. Stay tuned for the one armed 50 k paddle report.

Toes still numb.

First day at new job, tired and with numb toes.

C • New Job 5

Nothing like a flight to make the feet swell a bit more.

Rode the MTB from the city to Crows Nest. The number of people riding like complete knob heads between the city and north sydney was impressive. No wonder bikes aren't popular if that's the norm.

Caught the school cross-country as working from home.

Surprise packet this year was Tom, who hasn't in the past demonstrated evidence of running form. For context, he did about 11:30 last year for the 2km. This year he ran 9:20. He is most pleased to be joining 'sis at zone.

Evening Killarney loop to break in a pair of shoes for next week.

Final race of the sailing season, and the skippers are required to handover steering duties to their little crews. Funny to watch big kids jammed up the front while the littlies enjoy their new found power. Tom most pleased to be driving.

Cruised around on the ski on a luverly day watching the action.

Better late than never start to Tom's training program for the school cross country tomorrow.