Training Log Archive: getawaystixIn the 7 days ending Aug 21, 2010:
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Saturday Aug 21, 2010 #
9 PM
Note
Untamed New England Race Report
Since our SPOT didn't work/track in the race, here's a link to our route in Google Maps:
http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&...
Registration opened at 8:00am, with maps handed out shortly thereafter. 3 hours of chaos ensued before boarding busses to the start. Not enough time to get a good feel for the course, but we managed to get all the CP's plotted & have one good look at what we thought would be the best route.
We turned a few heads at the paddle start, with our set-up of 4-in-a canoe. We were provided 1 canoe and 1 kayak for a team-of-4. The kayak was short, wide and slow, and we had tested a similar kayak a few weeks prior and found it was faster with this set-up, towing an empty kayak. Off we go & it seems 4-in-a-canoe is working well as we open a small gap on the field.
Onto the first portage we trade the lead with Team Kinetic. We arrive at CP2 and find no CP staff. Half an hour later one of the volunteers gets things sorted, and we continue (we'll receive a ½ hour time credit). A quick "Conservation Project" (trail building, which was cool) and we're back paddling in 3rd with Kinetic and the Danish team Skandia Key Experience up ahead. CP3 was a bit hard to locate on the shore of First Connecticut Lake, a scenario we'll encounter often, as the unmanned CP's (orienteering flags) are often hard to find. We should have been more precise with our plotting. We drop a few spots, but then start passing teams on the water.
Onto the 2nd portage we're in 2nd place, we struggle with our portage wheels, which look like they're ready to break. Once sorted, we've dropped a few places, but the wheels are holding, which has us better off than a lot of teams (many portage wheels broke, leaving teams to portage the 85lb canoes and 50lb kayaks on their shoulders) . By the end of the portage, we're tied for 2nd with Running Free and Team Granite while Kinetic has the lead. I have to say the paddling in this race was my favourite discipline, large, unpopulated lakes, and a nice Class I/II river with sparse population and fantastic mountain scenery.
Onto the 3rd portage, we've regained the lead and put-in on the river with light fading. We figure we'll have an advantage getting through most of the rapids in before it's too dark. Another poorly plotted CP has us pass the take-out to CP7, the site of the Orienteering Relay. A bit of chaos ensues; we pull out the headlamps and take a good look at the map & instructions. We realize we're on the wrong shore, ferry back over, almost dump, and take-on lots of water. On the proper shore I scramble through some brush and find we're quite close to the CP. Back at the river our kayak has disappeared and we can only assume it's floating down-river……wtf? We run & paddle as fast as we can and locate the boat hung-up on a rock ~400m downstream. Luckily we have the portage wheels and there's a road next to the river, so we're able to right the situation without losing too much time. We arrive at CP7 in roughly 5th place losing about ½ an hour with our debacle.
The orienteering relay was an interesting twist, although quite stressful if not all on the team can navigate. We leave the O-Relay in roughly the same place we started (~6th), now trailing the leaders Team Skandia by 40min. Back on the river, we pick lucky lines, miss most major rocks, suffer no upsets and arrive at TA1 with what appears to be most of the lead pack. We have a fast TA, and I believe we leave onto the mountain bikes in 2nd place. Roughly an hour into the bike we come across Team Skandia searching for the remnants of the trail we'd been riding on. We locate an overgrown hike-a-bike trail headed in the direction we want. A few k and maybe 1hr later we're back onto a gravel road and closing in on CP12. I believe we were in 1st at this point. After CP12 we struggle to find a road/trail crossing the river to the other side of the valley we want to be on. It's roughly 4:00am so we decide to catch some sleep in the shed of a hunting camp. We see Team Running Free and another team ride past as we prepare for some zzz's.
Up at around 5:00am, finding it too cold to sleep much more we're happy to get moving and warmed up. Still heading south, in search of a trail/road across the river. We mess around, go too far down-stream, then return to CP12 to relocate ourselves before finally bike-whacking across to the other side of the valley. We struggle again to locate CP13 combing a stream-bed too far upstream from the CP's location, wasting another 20-30min. We arrive at CP14/TA2 in 14th place, 2:45 behind the leaders.
Onto the trek, we'd planned to start by going north around some elevated features, but we're stopped by a friendly local who maintains it's fastest to take a more direct line on trails. O.K., sounds good. Not exactly all trails, but after a short bushwack we're onto the Snowmobile trail we want and soon catch up to Team Trackme360.com, who let us know they left TA2 in 5th place. We arrive at CP16 in 5th to find we're now 1:21 behind the leaders, Team Granite.
A heinous bushwhack down from CP16 (Magalloway Mountain) through some of the thickest forest I've ever encountered (on par with Tuckamore in Newfoundland). After an hour of battle we pop out on a road network that leads us to the ropes. We catch Team Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) who look a little worse for wear having done the bushwack in shorts. A short pit-stop to refuel & fix some blisters & we're back at it. We pass Skandia and Running Free going in the opposite direction on an out & back section to the ropes A fun zip & short rappel in a cool canyon gets the juices flowing again. We leave the ropes with EMS, and continue with a steady run. The sun is hanging low and we're trying to reach CP22 & 23 both near tricky summits before dark. We locate an overgrown trail next to the stream we'd planned on following up to a ridge, and our attackpoint for CP22. The trail comes and goes, but basically brings us to our ridge and very close to CP22 much faster than anticipated. With roughly 45min. of daylight left we haul-ass in the direction of CP23. Benoit L. and I have been sharing navigation duties through much of the race, continuously discussing route choices. I wanted to follow a ridge to CP23, while Ben L. was keener on a direct compass bearing. Thankfully he was adamant and made good arguments, since I think this choice saved us time as the bush was thinner at lower elevations and the direct bearing would have us going down & back up enroute to CP23. We got within 800m of CP23 before the headlamps came out. Some thick bush across the ridge to CP23, followed by more thick forest down to a road had us arriving at CP24/TA3 in 1st place!
We grabbed another 2.5hrs of sleep and then prepared for 2 out-&-back sections of biking and swim/trekking. We left on the mountain bikes 10 minutes behind Team Skandia who'd arrived at TA3 2:20 behind us with Team Granite. We didn't think either of these teams had banked much, if any sleep, so we thought we were in good shape for the final day/night of the race. The out-&-back bike and swim/trek legs were uneventful, except our team-mate Benoit T. let us know his knees were getting very sore. Ben T. had joined our team on short notice and had only been training for biking & inline skating earlier in the summer. All of the running we'd been doing was inflaming old injuries he'd had with his patella and knee ligaments. Nevertheless, he soldiered on, although at a more laboured pace.
Now onto the bikes for a big 100k ride, broken up with a waterfall climb, another Conservation Project (trail-building) and a Bike & Tie (a loop where teams take 1 bike & the others run). We left TA5 in 2nd, 20 minutes behind Skandia, and having seen many teams working through TA's 3, 4 & 5. Luckily Ben's knee was pain-free on the bikes and he was very bike-fit, so we set a good pace, and managed to catch Skandia shortly before CP31, the site of the waterfall climb. We moved past them on the climb and judging from the leaderboard, somehow generated a 2hr lead after the bike & tie.
We made haste, trying to reach the end of the bike leg before dark. Things were going well until we came to an area which showed no trails on our topo's, but that was covered by one of our supplementary maps, which showed roads connecting. A long story short, we spent close to 3 hours hike-a-biking, bushwhacking and riding unmapped roads only to find ourselves back where we started. Enroute to the final, and only possible trail we hadn't tried, of course Skandia rides past, going the way we initially thought was correct, but wasn't, and in the process gains the full benefit of our 3-hour tour. Back on the final unmapped trail, at least it bends around to the direction we want, and we're able to make progress on the course again.
At CP33 we ride a small out & back, and see Skandia coming in as we're leaving. Ben L. dials in the final mtb CP's using a supplementary trail map before we hit the TA to the final Rogaine. We're able to exit the final TA before Skandia arrives. Our original plan is to visit 6 of the 10 Rogaine CP's on the southern portion of the map, and then, if time permits, or if Ben T.'s knees permit, pick up a few more in the north.
Our plan goes haywire at the first CP as we waste close to an hour trying to locate it (we were in the correct location, but the control description had been mixed up (east vs. west)). With our confidence shattered, much discussion about what to do next, and no CP to show for our early efforts, we change plans and decide to collect the next 4 easiest CP's close to the Finish Line. Finally, we find a CP, 2 hours after starting the Rogaine. Ben T.'s knees are very sore and he's taken to walking downhill backwards to lessen the impact. We feel as though the race is slipping away. After collecting 2 more CP's, we ask Ben, who's obviously in a tremendous amount of pain, if he could handle collecting another two, which is all we figure we'll be able to collect before the cut-off. Without an ounce of hesitation, Ben T. heads in the direction of the final 2 CP's searching for someplace to burry the pain he's enduring.
The next 2 CP's come faster than expected, but we're in no position to try for more, so we head back to the Finish and arrive at 8:12am having collected 5 of 10 Rogaine controls. After a quick discussion with Grant, the RD, we're awarded credit for a 6th CP, the one we'd fruitlessly searched for, as other teams confirmed facing a similar dilemma. I can't say I'm a big fan of finishing a race in this fashion, since you cross the finish line and have no idea of your placing. Plus, there's no chance to size up your competition for a potential final push to the line. In any case, we were happy the race was over, mostly so Ben T. could get off his feet.
At 8:38am Team Skandia arrived at the finish having collected 3 Rogaine CP's. So far so good. At 8:56am Team Granite came in also collecting 3, followed by Team Running Free with 3 CP's as well. It was confirmed, we'd won Untamed New England!
The victory laid to rest some demons the Benoit's and I had been harbouring from a past race in this neck of the woods. At Appalachian Extreme in 2005 my old team, Supplierpipeline made a brutal 6hr navigation error and dropped out of the event early. In the same race, the Benoit's held a large lead onto the last mtb leg, only to see it slip away as they struggled to locate a difficult CP late in the race. They'd go on to finish 3rd that year. We definitely felt a sense of redemption. Next up, the World Champs, where I'll try to burry more demons, as last time I was in Spain I came home with new hardware in my hip courtesy of a fractured femur suffered in a mtb crash while training after dropping out of Bimbache Extreme. Bring it on!
Since our SPOT didn't work/track in the race, here's a link to our route in Google Maps:
http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&...
Registration opened at 8:00am, with maps handed out shortly thereafter. 3 hours of chaos ensued before boarding busses to the start. Not enough time to get a good feel for the course, but we managed to get all the CP's plotted & have one good look at what we thought would be the best route.
We turned a few heads at the paddle start, with our set-up of 4-in-a canoe. We were provided 1 canoe and 1 kayak for a team-of-4. The kayak was short, wide and slow, and we had tested a similar kayak a few weeks prior and found it was faster with this set-up, towing an empty kayak. Off we go & it seems 4-in-a-canoe is working well as we open a small gap on the field.
Onto the first portage we trade the lead with Team Kinetic. We arrive at CP2 and find no CP staff. Half an hour later one of the volunteers gets things sorted, and we continue (we'll receive a ½ hour time credit). A quick "Conservation Project" (trail building, which was cool) and we're back paddling in 3rd with Kinetic and the Danish team Skandia Key Experience up ahead. CP3 was a bit hard to locate on the shore of First Connecticut Lake, a scenario we'll encounter often, as the unmanned CP's (orienteering flags) are often hard to find. We should have been more precise with our plotting. We drop a few spots, but then start passing teams on the water.
Onto the 2nd portage we're in 2nd place, we struggle with our portage wheels, which look like they're ready to break. Once sorted, we've dropped a few places, but the wheels are holding, which has us better off than a lot of teams (many portage wheels broke, leaving teams to portage the 85lb canoes and 50lb kayaks on their shoulders) . By the end of the portage, we're tied for 2nd with Running Free and Team Granite while Kinetic has the lead. I have to say the paddling in this race was my favourite discipline, large, unpopulated lakes, and a nice Class I/II river with sparse population and fantastic mountain scenery.
Onto the 3rd portage, we've regained the lead and put-in on the river with light fading. We figure we'll have an advantage getting through most of the rapids in before it's too dark. Another poorly plotted CP has us pass the take-out to CP7, the site of the Orienteering Relay. A bit of chaos ensues; we pull out the headlamps and take a good look at the map & instructions. We realize we're on the wrong shore, ferry back over, almost dump, and take-on lots of water. On the proper shore I scramble through some brush and find we're quite close to the CP. Back at the river our kayak has disappeared and we can only assume it's floating down-river……wtf? We run & paddle as fast as we can and locate the boat hung-up on a rock ~400m downstream. Luckily we have the portage wheels and there's a road next to the river, so we're able to right the situation without losing too much time. We arrive at CP7 in roughly 5th place losing about ½ an hour with our debacle.
The orienteering relay was an interesting twist, although quite stressful if not all on the team can navigate. We leave the O-Relay in roughly the same place we started (~6th), now trailing the leaders Team Skandia by 40min. Back on the river, we pick lucky lines, miss most major rocks, suffer no upsets and arrive at TA1 with what appears to be most of the lead pack. We have a fast TA, and I believe we leave onto the mountain bikes in 2nd place. Roughly an hour into the bike we come across Team Skandia searching for the remnants of the trail we'd been riding on. We locate an overgrown hike-a-bike trail headed in the direction we want. A few k and maybe 1hr later we're back onto a gravel road and closing in on CP12. I believe we were in 1st at this point. After CP12 we struggle to find a road/trail crossing the river to the other side of the valley we want to be on. It's roughly 4:00am so we decide to catch some sleep in the shed of a hunting camp. We see Team Running Free and another team ride past as we prepare for some zzz's.
Up at around 5:00am, finding it too cold to sleep much more we're happy to get moving and warmed up. Still heading south, in search of a trail/road across the river. We mess around, go too far down-stream, then return to CP12 to relocate ourselves before finally bike-whacking across to the other side of the valley. We struggle again to locate CP13 combing a stream-bed too far upstream from the CP's location, wasting another 20-30min. We arrive at CP14/TA2 in 14th place, 2:45 behind the leaders.
Onto the trek, we'd planned to start by going north around some elevated features, but we're stopped by a friendly local who maintains it's fastest to take a more direct line on trails. O.K., sounds good. Not exactly all trails, but after a short bushwack we're onto the Snowmobile trail we want and soon catch up to Team Trackme360.com, who let us know they left TA2 in 5th place. We arrive at CP16 in 5th to find we're now 1:21 behind the leaders, Team Granite.
A heinous bushwhack down from CP16 (Magalloway Mountain) through some of the thickest forest I've ever encountered (on par with Tuckamore in Newfoundland). After an hour of battle we pop out on a road network that leads us to the ropes. We catch Team Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) who look a little worse for wear having done the bushwack in shorts. A short pit-stop to refuel & fix some blisters & we're back at it. We pass Skandia and Running Free going in the opposite direction on an out & back section to the ropes A fun zip & short rappel in a cool canyon gets the juices flowing again. We leave the ropes with EMS, and continue with a steady run. The sun is hanging low and we're trying to reach CP22 & 23 both near tricky summits before dark. We locate an overgrown trail next to the stream we'd planned on following up to a ridge, and our attackpoint for CP22. The trail comes and goes, but basically brings us to our ridge and very close to CP22 much faster than anticipated. With roughly 45min. of daylight left we haul-ass in the direction of CP23. Benoit L. and I have been sharing navigation duties through much of the race, continuously discussing route choices. I wanted to follow a ridge to CP23, while Ben L. was keener on a direct compass bearing. Thankfully he was adamant and made good arguments, since I think this choice saved us time as the bush was thinner at lower elevations and the direct bearing would have us going down & back up enroute to CP23. We got within 800m of CP23 before the headlamps came out. Some thick bush across the ridge to CP23, followed by more thick forest down to a road had us arriving at CP24/TA3 in 1st place!
We grabbed another 2.5hrs of sleep and then prepared for 2 out-&-back sections of biking and swim/trekking. We left on the mountain bikes 10 minutes behind Team Skandia who'd arrived at TA3 2:20 behind us with Team Granite. We didn't think either of these teams had banked much, if any sleep, so we thought we were in good shape for the final day/night of the race. The out-&-back bike and swim/trek legs were uneventful, except our team-mate Benoit T. let us know his knees were getting very sore. Ben T. had joined our team on short notice and had only been training for biking & inline skating earlier in the summer. All of the running we'd been doing was inflaming old injuries he'd had with his patella and knee ligaments. Nevertheless, he soldiered on, although at a more laboured pace.
Now onto the bikes for a big 100k ride, broken up with a waterfall climb, another Conservation Project (trail-building) and a Bike & Tie (a loop where teams take 1 bike & the others run). We left TA5 in 2nd, 20 minutes behind Skandia, and having seen many teams working through TA's 3, 4 & 5. Luckily Ben's knee was pain-free on the bikes and he was very bike-fit, so we set a good pace, and managed to catch Skandia shortly before CP31, the site of the waterfall climb. We moved past them on the climb and judging from the leaderboard, somehow generated a 2hr lead after the bike & tie.
We made haste, trying to reach the end of the bike leg before dark. Things were going well until we came to an area which showed no trails on our topo's, but that was covered by one of our supplementary maps, which showed roads connecting. A long story short, we spent close to 3 hours hike-a-biking, bushwhacking and riding unmapped roads only to find ourselves back where we started. Enroute to the final, and only possible trail we hadn't tried, of course Skandia rides past, going the way we initially thought was correct, but wasn't, and in the process gains the full benefit of our 3-hour tour. Back on the final unmapped trail, at least it bends around to the direction we want, and we're able to make progress on the course again.
At CP33 we ride a small out & back, and see Skandia coming in as we're leaving. Ben L. dials in the final mtb CP's using a supplementary trail map before we hit the TA to the final Rogaine. We're able to exit the final TA before Skandia arrives. Our original plan is to visit 6 of the 10 Rogaine CP's on the southern portion of the map, and then, if time permits, or if Ben T.'s knees permit, pick up a few more in the north.
Our plan goes haywire at the first CP as we waste close to an hour trying to locate it (we were in the correct location, but the control description had been mixed up (east vs. west)). With our confidence shattered, much discussion about what to do next, and no CP to show for our early efforts, we change plans and decide to collect the next 4 easiest CP's close to the Finish Line. Finally, we find a CP, 2 hours after starting the Rogaine. Ben T.'s knees are very sore and he's taken to walking downhill backwards to lessen the impact. We feel as though the race is slipping away. After collecting 2 more CP's, we ask Ben, who's obviously in a tremendous amount of pain, if he could handle collecting another two, which is all we figure we'll be able to collect before the cut-off. Without an ounce of hesitation, Ben T. heads in the direction of the final 2 CP's searching for someplace to burry the pain he's enduring.
The next 2 CP's come faster than expected, but we're in no position to try for more, so we head back to the Finish and arrive at 8:12am having collected 5 of 10 Rogaine controls. After a quick discussion with Grant, the RD, we're awarded credit for a 6th CP, the one we'd fruitlessly searched for, as other teams confirmed facing a similar dilemma. I can't say I'm a big fan of finishing a race in this fashion, since you cross the finish line and have no idea of your placing. Plus, there's no chance to size up your competition for a potential final push to the line. In any case, we were happy the race was over, mostly so Ben T. could get off his feet.
At 8:38am Team Skandia arrived at the finish having collected 3 Rogaine CP's. So far so good. At 8:56am Team Granite came in also collecting 3, followed by Team Running Free with 3 CP's as well. It was confirmed, we'd won Untamed New England!
The victory laid to rest some demons the Benoit's and I had been harbouring from a past race in this neck of the woods. At Appalachian Extreme in 2005 my old team, Supplierpipeline made a brutal 6hr navigation error and dropped out of the event early. In the same race, the Benoit's held a large lead onto the last mtb leg, only to see it slip away as they struggled to locate a difficult CP late in the race. They'd go on to finish 3rd that year. We definitely felt a sense of redemption. Next up, the World Champs, where I'll try to burry more demons, as last time I was in Spain I came home with new hardware in my hip courtesy of a fractured femur suffered in a mtb crash while training after dropping out of Bimbache Extreme. Bring it on!
Friday Aug 20, 2010 #
4 PM
Mountain Bike 1:30:00 [2] 30.0 km (20.0 kph)
Tested the big loop at Blue Mountain we'll use in the XC Series next week. 15k total with a 2k climb in the middle.
Wednesday Aug 18, 2010 #
4 PM
Cycling - Road 30:00 [0]
easy spin with some post stretching
Tuesday Aug 17, 2010 #
1 PM
Trail run 1:00:00 [0] 5.0 km (12:00 / km)
Super easy hike/run. Felt good afterwards getting the blodd flowing after a day in the car yesterday post race.
Sunday Aug 15, 2010 #
12 AM
Orienteering race 9:15:00 [1] 15.0 km (37:00 / km)
shoes: Salomon XTWings S-LAB
Final Rogaine at Untamed New England