Training Log Archive: silkychrome

Event: Alpine Shop Castlewood 8-Hour AR
 

my first attempt at an AR RD went exceedingly well. i was super stressed in the Thurs/Fri leading in to the race, and had minimal sleep based on the amount of small "to-do" items that i left to the last minute. but finally got everything printed/sorted/organized and got 3 hours sleep before the race! i know Erl and Andrei wanted to wring my neck a few times but they were so helpful taking care of most of the CP setting and dealing with my "everything must be perfect" attitude. (i.e. spending 30min at OfficeMax trying to find "perfect" map paper...not too glossy, not too heavy, etc etc etc).

on Fri night we gave racers maps for the middle section of the race (PADDLE 1 and BIKE 1) the night before. they also got a clue sheet w all 34 CPs listed so no surprise CPs during the race. with that info they knew the race was starting and ending on foot, and could probably guess where the final trek was, but the beginning trek was a mystery (and potentially a 10k road run).

well the mystery was revealed at the Saturday morning pre-race meeting with the announcement that busses would pick up the racers from Race HQ and transport them to the start. my biggest fear was that the busses would be late but they arrived on time! hoo-ray!

so the teams started w a short (1.5ish) mile trek around Pacific Palisades Conservation Area boat ramp, the terrain is a floodplain so we had to modify a few CPs based on water levels but overall the area was surprisingly navigable based on a couple contour lines that were on the map. found some cool ruins during course scouting that we were able to incorporate, but there are a few more out there that we are saving for a future race :).

then they returned to the start location for the paddle put-in. got all 103 canoes on the water with only 1 flip, pretty good for a race with 72 first-time racers. teams enjoyed a 7.5 paddle downstream on the Meramec with high water making the current pretty fast and covering some treacherous downed logs. they still had to pay attention though for 3 CPs and then the current was a bit tricky at the take-out.

at the take-out they had their bikes already staged so they did a quick gear check and then started an 8 mile road ride, starting w a big (for MO) 1 mile climb (in case anyone was cold from the paddle). then we took them underneath Interstate 44 in a gravel stream bed instead of thru a busy intersection. i was pretty proud of this part of the race, using CPs to direct racers around the hazard intersection instead of just saying "out of bounds". then we had access to a bit of hotel private property to avoid the final hazard intersection, so thankful the Holiday Inn was on board w bringing bikes through their land/parking lot. the route continued up another big climb and into the singletrack at Greensfelder. lots of route choices here depending on how teams well teams could read and interpret their maps. but they eventually dumped into a flagged trail, bringing them on to Wyman Center property, CP in a teepee, and then a jeep road descent that got increasingly muddy as the day warmed up.

then they got the final map for the race, a 1:20K o-map of GF w 11 CPs, any order. the woods were in amazing shape so the lack of accurately mapped trails didn't matter a whole lot as the redline was just as fast. but it did make navigators pay attention to contours instead of man-made trails.

most teams were able to clear the course, the winning time was 3:23 by Alpine Shop. which was a bit faster than I wanted (4:00 would have been ideal) but given a Dec race, we planned the course to be a bit short just in case of bad weather conditions. the paddle was also faster than planned based on high water.

but a fast course is not a bad thing for a bunch of beginner teams, they were able to feel accomplished for getting all CPs. we really wanted to give beginner teams a positive first experience so that was a big success. also beautiful weather and beer/baked potato bar post-race kept most teams hanging out and socializing until awards ceremony. we did run out of beer but not food!

so being a race director is WAY more stressful than racing but i was so fortunate to have Erl and Andrei, plus a huge (30ish) staff of volunteers who really stepped up and crushed their assignments. had 3 pro photographers on course plus a drone so the media coming from the race in the next few days is going to be incredible. definitely will repeat this race for 2016.

http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#445789679,SM2...

C • Such a great time! 7

setting CPs 8-10 w Erl. water freezing on the kayak deck! beautiful morning.

Andrei set CPs 1-6 while we were paddling and then picked us up.

WU:
10min AD, foam roll, 2x5 WS, leg swings L/R x2, 2x10 AS, 2x10 SD, 2x20m lunge, 2x10 GM.
THEN:
hip mobility, 2 rounds (lizard, twist, pigeon, duck walk).
THEN:
4 rounds of: 6x off-box lunge, 6x depth squat 45#, 12x KBS 45#, 3min step-up 18#.
CD:
4 rounds of: (30/30) push-press/OH hold, 2x10# DB.

a good sesh this morning. hips finally opening up and was able to go all the way down on the depth squats.

re-tested for alpha-gal and IgE in Nov. results back today:

IgE 2/13/15, 104 IU/mL
IgE 11/13/15, 106 IU/mL
(range is 0-250 IU/mL, so these results are normal, meaning i was not in the middle of, or recovering from, a reaction when blood was drawn)

alpha-gal 2/13/15. 44.80 kU/L
alpha-gal 11/13/15, 34.00 kU/L
(range is 0-0.35 kU/L, so these results are abnormal. meaning i have almost 100x more alpha-gal antibodies in me than the average person. unfortunately.)

i stopped eating mammalian meat in october 2014.

C • Timing 5

morning run w Erl n T. felt kinda stiff and creaky but pace was not that bad. funny how that works sometimes.

w Erl in the rain before teaching the final instalment of AR101.

to Single Schnucks and back for 10/$10 Empire apples. have you tried these things? so yummy!

loaded up the new macpac and set out in the cold rain. gotta get it dirty at some point.

EZ evening cruise w T.