Training Log Archive: Bash

Lap #2 at 24 Hours of Summer Solstice. Due to a shortage of willing night riders, both of my laps this year were in the dark - boo, hiss. This one was much more pleasant than my first lap. There was much less dust in the air, thanks to the night moisture. There seemed to be fewer riders on the course, and less traffic in the single track. I felt much faster than my first lap, although the time turned out to be only half a minute less - without another helmet light accident. On the second half of the course, only one rider passed me, and I passed a bunch of people, which felt good. It seemed that the fastest riders were demonstrating better etiquette when they passed this year. Not once was I tempted to break the "No profanity" rule (a rule that I broke last year). Well, that's not entirely true - I swore at myself when my bike went down on a dusty corner in the first lap!

One of the reasons I enjoy overnight adventure racing and rogaining is that I love being outside when the world starts to brighten at dawn. I'm not a morning person in regular life, and I don't see many sunrises. But it is a wonderful feeling to be moving through the forest, when suddenly you realize that you can start to see where you're going, then the sky glows brighter, and everything feels cool, damp, fresh and new.

The Tree Huggers always approach this event as a fun social weekend, where new riders are welcome and the race is secondary. This year we had 3 broken chains, a broken derailleur, and a first-time racer with a 2:05 lap time, and we finished 26th of 127 teams. I'm proud of our team! It didn't hurt to have several speedy teenagers onboard - VO2max and Brittany Webster (both on the national XC ski team development squad) and Little Big Guy.

We sure know some amazing women! K/O completed 12 laps as a solo rider, taking 3rd place in the female solo category. Rocky and her partner were leading the tag team category by so much that they were able to quit mid-morning on Sunday. The last time we looked, Crash and her 5-rider female team were in 2nd place. Way to go, all of you! We are proud to know you!

24 Hours of Summer Solstice - mountain bike relay

24 Hours of Summer Solstice mountain bike relay - Lap #1. I took the last lap in our team's rotation, which meant heading out shortly after dark. The trails were so dry and dusty that there was a layer of dust just hanging in the air around the entire course. My bike light made it look like a sandstorm coming at me throughout my lap, and I was loathe to inhale. Afterward, I was coughing and wheezing for several hours, not to mention worrying about what my lungs must look like. One of our team members had such bad chest spasms several hours after her lap that she borrowed an asthma inhaler, which she had never used before.

Compared with other team members, my mishaps were relatively mild. The worst one was coming around a bumpy corner, when suddenly the world went black. My light had bounced out of the helmet mount, and was dangling from a wire at waist level, lighting the ground. I came to a halt, moved carefully to where I thought the side of the trail might be, then started fussing with a red-hot light, trying to maneuver it into a fiddly little track on top of my head. Probably less than a minute wasted. I felt better as the course went on, and it had a wonderful fast finish section for the last 2 km.

If I were to focus on bike racing (which I won't), it's clear what I would have to work on. Mostly, I passed people going up hills or on relatively smooth parts of the trail, i.e. places where aerobic fitness or (later in the lap) endurance take priority. But I'm relatively slower on single track and bumpy downhills, i.e. places where it helps not to be a wimp. I leapfrogged a fellow throughout this lap, and we got to laughing about it, saying "See you later!" whenever one of us passed the other.

This has mostly been a rest week - although a stream of commitments and houseguests made it much less restful than usual. I suppose that most people would recommend active recovery, rather than outright rest, so I hope it doesn't take too long to get back into training. Today is a packing and shopping day for the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice bike relay, then we're off to the campsite tomorrow morning. It's always a good time!

The cancellation of the only Raid The North race in eastern Canada this year has meant a lot of e-mails and phone calls over the past day. Our team will do a quick review of other long AR events, possibly in the U.S. There's a cool-sounding 24-hour race in Colorado on the July 23 weekend, but we need to find out if there is enough navigation to make it fun.

While watching The Daily Show. It's been awhile, and I would have thought that my legs were getting a good workout from all our races. However, I noticed decreased strength when I did my exercises today, so I'll need to get on the ball again. (Literally.) I wonder if this explains a knee twinge that has arisen in the past 10 days.

We've just learned that our only scheduled overnight adventure race of the year - Raid The North Fort Coulonge - will be cancelled. There's Quest for a Cure near Ottawa this weekend, but I'm not aware of any other overnight races in Ontario in 2006. These races are supposed to be what we're training for, but it doesn't look like the AR market can sustain them. Rats.

For awhile, I've been saying that this will likely be my last year of training for AR, which means that this might have been my last Raid The North. We had a great team ready to race, but Gazelle and Gazette are moving to Tajikistan in nine weeks, so our time together is running out.

So it's disappointing. :-(

Disappointment #2: Raid The North was the reason I couldn't consider Swiss O Week. But entries are closed for Swiss O Week now, and it would be tough to find two standby places for 'Bent and me. It looks like 'Bent's category, in particular, is very popular. :-(

Leisurely ride of the 24-hr race course at Albion Hills with 'Bent, with a detour to visit the Tree Huggers' assigned campsite, which is going to be awesome!! Anyone in the neighbourhood is invited to visit us for a cold drink and to help cheer passing racers at Down by the River 2, site #368. Spectators need to pay $5 Albion Hills admission fee.

The race course has a totally different feel from other years, and we are doing some sections of trail in reverse for the first time. I agree with Tiny that it is easier this year - less aerobic, more double track for passing, and fewer nasty bits. The average lap times should be faster. Given that Chico's target market for this event includes a lot of people who don't race mountain bikes normally, I think an easier race course is a good idea.

Having said that, there are still plenty of off-camber tree roots that will get slick with night moisture, so I'm going to switch from my AR semi-slicks back to my knobby tires. It's also quite dry right now, so it's easier than usual to slide out on dusty corners. I find that I hate to fall off my bike these days - I already have so many other ways to injure myself in other sports that I'd rather not add biking to the mix. So there is little aggressiveness left in my riding style, which means my lap times probably won't improve much from previous years. That's OK - we've entered this relay with a large team of riders with a wide range of speeds. As usual, we intend to have lots of fun and let the results turn out as they may.

Hard Core Monday - rescheduled for Tuesday because last night we attended an information meeting on Caledon's community wind power project. Good stuff.

It appears that I've dodged the poison ivy bullet from Saturday's race, as I only have a few tiny patches of rash on one lower leg. Considering how much of that stuff we marched through, it could have been much, much worse!