Training Log Archive: Bash

Some light running as we chased "our" kids from Mayfield High School around their adventure race course today. Phatty and Leanimal had taught an AR clinic for the students and their coach, Angus (our ESAR teammate). Then last weekend, Leanimal, 'Bent, Angus and I took them out in Albion Hills to practise their navigation. They were keen! They'd borrowed gear, they'd asked lots of questions, they'd reviewed the course carefully. Then today we proudly watched as all three Mayfield teams smoked the field, finishing 1st overall, 3rd overall (2nd All-Male) and 4th Coed in a field of 60 teams. WOW!!!

After days of trying to fend off a cold, I've finally given up on preventive measures. I feel awful today, and I'm hoping that it will go away in a few days so I can feel ready for Storm The Trent!

Event: Fronteir Adventure Racing - Adventure Challenge
 

Raced a very fun, long figure-eight course out of Deerhurst Resort on a perfect cool, sunny day, with 'Bent and Pate, our 19-year-old secret weapon. As the Tree Huggers get older, we're seeking out younger teammates to bring our average age down to, oh, about 35. Since Pate just learned that he will be a nationally carded XC skier next season, I guess we were racing with a professional athlete. Hope that's legal!

We started off on bikes with a wonderful hilly ride through some cottage country and ATV trails. I took more bike towing than I usually do, since the terrain lent itself to towing - and also, I wondered if I could tire Pate out. (I couldn't.) We were thrown off by a misplaced CP1. The last time I raced out of Deerhurst, we DNF'ed because we didn't find CP1, so I had a few demons haunting me there. I should have just kept going, but I couldn't help wondering if the CP staff were hiding just off the road, so we went back up the correct hill to look a 2nd time before continuing on and finding the misplaced CP. After that, we had a fun bike ride through a beautiful landscape.

Next we made good time bushwhacking to MacArthur Chute on the Big East River, followed by a slapstick crossing of the river, slipping on slimy rocks of all sizes. We headed off on a bearing to intersect a promised snowmobile trail. We found one so soon that I assumed it must be a different one from the one we were looking for, so we followed another trail that ended up turning south. At that point, I realized that the first trail was probably the one, but the easiest thing to do at that point was just take a bearing and go cross-country. We lost time doing it that way, since most teams had a road run for most of this trek. We had some road running at the end, but we dropped from 6th to 9th. Boo.

We headed out for an awesome 2-hour paddle, starting with a 3 km lake with a good tailwind, then paddling down the Big East River, with a few portages and fun rapids. We couldn't see anyone on the lake when we started, and we knew it was unlikely that we would pass anyone on a river, since teams tend to move the same speed. It turned out that we did pass two teams there, but one of them leapfrogged in front again when we unknowingly went around an extra oxbow shortly before the TA. One of our portages turned into a bushwhack when we got off the faint trail - sorry 'bout that, 'Bent! 'Bent and Pate were awesome paddling partners, and it was very efficient as 3-in-a-canoe experiences go. We had 3 kayak paddles and 2 canoe paddles that we passed around, depending on the rock and rapid situation. The only bad thing was that the splashing kayak paddles got me soaking wet, so I was mildly hypothermic when we hit the TA. I sealed the deal by getting out of the canoe into neck-deep water, having been fooled by the ease with which our bowsman hopped into shallow water just ahead of me.

Fortunately, we had missed the cut-off for the Advanced Section by almost an hour, so I knew we were close to the finish. Thus I didn't bother borrowing a dry shirt or doing anything else, since I figured that the bike ride would warm me up, and it wouldn't be that long anyway. But then the TA staff mentioned that a team had just headed out on the Advanced Section a few minutes ago. What?!? It turns out that the cut-off had been extended by an hour. Oh crap. So just as we were leaving the TA, we learned we were doing the Advanced Section. Yes, I suppose we SHOULD have been grateful, but I was so cold it was hard to tie my shoes.

It wasn't long before we caught the other team, then we all got sucked too far down a hill because I was riding behind the 5 boys and couldn't look at my map without stopping due to the rocky, rutted ATV trail. When we got to the bottom, I had to make the sad announcement that we were turning around and riding back up to a turn-off we'd blown by. (It had a big "Private - Hunting" sign, so I'd wanted to go a bit further to see if a more public trail appeared. But not THAT far.)

From there, it seemed that things should be fairly straightforward for the rest of the race - until 'Bent's handlebars snapped in half. The right side stayed attached to the stem, while the left side dangled uselessly. Over the next half hour, there were several repair attempts with sticks, duct tape and a zip tie as we rode gingerly along the muddy, rutted snowmobile trail. The more frequent stops meant that I had to change my top clothing to a warmer configuration, since I was really chilled. Finally we hit the paved roads and had a fun, energetic, hilly ride to the finish line. We didn't know if the race finish time had been extended by an hour when the cut-off was extended, so we made a desperate dash to finish in 8 hours. We missed by 1 minute, but luckily, the race deadline had been extended - phew.

A very fun day of playing in the Muskokas! Pate was an awesome teammate - very strong, skilled and positive. And 'Bent was strong as always, and very resourceful when his bike literally fell apart on tough trails. We finished 7th of about 34 teams, which was 4th Coed. Some very exciting news was that the overall winners were Phatty, Zoolander and Tyson! And the speedy female team of Leanimal, Slice and Trish were in 4th overall, just half an hour back. Awesome work, all of you!!

Not sure which of my many cold-repelling techniques worked, if any, but I feel 90% better. I planned to do yoga, but ended up spending most of the day dealing with UPS, trying to get 'Bent's bike part here after a shipper addressing error followed by a UPS error. Since the chain keeps falling off 'Bent's bike because of the broken part, we've been eager to get the parcel before leaving tomorrow for the Frontier Adventure Challenge.

This morning I would have said that we'd never use UPS again. But in the end, I dealt with enough employees who actually cared about the problem that I have to commend them. Astoundingly, the final supervisor I talked with at 4:30 p.m. was so concerned that she talked HER boss into driving to our place on his way from their office in Stoney Creek to Kitchener where he lives - about a 2-hr detour. So the package got here at 7 p.m., and they knocked off most of the COD. Pretty impressive when a business goes the extra mile (or in this case, lots of miles) to provide excellent customer service. I gave the boss a couple of bottles of wine for himself and the supervisor.

Oh, and the bike part? The U.S. bike store guy who thought that it would be sufficient to send the parcel to a street address in Ontario, Canada without including a city... well, it turns out that he's not so good at understanding bike part numbers either. However, 'Bent thinks he can make it hold the chain in the right position until the right part arrives from somewhere else. Some day. Maybe.

A very efficient use of time! 'Bent and I needed to test our various 3-in-a-boat configurations with teammates for two different races, Angus and Pate. All of us converged on Lake Albion first thing this morning with a collection of kayak paddles, canoe paddles, PFDs, straps and back supports. We went out for a short paddle with each team grouping, practising strokes, trying different paddle combinations and seeing how to balance our weight. Angus is an expert canoeist, so we're not going to get him to switch to a kayak paddle in his first adventure race, and I don't think it will hurt us. With Pate, we put 'Bent in the stern and paddled with 3 kayak paddles. Unfortunately, I'm going to be the monkey in the middle in both races - oh well. It felt good to be paddling again - first time since September.

'Bent, Angus, Pate and I switched to bikes to do a tour of Albion Hills single track in brilliant sunshine. It was fun and challenging to ride with these speedy guys! Pate was 4th in the Tuesday Night Albion Hills Race last night. His XC ski coach had forbidden any high-intensity exercise in April, so he was excited when May 1 arrived!

I didn't want to push it too hard today. It seems like my impending cold might not hit as hard as I'd feared. I went all out with the preventive measures yesterday, trying Vitamin C, tea and honey, mega-hydration, Advil Cold & Sinus, overly warm clothing, echinacea and lots of rest. Angus mentioned that ColdFX works well for him, so I started on that today. Fingers are crossed, but I do feel better than yesterday, so maybe I'll escape the worst of it. I have weird aches and pains like the flu, but my throat is much improved.

It's the 1st of May - our busiest adventure racing month of the year - and I have a sore throat and fuzzy brain. Not enough sleep last week as I worked to meet a magazine deadline while moving forward on several volunteer projects, then I went out pretty hard in our two events on the weekend. Boo, hiss.

No, that is not a typo. I was on the trail for all of 8 minutes before realizing that my bike needed some big adjustments by 'Bent. And then suddenly the evening was over, so I'll have to do a pre-race test of my bike another time.