Training Log Archive: Bash

FunRun came over for a running video session with 'Bent and me. We filmed from different angles using cameras on bikes as well as from a single point of view. The boys have some fine tuning to do but I really need to throw my shoulders back and feel that imaginary "string" pulling my head up toward the sky. I'm not leaning forward from the waist as much as I used to but I still tend to hunch forward just from the shoulders up. On the bright side, apparently I don't heel strike as much as I thought I did. Interesting exercise!

Event: Storm the Trent
 

From the volunteers at CP4 late in the race: 'Bent and me in the heat of our domestic battle for STORM bragging rights. He may have won but I was clearly having more fun. :)

Beautiful day for a race! Right off the top I have to say that it's always great to take part in one of STORM's events. He plans the heck out of everything and runs a well-oiled machine on race weekend. When the rare thing goes wrong, he does his best to make it right and works on ways to avoid that problem in future. STORM events always manage to attract new people which is awesome for all of us in the Ontario adventure sports community. This weekend's race, which offers three different courses for increasing levels of experience, has been the largest adventure racing event in Canada for several years. Kudos!

'Bent and I came up last night and camped onsite at Trudeau Park which is named, of course, after Oakley Trudeau. There were lots of boats piled at the waterfront - probably a paddle start.



At 6:30 a.m., we checked in and got our maps. On the Trek Elite course, we would paddle to several points around the edge of the lake then drop our boats at the municipal beach in Tweed. We'd run back on a combination of rail trail and road, picking up several CPs enroute. Then we'd get on our bikes and do a long ride (about 65 km) on roads and ATV trails. We would get off the bikes a few times to pick up additional CPs, including one longer trekking section.

In addition to map work, 'Bent and I had to get our kayaks and paddling gear down to the waterfront and drop our empty paddle bags by the gear truck. Then we needed to set up our bikes on the racks and get to the race briefing by 8 a.m.

It's been 11 months since I've done a sprint adventure race and my rusty skills showed. The first hour of racing was a gong show. After the race briefing, we had 15 minutes until the start. That should have been plenty of time but from reading other race reports, I see I wasn't the only person to screw this up. Adjust, repack, fuss... "Two minutes to start." What?! In a rush, I tried to stuff my pack behind my Eclipse kayak seat - which had worked just fine at Logs Rocks and Steel last fall when I didn't have 2L of eLoad in the bladder. Not a chance it was going to fit. "One minute to start." Crap, crap, crap.

I launched the boat quickly and jammed the pack between my knees in the narrow cockpit. To operate the rudder, which cannot be raised, I use foot pedals - but because of the pack, I couldn't reach them. "15 seconds." I made one sad attempt to get the skirt on but I was too frazzled. "Go!!!" I started paddling without the ability to steer. This lasted a few meters before I got stuck - physically stuck - behind a couple of novice canoeists. I used the break to stuff my pack into a different position and - yay! - my feet just reached the pedals. Granted, they were at an awkward angle that made my knees hurt for the next 40 minutes but it would do. And forget the skirt; it was a beautiful day.

So it was an abysmal start to the 6 km paddle and I had to work my way up from the back. It was fun to be on the water anyway and I was able to make up some time as we visited the three CPs. We just had to remember a word written on a sign at each CP - no need to get out of the kayak and punch a control. One tricky team brought binoculars and saved themselves some padding! When we hit the beach at Tweed, I was with the pack of top solos. 'Bent led me into the transition by 1 minute.

We ran northeast on a rail trail along the shore of Stoco Lake. Mr. Logie passed me here on his way to a landslide victory. The CPs in this section were all on easy features near the trail or road so I hadn't spent any precious planning time on it. After getting the first CP, I settled in for a 3 km rail trail run to a major road. No need to look at the map. After 1 km of running, I noticed people scurrying on and off the trail, and an experienced navigator looked at me and appeared to point back over his shoulder into the trees. Huh? I stared at the map and realized that I had been covering a hilltop CP with my thumb - yikes! I didn't know exactly where I was so I followed the crowd off the trail - and they were wrong. (Although to their credit, at least they *knew* there was a CP to look for!) I found the CP 600 meters further northeast after some more muddling. 5 minutes lost. The rest of this 8 km section was uneventful. I got passed by a bunch of slower paddlers who are faster road runners - no surprise there!

We headed out for 65 km on bikes - first on pavement, then gravel, then really loose gravel, then rocky ATV trails with occasional big mud puddles. There were a few off-trail CPs enroute. It was fun riding but between wind and gravel, the road sections were harder work than expected.

According to the rules, teams would be DQ'ed if they didn't stay within sight of one another at all times but - ahem - I often saw racers waiting on the trail who could not possibly have seen their teammates at the CP flags.

3 km before CP3, I saw Los Dobos weaving as he climbed a hill. He's a strong athlete so something had to be wrong. I wondered if he had given up after a bad nav error and was just taking it easy. I caught up and asked, "Why aren't you racing anymore?" "I AM racing. But I feel like crap." We talked in more detail and it worried me. He didn't want me to stay with him so I said I'd ride ahead to CP3 and alert them that he should talk with a medic. 1L was volunteering and she kept him there for awhile. He continued a little further before wisely abandoning the race. It was a warm day and he wasn't the only racer feeling the effects.

There were two CPs along the ATV trail between CP3 and CP4, one of them 500 m off the trail through forest in full foliage and sprinkled with prickly ash. I met 'Bent at both CPs and we exchanged "husband beats wife/wife beats husband" greetings. :)

From CP4 in Vanderwater Conservation Area, we did a 4 km circuit to find three controls. I liked my route but wasted a few minutes and some extra climb when I didn't see one of them tucked farther off-trail than I'd expected. I saw 'Bent running toward me with another couple of racers. He called out, "Good job!" He told me later that one of the other guys said, "Nice that you're encouraging the other solos." "Well, she IS my wife."

After that, it was about 15 km of riding on good roads with a couple of CPs hidden near bridges to keep us on track. I finished in 6:11 and 'Bent had arrived 5 minutes earlier. Drat! I lost the husband-wife challenge.



We had a yummy post-race meal on the verandah with AR friends before heading home via Dairy Queen.

Big congrats to Mr. Logie for winning the race by 37 minutes!



Kudos to Team Bugs in Teeth for winning the 4-person Coed category.



And to Dee and M&M for their Female team win. These strong racers are working on their nav skills and doing a great job.



'Bent was 2nd solo. He's posing here with the indispensable Mom-of-STORM, who spends every Mother's Day working hard for her son!



I was 3rd solo and 1st female - and also wanted to pose with Mom-of-STORM.



Amber was 2nd female solo.



Here are the newlyweds. When I finished, Mr. Logie had been done for 45 minutes and he was standing at the finish line with a furrowed brow. "You saw Dee and M&M out there? Good. I had the scale wrong so I wrote the wrong distances on their map for the bike section. They're not going to be happy with me..."



A better and more complete set of photos that actually show the race course will be coming from Mike VDB soon!



Thanks to STORM and all the amazing volunteers for a fun day of racing!

Husband beats wife. :(
But only by 5 minutes over 6 hours. :)

Man, it is *brutal* when husband and wife are packing to race solo in the same event. The nicest kayak throw rope has vanished from the gear room, and he didn't even show remorse when he took our last tube of antibiotic ointment! ;)

STORM The Trent is coming up on Saturday and I haven't paddled my JKK Eclipse since Logs Rocks and Steel last September. It seemed like a good idea to brush off the cobwebs - both from the boat and myself - so I headed to Ken Whillans Conservation Area. Not a big lake but Island Lake isn't open yet. The test paddle reminded me of one thing I'd forgotten: always wear full shoes and/or socks so my heels don't get abraded from the grit in the bottom of the boat when I use the foot pedals to steer the kayak.

Each time I reached the far end of the small lake, I did an interval set:

3 X (remove skirt that's really tight) + (put it back on)

I think I can do it at race pace now. Since I have no shortage of smart a$$ friends, I must emphasize that it was a kayak skirt!!

My Specialized bike has been into the shop twice over the past month for a a major overhaul so I took it for a short ride to see if it's in a happy place. It's a little noisy and I have some ideas about adjustments to make - but it's working OK so I think I'll wait until after the race. I'd planned to stick to the Palgrave single track but when the wind gusts got too scary, I headed out and finished with some gravel road hills.

For those who appreciate the meaning of "n + 1", I stopped into Caledon Hills Cycling today to check out their lower cost 2011 cyclocross bikes...

*** For those interested in our E2C route, I've added the control numbers at the bottom of the race report. Please don't laugh at our last 5 hours! :) ***

Race report is up for last weekend's Eco-Endurance Challenge 24-hour rogaine. (Click or just scroll back.)

I'm happy that my legs, joints and feet have felt so good since the race. I didn't even turn my ankle, which was lightly taped. Glad I didn't mess myself up for the ultras I'm doing over the next while.

Good news, I guess - I was bitten by a dog tick, not a deer tick. Less likely to pass on Lyme although they can be infected with other fun diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I'll be watching for symptoms over the next couple of weeks.

http://www.lymenet.org/picture2.shtml

A big shout out to Mr. and Mrs. GHOSLO who finished right in the middle of the 61 teams who did the 24-hour version of the Eco-Endurance Challenge rogaine in Halifax on the weekend. (Another 70 teams did the 8-hour.) Team GHO SLO members were singled out at the awards ceremony as strong competitors - and possibly the only members of the non-existent "team with combined age of 140+" category. Well deserved indeed - they earned a lot of points with a smart and well-executed route through very difficult terrain.