Training Log Archive: 'Bent

Snowshoe Raid with Mick- Loree Forest. There would be a second map available after 1 hour at the matrix aid station with additional CPs. Bob advised traction but no snowshoes needed. -15c but not too windy.

We started with a grunt up the Camperdown Hill climb, a warmup my legs weren’t appreciating.





From there Mick and I set off NE by ourselves, directly across the grain of the terrain. I promply lost my wrist compass, but was able to help a bit with the nav anyway as I know the area.
Mick is fast, strong and accurate, and I worked hard to keep up with his well-aimed “climb every mountain, ford every stream” navigation. No big nav errors, and we got the NE controls then headed back to the matrix.



On the second map, Bob had added high value controls N, E and W, so it would involve basically rerunning the whole map to clear it. We decided to head North and come down the West then clear the South. In the North we ran down the trail beside Georgian Nordic at great speed, only to have to scramble up a steep near-cliff from branch to branch on hands and knees.

I was slowing down in the slogging sections and was getting worried we may be late, but we ended up finishing our plan with nearly 15 min to spare and nothing left to get. I was pretty done but Mick didn’t even seem winded.



We ended up 5th overall behind Chad, Christian/Graeme, StormBeowulf and MBR.

Emma and Shannon won Female, and Bash and Dee were second masters female behind Nicole and Cathy.

In hindsight it would make more sense to get the second map right at 1 hour, and we could have left the NE controls until after that and gotten the extras, dropping some lower points in the South.

Fun racing with Mick, who is as fast and smart as he is cheerful.

C • Pics added. 1

Out with Bash and the beasts. Tried spikes vs snowshoes. Hard call for tomorrow.

Easy run in on a chilly morning with AD.

Lunch time run with AD and The Gazelle (Wayne) who is visiting from Tajikistan, all over Palgrave singletrack. Great to catch up.

Old-school trail clearing with axe and saw. Cleared a big tree off the trail, and hand sawed some more logs.

Later did workout 2 with rehab. Gusty winds meant driving to work ;(

Crisp moonlit night run home.

Ride in with AD. Things have firmed up a bit, and a little singletrack went OK even with the ice. The bikewhack up the luge run on the way home was still tough, but a little less eipc with even more scews in my biking boots. The doubletrack riding was really nice.

Crisp run in with Bazingadog. Ran the Rollercoaster and pushed hard on a few hill sprints.
Easy run home- only needed the light for the last half.

Bah- missed a gorgeous bluebird day in meetings about the Guatemala trip.