Training Log Archive: Timato

Rode from my place up to King Rd, and then down again. Really nice day to be out on the rode, I haven't done enough of these rides this year. Too bad.

Coade RAID day 4.

Coast RAID day 3, day stage.

Coast RAID, day 3, night stage.

Coast RAID Day 2.

Coast RAID, Day 1.

Coast Raid

C • Coast 1

Interval training with Bender. 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-3-2-1. Good session.

Warm up/down, rest of the time in between intervals.

Nice run along the waterfront in between rain showers.

My attempt at the rally loop, after the second climb I was feeling very tired and light headed. Probably didn't eat enough today. I decided to shut it down and jog back to the finish.

One lap of the course before the race.

My race was cut a bit short when I over shifted and got my chain stuck in between the wheel and gears. I had to take apart the chain to free it, which basically cost me a lap of the race.

Stage #3.

Today looked like a lot better day as the ski was nice a sunny and it looked like we would finally be rain free. The stage started with a bike ride and this was probably the funnest stage IMHO. There was a bit of an out and back on the bike were we got to see all the teams in front of us, and then all the teams chasing us. Our goal was to be high enough in the rankings to get a good canoe and avoid the aluminum ones. We ended up catching a team on the final hill and I pulled pretty hard on the tow to keep in front of them. The next stage was a paddle, and thankfully today the river was calm. Just as I went to look at the map to see how far we had to go we saw the TA. That was a really nice surprise for Kristen who was discovering that paddling is her least favorite stage in an Adventure Race. The final stage was a pretty good trek which ended with a rappel. The first CP was at the top of a hill, which we got right away. We then came down off the hill and had to run/walk 6/7 k of road to get around to the next section of forest. We did our best to run some sections and the downhills and I would tow us up the hills so that we always stayed together.

At one point we came across the race director lying in the back end of a trailer taking a nice little nap. He had been dropped off at an intersection so that he could offer up water to teams since it was getting hot out and there wasn't much shad on the road. He had also just had surgery on his knee so I suspect he was enjoying the rest for a brief moment too. Off we went until the road ended and then we headed up again to hit a lake. This section was interesting because there were some serious rock cliffs that we had to work our way around. Nothing too because there was always a way around them, but it really through your baring off. We ended up hitting the lake on the other end and had to work our way around it. From here it was a short trek to the rappel and then if we choose to do the advanced section it was a free climb followed by another short trekking section.

Kristen was starting to get a bit nervous since she's not comfortable with heights. I told her it didn't matter what we did so let's just get to the rappel and figure it out. Well once we arrived at the rappel and saw that the free climb was back up the 30 ft rappel site it didn't take long for Kristen to decide that we were skipping the advanced section. So all we had to do was rappel and then we were done. Easier said then done considering:

a) Kristen had never rappelled before.
b) She's not comfortable with heights.
c) The harness we borrowed looked like dental floss.

She took her time and ended up getting over the edge without any issues and slowly lowered herself down. At the end she was really glad to have done it. Short little run to the finish and we were done.

We had a great time doing this race and I think this proved to her that she shouldn't have any trouble doing the Coast Raid.

C • Congrats! 2

Noe sure the exact time on this. I've always wanted to do the Raid Pulse 2 day race and with Kristen and I heading out to Quebec in a few weeks for the Coast RAID I figured this was a great training weekend for her. We knew we wouldn't be competitive, but we still wanted to go hard and have a lot of fun. The race started with a nice bike ride. I love riding in Quebec because they always seem to have much better terrain to race on. We hardly road pavement for this race, but also we hardly had to hike a bike through swampy ATV trails. Kristen and I worked well together with her using the tow a fair bit on the up hills and the flats. Some nice ATV trails, and then some dirt roads to finish on. We switched to a trek and headed up the road, until we jumped into the woods. This was a really fun section. The thunder was crazy loud as we followed a creek/river system to hit 2 checkpoints, then trekked to the final point on a lake. The 1st stage ended with a canoe. This was probably the least fun for Kristen as we had a pretty good head wind the whole time. 13 k of paddling and for the final 4/5 k we were on open water going into a string head wind. We arrived on the beach for the camping location and she was in good spirits for the day.

I found this format to be really interesting. Basically Saturday consisted of a 5-8 hour stage followed by a mandatory camp at a remote location. Then around 9:30 there was a short 2-3 hour stage race. Sunday was another 5-8 hour race back to the start/finish.

The night stage started with a trek. We hit the first point dead on, but then I decided to try and hit a trail on the top of a hill. In the French directions the race director had pointed out that Benoit L from SRS had found the trail when he test ran the course, but he had found it really hard to stick with it. The race director forgot this part during the English directions as this probably would have changed our route a far bit. We never found the trail and were one of the last teams to come out of the trek. Actually I think all the teams behind us just turned around and went back to bed. The bike ride was a lot of fun and again we used the tow to our advantage, finishing near the back of the pack, but still feeling good.