"Survival" Training

As I sit here and try to plan my training for the next few days another variable is added to the equation...the potential of being attacked, robbed or both while out on the trail!    

I guess, there are some things you just can’t get away from.  Despite moving out of Toronto I am soon realizing there are bad, immoral, selfish (whatever you want to call them) people around that don’t seem to respect others property or lives.  Since moving out of the city our house has been burglarized (we never had that happen in Toronto) and people are being robbed and assaulted on some of my favourite trails I use for training.  Below are links to a couple of articles explaining the most recent attack on a local trail where a man was robbed and stabbed. 

 

http://tinyurl.com/cuf2k7

http://tinyurl.com/dzsobo

 

This really sucks, the trails that are acting as the ambush point for these attackers are popular among runners, mountain bikers, dog walkers etc.  They also link the down town area to a great network of trails outside the city.  I’ve been on these trials, and while I haven’t run into any trouble yet, I don’t know if I should risk it...and my wife assures me she doesn’t want me out there.  Maybe this is one of the reasons we always need to carry a “knife with a locking blade” while racing?  Not sure I want to carry one training.  So it looks like my training areas will be reduced or I will have to bring my body guards (below) every time I want to run there.  They may only be effective if my potential attackers have a fear of being licked to death.

Crunch Time

As you can see I have added a countdown timer to my first race (...yikes it’s getting a little too close for comfort).  I have about 5 weeks to get my training and fitness where I want, re-educate myself in the art of navigation and get all my gear in order.  Good times! 

 

I must say I am a bit nervous after being away for so long; I won’t have the confidence going into these things I used to and that will be a change.  Hopefully the nervous energy will work to my benefit.  I am excited though to get back into the swing of things and compete, not to mention bump into a lot of old friends that are still kicking around in the sport.  AR is such a great community and it will be nice to get back. 

 

My training is coming along and I am getting outside a lot more, but I am finding out that building a good base fitness after 5 years off is much harder than I imagined.  Perhaps being 33 instead of 23 when I started all this has something to do with it?  My hours are getting there, but I am not feeling as comfortable as I had hoped and recovery from harder training days is slow. 

 

After a few rides on the bike outside spin classes seem to have done their job and I am feeling pretty good.  Now I need to work on a bit of endurance, 60min spin classes don’t really help too much with that.  I am working in a 2-3 rides in a week and will start to mix up some distance rides along with some hill workouts and trail riding to get where I need to be.  I did get some bad news about my “new” bike yesterday.  I had it in for some service and they discovered a small crack in the frame.  Luckily it is not on the main frame and I can get away with just replacing the chain stays.  Thankfully, I can still ride it on the road until the parts get in, a week or two without it would have sucked. 

 

Running is coming a bit slower (as expected) and I will have to work hard at this over the next month and a half.  I am mostly running trails because pounding pavement is not my thing and I just can’t manage to do it for long periods of time.  The tough thing about the trails now is that they are very wet and very muddy.  This makes keeping a steady pace much more difficult and is much harder on all the stabilizing muscles.    I am hoping to start feeling stronger over the next couple of weeks, if not I may be in trouble come race day. 

Out with the old, in with the new(er)

This all happened a bit faster than expected, but that's a picture of my new ride!!  The 98’ Brodie Spark has served me well in many races across this great planet, but the time has come to put it out of its misery.  The new bike is a 04’ Rocky Team Element SC with a few newer parts and came at a price that I couldn’t pass up.  Thanks to Bennie Mac again, who in addition to sending sweet tunes for my ipod to keep me motivated, helped with a little loan until the taxes come through.  Even though Lance says “It’s Not About the Bike” I’d like to think that this will help keep me rolling a little faster than before.  It will be nice to be riding a nice FS bike again, my ass will thank me anyways.  One a sad note, it does clash with my wife’s pretty pink Specialized Safire.  Oh, and the front lockout doesn’t seem to work....which the seller neglected to mention until I drove 2 hours to pick up the bike.  Hopefully it isn’t much and will be a quick fix.  For the price I paid it could have came without a fork and still been a good deal. 

 

I’ve started picking up some gear here and there that I will need as mandatory equipment for the upcoming races.  After 5 years “on the bench” I don’t have much gear that is of any use anymore.  Thankfully I managed to tuck away some clothing for training that has somehow made it through countless moves over the years.  I guess I knew it may get to see some more action one day.  There are still a few more things on the list including a new pack that I will use in combination with an old 15L Salomon Packvest that is in need of some repair as well as some race worthy clothing.

 

I hope to have some paddling gear arriving soon from the east coast too.  Most importantly a couple of my old Nimbus carbon paddles.  We had some of their Graphite Feather paddles custom built for us into 3 pieces that were packable and great for AR.  I’m looking forward to the warmer weather so I can paddle a few times before the race...fresh water paddling stinks!

Till next time....

 

Cheers

Goin Fast, Goin Solo

As I mentioned in one of my first posts, I will be racing solo for this comeback.  While I haven’t been keeping a close eye on AR over the past 5 years, I think this is a relatively new option.  It seems that AR has been going through somewhat of a transition since my departure in 2003.  In those days there were several 24-36 hour options in Canada and just as many high profile expedition length races throughout North America.  Now it’s difficult to find a couple 24-36 hour races in Canada, and the good expedition races are few and far between.  These days there seems to be more sprint style races popping up with just about every team format available as an option.  I am guessing this is a simple strategy to get a greater number of racers out.    

My first race this season, the Frontier Adventure Racing Adventure Challenge falls into the “sprint” category.  I was talking to an old high school friend on Facebook this week and he told me a sprint is anything under 40 seconds....I guess it’s all relative.  The race will cover approximately 40km and racers will have 8 hours to complete.  The race is hosted by Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, ON.  I think this will be the 4^th race by Frontier they have hosted since 2005.  It looks like an amazing area and I can’t wait to get up there and check it out. 

 

Aside from this being my first sprint race, it will also be my first attempt at goin’ solo.  I am sure there are countless differences between sprint solo races and racing with a team for a 3-6 day expedition race, but here are a few of the main items I think will change drastically for me.

 

Training

When training for expedition length racing there was close to zero speed work in my training.  Training during the week was usually kept under 2 hrs a session while the weekends typically ended up in some sort of epic ride or trek last 4-8 hours.  Most sessions were more LSD (long, slow distance) vs shorter faster or even interval work.  Thinking back I know there were some holes in my training routines, but overall things seemed to work out fine. 

Now, looking at the shorter, faster races my training will have to adapt to this.  Faster paced runs and rides along with some hill work will have to get worked into my training every week.  No need to ride a century when most races won’t even total close to 100km.  I will try to put more time on my feet as well so I can keep up a solid throughout the race.  We’ll see how the training goes for the couple of ultras as well.  I’ll know more on how ready I am for that in April, and depending on my decision my training focus change significantly prior to those events. 

From a paddling perspective, I used to paddle as part of my job so that didn’t really need to get worked in to the training.  I was on the water 6-8 hours a week anyways.  Now, no boat, no ocean!  I will try to rent a boat a few times before the race just to get used to paddling again.  With races being so short I am guessing the paddling sections won’t be too long so I should manage.

Race Strategy

Go Hard!  - First and foremost I will have to go hard from the get-go.  I don’t think I will have much time to feel things out with this style of race.  Giving up as little as 5-10 minutes could make a big difference in such a short race. 

Minimize Errors - I will have to keep errors to a minimum while trying to make fast and smart decisions.  Of course you always try to minimize errors, but it’s much easier to make up for them over a few days rather than a few hours. 

Fast Transitions - Even in longer races transitions can eat up a big chunk of time.  Keeping this in mind I will try to prepare as much as I can before hand to limit the changes I will need to make at each transition.

Diet

This may not be rocket science to most who have run marathons or competed in Ironman’s, but I went from the basketball court in university directly into adventure racing.  I have no experience in fuelling my body for these shorter races.  Gone are the days of cold pizza, cheese sandwiches with 2” of butter (mmm...tasty) and hot pasta at transitions. 

My diet of choice will likely consist of various bars/gels – I have try out all the new options available.  It’s amazing how things have evolved in this category over the past 5 years.  Even Jelly Belly has energy based jelly beans now!  Transitions will likely consist of some sort of liquid supplement....again I have to try out a few of the new options and see what I like best.  I tried Cliff Bloks for the first time this past weekend, and while they are tasty they may not be the best for sub-zero temperatures.   

Even the hydration strategy will be different, there will be no time to stop and treat water.   I will have to try to carry as much fluid as I need, but no more to minimize weight.  I will have to see what works best for me for the more up tempo race....bottles or hydration bladders.  I know bottles will be easier to exchange at transitions and I have too many memories of leaking hydration bladders.  However, carrying bottles and keeping them accessible is a bit of a challenge.  Ultimately I guess it will depend on the pack I choose….more on this below. 

Navigation

Along with minimizing errors there is one big difference with racing solo when it comes to navigation – there will be no one to help or support me here.  I am not expecting navigation to be tough in these races, but it’s always nice to have an extra eye or two keeping a lookout on your progress.  Hopefully we will have enough time before to prepare the maps and get a solid idea of the route so decisions during the race will be minimal.  It will be a nice change to be working from 1, maybe 2 maps, rather than the 5 or 10 you get in some of the longer races.  I actually think we had 20+ photocopied maps doing the Beast way back in the day.  I had a great photo of it, but that was before digital. 

Gear

I alluded to this earlier when thinking about hydration and my pack choice.  I don’t think I will need a 20-30L pack anymore for such races as the minimum mandatory gear is quite limited.  I am thinking my pack size can drop considerably to about 5-15L.  This should give me enough room to pack the gear required, some food and enough water to get me to the next transition.  I don’ think I will need to carry any extra clothing, except maybe a jacket if it is cold enough or raining and perhaps some shoes depending on how the course is laid out.   

The other major difference for gear falls into the paddling category.  For these races I will need to supply my own boat or rent one from the organizers when available.  Rather than the canoes solos can paddle kayaks....good thing, I have never paddled a canoe solo.  I am trying to track down a fast composite (fiberglass or carbon/kevlar boat) kayak, but they are tough to find.  I may end up paddling a poly Necky Kayak the a local outdoor store rents.  I'm giving up 10 lbs or so by not finding a composite boat, but hopefully the paddling sections won't be significant enough that it makes that  much of a difference.  

 

I guess we will see how close I am to these ideas after the first race.  I will be sure to revisit these topics and add some comments in a few months.