Test of Metal Race Report

Yes, I have been sucking on the blog lately. I've been super busy at work, am going up to Whitehorse this week, going up to the Queen Charlottes next week, and then heading to BC Bike Race the week after for the best week of mountain biking that I'll have yet to experience!

Having said all that, I have been able to get some solid training on the bike in with lots of group rides, and just some good time in the saddle. After putting in over 200km on the road bike on the past weekend, I was feeling really strong and knew that I would be able to put in a solid effort at the Test of Metal.

The Test is the first mountain bike race I've been to in over three years as all of my bike time is usually tied in with adventure races. It was also the biggest bike event that I've ever participated in with over 800 riders ready to push their limits. I was truly impressed with the community support for this event with hundreds of spectators lining the course and cheering on the competitors.

I stayed at Gary's place in North Van on Friday night and then headed up on the Saturday morning. While it seemed like we had a lot of time before the race, before we knew it, we were at the start line ready to go. I have never seen so many bikes together in one location before. The start area was pretty incredible with everyone's bike turned wheels up to hold your spot among the 800 other competitors. This year, they set out estimated finish time area so that the field would be sorted out and you wouldn't have someone who would finish in five hours up with a three hour finisher. I'm not sure this did much though as so many people pushed for the front who simply shouldn't have been there. The reason why this is so important is that after a good initial climb on some roads, you head into some narrow double track which turns into single track and thus, it is hard to pass (especially all the riders who hammer off the start of the 67km race and end up slowing down significantly after less than 15km. So, the start really becomes a full on red-line to get a good place once the trail narrows.

After a moment of silence and our national anthem, the race was on! We were lead out on the highway via a pace car and soon everyone was cranking hard up the first climb. I was in a decent position but wanted to get furthur up front to make sure that I wouldn't be slowed down after the climb. Just before a steep and tight right hand turn, I clicked to gear one down and my drivetrain jammed. Ah... F!@#! I looked down and realized that I had shifted into my big-big combo and as my chainstays are longer on the Jet (than my last bike), the chain was now too short and jammed in this position. I quickly got off, fixed my gearing and was back on in no time. However, in no time, around 50 people had just passed me! I again went to work on gaining some positions but was definitely back of where I wanted to be once we finished the main road climb and entered the double track.

From here, I passed where I could and generally the pace wasn't too bad which made passing even more dangerous on the single track of Jack's trail. Once we got to Alice lake, eveything opened up but here I found myself in a kind of no-man's land. I passed a few riders but a group in front of them had already hammered off. Little did I know, The Test has a lot of road strategy in it as there is a lot of non-technical and fast riding that allows for a good draft line to setup. If you can hook onto one of these, you'll be in good shape; if not, you'll be in no-man's land and end up like me. Fortunately, this didn't last too long until Gary and a few other riders came up from behind and I jumped on. The extra riders also adds speed simply by the motivation of having other people pushing you. We eventually broke into some singletrack, into a new steep climb, and then into Rob's corners. This was probably my favourite part of the course. The trail is a slightly downhill swoopy trail with bermed corners that has to put a smile on your face. I think I even let out a scream! Again, I would have liked to go a bit faster on this section but I had some slower riders in front of me. Because of this, Gary had gapped me a bit and shortly thereafter, on some fast downhill singletrack, I saw him on the side of the trail.

He was standing up (which was a good sign) and was inspecting his bike. I was getting ready to slow down when I called out if he was ok.

"Somebody F-ing cut me off!"

Knowing Gary, I knew that since he swore, and swore in a very angry pissed off tone, that he must be physically ok :)

I took my fingers off the brakes, and kept going not knowing where he was really at.

The trail 'Roller Coaster' was another highlight of the course with the end consisting of steep banked corners and tons of spectators cheering us on. It was quite the sight.

After a bit more riding, I passed through the main aid station that would be the start of the dreaded '9 mile hill'. I had never done the climb before but got some good advice from Gary before the start of the race. First off, the climb is 9 miles from the highway rather than where we start the climb; in total, it's about a 9 km climb. Secondly, it's not all a climb with some downhill sections involved. After hearing horror story comments about this climb, I didn't really find it that bad. I didn't feel like I was climbing my strongest but was picking off several other riders and made up about 10 positions but the time I hit 'lava flow' at the top. I was a bit bagged by the top but once the gradient started going down, I was right back in it. The downhill was super fast with lots of rocks and one particular boulder that could have done me in! I stayed on course and flew down to the top of the powerhouse plunge. Most of the downhill I was on my own with a group of riders in front that I just couldn't seem to catch. As soon as we got to the plunge though, the group slowed and I was able to pass and gap them.

The top of the plunge was a bit hairy at first as my legs were like jello having not used them much on the downhill sections and thus, I wasn't ready for the most technical part of the course. I did put my feet down a few times at the top, and had to stop once as I lost my flow, but once I started to get the ryhthm, I was ready to go.

I was feeling great at this point and had no cramping issues since I stayed up top of my electrolyte inputs over the course of the race. Before the race, Gary actually set me up with an ingenious electrolyte dispensor that is currently top secret. It allows for a one handed intake of a tablet and worked well the entire race. Cudos to Gary for that.

I had a big smile on my face and started flying down the switchbacks of the powerhouse plunge. And that's when it happened.

I heard a load popping noise and immediately knew that something had just happened to my bike. I got to the next switchback, got off my bike, looked things over, and found that my upper suspension linkage was done. Not only was it done, but it had completely self-destructed in three locations!

At first I was pretty pissed but then I just took it in stride, and walked my bike down the rest of the plunge to the aid station.

My race was over.

At the aid station, I met a few people I knew and when I was showing them the damage, I also noticed something else. Not only had the linkage failed in three locations, the rear frame triangle that holds the pivots snapped in half! I have never dealt with a broken frame and breaking one definitely concerns me as doing this in BC Bike Race or a big adventure race can simply mean the end of the event. I knew that this kind of thing can happen with a newly released bike and I guess I took it so well since it gave such as nice ride.

After staying at the aid station for awhile, I noted that Gary had yet to come through. I was pretty sure that he must have dropped out of the race as well and it was after that I found that he was hit by someone off the the trail into the bushes going over 35 km/hour. Luckily, he escaped with no major issues. He did however bruse his quad and break his pinky finger!

Two teammates, one broken finger, one broken frame, and two DNFs.

So, am I pissed about how things went? Well, I'm definitely not happy about it but I can say that I was having a great race up until the break and that the bike was performing incredibly. What does this mean for BC Bike Race? I still do not know how things will pan out at this point. I love the bike but a replacement (of a working Jet9) will likely take several weeks or months and BC Bike Race is only two weeks away! Yes, this is stressing me out but I'm sure I'll figure something out somehow.

TNO

Niner Jet9 Review

After much waiting and suspense, Niner Bikes has released what is arguably the most highly anticipated bike of 2008 - the Niner Jet9.

Niner bikes are dedicated to making, you guessed it, only 29 inch based mountain bikes. They claim 29ers are a revolution and based on what I have seen, read, and experienced myself, I would tend to agree with this. Compared to a 26er, the bigger wheels of a 29er reduce endos, provide unparalelled traction and roll over obstacles much easier; in short, they give you a distinct advantage over 26 inch wheeled bikes. Yes, the wheels do have a weight penalty but the overall advantages far outweigh the weight gains. Here in Victoria, 29ers are seen more and more. Talk to anyone who rides them and you'll get a full smiled and forceful response that may resemble a conversation with a righteous religious zealot; they love their bikes!

The Jet9 was based on its bigger brother the RIP9 which blew open the doors as the best 29er in 2007 and who some claim as the one of the best bikes ever made (read the reviews on mtbr.com). The RIP9 is more of an all-mountain versatile machine that provides 4.5 inches of rear wheel travel which is huge for a big wheel bike (since the larger wheels take out the pounding of the trail, less suspension is required; because of this, more and more people are reverting to 29er hardtails or even fully rigid machines and are loving it). The Jet9 is more of a race ready machine with 3.1 inches of rear travel designed for a 80 or 100mm front fork. The geometry is a bit more racey and the bike cuts 3/4 of a pound off of the RIP frame.

Check out those sweet chrome plated alumium linkages! You can't go wrong with those curvy, sexy seat stays as well! The CVA suspension design is bar none.

After a long delayed boarder hold-up, the frames arrived in town early last week. Eager, I picked up the frame and Fox F29 100 fork and started to build up my ride.

I put on some new 180mm XTR cranks which have been incredible. The longer crank arms are perfect for my longer legs and I can definitely feel the difference in tork when I'm cranking up a steep climb.

Most of the other parts I pulled off the old hardtail and everything came together nicely. I got some new NOKON compressionless cable and installed this for my gravity dropper seatpost which has made it butterly smooth in operation. For those of you who have never heard of the gravity dropper, this thing is amazing.

It gives you the ability to raise and lower your seat by a handlebar mount by 4"; this makes riding a technical downhill section not only safer and easier, but much more fun!

For wheels, I took apart my old wheelset and built up my King hubs to some sweet new Bontrager Mustang rims with the offset spoke bed. I used some DT revolution spokes up front and some DT Comps on the drive side and DT revs on the non-drive for the rear wheel. Overall, I think the wheelset weighs maybe 40 grams heavier per wheel than my old Mavic 717 setup and the Bontrager rims are even stiffer.

For rubber, I picked up some Panaracer Rampage 2.35s which hook up like snot. While they are heavy, the rolling resistance on dirt is pretty low and the traction is great. I'll probably use these in the Test of Metal but might move to something lighter for BC Bike Race which is now just a month away!

So, was it worth the wait?
ABSOLUTELY!!!
This is easily the best bike I have ever had the pleasure to ride. The large wheels combined with just the right amount of suspension and the racey geometry creates a bike that is uttery mind-blowing. The bike simply melts underneath you as you ride it. Maybe it's just that I was riding a hardtail before but I feel like this bike is giving me an unfair advantage.
I'll take it!


TNO

Orienteering on Newcastle Island

After Sage Stomp, I had a busy but good week. I got lots of errands and work done, got in some good training, kicked Gary's ass on the road bike, you know, all the usual things. :)

So, by the time the weekend hit, I was ready for some great but tough orienteering up on Newcastle Island which is just off of Nanaimo. However, on the Saturday morning, I was greeted with a flat tire on my car. Luckily, John, a friend and fellow orienteer, was also going up to the events and just got my message from the previous night. As one of my lugnuts was seized and thus, I couldn't remove the wheel, John came by and picked me up.

A short ride and ferry crossing on the 'harbour pickle' ferry and we arrived. The weekend is put on by the Victoria Orienteering Club and consists of two courses; one on Saturday and on Sunday. There were four categories to race in ranging from beginner to advanced and the winner in each would have the best combined time between the two days.

My main competitor for the weekend was Thomas Nippen, a very skilled and fast orienteer who trains with the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club. I think in all of the orienteering events that I have done, I have never been able to beat Thomas even in a fun training event. So, I had some stiff competition.

DAY 1

After a nice warm-up run, Thomas and I worked out that he would run first and I would leave him a good time buffer so that we wouldn't overlap in our course. Starting closely behind someone is definitely an advantage since you can shave off course time if you manage to catch the person who will be giving away some route choices and control locations simply by their presence. However, since I don't particularly like to follow at all, I wanted to leave a big enough buffer that I would be on my own and allow myself to make all my own decisions. Thomas left the start and once I arrived I started in with an 8 minute buffer which I thought would be more than enough.

While I won't describe the whole course, I will say that I had one of my best runs ever. I was really focused, raced extremely smart, and was just dialed in on the map. One of the things that helped me was in the warm-up, Thomas gave me some great tips that were particularly relevant for this terrain. Since the bush is so thick with salal in areas, you are forced to really slow down which gives you an aerobic rest and time to read the map. So, once you hit any open areas or trails, you need to book it as hard as possible to gain time. This was an awesome tip since, in the past, I would really tend to work out my route on the trails and slow down. While slowing down on the trails can still be useful in certain terrain to take in the map, it's not the way to go if the bush is rough.

Everything was just going well and once I got to Control 9, I had Thomas in my sights! I couldn't believe it! I had almost gained 8 minutes! I pushed hard to the next control and finally caught him. From here, it was a push to control 11 and 12 and then into the finish. Thomas managed to pull away going to control 12 due to a slightly longer but easier route choice, but I was still super happy to run in just behind him and take 1st place.

Day 2


Day 2 did not go nearly as well for me. At the beginning of the course, Thomas and I both agreed that we would do a chase start; Thomas would start 8 minutes after me so if he caught me and finished first, he would win the weekend overall. I agreed and headed out on the course first knowing that he would be pushing hard behind me for the win. I hit the first control bang on but then had trouble locating the second control. I didn't feel quite as dialed and also made the mistake of not picking suitable 'attack points'. 'Attack points' are features that are close to the control that you navigate to first and then 'attack' the control by that known feature. Instead, I used the 'I'll just run into it' technique on a couple of controls which just never works well. I had another similar mistake at control 6 and coming out of control 7, I made a location error which took me on a much less preferred line that the one I had intended. At this point, I had made enough mistakes that I knew that Thomas would be right behind me.
I came into control 9, punched, and was just 30 feet away from the control when I saw Thomas coming. Shit. I knew that he had me then. From here to the trail was thick salal and while Thomas seemed to follow me at first, he started to pick his own line and was soon out of sight. I got to a trail, put on a hard push, and then only to blow it by again not attacking the control well (I was looking for a rootstock in a sea of many). I eventually found it, knew that Thomas was way ahead of me by now, and slowly picked off the last controls.
Lesson 500,000,000 (same as almost all my previous lessons): never give up or slow down
I came into the finish and Thomas was nowhere to be seen! Apparently, he missed the control that he saw me at, went all the way to the trail, and had to go back in. This was a big mistake and while he still ended up with a better time for the day, I ended up having the best combined time for the weekend!
Thanks very much to Richard and the Lay family, to Alan Philip, and to everyone who helped make Newcastle another successful weekend. Hope to see you there next year!
TNO

Sage Stomp 2008

This past weekend, Kim and I headed up to Kamloops with the Lay family to get in some nice open forest orienteering that surrounds the area. This would be my second time at Sage Stomp and it will definitely not be my last.

We had our first camping trip of the year and it was a great one. We stayed a Lac Le Jeune Provincial Park which is just adjacent to the Stake Lake cross country ski area where the sprint and middle distance events would be held. The weather was overcast on Saturday but it was still very warm with enough UV getting through to give a good tan. Here's how it all went for me.

Sprint Distance:
Course: 2.5 km (straight line)

Chris Koch Sprinting out of the control

I started out doing well but once I hit an area of the map that was a little confusing, I got out of the map, relocated myself as quickly as I could, and then found the control. While it wasn't a huge mistake as far as mistakes can go, I did lose about two minutes here which is a huge loss in a sprint distance event. The rest of the course went well although the next two controls after the mistake cost me time since my confidence was down and I started to hesitate moving into the next controls. There is a certain amount of gumption that you gain while orienteering and any mistake will lower this. If you make too many of them, or if your mistake is large, this can lead to a downward spiral of mistakes and a complete loss of gumption. In the end, I came in at 18:16 which was good enough for 5th place. Had I not made the one mistake, I would taken at least 3rd or close to 2nd. Thomas Nippen cleaned up the course in around 15:00 to take 1st.

Eric Bone working the sprint course

Middle Distance:
Course: 5.1 km (straight line)

Benoit re-orienting himself in the middle distance

The middle distance start was right in the same area as the sprint which made the logistics easy and made for some good socializing. I didn't start this course as well as the sprint and ended up making some mistakes in the same area that I had trouble with in the Sprint. After talking with several people after the event (with some who had big mistakes) it was confirmed that the area in question needed some reworking on the map since not all of the features were mapped; or the ones that were needed some reworking. I definitely had a loss of gumption in that area and took awhile to regain it. The main section of the course involved some detailed orienteering in some good open runnable forest. It was also very easy to get out fo the map. I did ok in this section but did have some bobbles which cost me some time in the end. Close to the end, I choose a straight line bushwack over a longer trail run which was a mistake due to the density of the bush that I had to go through. I finished with a time of 47:40 which again put me in 5th place.

Long Distance:
Course: 13.2 km (straight line)
This was the longest course that I have ever done! It was also the course setters longest ever designed course which says a lot since he has done many many course in his time. The map that we were on was in Grasslands Provincial Park which is a combination of open grasslands and nice open forests. Sweet!

Kim and Rima naving together through some nice forest

I knew that the area was highly detailed with many subtle features so I started out on the slower side and also tried to pace myself as I was in for a good ~15km run with lots of elevation. The first two controls went fairly smooth but then everything fell apart at the 3rd control. My control description that I had on my armband showed that the control was supposed to be at the top of a knoll (small hill feature). I naved very well right into the feature, got to the top, looked around, and could see nothing. From here I proceeded to check every other knoll in the area. Again, no control! I relocated to a distinct boulder, naved in again and ended up on the same knoll that I was originally on! F!%$! I eventually stumbled on the control which was in a small reentrant. At this time, my gumption was about gone to the point that I almost quit. I later found out that the control had been changed and that the control description that was printed on the map was in fact the correct one (my control description on my forearm was incorrect). While this sucked as it screwed up my race and added a good 6 minutes to my time, I'm glad that I kept going.

They need to make the control stands taller for me!

The rest of the race went well with only small mistakes being made here and there. Orienteering is really a sport that is impossible to perfect; you could always have done better. That being said, the more you do it, the smaller and smaller the mistakes become and the easier it is to relocate yourself. I've made it to the point now where I'll still make small mistakes but can now recover quickly by a quick relocation to get me back on track.

While I had the issue with control #3, I was still able to take 5th place in a time of 2:04:10.

For those of you who missed out, you'll have to wait till next year! It was a great weekend and the events were great. Thanks to everyone who helped in making the events happen!

On another note, the Sage Orienteering Club is going to be putting on a 24 hour Rogaine either in July or September. This is going to be an absolutely amazing event and held in a similar area to Grasslands Provincial Park. For those of you who have never done a Rogaine, I would highly recommend it! The format is one where you do as much as you want so you can take an extended break at the hash house, or push through the night to get as many controls as possible. This is also a great intro to those looking to do a longer adventure race as it puts you into the night and is much easier to do (limited gear required and a low price point). I will keep people updated on this. Please let me know if any of you are interested.

TNO

MOMAR Squamish Race Report

First, I must apologize for being such a lame blogger lately. My work schedule has been busy and the amount of spare time that I have had lately has been pretty slim. In the last couple of weeks, I have participated in some great orienteering events including the Camp Thunderbird 3 hour Score-O that I did the course design for. The event went on without a hitch and everyone loved the control placements and the multiple route options that were available. Click here for the results.

I was really looking forward to the MOMAR Squamish race although I was a bit hesitant on how I would do on my legs as I have had to take a good deal of time off running due to my subluxed cuboid in my foot. I'm sure both Gary and I were a bit nervous as well as we were the defending champions from 07 and knew that a few select teams would be out to push us to the limits. Our main rivals at the start line were none other than Justin Mark and Jeff Reimer of Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island. While we outraced them in the Suburban Rush only a couple of weeks prior, we knew that the hilly course with lots of technical riding would be to their advantage. We also knew that with an early navigation section in the race, that they would do what they could to trail us through the checkpoints and then try to drop us on the bike.

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I was exited about a completely new course and the Le Mans start provided for an interesting start. After a quick hop on the bike and gruelling climb, we headed into the navigation section with no less than four teams all hanging together and waiting for us to make a move. Both Gary and I had expected this although we weren't completely sure how we were going to shake everyone. Gary suggested pushing really hard to drop everyone but with other strong racers present, I figured that everyone would still hang on. Once we hit a point in the road where I knew we wanted to head into the bush, I started to hesitate and waited until a good moment. At this point, Shane and Garth of Pain is Temporary led out the pack as they are decent navigators and were confident in their route. I briefly looked at Gary and in seconds we were out of sight. We found out after the race that both Justin and Jeff had tried to follow us once they knew what had happend and literally thought that we were hiding in the bush since they didn't think that we could have gone too far! I had a few bobbles with a couple of controls but otherwise picked off the controls well. We came out of this section in first place but knew that there was a lot of course left and to keep going strong. In the end, we ended up putting less than five minutes on Justin and Jeff as they managed to hook up with Bart Jarmula (an excellent navigator) who lead them through the course. Cudos to course designer Jen Segger-Gigg who planned out the course so that all controls were easily accessible from the trail but bushwacking would be the quickest way to clean the course; this is how it should be done!

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The bike sections of the race were really the determining sections as the trails were very technical and a good rider could put in huge time over those who were not as confident. I've been riding a Ti hardtail for quite some time now and while it has treated me well, I knew that the downhill sections of the course were going to punish me. I was planning on having a new 29er dually from Niner bikes ready to go before the race but due to a delayed frame shipment, it was just not meant to be. I was doing well at the top of the downhills but once I hit the Powerhouse plunge, my legs were just starting to seize from not being able to sit down on any technical section which is about everything. When we got close to the bottom of the plunge, my loss of muscle control let my front wheel fall off one of the many plank bridges, it dug into the dirt, and I endo'd pretty bad. I was lucky that I didn't hit any rocks, got up as quick as I could, and continued to ride; albeit I was pretty shaken up and it took awhile to get my focus back. This section definitely slowed us down.

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It wasn't further down the course while climbing Fartherside that Justin and Jeff managed to catch us. They were looking strong, passed us, and then I just tried to hang on. Again, the rough trail sections, especially the part of the trail that is a cobble strewn creek bed, really slowed me on my hardtail and I just could not keep up. While I won't say that the race outcome would have been different had I had a different bike, I will say that it definitely taxed me over the brutal Squamish course and I'm sure that I would have been able to put in a better time and been fresher during the second trek. To me, it was the main limiting factor for my performance for this course.

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We started the second trek and exchanged leads with Justin and Jeff several times. We actually got to the rappel site first but had some bad luck as our rope was extremely slow. Both Gary and I had to literally feed the rope through the ATC with two hands to be able to move at all. When we finally got off the ropes, we had lost some good time and tried to make it up on the run back. Justin and Jeff put in a solid effort at this point as we were pushing hard to catch up but we just could not get them back in our sights. As we approached the bikes, they were just leaving. We had a sloppy transition and I spent time taking in fluids as both of us forgot to pick up water off the bikes at the beginning of the trek and were both dehydrated. Stopping to hydrate cost us additional time and this was a huge mistake on my part as we knew that the race time was dwindling away. Nonetheless, we pulled out, put in a strong ride but were greeted at the University finish area with Justin and Jeff running up the final climb to the finish as we got to the bike drop. They were so close!

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While it was hard to see Justin and Jeff take the line and Gary and I take second, it was good to see Justin finally take an overall win after years of racing and never quite getting there. To me, it was the hardest MOMAR yet mainly due to the additional time on the legs (no paddle stage) and the huge elevation gain over the course. Both Gary and I took home a lot of lessons that I'm sure will make us both better racers over the long term.

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Thanks to Bryan for putting on yet another successful event, to Jen Segger-Gigg for putting together an awesome course, and of course to all of the volunteers who truly make the event happen!

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See you at Shawnigan Lake!

TNO

Foot Pain = Cuboid Subluxation

After the Suburban Rush race last weekend, I went home, had a good sleep, and was up early to participate in the largest Victoria running race of 2008; the Times Colonist 10km. While I was a little sore from the Rush, I was feeling like I could leave it out there and have a solid run. My 'goal' was a mid to low 36 minute time and even with the hard race the day previous, I still thought that I could perform.

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However, after getting out of the car and starting to walk to the start line, I realized that my foot was starting to hurt again. I say again because it was the same type of pain that I felt after my disaster at the Diez Vista 50km. It wasn't too bad at first but by the time we got close to the start, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to run. What started as a slight pain increased to the point that I could no longer walk properly. I turned around, limped back to the car, changed, and limped back - to the finish line this time - wondering what this would mean to my training and to my season as a whole. The only thing I could think of was that I had a micro fracture in my foot that had flared up again and would take many weeks to heel with no running. I was bummed.

On a positive note, the finish of the race was great! Man, the leaders came in so fast. Just over 30 minutes for the winner with a big pack all close up front. Super fast finish.

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I obviously had to have my foot checked out so I booked an appointment and saw my physio today. Is it fractured? How long will it take to heal?

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After many questions and doing a few tests, she figured out right away that my pain was caused by a subluxed bone in my foot (the cuboid). Apparently, the cuboid (which is cube-like in shape) is a common culprit that becomes shifted which makes proper movement impossible and results in pain. There is a tendon that runs down the side of the foot and then wraps under which stabalizes the foot and prevents rolling. The problem with the cuboid happens when the tendon is suddenly engaged (like slipping and tweeking the ankle quickly on a root like at Diez Vista) and causes the bone to shift. So, I've been walking around with a subluxed cuboid for the past three weeks; no wonder my foot was always sore.

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The solution; push the damn thing back in!

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After resettling the cuboid, my physio wrapped it with tape and advised me to keep taping it over the next week to prevent the problem from happening again.

My foot is already starting to feel better and in a few days, I should be back on my feet again. Barb is the best.

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TNO

Suburban Rush Race Report

This past weekend, Gary Robbins and I headed over to Port Moody to take on the Suburban Rush Adventure Race. Both of us will admit that we did not give this race much credit heading in. As the race is geared as a beginners event, we thought that it would be arrogant to go over and race this race hard to win. With Bryan Tasaka trying to persuade us otherwise and listing competitive teams that would be at the start line, we both reluctantly agreed to race. Man, were we wrong about this event!

The Suburban Rush is a 30km event which consists of running and mountain biking on a primarily flagged course although some navigating is required in sections. The race is in its 4th season and is put on by Dean Wutke and Shawn Leclair.

While this event is geared toward beginners, the course had us climbing some serious elevation and riding some very technical mountain biking trails. Both Gary and I were very impressed. The course started with a short flat run by the water before heading straight up a trail to a bike transition area. From here of course, we continued to climb. We connected onto some rough hydro line trails which we both recognized as part of the Diez Vista 50km course that we had run just a few weeks prior. The course was definitely designed to build up as much lactic acid as possible at the start and then punish you in the end!

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Once we hit the top of the climb there was a rough downhill road section before heading into some great downhill singletrack. As much as I tried to keep my speed here, I was just getting bucked around on my hardtail and was fighting just to make sure that I didn't bail. I just couldn't keep up to Gary although I later found that he was seriously surprised at how well I handled the trail considering my current ride.

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I've never owned a full suspension and have been happily riding a ti hardtail for quite some time now; but after riding that section of trail, it finally instilled in me that it was time to move onto a dually. With Test of Metal and BC Bike race around the corner, I just cannot afford to get beat up on a hardtail and slow down the team. A new ride is in the works :)

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We had led the race through the running section but was passed by Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island on the bikes due to a much needed piece of missing flagging. It appeared that someone had 'sabbotaged the course' and we ended up losing our hard fought time gain on the run in an instant. We followed on the bikes and hit up the transition area to a fun navigation section beside Bunsen Lake just behind the leaders.

/

Once we figured out that the controls were placed just off the trail, we went out and cleaned up the rest of the controls with little issues and came back to our bikes in first place. We knew from here that we just needed to keep a good pace and without any bike issues, we should be able to get to the line first.

/

I was having some cramping issues due to the all the lactic acid built up from the start of the race and really just wanted some nice swoopy trails. After a short climb up from the lake, some good trails are exactly what we got! Nice flowy trails with good downhill speed and a fair share of short climbs.

/

In the end, we pushed for the line and took home our first adventure racing victory of 2008! It was a great feeling to race again and especially to race on a team with Gary. With the MOMAR Squamish just in two weeks, it was a good measure to make sure we are good to go. Now, hopefully Gary can at least walk after the Miwok 100km!!!

/

Thanks to everyone at Suburban Rush for putting on a great event that ran smooth and for holding the race on such a nice weekend!

/

If you missed the Suburban Rush this year, I would highly recommend that you give this race some serious consideration in 2009.

/

Thanks also to Bryan Tasaka for helping Gary and I get to the starting line and for giving me a ride back to the ferry terminal!

/

TNO

Determinator #2 - Beaver Lake Park

The Victoria Orienteering Club is putting on the 'Determinator Series', a fun Wednesday evening series for all levels of abilities.
See the Website for more details.
Hope to see you there!

Determinator 2- Beaver Lake Park

DATE: Wednesday 23 April, 2008

WHAT: Determinator Series - Determinator #2
Five weekly training sessions disguised as fun competitive events

WHERE: Beaver Lake Park - Paved main parking lot near the beach.

WHEN: Wednesday, 23 April, and the following three Wednesdays
6:00 P.M. Registration for newcomers needing a bit of instruction
6:30 - 6:45 P.M. Registration for regular Determinators
7:00 Mass Start

COST: $7 each week
plus $5 all-year-Membership for newcomers
(Club Season Passes and First-Meet-Free-Memberships not applicable)

DETAILS: Goat Format, same as last year.
Mass Start, skip one control (you choose which one)

At least two cash prizes each week, and many, many prizes at the Final Race, May 10th.

After their first race, everyone receives a handicap for their subsequent races; giving everyone an equal chance at winning.

Snow, Cold, Windy & Warm

After the prevous weekend of steller weather, I awoke early on Saturday morning to get in some miles on the legs. I geared up and by 6:30pm I opened the front door to be confronted with falling snow. Here it is mid April, on a weekend that not one week earlier topped 19 degrees, and it was starting to drop minus degrees on me.

I literally stood outside in an early morning haze trying to take in all in and decide what to do. I think I stood there for a least a few minutes despite the very cold air. I stepped back inside. What to do. Had I been still undressed, I think I would have crawled right back in bed. But here I was, all ready to go and the thought of backing out was just not strong enough. I think I knew that I was not going to be able to talk myself out of it but I still stood inside for a good five minutes before I was out the door again... this time to actually leave.

As I went, the snow continued and at times I had to stare my gaze downward as to not get hit in the eyes with the large flakes that were blowing down. I ran my normal flat run into the Colquitz River system and the trees overhead were a nice canopy to shelter me from the wind and blowing snow. Eventually I made my way out to the the Galloping Goose trail and headed over into Thetis Lake Park to meet up with the Harriers. It was a good 15km steady run and I arrived with enough time to fuel up and get my breathing down but not enough to get cold from not moving.

We had a good group run with Shane and Garth and I leading the way through some good rugged trails that Thetis has to offer.

Arriving back at the parking lot, the snow had somewhat subsided but this was just a teasing for what was to come. After a social breakfast, the snow really started to come down and soon, it was a winter wonderland out in Langford. Inches of snow had accummulated and it brought the highway speedlimit from 90 km/h down to about 50. Thanks to Lara for giving me a ride home!

The rest of the day was spent learning how to use an electronic punching system called Sport Ident or SI. This system is used in orienteering events and some adventure races and allows the organization to provide competitors with split times at multiple points along your route which is great for comparing results with other competitors. I'll be using this at the Camp Thunderbird Score-O event and needed to get a handle on how it all works. Leigh Bailey was nice enough to help me out and even had me over for supper which was very nice.

On Sunday, I managed to get in a good 2 1/2 ride with the Wheelers road bike ride and then spent some time with Kim on a nice but easy stroll through many parks around the area. In the end, we hiked around 12 km and saw lots of wildlife enjoying the sunny day that followed the cold (yes, it was now nice and all the snow was gone). There were many birds out including a large Pilated Woodpecker and a little hummingbird that treated both of us with a view of its nest!

Their nests are so small and so camalflaged that it is a pretty rare sight to actually see one. It sat in the nest and was extremely still as to not be seen.

After the hike, I got on the road bike again and did some hill repeats to work on my climbing.

Despite the snow, all in all it turned out to be a good weekend.

TNO

Sweet Weekend

What an amazing past weekend! With the weather being in the blah zone for the past month, the weekend, and in particular Saturday, was forecasted to be nice and hot at 19 degrees; it did not disappoint!

After Diez Vista, I wasn't feeling particularly destroyed (didn't have the Robbins shuffle) but due to my ankle, I wanted to make sure that everything was fine before I started running again. It took a few days before it was 100% again (which was weird since it went from absolute pain to being fine in a few days!) but my energy levels were definitely at a low. I spent the week eating like I'd been fasting for weeks and even if I was full, my body still felt like it wanted more. It's been a long time since I've felt like this and is probably attributed to going so far in the hole at Diez Vista; I depleted myself and was slowly replenishing my energy stores.

So, after a week of primarily biking to work and a group road ride with the Russ Hays group, I was looking forward to some good but not too intense weekend training.

I did my usual Saturday monring trail run with the Harriers at Thetis Lake and then after a good hearty breakfast, I was fuelled up for some long hours in the bush.

I headed out to Camp Thunderbird in Sooke to field check some locations for the following event that I'm doing the course for:

Event: Camp Thunderbird 3 Hour Score-O
Location: Camp Thunderbird, Sooke
Description: Collect as many controls as possible in a three hour time period
Info: Victoria Orienteering Club


One of the many Control Locations

Flowing Skunk Cabbage on the edge of Glinz Lake

This event is just one week before the Squamish MOMAR and is a must for tuning up your navigation or for just getting out of the City and into some gorgeous west coast terrain with some great views out across the Juan de Fuca Straight and to the Olympic Pennisula Mountains.

If you can make it to this Control Location, you'll get a sweet view!

After spending a good five hours in the bush and slicing open one of my fingers on a rock (don't worry, it's all bandaged up!), I packed it in and started to head home. Ok, I say five hours but a good 1/2 hour of that was spent lying on a rock outcrop in the sun with my shirt peeled off. Yeah! It felt sooooo gooood! Seems like a long time since last summer.

I was feeling pretty beat but suddenly decided to go up humpback road and check out Mount MacDonald. This peak is located just by Goldstream Provincial Park and right across from Mount Wells. I've been up Wells several times but had yet to go up MacDonald so... might as well be now then never. I had a great fast power hike up and up and up to the peak.

A large patch of Shooting Stars on the way to the Summit

The trail is nice and rugged but is mostly unrunable due to the steepness going up. The view from the top was definitely worthwhile as I had a great view from up to the highlands, to Victoria, to the south over the Juan De Fuca straight, and even out to the mountains in Sooke where I just was. I hiked and ran back down and then called it a day.

My Reward

Sunday I awoke again to some great weather. I geared up on the road bike and had a solid 2 1/2 hour road ride with the wheelers group. What started off as a decent pace and a large group soon turned into a faster and smaller and faster and smaller group. Eventually, we went down to just five of us and by the time we rode by my place, my legs were totally done.

I quickly refuelled and headed out again to Royal Road University for a middle distance orienteering event. This was a good event that had some good bushwacking, some mud, and some good open and fast trail running. Just under an hour of running and I was again done for the day.

I spent the rest of the day in a sleepy daze wishing to sleep but having to pack and make the ferry over to Vancouver to spend the next three days at a quality managment training workshop. With the ferry full, I cursed, fell asleep in the backseat of my car, and eventually made it over to my hotel by midnight! Arhh.

It was a good weekend! Ok, other than the ferry... :)

TNO

Diez Vista 50km Race Report

I never was really looking forward to this race. I couldn't figure out why but for some reason, I was not feeling good about going into the race. Was it a lack of motivation. No. Was it my current training schedule and how I had been set back a bit over the past week. Maybe a bit but I still was able to get out on three solid runs on Monday through Thursday and felt really good on my feet. So, what was it about this race.

I arrived at my friend Magnus's place in North Vancouver on Friday night (a good orienteering friend who is integral in the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club). We had some good discussions about orienteering and event organization and then managed to pull out a North Van map and check out the area where the race was going to be held. I now realized what was bugging me so much about this race; I had virtually no idea of what the course was.

Going into Chuckanut, I had studied the course maps, knew many of the twist and turns, knew where the aid stations were to plan out my nutrition, and knew when and where to expect the climbs and decents. For the Diez Vista 50km... I knew that I was signed up for a hilly 50km trail run; that's about it. No maps for the course are provided by the race and I could find nothing by searching through Google. While some people tried to give me some concept of what to expect, including Gary Robbins (who ended up going out too hard and blowing up two years prior), it really didn't help to prepare me for the event. I was going in blind.

Gary picked me up in the early morning and we headed out to Port Moody and more specifically, Lake Sassamat where the race start and finish was located. I say early because the start was at 7:30am which for a 50km race, seemed way too early for the both of us. Everything went fine on arrival and before we knew it, the race was on.

I was feeling really good but tried not to push it too hard, especially on the uphills. Gary and I were running around the same pace but once we hit the switchbacks up on the Diez Vista trail, he took off with his great power hiking.

The Diez Vista trail was absolutely awesome! Extremely rugged, lots of open rock, swishy organic soil, and more roots than you'd want at times. I was loving this section! Maybe I was pushing it a bit too hard this early in the the race but man did these trails feel good. I was eating it up. After passing several people, I lost my concentration for a split second, slid down a root, tweaked my ankle and slammed my right quad into a rock. I got up quickly, and kept running hoping that my quad would hold up fine. I thought that my ankle was fine...

The course unfolded with lots of hills and decents, lots of good single track, but a bit too much power line access road running for me. These roads were typcial for the area; rocky with lots of cobbles, and always going either up or down. I thought I was getting somewhat close to end of the race but really had no idea of how far I had ran. I had been hanging in 10th place for quite some time and maybe pushed myself a little too hard to stay in this spot. My legs started to slow. The flats (when there were any) were fine, and the slight downhills were good as well but the anything else, and my quads and hamstrings started to complain. I was well hydrated, kept up my calorie intake with some Carbo-Pro, and had a steady supply of electrolytes coming in via my Thermolyte tablets.

When I started up the last big switchback section of the course (as I found out later), my body reduced me to a crawl. Even when it nearly flattened out, I physically could not run any grade at all. This trail led out to yet another power line section that was again either a climb or descent. At this point, I knew that all I could do was to power hike up the hills, and run the downhills. Trying just to hold on to my race, I saw a runner coming toward me and I now remembered something about a powerline out-and-back and something about a long downhill followed by a long reverse uphill. Then came Gary! With a big peace sign signifying that he was in 2nd place, Gary looked strong and had a big smile on his face! I knew that he was in good shape and being not too far behind the leader, I knew that he had a chance at taking 1st!

I continued to struggle on the road and suddenly my quads completely gave up on me. I could no longer run downhill. With my legs trashed, and knowing that I had a ways to go on the course including a long downhill to the finish, I had no choice but to walk. My mind was all go but my body was at the end. I had pushed too hard, cracked, and my only option to finish was to suffer for the next two hours and walk the rest of the course in pain. While there might be some kind of macho, have to finish mentality to walking in and finishing, I just could not do it. If I couldn't run, my race was over. My race was over.

I walked down the final hill into the aid station and I think all of the volunteers knew what was coming.

"I'm done", I said.
"Are you sure you don't want to sit down for a bit, relax and maybe go out again?", said one of the volunteers.
"No, there's just no way. I cannot run anymore."

At this point, they could tell that physically I couldn't go on and then helped me out by wrapping me in blankets as the rain and snow that we faced on the course had soaked me and as I was not exerting myself any longer, I was starting to shiver.

It didn't even bother me to watch as competitors would come and go out of the aid station as I knew that physically I was shot, could do nothing about it, and would use this as a good learning experience to draw upon in the future. This would be my first ever Did Not Finish (DNF). I will remember this one for a long time.

As I got extremely cold, one of the volunteers drove me back to the start line with some good heat blasting and I was fortunate enough to see the first racers finish. While Gary didn't come in first, he closed what was once a huge gap on 1st place and ecstatically came in 2nd place (just a couple of minutes behind the leader who broke the course record!). A very big congrats to Gary as he had probably his best running performance ever.

It was weird being on such a low while Gary was on such a high. It was hard to really congratulate him and at the same time, it was hard for Gary to feel for me. On top of this, my ankle that I had tweeked coming down the Diez Vista trail turned from fine, to sore, to swollen, to extremely painful. I knew that it was getting bad when I started to get the blood pumping feeling in my foot, but when I got out of the car in Port Moody to get some sushi with Gary, I could barely walk. I ended up getting a tensor bandage and my mood turned from being down, to being worried about my ankle and what it might mean for the weeks to come.

I was going to take the bus back to Tsawwassen to the ferry but with my ankle as bad as it was, this was going to be a nightmare as I had too bags full of gear and a heavy resupply of Carbo-Pro product. Luckily, Gary tracked down Carlos for me who was kind enough to not only give me a ride to the ferry terminal, but to drop me off right at home in Victoria! Thank you so much!

Writing this post the day after the race, I can luckily say that my ankle is much better. By doing a lot of elevating and icing, I can now put weight on it and it doesn't hurt at all when I'm just lying down. It seems like it was just one of those weird tweeks you get that hurt like crazy, but go away quickly. On any other day it might have been fine but when you run for another 25km on it after you tweek it, it wasn't very happy.

In hindsight, I learned a lot from this race which was my main goal although I obviously wasn't planning on DNF'ing. My main lesson was this:

I will NEVER EVER run an ultra EVER again that does not provide a course map! Running blind for that kind of distance is completely stupid if you actually want to race. I went in racing a similar race to Chuckanut but since this race is tougher (yes, I think it is quite a big more difficult), it was just too much for my pace, and cost me finishing the race. Lesson learned.

TNO

AWESOME Training Weekend

I had such an awesome training weekend. Here's how it broke down:

Standing: 6 hours
Shopping: 4 hours
Walking: 20 minutes
Running: 0 hours
Biking: 0 hours
Kayaking: 0 hours
Watching the 1999 Eco-challenge Argentina: 4 hours
Dreaming of big expedition races: 3 hours
Meet Director for an orienteering event: 8 hours

Ok, so maybe I did jack all. I was actually planning on getting in a long run on Saturday and Sunday but last Wednesday, after a hilly interval session on Tuesday, my soleus had flared up for some reason. I ran into work on Wednesday, hit up the gym at lunch, and then in the afternoon, my left upper calf (I believe it is the soleus) was pretty swelled and not feeling too great. I have no idea how it became inflamed. It was like a wound that you get after a mountain bike ride and you think, 'now how the hell did I get that?' At the time it's nothing but after, the little tweak that happened starts to hurt. Anyway, it wasn't too bad so I took a nice 20 km run home. The next morning, my calf was even worse. The problem was, I had planned on another running commute that would put another 30km on it. While I should have listened to my calf,

'come on Todd, leave me alone, don't you love me?',

I decided to stick to my original plan. My calf wasn't too happy. The run to work was ok, but coming back was just barable. It was one of those times where you know you just made the wrong decision. I usually really listen to my body well but this time I didn't, and I paid the price by being set back further in the end.

So, other than a commute on my bike on Friday, I took the last two days off to let my calf heel and will start running again tomorrow. I probably could have gone out today but with the orienteering event taking up much of my time, and frankly not being very motivated, I decided to not go out by not making a decision.

My calf feels fine now and it was just one of those times where I did something that my body didn't like, it hurt for a bit, and now it's fine. Funny how these things happen.

TNO

Oh, and a big congrats to Lina Augaitis on taking 3rd place down at the Baja Travesia! Nice work!

Dart/NUUN and Dart/NUUN - NW Kayaks Win Baja Travesia

Congratulations to the two Dart/NUUN teams who just won the 2008 Baja Travesia expedition race that takes racers from San Felipe to Ensenada Mexico.
Check out the race coverage here.

After a lead by Dart/NUUN - NW Kayaks, Dart/NUUN made a strong surge to catch them on the final trekking section. As both teams were sleep deprived and tired, they decided to work together and finish the race united. Due to strong winds and weather, the final paddle once again turned sour with both teams being pummeled in the surf as they were trying to exit for the final stage of the race in their sit-on top kayaks. Turning back, the race directors decided to cut the final paddle out and turn the last stage into a beach run which both Dart teams were more than happy to do rather than face the waves again. A couple of hours on the beach and they could finially relax at the finish line.

Looks like third place is still up for grabs though with Lina Augaitis of Yoga Slackers currently looking at clinching this spot. Good luck Lina and keep pushing!!!

TNO

Good Training Weekend

This past weekend, I hooked up with my racing partner Gary Robbins for some good times on the road bike and on the trails. As Friday was a holiday, I headed up to the ferry on the road bike, took the ferry across, and then headed up to North Van from the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. It's a good thing I checked out my route beforehand as I found out the day before I left that you cannot go through the George-Massey tunnel. There is a free shuttle that does transport cyclists from one side to the other but.... it doesn't operate until April. My other option at this crossing was to pay a two zone fare and take the bus. I just couldn't do it so opted for the longer route over the Alex-Fraser bridge and eventually the Second Narrows bridge into North Van. Everything looked so easy on the map...

Leaving the terminal, I was ahead of all the ferry traffic (cyclists are the first ones off :) ) when not two kilometers from the boat... pppffftttttt. I flatted on one of the many sharp pieces of gravel littering the shoulder. The wind was blowing hard so I layered up, fixed the flat, and was off again in no time. Then came the wind again. It was one of those days where you just can't seem to find the right balance in the layers either. One minute it was cold with a blistering wind, and the next it was calm with a hot sun. After a couple of stops to change up the layers, I eventually settled on a minimal layer and endured the wind when it hit me.

The ride was going well until I got on the Alex Fraser bridge. Because you can't ride on the road, you have to find your way onto the side bike path and then continue on the other side through a convoluted network of turns to navigate your way to the next bridge to get off Annacis Island. Then there were no signs. I even had a map but if your not driving a car and need to find the next bike route, sometimes you were just screwed if you hadn't done it before. It didn't take that long to figure things out but it did get frustating.

I think I started cursing how much I hate Vancouver pretty early in the ride when I was almost run off the road by a big Ford F150. Then came many more incidents where if I wasn't cautious in my riding, I might be typing this from a hospital bed.

In 2 1/2 hours of riding, I had more close calls with cars then I have had living in Victoria for the last 3 1/2 years! Yeah Vancouver!

I did arrive at North Shore Athletics in one piece and then headed up to Squamish with Gary. The next day, after procrastinating leaving on our bikes and where to go, I made the call that I wanted to go up to Whistler. It had been a route that I have wanted to do for a long time and even though the weather was not the greatest, we decided to give it a go and turn back if things turned sour. We had some full on headwind almost the whole way up to Whistler but knew that the way back would be worth it (mostly downhill with the wind at our backs!). It was also much better having someone to ride with as we traded off pulling frequently which made the wind more bareable. The ride up was scenic, not too busy, and quite enjoyable. Lots of climbs but none of them too steep that would make you curse. :)

After a good stop in Whistler for some sushi, we headed back at a much faster pace and pushed each other much harder. It was a sweet return and a great day on the bike!

That night, we went to 'The Best of the Vancouver Mountain Film Festival' which had some good videos but was a little too much climbing focused for my taste. Enjoyable nonetheless.

The next day, we hooked up with some of the Montrail Trail Running Team, did a 2 1/2 run in the Lynn Valley, and then I hopped back on the road bike to return home. Here I learned to not bike on the Trans Canada highway on the North Shore (at least the section I was on anyway). I got on (no warning signs for bikes), had no shoulder to ride on and thus had to impede on the right lane, and shortly therafter I'm screeming down a steep section of road hitting 70km/hour into a strong headwind that starts shaking my bike as traffic speeds by in the fast lane at 120km/hour and I have a bus on my ass that's getting pissed. Not the best way to start out my ride.

Navigating the return trip on the bike was much better as I now knew the route and didn't end up cursing Vancouver as much. Of course, once I got to River Road, now I had a full South wind in my face! Strong too. I was cruising along at 32-35 km/hour and suddenly I'm doing 24 km/hour for the same effort. It was definitely a weekend of wind. Getting off the ferry was the worst of all. It was blowing so hard that I was being moved all around the shoulder of the road while I was being pounded by sleet! Some crazy weather but well worth putting up with it.
Hope you enjoyed the long weekend.

TNO

Chuckanut 50km Race Report

Running downhill is just not my thing. To clarify, I like running downhill on trails; no, I love running downhill on trails. However, when you give me over 5km of old logging road to fly down, after I've already been running for 35km, I know that by the bottom I'm going to be shot. I had studied the race course prior to the event, but was unaware that this long downhill was all going to be on an old road with no built-up, squishy orgainic matter to soften the blows and no twists and turns and variety to make it a little easier on the body. I knew that braking on the downhill was only going to put more strain on the quads so I only had one option... open it up and get down as quickly as possible knowing that the last 10km of the course was going to be painful. It was.

This was the 16th annual Chuckanut 50km ultra trail run held in Bellingham, Washington. It was my first ultra and I had several goals leading into the race:
1. finish
2. finish well
3. race smart (don't blow up)

Now, all of these kind of go together. Of course I wanted to finish but I wanted to put in my best performance for my first race. In order to do this, I needed to race conservatively, listen to my body, and race my own race. This last point 'racing your own race' is probably one of the most important aspects of ultrarunning and I have been told this many times by different people. It sounds so easy but it is also so easy to let others dictate your speed and stray you away from your race strategy; this inevitibly leads to point number three (blow up). I studied the course map previous to the event and planned out my nutrition for the event, along with how hard to go in certain sections of the course. This helped out a lot as I knew where the climbs and decents were located and was prepared for each of them. Below is the official course map (click to make larger).


While the course is a 'trail run', it does contain several sections of fire road and includes approximately 10km of old rail bed which is the out-and-back for the course (10km out, lots of trails, 10km back). I decided that the first 10km was going to be the most conservative part of the course for me so that I could get the legs nice and warm, relax into it, and then start to push as we hit the first climb.
I travelled down to the event with my race partner Gary Robbins who is coming off of a calf injury and wasn't sure on what kind of performance he'd be able to put in as he hadn't been running much. Basically, if anything started to hurt, he was going to drop out. I must say that I was concerned with him racing and re-injuring himself but completely understood why he had to do it (his motivation was waining, not running was killing him, and he needed a boost to mentally give him a lift). So, as the race started, I caught up with him and we held together for the run out to the climb. While he was breathing pretty hard and fell back on me a bit, he seemed to be doing alright and I knew that by the time we hit the climb, he would be all over it.
I can really see how easily it can be to lose your game plan. Here Gary and I were running back around 35th place but just absolutely knew that we were stronger than the people passing us were. We just let them go and stuck to our pace knowing that this would pay off in the long term. It did.
Let me tell you. Picking people off all race long is not only uplifting but extremely satisfying!
We hit the climb and like I knew, Gary was off running and power hiking up the climb with authority. I was doing quite well myself picking off many runners that so easily passed us on the way out. The trails here were amazing! Really sweet single track, lots of squishy ground with mud (but not too much), and lots of roots and rocks. This terrain definitely separates the roadies from the trail runners! The top of the climb ended at a lake. A short perimeter run and we were soon heading down again on a super fast muddy and twisty single track. It was awesome! I ran so fast down this section that I was passing people like they were standing still. Seems like Gary had the same experience as well with one racer whom he passed, caught up to him again and noted that he had never seen anyone run downhill as fast as he did! That's what you get when Squamish is your training ground!

I was feeling pretty good out of the first aid station which led into a long fire road climb up to the peak of Chuckanut mountain. I could see Gary up the road not too far ahead and actually made up a bit of time on him and picked off several runners who couldn't keep up to him. At the peak of the climb was our drop bag and the aid station where I quickly filled up my bottles with some Carbo-Pro 1200 and was then running the Chuckanut ridge. This trail was great. Lots of technical sections and great views; everything you'd want in a good trail. I knew that the long climb up was going to hurt (and it did) so I stuck with my plan and started to approach the uphills on the trail conservatively with lots of power hiking. I also knew that there was still lots of racecourse left and I wanted to finish strong.
Of note on the race course were little signs that told you what was coming up. Some of these were typical (danger, steep) but others were little motivational signs for the runners. My favorites that I can remeber were 'Mud isn't that bad' and 'you are light and swift'. The latter sign was great as I was starting to hurt on the ridge climbs and when I saw this sign, I immediately laughed and I totally perked up. Thanks!
I ran the ridge mostly by myself but once we came down for a long undulating but mostly uphill section, I could see a string of runners that I slowly but surely picked off one-by-one. Many would try to hold-on longer than they should have (racing my race instead of their own) would crack, and suddenly be gone after being right on my heals. I caught up with Devin Crowsby-Helms (the top place female), exchanged a few words, but when she dropped me on Chin Scrapper (a long muddy downhill), I knew I was around where I should be. I hit the last climb to the peak, put on a push, and passed Devon and a couple other runners who seemed to have significantly slowed. I knew that this was the last climb of the race and didn't want to leave much left as I knew it was all downhill from the top.
This brings me to the downhill. I don't think I've ever ran a road downhill section that was that long before. About halfway down, I heard someone coming behind me. I think this sped me up even more and was able to hold on to my spot to the bottom and last aid station. I didn't actually see who was behind me until the bottom. It was Devon. We both left the aid station at the same time and agreed to run in the last 10km together. We were both hurting but I was definitely in worse shape.
For the next 5km, all I could think about was how much my legs hurt.
The downhill did a number on me and while my plan was to run the last section hard, there was just no way I could push it. I made it clear that I was hurting and that I would try to run with her but to take off if I couldn't keep up. I usually have very good mind control but after 40km, my body so wanted to stop that it wouldn't leave me alone. If I was by myself, I may have stopped running and put in some walking. I was so glad to have someone to keep me going and I know Devon did as well. She did a great job at trying to keep my mind off the pain.
During the run in, we managed to keep a good pace but caught no other racers and had no racers following. You could see far in the distance at times but even after shoulder checking, we both kept thinking that we would hear footsteps behind us. Devon in particular, was sure that the 2nd place female was right behind her and there was no way that she was going to lose this race.
As we approached the finish area I made it clear that I wasn't going to out sprint her to the line as I definitely needed the help more than she did. "No" she said, "we'll finish together". I thought it was pretty classy coming from the US 100km team member so we pushed together and crossed the line together.
I had no idea what my place was and was pretty shattered. After a post race flushing by a free massage service, I met up with Gary who had a strong race and finished 10th overall after a last battle in the last 500m of the race. Congrats! And me? I had pulled 16th place overall with a time of 4:40:28.5. Because of chip timing, I ended up ranking ahead of Devon since I crossed the start line after her (sorry!).
Chuckanut was a perfect event for my first ultra. I had a solid race, finished, finished well, and raced smart by sticking with my game plan. The event was put on without a hitch, had awesome volunteers, and was just a great race overall. Definitely signing up for this one next year.

Nutrition:
I raced Chuckanut foodless with no breakfast. I would have liked to have something like a bowl of cereral in the morning but we woke up on the later side of things and I didn't want any solid food that close to race time. I had 1 gel and two thermolytes just before the race, used ~700 calories of Carbo-Pro powder and ~800 calories of Carbo-Pro 1200. I think I used 10 thermolytes on course for my electrolyte input and grabbed a few onces of Coke in the aid stations for a caffeine and sugar boost. This combo worked great as I had no cramping issues and had plenty of energy throughout the course with no bonking and no stomach issues. Carbo-Pro rocks!
What's next?
Diez Vista 50km Ultra Trail Run in three weeks! Now that I have one ultra under my belt, I'm sure the experience will be invaluable in allowing me to know my limits better and run an even stronger race. Wish me luck!
TNO

Countdown to Chuckanut

One week to Chuckanut, and fully recovered from my last weekend run, I had a great weekend lined up of some good training and some full on relaxation. I had a good solid run on Saturday morning with the Prairie Inn Harriers and then found myself doing odds and ends the rest of the day. You know, all those things that you continually put off until you just have a good full day to take care of it. So, I finally put up what I've been wanting to put up for a long time... my sweat ass, family size (ok, Mexican family size), tight weaved monster of a hammock! Yes Gary, it even fits me! :)

Ok, so I wasn't going to spend all weekend with my old friend. I woke up on Sunday prepared for a good road ride and headed out the door nice and early to hook up with the group. This was only my second real group ride ever but I think I'm already getting addicted. Ten minutes out my door and I knew that I was dressed way too warm. I dressed exactly as I did the week previous (yes, I did 75km on the bike the next day after my long run to work out the legs), but the weather had definitely changed for the better. Man, spring has sprung in Victoria. I turned around, headed back home and took off some layers before I headed out again. I ended up getting my time mixed up a bit (as we justed changed the clocks forward) but still managed to hook up with the group. During the last ride, I bailed out (as most people do) once I got close to my home (we ride right by it). But this time, I wanted to put in a longer ride which meant continuing with the nice seaside route, finishing in downtown Victoria, and taking a nice and easy 15km spin home. Well, I've always considered myself a decent biker but for the first time, it really hit home today that I still have a ways to go. The ride picked up near the end - especially when we hit the hills - and right at the 100 km mark of my ride, I just started to die, couldn't hang on, and was dropped! What hurts even more is that we were within 5km of finishing in downtown! Man, it's a pretty bad feeling when that group pulls away and there is just nothing you can do to hang on. Definitely good motivation to improve. Mind you, this was only my second group road ride ever, I haven't been training on the bike much (nothing over 40 kms at a time), and was riding in the end with some very good riders including a two time olympian and mtn bike world champion. Ok, I'll stop looking for excuses... :)

In the end, it was a 125 km ride with the last ride home being torturous. I didn't bonk as I was good and fuelled; my legs just decided that they were done and that was that.

Then came Mr. Hammock.


Then came, "I can't lie around here all day, I've got to get out of here". Soon, I was geared up again - this time with my runners - for an easy 16km run around Elk/Beaver Lake to work the legs out. It's amazing how you can feel beat but really the best thing you can do is get out for awhile (easy of course) and when you get back, you feel so much better. It was a great finish to an already sweet day.

Hope your enjoying this weather as well or if you're back East and experiencing the record snowfalls, I hope the X-country skiing is still bringing a smile to your face!

TNO

SHWEEB - Monorail Velodrome

Check this link out!

A monorail velodrome bike race track!

On the Trail to Chuckanut - 60km Day

Today, my goal was to put in a long and hilly day of running; one last long run before heading to the Chuckanut 50km ultra trail run in two weeks. I've been putting in some good k's lately with several 120+ km weeks to build up to my first real ultra. I have been on my feet for long periods of time in adventure races but these almost always involve bushwacking which is a completely different animal. While I had put in some good k's, I still felt that I needed to put in one long run with hills that would simulate race conditions and let me know if I'll actually be able to race for this distance. There's no question in my mind that I will be able to complete the event, it is rather a quesiton of how hard I'll be able to push.

I've had a long route in my head for a long time that I have yet to do; until today that is.

I started the route in Cordova Bay and headed down the Lochside trail until I hit Emily Carr Park. From here, there is a really sweet route that connects various parks taking you around bogs and following the Colquits River which eventually leads all the way down to the Galloping Goose trail. From here, I took the Goose to Thetis Lake park where I met some the Saturday morning Prairie Inn Harriers trail runners and got a lift to the regular breakfast place that everyone goes to after the workout.

After a good filling breakfast, I got a short ride to the entrance of Goldstream Provincial Park for the second phase of my run.

Trailhead - Goldstream Provincial Park

Group Camping Area

So, my route for the second phase was to connect three parks that I've always wanted to combine - Goldstream, Gowland Tod, and Mt. Work. These all consist of some serious climb (especially Mt. Finlayson) and my goal was to keep in on the easier side and power hike the hills that were either too long, or too steep. Basically, if I started to huff, I took it down a notch.

Mt. Finlayson Summit looking down at the worst disaster in the history of Victoria;

Bear Mountain - aka Bare Mountain

While it was nice to make it to the top of Finlayson, it was nice to move on and get out of the view of the worst development project in the history of Victoria. Built over some beautiful areas home to sensitive ecosystems (and some of the best mountain biking in the area) the area is now desolate with not one but two golf courses. Just another very unsustainable project brought to you by the City of Langford - the best creators of urban sprawl in the area.

Keeping up the kick on the Gowland Tod Trail

The run down the backside of Finlayson was great and by the time I hit up the Gowland Tod trail, the sun was fully out and the clouds were clearing out even more. While the day started with some rain, it was sure turning out to be a very nice day.

Going up Mt. Work - Look at that gorgeous day!

By the time I got to Mount Work, I was starting to feel the burn but I think it had more to do with running out of fluids. Luckily, many other people were out to take in the nice weather and some people were nice enough to top up my fluids in Mt. Work parking lot. The first steep sections of the climb seemed difficult but once I hit the upper sections I was eating it up.

Mt. Work Summit

View from Mt. Work out to the start of Phase II of my run

Mt. Finlayson is the round hump

Unbeknownst to most people, there is a trail that connects the Mt. Work summit trail over into the mountain biking area. You need to do a bit of route finding but it's pretty straight forward especially on a nice day. From there, I ran some of the biking trails, headed out of the park to transition onto some roads, connected in to Elk/Beaver Lake for a 3/4 lap, and then home at last!

Almost home - Yes, I felt like I look

After a 60km day, I was ready for some good recovery. It was so good to finally do a route that I had planned on doing a long time ago and I was greatful to have such a nice day to enjoy it. Now, if I can just work up to the other routes that I planned!

NUTRITION:

Carbo Pro Powder

NUUN - electrolyte input

EAS Energy Gel

PRODUCTS OF NOTE:

Helly Hansen Lifa - awesome next to skin layer

MEC Dervish Vest - a great MEC product

Montrail Continental Divide Shoes

MEC Kinetic Tempo Waistpack - a great waist pack for those who don't want anything on their back

TNO