Pool Swimming

There was a dry 400 TT here that I missed. Useful for triathlon dry starts.

100m easy
200m zipper / catch-up
100m kick - I thought that I was just fast with the fins, but I was also fastest with just regular kicking. Obviously my kick has a negligible effect on my overall speed though!
100m pull
100m easy

400m TT - 7:30
1sec off my best, so awright.

50m easy

750m TT - 14:14 !!! That's a PB by 31secs!
Granted, I drafted behid J and C most of the way, but they usually lap me, so just sticking with them was awesome! I felt great, and I think I was finally doing front-quadrant.

2x
100m on 1:55
50m easy
1:55 / 1:55 although had to slow down after each 50

--Distance: 2,100m
--Duration: 60mins

Pool Swimming

100m easy
3x 100m breathing drill (fins, left paddle, right paddle, left/right paddle)
100m bilateral breathing (aka this is not a drill)

3x 100m kick w/ fins
1:30 / 1:35 / 1:37

3x 100m pull w/ paddles
~1:50 avg

10x 50m on 1:20
0:48 / 0:50 / 0:51 / 0:50 / 0:50 / 0:50 / 0:49 / 0:50 / 0:50 / 0:49

4x Killer 50s

100m easy (breaststroke/back)

--Distance: 1,900m
--Duration: 65mins

Pool Swimming

100m easy

2x 100m full equipment
1:35 / 1:40

2x 100m swim
1:50-ish

3x
100m on 2:20
100m on 2:10
100m on 2:00 (started the third one on 2:05)
200m on 4:10
1:47 / 1:52 / 1:50 / 4:02
1:55 / 1:55 / 1:55 / 4:10
2:00 / 2:00 / 2:00 / 4:08 
Ended up leading the wall lane.

4x killer 50s
0:51 each

50m easy (backstroke)

--Distance: 2,250m
--Duration: 65mins

Pool Swimming

100m easy

4x 25m underwater w/ fins
The first one needed a mulligan - much harder than regular hypoxic
The second and third ones, I made it to the end but was dead
The fourth one, I stayed deep under water for extra speed and felt great

100m flip turns

4x 100m kick w/ fins descend, R 0:30
1:35 / 1:45 / 1:40 / 1:33
I clearly did not realize these were descends until after the first one
Led my lane, and how! My only talent.

4x 100m pull w/ paddles descend, R 0:30
1:55 all around, dying, and didn't do the last 50 or else everyone would be waiting for me forever

3x 200m on 4:10
3:52 / 3:50 / 3:49 I drafted off JG for 100m on the last one, can't believe I stuck with her

2x 200m on 4:00
The first one was 150, as we were started late by Coach
2:55 / 3:55

1x 200m on 3:50
3:50 booya! No drafting either

50m easy (backstroke, how relaxing)

--Distance: 2,300m
--Duration: 60mins

O-Cup Finale

Terrain: flat, trail, forest, crusty snow

Weather: plus a few, sunny

Format: Thomass Box with dog-bone controls

Zoom in for my tracks. Or don't.

It was Spring Forward weekend, and despite the fact that I had on the Saturday 1) warned a newcomer co-worker of the time change, and 2) sent out a reminder on my club's FB page for everyone to get up for the race on time, I still totally forgot, stayed up late and very nearly fell fast asleep without changing my alarm clock. Crisis averted, but I was a wreck the next morning and rolled in to the race totally last-minute. What else is new?? So not much time, or wherewithal, to look at the map and plan out which of the criss-crossing dog-bones to attack.

Once in the Thomass box, you had to take each lettered bone in pairs before continuing onto the next one. I know I made a rudimentary plan at the start line, but what followed was a long traverse in crusty deep snow that made us all post-hole our way across a field and shake all the bright ideas we'd had out of our heads.

My route: hH-Ee-cC-fF-Bb-Aa. I think I was trying to avoid the longest bones without really taking into account how much extra distance I'd have to cover in between them to do that. I got hit by my usual running/period cramps ahead of the box, so I huffed and puffed my way through that, thinking - Hey! With all this walking, I'll have extra time to think! Didn't help.

After H, I travelled a bit with what looked like a Giant's Rib Raid team practising together (several guys, with packs, and too much chattering). They took me through a lot of green. Why didn't I notice that on the map? The E's were fast and easy after that, but I under-shot little-c. Also lost a shoe in the crust - why can't Oroc make a decent shoelace to go with its super-tacular shoes? I was feeling my broken ass at this point, so I slowed right down.

After I picked up C, I actually stopped because I had no memory of what the crap I was supposed to do next. To minimize damage, I went out to get little-f, then back on the big trail for F and B. Kept bumping into those raid guys over and over, kind of funny. Little-b was a very special control, as it was a derelict sofa in the middle of the woods. I was happy that the Aa leg would finally take me home, but I got really turned around coming out from A, and hit a north-south trail instead of the big east-west. Luckily, this is my favourite mistake, so I always check the trail direction.

Closer to little-a I had the raiders hot on my heels again, and I decided to shortcut across an open field. I had evidently not yet learned that while yellow is an awesome colour to run through under normal conditions, that crusty snow is a horrible alternative to the long way around on a beaten trail. Stump stump stump stump. I didn't learn that for a second time coming out of #5 - "I'll just take this 0.59-second shortcut down this little hill instead of through everyone else's tracks like a chump." Splat! My foot got stuck in the crust, and down I went. With Pat-hectic and MJ laughing right behind me.

There was a nice long trail run past 6 and on to 7, but I took the wrong trail through the woods and emerged on that gosh-darned start field way too far north. Stomp stomp stomp... stomp.. gasp... stomp, argh!!! Leaving 9, one of the juniors asked me if he could glance at my map because of mumble mumble. So I stopped for a second, at which point the kid took off for the finish, and there went another point for me.

For all the grumbling and complaining, this was really an awesome course, one to remember. And the whole time I thought it was the man they call Tiny who was to blame, whereas it was actually DS who had devised this evil plan. He showed me his Cheat Sheet of the allegedly best routes for each handicap. I cried a little. I don't remember the whole thing, but it started with little-a and came back out at little-c. Not in a million years would I have come up with that.

--Distance: 9.5km
--Duration: 1:29:03
--Place: 19th

Fun fun fun, winter fun. Can't believe the Thomass / O-Cup season is already over. With my org points from our club race, I did pretty well!
--Place Overall: 13th
--Place Female: 5th
--Place Age Group: 1st - yay!

Kyoshin Ryu Jiu-Jitsu

Mae geri: gedan barai
Yoko geri: parry with back of lead arm (awkward!)

Stepping out and catching the wrist from oi zuki: trying to wait as long as possible before moving
Shadow moves: either heisuku or shuffle, shadowing attacker

Tekube o-sae, 3 variations
Sankyo:
- Grip the wrist over top like a sword for maximum torque (I'm too flexible)
- Step shallow to align lead foot

1x Randori

-- Duration: 30mins

Pool Swimming

100m easy

2x 100m build R:20
2:05 / 1:55

2x 100m kick w/ fins
2x 100m pull w/ paddles

400m TT
7:49

100m easy

400m TT reboot
7:45

2x 200m faster
3:55 / 4:00 ouch

4x 100m fastest
1:50-2:00 really got slower as the night progressed!

I knew these times would be slower, as I was swimming in the wall lane. I discovered the source of the slow-down: all the jets on that wall are permanently angled towards the deep end. Gah!

--Distance: 2,300m
--Duration: 70mins

Pool Swimming

Late from work, but this was a fantastic active recovery from the Snowgaine. I did pretty well, probably because I was more precise due to my tired arms.

100m easy
100m easy

2x 100m fast on 2:20
1:50 / 1:52
100m easy

2x 100m fast on 2:20
1:56 / 1:52
100m easy

200m fast, 0:30 R
3:52
200m easy

2x 200m fast, 0:30 R
3:55 / 4:00

2x 50m fast on 1:30
0:45 / 0:47
Check it out - I met my PB!

--Distance: 1,700m
--Duration: 50mins

Snowgaine Day Two

When I finally highlighted all the controls we'd picked up on day one, I ended up with a really sad-looking little circle in the middle of the map. No wonder we didn't see anyone else for the first few hours. On day two, we were determined to make a comeback, cover more ground, pick up bigger points, and most of all just ski more instead of stamping around on our "overly-long snowshoes."

At the start, we realized we had forgotten a bunch of gear prep, and we ended up starting late. One guy who was on a time penalty asked us if we were also on an official delay. Nope! Self-imposed penalty over here! Finally started down and along the lake towards #22, which we had skipped the day before. The lake/marsh skiing was beautiful. A layer of snow had fallen over night, and conditions were perfect. We did have to struggle a bit towards the control because all the snowshoe tracks had frozen over in the woods. We saw the soon-to-be winning team wildernesstraverse.com (who would be done for the weekend in another 3hrs), and I was kind of embarrassed at sliding around trying to climb up to the control. The woods would usually prove more icy than the open lands and marshes.

We also saw CM's team Untamed Torpedo, and eventually caught on that he might have decided to do the same loop we had, as we were all discussing things together at our motel. Sneaky! The race was on. Skis vs. Snowshoes - it would be epic. Well, for one of the teams anyway.

We cut a straight line for #51 across another marsh, but then veered too much north-west, so it took us a long time of looking around and second-guessing to get back out to the snowmobiles. But then we swish-swished down to one of the big 81-point controls, and even the long dog-leg through the forest to #83 was a sweet ski. UT were just leaving when we got there though. I realized then that my water hose had totally frozen, despite my having diligently blown the water back each time. I just wanted to ski, so I let it go for the time being. The foam tubing I'd bought to fashion an insulator out of was still sitting in CM's car untouched.

We took another nice long ski over and around to get to the 60s in the southeast corner of the map. The snow was so perfect and easy. My skis wanted to skate, so I let them. Cool! Never skated before, that's for sure. We cut a perfect line for #62 and noticed that UT had not been there yet - yes! But they came up behind us just as we were leaving - geez, that was fast! I later found out that while we took the long way around on our skis, they had even gotten out to #50 in the meantime!

We got kinda used to thrashing through this stuff. I mean skiing.

The forest here was really beautiful, and halfway skiable. We caught the boys again just ahead of #67, but I stupidly had us climb an unnecessary hill, and we lost them for good. We weren't the only ones up there though, judging by the tracks, and the ski into the control was heavenly.

We had been worried about the state of the big marsh ahead, but it turned out to be as frozen over as all the others. Only the first bit was rough, but we bumped into Attack from Above again, who were travelling with a surprise friend - a runaway black lab that would go on to switch teams later on and end a long day of rogaining with a burger in front of the HQ fire. Latest reports had him safely back with his totally unconcerned owners!

We also found out that PH on the team had fallen through some ice and been rescued out by his snowshoes by CL. Knowing he was soaked right through, I really reconsidered packing extra clothes for next year. I thought I was saving weight by dumping stuff, but it turns out that all the experienced teams had spare gear just in case. No messing around.

Skating!

CB finally decided to shove my water hose down my back to warm it up - it would work like a charm, phew!! We had another wonderful skate ski across the last part of the marsh, where we were caught up by the Tree Huggers and exchanged some smiles and photos. It was BC on the team who totally sold me on this crazy race a few weeks before at another ski-O. The way she described it made it irresistible, and here we were!

From #66, it felt like we were meandering along a river valley to get back out to the road, but we were actually on our plan the whole time. The map was very accurate, so reading the contour features was a breeze. We did a very short road run once we ran out of snow, but my ass got angry with me. Nooooo running.

Tree Huggers

Although I thought we'd go around the west side of the hill to #50, CB pointed out that the 2.5m contours are really slight, and that the forest would probably be much more skiable than the marsh. She was so right. Many tracks across this "hill". Our only hiccup was when I decided to check out a little side stream to make sure we didn't overshoot. We also took a shortcut across a tiny part of a lake to get out onto the snowmobiles, but we had to avoid the, um, actual open water near a culvert. We stayed where we saw ski, snowshoe and bike tracks. Yes, there was a team on big fat-tire bikes, and they did really well too!

After #38, we decided to skip #49 for a second day in a row, as it would be a time-wasting dog-leg. Because of our complete lack of overall strategy, we had ended up in an area where we had picked up most of the controls already. We wanted to shoot up along the big trails to the north part of the map to get the bigger points. At this point, CB had come down with a terrible headache. I started kicking myself for forgetting painkillers in my kit. We had a long ski ahead of us, and she was going to be a trooper.

I found myself in the lead for the first time in the race. I'd look back and see her skiing with her head immobilized and almost with her eyes closed. She said, "I'm okay, it just hurts to think and talk." Yikes! She had to recover quickly though, because my line in towards #47 was less than perfect.

Our final push was to cross the big road and swish up to pick up some bigger points. We were both getting a bit antsy about the time, but I gave us an hour to take care of business up there and have 30mins to fly down the main road to the finish. I decided on 56-64-41 to make best use of available trails. With the existing tracks, this last foray was a no-brainer. And I think I finally got the hang of this skiing thing! We passed PK in there, who was courageously doing the whole course on skate skis. The RD had had a good laugh at his expense at the start, telling tales of those skating snowgainers whose bodies had never been recovered in years past, but here PK went on to be one of those to clear the whole course. So there!

We were right on time with these last three controls. The snowbanks on the side of the main road were quite squishy, so we ended up getting out-walked by some snowshoers as we sunk into the snow with each "glide." But we made it back with 10mins to spare and big huge smiles.

And we weren't last! 20th out of 23rd, baby! And... 2nd Female Team. Here's to all those other female teams who didn't show up.

--Distance: 30km
--Duration: 7:50:00

I am so glad this was a two-day event. A lot of things finally clicked the second day, and we were much happier campers. We retired in front of the fire to hot dogs, burgers, chili, and the sweetest dog ever to race all day in a winter rogaine. (There's probably been more than one.)

CM had had the bright idea of taking a sweet three-day motel deal so that we could still take showers afterwards. Amazing. Then we drove down to Syracuse to meet up with my race buddy MK for sushi dinner. And to trade war stories of course. Wicked! What an amazing weekend. The race was amazing, and so many friends to spend it with. I'm really grateful for CB being my teammate too. No one could have been more patient.

Gear Worn:
Same, except packed my little gloves, good move. That Salomon front add-on is really dorky but awesome.

Gear Packed:
2x Socks, Turtle mitts, Toque (ditched the jacket, probably shouldn't have)
8x Roctane, Cheese sandwich, salt pills, 1.5L water (ditched the big 2L tank)
Headlamp, First aid, Emergency blanket (lightened the load a bit)

Snafus:
Being cocky about having stuff prepared from the first day and then realizing I still had to make food and get my gear in order. Result in a lot of time wasting at the start.
Not adding pain killers to the first aid kit, duh!
Not taking the time to rig the water hose insulation.
CB forgot her watch, while I forgot to charge mine. Thankfully, unlike its owner, my watch is Ironman-ready with minimum 17hrs of GPS on the battery. But this could have turned out badly.

Next year:
- Use insulated water, and much less of it.
- Do a team gear review to make sure all essentials are there and easy to reach
- Pack all essentials in the front for both teammembers
- Do keep the warm stuff in the back just in case
- If skiing, use trails as much as possible
- Re-read the rules to take advantage of them when necessary
- Might use the string-on-board concept now that I know how fast we can travel (in these conditions at least)
- Make only planned stops and do as much as possible on the move. Boy, did we waste time on stoppage. 5mins here, 8mins there... yikes.
- Be very disciplined with eating at intervals (which I finally did on day two)
- Strategy: don't get stuck in an area with no controls on day two. Plan better!
- Might add more stuff as I remember it...

Snowgaine Day One

Location: upstate NY, north-east of Syracuse
Terrain: flat-ish, snowy forest, frozen marshes, snowmobile trails
Weather: minus a few, crisp and perfect for racing
Format: 2x 8hr rogaine, 37 controls, any non-motorized travel permissible (we skied both days), manual punch with a time sign-in sheet to see who is where
Team: Swish Swish Thump with CB (the swish swish is for the skiing, the thump is for when we fall on our asses)

If you click on this and squint real hard, you can see the tracks from both days overlaid.

I had done only one 10hr urban rogaine before, while CB had done some real ones in the woods. The only advice I could contribute from my meagre experience was that once you take time to travel into an area, you should grab all the controls there no matter what. I had skied a total of 11 times in my life, and never off-trail, other than in tracks that had already been cleared for me by others in a ski-O. CB was going to be the leader on this team through and through.

Started off with a short road run along with everyone else (who were mostly on snowshoes, the cowards! LOL), but we ducked into the first snowmobile trail, while the others continued on. The trail was soft and easy to ski on. Our first bushwhack to #43 was really tough, with lots of icy moguls in the forest, which I could not figure out how to move on. CB seemed to slide and hop from one bump to the next, but I was very frustrated and delayed us quite a bit. We then had to climb an icy, crusty hill up to #42. Again, CB got up there pretty quick with an aggressive herring bone, while I slid all over the place. Finally side-stepped to the top. Coming back down was a little blood-curdling! Had to slide sideways as well while CB mostly skied. And waited. A lot! I didn't realize until after the race that there was no rule about each team member having to touch the control... oops!

We quickly hit #51 , and our next objective was #49, but even though the marsh we crossed to get close to it was thickly frozen over and snowed in, there was a sizable river in our way that didn't have any lucky natural bridges. We pressed on to #55 instead.

The scenery became more and more beautiful. 55 was in another frozen marsh. Unfortunately, crossing this marsh to #48 was probably the most tiring part of the day. Nothing but little moguls with water holes in between. Apparently this is where CB took a nose dive into one of these! I myself had already fallen over a hundred times thus far, and gotten my skis stuck in bushes a hundred more. It took us a whole hour to cross that marsh. I had just started getting a bit more comfortable with what my skis could take on the uneven terrain, thinking that if CB's skis could take this punishment, so could mine, right? Then I noticed: she has touring skis, about twice as thick as mine!

At this point, we realized that we hadn't seen anyone else so far. We had hit 5 virgin controls, with no other sign-ins. Wish there were bonus points for that! Although it was tough going, it was very satisfying to keep hitting the controls dead-on after kilometres of lonely marsh-whacking.

After CB got a little wet, I vowed I wouldn't go in the drink myself. There was this one little stream (which she just flew over) that my little legs couldn't span properly as I tried to step to the other side. I got all unbalanced, but determined not to touch water in any way, I threw my arms out and landed in a sweet plank across the stream. My skis and poles were stuck in every direction possible. I yelped and heard "can I help?" from up ahead. "Yes, please!" When CB rounded the corner, all she could do was burst out laughing... and start taking out her camera! With this great help, I had to extricate one of my poles with my teeth, haha.

PHOTO TO FOLLOW! Maybe even the video. Yes, she took video.

We were disappointed trying to find the trail to #53 as there were lots of private property signs along the snowmobile trails. We just couldn't find a way in. So had to give it up and finally do a satisfying fast ski up to #65 and then on to #46. By this time, there were definitely elephant tracks to the controls, so at least that was easier, although kind of disappointing too, as we got so used to finding our own way.

Instead of going back out to keep dodging the snowmobiles, we decided on a direct route to #21 - murder! Maybe the second most frustrating leg through a very tough forest, and now we had crusty snowshoe tracks to contend with. CB also lost her compass there at some point, and she went back out to find it - and she did! Crazy and awesome! It was busted in two though, so I had to take over despite the fact that I was exhausted and disoriented. I got us a bit off-track at #45, so we wandered a bit to re-orient. #37 was easy, and now we were doing everything to stay on skiable trails or open tracts of the forest.

We finally saw some familiar faces (Attack from Above, first male team, what what!) at #44, and although at this point the two snowshoers were quite jealous of our "fast" skis, I made sure to give them a front-row seat to wipe-out #367 of the day. While I baby-giraffed myself back to my feet, they gingerly pranced right past me.

The last trail ski was a bit of a blur. I was exhausted beyond belief. We got to ski more easily here, but I had very little left in me and felt so bad for CB who constantly patiently waited for me to catch up, and who at every control we hit would yell out, "We're AWESOME!"

We got #33 and #35 and had a little time left, so we debated catching #22 as our last control. CB made an executive decision to go straight home, and as someone who is perpetually late for things, I agreed with her sense of timing. We took off across the frozen Lake Loraine, 300m+ of very nervous skiing, at some of the fastest pace we had put on the whole day - and that's not just because of the smooth flat surface!

We ended up having about 20mins to spare, and it turned out that we wouldn't have lost points for lateness on day one, but would have been delayed by 3x each minute at the start the next day. If we had known that, we probably would have gone for #22. But we were exhausted and happy and very proud of ourselves on this first outing.

Great post-race food, and then later dinner with the 16-strong Team Canada, and of course planning for Day Two. Took the Tree Huggers' advice on utilizing our, ahem, speed on the trails and minimizing the ski-whacking. I don't think I could take another whole day of that!

--Distance: 22.5km
--Duration: 7:40:00

Gear Worn:
LG Ski pants, ski socks, HH shirt, arm warmers, ultrathin windbreaker, ear band, ski gloves, 20L pack + 5L front add-on - Other than gloves, I nailed my clothing for the day, perfectly warm and dry

Gear Packed:
Ski jacket, 2x Socks, Turtle mitts, Toque
8x Roctane, Cheese sandwich, salt pills, 2L water + 1.5L water
Headlamp, Towline (which I lost - sorry, CK!), First aid, Knife, Emergency blanket

Gear Snafus:
Didn't pin my map, so kept taking it out of the front pack. Good thing CB was the navigator.
Didn't drink most of the water, so really just dragged a lot of extra weight.
Forgot my tiny liner gloves, so when my hands got cold had to squeeze my regular gloves into my mitts. The mitts were also too big for my pole loops, gah.