Coach Troy Wants to Know: You Got Gym?
Is strength training important for multi-sport athletes? If so, what kinds of exercises should we do? What kind of time do we need to invest?
On Endurance Planet Coach Troy--the smartest man on Earth--answers all those questions.
JG
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
"Don't sell yourself short judge, you're a tremendous slouch..."
It's inevitable really. At some point, something has to give. And in the last 5 weeks the thing that gave the most was my motivation to train.
There's a long laundry list of excuses:
It's inevitable really. At some point, something has to give. And in the last 5 weeks the thing that gave the most was my motivation to train.
There's a long laundry list of excuses:
- Baby
- Work
- Weather
Just to name a few...
But the two biggest consumers of my motivation--and my money--have been bachelor parties and weddings. Holy cow! It's been crazy. Three of my closest friends have, or are, getting married within a month of each other. Two on the same day!
And if you've learned anything about us from this blog it's that we don't do anything even approaching normal porportions--everything is big. Very big. Too big? Nah
Take the first of these three bachelor parties, for example. Our buddy said he wanted to camp and fish, maybe do a little canoeing. So what do we do? We reserve a site at Green River Reservoir for not one or two nights, but three nights. A three night bachelor party. Now, that's just ridiculous. Just picture how much gear, food and beverages we had. (We had to tow a seperate canoe full of food and beer. No joke.) By the end of the third day, everyone was totally spent and we bailed on the last night. But we had a blast paddling, swimming, fishing, eating and drinking. We also enjoyed the loons and one badass bald eagle that was tormenting them. Great place.
Then we went to his wedding. It was epic. I paid the DJ to stay longer because the party was still rockin'.
The next week, we had another party for Chris who thought a trip to the casinos in CT was in order. We partied in Stowe Friday night and then left for CT early Saturday morning. It was fun, expensive and epic. That's all I have to say about that.
Then there was a one week reprieve and enjoyed the opportunity to have our family and friends in Waterbury for AMG's baptism. That was nice.
Today, however, it's back in the saddle for Sonnick's bachealor party. This too will be one for the record books, I'm sure.
Here's the plan:
- 0900 -- Meet at John's for Breakfast
- 1100--Depart for Paintball
- 1130--Start Paintball
- 1500--End Paintball/Start Drinking
- 1630--Barbeque Start's at Casa de Cogley
- 0600 (Tomorrow)--Try to Help Turtle Find His Pants in the Neighbor's Lawn...(We Will Not Succeed. They will turn up days later in someones pool filter.)
Sonnick's wedding is a week from today.
My liver left me weeks ago!
As for training, I've managed to squeeze in 3 or 4 maintenance days each of the last 4 weeks and this week stepped it up a little more with some good trail runs. But, it's time to kick things back into gear and look ahead to our October race.
But right now, I've got to get ready for today. Has anyone seen my flask? Or my liver?
JG
Friday, August 24, 2007
Turtle down, Turtle down!!
So earlier this week, Justin (who is occasionally refered to by the nickname "Turtle"), Biz, and I headed out to Bolton to retreive CP2 from the Bitter Pill race course. This was a trekking CP, located on a knoll a little over a mile east of Ricker Mtn. Justin and I had been there before the race during our pre-run, so we decided to make this hike a bit more of an adventure by not departing until after 5pm, which guarunteed that part of the hike would be in the dark.
So, we met up in the parking lot up at Bolton Valley around 5pm. Justin showed up with a sandwich, some beer, and NO HEADLAMP. Keep in mind, it was his idea to do this thing in the dark. I had brought along a small backup headlamp, so I loaned it to him and off we went. We zipped up to the top of the quad, and then set off, first through Vista Glades, and then further towards Ricker on a double wide road/trail. Once the trail started to bend back north and west, we cut off and headed due east. We got into some thick stuff, but eventually made it to the blue and white flagged trail that we had followed on our previous jaunt out here. We followed this more or less to the saddle between Ricker and the knoll, making good time and maintaining an elevation of around 3100 feet until reaching the saddle, which dropped us down to 2700 before we climbed the knoll. We also found 1 old moose shed along the way, and another at the CP. If anyone wants them, they are still there, as we didn't feel like carrying them.
So at this point it was past 7, and light was fading. We debated trying to work north of Ricker to the Wilderness lift, but in the end opted to try to retrace our steps back to the quad. Around 7:30/7:45 we decided to fire up the headlamps. Now I had my primary, as did Biz, but Justin was equipped with my backup, the Black Diamond Ion, a very lightweight and awesome backup light, but also not very bright, especially when hiking/navigating off trail in mountainous terrain. But, no worries, as we followed our blazed trail back to civilization. But, we got to a point where it was very dark, and we weren't sure which way the trail went. And for some reason, when Justin said "It's up here", we believed him, even though he could barely see the trees in front of him.
So, we climbed up a bit, and that put us smack into the very, very thick evergreens. I'm talking loads of small trees, less than 1 foot apart, with lots of low branches which keep you from seeing the ground. We pushed and struggled our way along, and tried to work back left (south) to where the trail was. Justin had the worst time, I think, as he could see very little, and at 1 point he stepped over a log and disappeared. Thankfully, the cliff he slid/fell down was only about 6 feet high, not 20 or 30 feet, as some of the ones out there are. This gave him pause, to say the least, and he let us take the lead after that. Finally, we got back to our blazed trail, and to the quad.
As we made our way down the mountain on the access road, we were treated to a far off fireworks display, and then something even better...we got to the base lodge, and the bar was open!! A round of beers all around quenched our thirst, and we vowed to return to Bolton weekly for more training. This coming Tuesday, the 28th, we are planning on some mountain biking up there. All are welcome, meet in the lot around 5pm, and look for a bunch of scruffy looking fellas heading up the mountain...
Grambo
So earlier this week, Justin (who is occasionally refered to by the nickname "Turtle"), Biz, and I headed out to Bolton to retreive CP2 from the Bitter Pill race course. This was a trekking CP, located on a knoll a little over a mile east of Ricker Mtn. Justin and I had been there before the race during our pre-run, so we decided to make this hike a bit more of an adventure by not departing until after 5pm, which guarunteed that part of the hike would be in the dark.
So, we met up in the parking lot up at Bolton Valley around 5pm. Justin showed up with a sandwich, some beer, and NO HEADLAMP. Keep in mind, it was his idea to do this thing in the dark. I had brought along a small backup headlamp, so I loaned it to him and off we went. We zipped up to the top of the quad, and then set off, first through Vista Glades, and then further towards Ricker on a double wide road/trail. Once the trail started to bend back north and west, we cut off and headed due east. We got into some thick stuff, but eventually made it to the blue and white flagged trail that we had followed on our previous jaunt out here. We followed this more or less to the saddle between Ricker and the knoll, making good time and maintaining an elevation of around 3100 feet until reaching the saddle, which dropped us down to 2700 before we climbed the knoll. We also found 1 old moose shed along the way, and another at the CP. If anyone wants them, they are still there, as we didn't feel like carrying them.
So at this point it was past 7, and light was fading. We debated trying to work north of Ricker to the Wilderness lift, but in the end opted to try to retrace our steps back to the quad. Around 7:30/7:45 we decided to fire up the headlamps. Now I had my primary, as did Biz, but Justin was equipped with my backup, the Black Diamond Ion, a very lightweight and awesome backup light, but also not very bright, especially when hiking/navigating off trail in mountainous terrain. But, no worries, as we followed our blazed trail back to civilization. But, we got to a point where it was very dark, and we weren't sure which way the trail went. And for some reason, when Justin said "It's up here", we believed him, even though he could barely see the trees in front of him.
So, we climbed up a bit, and that put us smack into the very, very thick evergreens. I'm talking loads of small trees, less than 1 foot apart, with lots of low branches which keep you from seeing the ground. We pushed and struggled our way along, and tried to work back left (south) to where the trail was. Justin had the worst time, I think, as he could see very little, and at 1 point he stepped over a log and disappeared. Thankfully, the cliff he slid/fell down was only about 6 feet high, not 20 or 30 feet, as some of the ones out there are. This gave him pause, to say the least, and he let us take the lead after that. Finally, we got back to our blazed trail, and to the quad.
As we made our way down the mountain on the access road, we were treated to a far off fireworks display, and then something even better...we got to the base lodge, and the bar was open!! A round of beers all around quenched our thirst, and we vowed to return to Bolton weekly for more training. This coming Tuesday, the 28th, we are planning on some mountain biking up there. All are welcome, meet in the lot around 5pm, and look for a bunch of scruffy looking fellas heading up the mountain...
Grambo
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Right, so to continue/finish my tale of the race....
As I mentioned in the previous post, after the initial 2 bike CPs, teams dropped their bikes and headed off in search of 3 CPs, 2, 3, and 4. Now, a week before the race Justin and I pre-ran the treking CPs to test out the course, and let me tell you, it is rugged. 2 and 3 are located off the backside of Bolton (imagine riding to the top of the quad, and then continuing in the same direction on foot). When we ran the course, we chose to wrap around the summit behind the quad by following the Vista Glades trail towards Ricker. Many teams appeared to choose this route, although some opted to go straight over the top (you'll note this was painful if you look at the last pic from the post below). Once into the saddle between the quad and Ricker, we turned east, and followed the 3000ft contour with our altimeters until we reached another saddle, and climbed a small knoll to CP2. Sounds easy, and actually we didn't have much trouble with the navigation part, but the going was rough. Very thick, sometimes wet, and almost always steep. We actually followed a moose track most of the way.
If teams actually found CP2, it was on to 3, located about 1000 feet below, at a stream intersection. This was fairly straightforward navigationally, we basically shot a bearing on the map to the CP, and followed the bearing (aiming a bit left to use the stream as a handrail) until we hit a stream at the correct elevation, at which point we turned right, and found the CP maybe 100 yards downstream. Sound easy? Well, navigationally, it was, but again, the terrain was rough, and it was here we encountered, in several places, the Bolton Death Nettle (BDN). Now, I have gotten into nettles before, and sure, they suck, but these were AWFUL. We got 1/2 way through the first BDN field before realizing what they were, and then the burn started. I'll tell ya, my legs burned for a long, long time, and no jewelweed to be found! In any case, we found CP3, and man, what a nice spot! There was a deep (4 foot) pool in the stream, and we soaked our nettled striped legs for 5 minutes or so before heading off to CP4....
CP4, of course, was located 1000 feet UP, near the vicinity of the FIWAR's CP8, up on some back country trails. We again shot a bearing, and off we went up the hill. And, in the process, we learned how the plant hobblebush got it's name. Dang tough stuff to walk through. So, we slogged it back up to 3100 feet, and missed the CP. We were running short of time and headed out, so we bailed. When I returned last week to retrieve CP4 after the race, I could tell why...the surveyor's tape marking the location was awful small. No wonder we missed it. In any case, after CP4, it was back to the slopes near Wilderness lift, and across and back up to the quad. Here the racers picked up bikes, and rode off to the rest of the race. I was not privy to that, as I had to depart once the last racers had left for a family obligation.
Now, from my description above it may sound like this was a strenuous by navigationally easy trek. Far be it!! We (Justin and I) are somewhat experienced, we had altimeters (many racers did not), and we also were not under "race pressure". It was a tough section in all ways, thats for sure. The lead teams rocked it out in 2.5-3 hours, while some teams spent 6+ hours without finding any CPs. Great section of the course!!! And, TRWS may get back out there next week to pick up CP2, and introduce J and Biz to this ragin' course...
Grambo
As I mentioned in the previous post, after the initial 2 bike CPs, teams dropped their bikes and headed off in search of 3 CPs, 2, 3, and 4. Now, a week before the race Justin and I pre-ran the treking CPs to test out the course, and let me tell you, it is rugged. 2 and 3 are located off the backside of Bolton (imagine riding to the top of the quad, and then continuing in the same direction on foot). When we ran the course, we chose to wrap around the summit behind the quad by following the Vista Glades trail towards Ricker. Many teams appeared to choose this route, although some opted to go straight over the top (you'll note this was painful if you look at the last pic from the post below). Once into the saddle between the quad and Ricker, we turned east, and followed the 3000ft contour with our altimeters until we reached another saddle, and climbed a small knoll to CP2. Sounds easy, and actually we didn't have much trouble with the navigation part, but the going was rough. Very thick, sometimes wet, and almost always steep. We actually followed a moose track most of the way.
If teams actually found CP2, it was on to 3, located about 1000 feet below, at a stream intersection. This was fairly straightforward navigationally, we basically shot a bearing on the map to the CP, and followed the bearing (aiming a bit left to use the stream as a handrail) until we hit a stream at the correct elevation, at which point we turned right, and found the CP maybe 100 yards downstream. Sound easy? Well, navigationally, it was, but again, the terrain was rough, and it was here we encountered, in several places, the Bolton Death Nettle (BDN). Now, I have gotten into nettles before, and sure, they suck, but these were AWFUL. We got 1/2 way through the first BDN field before realizing what they were, and then the burn started. I'll tell ya, my legs burned for a long, long time, and no jewelweed to be found! In any case, we found CP3, and man, what a nice spot! There was a deep (4 foot) pool in the stream, and we soaked our nettled striped legs for 5 minutes or so before heading off to CP4....
CP4, of course, was located 1000 feet UP, near the vicinity of the FIWAR's CP8, up on some back country trails. We again shot a bearing, and off we went up the hill. And, in the process, we learned how the plant hobblebush got it's name. Dang tough stuff to walk through. So, we slogged it back up to 3100 feet, and missed the CP. We were running short of time and headed out, so we bailed. When I returned last week to retrieve CP4 after the race, I could tell why...the surveyor's tape marking the location was awful small. No wonder we missed it. In any case, after CP4, it was back to the slopes near Wilderness lift, and across and back up to the quad. Here the racers picked up bikes, and rode off to the rest of the race. I was not privy to that, as I had to depart once the last racers had left for a family obligation.
Now, from my description above it may sound like this was a strenuous by navigationally easy trek. Far be it!! We (Justin and I) are somewhat experienced, we had altimeters (many racers did not), and we also were not under "race pressure". It was a tough section in all ways, thats for sure. The lead teams rocked it out in 2.5-3 hours, while some teams spent 6+ hours without finding any CPs. Great section of the course!!! And, TRWS may get back out there next week to pick up CP2, and introduce J and Biz to this ragin' course...
Grambo
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Race tales...
Team Sgt Poncharello checks in:
Grambo
So over the next day or 2 I will try to describe my experiences volunteering at this year's Bitter Pill. I'll start today with a brief description of the start of the race....
Leg 1: Racers started off on bikes at the Bolton Sports Center, and had to collect 2 CPs on the way to TA1, located at the top of the Vista Quad (where I was stationed, a climb of slightly over 1000 feet). In an interesting twist, the racers were allowed to split up to collect the CPs. Since they were located on opposite sides of the resort (CP1A was on the Wilderness lift, CP1B was at the top of Timberline), it was much quicker to split up. However, some teams traveled together, and in an interesting bit of strategy, 1 team sent 1 member to both CPs, while the other 2 went straight to the TA. Once all members of a team were present at the TA, they left bikes/shoes/helmets, and set off on the Trek. Here are a couple of pics from the TA:
Race director, EMT, and volunteer Dave arrive at TA1:
First racers from Team Hammerhead arrive at TA1:
More Racers arriving...
Team Sgt Poncharello checks in:
Hmmm, is this really the best way...
More to come tommorrow about the Trek, orienteering, and the Bolton Death Nettle!!!
Grambo
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
The View From TA1/2...
So this past weekend, with my teammates all occupied with weddings and such things (lame-os!), I volunteered at the Bitter Pill 12 hour Adventure Race, put on by GMARA. And I must stay, it was a great time! Working a race is almost as much fun as racing in one. Friday was registration, which went quite smoothly for the 24 teams signed up. I did a number of "gear checks", which entailed me going through the required equipment list to ensure teams had all the gear they needed. And I must say, I was a bit alarmed to see a number of teams with brand new compasses, still in their packages!!! I knew this was a navigation heavy race, and I'm not sure some folks quite knew what that meant. Well, by Saturday afternoon they did!!!
On Saturday AM my post was at TA1, which was also TA2, and was located at the top of the Vista Quad at Bolton Valley Resort. Seeing as how the racers would be arriving at TA1 shortly after the start of the race, we had to be up there quite early. So, another volunteer and I rode/pushed our bikes up there, departing the parking lot at roughly 5:10AM, and arriving at the top of the quad around 5:50 or so. A nice brisk hike to wake us up. Above you will see a pic I snapped looking down the quad as it was getting light. The light spot you can see way in the background at the base of the lift is the Sports Center, where the race got underway at 5:46am. Check back over the next couple days as I will be filling in details on how the day went, along with more pictures....
For today, though, Biz and I plan on riding over at Mobbs Hill. All are welcome to join us, we will be meeting up around 5 in the parking lot. Looks like a nice, steamy day for a ride!!!
Grambo
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