Week(s) in Review:

I guess I have been chasing the Ironman dream now as I have been bitten by the triathlon bug and Kona is all I can think about lately. It all started April 28^th when I flew into St. Croix, Virgin Islands to race the ½ Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile road bike, 13.1 mile run) for a chance to win a slot into the Ironman World Championships in October.  However, the island gods thought better of my goals and after hitting something on the bike and totally ruining my tire I was forced to drop out and call it a day.  So after a week on the island I flew to St. George UT for almost ten days and stayed with my dad to get in some more heat training, open water swimming, and preparing for the Orlando Ironman 70.3 on May 17^th.

Wednesday – 2 hour road ride and 30 minute swim in St. George on the Ironman St. George course

Thursday – Caught the shuttle from St, George to Las Vegas then flew to Phoenix and then Orlando.  Set up camp at the Walt Disney Fort Wilderness Campground in the rain.

Friday – Rest Day – Registration, getting camp all dialed in

Saturday – Easy spin on the road bike for 45 minutes and bike check -in.

Sunday , May 17^th:  Well race day finally rolled around and I must say I had some anger built up and ready to be released on the course after DNF’ing in St. Croix.  As the cannon sounded and 2200 people begin swimming, craziness is an understatement for what goes on.  I would say it is more like the UFC than a swim race.  Coming out of the water is always the best feeling and knowing it is time to play catch up I put the hammer down for the remainder of the race going as hard as I could on the 56 miles of road biking and 13.1 mile run to stop the clock in 4:24.  Good enough to win the 25-29 age group and a Top 5 Overall Amateur.  I guess it can be said that you can’t win the race in the swim but you can sure lose it.

Monday – Easy spin on the bike to loosen up the sore calves and then spent the day walking around Walt Disney World.

Tuesday – Woke up at 3a.m. and took the shuttle to the airport for my 7 a.m. flight to Charlotte then to Phoenix and finally to Grand Junction CO where Wick and Smithy were there for the final 2 hour drive back to my house.

Wednesday – Easy 2 hour road spin to loosen up, an ice bath, and 30 minutes of massage on the legs.   Now I am just sitting here drinking coffee wondering where the last four weeks have gone and how can time go so fast??

Team Goal of the Week:

Paddle, paddle, paddle!!

Tip of the Week:

Work on your weaknesses and the rest will fall into place.  I know its never fun to work on what your not good at but by keeping a good mental outlook on the event or part of you game that is weak improvement might not come quickly but when it does there is nothing that can stop you.  This reminds me I have a swim session in 30 and where are  my goggles at?

What’s Next:

Its official, just signed up for the Buffalo Springs, TX Ironman 70.3 on June 28^th with hopes of snagging one of the 28 slots that will be awarded to winners of each age group for the Ironman World Championships in Kona.  So best of luck to you all in your training and get out there and do some work!

Cheers,

Eric “Sully” Sullivan

After waiting most of the winter, we have finally received some much-needed snow in the Colorado Front Range.  Wet, heavy, and perfect for snowballs, this stuff has turned the trails to mush.  I competed in the Adventure Xstream 12-Hr at Moab last weekend-where Will and Jenny Newcomer did an excellent job with the race, as usual-and have since been spending most of my training time running and paddling.

Week in Review:

• Saturday:  I enjoyed the race in Moab, and was very happy in my first competition on the Ellsworth Evolve 29er.  If you’re thinking about a new bike this year, be sure to give a 29er a spin; the wheels really do make a difference!  Finishing the race on a surfski I borrowed from Danelle Ballengee (who also raced and is doing well, living with her son, Noah, and partner, B.C., in Moab), I was able to hang on for the win in the solo division.
• Sunday:  Amy and I made the journey home to Golden and I got in an hour of running on the trails.
• Monday:  Arriving at the Cherry Creek Reservoir after work, I initially thought it was too cold and windy to go paddling.  After a short personal debate in the car, I figured I’d give it a go.  The hour-long session provided some good technique training in the wind and good mental training as well.
• Tuesday:  Trail run with the dogs, 70 minutes.
• Wednesday:  Trail run with the dogs.  Same trail as yesterday but it took 90 minutes due to the blizzard and constant falls due to hidden rocks!
• Thursday:  Trail run, 90 minutes with my buddy, James, from the Team GoLite, and the dogs, who were sufficiently caked with mud by this point in the week!
• Friday:  65 minutes of paddling with James at Cherry Creek Res.
• Saturday:  Two hours of trail running in the snow-what a nice, peaceful day!  Followed this up with a real-life adventure involving a challenging plumbing problem.

Team Goal of the Week:

Fitness and a transition to summer training were on our minds this week.

Tip of the Week:

Anything that works and does not break is better than anything super-light that may break.  We’ve all been out there in the middle of the night when a crucial piece of gear reaches its limit.  My advice is to thoroughly test all items ahead of time.  Something super-cool and super-light is worthless out on the trail if there’s a possibility that it might break.  Also, carry lots of zip-ties to fix things when they do break.

What’s Next?

I’ll be getting into orienteering meets with the Rocky Mountain Orienteering Club (www.rmoc.org) in the next few weeks.  Orienteering is an excellent way to practice navigation skills while getting a great running workout.  My teammates in the mountains have a few more weeks of snow and skiing to anticipate!

Happy Training,

Travis Macy

Photo by Brian Solano

My partner, Bryan “Wick” Wickenhauser, and I ended up 4^th place after 9 hours 35 minutes of racing.  Jon Brown and Brian Smith ended up 7^th and Jari Kirkland and Tucker brought home 2^nd in the co-ed division.  Mike Kloser and Jay Henry won the race.  It was a decent showing for Team Salomon/Crested Butte in one of the toughest races we do all year.  Teammate Travis Macy opted for a summer option and won the solo division at the 12-Hour Adventure Xstream Moab race.

The week leading up to the Traverse is always fun as the training becomes a minimum, and arriving at the starting line, “the fresher the better” is my motto.  So Wednesday, Thursday , and Friday were total days off with jus a 10 minute ice bath Wednesday and Thursday.  It just gives me a chance to get all the gear totally dialed in and minimize everything to the smallest degree in the pack.  So here is what the rest of the week looked like:

• Monday – Rest day with a 12 minutes ice bath and foam roller session on the legs.
• Tuesday – Ski previewed the first 2.5 hours of the Grand Traverse course and evening ice bath.
• Wednesday –  90 minute massage, ice bath.
• Thursday- Rest day.
• Friday- Race begins at midnight!
• Sunday – 45 minute run and 30 mile road ride to Crested Butte, ice bath.
• Monday – 1 hour on the HALO swim trainer and 90 minutes on the stationary bike with some muscle tension intervals to a 30 minute treadmill run as it was snowing again and blowing 30 m.p.h. outside.  Ice bath and I am ready for Spring!!

As a team we didn’t work on anything for the week together, however we all had to have our gear dialed in for the race so packing and gear minimizing were key components for everyone, which will make it easier to know exactly how much food and water to bring out on a 8-9 hour section in Primal Quest only a few months away.  Remember the 6 P’s of racing folks, “Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance”!!

Some gear modifications that we made especially for the Grand Traverse were attaching retractable dog leashes on the inside of the pack with the leash exiting at the bottom, making for a non swing tow-strap that zips back inside the pack after use; it’s a hands-free towing device!  Another was the hand warmer taped up H2O bottle to prevent freezing your water instantly.

The next event to start looking forward to for me is the Foster Grant Ironman 70.3 event in Orlando , FL on May 17^th.   So putting away the skis for the season yesterday felt good as I am as jazzed as ever to get in the pool and swim, swim, swim.   Now I know swimming isn’t the funnest thing ever but I can guarantee that hard swimming with intervals will make any athlete no matter their fitness a whole heck of a lot better, especially for the paddling sections in these long adventure races, which is where more racers lack than any other department in a race such as Primal Quest.  So try hitting the pool 3x’s a week and work on your weaknesses this pre-season and feel confident the middle of August!

Cheers,

Sully

We are pleased to announce the team will be racing Primal Quest Badlands!  PQ is our marquee race for the year, and we look forward to giving it our best shot.  To that end, we’ll update this blog weekly with postings from the team about training, preparation, and other races we compete in along the way.

We began our journey into adventure racing about six years ago when most of the team raced as Team Crested Butte and Travis Macy was their rival on Team Salomon USA.  Since then, we’ve been lucky enough to do well in a number of domestic and international races and finished fifth in our last PQ in Moab.  Travis, who finished second at PQ Montana, joined the team this year.

So far in 2009, we’ve competed almost every week in ski mountaineering, nordic skiing, winter triathlon, winter multisport, and snowshoeing races.  It’s been a little cold in Gunnison, Colorado for cycling outside, but the snow has been excellent for high-aerobic, high-altitude training on skis and snowshoes.  We find that this low-impact cardiovascular work lays and excellent foundation for big hours mountain biking, running, and trekking later in the summer.

As spring and summer arrive, we’ll continue competing two-three times per month: mountain biking, orienteering, running, multisport and adventure races.

Training Tip of the Week:

Long, slow distance is crucial to any regimine, but high-end sessions and races are very important to increasing strength, stamina, and speed.  In the winter, in addition to a race every two weeks, I (Travis) generally shoot for one session of uphill running fartleks per week, four-five by three minutes on with one and a half minutes off.

Check back next week for a look into the weekly training of Jari Kirkland.

Happy Training!

Jari
Jon
Sully
Travis
Team Salomon/Crested Butte
www.teamcrestedbutte.com

Adventure Racing Navigation Tips

If you are a good navigator, you can write your own ticket in the sport of Adventure Racing.  Your race calendar will be full before you know it, with invites from some pretty solid teams.  But navigation is a mix of art and science that needs to be practiced continually, so your best bet is to hook up with a local orienteering team (most of the sport’s best navigators have a competitive orienteering background) and see how good you can get!  Plus, learning to navigate is just darn fun. 

Here’s the quick down low on what you need to know to get from point A to point B while navigating.  Make sure you have all of your DATAH before leaving for that next checkpoint!

D = DISTANCE

     Look at the scale at the bottom of the map and calculate how far you need to go.  Don’t forget all of the bends and twists in the river or trail.  One tip is to take a piece of string and lay it out along your chosen windy route, and then lay the string out along the scale at the bottom of the map to calculate the distance.

A = AZIMUTH

      Azimuth is a basically a fancy way to say “compass bearing”, but it is a commonly used term in navigation.  Shooting a bearing outside and during the day is a pretty easy skill (point where you’d like to go, turn the bezel until the needle is in the ‘house’ and rock and roll).  But for the most part, you will be shooting your bearings from the map, which requires a few extra steps.  I recommend you take a Navigation 101 class from a local outfitter first, and then buy a book to reinforce what you learned. Practice is the key! 

T = TERRAIN FEATURES

     Maps are cool!  Even though they are two dimensional, they are drawn in a way that allows you to see every elevation change and each nook and cranny of the world in surprising detail.  With practice, you’ll soon notice the map jumping off the page and giving you a miniature 3-D replica of the real estate around you for miles and miles.  A good navigator will explain everything they’re looking for to the team on their way to the next checkpoint, because you’ll need all the eyes and ears you can get (ie. “We’re going to traverse around this peak at an average elevation of 3500 feet. After the boulder field on the Southeast side, we’ll have 4 stream crossings over 2 miles.  After the 4^th one, we’ll descend through a clearing in the trees on the East side of the slope, and travel due North on the bottom of the river valley to the checkpoint on the West side of the river.”   

A = ALTITUDE

     Your altitude is your elevation gain/loss.  It’s not only important to know your starting and ending elevations, but to have a handle on all of the changes along the way, as another check that you’re on track. Many places look very similar terrain-wise on the map.  The only way to pinpoint where you are is by knowing your altitude.

H = HANDRAIL

     Handrail is a common term used to describe a terrain feature that alerts you that you may not be where you’re hoping you are!  For example, if we miss the trail cutoff we’re looking for, we’ll hit a river running North to South.  If you hit that river, you’ve gone too far.  Don’t overlook the handrail as an important tool. They have saved our butts a number of times, especially when the sleepmonsters are coming to get us.

In general, the biggest mistake that teams make out there is to simply look at the distance and direction to the next checkpoint, but not the other three important components that keep you on track. Take a moment to figure out your DATAH and you’ll arrive in style-not to mention pretty far ahead of your competitors.  See you out there!  Robyn

This first entry is on Teamwork, something that Robyn focuses on in her motivational speaking and on her website WorldClassTeams.com. Read on for her insights on the subject.

Teamwork

Adventure Racing is one of the only sports in which you actually have to have your teammates with you, doing exactly what you’re doing, glued to your side at all times.  That’s why Adventure Racing is just as much an interpersonal journey as a physical one.   In the best of times, you will experience moments that will bond you to your teammates in a very special way for life; In the worst of times, you will walk away having experienced the worst aspects of human nature and be left to pick up the pieces of your shattered hopes.   In my experience, a lack of teamwork skills is responsible for at least 40-50% of the DNF’s in Adventure Racing, and it is far too important a factor to overlook in any discussion about the sport.  So here’s my two cents. 

After years of study in what causes a team to rise from “good” to “world class”,  I’ve come to the conclusion that the biggest factors are the attitudes and actions of the individual teammates.  In the races my team and I have won, we were not the strongest or the fastest, but we were able to create a “human synergy”-an ephemeral quality or “magic” that made the TEAM stronger than the collective training and experience of the individual members. If I could bottle it, I would certainly be a millionaire– but after a good deal of thinking about the subject, I have a pretty good idea of the essential elements required for this human synergy.  Here’s the highlight reel:

The 8 Essential Elements of Human Synergy

T   Total Commitment

Does your team have the 4 P’s of Commitment:  Planning, sense of Purpose, Preparation and Perseverence?

E   Empathy and Awareness of Teammates

Do you and your teammates care for one another as much as you care about yourself? You must be able to put yourself in one another’s shoes often, and give one another what you need on both a physical and emotional  level in order to keep going.  Treat one antother the way that you would want to be treated.

A   Adversity Management

How does your team deal with a race that’s not going so smoothly?  You must remember that Adventure Races are generally a long series of problems to solve, and not the straightforward race you were hoping for.  The right attitude is key.  Does your team see roadblocks or challenges? A good team member must also have the skills to lead through adversity.  Creating a vision and gathering input from the team is always a great way to go.  Relax.  This problem, or others like it, will happen to many other teams along the way. 

M   Mutual Respect

It’s important that there be a level of trust, respect, and loyalty on a successful team.  Find things to love about your teammates while minimizing the things that bug you.  Remember the great skills and attitude that each teammate bring to the table, and try not to gossip and divide the team.

W   “We” versus “I” thinking

 “We” thinking is about bringing everyone across the finish line with you, and not just being a standout player on your own.  Are you constantly thinking about how to utilize your collective resources for the most successful outcome?  If you are the strong link, do you just happily enjoy yourself at the front of the pack, or are you realizing that feeling good means you should be carrying more weight for someone who is struggling?

 O     Ownership of the Project

Choosing the right teammates that can wrap themselves around the goals of the team, heart and soul, are key. 

Gaining consensus from the team on expectations and goals is vital and should be done before the race starts!

R   Relinquishment of Ego

Your ego is the heaviest thing in your backpack!  Choose teammates that willingly accept help, ask to help, and ask for help.  You will be the strongest link on the team and the weakest link of the team at one point or another.  Get over it and don’t let your ego get between you and the finish line!

K   Kinetic Leadership

A great team allows different leaders to emerge, based on their particular strengths.  Don’t confuse captainship with leadership.  A captain is just the person that ensures that their team has all of the tools that they need to be successful.  A leader comes forward when their strength and experience is the most use to the team.   On the best teams, the leadership revolves constantly.  Military style leadership doesn’t work to well in Adventure Racing!

Tips:

*Be the teammate you would want to race with

*Be congnizant of the fact that, due to the intensity of the emotions generated in this sport, the way that you treat people, (especially during their lowest moments) will always be remembered

*In the end the love you take is equal to the love you make  (for you Beatles fans)

*Try to “coach” versus criticize.  Extending a hand is always more impactful than pointing a finger

*Remember your priorities–our team’s priorities, in order, are to: stay safe, stay friends, and go like hell

*Check your ego at the start line

1) Take care of your feet. No matter how fast you are if you have bad feet you are a liability.

Tip: Read Jon Vonhoff’s book Fixing Your Feet

2) The treadmill is your friend if you do not live in a hilly area. Put boards underneath the front  to increase the grade. Hike/Run up to 2 hours on a full incline.

I found it helped my strength for climbing on foot and the bike.

3) Be able to run 20 miles, bike 100 miles then kayak for 4-6 hours on the same day before you get to the starting line.

4) Be sure you love your team, it is a long race together!

Great tips! Simple but also very effective. To read more of Kim’s tips and thoughts on adventure racing and endurance sports, head over to her website at Extreme-Adventure-Sports.com.

Photo by Will Ramos

Aaaahhh, the million dollar question.  How to prepare for a PQ or a longer expedition competition?? Well, after racing off and on since 1997, I have had many good and some not so good races. I have made ALL the mistakes, and generally learned from those mistakes.  Having a successful race is about controlling the variables, so that also translates to training.  The more you control your environment, the less apt you are for injuries, the better aptitude for success, and the better race you will eventually have.  I was pulled from PQ MT because I had severe pneumonia, and near kidney failure from my illness, the altitude change, and by generally just NOT taking quite as good care of myself as I should have.

So word to the wise, train the way you want to race.  If that’s as an adventure racer, train that way.  If it is as an adventure travelor, train that way.  Know your expectations, and be flexible. Be consistent in your training. Also be VERY consistent in your rest days. Train with your team, and know their strengths and weaknesses.  Try to be as well rounded as you can, and make sure you are comfortable with ALL the events you will be doing during the race, and feel comfortable with the equipment you will be using.  And most importantly, make sure that you are as complete a racer as you can be.  don’t just focus on physical preparation.  Mentally you need to be on the same page as your body.  P repare to let things go as the race approaches.  Streamline your life.  Rely on your husband or wife more as the event nears.  Let them help make your life easier. Enter the event calm, cool, collected, and without hesitation.  Fear the race.  It will keep you sharp.  What you are about to do is something VERY few people will get to do in their lifetimes.  Cherish that moment, but relish it.  Respect it.  Absorb it.  Don’t waste negative energy thinking about “”what if.”  do visualization dreaming about the race going as planned, very little mistakes, and the team crossing the finish line safe and as friends.  And don’t forget to attend as many navigation clinics, and rogaines, and orienteering events as possible as a team.  You have 4 sets of eyes.  Use them.  Get everyone involved in helping you travel the terrain faster. Eat during your race what you eat in training, just MORE of it.  And don’t sweat the small stuff.  Things happen during an event that will bother you, but you need to refocus your energy in a positive direction and just let it go.  you need that energy in the well.  Savor the moment.  Take pictures with your team of the amazing sights your eyes will feast on.  You will treasure that forever.  Enjoy testing the boundaries of human endurance.

Sage advice indeed! Thanks Doug! If you have tips to share, send them to us at info@ecoprimalquest.com

Photo by Mike Hedge

“How do I prepare for Primal Quest?”

This is a common question we’ve been getting a lot lately. Racers, fans, and even the media all want to know what it takes to compete in the “Superbowl of Adventure Racing”.  We figured who better to answer that question than the men and women who train for and compete in Primal Quest.

We’d like to hear from all Primal Quest veterans with their tips for success. Tell us about your training schedule, favorite foods while racing, unique approach to competing, or any other items that you think could be helpful to adventure racers aspiring to compete in Primal Quest.

Submit your best tips to us in an e-mail, along with a short bio, and we’ll compile them and post them to the PQ website. This new page will be called “AR Tips” and will serve as a great reference point for new and experienced athletes alike.

Send your best tips to: info@ecoprimalquest.com

Check back often for updates!

Photo by Andres Vargas