train, train, train

I've been getting in some good training lately. Last weekend I headed back out to Guana on Saturday and got a couple hours of biking in while exploring more with the map. The map that Guana WMA offers is ridiculously simple. Their are miles and miles of well-used trails that are not mapped. I'd like to get out their with a GPS soon and get some of those trails on a topo map. Not exactly sure HOW to do it, I just know it can be done. I got about 10 miles of running in on Sunday- 7 of it pushing the jogging stroller(Audrey slept the whole time, which was awesome). Shelby ran the 7 with me as her long-run for River Run training. She's doing great. Working out at the gym in the morning is still going well- at least their is more variety in what I'm doing now. Also, it makes it easy not to skip a workout when I know I'm meeting Matt at the gym. I'm dealing with a head cold again- it's really getting old... I'm really itching to do a race soon- it's been since last October since I did an adventure race- that's way too long! Can't wait for Blue Ridge.

The Beginning

I was looking through a shoebox of old pics last week and came across these. This was my first adventure race, the Altamaha Wilderness Adventure Race (AWAR). I can't remember much about this race expect that I had a great time and we rode through some nasty red clay under a railroad trussle. Unfortunately, this race does not exist anymore. If I remember right, we got all the cp's but came in after the cutoff. Great memories...

Scouting at Guana

Headed out to Guana WMA today with Dave and Webner for a ride and to do some scouting for the ACC. I had never ridden from the north entrance so I was looking forward to getting familar with the trails at that end. Their are a ton of trails that are not marked on the main park map, mostly fire breaks. We ended up just riding most of the marked trails, about 22 miles. It was a great day to ride those sandy roads since it rained the day before. It was also nice to get a 2 hour ride in. Can't wait for the ACC- it'll be a fun race. Guana is really nice and has a ton of wildlife. Should be some good paddling out their as well on the intercoastal and Lake Ponte Vedre. Webner was riding really strong today- he's doing the 12 hours of Santos next weekend solo- crazy. Met a few guys out their today that ride every Tuesday night out there- might be cool to join them sometime. 

Long Runs

This past weekend was really busy but I did manage to get a good run in yesterday. Over the past three weekends I've been able to to run 10, 12, and 14 miles for my long runs. I'm feeling really good about that. It's been nice to keep up the mileage even though the marathon is over. Yesterday I ran 6 with Shelby from her parents house while they watched Audrey, then ran home from there stopping for a loop at Tomahawk park on the way. On my way to Tomahawk in ran into Daniel who was also out for his long run so we ran together for a few miles- I had to pick up the pace a little. It's always nice to have someone to run with on long runs- makes it go by much faster. This week I'm committed to being on the bike more. I spent some time on the stationary bikes this morning at the gym. I'm planning on doing that a couple more times this week and then doing a long ride this weekend- preferably off road if it works out. I would love to either get out to Guana and scout the ACC some or ride the bridges downtown. Riding the bridges is an anual ritual in getting ready for the Blue Ridge AR. It seems to help the climbing not to be such a shock to the system when I get up there. It looks like Dave and Katie will be racing with me this year which is awesome. I'm really hoping all the paddling will be on Lake Blue Ridge so we can use the Sundowner. Looking to get a cabin booked this week. Can't wait for Audrey to go the her first adventure race- maybe one day we'll be teammates...

Gym Rat?

Yesterday I signed up for a Gym membership at Bailey's. My brother Matt started working out there recently so I decided to give it a try for a while- especially since there membership is month to month right now- thanks economy! It was nice to be headed into a gym this morning when it was 38 degrees out rather than for a run in my neighborhood. One of my main incentives for doing this is the use of the treadmill and stair climber- hoping I'll be a little more prepared for races in the mountains this year, like Blue Ridge in April. I haven't been to a gym since college so it's a little weird being back in one. In college I would spend 3-4 hours at the gym, I certainly can't spend that kind of time now. Now it will be seeing how much we can squeeze into 45 minutes to an hour. I'm certainly not looking to become a gym rat, but this should help me vary what I do little more and focus more on specific goals, like becoming better at hill climbing.

Maiden Voyage

After eleven years of collecting dust on boat racks at Pier 17, the Sundowner set sail on Goodby's Creek last night. It had been raining all day but ended up being dry for most of the paddle. My brother Ben was not super excited about paddle in the cold and rain but knew I was dying to take it out. Initial impression- this boat is awesome. It was very fast and stable once we got it going. The initial stability will take some getting used to but I expected that. Turning the boat was more difficult than in the old dagger (shorter with a flater bottom) but that is typical of longer, faster, straighter tracking boats. I paddle it with both my wing paddle (SRS X-Wing) and my canoe paddle (Aquabounds something). I was able to paddle faster with the canoe paddle and felt like I had more control, however I fatigued faster that using the wing paddle. I'd love to paddle a racing specific canoe paddle and see how that works for me. Maybe one day.... In AR I'll probably be using the wing paddle due to my teammates using kayak paddles as well. Ben and I talked about doing the Suwanee River Challenge in the Sundowner. Looking to do the 52 miler this year. We did the marathon version in 2007 in our Necky Amaruk.

New Canoe!

This weekend I got an early birthday present, a new canoe. I've been wanting a faster canoe for a long time so I'm really pumped to finally find one. The canoe is a We-no-nah Sundowner 17' in Kevlar. The Sundowner is actually a retired model that you can only special order now. However, the shop I bought this from happened to still have two of them. This one is actually a '98! Pretty crazy that the shop had this in inventory for 11 years. The canoe is beautiful and in great shape. I bought it from Pier 17 Marina http://www.pier17jaxfl.com/index.htm. This place is really neat- the most canoes I have ever seen in one place. Tons of really high-end stuff and great people. Considering how long they had had this canoe- I got a really good deal on it. I can't wait to paddle this canoe- hopefully my brother and I will take it out this evening. I've never paddle a canoe this performance oriented so I'm really looking forward to it. I know a lot of AR people that have this model in Royalex and really like it. One of the niceest thing about this boat is that it's only about 50 lbs. That will make portaging a little more bearable.


Apart from getting the canoe, this weekend was pretty productive. My brother Matt and I built some outdoor storage for my canoe and kayaks- Matt is much more adept at anything construction related than I am. It's really nice to have the boats out of the garage- we really needed the space. I'll I have left to do is put shingles on the roof. Shelby and I did 5 miles yesterday with Audrey in the jogging stroller- getting ready for the River Run. I went on when we were done and ended up running about 2 hours total, 11-12 miles. Felt pretty good.