I took some time and outlined the training I want to do in the months
leading up to the 30-hour race in January in north Georgia; I went back
and looked at our "lessons learned" from the race last year.
Besides "train harder" listed as every other item, a lot of "lessons
learned" involve gear to stay warm, dry, and for night navigation.
Well, I've got a great bike light from
NiteRider;
I may look into rolling my own high intensity light (with some help
from Team Richmond ASR) as another good light. I've got a better
headlamp, too, so I should be able to spot checkpoints a bit
easier. The light issue is under control. The warm/dry gear
thing is something I'm still working on. I've found I need
multiple sets of my best warm gear, because eventually I'll need to
change (things get wet, damaged, etc) and last time my "second tier"
gear wasn't nearly as good. I also want to get some good booties
for keeping my feet warm (I recall my feet were frozen stiff during the
bike leg) and maybe some other wind blocking items. For the
paddle, I'm checking on some paddling mitts to keep my hands toasty
warm on the water.
What it really boils down to, besides getting some of this nice gear,
is that I need to get out and train in the cold and dark and,
preferably, tackle some good hills. To that end, we've scheduled
some long team training events out west (Charlottesville), like some
time biking up the road from Wintergreen ski resort to the Blue Ridge
Parkway. That's a nice little climb! During the week, when
team training isn't feasible, I'll get up early and visit the hills
around Williamsburg on my bike or on foot. We have arranged a
standing night singletrack ride at New Quarter park for anyone who is
interested. We're starting tonight with about a 10K run and then
some laps on the bike. We'll be out there every Thursday except
for Thanksgiving.
I've been spending a lot of time course scouting and organizing with
HRAdventure, but I haven't trained with much race intensity for a few
months now. I have a solid endurance base but I'm excited about
switching gears again.