Race Preview: Logs Rocks & Steel 2012

This is our second year doing Logs, Rocks & Steel.  Read the 2011 report here.

Basically, it's an Adventure Race with a marked course.  Canoe, mountain bike, trail run.  Theoretically at least, there is no navigation required (although we almost got lost, and a few teams did get lost!).

Canoe Start by ActiveSteve (Flickr)

There are two distances - the Champion course and the Pine Crest course.  We did the Pine Crest last year and will be doing the same this year... the Champion course is just a bit too crazy!  Maybe someday...

Canoe

Last year our canoe was pretty rough.  We had only been out a few times before the race, and never in the rental canoe we used in the race (provided by organizers).  This meant a lot of meandering around the lake, mostly not in the direction we hoped to go.

This year we have a canoe we bought just for this - it's an 18' Jensen that's perfect for flying along in a straight line on a lake!  And we've practiced much more to really figure the thing out.  We are better at holding a straight line in all kinds of conditions, and can do a pretty sharp turn when we need to.  So that should be good for a few minutes!

Bike trail.  Seriously.  By ActiveSteve (Flickr)

Transitions

We pretty much nailed these last year, we had some of the quickest of our immediate competittors, so not too concerned here.

Bike

We both had relatively new bikes last year, and I really wasn't comfortable on mine.  As you can see by the picture, the trails are not easy!  A lot is pretty rough, rocky and rutted.  My mountain bike skills have come a long way since then, so I think I  can hold my own rather than drag us down on the off-road.  On the road I'm solid, should be able to draft each other to a good bike time!

Run

I don't think there is much room to improve here, it was just hanging on for dear life.  It's tough, you actually had to climb up rocks and stuff at times, and the trail was even worse than the bike photo above.  Truly an adventure!

Goal

A lot will depend on who shows up and if it rains or not... but all things being equal I'd like to see us podium in the men's pairs and beat our previous time.  It should be do-able.  Last year we were 4th (17th of 121 overall) and less than 2 minutes behind 3rd, but I think we can make up a fair bit more time than that.  There is time to be found on the water and the bike, and we're going to find it!