Old Goals and New

2012 was the first year that I set some goals to try and achieve.  I will spare you the suspense I only achieved one of the three.  My thoughts on only being successful in one goal are a mixed bag that I will explain in full.  The first goal, while technically being a failure, was sort of a success.  The second goal I totally dropped the ball on.  Whoops!  My bad.  The third goal was very much a success, and I am proud of my efforts.

Goal #1:  Get 12 bag nights

I got ten.  Several times I could have gone out and picked up the other two but I always opted to stay home and spend time with Beth.  So while this is technically a failure to meet the goal, I failed on acceptable terms.  It is also worth noting that ten bag nights is way more than I normally get in  a typical year.  Some of the nights I spent outdoors were terrible, and others were enjoyable.

Campsite on Two Branch

Here is a list, in no particular order of where I spent my bag nights this year:

3 nights spent out on the Katy Trail.  During these 3 nights everything was conspiring against a good nights sleep.

1 night camping at Carlyle lake.  The day of our arrival the lake was too choppy to have any fun paddling, the next day it was smooth as glass.

1 night camping on Two Branch island.  My nephew and I paddled down the Cuivre to the Mississippi.  Horrible stretch of river after we left.

3 nights during the Kayak100+ (MR340).  I have never been so exhausted in my life.  Paddled 340miles in 76hours.  Very little sleep.

1 night on a random boat ramp on the Missouri river.  100miles from Jefferson city to St Charles, we decided to take a nap.  Bad idea.

1 night camping on Two Branch again.  I enjoy paddling out to the river islands.  Last time we were racing the dark this time a storm.  We lost.

During Kayak100+ I was trying not to look exhausted.

ROCK Racing teammates Chuck and Robin (among others) met me at the finish of Kayak100+

 

    Goal #2 Increase level of fitness

I think subconsciously I made this goal as vague as possible so that I could claim success in the end.  Even with a vague goal I have to admit to failure.  It wasn’t all failure though.  Leading up to Kayak100+ I was doing great.  Then the wheels fell off and I now at my heaviest weight (can’t weight to eat?) and feel like crap.  Epic fail y’all.  Being heavy is not the only area of failure in this goal.  I am also not any stronger, but that is probably because of all the workouts I missed.  As far as running goes I am doing okay, not great just ok.  I have a plan to correct all of this though because 2013 will be one of the most physically demanding of my life.

Goal #3 Build on the foundation of the 100+Project

I would call this one a success!  While the 100+Project is not widely known around the world, I have been working hard to spread the word and draw attention to the efforts put forth.  In 2012 I had a couple mentions in the media, completed Cycle100+ and Kayak100+, and also held a very successful 12hour run/fundraiser.

Cycle100+ was 240miles on the Katy Trail.  Gary Wilson and I rode the entire length in 4days.  What a great ride it was.

Kayak100+ was a 340mile paddle from Kansas city to St Charles along the Missouri river.  Cycle100+ was a joyride compared to this.

Page of the Health in the St Louis Post Dispatch section (below the fold) 

Blurb in a local Sunday magazine.

The 12hour fun run, was a just a great day all around.  This was something that I was doing as a training event for Run100+ and decided to invite people to join my friend Cheri and me for as much as they wanted.  I suggested a $5 donation.  We started at 6am and I don’t think there was one lap that we had to run alone.  In total 30people showed up and many donated a lot more than the suggested $5.  We raised a lot of money for a good cause.  My only regret is not keeping track of everyone’s miles.  I wasn’t expecting that many people to show up and it was difficult enough keeping track of my own miles.  Maybe I can reconstruct them.

Cheri (far left) and I with some of  the people that came out for the 12hour run.

Summary

I think in the goal department I broke even.  I’m not happy about #2 but can only blame myself.  I couldn’t be happier about #3 although I have some things that I need to work on in the future to make it even more enjoyable for everyone following along.  As previously stated I’m ok with how #1 turned out.  I didn’t get 12 bag nights but I did get 10 and that is pretty good for me.

Goals for 2013

I like these goals so I will keep them for 2013 but with a few modifications.

1. Get 20 bag nights.  I will have 8nights associated with Hike100+ so 12 would be to low a number.  Increasing to 20 cancels out the hike nights and leaves me with 12nights to get on my own.
2. Increase fitness.  This will be measured a success by meeting two of three minor goals.  Weight 170, pass the Army PT test according to the standards when I was still serving (pushups, situps, 2mile run), and break a running PR.  Within these there is certainly criteria by which success can be measured.
3. Build on the success of the 100+Project.  There are big things in store for 2013.  Run100+ and Hike100+ will be two of the most demanding challenges of my life.  They both have such a slim margin of error, one tiny mistake could mean failure at both.  I am thinking about adding another 100+ mile journey but as of yet haven’t decided what.  More fundraisers apart from the big events might be a good idea.  I would also like to get the 100+Project on TV in 2013.  That a lot, but I assure you it is all one goal.

That is how my year went.  Hopefully 2013 will be much better and more successful, and I hope yours is the same!

2012 Goal #3: 12 Nights in the Bag

Some years ago when I had a subscription the Backpacker magazine I read about the term "bag nights", a term to describe the number of nights you slept in your sleeping bag.  People would write in saying things like "last month I had five bag nights" or "last year I had 35 bag nights".  It all sounded so great to me and I thought that I would love to be a bag night person.  Fast forward to the present day and I have probably logged less than ten in the past five years.  The idea of sleeping outside (camping style not homeless style) really appeals to me so this year I decided to challenge myself to log 12bag nights.  One night each month should be easy, right?  The challenge won't happen that way though because I don't have the gear to camp in cold weather and have no plans to buy it because as the temperature rating goes down the price goes up, up , up.  I am more of a Walmart/Target camping supply shopper unless I can find a sweet deal somewhere.

The number 12 came up because I knew that there were already a few nights on the schedule (see below) so it had to be more than was already planned otherwise there would be no challenge and since it was 2012 it seemed right.  Plus I didn't want to pick a number that was unattainable and 12 seemed like a fair amount.

My old tent and Chuck's old legs

So here is the breakdown so far for 2012:

• 3nights on the KATY trail (May)
• 2nights during the MR340 (Jul-Aug)
• 1night during the Berryman AR (Sept)

That is six nights accounted for, so that only leaves 6more nights for me to get out into the wild.  Should be a piece of cake.
For the sake of clarity I should point out that in my book at least, sleeping in an actual sleeping bag is not a prerequisite to logging a bag night.  My requirements are flexible depending on the situation.  During the MR340 for example we won't be "camping" but we will be out in nature on the Missouri river for up to 88hours (fingers crossed that we finish sooner) so that has to count for something. Not to mention the 34hours Team POW/MIA spent wandering around the woods at last years Berryman Adventure, that has to count as one night.  It is not yet decided if sleeping in a tent in the backyard will count though.

Bottom line is this, I have never found the time spend time outdoors the way I want to and this year things are going to be different.

Thus the telling of the goals was concluded.

Leave a comment below and share some of your goals for the new year!

Team POW/MIA Adventure Pt. 1

We all agreed that a dress rehearsal with all of our race gear was a good idea and Megan really wanted to ride the Berryman trail, so we decided to take a trip down there to test the waters.  Unfortunately Ryan had a family commitment and was unable make it out there with us.  He was definitely missed, misery loves company.
We met at White Castle at 9:30am Saturday morning, and convoyed out to Berryman.  We arrived at the campground around noon and quickly set up camp.  While setting everything up I discovered that one of my tent polls was broken, and realized that I need a new tent one that is free standing.  It was next to impossible to get my tent pegs into the ground but without them my tent doesn't stand up.
After setting everything up spirits were high as we prepared to go ride the trails.  The status of my wrist was cause for concern since I haven't been on my mountain bike for so long.  All I could do was give it a try and see how things went.  I was also under the impression that we were going out for a much shorter ride.  This is how I know my team makes up in determination anything they lack in skills and experience.  I'm the veteran the guy that gets out and does this stuff, and it was the other team members who are pretty new to this kind of thing who had no question that we were going to leave camp, ride the complete loop, and grill pork steaks when we were done.

Mark before the mechanical issues

We decided to ride in a counter clockwise direction because I thought that would be the easiest.  I forgot my Garmin, and my gloves, the gloves turned out to be no big deal but the Garmin would have been useful toward the end.  At first we were taking it slow as Megan and Mark got a feel for the trail but they came up to speed fairly quickly and I wasn't worried that they were going to do anything beyond their abilities.  It doesn't make sense to get hurt on a training expedition so close to the race.  Surprisingly my wrist felt fine, the brace really shored it up where it was needed and as long as I was careful there it didn't hurt a bit.  Somehow Megan mananged to hurt her wrist though.  She said that she just twisted it the wrong way.  I could see her going into therapist mode checking her range of motion and gauging the severity of the injury.  She said it would be ok and we continued on.  This team is full of tough individuals. 
At some point we stopped and discussed how far we were going to ride.  The only easy marker that I knew of was Brazil Creek which was roughly 10miles from where we started.  This was my first inclination that this was going to be a much longer ride than I thought.  I was game though.  We rode for what seemed to be a long time and came across another group of riders who told us that we had about a mile to go before we hit the creek.  The short stretch of road from the trail to the creek was a very welcome change especially for Mark since his bike had a rigid fork (Mark is hardcore for riding the trail on that bike). 

Megan Crossing Brazil Creek

Once we arrived at the creek I broke out my water filter and we filled our water bottles and bladders.  It was pretty hot out and we were drinking quite a bit of water.  I was glad that my pack had room for 2 bottles (I only brought 1 though).  The filter worked great and the water tasted good too.  Looking back if we hadn't had the filter we probably wouldn't have made it.  We took the opportunity to take some pictures riding through the creek even though the water wasn't very high, maybe 6-8inches at the crossing.  After a quick break we made our way up out of the creek.  This section is by far the steepest on the trail and we pushed our bikes to the top it was so muddy we couldn't have ridden even if we had wanted to. 
The second part of the trail seemed to be easier with long downhill runs that you could really fly down.  At times I was pretty far ahead of Megan and Mark because I just wanted to let it rip.  At one point I caught a pretty good sized stick in my rear wheel/derailleur area resulting in a severely bent derailleur hanger and a broken spoke.  Megan and Mark caught up to me and I told them that's usually what happens when you are the farthest away from the trail head.  Luckily I could bend the hanger back in place and the shifting was good for the most part.  There was really nothing I could do for the spoke, but anyone who knows me knows I have plenty of experience with broken spokes so I wasn't too concerned since it was just one.

My Trek

We rode on for a while without incident until we came to pretty good drop.  It wasn't huge or anything maybe knee high but it had to be ridden with a decnt amount of speed to avoid getting tossed over the bars.  I rode over it without a problem and Mark looked to be doing the same until his rear wheel came down.  I'm guessing that the vibration from the trail loosened his quick release and his wheel almost came off.  We stopped and made some adjustments, then rode and made some more adjustments.  It seemed like the wheel did not want to stay in place. Eventually we got it to stay but the I noticed that his front brake was unhooked.  Apparently it had been like that from the beginning.  He said he couldn't get it adjusted right so he went without it hooked up.  He said it would be ok, and since he made it this far without it...
We were all starting to wonder exactly how far it was to the end because daylight was in short supply.  Megan and Mark were smart enough to bring their lights so I wasn't that worried about the darkness.  I did have my headlamp so if it came down to it I did have a source of light.
After a long while we reached the Edward Beecher recreation area and once again had to refill our water supply at the spring.  When we stopped I was very worried because I could see an "aura".  This normally is a precursor to a migraine, and I didn't know how I would make it back if a migraine set in.  I grabbed some Aleve from Mark and hoped for the best.  Luckily a migraine never developed but I am at a loss for what caused the "aura".  Daylight was fading fast and we were anxious to get back so we didn't stay long.

Which way?

We hadn't gone very far when Mark had another mechanical issue with his bike.  He said his rear (only) brake wasn't working.  I checked it out and found that his brake cable had snapped.  This was real downer for all of us because it would slow our progress considerably.  We didn't know how far it was to camp or how long it would take us to get there but we all knew it was going to take a little longer.  Mark got back on the bike and started to ride.  Luckily the section we were in wasn't steep or technical so it worked out.  When he could ride he rode and when he couldn't we walked.  Sure it was a less than ideal situation but no one complained and we just kept moving forward.
At one point someone asked who would be the first person to hallucinate in the race.  I guessed it would be me because I have hallucinated at Berryman before when I thought I saw a bear that when I got closer turned out to be a log.  I know what you are thinking "If you thought it was a bear why did you get closer?" The answer is simple, I had run about 40miles at the time of the "sighting" and I was to tired to care about being eaten by a bear.  So as we were riding along I thought I saw someone standing on the side of the trail.  I was wondering what he was doing out on the trail.  Once we got up to where he was I realized he was actually a post.  So needless to say I am super excited to find out what hallucinations a 36hour race will bring on.
We kept going and going and going.  Keep in mind I had no watch and therefore had no concept of the passage of time other than now it was dark.  Even with lights it was too dangerous to ride since Mark had no breaks so we went into death march mode.
On and on we kept going.  When we saw the sign for the turn back to the campground we were very excited because we knew we were close.  It seemed to take forever to cover that last stretch of trail.  Finally there it was Mile marker 0 just a few more yards to the campground.  We were so relieved to be back. It was around 8pm so we had been out there on the trail for 7hours.
Megan and Mark got the fire going to throw down some pork steaks and I heated up my Chik'N.  The food tasted great.  We were too tired for s'mores and we went sleep in our tents.  Sunday we were going to meet up with Ryan for some paddling.
Before I settled in for the night I sent Beth a text to let her know that I was still alive.  I slept restlessly but woke up refreshed, without any soreness at all.  Mark and Megan felt refreshed too.  A blessing from the trail as a reward for our hard day.

We broke camp and headed to the Bird's Nest to meet up with Ryan for Part 2 of the weekend's adventure...