The cobwebs she spoke of sounded substantial. Wells is studying the structure of collagen in animal skin in an attempt to find out why leathers are so weak.
The aim is to reduce the amount of "looseness", and therefore waste, there is in the complex production process.
But next month in Hawaii it will be the world's top Xterra athletes she is looking to skin.
She leaves on October 22 ahead of tilt at under-24 glory on October 27, and is looking for a top three finish in her age group just two years since taking up the pursuit after growing wary of team sports.
Wariness of another variety plagued her during the weekend's Big O Trail Run in Rotorua, in which organisers gave competitors a lot more than they bargained for.
"Someone said the 35km distance, which was the longest one, ended up being about 51km. They had trouble with the boat - there was supposed to be a boat trip in the middle but the lake was too rough so the boat couldn't run and people had to run even further.
"Some people did some pretty big distances."
She was the women's age group winner of the 21km race that measured some 27km on some competitor's GPS watches, but did not mind the extra work in the lead-up to the world championships.
In typical Kiwi fashion the relative newcomer to the sport is pulling out all the stops in her preparation, including attempting to simulate the conditions of Maui using thermals and anything else that comes to mind.
"I'll go there, go my hardest and see what happens."
