Training Log Archive: Anna

Map from Alexei. Mostly medium-complex contours and marshes.

Step 1: draw control circle
Step 2: draw exit

Really, really good race today, with the exception of one control.

I was 100% on all 3 of my goals:
1. Have a picture of my exit direction in my head approaching each control.
2. Trust my compass, and pick trees ahead of me instead of constantly looking down.
3. Read contours and compass to confirm my location on a trail.

The only mistake I made was on number 13, when there was a control on a different shallow reentrant, 40m before mine. I checked the code, saw it wasn't mine, and then hesitated WAY too much before I continued. Afterwards, Sharon explained to me that controls on similar features are now allowed to be closer than they have been in the past.

In the future, I should pay more attention to distance on featureless hillsides. 100m is very different than 140m. Eric told me that when he saw the control in the distance, he had already formed an estimate of how far the next control was and realized right away that something was a little off. I can practice this with armchair and with legs of varying length at Hammond Pond (maybe contour-only, so there's not a better way of telling how far I've gone?).

Overall, I'm very happy with the weekend. I wasn't expecting to have the fitness to challenge the M50's and M55's.

Garmin distance: 6.18 k

C • I fell for the same one! 11

All the important ones. Didn't want to do too much bc my legs felt heavy from yesterday.

My hamstring/back of my knee was a little sore, so I avoided lunges and squats. Otherwise, a pretty balanced mix of stuff.

Home from airport

Day 2 - Green Y - Splits

Event: 2013 IS IC Championships
 

Had a pretty good run! I was worried because it looked like it would be a runner's course and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to keep up a good pace the whole time. But I felt surprisingly good! Tempos seem to be paying off:)

What I could've done better:

a) committed to my exit out of #2. (5-10s) I ended up going a fine way, but there was too much indecision. While I have been focusing on exit direction lately, it's really only been a compass-based decision. Maybe I could do some long legs at Hammond Pond with technical exits?

b) trusted my location on #4 when I was coming down by the cliff, or decided where I was supposed to go before trying to climb down. (30-45s) I have a feeling my dumb mistake came from being frazzled by the footing.

c) read the contours in addition to the trails on my way to 6. (30-45s) Spike pointed this out, and it's a bad habit I know I have. Contour-only and armchair can help with this. (That being said, I did a really good job of recovering.)

d) paid more attention to my compass in the open area on the way to the stream crossing. (30s)
I also need to get better at picking a tree and running to it when I'm following my compass in the woods. (10s)

e) either aimed off on 11, trusted my compass more, or been more confident that it was at the very top of the reentrant. (25s) I was actually not far off, but the control was behind a tree and I ran in the other direction first.

f) kept going towards the lake—that's what I'd aimed off for! (20)

[And: nothing I could've done about this, but the stream from 13-14 was deeper than I thought. So my route choice wasn't great. 15s]

Total room for improvement: 2:40-3:10

In general, I felt like I did a good job making confident route choices and reading ahead. Hopefully that will continue tomorrow! I have almost a minute to make up on Rick Breseman.

Cooldown on the model. Didn't do all the controls, and I walked up some of the hills.

Warmup, some of it with Erin. Talked about spiking the first control. Also, Erin knew just about every junior we passed on the way to the start.

Day 1 - Green Y - Splits

Just registered and booked my flight to the Pig, where I'll finally be running my age class. Excited for the spring season!!!

Unplanned rest day due to flight being delayed. :( At least I got here!

A course from a Finnish map I stole from my mom.

Ran a few controls on the longer course as a warmup/cooldown.

Warmup

Tried to go fast. Succeeded in some places. Got lost in others.
Straight line distance was about 3k.

Warmup, cooldown, and rest for the trail hills

The goal was to get better at running faster in terrain without hesitation because I didn't feel so smooth on the last terrain loop I did. I decided it was best to do something when I was fresh-ish with lots of rest, like hills! These were challenging, but it was easy to focus.

This is my rest. The intensity is a 4 bc even though it was easy, my HR was wayyyyy up.

Did some shorter reps after the longer ones, this time on trails. Fun workout. I should do longer hills or more reps next time:)