Training Log Archive: oxensd

Event: NEOC: Earl's Trails
 

NEOC club race in Hadley/Amherst. 85 to 88 degrees, I completely ran out of steam and walked quite a bit including most of the last kilometer. Do not do well with heat...the unplanned bottle of wine late last night with Connie and John may not have helped either...

Orienteering was OK-ish, lots of steep slopes and I made a few mistakes:
- 30-45s wobble on #6, went too low and got lucky by seeing bikers on the path and realizing I was too low
- 3-4 minutes on #8, I never found the path going down the steep hill and thought I had passed it unnoticed and was going down the large reentrant to the W of the path. In fact I wasn't, and ended up 200m E of the control by the stream. Took it slow navigating up to the control as there were no features to navigate by.
- 2 minutes on #10, I went a little high and didn't see the control, relocated back to a cliff to the SE, and then found it.

AP reports about 7 minutes which seems accurate.
Lots of steep hills made me somewhat frustrated - don't like them! - and probably affected my navigation/concentration.

My (new) Suunto watch acting up again, recorded zero GPS map data. Frustrating, here is an old fashioned hand drawn track on the map:
http://www.oxenstierna.com/davidoxenstierna/orient...

C • "Unplanned" wine 1

Red - Splits

Event: WCOC Simsbury Town Forest
 

Had a great run, fairly cool (65-75 degrees?) and not too much climb. Virtually no mistakes and really enjoyed the forest. Slight wobble on #9. Legs felt great most of the time.

Suunto watch failed to record GPS map data, so here is an old fashioned version :)
http://www.oxenstierna.com/davidoxenstierna/orient...

Red - Splits

Cardio 1 level 8

Moving book boxes and other stuff from Westy's storage and into basement. A proper workout in itself, exhausted afterwards!

Event: Raid the Sanctuary
 

Cardio 1 workout, level 6

Event: Billygoat 41
 

Billygoat! On the terrific Burnt Mountain map. Excellent weather, low 50s and overcast. Took it fairly easy and focused on navigation. Placed 28 out of 70? Except for a big snafu at #1, fairly pleased with navigation, spiked pretty much everything, and had decent speed. One questionable route choice. I ran alone almost the entire race, navigated to pretty much every control.

Unfortunately my watch only started recording the GPS track between #2 and #3, also failed to record properly between #16 and #20. What is it with these Suunto watches??

Tried to keep up for a while with the fast runners at start, but over 100m elevation to #1 defeated me and I fell back. We ran on the small path south of the line, then I thought I saw the blue marsh S of the control and decided to cut through the woods avoiding the roundabout way on the path (I also dislike running in crowds / following...not a good quality for Billygoat!) But I hadn't followed along carefully on the map and was actually further W. Came to some small marshes, thought I knew where I was and headed NE, but missed the corner of the path and ended up in the green mess N of #1. Decided I didn't want to try to relocate (difficult) and so skipping #1 seemed like a good idea...went straight to #2 which I found without problems along with a few others. AP splits indicate I lost a couple of minutes compared to people who kept with the crowd and on paths.

Decided to go straight to #3, most people turned S to touch the paths. My choice seemed fine as the forests were fast (I knew from previous races there is a path along the long cliff). However the marshes half way were now lakes and I got "feet wet", and had to veer a bit N to avoid even more open water. AP splits indicate I lost about 2 minutes compared to people who went S and took the path for a while. To my surprise saw Joe B who must have made a big mistake earlier.

No issues with #4, followed the small path for a while. Joe skipped #4, I guess to avoid the swamp, not a bad choice.

#5 decided to swamp it keeping a little N to avoid the wettest part. Had to mostly walk but the swamp was OK, not too wet. Spectacular rock formations at the cross of the line with #21, with beaver dams as well. Dramatic and slow going for a while.

#6 no issues just followed the stream.

#7 might have been faster to go around the SE on the path, but forests were OK and I navigated well using contours and spiked it. AP splits indicate no real difference in time compared to taking the path.

# 8 and #9 were fine. Found a group of 4 people but passed them. Gained 11 places from 8 to 9, lots of mistakes made here!

#10, hard work going up the steep slope but no issues other than losing speed to the group of 4. Followed Victoria Campbell into the control.

Good speed to #11, passed the group of 4 (again).

Raced to #12 and #13.

#14, crawled up the cliff and must have just missed the control to my right, but doubled back quickly and saw. Victoria Campbell and company about 30 seconds behind.

#15, nice navigation and spiked it. Was now chasing Todov Kolev from Canada.

#16, chasing Todov, about 50m behind.

#17, no issues. Todov pulled away. Campbell group skipped #17 I believe, but I had already used my skip...

#18, fast down to the path, initially ran a little W on it until realizing where I was.

Choose the E fork which was the best choice if you couldn't skip #20. Perfect navigation but slow climbing about 35m, legs tired now.

#20, raced down the slope and hit the path exactly where planned, spiked the control.

#21, straight down the line and navigated well, through the dramatic rock formations and beaver dams again.

#22 hesitated slightly on approach, but spiked it.

#23 really tired now and struggled up the hill, but no problems finding the control.

#24 would have been tough to relocate in subtle terrain with loads of rocks, but spiked it.

A bit confused where I was crossing the paths on the way to the finish, but ended well.

Overall spiked almost all controls. Perhaps should have used the southern route choice to #3. Main mistake was obviously #1, which probably didn't cost me all that much time in itself (have to check splits), but not the right control to skip and so probably cost me 5 minutes or more.

Ended up 10 minutes behind Ted, and 20 behind Joe (check?), which is better than my average compared to them.

Map and GPS:
http://www.oxenstierna.com/davidoxenstierna/orient...

Billygoat - Splits

Easy slow run, deliberately so in advance of Billygoat on Sunday. Meant to run 10k but was interrupted by kid logistics duties...

Event: WCOC Huntington Meet
 

Cardio 1 program, level 6, 8% to 16% incline. 510 calories.

3x15 60 lbs overhead pulldowns
3x20 30 lbs leg extensions
3x15 20 lbs leg curls