Training Log Archive: j-man

Event: SVO Memorial Day Weekend ROGAINE
 

Artichokes!

SVO six hour ROGAINE. An excellent race. Hard. Since Speedy has written up what we did, I'll just add impressions.

First of all, Speedy is an excellent Rogaine partner. When he pulled out all the gear and stuff during the planning phase, I thought I had joined the Special Forces. Anyway, we generated a plan that was going to be challenging. And we headed off.

2nd control scared me a lot on paper. And it didn't disappoint. We miraculously near spiked it. Next copule controls were OK. Once we crossed over the settlement and ascended the crazy hill, the "race" took on a different character.

By that point, we were around 3 hours, tired, and hot. And the hills would begin in earnest. However, the big thing which we didn't anticipate and which would challenge us for the rest of the race was generally pretty darn crappy woods. Real thick with dense sapplings and rock underfoot. Some places you could barely walk, much less run -- and these stretches went on for a ways.

Another problem was lack of water. My CamelBack contains 1.5 liters. There were no water stops on the course and I didn't want to do the stream thing. Therefore, I find it also pretty darn remarkable that I did not get cramps. Admittedly, if we were out much longer, I probably would have been fried, but anyway...

Towards the end, the distance/time situation looked pretty dire. Our plan was agressive to start with, but the long stretches of slow forest put us behind the 8 ball. There was really no margin for error. Only one shot per control - any misses and we had to keep going.

Somehow, and with the benefit of a gentle downhill road for the last 1 K or so, we managed to get in with 3+ minutes to spare. I was quite thrilled because 30 minutes earlier, it looked dire.

All together, it was a great day. I had imagined that this was going to be a level 2 outing (ex ante). Ex post, I realize that this is about my limit for six hours -- ergo, it became a level 4 workout.

Speedy and Vlad will rock the house at the NAs.

Ah! A rest day.

Real slow. It may have been a one if not for the good hills. They were at 3.

Almost all legs -- palm is still sore so I couldn't do much upper body.

2x30x30 lunges
up to 295 (by 4 x 20) leg press. Felt heavy.

7 mph, 2%

7 mph, 2%

TNT.

First part with Karl and John C. We did the rolling hills on the east side. I then finished off down to the bridge and back. Hill part was level 3, but average around 2.5; I'll round down.

Ran around Tyler. Wanted to run a little harder, but my legs refused. I thought I felt pretty good today, but I guess running three races in a row that count for something does take something out of you.

Warmup

Team Trials Long.

Another very good race. Even better than yesterday. Eddie's suggestion that this was "home terrain" stuck in my head. I believed it. And I'm pretty confident in "home" terrain.

Started out smooth and purposeful, but not "hard." A little off on 3 and had a big scare on 5 as I drifted left despite my compass and was not 100% as I made my final approach. That was a disaster averted. Thanks!

On the way to 6 I saw Joe, but then made a parallel error. I probably lost 45 s there? Anyway, passed Joe again to 8. Middle of course good.

Had another small loss of contact on the long leg, but recovered. Leg after I saw Tex and got a bit careless.

Lost some time on 15 -- I think it must have been route choice related -- I went pretty much exactly on the line, whereas it was possible to avoid some of that climb.

Anyway, felt a little tired later but again emphasized conservativism and safe routes. I thought I was having a good race and I didn't want to screw it up on the final few legs.

Back to the parking lot, up that darn hill.

Blue - Splits