Training Log Archive: RLShadow

West Point Day 2 (Long). Green Y. My definition of a "spike" is very loose compared to elites, I'm sure. By that I meant I didn't have to re-attack a control -- but I may not have taken the most efficient route, and I may have gone way slow.

No real major problems, like I encountered on Day 1 in the Middle. One error where I wound up in the wrong reentrant, but fortunately I was pace counting from a good attack point, so I realized fairly soon (when I didn't get to the control by when I expected to) that something was wrong, and I figured it out pretty quick. Might have lost 3 minutes.

(AttackPoint split analysis indicates that my lost time for the total course was 5:15, which is very good for me, and way less than 19 or so minutes of lost time, on a much shorter course, in the Middle distance race on Saturday.)

Generally, though, just very slow. Partly because it was a hot day, partly because it was a very physical course due to the rocky, hilly terrain, but mostly because I just can't go fast in this complex terrain without getting lost, and my goal was to have a reasonably clean run, rather than to be moving fast and inevitably making some big mistakes.

Finished 11th in my age group, out of 18 who successfully did the course, plus 2 who mp'd. Finished 15th out of 41 people (across age/gender categories) who did Green Y.

Forerunner distance was 3.98 miles (6.4 km).

Green Y Long Distance - Splits

Event: USMA West Point A-Meet 2010
 

Middle distance course at West Point.

I was put slightly off balance when I found out, in the starting area, that I was on Green Y, not on Green X (like I think the prelim. info had said). I had the Green X clue sheet in the holder on my arm, so I promptly stowed that in my pocket, to avoid confusion. No loose clue sheets were at the starting area, so I needed to unfold my map on a number of occasions to check the control description and code. No real major loss, just an annoyance.

I did acceptably (meaning slow, but no huge errors) on most controls, but made two big bobbles. One was on #4, which I could tell was going to be tough. It was a cliff, on a fairly steep hillside with probably 15 other cliffs, and no real obvious attack point. I went in hoping to find it (not a real good strategy), didn't, and finally made my way to the top of the hill (about 6 contours up from the control) to re-locate. Then I found it. Nearly 15 minutes on the control; I think others were doing it in 5 minutes or so.

The other blunder was on the second to last control, which was really a very easy on, unlike #4, but I took it too lightly. I've heard that the two controls to be the most cautious about are the first and the 2nd to last. The first for obvious reasons, the second to last because it's late in the race, you're tired, you're looking forward to being done, and you might tend to treat the rest of the course as a formality. I think that's what happened to me. I did 13 minutes on this control, which should have been done in around 3 minutes.

I was 13th out of 19 starters in M60. (Counting two people who started but MP.)

Sprint at West Point.

I had two mistakes due to lack of focus, and one due to not reading the map as well as I should. The two lack-of-focus ones were going to the wrong control (skipping a control). That happened from 4 to 6 (I actually punched in at 6, then realized that the code was wrong, so went back to get 5, then re-punched at 6), and from 11 to 13 (started going to 13, didn't quite get there when I realized my mistake, and then got 12 and 13).

Poor map reading error was on #9, which is a cliff between two barracks. There are four barracks, parallel to each other, going up the side of a hill. The problem was, the 4th barrack was shown in outline, rather than filled in like a building would be. That is there nomenclature for a building that can be passed under (many of the barracks are on "stilts"). I didn't see it on the map. So it looked like the cliff was between the 2nd to last barrack, and the last barrack, which it was really one barrack lower.

A few other relatively minor bobbles, which are far less significant than the about 3 errors.

Finished 6th out of 10 in my age group.

Green Y Middle Distance - Splits

Or/Br/Gr Sprint - Splits

Harriman State Park, Polebrook Mt map. Trying to get re-acquainted with West Point style terrain and mapping. Map hike, finding some features that I arbitrarily picked as "controls", and finding some features from the short-distance WOC map from 1993. Went very slowly and cautiously, for the most part. Attempted to read ahead and simplify the map, and occasionally succeeded in one or the other.

Morning run on the Hojack Trail with Homer. Tried out the second pair of shoes I bought at DSW a few days ago. They're road shoes, not trail shoes, but the Hojack trail is tame enough that no real need for trail shoes on it. These shoes felt decent, at least for the length of this run.

From Klem to Lake and back.

Late morning dog walk with Cheryl (and Homer, of course). Irondequoit Bay East, starting from entrance on Empire. There is a very substantial (in length, not width) new trail that Cheryl had discovered in previous dog walks there, which we went on. Obviously needs to be mapped -- will have a big effect (probably positive, although I need to get it on the map to find out) on course setting in that part of the park.

Dual purpose walk. Take Homer on a walk, and try out new trail shoes that I bought at DSW yesterday. Only $50, and they claim to be made in the US (from imported materials, though). They felt very good in the store, and felt good on this walk.

Over to Finn Park, to the creek so Homer could have a dip (even though it was around 40 degrees), and back.

Trail run at Whiting Rd trail system, with Anne. She signed up for the Medved race at Mendon this Sunday (stated distance is 15 miles; actual distance in some previous years has been more like 13 miles, but the course seems to change every year, so no telling what it will be this year). She wanted to get in a decent length trail run to maybe help get ready for it. We did two full loops around the perimeter trail, then did a non-perimeter loop of around 1.8 miles or so.

First run in these new shoes, and they felt fine. They seem fairly rugged in terms of tread design so they may made reasonable O shoes.