Training Log Archive: Sid

After bacon and eggs breakfast, put out the SI units for the Thomass Eliminator. It was decided to drop the control below the escarpment as the skree and boulder trail was very icy.

C • Thanks! 3

After the race collected all the SI gear back into the 60 l pack. Late arriving Raymond was just in front of my control collection. Was rainy but with goretex shoes and rain gear, I was toasty. Control below the escarpment was not too bad to get to as the rain had meltted most of the ice. Excellent chili afterwards at the AGM.

Set up poles and flags for the OOA Thomass Eliminator. Excellent course designed by Hammmer. Beautiful Spring day to be out in the woods. Carried all the gear in my 60 l pack. Bonked and had to stop for calories at one point.

Walked from main terminal to Concourse D and back to Concourse A in Atlanta Hartfield Airport, towing carryon. Afterwards flight delayed 1.5 hours.

Light cycle at hotel fitness centre.

Weight routine with core on multi machine at hotel.

MTC Swim with Coach Ken. 800 m warm up choice, 3 x 100m back, 2 x 100m free, 2 x 100m breast and 100m side stroke. 600 m kick alternating front with board, back and side. 400m pull and 4 x 50m on 1:10 pace. Finished with 15 x 100m on 2:15 pace time. Swim felt good though took it easy. Rose bush scars and O dings did not look too ferocious!

Nice start to last event spiking 1, 2 & 3. Then waved to photograher on the way to 4 and completely blew the control, overshooting twice, before finally hitting it. Cost about 7 minutes. Poor route choice to 5 cost another 5 minutes. Overshoot again but corrected. White on the map was actually dark hatched green ( wild rose bushes). This was confusing and painful. Nice cross country route to control 6. Half way there picked up a Wilson NFL football in the middle of the woods. Internal debate decided that I was not going to medal so the football was an apt souvenir. Plus being an A/R with 15 years football experience, the decision was obvious. Control 6 was a bit tricky but used finger shaped ridge as a handrail. 7 was close in a creek bed. Control 8 was the long leg diagonally across 9/10 of the map. Ran around red out of bounds, kitty corner to hydro line trail. Down trail across hill to lake. Trail up hill to parking lot, kitty corner to main road. Ran road to first west parking lot. Angles across hill to creek junction, uphill to 8. Had company on this entire section. Alternated arm with football as in running back drills. Perhaps a 1/2 minute route choice error but debatable. Hit 9 & 10 on bearings for lesser cross country to 11. Got bearing off and hit red control before correcting for proper one. Ran uphill and side hill to 12. Maybe better route choice could have saved 15 seconds. Straight forward run to the finish line. Concentration and route choices lead to a low finish in this Classic. Football also slowed me down. People commented that they thought it was not me in the distance though the colour scheme matched as I appeared huskier. Just the foortball in my hands. Footbal may have helped navigation as less but more useful looks at the map were taken. Would have left ball if in contention.
Great event overall!! Temperature was about 36°F, good for racing with minimal layers. Now being a middle of the pack competitor makes for a more interesting and social event.

Green - Splits