Training Log Archive: arcticQn

Earlier start today, much cooler temp but still high 70s i think it was.
Again distracted at the start, which usually I like, but I'm beginning to realize (in hindsight) that I need to focus, concentrate, get my head screwed on straight and have a plan before I flip the map over. How novel, right?! :)
Turned the map and saw a route to 1 by taking roads around, didn't like it. Decided that since I saw a bunch of people running through the parking lot that must be a decent route and thought to try that instead. Dropped down through the woods and came across a paved road. What, where'd this come from?! Dropped through the woods again onto the playing fields and started running towards the parking lot. Looked at the map and saw a trail before the parking lot that I just passed. Ran back to it, decided it didn't look good, so I continued back again on my run to and through the parking lot.
Passed Greg balter who no doubt wondered what the hell i was doing. Got to the end of the parking and saw on the map this little red "X" across the road that I wanted to take, looked at another option, another "X". Determined that there was no way around it (except there was, not a great one, but there was - in hindsight), picked my ego off the ground and ran back through the parking lot, back up to the road and around on the originally discarded route.
What a way to start the day. There are waaay too many reasons I can think of now for why this happened, but basically i just needed to settle myself down, realize that this race is a lot longer course than either of yesterday's and take the few extra seconds to figure it out BEFOREHAND! ugh. I think i lost about 6-7mins on that one alone.
From there it was another flustered mis-calculated route straight up and over the ski hill to 2 (which I didn't think ended up being too too bad, but I guess I lost about 2mins) instead of going around on the road, which of course now seems insanely obvious.
At 2 I caught up with Ethan Childs and we ended up sticking together for the rest of the way, off and on, which was a HUGE asset and i would surely have run much much slower if I didn't have him to push me along, whether it was from in front, behind or alongside to simply to see whose routes were quicker.
The rest of the course was pretty cake, other than overrunning 8 by a few meters and standing around wondering by how far and then getting to the circle of 12 and looking around for 10s before Ethan graciously pointed out that I was standing, on top of tiniest cliff in the area, right above the flag at the bottom of the cliff.
Then at 13, I was fortunate enough that, after my catastrophic disaster on 1, I had flipped my map over to see how awful the rest of the course would be and saw the nearly 2km long leg to 14 so it wasn't a shock when i got to it! After actually studying some route options, Ethan bounded off to the left and I determined likewise that that looked like the least crapiest option, despite some immediate thrashing through green slashy yuck. Still think it was definitely the best route. 14 on was smooth sailing, got away from Ethan on 14 and 15 I think but he made a push and caught me again by 20 or 21.
Overall I feel pretty down about it, perhaps because it was so blatantly obvious the errors on 1 (and so public) and otherwise it simply showed my lack of fitness. I obviously feel weak on the hills, but my orienteering skill is similarly lacking. Doubting my great 'comeback'.

C • Ah come on... 7

Red Long Distance - Splits

Event: USMA West Point A-Meet 2010
 

Had a late start today at 10:37am, which, by the time I dillydallied around in the morning, got ready, ran to the start, saw my dad running BACK from the start yelling something about a race number, realized I also didn't have MY number, running back down the hill, then back up, I delayed my start by another 20-25mins. It was a good warmup. or not.

Perhaps due to this pre-start confusion, the brain wasn't really focused at the start line and when I turned the map over I just started running somewhat blindly, at least in the right direction. Stopped running when I felt like I should, then stood around for a bit trying to match things up. NOT the way to start a race. Fortunately I was able to relocate somewhat fast, and the splits show that it wasn't actually THAT slow..which is surprising.

Even after this bobble, I didn't slow myself down and was still was pushing aerobically much harder than I could orienteer. I know I do quite terribly in the heat, and this was standard can't breath, can't run, can't think fuzziness. No HUGE errors, but definitely some poor route choices, and there was often potential for larger mistakes due to not following along with the map or with the compass. I guess I was lucky. Other than the lack of navigational prowess I was just slow, slogging up every small hill and suffering over the top.

I'm going to start running/hiking hills wearing a snowsuit and carrying a 50lb pack. Will that do it??

Gah, even the warmup was wicked! 1.5km with 80m climb! (twice!!)
Thanks Dad for running the rest of the way back to the car for my #!

I hadn't signed up for the sprint and knew that I would get ridiculed for not racing it so it was either leave the premises and go do something else with the afternoon, or suck it up and guilt-trip myself into doing it anyway.

I'm pretty good at guilt-tripping myself I guess.

It was reiterated to me that it would be good training and speedwork and since i have no results as far as US ranking... I guess I had to do it. It'd be fun anyway and honestly, what else is there to do around here?? except get a really nice tan while napping in the sun.

It wasn't that bad. I tried warming up a bit but it was SO hot that I was sweating just standing there. I already had a blazing headache from the morning and I really just wanted to get it over with. I knew it was going to be painful so I think i held back a bit in the beginning to save myself. Still had to walk the uphill to 5 and 6 but the rest was actually pretty great. Route choices weren't awful (mostly 'cause I had already scouted a bit of the course) but otherwise... not too shabby!
Glad I did it. and glad mom and dad did too!

Red Middle Distance - Splits

Red/Blue Sprint - Splits

Travel day. Got out of work around 2:30, swung by Kristoffer's office to drop off Loki, then by a job that I'm working on to see how they were doing, then off down to Concord to meet the rents to drive the rest of the way together. Oh, and a quick stop at the market to pick up snacks! gotta have snacks for car tripping weekends!

Kristoffer kicked me out of the door when we got home (if he didn't say anything I would never have gotten in a workout), and so, since it was late I decided to run some quick hills. The parents always said.. if you don't have a lot of time, hills are the best thing you can do. So i did. I had settled on 4x90seconds down on the steep hill trail off the rail trail, but after the third rep it was getting dark quickly, loki had lost his frisbee that we had to go find and I'm not exactly sure i could finish a 4th anyway! At the top of the 3rd, we continued up the trail which turns quickly into blackberry/slashy central in an attempt to find the new subdivision road that we walked to the other day. From there i knew exactly how to get back to the house, even though it was through more stickers. yuck. Loki's paws are hurting, poor pup.
Got in some running drills on the rail trail during 15min warmup. Cool down was mostly walking, other than the brief time we were on the subdvision road. Lungs and legs appreciated the workout after all.

C • Run? 2

4x30reps ball crunches, 3x20girlie pushups, various other exercises..

Got home after work and it was snowing. Yes, it WAS 85degrees out a few weeks ago. And now it's snowing. An inch of slushiness on the ground already! So instead of going down to the rail trail to run hills, I decided to do it on the bike.
Found a workout that I had downloaded back when I had full intentions of serious bike training. Basically 7x3min, 1min off. progessively more standing as the hill repeats went on.
Felt pretty good strength-wise, but I could hear myself wheezing pretty bad while inhaling as my HR climbed into the 70s, even through the music I was listening to through earbuds.. Disconcerting, but this is about what it's been like since I got that cold a few months back. I don't recall it so bad before.
Hopefully it just goes away. I can't blame it on pollen, because I'm sure it's all been dragged down by the falling slush!
:-/

90 ball crunches, 60 girlie pushups and 20-30reps each of bi, back, hams, quads and calves.

Stomach was crap when I got home and jostling around while running sounded like just about the worst idea ever, so instead Loki and I set off through the woods in search of fiddleheads for dinner. Didn't end up finding any (too early yet I think), but we discovered that the new subdivision road that was put in last summer below our house has amazing views of Moosilauke, Sugarloaf, Hogsback, Black, Kinsman and Lafayette mountains! Who knew! Wish we could clear out a bit more (ok, a LOT more) trees around our house! I mean, what's the point of living on a mountain (or hill I guess) if you're not going to have views... ;)