Training Log Archive: z-man

US Champs Day-2: The plan was to do exactly what I did yesterday but somehow manage to survive till the end. I knew that the map would be a lot more open than on Sat. and figured that 90 min shoud be about right, Greg said that the winner would be in around 86-87. I glued two GU to myself and planned to take one each 30 min or so. My legs felt ok, not fresh but definitely not tired, so I was happy about it.

My race was not a good one, despite a few places where I felt really fast and in control of things around me, I felt very disappointed with my performance. I began semi-aggresively planning on picking up a notch once I would get out in the open, and sure enough the 5-6 leg looked like one. After crashing through the green patch of woods I took my bearing, noted the lone standing tree on the horizon "rolled" my map, shifted into the 6th gear and off I went. Things flew by, I noticed some green that wasn't supposed to be there to my left, looked at my compass again and was reasured that I was still on my line. I was planning to hit a huge shallow openning before the woody area where the control sat, so I pressed on. Then came the fence which I immediately cleared in one jump and looked at the map once more, hmmmm... fence clearly wasn't there, but that still didn't stop me. I glanced at my compass once again and proceeded ahead. Then came the road noise ahead and the instant realization that something wasn't right, thus I came out of my RED zone. "Crap!" *&$H*)Y$%(%&!!! So I get back on the map and get the bag. I was a bit out of it on the next leg but my legs still felt good so I began speeding things up.
I guess I kind of ran out of gas at some point on my way to 20 and quite never picked it up again. Somewhere on the last uphill I thought that I wouldn't make it and those four contours felt really steep, but once past the top I was relieved.
I still don't know what really happened on that leg, I know I should've followed the map, no questions about it, but I aslo think that the magnetic north on the map (part of map) somehow was also off, perhaps not by a lot but if I am ever in that area again I intent on checking it.
All in all it was a fun weekend spent with goats highlighted by really impressive runs by both Will and Sandra, congrads to them, well deserved!!!

Blue 2 - Splits

US Champs Day-1: I knew exactly what I needed to do after blowing a bunch of controls during Fri. training. Greg and I spent some time analyzing our trainig and came to a conclusion that the footing was rather rough and that it was hard to read the map because one had to always watch the footing. I myself decided that I needed to watch my compass more precisely as I was easily getting pulled by numerous details and patches of trees around me.

Sat. course turned out easier than the one set on Fri. and I had no problem with bad footing this time. I had a good race. Perhaps, a total of 1:15 in errors plus a few hasitations. My focus was good and my legs didn't feel tired. I can't say I could ran it any faster. I ate my only GU after 30:15 into the race and don't really know if it helped or not, but most pple should be able to ran 60 min course without needing it, but I did what I have planned.

Blue 1 - Splits

Time to get that popcorn ready! Now where is my oxygen tank... Hope that our under chapter 11 airline takes off after all.

Had rather horrible run by the belt from ceasers bay to Verazano Br. and back. Just couldn't move my legs, muscles refused my every attempt to get my knees up. What a strange feeling, last time I felt like that was perhaps after Highlander back in '03.

Event: 2008 Laramie Daze & US Champs
 

O training in HP with a bunch of pple. I did a couple of o-intervals but decided to cut it short due to an ankle pain, then went out to collect some controls. This included 3+ km of getting to and from the training area.