Training Log Archive: jfredrickson

Easy warmup for the long distance race. Legs feeling mostly recovered and the blisters weren't really bothering me so I was pretty much set. Considered dropping down to Red for today but decided to suck it up and do the 14k Blue since everything seemed to be fine with my body.

An awesome long course on the Pakim Pond and 4 Mile Circle maps. I started out well feeling really good and focused. Made a few small errors early on but was right on top of it and caught them all quickly enough to avoid losing any serious time. Lost focus at the map switch as I tried to stop and pull out the top half of the control description from my holder, but they were both sweated through so I had to pull them both out, separate them and then try to get the wet one back in. Then really lost focus on the long legs through the blueberries. I got way off my bearing on the first long leg and lost time just because I ran so much extra distance in the blueberries, but didn't really spend any time lost because I just hit a trail and new where was right away. I was running to a junction of two trails ahead of me and just got sloppy because I figured I would hit either one of the trails no matter what. I didn't realize how much time I would lose from not being accurate and spending more time in the blueberries.

On 15 I again made a compass mistake that took me around the wrong side of the little lake and then I missed the control when I was attacking it and had to go back out and attack it again.

And then it all fell completely apart on 16. I never saw the trail between 15 and 16 so even when I felt I had run far enough I couldn't stop to look around because I still hadn't seen the trail. I decided to keep pushing on until I hit the next trail. For some reason my first reaction was that it was the trail between the two controls so I crossed the trail and continued running. Then my senses hit me and I realized it was definitely the trail way past 16 and that I had gone way too far. I ran back to the trail and cut back in the way I had come. This was pretty stupid though since I had just come through that area and hadn't seen the control or any features to tell me that I had been in the right area. I should have cut out to the trail junction so that I knew where I was. I ended up wasting quite a bit more time even after hitting the right area because I was still a ways off from the control because I hadn't attacked accurately. I ended up stumbling onto the control after 10 minutes on a leg that took most people a minute and a half.

After that I was pretty solid but didn't have the strength to really push it hard. It was pretty frustrating to make such a big mistake. I guess I just got sloppy in an area where you can't afford to get sloppy. So much for discipline.

Blue - Splits