Training Log Archive: W

Okay! The long distance. Its a bit of a bummer that the map wasn't 1:15000, but I was expecting some long legs with big round hills, and that's pretty much what it was.

In general, I didn't feel like I was moving too fast. I was making mini-mistakes here and there, and although I was fatigued, not, WUOC 2012 in Spain fatigued.

The biggest problem I had was my darn shoes. Yes, it was dumb to wear almost new shoes, but it wasn't really a problem with the shoes, it was the laces. The tongue kept slipping sideways and exposing the laces so that went I flexed my foot, the laces were pressing directly against my foot. It was extremely painful, and I stopped to retie it at 3, then again at 8, and then again a little later. I kept having to un-tie, adjust the tongue, and tie it quite loosely. Ironically after the third time, the laces near the toe-end got caught on a tree and snapped. At that point I was hoping my laces didn't just unravel entirely and my shoe came off. Even now, a month later, there is still some bruising where my foot was being pressed by my lace. I didn't know laces could do that much damage.

Then, to complicate things, at 15, my Garmin strap broke. Just "blip" broken. Fortunately it fell out right at the control and not into a swamp somewhere. So I picked it up and stuffed it in my back pocket on the way to 16, all the while wondering if I remembered to punch 15. Oh well, I was not going back.

I think stopped paying attention and made a silly mistake at 18. I was trying to take a little shortcut to the path and went too far down, being forced to then come back uphill.

At the second to last control, I vowed that I would not walk up the final hill. I was going to run the entire thing and not stop until the finish line.

And it made all the difference.

Long Course 10 - Splits

Nationals Middle distance. I knew what I was getting myself into, having been on this terrain before. Its not easy, but, kind of sort of easy. I likened it a bit to Whitehorse middle, but I think the difference is that this was much faster. Whitehorse forced you to slow down, where as it was easy to get carried away and fly around the course. And that's just what I did.

It was 4-5 where I took a bad bearing out of the control, partly to avoid a climb, and partly because I was in a hurry. It means I left in the wrong direction and was making multiple parallel mistakes. I crossed the deep ravine to the right hillside, but I had gone one re-entrant too far, and then confused another deep gorge for a clearing. All you could see is horizon. It was at this point that I theorized that this might all be going wrong because I skipped over a control, one I couldn't remember if I had punched or not. So I decided to re-locate by going right back to 4. Turns out I had punched 4, and so I left it more cautiously and problem-free hit 5.

But, after that, you're hurrying, or a little cautious, or both, and I was just too far behind to make any headway. A bit of a bummer, but middle has never been more forte, and it almost always comes down to one mistake. Eventually I'll take a middle title, but it won't be this year.

Middle Course 10 - Splits

Event: 2013 Nationals (Hamilton, CANADA)
 

An easy stroll around the training area in Hamilton. Wanted to get out in the forest, but without doing much running at all, since my cold from yesterday is definitely a cold. I'm doing everything I possibly can to keep it away, plowing back the vitamin C, hydrating profusely, lots of tea, but I can feel the subtle sore throat and the colour of the mucus is, well, you know, changing colour. So, this kind of sucks. I knew I was due for a cold but figured it would happen during China. As it stands if I were to tick two weeks from now, that means it'll pretty much finish the day I get back from Asia. Doh!

Okay! Nationals Sprint. Definitely have a solid cold kicking in. You know, just check the colour.

But, no matter, it didn't seem all that bad, I could still breathe just fine through my nose and it only meant a bit of a dry throat.

Had the pleasure of starting dead last, so lots of time to hear what was going on, see what was going on, and worry. Lots of worry. Warming up on that turf field is nice and soft, but its also a little draining, I suspect I felt like I wasn't running as fast and being a bit more fatigued because that surface is relatively slow, at least compared to the track beside it.

Anyway, the race itself. I studied the old map a lot and used the Google street view to tour campus so I had a good idea of where the dead ends and the gaps were. I didn't actually expect the course to cover so little of the campus, and I ended up running the same passageway three times. Not to say that was the only option, but sometimes I like sticking with a familiar route, since I gives me time to do other things. I got really lucky at one control where I was reading ahead and very nearly forgot to go to it, but it appeared in my line of sight so I double-checked and realized I was actually supposed to go there.

On the long leg, I ran quite slowly and spend quite a while studying the best option, in case going straight across the track was a good choice. But, going straight meant going down the ravine and going back up, whereas around meant you could bomb straight down the spur into the control, which I think was the best choice. After that the course was straight forward, so I really really opened it up and pretty much run balls out from there. I tried to channel all of those times I finish uphill intervals by sprinting right over the top, though in this case the top happened to be another, like.... 400 meters. It felt real nice.

So, no major mistakes, I think, but there were definitely times I should have been more productive with my planning, once I started to see other people I was too focused on gaining on them than planning. Still something important to work on.

Sprint Course 5b - Splits

Travel day to Hamilton.

Also, sucky news, I'm getting a cold!

A short mountain bike spin with Nevin to watch some of the XC race at Saskatchewan drive and spin out the legs before the weekend's races. Nice evening, and a distinct difference from last year where it snowed for the first time and stuck all winter. No winter on October 9 this year!

Okay! Time to catch up on some backblog. I've got lots of writing to do, the blog, AP, etc. etc.

In my o+ blitz before nationals, I did part of a long-o that Chris planned in Whitemud ravine. Felt really quite good while running. Its again an area I know very well, but tried to do a nice brisk pace, and occasionally felt very excessively brisk for an easy run. That was nice.