Training Log Archive: PG

Event: NEOC: Houghton's Pond
 

NEOC meet at Ponkapoag. Green course, longest offered, supposed to be 5.0 km. First time there in a couple of decades? Will have to look in my archives when I get home tomorrow to check. Was certainly there for parts of either one or two Traverses.

OK run, nothing special. Lots of weak moments, reduced to slow walk by the vegetation and the warm day, but not too much in the way of errors, maybe a minute or two. And di some good orienteering too.

Giacomo got me again, no surprise there, but only by 4 minutes. And I got Alex by 5. :-) One step at a time as far as reversing the current position in the AP rankings.

The course, and my route.

C • Nice! 1

Green - Splits

Just once up South Sugarloaf. Warm day, felt very tired. Asking myself all the way up, Why do you want to do Mt. Washington again? Couldn't come up with a good answer.

C • why would you ask yourself ... 15

Congrats to the younger Richard Ebright, a fellow CSU member (and fellow Harvard man too!) for his what now seems to be third place at the WTOC. This is after there were apparently three controls protested and one thrown out. Prior to that he had been in first.

According to the IOF, writing in advance about today and tomorrow --

"Both days start with timed controls and continue with a maximum 132-minute course with 20 controls on day1 and 23 on Day 2; concentration skills will be stretched to the limit! So will actual TrailO skills, as the course planner is Brian Parker, writer of IOF’s technical Guidelines for TrailO, who will be guaranteed to squeeze every possible piece of decision-making practice out of the terrain, with many subtle problems."

So the IOF's technical expert sets the course, and three controls are protested and one thrown out? My sense is that this is not unusual, that perhaps protests are considered an integral part of the competition?

If so, should one member of our team be chosen specifically to spend the 132 minutes seeing what controls can be protested, and then actually protesting them if our leading team member gets them wrong?

And, since the rejected control decision bumped Richard down from first to third, shouldn't we have our "legal team" ready to counter-protest?

It just seems that good team preparation, to the extent that there is any team preparation, should include preparation for what seems to have become the rule, not the exception, of these competitions.

C • protesting 4

Short bike ride just before dinner, put out a little more effort than expected.

Also early morning, 79-24-1-20, less than a foot from a hole in one....

A nice loop at Earl's Trails, though the legs seemed a little tired from Ascutney.

Early morning - 79-23-1-19. Couldn't miss the front nine, couldn't make the back (36-43).

Out of the house at 6:15 and back to Ascutney for another go up the hill. Up in 48:38 this time, compared to 49:49 last week, so that is a little better. Don't think I was walking or running any faster, just ran a little more and walked a little less. Kept the heart rate under control pretty well.

But there is a big difference between doing it once and doing it twice, especially if the air is a little thinner during the second one. So still haven't decided on Washington, though it seems slightly more likely I will go.

Alex says I have to go. No I don't. Already done it once.

And then right back down, pound pound pound again (at least I was not wearing my lightest shoes, the Pegasus have some cushioning), because I had a date with Mike Fritz for a warm-down. 84-22-2-18. Quite a few good shots, and a good short game, but also a bunch of real stinkers and 6 penalty shots. Imagine if there were penalty minutes in O' every time you went somewhat off course.

A very enjoyable outing, only got rained on for about 5 minutes, and had the course to ourselves. Had the Ascutney road to myself too, except on the way down when I passed three bikers working their way up.

C • pound pound pound 4

Sunday at Nobscot. Other than looking about 90 years old and about 5' tall -- neither of which are true, but not that far off -- I look pretty good!



(photo from NEOC website)

Just a short jog up to the power line. Plus an early morning walk, 81-21-1-16.

Finally got tickets to Germany a couple of days ago. Hope i can manage to be healthy. I know for sure my ambitions will be somewhat lower.

No training today other than a nice walk. 81-20-1-15. Very windy and threatening, but no rain.

C • Corn Maze-O 1