Training Log Archive: Fanatic

Event: WCOC Pond Mountain
 

What a difference a day and a different location can make. My buddy, Bruce Shenker, casually mentioned at the Peebles Island meet yesterday that there was a meet in Kent, Connecticut on Sunday.

Being the 'you can never have too much of a good thing'-type of guy, I decided to give it a go. I knew while driving to the start that this would be completely different than Saturday's race. But I had no hint of the difficulty that I was about to face. :-)

The Red course was listed as 6.4km and the Green a bit under 4km. I asked about water on the course and was told that there was none. Unfortunately, I hadn't brought along a water bottle carrier. What to do? I decided to eat and drink as much as possible before the run, feeling that I could easily manage two hours without additional water. I think I had that right, in retrospect.

But, there were a few flies in the ointment--the orienteering was difficult for me, I managed to make a few boneheaded errors early on, and I was having difficulty getting into the map.

However, those were minor annoyances compared to this: The course length wasn't 6.4km, it was really 10.8km, and after two hours, I was dehydrated and just not capable of either running well, nor capable of orienteering well. I don't offer those as excuses, just the facts, given my meager orienteering experience this fall.

Near the end, I was reduced to a shuffling walk, and even then I made a really dumb decision to short-cut the route by going through some easy terrain that was marked light green. I don't mind pushing through crap, but one doesn't easily push through vines entwined with briars. Lesson learned--stay out of the green stuff at Pond Mountain. I was so scratched and beat-up by my attempt to get through the crap, that once I finally retreated back the way I had entered, I'd had enough for the day and left the last two controls unvisited.

Those water jugs at the start/finsih haven't look that great in years. LOL

C • pond mt 4

Red Course - Splits

Event: EMPO - local (club championships)
 

Well, after a fair number of orienteering meet failures, I finally managed to get a decent run under my belt.

It helped a lot that the woods were very open, the control placements not technically difficult, and that there were a lot of folks out on the red course at the same time that I was out.

Aside from that, I did tweak my approach to the event--I decided to not use the magnifier that I had used last week, just going with my normal eyes and paying a lot more attention to running to the attackpoint, and then carefully making sure I was on the right line to the control. The map scale was 1:7,500 so the details were quite easy to read, too.

Of course, the Blues Hill Traverse won't be so easy. :-)

Ran on roads once again, ugh. Had to go pick up my car, about 4 miles away from Simon's Rock in Great Barrington.

Hmm, the damn weight is creeping up. :-)

But I've certainly cut back a lot on my running time over the last month, but evidently my eating has remained the same. :-(

Rare road roading today, as I had to drop my car off at the mechanic's shop in Great Barrington and then I ran to hitch a ride home with Colette, who was at Simon's Rock.

Interesting that what annoyed me the most was the fumes from the cars--I've not run on the roads in ages, just sticking to the trails for all my running basically. Now I know why.

Another easy run in Kennedy Park. Just avoided getting hit by a rain cloud.

Ran in Kennedy Park--game plan was to take it easy, but I felt surprisingly good. Guess the orienteering the day before wasn't too exhausting. :-)