Training Log Archive: David_Waller

COK red course at Crowders Mtn. Nice map (although it probably could stand a little bit of updating of the vegetation) and a nice venue. COK could pretty easily do a middle-distance A-meet here if they wanted to. It's good to be running on a map with 5m contours again. A pretty well-set course, and all-around good time. I bobbled each of the first four controls (and #4 was a pretty bad error) but I was able to recover from each mistake pretty well, and then finally settled down and finished pretty well and efficiently. A 6k course on a cool autumn is so much less exhausting than last week's 8.8k course in some heat.

Clearing debris from my 400m track in the woods. I should be able to take an inaugural run in a day or two.

Started checking control sites for the Saturday score-O, the day before the Bubba goat. Found probably the most aesthetically pleasing control location that I have ever used.

C • This should be interesting!! 7

Carolina north forest.

More time in the field for the Bubba goat; a pretty good day. Umstead park management approved our permits for both the Saturday and Sunday events (18 and 19 Oct). It's looking like I'll be setting the Saturday event, too, which I will turn into a declining score-O. We won't need SI for it -- only pads of paper -- which will enable me to get some of the goat controls out early. This in turn, should give me some time on Saturday afternoon to spend with Ben and Stephanie, who are coming down for the weekend of festivities.

Blue course at Umstead. If someone sat down to design an 8.8 km course with as much climb as possible at Umstead, they could not have done more than today's course. Very grueling -- probably more climb than the goat will have next month. All in all, there were probably two too many legs for me, as I could only stagger to the last two controls. Perhaps if there had been water out on the course, I could have rejuvenated enough to finish a bit stronger.

My navigation was unusually solid, with no real flubs. I got quite frustrated at #8, a gully junction, which I approached pretty directly, and spiked perfectly. I stood probably 4 meters from the flag, on the spur overlooking the juction, and didn't see the bag. So I went to the next gully over, and of course didn't find it there. I approached the correct gully again, this time from a different direction, and again probably stood 2-3 meters from the bag without seeing it. Explored another ditch in the other direction before coming back to the correct one for a third time. This time I saw the bag, but only after having wasted at least 5 minutes.