Training Log Archive: Wyatt

To try to avoid a Migraine today, which I almost got yesterday, I took two Excedrin before I ran, as well as after (instead of just after as I did yesterday.) Also, after a late (8pm) large dinner, I only had a banana, Mt. Dew & Gatorade for breakfast today, as well as a GU 1/3 of the way through the run. Warmup was pretty limited as it was going to be a pretty long run. I think I was the only one dressed in shorts and no shirt today. Or for those IOF rule readers (of whom two approached me at the event), I wore a very short sleeveless shirt with a built in HRM.

2nd day of US Champs. A great run for me. First guess is notably less than 1 minute of error total, worst being maybe 10 seconds?, which would be only the 2nd time ever on a regular course (that I can remember.) That, and I felt like I could run a little better - perhaps better acclimated (or Excedrin'ed?) - and I very, very slowly reeled in Christoph Zurcher who was 2.2 minute ahead of me and started 4 minutes ahead of me today. I first glimpsed him at 8km, and continued catching glimpses, and was fully in contact from about 11.5km, only passing him around 13km, about the same time Eric Bone passed us both. I chased Eric the rest of the way but he pulled away enough that I had to navigate 2 of the last 5 controls anyway. 6th on the day on the same minute as Boris & Sergei Z., albeit still 7-9 minutes behind Will & Eric (better than yesterday, per/km vs. Will, who won overall.) Only moved up to 8th, but that's okay. I'd like to get faster.

Blue 2 - Splits

Approx. time/dist. as I wasn't turning on/off the GPS consistently in my fractured warmup.

Day 1 US Champs. Unsure on route to 4 (far left), then missed left on 5 and lost about 2 minutes - didn't follow compass well enough through the reentrant and mistook one hill for another. Corrected, but ended up behind Christoph Zurcher who'd started 2 minutes after me. I don't know if Christoph has beaten me often, and I wasn't expected it, so I thought I'd work hard and pull ahead, but all I could do was take turns leading the pack of him and I, and a Swede who caught us both a 8. The Swede pulled away at 20-23 (only glimpses there) and then Christoph worked really hard to pull away from 26, and finished about 11 seconds ahead of me.

I fell 3 times today, once hard enough to knock a bit of wind out of me, but little lasting damage.

Blue 1 - Splits

At airport - an early acclimation run... Didn't feel that hard, but perhaps it wasn't steep enough or fast enough? Also was only at 5000ft vs. 8000ft for the races...

Training run afternoon before US Champs on map across the street. Good to do this at near race speed as I was making errors and correcting my technique as I did this, paying much more attention to the compass (and averaging the bubble wobble better) to stay on track.

Some misc. running with the kids

Tempo run on the boardwalk at Ocean Beach. Goal was to beat 11 minutes, as I'd guessed aloud that I was fit enough to do while at WOC, without any evidence. This was alone. With others and/or on a nice track, I might be able to shave some time off this, but I doubt I could get even halfway to 10, which would be closer to the level of Ross, Will & Eric who I'll be racing this weekend. Maybe I'll get to 10 someday, but it would take a leap forward I'm not expecting to get close to 9, which is probably a maximum for a WOC A-final hopeful. Although in '07 my year of running every day I did make more progress than I'd every expected before, so surprises could happen.

GPS measured the distance, but it was clear, with few buildings or trees around so it's probably accurate within <1% over this distance.

I suspect Hill & Sam can run sub-11 too...

C • not so far off 6

Event: 2008 Laramie Daze & US Champs