Training Log Archive: expresso

NA Long Champs
Being so far out of shape, I had little left physically after the prior three days. That said, I felt I ran reasonably well and my orienteering was passable. I probably chose some routes which were overly safe and thus longer but I wanted to avoid any catastrophes. I did have two medium-sized bobbles but this was offset by some decent planning and almost constant map contact.
This ended a very fun weekend of excellent terrain and maps. I know what I have to work on but also what I did well and plan to continue.

After a postmortem course discussion with Eugene, Jan, et al. we started the 2+ hour trip to Buffalo. We found a Cracker Barrel for lunch and I had a tasty chicken & dumplings with a side of mashed potatoes & gravy. Yum!! I need to make CB a post-A-meet tradition.
Because we were 3 hours ahead of our flight schedule, we had a leisurely drive to Buffalo airport and took our time to get checked-in because (according to the United desk) our 7:30 flight was the next out to Chicago. As Maricel & I were standing in line for security, I looked up at the monitor to determine our gate and discovered that an earlier Chicago United flight was leaving in 8 minutes. So after an OJ through the terminal we made it there with seconds to spare and asked "Can we get on this flight??" only to hear the United gate check-in lady say,
"I'm sorry..." *pause for effect...* "We only have middle seats left."
"Oh Yeah !!" was our jubilant response.
We were even rewarded with economy plus middle seats. A great ending to a great weekend.

Run to/from car to start/finish.

NA Middle Championships
Rainy & warm day but we were treated to great courses on an excellent map of awesome glacial terrain. After yesterday's drought, my ego received a few drops of confidence as I navigated quite well over this complex terrain. Fatigue from the prior days (and a conscious decision) slowed my running to the point where I was able to plan my routes well and keep contact with the map. I had one medium and one large error which pulled down my time but I was very pleased with overall orienteering.

Being tired & soaked from the day, I wimped-out on the trip to a downtown microbrewery. As much as I missed the fun group, I needed solid (as opposed to IPA) carbs and rest before my long race on Sunday. I returned to Ruby Tuesday for their salad bar and a better entree and then retired to watch two Clint Eastwood DH movies and make plans & reservations for my next o-trip.

Event: North American Championships
 

Day's warm up/down running.

NA Champs- Sprint 1
Rainy day thanks to a hurricane standing off New England lashing the east coast. Event was a park setting (frisbee golf course) with a good mix of open areas, forest densities, trails & topography.
The map was 1:4000 and it took me a few controls to adjust to the scale. As I am pretty out of shape, I was not moving very fast and I made on error in heading to the wrong thicket for control 3. I saw three on the hill but only one mapped. I discovered later that the other two were covered by the control circle. Grrrr. My sub-par result net me an early start on the next sprint and turned out to be quite a disadvantage because I had few runners to observe ahead of me.

So I headed off on this sprint at a moderate clip and planned my route while easily finding the first few controls. Other than my lackluster pace, all was going well until the third loop when my oxy-starved brain jumped from one lineto another and I took two controls out of order. A few minutes later, after realizing my disaster, I had the opportunity to revisit these controls correctly. So I continue to show poor results at the sprint. Hopefully this will change as my fitness returns.

Charlie & Maricel of CAOC were part of the "show" as the sprint series finalists raced in a close head-to-head battle. Maricel did very well againt the elites and Charlie took the NA Sprint CHAMPIONSHIP for his age group. An awesome end of the day for our group.
We decided to hit another close-by restaurant (Ruby Tuesday) for dinner and enjoyed their good salad bar but the entrees were not very satisfying. Nevertheless, a fun evening with a chance to try some Hopfish IPA (60 min) which was not quite as good as the Saranac.

9:30 am flight to Buffalo and ran into Maricel in the security line. I was surprised to learn he was on my flight and amazed that he been randomly placed in the seat next to me. Charlie picked us up at the airport as he had been visiting family in Detroit. After a tasty hamburger at Fuddruckers, we finished the drive to Rochester for the their late afternoon score-o. It was not part of the NA champs rather a good tune-up.

ROC local meet. Mendon Ponds 1 hour score-o.
I planned to take all the controls regardless of the time as a warmup for the weekend. I figured this would take me over an hour but not 40 minutes longer so the run was more than I planned and I paid for it a bit later in the weekend.
Regardless, it was a good map of some nice terrain with some very steep areas and little underbrush. Very enjoyable. Made a costly parallel error (between two trails) at one point and could not convince my addled brain that I was not where I thought. Thus, I repeated attacked a control off the wrong trail. Not good but I learned from the error and was much cleaner for the rest of the weekend.

Following the meet we finished the drive to Syracuse & checked in to our room. The lady at the front desk recommended an Italian restaurant a short walk away. The place was overpriced and empty, however, we did get to try some Saranac IPA... yum. We also had the pesto gnocci in gourmet portions so in one of my more crass moments, I politely asked for seconds and we were rewarded with another plate to share. Great waiter. By the and of it, we had all OD'd on the rich gnocci & IPA.

C • No....you? Crass? 2