Training Log Archive: bishop22

Took the day off to recover from the weekend. It was actually an active recovery day, since I did plenty of running around the track during the meet against Spencerport. The boys and girls both pulled off relatively exciting wins.

Chelsea almost had a career day. She won the 400 in 63, then finished just behind Megan (and just ahead of the Spencerport star) in the 800 (2:33, the hard way: 80, then 73). She then ran back-to-back winning relays - 4x400 and 4x800.

Nate also had a nice run in the 3200, although he didn't believe me when I told him he had to sprint to break 11, so he finished in 11:00.8, but that was good for 2nd place.

Event: ROC - Irondequoit Bay Park - West
 

National Capital Orienteering Festival - Classic Course 7.

It seems Canadian orienteering just doesn't agree with me.

I ran nearly the first 30 minutes thinking I was on a 1:10 map, but, as we had been told, it was a:15, so I did not find the first control in that time. I returned to the start at 29:57, to start over, and realized the map was 1:15 - got to C1 in about 4 minutes. That mistake took most of the wind out of my sails, and the rough going (limited visibility and terrain not suited to my running) took out the rest. I was OK to C2 and C3, but the path to C4 was not runnable for me, so although I executed the route I wanted (well, pretty close), I was still quite slow.

C5 was my second disaster of the day. I came within about 30m of spiking it, as I came along above the stream, to the west, and thought I was at the double reentrant, and expected to see the cliff, but I saw no rock features (as it turned out that was due to the limited visibility), so I convinced myself that I had to go further. In fact, I talked myself into going all the way to where the descent towards the river started, and I saw the river. I then returned south to the control, attacking successfully from the same double reentrant I had visited some 20+(?) minutes ealier. C6 was smooth and C7 was not too bad (again, just lots of walking).

C8 was the third, final, and worst disaster of the day. I crossed the rough open marshy area right on the line and hit the small hilltop just beyond. From there I went left of the line to avoid some climb and came back to hit and cross the marsh, and followed it to what seemed to be the tip, and attacked, with no luck - when I started to climb, I knew I had gone too far. I could not see very far at all and the area was flat and indistinct, with the vegetation mapping not really helping me at all. I attempted to relocate several times, including from what I thought was the small marsh east of the flag and the rocky area above the stream. I eventually had one last chance, or I knew I would be OVT anyway. I missed again and had to leave. I came to the stream just where expected , so I had to have been very close. I went to the right and followed the trails to attack C9. I came in high on C10, but there was finally a control visible from a distance. I didn't want to deal with another marsh at this point, so I jogged due east to the trail to get C11 and made it in with MSP instead of OVT.

One additional learning: If I run thru so many saplings again, I have to seriously consider wearing a cup. Ouch.

Well, I hope this at least served as solid HTFU training for next weekend. I expect this week to be a full blown taper - Nate and I could have a good battle next weekend. He took 2 out of 3 from me, but we're headed back to the US.

Jogged back out to the start after shadowing Luke.

Approximate time that I spent jogging out towards the start with Luke, then following him on his course. He really hustled some sections, especially after Ethan passed us on the trail.

Event: National Capital Orienteering Festival
 

Time might be right, but this is just a preliminary posting for Chris, since we just got back to the hotel.

Nate had a disaster of a run, over 50 minutes; 2 huge errors (perhaps 6-8 minutes). It was very limited visibility and challenging navigation.

Luke had a decent run, but the hills took a lot out of him, so he finished at the back of the pack (not by much).

I was very close to many bags, but couldn't see them with the limited visibility and the "strategic" placement. I eventually figured out that there was a big advantage to knowing which side of the feature the control would be on, and missing that way made it simple to recover.

I only got in a halfway decent workout (perhaps intensity was as low as "2" overall). Between the limited visibility and the difficulty of fighting through the light green, I spent too much time going slow. More later...

I did manage to edge out the Kempster, but Eugene made up 4 minutes on me, and then outnavigated me in the last few controls. I think I was 3rd in my age group (running "down"!). Nate did manage 2nd, but that's with an asterisk, since Andrew got injured just after the first control and had to take it easy.

The rain came in shortly before the sprint started, so it was quite different than the beautiful weather for the noontime Middle starts.

My race ended up being a disaster. I was sloppy to the first control and gave up a bit of time, then I just had a "duh" moment at C2, which was surrounded by buildings, but I stopped short when I couldn't see a flag. C3-5 were fine, but I missed C6 too far right and it was a decent climb (and I was in no position to climb), so I lost time 2 ways. I had another OK stretch (except I could tell I was slow on the uphills), until C12, which I blew by 90 seconds - running to the main road, instead of the dirt road, and had to come back uphill. And C13 was a 1 minute error, trying to go straight through green, instead of the very friendly route past the tennis courts. I avoided that because I didn't want to run so close to the finish - how stupid is that.

Nate had a much better race. I don't think he beat the Kempster (who won the elite women's race), but he was 15:41 with only a couple of minor navigation errors. He didn't run as hard as he could have, so that's what cost him some time. I think the winning M21E was under 13, and Nate could have been in the 14s easily.

After I got back, I followed Luke around. He had just a couple of starts in the wrong direction, but recovered himself. He was not last in M12 this time, but the rain chased us away from waiting to see results. Luke can stand to improve his map usage. He doesn't thumb, so every time he has to look at the whole map and figure out where he is.

OK, so we added another attackpointer this evening. I didn't have time to pull all the info from him about today's races.

A low-ball estimate of w/up before the Middle, w/dn afterwards (quite short), w/up for the sprint (fairly short) and w/dn afterwards (the sproadic running after Luke).

I deserve a day off, so I don't fee guilty about not bringing anything for a noon workout, especially since I have to leave at 3, to start the trip to Ottawa.

Had the varsity boys do the 4x400m workout that Marc did in 3:50 last year. They did pretty well - I think AB was about 4:06 and Nico was just behind. Nate was about 4:26 and Kenny just behind him. JP was under 5 minutes. I was right on 5 minutes, despite doing them alone. I timed the kids, then ran one, allowed for recovery and repeated. I went 75, 76, 76, 74. I don't think I've run 4 quarters that fast in several years.

We did 7 strides afterwards. And I had just over a mile w/up. Plus some jogging between reps.

Had less than 15 minutes on the range. I guess they officially close it at 6 on Thursdays (I though it was 7).

We were out for just about 2 hours, so this is just the time spent moving - we had two stops, and I stopped the watch for a couple of stretches where we had to walk.

Very nice trail in honor of Frequent Faller's visit from Hotlanta, where he has been for over a year. After a giant circle at the start, it included some serious tours of the ER/Penfield/Pittsford (depending on who you are talking to) trailer parks and some nice running around the Corbett's Glen area and Irondequoit Creek.

Highlight of the trail was probably the culvert crawl under a railroad bed on a serious hill - probably saved about 5 or 6 contours of climb. It might have been here.

Ran with Scott - E-Colby-Park and in via the alley past Muther's, etc.

Easy run, since Scott was at the track yesterday, except picked it up gradually on Park between Culver and Goodman - averaged 7:16 pace, but it was probably 7:45 picked up to 6:45 at the end.

OK, perhaps I can still play this game. After 44 putts on 18 holes last weekend, I managed to get out with just 15 putts in 9 holes tonight. And my score showed - put up a 40 on the front 9, which included a ball in the water on #3.

I had 3 drives of 260+ yards, including one into the wind on #6. Too bad I'm out of town the next two weekends.

I ran 20 minutes before the track meet at Fairport - around the school grounds to Ayrault to the next neighborhood west and just into the Center Park field for a brief loop, before returning to the school via the shortcut from that neighborhood. Center Park plus the high school, with the shortcut as a bottleneck would be a good Wyoming training map with all of the hills and some rough open land.

I ran several 50-100m strides across the infield during the meet to catch races at different spots. I'm taking credit for 5 minutes, though it was certainly more than that.

Started driving home and decided I had to cowboy-up, so I pulled in to Center Park and ran 20 minutes, covering most of the XC course, while looking back at all of the splits I had captured from the meet (not running with a map, but probably helpful training as I calculated splits on the fly).

The boys and girls both got smoked by Fairport, but we had some good performances. Nate went 2:12 in his first 800 done fresh in a long time. But he was clearly overshadowed by Vanzo's 2:03 (with no distance training - he does the 400 hurdles). Chelsea also PR'd, going 2:27 to finish a solid second, passing 2 Fairport girls in the last 300m. Then Kenny won the 3200m (OK, so Pat DuPont was not in the race, still any win against Fairport is a big win).