Training Log Archive: chinghua

My second time at Cemetery Hill, so that was helpful. The grass in the open spaces were waist high! Very different from in the late fall.

Minor slip-ups at 2, 7. Major slip up at 8 (matched myself to the wrong edge of the open space). Wish I had done the long... this seemed to go by too quickly (not that I placed very well, but still).

My first mass start event and I witnessed it from my car, as I pulled in just past noon. Classic case of getting lost on the way to an O event? I thought I had driven too far south on 5, turned around and went to the other side of the mountain. Didn't see any O-signs and decided to go further down route 5. Of course, it was just a little farther down from where I had turned back the first time.

In any case, it didn't do me any harm. In fact, I suppose it gave me some room for the first couple of controls. Eager to get started, I failed to change shoes, which was a bad idea because the shoes I had on were too loose and I ended up with blisters (minor but annoying, especially the foot with the blister on top of the blister).

1 - I noted that this was in a saddle but I failed to note count contour lines and thought that the saddle was located above me when in fact it was at the level I was already at. So I climbed an extremely steep "hill" only to slide down it minutes later. A good work out in any case.

2 - Too quickly, I ran down the first trail I saw, and assumed I was on the a trail that I was not on and ended up at the road. Decided to stay on the road and climb back up later to the control. In hindsight, I should have backtracked.

3,4 - Fine

5 - Back to 2...this climb was SO tiring

6 - Followed the contour lines, then the voices :-)

7 - Could have been quicker, but at least I found it before the voices arrived.

8 - Back to 2...this climb was SO tiring

9 - Here's where things fell apart. And if I hadn't missed my Garmin all weekend, I sure did now. I still don't know where I ended up going. Somehow though, I managed to hit a trail and figure out which trail it was, though I have no idea how I got there. From the trail, it should ha ve been straight forrward to the control, but it wasn't. I think 90% of the mosquito bites on my body were earned on the way to this control. Walked the rest of the way.

10 - Couldn't bring myself to take the trails, but of course, I should have. I ended up doing the other two edges of the rectangle through the woods on a steep incline instead of along the trails. I think I would have missed the control if not for someone else leaving the control. I should have inferred which side of the ridge the cliffs would be facing.

11 - A relief! Feet tired and hurting. But did manage to bring myself to jog to the finish :-)

Event 4 - Cemetery Hill Short Sprint - Splits

Event 5 - Short A: Mount Tom - Splits

Event: Western Mass 5-Day
 

Warming up on an orange was a good start to the weekend. This is the first time EVER that I've completed an orange course in under an hour!

Lessons from mistakes:

Overall: I felt like I was correcting myself sooner, in general. I guess maybe I'm developing a better intuition.

4 - Felt too "safe" with the water as a reference ran too far along the edge. In hindsight I should have used the stream nearby as a reference. It would have pointed me in the right direction.

5 - Need to pay more attention to precise center of circle so I know which side of the attackpoint the control is on!

6 - Running a bit further so that I can leave one trail at notable curve/kink will help gauge at which point I meet an adjacent trail that may not have any notable curves/kinks.

My first green since middlesex fells, at which I had taken 3 hours and found probably half the controls. Therefore, very satisfying to have found all the controls this time!

Lessons learned:

Overall - Takes more than 24 hours for prior lessons learned to be applied.

1 - actually, I didn't apply my lesson learned from the orange course earlier on. Reminder, when hopping from trail to trail, need to take note of where I expect to land. This time, I thought I landed right of where I wanted to go, but really, i had landed left.

10 - same deal on the way to 10! For this leg, I should have run back to control point 4 and used that as a point of reference to head to 10. Is that kind of cheating?

I guess this was my best showing this weekend, and a very pleasant surprise. I do believe that the sprint training Neil provided at Purchase and FDR made a difference. The training at Purchase helped with being familiar with the different look and feel that campus maps have. Both sites were helpful with discovering that it was possible to run pretty hard without stopping to read the map.

When I had reached the 7th control and hadn't gotten 'lost' yet, I started to worry about how many more opportunities there were for this to happen. It was quite a relief when I looked at 10 and saw it was the last one (I guess I should have noted this earlier) and that I knew how to get there. For these sprints, I can start to appreciate being able to plan a couple of controls ahead.

Event 1 - Middle Orange - Splits

Event 2 - Middle Green Y - Splits

Event 3 - UMass Short - Splits

A damp evening at westmoreand sanctuary. Ropes, wires, swings, and almost lost the light.

At the Cliffs with Peter, Pat and Susan. Lots of laps. Was happy that I still seemed able to keep up with Pat. Means that I didn't much by focusing so much on bouldering. I was expecting to be cruising the 5.11s, but unfortunately, was not. In fact, didn't manage a single 5.11 clean, to my disappointment. Still, I fit in several routes and had a good time catching up with the others. Always new moves to learn and muscles to build.