Training Log Archive: TomN

I had a pretty good run except for one control, #2, which should have been easy. I have no idea what I was thinking, but I must have passed just downhill of the control and kept on going up and up and up. When I finally did start thinking, I knew I was way too high, and in fact, I knew right where I was. So I made it back down to the control just fine, but I lost 10 minutes in the process. That would have more than made up the difference to the winning time in M60.

The rest of the run was uneventful. I was very slow on the long leg to #5. Chose to go south down the long ridge and join the road near the lake, but it seemed to take forever. I was slowed down some by recent logging activity. I know it was mentioned in the meet notes, but I think they understated the problem. This really should have been marked with green slash. And the unmapped skidder roads added to the confusion. I tried once to diagonal in towards #5 from the road, but backed out and went further down the road to a better approach. I think I could have been 5 minutes faster if I had just gone to the trail at the closest approach from #4 and run it all the way around.

Long Green Y - Splits

I didn't have high expectations for this event (in fact, I was terrified of it), and this time expectations met reality. I went slowly and got to #1 just fine, but Ernst Linder caught me there. We went to 2 more or less together, and I made a bad route choice to #3, not seeing the trail in the rocks and cliffs. Had to relocate twice. I didn't totally trust the swamps, so when I found a wet spot, I wasn't sure it was mapped. But then I found one with a control in it, which was surely mapped, and and that finally got me back on track. A few other times I lost contact with the map, and it took some time to regain it.

I'm tempted to blame the rain, but in fact I could see pretty well. I wore a hat, which kept my glasses dryer than they would otherwise have been, and I carried a handkerchief folded up in my e-punch hand to wipe off the magnifier and glasses. The cloth stayed dry the whole time, even when I fell and dropped it once.

You had to be right on to find controls, and it was a lot of fun when that was working for me. Pretty tough when it wasn't. I think I got better at it as I went along, but I still have no idea how to do it at speed. I wish I had one of these in my back yard to practice on.

Middle Green Y - Splits

Wow, this was unexpected. I haven't often done well in sprints, and given that it forced Addie and me to travel separately, I was thinking of skipping it. But I entered, and won a gold, which, as Jerry Garcia says, goes to show, you don't ever know.

Attackpoint shows me with zero time lost, which is a first ever. A little slow on the first control, I would have said. But the navigation was pretty easy, so I remembered to read ahead, and the map was uncluttered enough that I could read it on the run.

Sprint Green - Splits

Core strength, again. No running for now. Legs not feeling too great.

Core strength workout, stretching, and a little bit with a tennis ball under the hamstring attachment area.