Training Log Archive: TomN

Flying Pig Middle Green. I felt better on this run than the previous two, but the results still weren't great. Two legs with 4 minutes lost on each one. But even if I hadn't missed those so badly, I don't think my pace wasn't good enough for a medal.

I couldn't find the deep pit on #3. Actually, I really don't know how to navigate this leg reliably. I had an idea I'd cross the rock band and spot the control, but that didn't work. Then I went back and forth below the rock band, and that didn't work either. Finally located the bend on the SE end of the spur, pace counted back up towards the control, and finally saw it, higher up than I had been before.

Something similar on #9, which I expected to be easy. Diagonal down from #8 to the trail bend, contour along in the white just above the veg. boundary, then drop down into the ditch. Only it wasn't there. Went way too far SE, saw the little rock pile, came back but a little too high, missed it again, got all the way to the other little ditch with a different control in it, then finally ran to the right one. Ugh.

From there to the finish I ran along with Bill Lankton, who was keeping up a pace too fast for me to get by, and my only really good opportunity, 15-16, I got a little too high on the hill and ended up losing some time.

Again, some fine terrain, less technical than I had feared, maybe a little nicer than yesterday (by which I really mean, fewer thorns). Fun weekend.

Middle - 8 Green M - Splits

Flying Pig Long Green. I enjoyed the course and ran it pretty well, except for one 20 minute mistake on #6. I can see clearly what happened. It was an epic parallel error.

Coming down the hill from 5, I was trying to locate myself on the trail before crossing over the ditch, and I went west, almost to the trail bend. The location effort totally failed, and I went straight up the nearest bulge on the other side, thinking it was the next one to the SE. Hit the trail at the top, went SE, attacked from the trail bend (all matching up reasonably well with the next one over), then proceeded down the side of the big valley, counting little reentrants as I crossed them. Found a single rock and thought it was the start of the rock band. Up to that point it was 1 kilometer of "perfect" fit between the real track and the imagined track, so it took me a long time to believe I was that far off. Finally bailed out down to the trail to the south, quickly relocated and punched. But easily 15 minutes lost looking for the cliffs on the wrong spur.

Evidently I chose good routes on the next 2 controls, high on 7 and low on 8, because despite thinking black thoughts I ran those legs fast, 3rd and 4th overall.

Great area for a long course, and a good time of year too, because I wouldn't have wanted to run through all that greenbrier after it started to grow. It's really nice to see all these new Kentucky maps.

Long - 8 Green M - Splits

Flying Pig Sprint Green. Oh great, a long difficult sprint. Doing o.k. until 6, which I couldn't read to save my life. Saw a control that might have been right, fortunately checked the code, looked around and saw where I was supposed to be. I still don't know what to make of the low stone wall surrounding the canal. I crossed it twice. Don't see it on the map.

Still pretty well focused, looking ahead, seeing the right routes, until after punching 12 I inexplicably ran out 90 degrees off. Ran an appropriate distance but things didn't match up with what 13 was supposed to look like. Completely unable to recognize my surroundings on the map, but I could still see the building where 12 had been, aligned the map to that, and saw where I was supposed to go.

From there on, it seemed like every control was a struggle. Standing still after every punch, turning the map around and around, no sense of direction at all, no flow. Not a recipe for success in a sprint.

Sprint - 8 Green M - Splits

A nice run on a fine day, sunny and 40 at noon. Shorts weather. I ran out Railroad St., back along the river, then across on String Bridge and out Gilman Lane through the athletic fields. Across the river again on the old stone bridge and back past the track to the gym.

A quickie loop around the town during a break between meetings. It's been fine weather, sunny days and cool temps. Today it was in the mid-30s by the afternoon.