Training Log Archive: britty327

Fudged the numbers a bit to account for the time around 10 (including a detour) that my watch stopped.

The Ultralong was the race I was really looking forward to all wknd. I felt it would be a decent comparison for how I stack up to with the rest of the field. I could definitely feel the multiple ankle rolls from the last 2 days with all the holes hidden under deep leaf cover. Legs were tired but intact. The Red had 21 controls, 15k redline. We were bussed west of Fountainhead to Wolf Shoals. I had never been to this part of the FH trail system. It was a mass start in the middle of the woods! We discovered that women's red had 1:15k maps, while Joe, Dave, etc had 1:10k for the same course. (Clearly the old guys need their maps magnified.) Chaos ensued at the start, 200+ ppl standing in a ditch in the woods. Head west!

I'm not afraid to follow others in the beginning as I get my bearings, but I'm glad in this case I only did loosely. I took a better route here, and punched ahead of the top3 women. Dusty and I were more or less together through CP5, where she took the trail instead of redline. Joe caught up to me at 5, and I stayed in sight of him to 8. I can't currently nav and run at his speed. I was feeling great, moving well, no mistakes. Through 9, I was essentially running the redline. To 10, I picked up a trail and stopped paying attention. I should have headed E along the creek; instead I continued on the trail and climbed the next hill. This was my only significant error of the day, but a big one.

Gave myself a pep talk to get my head back in it and headed towards the FH parking lot. From here, I entered the E side of the map, the MTB side. 13 to 14 was almost 2.5k, quite the haul. Trails zigzagged all throughout, but nothing good would take you there. I stayed for the most part on my bearing, using trails if they were traveling the same direction until I hit the main N/S horse trail. I was dead on for 14, which felt great. One thing I found myself using for reference points were downed trees. All of the major trees were marked and super helpful for me in terms of knowing exactly where I was along a reentrant etc. Used the trails on the E side much more than the W. Was really hungry by 18, but with no more water stops, I figured I would survive to the finish. Finished 4th behind women from Bulgaria, Russia, and Ukraine. They are so impressive to watch. Met a lot of new peeps. Awesome wknd in the woods!

UltraLong Championships - Red - Splits

Middle distance up next for the wknd. This meet was great exposure for me, as I have never a done a big orienteering event. Start times, starting area, go control, so many things to learn! Red courses for women don't have age groups, so everyone is ranked together. I was definitely outclassed in this field. Awesome experience though. I missed my start time trying to find the starting area in the woods along with half of the other competitors. No signs marking the correct trail to the start made for a guessing game.

Armed with a new start time, I composed myself. Woods were very open and fast. I tend to struggle with CP1. Found it much easier than usual. Cruised through 4. Enroute to 5, made a silly mistake crossing a lesser reentrant thinking it was the main creekbed. Wandered around the wrong spur before finally realizing my mistake. Back on track, I made a similar mistake at 10! Pay attention to the compass! 13 was problematic for me too. It was in a group of ditches/small spurs. I couldn't confidently pick it out and chose to hit the trail as backstop to the west and reattack. Not a clean course for me at all haha. Still learning to navigate at higher speed and transition from CP to CP quickly.

Middle - Red - Splits

Event: QOC Long Day's Night
 

QOC Long Day's Night Night-O. Immediately blew 1. Got back on track to 2 then overshot 3, eventually dropping down to the creek and reattacking from the bottom. More or less clean through 9. In sight of 10, I looked down....and realized my Epunch was gone. Great. Backtracked all the way to 9 and back to 10 with no luck. Not sure how it came off. Eventually Dusty came by on her way to 10, and we hooked up for the rest. Only other issue was I think 14. It looked funky from the bottom, and we ended up in a smaller adjacent reentrant before correcting. Good course with some decent distance and climb btwn CPs (18 total). DNF

22F=double tights and buffs kinda morning. Plenty warm. Love early mornings!

C • ugh 2

Spitler Woods. Love these trails. Should have taken advantage of them more when I was a kid. Keeping runs short this wk.

Foam roll, stretch, wall squats, pushups etc

1) Deadlift- early doubles, work up to heavy single
235...good starting place for winter
2a) Split Jerk 2x5@95
2b) BTN Jerk + OHS 2x2@95
3a) Pallof Press 3x10ea
3b) Curl 3x10 (45)
3c) Dips 3x10

Oh winter, I haven't missed you at all. Legs feel pretty good from the wknd.