Training Log Archive: Becks

Event: Fall Foliage Festival
 

So, today I took last week's pushing too far, ran too fast, and it resulted in some very silly misses and a big fat DQ. At no point in the course did I ever see number 6!It was in the middle of an entirely straight and long line (>1km) line between 5 and 7 but still, everyone else pushed it. Was rushed from the start and worried about qualifying after a bug early couple of errors, and ended up eliminating myself entirely when an easy safe run would have got me in no problem. D'oh.

Start - 1: Up the trail, get put off by the lack of huge boulder (hidden under the start triangle), go off too early, at too steep an angle, hit the wall, get back up to control. Bye bye 2 minutes on a 1.5 minute leg.

1-2: Safe round the tracks, control no problem from the junction.

2-3: Round the contours, lovely little leg.

3-4: Nice easy contour leg.

4-5: No idea what happened here. Should have been a contouring leg, but I did that and ended up way too far below. Then got confused and over corrected, ending up above the control on the rocky spur. Finally saw it hidden in some scrubby stuff. Lost 1.5 mins here. Now very worried about qualifying and legged it.

5-6: Never happened, as I had no notion that 6 ever existed.

5-7: Was very fast. Too fast. Doh. Screwed up the control a bit too, a re-entrant over.

7-8: Fine.

Was so angry with myself at the end, total disbelief. Luckily AliC calmed me down and I realised I would still get ranking points for the second race, even though I was ineligible overall. So there was still something to race for. Still, really annoyed.

Link to map from Cristina. 5,6,7 not an example of exemplary course planning:

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=cri...

So I pre ran the second course then I could help out at the start (a very redundant role, but excellent to catch up with Lori, SGB and Presto). Started slowly, maybe a bit too cautiously, as was hesitating like the first day of last weekend.

Start-1: Lost significant time at number 1 by not daring to take the best route through assembly, then slightly missing the actual control due to faffing.

1-2: Slow but bang on. Reading the detail well.

2-3: A little hesitate but generally good.

3-4: Bleurgh. Wrong angle for my attack point, ended up on the one contour hill with crags that I didn't realise were crags. Ended up at the wall again and dropped into the right re-entrant. This is when I realised the contours were 2.5m, and everything made way more sense then.

4-5: Banana via the trail but as I'd hit that control from the trail before (in the prologue on the way to number 1), it was quick. In fact one second off fastest split fast. Mental.

5-6: Fine

6-7: Amazing route choice round the trail actually not that fast compared to Super Ali going straight. Surprised.

7-8: Slightly wobbly route to the trails, then peg it round. Accidentally overshot my attack point, but came from what turned out to be a better one, as I never saw the phantom swamp of doom that everyone else got hit by!

8-9: Slow but fine.

9-10: Overshot AP but again this gave me a great line in from the small trail. Lost significant time to Ali (who was chasing me down after her collision with the swamp of doom), but probably because my legs were jelly up the hill. Not run this fast in a while!

10-11: Zippy. Good.

11-12: Zippy and good. Just enough left in the legs to sneak in in front of Super Ali. Another 100m and she would have definitely had me.

Much better. My legs are getting quicker and quicker, and confidence is slowly returning. Racing is fun! There are so many girls capable of winning races right now. It's great.

Red_finalY - Splits

Easy jog around Callaghan early in the morning. We then spent the whole day walking round Boston and Cambridge, and my legs are now super achey, Probably didn't need to bother with the run.

Run round Callaghan State Park with Dad. 10 x 30 second wind ups again. Lovely evening, just missing all the storms. I wish this place was (newly) mapped! Dad keeping up well on the wind ups, it was pretty hilly out there!

Drive up to New Hampshire with Mum & Dad, and a bit of walking around Flume Gorge and the basin. I almost lost my camera but I didn't. That was good.

Warm up to the track with two sets of strides.

An absolutely appalling 4km time trial. Thing is, didn't feel too bad, just have no edge of speed. And I get bored on a track. Positives - I raced well on Sunday with not a trace of my old speed. A good winter of training will hopefully get me closer to where I was three or four years ago in Edinburgh, which should add significantly to my racing. It was pretty evenly paced, not losing too much at the end. Negatives - there's no hiding it, that's a poor time. And track running is really boring.

Splits (laps):
1.38
1.41
1.41
1.41
1.41
1.41
1.42
1.43
1.44
1.36

Quite depressing, but it's only October and I have a long winter of hard work ahead!

Jog back home trying to figure out why I'm so slow.

Nice easy 70% max HR recovery run round Science Hill and East Rock. Another gorgeous autumn day, and legs feeling surprisingly sprightly. Clearly still excited from yesterday.

Another steep jog/walk to the start. The view from the top was incredible, gorgeous colours, mist hanging in the valleys, the hills getting bigger and bigger in the distance. Lovely.

So, today the aim was to actually go out there and race. Faffing was officially banned, and I was officially getting closer to that there Sam girl. I would also try not to be beaten by any veterans (albeit really quite superb veterans). And I managed. Although Sam was still way ahead, pulling out a truly awe inspiring 59.56, I lost a lot less time and was far more satisfied with my race. Clawed ahead of that pesky Ali character too, which I was surprised I could do. Best of all, AP reckons I lost less than a minute in errors (I think probably more like 2), which means I am capable of doing this racing thing, and when I have a good winter's training behind me, I might actually get near Super Saeger. Point by point:

Start - 1: Knew the trail and the spur were pretty clear, and went for it. Attacked over the spur and dropped into the re-entrant. Confidence boosting in the exact place I screwed up in yesterday.

1-2: Bit of faffing around the trail then got my act together and went for it. Attacked along the ridge and hesitated slightly early, but was right on line. A little time lost but not devastating.

2-3: Again, on a great line but hit the spur slightly lower than I thought and hesitated way before the control. Ran back to re-entrant and figured it out, this was my only properly significant time loss.

3-4: Easy pick leg - simples.

4-5: Really pleased with this. Picked up 4 or 5 features the whole way, a nice trail run in the middle to relax, then tighten up across the marsh corner, down the featureless hill, find exact point and attack control. Second fastest split on a long leg is something I don't think I've ever managed. Sam still, unsurprisingly, totally skinned me.

5-6: Was so annoyed with this! Ran so fast, bang online, then just hesitated too early in the re-entrant. Stood still for ages but was exactly where I thought I was. Bugger.

6-7: Spike!

7-8: Really pleased with this - tricky slope leg and I planned a good, safe route, and executed it well. Still a pansy at running downhill though.

8-9: Down the hill - not the best route through the crags but not too much time astray either.

9-10: A beautiful spike, but must have been running a bit less full on.

10-11: Took the safe high route but this was probably over cautious, feature was completely unmissable.

11-12: Too high, had to correct!

12-13: Simples.


So in summary, much better today. I didn't exactly feel in control on the top, mainly due to lack of ability to plan ahead as everything was full on. I consciously clicked over-ride on my faff button a few times, but never got anything like lost because I was simplifying better. Lesson learnt: I can do this. I should believe that I can!

Route gadget:

http://www.vmeyer.net/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?ac...

C • Americans... 6

No time for a warm down as had to scoot off to pick Mum and Dad up from JFK. Yey! Looooong traffic jams in New York made me happy to be driving non-stick for the first time ever. It is great to see Mum and Dad!

Day 2 Red Y - Splits