Training Log Archive: LilFlip

Regular route... felt slow to start, but finally got warmed up at the turn-around point (half-way mark). Pushed it home, and it felt awesome. Wish all my runs felt like that.

C • Some days they will... 1

LSD run along the river... invited a buddy along to make it interesting - always nice to have company on a run, especially one so long. Legs started to feel really tired around the 50-minute mark; gotta get them back into gear for the longer races.

C • Seems like LSD would make it i... 2

Regular route along Elbow River, felt much better than yesterday.

Warm-up Sprint-O course at Lowery Gardens in Calgary. Taught my buddy how to read the map, and he picked it up really quickly. Smart cookie.

Wednesday Night Sprint-O organized by FWOC; last one of the season, I believe. Lots of controls, lots of fun. Made a few small directional errors when leaving controls, but navigated well overall. Happily, my buddy made it around the Intermediate course alone, without getting lost!!

Regular route along the river... legs felt like lead weights!! Body is tired from the weekend races. Might also be the heat.

Was thinking about playing soccer tonight, but after yesterday's long race, then another 7.75 hours straight on my feet at work last night, I think I deserve a true rest day.

Shit, shit, shit. What a terrible race!! Any plans I had for taking SAFE route choices went totally out the window today. If anything, today would have been the day to play it SAFE, SAFE, SAFE, since the map and course was riddled with highly detailed areas, then very subtle, flat, crappy areas. Felt good at the start, totally organized and ready to go. Had a fast time to #1, and felt reasonably comfortable with the map, so I decided to navigate a long route through white woods to #2, as opposed to running around (reasonably out of the way) on a trail. Worst decision ever!! I lost at least 10 - 15 minutes on this control - got waaaaay off in some subtle terrain, and ended up bailing out to the trail TWICE before I found #2. Ugh. Other people struggled with this control, but I bet not as much as me! Bashed through the woods again to #3, and SPIKED this one! Yeah! Then managed to screw up a short leg to #4, where MC caught me. Navigated well to #5, then on the way to #6 (water control) I missed it and hit the trail, had to back-track to get it. Took my gel there (probably kept me from dying). Chose a safe route along the trail to #7, was slow in the circle... then spiked #8. ROYALLY f-cked up #9 (lost almost 7 minutes; MC passed me at this point), and ended up doing a lot more running around than necessary; eventually used a trail in behind the control as an attackpoint. Took off in the wrong direction to #10, but once I found the trail I was fine (lost almost 4 min). Then screwed up #11 and had to re-locate off a re-entrant to find the damn thing; lost another 6 minutes here! Was a little slow in the control circle for #12. Same with #13 (lost 4 min). #14 was a "Hail Mary" control - little clearing in the middle of flat, featureless white woods. "There was a farmer, had a dog..." Lost more time here, then the remaining controls were (thankfully!) really easy, just required stamina (which I had pretty much lost in the early part of the race).

I was totally inconsistent today!! SO frustrating to have some really good legs, and completely screw up others. A learning experience, to say the least. Gotta keep my head about me and stay in contact with the map!!! At least the Middle went better (actually won a Gold medal for being the first Albertan. Won bronze today... 3rd of 3 Albertans... Laughable!).

Long Distance Results here:
http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_even...

C • Well... 3

Warm-up for Long.

Middle distance race of the Alberta Championships this morning. Pretty laid-back meet; so laid-back that you started at whatever time you wanted to (2-min intervals between runners on the same course; no official start list). Oddly, Elite men AND women ran course 6. Realized on the way to the 1st control that I had an empty control description holder - I had forgotten to grab one at the start; also looked down at my feet and noted that I hadn't taped my laces either (the tape was still on my thighs, and would stay there for the remainder of the race...). Okay, so I wasn't quite on the ball today... but I had a decently clean race, with a few hesitations here-and-there, especially at the beginning while getting used to the map. Lost a bit of time on #2 (ran too far, passed it to the North), #3 (ran past it to the East, hit the trail, had to go back) and #5 (started looking too soon in an early re-entrant). Also lost time in a lot of the control circles (30-60 sec each), where I knew I was in the right area, just needed to be a little more aggressive.

We also had one control that had been placed on a rootstock, but it was apparently not the correct one; a new tree had fallen in the woods, and that was where the control had been placed (about 10m from the correct one, so I hear... I was confused by all the rootstocks mapped in the area so I attacked from a different direction and found the control without too much trouble). But I guess some people (??) lost a significant amount of time on that one (it affected courses 4, 5, 6), and the organizers agreed that it was wrong... technically the course should have been thrown out, but they admitted their mistakes and the results stay as posted. I ended up in 2nd place, about 1:30 behind M-C ("Barbie"); I definitely made more than that in errors (plus had to stop and tie my left shoe once!). Dammit. Overall, though, I was sufficiently pleased with my race.

Middle Distance Results here:
http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_even...

C • Good stuff! 2

Warm-up for Middle Distance.

Started developing a massive headache a couple hours after the Middle, likely due to the heat (it was at least 26C)... I had hydrated well between races (drank 1L of gatorade plus a bunch of water, and was pissing clear), but it didn't seem to help. And the race... What a gong show! I might as well have put my map in my pocket to run this race, since that's about how much attention I paid to it... Idiot. The Sprint was in a campground area, IN USE (several people out camping this weekend, which added to the mayhem). Don't know if I'm alone in this thinking, but I find campgrounds AMAZINGLY confusing and frustrating (I much prefer the terrain of last week's Sprint at COCs, on ski trails and such). Started the race fast and clean, then started getting really lazy with the navigation... My problems began at #6, which I overshot (and was probably on the wrong stream). Then going to #8 I went in the wrong direction, came out on a trail, thought I was somewhere I wasn't, and continued running... found a junction, a building, and a fence that I couldn't locate on the map... until I unfolded it and realized I had practically run off the map!! Doh. By then I had probably lost a good 5+ minutes, plus more lost time to dumb route choices, so there was no way of making that up in such a short course!! To make matters worse, I punched the last control and, for some reason, thought I was done, so I started walking... only to realize some meters down the road that I still had to punch the finish control!! Don't know where my head was this afternoon (probably stuffed far up my ass) - I had even forgotten to start my watch... but made damn sure the laces were taped and I had a control description! ;) When I left for home, I was in about 4th or 5th place, and not everyone had finished yet. This was not my race to win... Hoping to be able to get everything right for the Long tomorrow!!

Sprint Distance Results here:
http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_even...

Warm-up for the Sprint... wasn't feeling great with the headache and the heat, and probably should have conserved my energy instead of making the head throb with each step. Too late now!

Rest day before AB Championships this weekend. No point in beating myself up before running 3 races in 2 days...

Easy run, my regular route along the Elbow River. Felt really good, really rested, legs were strong and breathing felt better now that I am more-or-less "healthy". Registered for AB Champs this weekend, so tomorrow will likely be a rest day...

C • Good luck! 3

Woke to a Winter Wonderland!! The sides of the tent were sagging under the weight of 2-3 inches of freshly fallen snow!! We debated whether or not to continue our trip (we were supposed to do a second night at Merlin Meadows, another 10+ km away, before heading back on Thursday), and quickly decided to pack it in and head home... neither of us were up for spending more time than necessary in the cold, wet snow. After a breakfast of oatmeal and hot chocolate, we were on our way again. Met another couple headed OUT into the bush, and we jokingly asked them if they were sure they were heading the right way... they looked prepared. They also mentioned that there were some cougar signs (prints and poop) up ahead, and to be on the look-out. We found the signs and took some pictures of the prints, but fortunately that's all we saw of the cat (which, in all fairness, could have been a large lynx). When we got to the trailhead, we still had another 3.9 km to go (down an old fire road), but a friendly Park Warden offered us a ride in his nice big, warm truck, and we were hardly about to decline!! Saved us about 45 minutes of hiking in the rain... sweet! Overall, a great experience... too bad our trip was cut short, but I think it was better to leave the Rockies with a relatively good feeling, than to continue on and be miserable...

Backcountry camping trip with CK, on the Skoki Loop out near Lake Louise. Our first day consisted of hiking from the Fish Creek Trailhead (1690m), past Boulder Pass (2345m), and down to Baker Lake, where our first campsite was located. We had fantastic weather and gorgeous views!! Set up the tent, rested a bit, and prepared supper. As we finished eating, the rumbling of thunder was fast approaching, as were the dark, ominous clouds... Sent our food up the food hang and dove into the tent in time to avoid being pelted by hail and rain. Played some cards before calling it a night.