Training Log Archive: maprunner

I was really hungry all day, and suddenly I was craving beef, in a big way. So I met Mike downtown for dinner and enjoyed a wonderful gourmet hamburger. Yum!

Long course. I was tired. I made mistakes.

More later about the nice weather, good courses, fine organization and lots of fun conversations with friends.

C • Me too 1

Walk to start

Long course notes:
I kept repeating "no mistakes" in my head (and out loud) through most of this course. I needed it to keep me focused. I was physically tired, and could only walk at a slow pace. My concentration was pretty bad today, and I was constantly reacting instead of reading ahead. I had almost no confidence moving through the woods.

My biggest mistake was the execution on 3. I was with Lynn as we crossed the first stream, and after that I was distracted by her, and I lost track of where I was on the flat area with lots of rocks. Suddenly I had no idea where I was, so I stopped and tried to relocate. I could not. I found some obvious cliffs and boulders in the terrain, but could not find them on the map. I stood here for quite a while before I admitted that I had not yet crossed the stream and gone up several contour lines. So just get moving up the hill, for goodness sakes! Thought I knew where I came up the hill, hesitated a bit on the top, looked around and saw the clearing, and then headed right to the control.

Slow to 5, then started getting more and more tired and making more and more mistakes. Headed up a parallel reentrant at 10, and totally lost track of where I was on the way to 11. I should have known I was in trouble because I was cursing like a sailor as I stumbled my way through the woods, which is a sure sign that I've gone past tired. Ah well. Not my best day.

consistency: 15.7
time lost: 4.1

long route

Long Green Y - Splits

Event: West Point A-meet
 

Middle Green Y. Lost a bit of time on 2, 12 and 14, but clean otherwise. Walked the course, which helped with navigation. Concentrated fairly well until the end, when I was tired and sloppy.

Sprint. Goal was to be clean and not skip a control. Took a less than ideal route to 1, as I was getting used to the map. Rest of course was clean. Moved slowly through the woods. Legs are really tired now.

C • Fastest finish split! 2

C • DQ 10

More about the middle course:
Wanted no mistakes and good concentration. Walked the whole course (with one exception noted below)
Slow to get into the map to 1, as were many other folks. Hesitated a lot and was not confident of where I was going. Poor route choice to 2. Thought I knew where I came over the hill, but I was wrong. Got down into some green, and realized that I should go back up. Lost the most time here.

After that, my concentration was pretty good. I was also doing a decent job of reading ahead and knowing where I was going.
Hesitated a little bit going to 11, because the contours didn't make sense, and there was someone else in the area who distracted me.

Funny mistake at 12. First, I didn't keep a straight line towards the control, and was quite surprised when I came out onto a ride. Never saw it on the map, among all the rock features! Still took a moment to figure out that I didn't have to climb back up, but could reach the marker from the ride.

The most ridiculous mistake was 14. I decided to run into the finish, went too fast, and ran out of oxygen. I got to the buildings, didn't see the control (which was around the corner) and stopped. I walked back to the trail junction, hesitated, started again, stopped again, etc. When some oxygen finally returned to my brain, I ran the 10 meters to the control and into the finish. I had been hoping to break one hour, and that last silly mistake put me over :(

I did not like all the blueberry bushes and downed trees, but conditions were the same for all. The course was very good, with a good mix of leg lengths and technical/physical difficulty. I was pleased that I only had one brain dead moment, which cost me only a minute or so, instead of my recent habit of "15 minutes-of-wandering" adventures. I was also pleased to have a decent run on day one; I seemed to have problems with that recently.

Consistency: 16.2
time lost: 3.4

middle route

A comment about the meet organization, which was great. They had a nice event location, which made it fun to hang out with everyone between races. I had a wonderful time visiting with all my friends, and I enjoyed meeting Tracy and Marketa. It was also fun to hang with Anna and watch her trade bets with Mike. It was a fun atmosphere, but it did not have a lot of bells and whistles. The cadets spent all their energy on the courses and getting all the controls in the right place, which was the right idea, in my opinion.

Sprint notes:
Again, I wanted no mistakes and no mispunches (since all three races were combined to determine results). Started to go straight to 1, through the light green, but was pulled off by the nice open trail, but then had to climb through the green (uphill) any way. Ugh! Kept a very good pace and excellent concentration after that. I jogged on the trails and roads, and walked in the woods. I like sprints. As Peggy said, they go by so fast. I had no time to think. It also helped that several markers were visible from far away.

I felt good coming into the finish, and knew I wanted to make a good effort in the finish chute. So I stopped before punching the last control, took two breaths, punched and then took off! That was fun :)

It was NOT fun when I downloaded my track and noticed I had run through an OOB area. I was really mad at myself.

consistency: 12.6
time lost: 5.1

sprint route

Middle Green Y - Splits

Sprint O/Br/G - Splits

Packing for West Point. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

C • See you there! 3

Tried the 5K test loop again. HR monitor was better behaved,but still a little bit erratic. Disappointed to be a few seconds slower than the first time I did this, but it's hard to make a big deal out of it, either.