Training Log Archive: maprunner

Flying Pig: Long

Ooh, this one hurt. Physically and mentally.

I wish I had thought more carefully about running a long hilly course the day before two sprints. I should I signed up for the brown course, instead of green. But I decided to soldier through. My goal was to keep moving, even if it was a slow pace.

I did a decent job of navigating through the first 7 controls. Maybe should have a taken a slightly different route or two, but no real errors. Except 5, which I don't count as my error. It was mapped as a depression in the white woods, on the edge of some green. It was actually smack in the middle of the green and quite hidden. A total bingo control that I only found (on the third pass) because other folks were nearby.

I was with a man and a woman as we approached 7. I checked my code and then looked at my map to plan my next leg. Straight down the hill, along the stream, towards 9. I got a bit cocky here, and said, ooh, I'm going to punch and leave this control without stopping, jog straight down the hill. I didn't realize, until I downloaded, that I had just moved my thumb from 7 to 8.

Got to the area of "9" and nothing made sense. Wandered a bit and finally decided I had to go back to the big stream, Found the trail and relocated. Was shocked that I was so far away from 9 but still didn't figure it out.

After 9, I forced myself to go straight up the big hill to 10. I was really tired and hot by now, and still had a long way to go. But now my goal was to be under 2 hours. Up the hill to 11, GlenT passed me and said: "last hill". Ha! Still plenty more hills and even small rises felt like hell now. Even the two steps up to download were uncomfortable.

And then I found out I had skipped 8. Needless to say, I was really pissed at myself. This was a new one for me, I had never made this particular mistake before (mistaking which control I was leaving). I was also pissed that I had just spent two long physical hours in the woods for no reason. As I said, this one hurt.

OCIN_Flying_Pig_2017_Saturday_Long_5 Green - Splits

Event: OCIN Flying Pig XXI
 

Night O champs, F50, 1st place of 2

I was really looking forward to this race since I love night O and I tend to be better at it than my peers (or just more experienced?) It was also a flat area, which always helps:)

However, I was not looking forward to starting at 10 pm (which is past my usual bedtime). I was also not looking forward to 6.6 k through woods that had standing water and lots of deadfall (I was told by the folks who had run in the day time).

Pretty easy start through. For 3, I thought I could cut through the woods, but I messed this up. I was more cautious going to 4, so AP says I lost some time here.

Gained some more confidence in the woods for 5 and 6, then blew 7 pretty badly. Obviously did not follow my compass (which was one of the things I was trying to do better this weekend). Stopped when I saw the road, which is a good thing for me. Found a trail and thought I knew where I was, but the trail was going in directions that didn't make sense. Turns out I was very close to the control, but I didn't know it. I thought it was wiser to relocate from the road., which worked. I was spooked now, and took the long way around from now on, even when it wasn't necessary.

11 was awful. Trails were standing water or shoe-sucking mud. And the area around the control was crappy vegetation. I lost a lot of time and motivation on this control.

As I left 11, I looked at my watch and saw how much more course I still had to do. I seriously thought about packing it in, this was not as much fun as I had hoped it would be. But I decided it would be a good test to see if I could stick it out, so I did,

14 was funny. As I approached the control, I saw a flash of reflective tape in the distance and headed towards it. Then I noticed many more controls, in someone's arms. They were picking up controls! I panicked and looked at my watch. I thought the time limit was 3 hours?? I accosted the two people picking up the markers and asked if I still had time, They gently pointed out that they were picking up daytime markers. Oops! My apologies for the false accusation. And then I had to turn around and go back to my control, which I had passed in my haste.

I was getting really tired now and anxious to finish. It was no fun to look for 16 (tree in woods) at night, so I just got to the edge of the green and threw my headlamp around until I saw the reflective tape.

I was so happy to finish and jump in the car. We still had an hour drive to the hotel. Got to bed around 1:30 am.

I made some mistakes out there, but overall, it was a better run than I first thought. I relocated when I made mistakes and kept up a good pace for the second half of the course. I was not tired at the end, I was still able to run on the roads.

C • tree in the woods 2

OCIN_Flying_Pig_2017_5 - Green Night - Splits

Plan was to run a 32:30 5K today. But when I got to work, I had an email with an invite to dinner that night (near work, many miles from home). We had been trying to arrange this dinner for awhile, so I wanted to go. So, how to do both? Go to Target at lunchtime to buy some running gear (which I needed anyway) and some cheap running shoes (I had been running in O shoes).

I went to Corporate Woods to run on the trails there. I hadn't been on these trails in probably 18 years (Mike and I used to rollerblade here all the time). I felt like Nadim!

I used MpaMyRun on my phone since I didn't have my Garmin. It was hard to pace myself (trying for 6:30 k) and I was running a bit too fast. I got near the halfway point when my phone shut down. I've been having battery issues lately. The battery is charged one minute, shuts down the next. Ugh!

I got confused as I returned to the starting point, and stopped a bit too soon. Ran some more through the parking lots looking for my car. I was out for ~35 minutes.

Dancin' fool

Next Sunday is the Flying Pig sprints. Two in one day. After the Long race on Saturday. So I decided to duplicate those conditions this weekend. My starts for the sprints are 2.5 hours apart. So I ran two sprints today, 2.5 hours apart.

Mike drew me a course for Sprint 1. I decide to share my track with him live (on Garmin) to add a bit of pressure to myself. Course was fun, and shorter than I expected, so it was nice to see the finish on the map.

Second sprint was on West Campus. This was course I had designed in 2015. It was fun to run it myself. Mike tracked me again. I tried to run all the way up the hill but couldn't make it.