Training Log Archive: Sid

Nice start to last event spiking 1, 2 & 3. Then waved to photograher on the way to 4 and completely blew the control, overshooting twice, before finally hitting it. Cost about 7 minutes. Poor route choice to 5 cost another 5 minutes. Overshoot again but corrected. White on the map was actually dark hatched green ( wild rose bushes). This was confusing and painful. Nice cross country route to control 6. Half way there picked up a Wilson NFL football in the middle of the woods. Internal debate decided that I was not going to medal so the football was an apt souvenir. Plus being an A/R with 15 years football experience, the decision was obvious. Control 6 was a bit tricky but used finger shaped ridge as a handrail. 7 was close in a creek bed. Control 8 was the long leg diagonally across 9/10 of the map. Ran around red out of bounds, kitty corner to hydro line trail. Down trail across hill to lake. Trail up hill to parking lot, kitty corner to main road. Ran road to first west parking lot. Angles across hill to creek junction, uphill to 8. Had company on this entire section. Alternated arm with football as in running back drills. Perhaps a 1/2 minute route choice error but debatable. Hit 9 & 10 on bearings for lesser cross country to 11. Got bearing off and hit red control before correcting for proper one. Ran uphill and side hill to 12. Maybe better route choice could have saved 15 seconds. Straight forward run to the finish line. Concentration and route choices lead to a low finish in this Classic. Football also slowed me down. People commented that they thought it was not me in the distance though the colour scheme matched as I appeared huskier. Just the foortball in my hands. Footbal may have helped navigation as less but more useful looks at the map were taken. Would have left ball if in contention.
Great event overall!! Temperature was about 36°F, good for racing with minimal layers. Now being a middle of the pack competitor makes for a more interesting and social event.

Green - Splits

First sprint of 2. Uphill start again but found trail and hit 1 readily. Straight forward to 2. Overshoot 3 and lost a 1/2 minute. Control was at a series of rootstocks. Clearing was a bit dubious control description. 4, 5 and 6 were straight forward though others seemed to be have problems. Across creek to 7 passing another control. On the drive down, rivers were flooded with the temperature change but levels were down by Saturday. 8 was a bit tricky but the rest was straight forward to a downhill finish. A few others seemed to be having finishing trouble. Nice start to the spint series in 5th, 3 minutes behind the leaders.

2nd in series. Poor route choice off the bat taking the higher rather than lower trail. 2 through 5 were solid. Major error to 6 cost 5 minutes. Never saw the road junctions correctly and ended up in the wrong woods. Hit 12 and corrected but dropped markedly. Nailed 7, 8 and 9. Slight error at 10 as control was in the centre on monuments and ran exterior. Major route choice mistake to 11, going through the woods lost in before instead of running the clearings, cost 1 minute. Back to 12, previously hit and passed a few people coming home. Uphill finish, not much of a problem. Major mistakes in the second race cost one postion, back to 6th finish as in the Short Pig.

French Park Sprint 2 - Splits

Burnet Woods - Sprint 2 - Splits

Event: Flying Pig XI
 

First day of the Flying Pig. The idea was to take it easy and build for the weekend races. The start was uphill and I took it easy on the trail, passed the trail junction and went down the ravine hitting control 1 readily. Took a side hill best route to 2, passing another control on the way. Mistake going to 3. Was planning on climbing north ridge but did not look a compass and climbed the west ridge. At the top went the wrong way on a road before checking compass, noting error and reversing. Except for the time lost, this turned out to be the best way to 3 as the road lead to a clearing and ready ridge running to 3. Rootstocks gave quick reference points. Over the hill to 4 and ridge running to 5 went well. Down hill to clearing above 6 was straight forward as was 7 & 8. People overshooting 8 was noticed. 9 was in spaghetti and went on bearing. Got a bit low but judging lower clearing proximity hit 9. Bearing over more spaghetti to 10 and 11. 12, 13, 14 & 15 were down hill off the trail run earlier and just off in clearings near the finish. Overall, a good start to the weekend though the one error cost over 5 minutes

Miami Whitewater North Green - Splits

MTC Swim with Coach Ken. 1000 m warmup, 300m pull, 300 m backstroke, 200m breaststroke, 100m breast pull and 100m free. 9 sets of 150m rest :20, 2 x 50m on1:10 and 100 m on 2:15. Glide felt great and did the 50m about :55 cruising and 100m in 1:55. Body felt tight in water. I can tell when I am swimming well as I feel the end of my stroke tickle the hair on my legs. I guess that is why male swimmers shave their legs.

Warmup.

Arms a bit tired after swimming but did max weight for 10 reps. Pulled a right lower back muscle near the end.

Balance was not as good as was doing 2 days in a row.