Training Log Archive: AliC

Event: NEOC: New England Canoe-O Championships
 

NE Canoe-O Champs at Tully Lake, Long, C2 with Ian

Showed up on a really lovely morning for canoe-o, not too hot, not horribly windy, just gorgeous. Aims let Ian and I borrow his Wenonah C2, I think I've been in such a boat maybe once before, but it just tracks soooo much better than a normal canoe, which is good, but my intuition about how the boat should move when I cross-drew from the bow was just incorrect (and perhaps once the cause of us capsizing....). We were also marathon-canoe style paddling, which I haven't done that much of, need to have a way higher stroke rate, and switch sides really frequently! (Ian tried, with at least some small successes, to coach me during race, but really, just need more practice!)

Anyways, we cruised out, kinda missed 1, fine to 2, where we flipped, whoopsie, then mini-portage to 3, paddle to 4, and then epic portage to 5. We were able to jog carrying the boat, maybe would have been faster with it overhead? Who knows, but perhaps should try... Leaving 5, we busted a move through the super-marsh to get back to the water. It wasn't as slow as you might think, somehow, having the link of the canoe (and kinda it's use as a flattening-ram) made it easy to charge through the person-high ferns and blueberries and such.

Then up-river (I think it was up-river?) for few controls, I had some issues finding one on land, which is embarrassing, but maybe was just a wee bit too close to the water... on the way back, I also mis-oriented the map once, was looking for the control on the L side of river, but it was on the right, glad to have a partner, Ian totally spotted and I had to ask for directions to it as I left the boat =)

Then a portage from the road to, hm, forget which number, which was definitely a good call. From then in, it was sort of a canoe control-pick amongst all the little islands in the main part of the lake. Good fun, we probably made two mistakes, skipped a portage over a little isthmus once and another one was Dry when marked Wet on the map, from the S side was totally visible, but not from the N, so we went all the way around when I really could have just scampered up on land for it.

Anyways, we were the only team under the standard time of 2h15, finishing in 2h09. But Aims uped the standard time when he realized how hard he made it =). Awesome fun, really do like the occasional canoe-o, and getting out for a paddle on a wonderful day = bonus!

C • capsized OMG just like Mom.. 2

And over to Baldwin Hill for some foot-o training. But gosh were we tired! Um, turns out I've had a cold since last Thurs probably. It hasn't been really bad, but lots of sprinting + 2h canoe-o left me more than a bit sapped of energy...

This was the first of the Boris-planned Baldwin Hill trainings of last year, a partner exercise in which there are sets of three controls. Partner A goes to 1 than 2 then 3, leaving a streamer at 1. Partner B goes to 2 to 1 to 3, leaving a streamer at 2, picking the streamer A left at 1. A good way to get some training running towards a set control, without anyone needing to set controls beforehand.

I had mostly forgotten having done it last year, so a good training to do again. Ian and I were both pretty tired though, so it was a bit more about mental toughness and a bit less about being speedy through the woods. So we'll chalk it up for good training for the end of a super-long-exhausting race and not worry so much that it was pretty slow.

1957/2000

Over to the Esplanade, kinda quickly to not be too late for meeting Barb + Dave... just drizzling really, glad the T-storm passed!

C • Tour de Park-o! 2

Tour de Park-o Round 1 = Esplanade 2011

Loooong way out to 1, I definitely planned exactly to 2 and noted 3 in passing, but didn't quite remember if the wall was crossable or not on the way to 3, had to double check.

Reading smoothly, not too complicated, but the criss-crosses at the bridges meant frequent changing of direction + quick reorientation were necessary, could have been a bit better prepared for one or two of them, just envisioning how I would leave more than simply thinking, "just pop over the bridge".

Wiped out, fairly hard, on the wet downhill-side of the bridge from 7-8, ouchie!

Some construction toward the end meant readjusting plans just in that bit, but otherwise a fun course!

1872/2000

Tour de Park-o Round 2, Mystic River

Just Ian and I for this one, and not so much time before we were supposed to meet folks at Tufts, so locked bikes, stashed stuff and off!

I really enjoyed the beginning bit, picking around the little hills to just the right spots. Then #6 was un-fun on a veg boundary (anyone know if officially a veg boundary must be marked as distinct to be used as a control feature?), that I kinda decided I didn't need to go exactly to after bashing a wee bit through the woods. The bit on the far side of the bridge was less interesting, but, eh, all part of the game.

+12

C • #6 2

Tour de Park-o Round 3, Tufts Uni (Qual A)

And we found Giacomo, Eric and Ben waiting for us at the Tufts traffic circle exactly as prescribed, hopefully we weren't too late...

Brendan had designed two sprints for us, the Qual and Final, for the Qual we started a good minute apart, I started last, and certainly no signs of Giacomo who had been my minute-up, think he was faster by ~30s, at least.

It was definitely tricky in exactly the way I wanted to train - must read and really figure out control descriptions! Think it helped to get into that mode...

+17

Tour de Park-o Round 3, Tufts Uni (Final)

For the final, we decided to start in reverse-chase order (after some debate about which way was chase vs. reverse), 20s apart.

In a different section of campus, but still super-tricky requiring control description attn on more than 1 control. #3 was the first one of those, and we kinda bunched up there, all within sight. And now, looking at things, I think we all messed up #5, it's inside south corner of paved area, and we all went to the top of the stairs, should have been on just the other side of uncrossable hedge. I knew it didn't fit the description at the time, but figured Brendan just had strangely written that description, nope....

Read 9 and 11 and 12 correctly, 16 too, but was helped by Giacomo leading the way to the proper entrance right in front. 17 was just confusing even reading the CD, I came to a full stop before having to choose in or outside the stadium, then was trying to chase Giacomo down, which led to the major failing of the course, not noticing that the finish was *inside* with no way in around it, you had to retrace steps, which neither Giacomo nor I did from the start, perhaps losing a full 15s?

Meant Ian and I had a sprint in though, but like at Quabbin a bunch ago, I don't have the ability to match his speed. Ah well. =)

+17

Tour de Park-o Round 4, Danehy Park

Eric, Ben and I continued on for this one, joined back up by Barb and Dave. So great to have a good troupe for training!

But wow, brain is either toast or I was just otherwise inexplicably bad at choosing routes on this one. There was lots of route choice actually, made possible by many fences and seemingly scattered-at-random breaks in the fences. I didn't always see the best breaks....

Comparing with Ben afterwards, looks like I missed 3 routes substantially. 2 were not seeing breaks, 1 was not seeing the lovely road route that I now remember being mentioned in others' logs... ah well. A good lesson!

There was a plan to also head to Fresh Pond, but I didn't feel up for it, nor did anyone else. Adjourned to ice cream at a nearby cafe, perfect! =)

1930/2000

Sprint - Splits

20 min elliptical, 10 min floater before heading Boston-wards! Legs finally feeling a bit better, but decided an easy day anyways before super-sprint training round 2 tomorrow...

A little orienteering jaunt to end a hot day, out at Norwottuck Northside, same course as I ran ~ 2 weeks ago, this time with a compass, tried a few different routes. Legs were still complaining today, so didn't want to be more audacious with the training...

Back to the car from the finish, via a water tank I'd never actually seen before. Yay water pressure!

And core, skipped right side SJJs because right elbow is still bruised or something from bike crash, lame.

A note on skis:

I ordered skis for next season via Zach and Amy at Caldwell Sport. They are definitely expensive, but skis are, and I broke a pair last year and haven't acquired any new ones since college, so it's time.

I currently have a pair grinded by them with a Purple grind, which should be good in aggressive (highly transformed) medium cold snow, including man made. To complement those, I've ordered up a pair to be a Red/Yellow type ski (warmer conditions, aiming for more Reddish, probably grind 258B, a fairly universal warm grind). They should rock at conditions just below to just above freezing. The second pair is to be a dedicated "Blue" conditions ski, for newer snow than the purple from about 10-32 F. The grind on these will probably be S10X.

That leaves gaps just at the ends of my ski lineup, with no dedicated green ski and no dedicated slush ski. As I don't have unlimited funds, those will have to wait for another time... Also helpful in the conversation with Amy was that I should contact Chris Hall at Fischer to get a place in the elite wave at the Birkie, because really, starting in wave 9 would just be silly...

C • Wave 9 15

Super-duper slow waddle around Emily Dickinson loop after listening to Francis Moore Lappé (wrote Diet for a Small Planet, among 17 other books) give the keynote address at a permaculture conference at UMass. Was interesting and optimistic and energizing, but still the magnitude of change required for the planet to be on a truly sustainable path is daunting...

Anyways, the run was lovely aside from my legs feeling super tired, was cool enough by 7.30 pm and I got to see a sun set towards the end. Perhaps need more protein or something to recover better. Also, possibly more sleep. Time to work on that.

Hmph, well that's a bit disappointing. Noho 5k, 38s slower than last week...

I guess I kinda felt like it was unlikely that I was going to race faster than the new PR, my legs weren't yet feeling recovered from weekend, and I had massive cramps all morning, which is just never fun, not quite sure if it actually has a physiological effect on running performance or if it just induces mental slumpiness. But then when I got out there, nothing seemed that bad during my warm up, so I decided I would really race.

Was super-busy, a huge queue for signing in- that never happens. When I showed up, Charlie standing right there friendly chatting to Bob. So I joined them, which wasn't really cool, cutting in line, but hey, wanted to say hi and I checked in really efficiently.

The first mile of the race was really fun, maybe too fun, it turns out. There was a pack of 4 guys and me just on their back, really all tight together, felt like HS XC. That never has happened before at one of these races, usually people string on out from the beginning. So I tried to keep contact and kept trying and then definitely lost it on the long straight from halfway...

Unlike the PR effort, my legs really, really hurt starting on that straight away, which is a bad thing, because the hill is yet to come. Slogged up it and across the top, trying to not be too slow, but think this ties for 2nd slowest of the season, only after my very first?

Ah well, can't always have awesome races, and maybe do need to really let the legs recover...

C • 18:12 is still stupid fast,... 23

Core. Legs tired, will be a rest day.