Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

Red Course at Mt. Tom.

Picking up some controls. Got to the first one and realized that there were water jugs and cups... so skipped it and came back to it as the last of my 11 controls.

Red - Splits

Running to and from work. I have managed to snap 3 shoeslaces this month. Am I doing something wrong here? :) I think the shoelaces on my Asics were just crummy to begin with, but I snapped the shoelace on my Saucony's too and those were still nice and newish.

Splish splash, I was taking a bath. A rainy day for commuting, but at least it wasn't ridiculously hot out. Ran to work, feeling very spry and lively, and then from work to Fresh Pond for the first Thursday night race. The lightening was beautiful and I can see why they yelled at Hilly for rowing during the storm, as half of the bolts seemed to be centered over the river as I was running in the afternoon.

A fun race though attendance was down because of the wet conditions. When I arrived it was only Gail and Ed, though eventually more did arrive. Mark arrived at the last moment and he's generally faster than me on the track so I knew it was going to be a hard fought race ( actually I kinda expected him to run much faster than me).

Mark was still tying his shoe when the gun went off so I was in the lead and running hard. My reprieve was short-lived and he was right behind me just as soon as we had reached the golf course. I was very happy to cut straight through large puddles and Mark was vainly trying to keep his shoes dry, so I was staying just ahead for the first mile or so. I was feeling great still so when Mark picked up the pace a bit, I matched to stay in front, and then again and again, putting in little surges to stay just in front. At about the 2 mile point, I pushed ahead and Mark didn't stay with me and I worked hard to ensure that he didn't just wait until the last 400 meters to zoom past at top speed.

Very happy with the race and happy with the result too.

C • Nice job! 6

Cooldown afterward with Ed for a bit (who very nicely ran his goal of sub 20) and then with Mark, Terry, and Jonathon. We chatted about mental coaching and the time and place for visualization exercises, and when it's appropriate to cheer loudly for an athlete. Something than Jon said that I appreciated was that visualization during a great relaxing jog or run can be better than visualization when you are fully relaxed sitting or lying down. Especially if the goal of visualization and positive imaging is to recall an ideal race as that can work better if you're actually running well.

C • Visualization 1

Rest day. Doctor's Appointment in the morning. Too many tick bites than I didn't catch until the next day, and feeling a little more tired than I'd like, so I wanted to be proactive about the possibility of Lyme disease. The doctor thinks it's unlikely, based on my symptom(s), but sent off the blood work. I guess we'll also see if my RBC count has normalized since last test.

After work a trip to a very packed Scooper Bowl. Jeff, Judy, Sam, and Ed and pretty much everyone else in Boston showed up too :) 16 different flavors was my limit tonight.

Running into work, and then from work up to Mystic River Park for the last Park-o of the season. I'd never been before and I found it to be a great place. Running up Rt 28 wasn't the most pleasant experience, but there were sidewalks the whole way there.

Awesome 3 loop relay, set by Lori. A fine crowd and fine weather.
Then some major chatting and some minor control pick up.

Loop A
1) 0:42
2) 0:26
3) 0:17
4) 0:37
5) 0:21
6) 0:40
7) 0:38
8) 0:49
F) 0:39
Loop C
1) 1:29
2) 0:30
3) 0:21
4) 1:10
5) 1:34
6) 0:49
7) 0:48
8) 0:24
F) 0:40
Loop B
1) 1:38
2) 0:21
3) 0:18
4) 1:21
5) 1:21
6) 1:00
7) 0:23
8) 0:37
F) 1:13

Running to and from work, feeling a bit tired today.

Sam wanted some company and motivation to go running today, so I proposed a trip to Peter's Hill to do some hill reps. We picked up Ed and drove down to the park before doing a two lap warmup. I was feeling exhausted and even a little faint. The heat wasn't helping, and I hadn't even started any of the hard stuff yet.

Sam took a pit stop and I eventually motivated myself to start the hills. The first couple were really though, but then I loosened up and started to get a second wind, and by the end of 6 I was feeling great. It's always nice when a workout cures what ails you. Also, I wore my new Team Of The Year Axis Gear top for the warmup. The tops look really good and are made out of a nice light fabric. Kudos to all the people that worked on the design and getting the sponsorship.

Times:

1:00
1:02
0:59
0:58
0:58
0:58

C • Team of the Year Axis Gear Top 8

NEOC meet at Nobscot. Boris had suggested that I draw my own map for the first 30 minutes of orienteering and then do the last part of the course without a compass. The map drawing part was fun, and I think I did a pretty good job actually. My map was not sufficient on the first control only, where I got very lost ( had to look at the real map twice). I hadn't bothered to draw in some of the trails because I was planning on using the shape of the reentrant to navigate up the slope. Well seeing the trails on the ground really threw me for a loop, and the reentrant was rather a bit more vague than I expected.... which meant that I lost confidence and checked further down the trail than I should have. 6 minutes lost to that, before things settled in.

After I got back to the real map on the way to 10, I forgot to take off my compass and so it was only 12- the finish where I was working on that skill. It really messed me up going to 15, as I expected to come out on a different trail and had no good way of checking the direction.

A good set of exercises though. Very pleased.

The second part of the exercise was to race the Orange course as fast as possible. I did okay here, but had a few minor troubles. Mostly brought on by blurry contact lenses that were super annoying. I almost mispunched #2 as there was another control on a similar feature on the line, but I checked my codes and recovered.