Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Long Trail, Vermont. Hike the last two miles of Section 2, going S. From Kelly Strand Rd to National Forest Rd 71. Lovely autumn colors. Temps in the high 40's but didn't seem nearly that cold.

Hike back to the car along the roads.

Day 2. Fine day of orienteering for me. Early on realized woods were too thick for me, so after #4 took trails for nearly every control. Ran very strongly. 3rd overall on Brown, only 5 minutes behind the leader, Steve Tarry. (not counting US Women's Team member Cristina Luis, who dropped down to Brown for the day.) For the two day combined, 3rd overall, only 28 secs behind Bob Lux.

Biting wind made it chillier than I anticipated but stuck to the plan of wearing just my short sleeved shirt on top, and that was exactly right.

Somewhere early in the course I landed hard on a rock with my left instep. It hurt the rest of the way but didn't impede me at all. An hour after finishing, though, it was killing me and I was concerned it might be something serious; fortunately, after icing and ibuprofen the pain subsided and it appears to be just a bruise. Also went to the first aid folks because a fair amount of blood was coming out of both biceps, but they were just minor puncture wounds. None of that spoiled my enjoyment of the day.

C • Well done! 4

Sunday - Long Brown - Splits

Event: "O" in the Pines A meet
 

Pineridge XC Ski Center, East Poestenkill, NY (east of Albany). Day 1 of O in the Pines. Middle Brown. 4th of about 12 in M65, 4th overall of about 45 on Brown. Not as cold as yesterday. Wore long sleeved smart wool under my O-shirt, and I was too hot by #2. Falcons were just fine (they'd made my feet sore at Calero last week).

Took about 3 controls to get into the map. Couldn't run much anyway because the ground was so rocky, but bobbled around some on each of those first 3, losing about a minute on each. After that I started getting it, started moving faster, started getting more confident. By the end I was mostly running. A little trouble on the GO control because there was so much on the map there I couldn't read it, but otherwise did reasonably well on the last 9. Many good Brown runners made large errors but I managed to stay out of those, stopping frequently (until #10) to make sure I could tell what's what. Did better than I thought expected. Ought to try to push it a little harder tomorrow.

#1. Really stupid error coming out of the start triangle. We were on a long straight road. Had gotten on that road from the assembly area heading S, and I apparently didn't check my compass once I was in the start triangle and hadn't noticed that the road had bent and was now heading E. So when I turned over my map I was looking for something heading straight S, and I mistakenly picked out a N-S line and thought it was the road. Seeing that the first control was well to the right of that line, I jumped off the road and headed to the right, pace counting. After about 50m I looked at my compass and realized I had the map rotated by 90 degrees. Trying not to get too upset about the stupidity of the error, went back to the road and used some little clearings, obvious on the ground, to guide me into the control. Lost about a minute.

#2. (more to come... )

Warm up on the road to the start. Legs felt pretty good.

No cool down. Not that tired when I finished.

Barberville Falls, a few miles west of Pineridge. 90 ft high falls and quite wide. Very nice.

Saturday - Middle Brown - Splits

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises. Tapered off on the latter as the week progressed.

Grafton Lakes, near Albany. Had gotten a map from Glen T so I could get a bit of a feel for woods in these parts. Nominally 45 degrees but felt much colder, which started interfering with thinking. Found things so subtle that I had no confidence that I was in the right place, yet I nailed the three controls I tried (so should I be confident or not?). Walking, mostly slowly.

C • Uncertainty 1

Grafton Lake. Louise and I then walked around Shaver Pond. Trees are just starting to turn colors. Lake was very scenic. Mighty cold.

C • Cold? 2

Fly to Albany, NY.

Front of house. Slight drizzle. Just a good warm up planned. First lap, felt like I hadn't run in a month. A little better after that.

641, 552, 527

C • Hurricane 5

Cool down