Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: NEOC Mt Norwottuck
 

I attended the NEOC Mt. Norwottuck Score-O, set by Phil Bricker, and perhaps ill-advisedly ran the 120 minute event (as opposed to the 75 minute event). I looked at this as an opportunity to get out in the woods, have fun, and mildly stress myself physically. I never ran at full speed, I was very cautious with both my legs, and I had a very pleasant time out in the woods. The map is pretty good, and the terrain is spectacular with its November vegetation. I beheld the vastness of the mountain from the south, and I was overwhelmed with its majesty.

While I wasn't that concerned with optimizing, my score-O strategy failed in two ways - I didn't know exactly when I started because I failed to start my garmin until after I had punched the first control, and so was overtime; more importantly, my ordering was suboptimal for what I was capable of doing. Instead of circling north of the mountain, I should have attacked the controls on and around the mountain.

My left leg felt good throughout the excursion; my right leg was tight, and the ligament or whatever that I pulled on 20 November was still sore. I tweaked it a few times during the run. I ran into Jordan near control 92 going in the opposite direction. I encountered Sam at control 56, moments after I had tweaked my right leg. She seemed very cheery, and generally in better spirits than I was.

Physically, my fitness has significantly degraded since my injury. I was able to persevere through all two hours, but I was exhausted by the end, and I wasn't even working that hard. My focus over the next few months will be building up my fitness with lots of easy pace running and biking.

I took the controls in the following order:
31, 32, 33, 42, 81, 92, 52, 63, 82, 74, 93, 56, 71, 61, 53, 51, 65, 55, 45, 43, 34.
A better order would have been to replace 61...34 from the above list with 73, 84, 91, 83, 41, 72, (64, 62), 57, 54, 34, with the parenthetical controls only if time allowed.

Control Count: 73/2000
Burrito Count: 38
I'm thinking about diversifying my food intake.

Control Count: 52/2000
Burrito Count: 38
Shaw's, actually