Training Log Archive: JanetT

I figure about 15-18 minutes of error on 6 and 11, the silliest being at 11.

Interesting replay on Livelox for day 2 for yesterday's mess-up at #11. The software has me "punching" when I got close enough for its purposes, though I circled around a few times before actually spotting the pit/bag and punching.

Livelox for Day 1

Event: SVO Stumble
 

New England Champs 2021 Brown day 2 at Willard Brook SF (Pearl Hill SP parking area), nominally 3.9 km, 120m climb. Temps in the 60s, mostly overcast, with some light sprinkles before we left the site.

(Fixed various typos)

Much less medium green to deal with today, and any laurel I got myself into was less than waist-high. Getting the control descriptions earlier in the week we were intrigued by the four saddles in a row streak, with another reverse saddle (between two depressions) later in the course.

As yesterday #1 was the same for everybody and very straightforward...a leg about 250m long taking everyone on a contour towards the road and then distributing us from there to our next controls. I was even able to jog without discomfort (though slowly in comparison to, well, other times), so I did so when on the road or a nice smooth trail (unlike yesterday's rocky/rooty trails).

Much to my surprise I won F65+ for the weekend, despite a less than stellar run today; I'd been 1.5 minutes out of first place yesterday but Diana Todd had difficulty today and finished about 30 minutes back. I even managed to beat a few other Brown X runners for the two-day total.

I'm not sure how I managed to stumble into #3 because I never saw either of the trails I'd hoped to find along the way (I'd been heading mostly north out of 2, and at one point turned east to get relocated and hit the control!). I was a bit high going to 5 but figured it out. Then at #6 the wheels came off; I thought I knew where I left the trail, and identified a control that wasn't mine as a clearing on a hill, but when I tried to attack from it I didn't see anything like the saddle I was looking for so had to try to match the terrain to my map; I got there eventually. Perhaps I hit a different cleared hill.

7-8-9-10 went well, but I exited 10 to the NE rather than going right out to the road, and attacked 11 from the boulder along the road...and missed. It doesn't help that 11 was a pit and the flag was down in it and I approached from the side with the pile of what had been dug out (not high enough to map as a dot knoll). I spent too much time on the southern side of the wide spur until I found a bit of indistinct trail and followed it to the SE end (where someone had left an old metal chair) and took a bearing toward 11 from it. Lo and behold I noticed the pile of dirt excavated from the pit and found the flag. Many minutes lost here. Back to the road for the final control and then across a field to finish.

Very nice prizes for the winners...a choice of maple syrup or a couple cans of hard cider for first place (we don't use much syrup and have most of a quart already, so we chose cider), and cider donuts for 2nd and 3rd with a few other choices. NE champs also received a pie; I didn't see any so don't know how large the pies were.

Looking at the combined times, linked above, it appears Nancy Duprey got me by (only?) 6 seconds. Between that, and considering I would have been satisfied with third in my age group coming into the weekend, this makes me very happy. (I know the grammar is a bit convoluted, but I'm too tired to rephrase that sentence.)

The ride home was longer due to Sunday afternoon headed-to-NYC traffic; we took "back roads" in MA as far as Chicopee; by then it looked like taking the Mass Pike and NY Thruway would take less time than 91 and 84 through CT, so we went the northern route. The S end of I 87 had an accident but we exited to get some dinner to let it clear up. It did, somewhat, but was still slow going between Harriman and the 287 exit to NJ. And we hit heavy rain in western MA and some of NY, but mostly dry roads the rest of the trip.

Great to see everyone and catch up on news. Thanks to NEOC, and J-J's course design/setting, making it worth the trip.

BrownX 2 - Splits

Event: New England Championships
 

New England Champs day 1, Brown X course (same as M65, and others); 4.1 km, 135m climb. Willard Brook St Forest near Townsend, MA.

Temp was around 50 when we got up this morning, but warmed up some as we drove to the meet site. It was probably in the low 60s when I went out at 10:40, and near 70 when we left. Cloudy or partly cloudy most of the time. It was soooo nice to chat and catch up with people we hadn't seen in over a year, though some of them somewhat delayed my heading to the start such that I arrived right on time to clear/check and get my map. :-D (My fault as much as theirs...)

I didn't plan to run, even on trails, anywhere, mostly to avoid tripping on anything (roots and rocks in the trails) and damaging anything more than is already damaged. I did jog the last few feet from the bridge into the finish punches at the end of the course, because there was a photographer (Clint, maybe?). But I tried to hustle on the trails, and did the best I could to stay focused on the heavy-navigation legs, particularly 4, 5, and 6. The primary difficulties around those controls were the medium green to access them (all three were in areas mapped as light green or white, surrounded by medium green which was largely mountain laurel. I picked my way very carefully from white blob to white blob between 5 and 6, and then headed downhill from the big cliffs through some smaller rocky area to hit the stream south and west of the hilltop control. I heard some noise behind me and it was Glen catching up (he started 22 minutes behind me) and passing me. We both were on an unmapped trail that took us to the foot of a clear hilltop SE of the control; as I arrived Glen was headed back towards me and said that wasn't the right hill, but then he turned around and we both then corrected to head WNW, and I never saw him again (until after the finish).

The last 4 were easier and in less med. green, so it was just a matter fo going as fast as I could (while not running) on the trails.

Rt leg felt pretty good (relative to a week ago) but I took a hiking pole with me to help with hills, staying balanced getting over logs, and staying upright while descending the rocky areas. I tucked it under my arm on the trails.

Tomorrow should be more of the same. Thanks, J-J!

BrownX 1 - Splits

Model course for New England Champs at Willard Brook State Forest in MA. After a 5.5 hour drive with three stops, we arrived just before 3 PM and parked near Janet F and David H who had arrived a few minutes before us. We chatted for a bit, catching up on the past number of months. As we were getting ready, Charlie D & Rhonda and George and Leslie M drove out having arrived earlier; we also saw Alar R. I didn't bring a HR strap, so the wrist HR readings are suspect.

We then went to check out the control sites and mapping. Good to do, to see how the levels of green are mapped and the size of the mapped boulders, and the subtlety of the contours (lots of form lines). I visited controls mostly near the trails: 8, then 3 and 4, 7, and 2. 1, 5, and 6 were farther away from where we parked and we'd budgeted about 45 minutes; I was not jogging at all so didn't have time for the farther-away controls.

On the way to our motel we stopped for paninis at Filho's Cuchina in Groton. Very tasty! (I have some left over for tomorrow's lunch.)

Neighborhood sidewalks, a bit faster than I have gone since my bike crash a week ago...felt good (except for the couple of sore impact spots on my bruised right inner leg).

Eight toads. Low 60s, no moon yet (Jupiter and Saturn visible), but the power company has finally fixed all the burned-out lights--yay!