Training Log Archive: NormalAndrew

Night run w Michael. Kept the pace up, but we were talking the whole time. nice pace for that. Legs felt good after the weekend, though a little worked post run. Finished with some light stretching, then I rolled my feet and calves when I got home. Wore my recovery socks overnight

Event: BAOC: Golden Goat
 

Golden Goat.
Woke up feeling a little rough, from partying the night before, but, didn't want to miss the Goat. The Goat is a mass start o-meet, where you are allowed to follow, with a few tricks to incorporate some strategy. This year you could skip any two CP's, and there was one CP where you had an option (either go for 14A, or 14B).

There was a decent field of competitors out, and I wanted to compete. Took off at the start mostly following people, started to spend time looking ahead on the map to determine which CPs to skip. Basically decided quickly that the first good one to skip was 7, so I used any moment I had between 1-6 to figure out which ones made total sense. By the time I was leaving 6, figured that a plan of skipping 7 and 13 looked to be a good plan, so moved forward. Was following closely behind Francois (one of the top guys) on my way to 8 when I saw him ditch the road to go to 7...thought...well...this is where I see if my plan works, and stuck to it (after a short deliberation). Didn't have any real troubles with any CP's until super late, think 22 had me searching a bit...but otherwise clean. Felt good about my routes and my efforts, and was surprised when I finished 3rd overall! Only 7mins behind the lead, and 5mins behind 2nd. I was actually with 2nd for awhile around 17/18, and saw both of them from a viewpoint at 19, but was never going to catch them at that point.

Was pissed at myself when I found out that I actually missed the punch at 17...ugh. It was a water spot, so I guess I concentrated on the water and forgot to punch. The BAOC guys all told me it was a classic error...damn it. So, no points for me in the overall standings...and a valuable lesson learned.

Still, felt awesome about my performance. KP and JO were impressed, which says a lot! They did well out there too. KP chose the same CP's to skip, which the course setter said were the best ones to skip. Proud of that also.

Next year......next year.....

Beautiful day out, so I headed out for a quick run. Kept up a fast pace, pushed it on climbs, recovered on the flats.

Started out slow, felt like I was shaking off some rust. Felt better and better the further I went. Didn't pay attention to my HR, but after the fact, surprised it was in HRZ3 most of the run....wondering what that means about my fitness right now. Feel like I should have stayed in HRZ2 at that pace. Need to start fitting in more hills.

Nice session w Adam, Susannah and Lindsay. Kept a decent pace, Adam and I were in singles, the ladies were in the pig. Was nice to catch up with everyone, hear stories of Adam's latest travels.