Training Log Archive: PG

Event: NEOC: Great Brook Farm NOD
 

Great Brook Farm in Carlisle, MA. First time there. Perfectly fine area, nothing special, woods were a little thickish but still good orienteering. And a lovely day, good for both running and hanging out, and even good for a short trip down the road to Kimball's Farms for some ice cream, and then back to the meet site for some more hanging out.

So it would have been perfect if only my orienteering hadn't left me with a bit of a hollow feeling....

(1) I think me and the thumb compass are going to have to part ways. I'm just not getting much use out of it. I suppose I could just keep at it for a while and see if things improve, but it feels like a real struggle for less reward than my old ways.

(2) I'm certainly not reading the map well on the run, in fact I would say I'm only managing to get useful information if the level of detail is quite low. So that is discouraging. Had at least a couple of times today where I was looking at what I thought were trails on the map when they were really stone walls.

(3) I really slow down when the woods thicken up. And fall down more too. I think this may be a terminal condition, it is only going to get worse.

So my run really felt like a struggle. And that's on terrain that is pretty easy. My guess is that this is not going to get any better. So I'm in the usual dilemma -- is it better to accept the inevitable, and thereby probably hasten it's arrival, or fight against it, realizing that it is a losing battle.

So far my tendency in such matters has been to do the latter. We shall see.

Today's red course and my route.

192/2000

C • ice cream 3

Red - Splits

Out and back on Pocumtuck ridge (which the 305 says is 3.1 miles one way and 3.3 the other, apparently it is accurate to only one significant digit). Nice run on a really nice cool afternoon, can't help but feel good. And my ankle calmed down overnight and wasn't bothering me.

Think I might go to Great Brook Farm tomorrow. Never been there. Don't have great expectations, but someplace new is someplace new.

Upcoming minor targets to help get me out the door to train -- (1) Stanley Park (Westfield) 3 mile XC race, only two more left, Monday and the following Monday, need to do 20:47 or better, (2) Highlander, hopefully not the disaster (physically) of last year, and (3) the Boulder Dash, blue both days.

C • how XC 2

C • BOG 3

At Earl's Trails, this time mostly on the jeep roads that go more up/down rather than snaking along the contours. Just trying to give Eddie more data for his basemap production.

Rolled my right ankle, then 50 yards later rolled it again just the same way. A little gimpy for a bit, then mostly OK, but I think it may be bothering me for a while. No swelling, just yanked on a ligament a little. Well, actually I really have no idea what I did, just that it hurts some if I step on it wrong or rotate the ankle a certain way.

Didn't make it out yesterday, so today had to be it, and the morning the time.

Warm-up.

3K time trial. Quite strange. My original thinking was that 12:30 ought to be possible, but then I ran a couple of faster bits in the warm-up and they seemed to be a struggle, so I didn't know what to expect.

Started off therefore not wanting to be too slow, and of course was too fast. Slowly slowed down. And debated more than once cutting it short, or mixing in a couple of slower 200s just for a break. But then just kept at it. And reasonably pleased with the outcome, 12:25.

1:37.6
1:38.9
1:39.9
1:40.9
1:40.5
3:20.4
0:47.1

Event: 3000m time trial
 

Eddie is producing a basemap of Earl's Trails. What I've seen so far looks excellent. So will have to dig out my mapping gear and try to resurrect my mapping skills. Should be interesting. And maybe I can get Ali and Alex to do a little, just as a form of precision training for the mind and the eye.

As for the use of the map, who knows. Maybe just renegade O', maybe something more substantial. Not the best terrain in the world but far far from the worst.

Just for a change of pace, time for a blow-by-blow of today's "orienteering." Well, it's just like orienteering. Although the only time I've really orienteered much like this -- so many mistakes -- was last month in France.

1. (380) Two thirds of the leg (i.e the drive) went perfect, then botched the approach, and botched it again, double bogey (not good).
2. (140) Spiked, par.
3. (420) Long tough leg. Moving well, just slightly right at the end, corrected OK, bogey.
4. (380) Bad start, and then it got worse, including two tries form the same attack point when the first one got lost. Quadruple bogey (really bad). Time to start paying attention.
5. (130) Spiked, par.
6. (550) Pretty good all the way, par.
7. (290) Took safe route, then blew the approach, bogey.
8. (465) Good speed slightly left of the line, lost no time in the circle, birdie.
9. (360) Some seasonal marshes thanks to Irene, but my line was good and I stayed dry, par.
10. (360) A little right of the line, left a tough approach over a big tree, spiked it, par.
11. (180) Spiked, par.
12. (475) Real good speed, no time lost, birdie.
13. (280) Right at it, just a little sloppy at the end, par.
14. (560) Long leg but a slight tailwind helped, fast and solid, par.
15. (150) All good things come to an end. Straight uphill, stopped a little short, then went past it, took a while before I finally got it, triple-bogey.
16. (320) A little left of the line but very sharp on the approach, par.
17. (385) A little left to start, then tried to go over a green area and didn't make it, eventually another double-bogey.
18. (320) On the line all the way, birdie.

Conclusions about my technique: Need to do better at dealing with the inevitable times I get off my planned route, take a moment and make up a plan B rather than just bulling ahead.

That regardless, it still is fun to go as fast as possible (i.e. swing as hard as I can). Wish I could still do that in orienteering.

One of the benefits of not having e-punching at Pawtuckaway is that it gives you a chance to enter your splits on AP, instead of having it done for you. Of course if no one does it....

So get with the program.

Had an Alex-type long weekend (Saturday morning to Monday evening), not in that I am broken, but rather doing my best to rack up lots of miles. I'm still not in her league, but it did seem like a lot of driving.

But Pawtuckaway needed to be done, and I needed to check in on mom who, it turns out, took another trip to NYC on Saturday, the second one I've not been involved in, just quickly down and back with Lina and Lina's daughter, no stops except for soup, the purpose apparently just to rekindle some memories. And then this morning I had a chance to play a round at the Plymouth CC, a very nice private course, so that couldn't be passed on, was out of mom's house before 6 to make that.

But no complaints, a fine long weekend in all regards except that Lina (my mom's primary caregiver) is convinced I am quite nuts, as every weekend I show up with new scars/scabs/lacerations. But then at one point she said that my mom was a tough old lady, and she guessed I was just the same and she had best get used to it. But I'm pretty sure she'd prefer it if I didn't croak anytime soon.

My route from the night-O'.

Green course. Wasn't even sure I was up for that, feling very tired. But it looked like a nice course and I thought I should at least give it a try. And I got around pretty well, ran a fair bit, only 2 or 3 minutes of errors, so quite pleased, and certainly glad I'd gone out.

No 305 track for this one. Guess I'll have to be old-fashioned and draw in my route. It's bound to be more accurate that way. :-)

Very pleasant weekend, good company, good orienteering, and I'm still upright. Though I remembered only at the end that I had forgotten about my general desire to try to meet someone new at O' weekends. Got to get back to that.

Also got a number of nice comments about the write-ups I was posting during WOC about how the Team was doing. Nice to se some were reading them. And maybe they helped in their purpose, to make people in the federation feel a little more connected to the Team.

And speaking of the Team, there is a need for a person with a special duty, which is to check Ali every time she is leaving wherever she is and make sure she isn't leaving anything behind. Because she seems to do that quite often (the worst example I heard was arriving at a ski race only to discover she had forgotten her skis). And because it seems to be a family trait. So it is hard-wired. Perhaps we need an intervention.... :-)

C • green course 2

Green 2 - Splits