Training Log Archive: cmorse

Event: Mt Tom
 

White course coaching Jackson.

With Jackson picking up white controls and some of the yellows. Sun sinking fast and cooling down quickly..

Red course - time lost on #2 (control stand and flag knocked down and didn't see it first time through), #4 (looking to high on the hill), #6 (drifted a bit downhill and made parallel error near circle and #8 (slightly meandering route choice) See splits for more detailed postmortem

Red - Splits

Well, yesterday's aborted plan was to go out and run at least a half, but not a full marathon at something close to my Nipmuck PR pace. I had originally thought I might shoot for Bolton Notch as it would involve some trails, some dirt roads (rail trail) and some pavement. But yesterday's plan got screwed...

So up this AM and its snowing, with the promise of sleet, freezing rain and just plain cold rain for the rest of the AM. Yummy.... By the time I got the boys on the bus around 8, there was a coating of snow on the grass and down the road I went. Figured I'd head in my originally planned direction and see how I felt.

Down the road about a half mile to the intersection of Grahaber and SLR which is an on-road section of the Shenipsit Trail, complete with freshly painted blue blazes. Down to the Snip, then picked up the old Rockville Trolley line trail towards Rockville. This segment also part of the Shenipsit Trail. Once I hit 74 I lost the blazes but headed toward the highway as I knew the trail picked up again by Walker Reservoir. Stopped by the Shell station for a Dew and Powerbar. Was really snowing hard (stinging the face) as I fought AM traffic under I-84. Legs not feeling real lively, I figured I'd try to get to Belding, or optimistically to Valley Falls.

Once in the woods again the cold wasn't so bad, but I was quite wet and fearing how chilled I'd get if I was forced to walk for any great distance. Hit Belding WMA at just around an hour. Nice running through there although the snow plus fallen leaves made any incline very, very slick.

Got to Valley Falls where they conveniently still had a couple Porta-John's open so made opportune use of those (I've been battling a low grade lower GI bug for a couple days now). Had been planning on turning around here, but after emerging from the loo, I decided to push on to the Notch, what the hell....

Once up on the rail trail got into a nice stride but the snow now mixing with sleet, got up to the notch and sat down on a rock in the tunnel under I-384 to get out of the weather. Had some powerbar and Dew. Only sat for a couple minutes as I didn't want to get chilled and knew I had some mileage before me still as there wasn't any bailout options. Good pace on the gentle downhill back to Valley Falls with convenient 1/4 mile markers and opened my stride up a bit on a couple of 400's.

Very slick going down the slope back to Valley Falls but no incidents. Had been listening to some Radiators on the I-Pod (one ear only) but the I-Pod died on me in here (maybe water, maybe just battery - not sure). Pretty uneventful back to the highway except that my outbound tracks were now non-existent (about an inch of wet snow), stopped in at the Shell for another Dew, feet really cold now as the road running in this section consisted of a lot of slush and deep, cold puddles where the drains weren't working.

Back to the Trolley line still feeling pretty good but part way down here (about 3:15 into the run) my legs started to complain. Hit the pavement back on SLR and my legs refused to run so walked the asphalt for a while, picking it back up to a slog (aka slow jog) once back on the dirt section which was still snow covered.

Back up to the house in fine shape - pretty well wiped with numerous numb body parts but no lasting damage. And enough distance to know that I can comfortably finish VF next month in a respectable, if not great time.

A quick frozen pizza for lunch, then taking my cue from the cat, I will endeavor to curl up in front of the stove for a nice winters nap.... Fine indeed...

Approximate Route

C • man... 5

Some days life just sucks... 3 days off (and the kids at school) so I was in the process of getting dressed for a long run and the phone rings. Radiator burst in one of the tropical houses. Not an uncommon occurrence, but this one happens to be under a 33 foot long (too heavy to move) transite bench (asbestos, can't cut it away).

So now its off to work to figure out how the plumbers are going to be able to fix the radiator without a major hazmat remediation.

Maybe we'll try again tomorrow.... sigh....

Event: WCOC Wooster Mtn Meet
 

Happy Feet Fun Run - 1km loop on a paved running trail. Did 3 loops - estimated time. Nice crisp morning for running, but I overdressed. Wasn't planning on really running but Carol tagged me to lead the group (about 40 kids) on the first lap as part of the trail was 'missing' due to some construction so I led them 'off-trail' on a detour.

SLR > Hare > Pinnacle > Crystal Lake > Shenipsit Trail > Grahaber > SLR

moderate pace for the most part, legs quite reluctant. Hit top of hill on Grahaber just before 40 minute mark and decided to push and try to get home under 45:00 - managed it with 8 seconds to spare.

Event: WCOC Sessions Woods
 

Late start out the door, got to Sessions at noon so just did a very leisurely yellow course with the family. The boys were ornery and dragging but Anna was getting into it and did most of the navigation (with assistance). Teaching orienteering to the kids one on one works well, trying to do it in a group of 5 isn't as effective. Funny thing is, once in the woods Anna was the one having the best time, but she was the one we pretty much had to drag kicking and screaming from the house this AM. Go figure.... At least we got out...

C • Kids!? 1

Cool overcast morning, around freezing. Ran Sampler with Dave & Ginny - Ginny dropped back after the pond, and I opted to push hard over woodchuck at the end. Legs felt very reluctant to run the whole way around. Took one good face plant going up woodchuck, initially both feet, both knees and both hands really hurt but shook it off after a couple minutes continued running. But after getting home its my left shin that really hurts now. Some minor bloodletting under the tights.

just using the AP rankings to get a relative sense of where I'm at with my orienteering. Hadn't done much (any?) up until September, then made a committment to myself to do more. And post US Champs seems a good time to reflect although there is still more than a months worth of good O still to come this season.

Currently in sprints I'm on par with Nadim at 80.1 points up from 76 points at this time last year. In the classic I'm on par with J-J at 60.3 which is down from 63.5 last year. But I rarely get out for long runs these days so its likely a matter of fitness combined with my propensity for making huge errors on longer legs.

I think a large part of that is a tendency to pick out intermediate targets enroute on longer legs but then go into autopilot and drift due to lack of constant focus on the navigation. Just sloppy on my part and something I need to work on.

Perhaps more line-O type training - draw a specific route on a map and then go out and execute that route, rather than just choosing 'controls' and running random routes between them. Perhaps the line-O type training would help me to concentrate on the entire route more than I do currently.

Its a plan anyway, we'll see if I can follow through on it...

C • drifting 9

moved the other ton, in daylight this time which might explain the speedier time. Sweating pretty good by the time I was done.

moved the first of two tons of stove pellets from the backyard where they were delivered last night and down into the basement. Didn't feel like tackling the other pallet so I decided thats a task for tomorrow night.

easy jog out to scope out the finish/spectator area. Woods look much nicer today than yesterday, at least in this area. Then back to parking, drop off warmups and jog out to the remote start area.

RouteGadget & comments

Much nicer woods for the most part (except the part I should not have been in). One really major brain fart on #4, the rest a combination of fine running and reasonably competent navigating... Couldn't keep the map, so my comments are just from memory...

In the comments I noted that I yo-yoed with Pavlina in here, but in comparing some of the splits and trying to determine where my fast short leg split on 11 came from, I now realize that it probably wasn't Pavlina sporting the Bulgaria top, but Iliana Shandurkova, that I was seeing out there (never saw the face, just saw a Bulgaria jersey and assumed it was Pavi.) But Iliana's split on #11 is only two seconds off of mine and I remember beginning that leg a bit behind her but she dropped down into the reentrant on a straight line and I ran hard clean line around but saved the climb and managed to close distance on her - so those two seconds tell the story there.

It was such short leg that the gain didn't amount to diddly, but it shows how even minor route choices can gain or lose time.

Having spent more time in the woods than planned, and having promised JJ a departure no later than 11:45am, I sprinted the road back to the parking area and hopped in the car. We were on the road less than 60 seconds later...

Day 2 Red Y - Splits

more crappy woods and a model map that was not representative of the real thing as far as printing quality. But the lack of terrain quality certainly was there. Had a few issues with the vegetation, but remembered the disparity between yesterdays model and race maps so hoped for the best..

Routegadget - though some of my green wanderings are just guesses. Plus I probably should have added more hesitations in appropriate spots. But it is kind of cool so see how my speed picks up on the good legs and slows down on others...

Somehow managed to finish the day in 5th place, but well back of the leaders. Fair? Yes; Fun? Not really...

Had the fastest RedY chute time (12s) though, not that it matters in the big picture.

Day 1 Red Y - Splits

Event: US Champs
 

Left CT at 4:20am with J-J, took the safer route west of the direct route I-84 to Scranton, then down I-81 to I-66 and into Prince William from the west. Not a bit of traffic, probably about 70 minutes longer than the direct route (I-95) under ideal conditions but the likelihood of crappy traffic on 95 made the 81 choice a good one. If only the rest of the weekend had avoided crappy route choices as well....

Anyway, got to the meet site just after 1pm with time for the model.

Out on the model map - kind of a crappy area, and the map quality was not promising. Although I ran the 8 controls in order, I didn't necessarily attack each one like I would in a race, instead wandering about to visit various features enroute to get a taste for the mapping and more importantly the vegetation. Finished up the 8 controls and then ran 8-6-4-2-S backwards at a moderate pace to get a feel for running in the terrain and warm up for my race.

Luckily the area and map used for the race itself was much nicer than the model. But the model is supposed to be representative of the race terrain, not a example of how crappy it 'could have been'. Not impressed with the model.

M45 US Champion !! - see comments and Routegadget

C • Sprint Warm-up/Model 1

Sprint Red - Splits