Training Log Archive: cmorse

Event: NEOC Wells State Park
 

Nice day in the woods, used new map of Northern section of park. Still have some areas of questionable mapping. Also using a 1:7500 so I ran a little more conservative to avoid overrunning things which I saw as a distinct possibility. One major blunder on #6, otherwise just minor misses.

Sprint Training on the yellow course. Realized enroute to #2 that my R shoe was untied, but didn't stop to fix it, ran with it loose. Good running speed, but I had copied new course onto my used green map, so upon leaving each control I had to stop and read it carefully to make sure I was heading to the correct control, picked a route and strategy then ran it hard without further referral to the map. Only real troubles were on #6 I opted to shortcut in the powerline area and got mired in brambles that were deeper and thicker than I realized - trail around would have saved me 30s or so. And then on the penultimate the clue said pit, but there was a depression AND a pit in the circle (and the master map was centered on the depression) so I checked that out before hitting the pit. Maybe 10s on the diversion. Add perhaps 30-40s loss on the loose shoe (slower pace) for maybe 75s total loss. Probably wouldn't have hurt my time to tie it when I noticed it. Also lost maybe another minute unfolding map to punch (card stapled to map) over what would have been with e-punching. I'm just not smooth enough when futzing with the pin punches....

C • Boy, add up all those times... 3

Green - Splits

hanging streamers for cub scout orienteering session this afternoon. White and yellow level, short legs - 12 controls in 2.2km. Quite enjoyable in the woods

then turned around and tried to run the course hard. Difficult to breathe at higher intensity, no energy in the legs. Of course Anna's birthday is on Monday so she had a half dozen 6th grade girlfriends over for a sleepover last night (not a lot of sleep on my part) and then helping with things this AM I never ate breakfast. So in retrospect its no surprise I had a tough time....

Cub Scout den meeting event. 5 boys (3rd grade), 1 younger sibling, 3 adults. Did a quick intro with a bunch of old maps to get an idea of what the various colors stood for on the map, then more into specific types of features. Then walk to start and begin a series of short white legs having everyone orient their map, and discuss the options, then took turns with one boy leading each leg once decided on the particular course. Plenty of running along in the woods and when I saw the plan going awry, I told them to stop and re-check their map and to review their pre-ordained plan. Most of the time they figured it out on their own and got right back on track. Last 4 controls were yellow/orangish but had the huge handrail of I-84 visible in the distance. Everyone had a good time and enjoyed the fact that this was a running sport, not just a walk in the woods.

Family walk, up the red trail along the N boundary, around up top, then down the faint white trail in the middle of the hill. Kids weren't convinced we were on a trail as it was totally obscured by fallen leaves, but we were...

Took Hayden over to Manchester and rode on a section of the greenway along 384 from Gardner to Keeney and back. Being along the highway at times it wasn't exactly scenic, but it rolls and dips a bit and was a nice outing. With the traffic on Rt 83 over the highway we walked our bikes across the bridge and while we did a local cop pulled up and got out and gave Hayden a ticket (for a free ice cream cone) because he was wearing his helmet.

So of course after our ride we had to go to DQ to 'pay his ticket'.... Chocolate malt for me...

Decided not to make the journey to Grafton as the weather was variable and didn't want to drive that far to run in the rain. So after waffling a bit, decided to just go out and ride the bike.

Pinnacle > Ellington > Rockville Spur > Bolton Notch where I picked up the East Coast Greenway south and decided to try and follow the on road markings over to Manchester and pick up the bike trail that paralells 384 down to East Hartford. But I must have missed a key turn as I ended up on the Manchester Race course so wandered down into Manchester (I could have just cut over most any road at this point to pick up the EGC again, but since I had wandered off route I just decided to keep wandering off route). Down to Cheney Hall, then back up into downtown, then over to the industrial park where I picked up the rail trail and headed back from there.

Was a nice ride, kept the GPS on the menu page so I wasn't obsessing about moving speed or anything, just picking gears that felt good to spin at 90-95. Didn't really care if my speed was slow or not, just enjoying the day and trying to avoid squirrels and chipmunks. Legs feeling dead in the last bit around the lake (really, really low) and had to mash on a few short steep bits on the east side of the lake. Shouldn't have, but didn't drop into the granny in time so just slogged them out.

C • ECG bikepath along 384 4