Training Log Archive: Wyatt

Event: DVOA Green Lane
 

USA 4, Canada 1?
At the Delmont/Green-Lane DVOA racing weekend (>200 miles south of the Canadian border) USA & Canada squared off. Jon Torrance represented Canada, and a host of American's did battle.
At the Delmont Sprint, Wyatt held off 2nd place Jon T.
At the Delmont Red, Eddie held off 2nd place Jon T.
At the Green Lane Red, Sergei took the lead in holding off Jon T.
At the Green Lane White, JWOC team member Greg Ahlswede held off Jon T.
And not to be outdone everywhere, Jon also ran the Green Lane Orange, where, after being fended off by 4 different (J)WOC-bound US men, he faced off against US Team Members Corrine Porter & Angelica Riley....

C • Thanks 2

Mass start 'relay' Red, battling with Eddie & Sergei. Eddie took the early lead across the field toward # 1, and as Corinne began to pass me I realized I needed to pick up the pace, hitting # 1 right behind Eddie as Sergei missed right. Up the hill to # 2 then chasing Eddie up Hill Rd. he maintained a lead, with Sergei right behind me - finally on this road my HR hit full pace. I took an aggressive route into # 3 thinking I could see Eddie coming into it from the safe attack and it worked - with the added traffic (benefit) of Orange runners doing a shorter loop with the same control. I pulled ahead of Eddie on the road into 4 & then 5, both of us barely pulling by Karl A. on the downhill, and neither of us being able to catch Fred Reed on the road until he had to read the map going out of 4. He's pretty fast...

Leaving 5, I drank a bit and Eddie took the lead. Into the forest toward 6, Eddie went in low and as Sergei caught me, we all overshot, miscounting vague streams on this muddy day. I recovered first, more or less, but recovered back to 8 (100m NE of 6), then turned hard to 6, hitting it just before Sergei (behind me) and Eddie (relocating from elsewhere.) Our group disaster of the day (and to happen just after I was thinking how cool it was that 3 of the top 6 Team Trialer men could race head to head this weekend... :)

I picked a bearing and roughly read the line of boulders into 7 holding the lead. On 8 though, Eddie picked a better line as I drifted right off a good bearing, and he got ahead. We all did 7/8/9 pretty well in vague terrain with compass, some-features, and other bodies... On 10 we bailed and I went a bit too far around (on pavement nearby Eddie & Sergei), but mostly, I think I got outrun, getting into the circle at 10 in 3rd. Eddie lost confidence and rechecked a trail attack, allowing Sergei & I to hit 10 first and second. On 11, we all took different routes, and my around route on trails proved a bit slower than Sergei's green route. On 12 though, Sergei hesitated on a ruined stone wall and I began to catch up there, but also misread and thus didn't catch much - as on 11, Eddie was coming in just as I was leaving.

13 was decisive, with Sergei bailing around left - fairly long, but fast all the way (and even further left route may have been slightly better!). I saw Sergei's middle-left route, but decided to risk the much straighter green route. Even if I hadn't executed it somewhat badly at the end, it was likely slower. Eddie bailed around right, losing even more time than I didi, when he got a briefly confused behind a brush dump. At that point, 500m from the finish, 1, 2, 3 were settled, but not as firmly as might be thought. On 14, while I started the leg alone (40 seconds ahead of Eddie as I was to find out later), I misread how high on the hill 14 was, and Eddie caught sight of me running into it. I knew he was much lower on the hill when I saw him, but decided I needed to run 15 pretty hard, 'just-in-case'. And as I exitted 15 toward the finish, there he was a few steps away - yikes! Had to really push down the somewhat muddy grass & road crossing to keep ahead!

C • Neat 1

C • Speed 1

Got there a bit late and was rushed as hadn't realized the 'relay' was just a sum-of-times, so that Angelica & AJ had to start first too. Then AJ decided to run later anyway, mass-starting with Oriana

A little jog between runs, then with AJ, then Oriana, then AJ as the passed each other on White. They were both slacking quite a bit on the first half. AJ claimed to have stomach ache, but then perked up by the end. I'm not sure if we just need to give him more water (probably) & food (maybe) in preparation for his race - we kind of ignore that... Or if he's just not interested in doing it (possibly - Angelica would say probably.)

Event: DVOA Delmont
 

Sprint race at Delmont (new map). 1st ahead of Eddie & Jon, although it was my first race of the day (and their 2nd). Managed to run hard at the start (thinking ahead to WOC helped here.) A bit sloppy, losing efficient focus in the buildings in the middle ~3x5 seconds, and one 20 second error near the end going through more green than an around-on-trail route would have allowed.

Getting ready for Red (2nd course)

Really hosed in an unusually mapped hillside losing nearly 3 minutes on 7 & 6 minutes on 8. Should have done better compass/pace from obvious objects, as the 'soft' contours, plus sporadically mapped rocks, incl. several blob-shapes, were nearly useless for relocation.

Splits-Modul-O' on the Chesterbrook east map I found in my stack... Kept it short as the 2 day racing weekend would more than complete my 6 hrs

Brookmead, VF Park, Willson Rd.

HR monitor on my FR305 seems to be dying. I've washed it regularly, changed the battery, and it's still giving some spiky results, even when I'm plenty sweaty. (The normal fix is that it doesn't work well when dry so get it wet... which was helping a bit this past winter.)

Event: Hibernia 5-mile Wed. Eve. race
 

1600, 1200, 800, 400, 400, w/equal-time rest

5:53
4:13
2:42
1:15
1:13

led the first 3 by far, pressed on the last 2, with a real fight with Keith on the last one.

VF Betzwood trail-GPS-mapping 3-4x coverage of most of the trails in the eastern 1-km of the map. Still some new ones I didn't get completely, especially in the orchard where several new Mt. biking paths have appeared, and some have faded, and the maze west of the orchard is perhaps even more ridiculous than ever. The maze is really weird. It's almost like someone walks around in a 100x200m dark green patch, with shears, making very windy paths and lots of dead ends. There's evidence of cut branches, but little debris, plus an unusual mix of micro-clearings and dark-green vegetation types.

Pictures from the Wissahickon 10k last week:
Letting people pass me up the first hill: http://www.wanderersrunningclub.org/index.php?opti...#

Fighting to keep ahead on the flat with ~1.2 miles to go:
http://www.wanderersrunningclub.org/index.php?opti...

With Oriana & Angelica on the 5 mile loop.