Training Log Archive: RJM

Quail Hollow Red course. Wonderful day to be out - crisp, clear, veg losing a few leaves so visibility is a bit better. But qh has a lot of rose and other things, and I am pretty bloody. Good course design given this difficult veg, allowing route choices and navigation. However, the mapping is still sketchy on veg types, so there was a lot of uncertainty on what we'd see where. Biggest pleasant surprise were all the apples laying under old cider trees everywhere - wish I'd taken time to stop and eat a few. Control placement was a bit off - quite a few were only vaguely near the feature, and with so many new blowdowns, 'rootstock' wasn't a helpful clue. Also, one of the setters seems to have delighted on putting the bags literally touching the ground, and I saw one person literally step over one without seeing it (I rehung that one higher). Not my best effort, but I am in a much better place than last meet. Perhaps because of the cooler conditions, perhaps because I've upped my running mileage, perhaps because I've now done some more time in the woods. Sergei beat us all, including stan! today, by a good margin. He must be doing some serious training. I was 3 minutes behind stan, who had a bad day (never found control 2, I'm told, which doesn't often happen).
I was really happy with how I handled mistakes today - generally stopped to think, and didn't just continue on hoping I'd find it. Several times I recognized the value of really relocating properly instead of maintaining the illusion my original navigation was perfect (and it often wasn't). I could have lost a lot of time on some of these if I'd been stubborn. Because of the vague and difficult control hanging, the improved effort on dealing with mistakes and relocation was a really important adjustment.

very leisurely, but got some good map time in. Note that I didn't hit the wall during the 1.5 hr race, but for this I was again in that zone. That's more like it

meander in via towpath, collecting plants past mustill for flora class. 3 deer, 44 min. Return was just regular towpath

Memorial-tp in with 5x2min pushes, 1 min recovery. 2 deer seen
back crosby 3x2 with 1.

long way in but didn't dawdle (35min). Return on North. Lovely day

light yard work - i actually rested some today!