Training Log Archive: jtorranc

Venture Quest - no conflict with Sprint Series Finals after all so I may as well try to defend the title.

Decent race marred by the huge mental error of managing to skip the third last checkpoint - never noticed it on the map; had read the race passport the night before but lacked time to review it immediately pre-race while I had the map as I was rushing to and waiting at the Bike Lane vehicle to get my front derailleur seen to. Not that I'm sure I would have taken the time to go over the two of them together through to the end of the race even if I had been less pressed for time. Lesson learned for next time, though I probably won't get a crack at this race until 2009 since it seems highly likely to conflict with the North Americans next year.

In any case, I came of a brief run and one orienteering control prologue in first place, lost massive time (around 15 minutes, apparently) to the better cyclists on the first 8 mile mountain biking loop, made all that up plus a minute or two on Petr Minar (also a QOC member) in the 6 control score-O trekking leg that followed, got passed again by Petr and lost about 7 minutes in the second go at the mountain biking, then set off in pursuit paddling downstream on the reservoir. Not having noticed CP7 exactly where a CP was last year, I actually portaged all the way across the peninsula to within 100m of CP8, where I caught up with Petr not realising I'd skipped anything. Ran away from him on the run back to the start/finish and got clued in when Valerie got the download working a few minutes after I finished. Petr came in for the win about 6 minutes later - I suspect that means I would have just barely overhauled him had I done the course properly but it would have been much too close for me to confidently say so.

A good day of physical training though possibly more torque hammering up hills on the bike than was good for my knees - it's hard to say since I also fell a few times on the bike and at least once hard during the score-O. Certainly the worse-feeling of my knees has that status largely because it took the brunt of my hardest fall during the biking, which also gave me a patch of, I suppose the correct term would be, trail rash.

Not being especially eager to wait around until she finished all her timing and results duties for a ride home with Valerie (particularly given it would have meant answering a great many sympathetic questions about my error), I cycled slowly to the Vienna Metro station and took the train home.

The Nation's Triathlon? Back to back with Venture Quest? No, I'm not that silly.

Vetting/field checking in PWFP.

Cycling to work by way of the aquatic center. Directly home afterwards.

Another instance of taking time to break away from my bed, resulting in a brief but intense stint of DWR.

Cycling to work. Much shopping on the way home lengthening the ride.

Cycling to work by way of the aquatic center and directly home.

C • chart 2

Another pool workout under time constraints so skipped any warmup beyond the cycling to the aquatic center and just ran.

Abdominal and back exercises.

Eccentric hamstring exercises and one-legged squats with a backpack full of textbooks plus a couple bottles of water (maybe 25-30 lbs).

Cycling to work by way of the aquatic center and directly home.

Flutterkicking.

All I had time for after slowly dragging myself out of bed so at the high end of intensity level 4.

Just took a few minutes to subscribe to a contemporary dance series in the current Kennedy Center season. Nice that you can now assemble a series a la carte but less nice that they apparently still haven't figured out how to make selling subscriptions online work more often than not. In any case, with tickets actually sitting on the desk, I won't go forgetting to buy them until after all the good seats are gone or performances sell out and I will therefore manage to do something with my free time this winter other than physical training, orienteering, mapping and watching TV.

C • life 7

Cycling to work. Feet sore and will require care to ensure they recover well enough for next weekend but body otherwise feeling pretty good despite the high intensity orienteering on rocky footing. Cycling straight home in the evening.

Abdominal exercises.

One-legged squats, still without any added weight.