Training Log Archive: bishop22In the 12 days ending Aug 13, 2007:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||||||||||||
| Th | Fr | Sa | Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su | Mo | |||||||||||
Monday Aug 13, 2007 #
Note
(rest day)
The Junior Trip comes to a close. I think it was pretty successful. The kids seemed to have had a good time, and their performances in the races was even better than I expected. Plenty of future JWOC qualifiers were on the trip!
Had enough airport scrambling to do that I decided a day off was in order.
Had enough airport scrambling to do that I decided a day off was in order.
Sunday Aug 12, 2007 #
Orienteering race 15:12 [5] *** 2.4 km (6:20 / km)
spiked:8/11c
Sprint Relay to benefit the US O team that is starting to arrive in Kiev.
I joined Eric Buckley and Ted Good to form a team of M40+'s. I didn't object to leading off, so that's what I did. Got off to a good start towards the first control, but was distracted by the highly visible control that wasn't mine, but corrected fairly quickly. C2 was a bigger problem. I thought I was on line and Andrew Childs seemed to be heading for the same tree, so I ran hard to punch first, only to discover it was not my control 30+ seconds later (going away from C3), I punched. Then it was a matter of walking people down, which I did with a combination of decent running speed and straight lines. At C8 I punched just behind Holly K and ended up getting a minute in front of her at the finish. I went over the spurs to C9, others seemed to go around, and I got by a few people. Then I caught one last guy just after C10 and beat him in to finish 3rd on the first leg, behind the guy from Norway and John G. My time turned out to be the fastest of the day on "Variant A".
Ted went 2nd and caught John's father to put us in 2nd place, but with a couple of teams not too far back - Nate ran around 14:45 to close the gap, and one other team was looking strong. Eric ran well, especially considering yesterday's race, and held off Ed, despite a roundabout route to the last control, but he punched at the wrong flag and so we were MSP instead of 2nd (and first US). Definitely a fun event. Sprint Relays are so much more exciting than regular relays.
I joined Eric Buckley and Ted Good to form a team of M40+'s. I didn't object to leading off, so that's what I did. Got off to a good start towards the first control, but was distracted by the highly visible control that wasn't mine, but corrected fairly quickly. C2 was a bigger problem. I thought I was on line and Andrew Childs seemed to be heading for the same tree, so I ran hard to punch first, only to discover it was not my control 30+ seconds later (going away from C3), I punched. Then it was a matter of walking people down, which I did with a combination of decent running speed and straight lines. At C8 I punched just behind Holly K and ended up getting a minute in front of her at the finish. I went over the spurs to C9, others seemed to go around, and I got by a few people. Then I caught one last guy just after C10 and beat him in to finish 3rd on the first leg, behind the guy from Norway and John G. My time turned out to be the fastest of the day on "Variant A".
Ted went 2nd and caught John's father to put us in 2nd place, but with a couple of teams not too far back - Nate ran around 14:45 to close the gap, and one other team was looking strong. Eric ran well, especially considering yesterday's race, and held off Ed, despite a roundabout route to the last control, but he punched at the wrong flag and so we were MSP instead of 2nd (and first US). Definitely a fun event. Sprint Relays are so much more exciting than regular relays.
Running warm up/down 20:00 [2] 2.22 mi (9:00 / mi)
Got a little over 10 minutes of jogging in before the Sprint, then a little under 10 minutes afterwards.
Orienteering race (String-O) 46 [5] 0.19 km (4:02 / km)
John set up another competitive String-O course near the relay finish line. Over 70 attempts were made, in various formats - individual, relay, 3-legged, 1-legged and blind (thanks, JJ).
The crowd made me start right after Nate and try to beat him, but it was not to be. Nate popped a 43, which was the fastest time of the day, other than the Norwegian's 42, then 41. My excuse was that Nate left each flag swinging, making it harder for me to punch.
The crowd made me start right after Nate and try to beat him, but it was not to be. Nate popped a 43, which was the fastest time of the day, other than the Norwegian's 42, then 41. My excuse was that Nate left each flag swinging, making it harder for me to punch.
Orienteering race (String-O Relay) 14 [5] 0.06 km (3:53 / km)
Zach, Chelsea and Nate had put up the fastest relay time of the day (48, I think), but it was beaten by the Goodmans (John running first and last), so Nate, Chelsea and I took a shot and whipped off a 43. I almost fumbled the SID handoff from Chelsea, but was able to hold on.
Saturday Aug 11, 2007 #
Orienteering race 2:30:01 [3] *** 14.0 km (10:43 / km) +515m 9:03 / km
spiked:14/18c
US Long-O Champs at Saylor Park, north of Woodland Park, CO.
I started out on the line to C1 before I noticed the trail was the way to go. After crossing the marsh, I forgot that it was a 1:15K map, and attacked from the wrong hilltop - 2 others were also off in my direction (Spike and Gabe), so it took a minute to admit I had made a mistake, realized the scale error and moved on, but the pack was long gone, so I was on my own most of the way. I was quite happy with my contour reading, something I don't usually do well, especially on a 1:15 map. I still couldn't always predict whether it would be a reentrant or spur that I would see, but could adjust my navigation when I saw the actual slopes in the field.
I took the road most of the way to C8 - I'll have to see others' splits to see if that was a reasonable choice; I was able to run fairly quickly on the road. I missed C11 to the right when I spotted what turned out to be an unmapped boulder. I had a bit of a problem leaving C12 - couldn't decide whether to go left, or start angling to the road, so I ended up getting slowed by some undergrowth. I eventually went to the road and hopped a fence to get to the trail for an attack. I went along the right edge of the boulders, but didn't see the flag, nor a real break that seemed to be on the map, so I had to come back up from south of everything. I had seen Cristina on the road, but she got past me again as I retraced my steps.
I knew I had to be careful on C15, but I guess I drifted right, which meant 2 things: I didn't find the reentrant with the control, and I passed the trail further north than expected and my pace count brought me well short of the control. The road got me straightened out E-W, and following the reentrant got me to the bag after Cristina. The rest of the way was extra slow on uphills, but I saw someone to pass going to C17 and forced myself to hustle to 18.
I ended up 4th - had a shot at 3rd if I hadn't wasted so much time on 11, 13, 15 (or lost the pack on 1).
I started out on the line to C1 before I noticed the trail was the way to go. After crossing the marsh, I forgot that it was a 1:15K map, and attacked from the wrong hilltop - 2 others were also off in my direction (Spike and Gabe), so it took a minute to admit I had made a mistake, realized the scale error and moved on, but the pack was long gone, so I was on my own most of the way. I was quite happy with my contour reading, something I don't usually do well, especially on a 1:15 map. I still couldn't always predict whether it would be a reentrant or spur that I would see, but could adjust my navigation when I saw the actual slopes in the field.
I took the road most of the way to C8 - I'll have to see others' splits to see if that was a reasonable choice; I was able to run fairly quickly on the road. I missed C11 to the right when I spotted what turned out to be an unmapped boulder. I had a bit of a problem leaving C12 - couldn't decide whether to go left, or start angling to the road, so I ended up getting slowed by some undergrowth. I eventually went to the road and hopped a fence to get to the trail for an attack. I went along the right edge of the boulders, but didn't see the flag, nor a real break that seemed to be on the map, so I had to come back up from south of everything. I had seen Cristina on the road, but she got past me again as I retraced my steps.
I knew I had to be careful on C15, but I guess I drifted right, which meant 2 things: I didn't find the reentrant with the control, and I passed the trail further north than expected and my pace count brought me well short of the control. The road got me straightened out E-W, and following the reentrant got me to the bag after Cristina. The rest of the way was extra slow on uphills, but I saw someone to pass going to C17 and forced myself to hustle to 18.
I ended up 4th - had a shot at 3rd if I hadn't wasted so much time on 11, 13, 15 (or lost the pack on 1).
Running warm up/down 5:00 [2] 0.63 mi (8:00 / mi)
Some jogging to the start, only because time before the start was rapidly approaching rest room queue time.
Friday Aug 10, 2007 #
Orienteering race 39:24 [4] *** 4.0 km (9:51 / km)
spiked:7/12c
USOF Middle Distance Champs outside of Woodland Park, CO.
Well, mixed feelings about this race. I let Nate talk me into allowing him to run up on M-20 Red, since Amos and Andy were doing it, given the short distance of the Red course. He ended up beating me by over 3 minutes. I guess that's good and bad.
I was shocked when I flipped the map over. It was basically all white, with a few splotches of yellow inside the course area. As it turned out, the yellow was not so valuable for me to navigate: white sometimes meant widely scattered trees, sometimes meant a little deadfall, and occasionally meant light green (I only saw a couple of patches of medium green), so I couldn't readily distinguish yellow from white.
So, it was all about the contours, and I can't tell a spur from a reentrant unless there is water to clue me in. After the race, Nate pointed out to me that everything was downhill from east to west, so you automatically knew which were which. But I didn't.
I ran conservatively to C1, then I thought a reentrant led to C2, just about 150m away, so I ran hard. It turns out that it was a spur that led to the control, so I ended up running back to the C1 area and trying again - a quick 3 minute loss. I discovered my inability to distinguish yellow from white, when a clearing was supposed to be my catching feature beyond C3, but I couldn't spot it. Another 1 - 1.5 minute loss.
Most of the rest of the way was simply running straight, pace counting and reading the detail when I got within 30-50m of the bag. C11 was a "long" leg (~500m), and I thought I could run down a spur, but it got thick, so I jumped off and ran parallel. I guess I was running much harder than I thought, so I covered much more distance than my pace count indicated, and had to figure that out, and backtrack (in addition to being left of the line, which I knew). Cost me another 1.5 minutes.
It looks like I may have picked up a USOF medal on the cheap. There was a European that ran around 32 minutes in M40+, but Eric B made a big error on C11 and Jeff W must have had problems, and there weren't many other entrants, so???
Zach won White by a bunch. It's tough to figure whether he is better served to smoke the White field (he still has another year on White), or to be challenged by Yellow, and spanked by Ethan Childs.
Luke made his navigation debut on Rec-White, with Chelsea shadowing. He would have been 2nd in M-10 - I think he was about 40 minutes to Zach's 20, but he has 4 more years in that category, so no hurry in going competitive. He was very excited about, and proud of his performance. It was also his first e-punching, which he loved.
Well, mixed feelings about this race. I let Nate talk me into allowing him to run up on M-20 Red, since Amos and Andy were doing it, given the short distance of the Red course. He ended up beating me by over 3 minutes. I guess that's good and bad.
I was shocked when I flipped the map over. It was basically all white, with a few splotches of yellow inside the course area. As it turned out, the yellow was not so valuable for me to navigate: white sometimes meant widely scattered trees, sometimes meant a little deadfall, and occasionally meant light green (I only saw a couple of patches of medium green), so I couldn't readily distinguish yellow from white.
So, it was all about the contours, and I can't tell a spur from a reentrant unless there is water to clue me in. After the race, Nate pointed out to me that everything was downhill from east to west, so you automatically knew which were which. But I didn't.
I ran conservatively to C1, then I thought a reentrant led to C2, just about 150m away, so I ran hard. It turns out that it was a spur that led to the control, so I ended up running back to the C1 area and trying again - a quick 3 minute loss. I discovered my inability to distinguish yellow from white, when a clearing was supposed to be my catching feature beyond C3, but I couldn't spot it. Another 1 - 1.5 minute loss.
Most of the rest of the way was simply running straight, pace counting and reading the detail when I got within 30-50m of the bag. C11 was a "long" leg (~500m), and I thought I could run down a spur, but it got thick, so I jumped off and ran parallel. I guess I was running much harder than I thought, so I covered much more distance than my pace count indicated, and had to figure that out, and backtrack (in addition to being left of the line, which I knew). Cost me another 1.5 minutes.
It looks like I may have picked up a USOF medal on the cheap. There was a European that ran around 32 minutes in M40+, but Eric B made a big error on C11 and Jeff W must have had problems, and there weren't many other entrants, so???
Zach won White by a bunch. It's tough to figure whether he is better served to smoke the White field (he still has another year on White), or to be challenged by Yellow, and spanked by Ethan Childs.
Luke made his navigation debut on Rec-White, with Chelsea shadowing. He would have been 2nd in M-10 - I think he was about 40 minutes to Zach's 20, but he has 4 more years in that category, so no hurry in going competitive. He was very excited about, and proud of his performance. It was also his first e-punching, which he loved.
Orienteering race (String-O) 1:25 [5] *** 0.3 km (4:43 / km)
The Juniors put on an intense String-O course as a fundraiser ($1 per run), so I took my shot. Nate beat me soundly on this. There were some picnic table options (over, under, around). The third table was tall (Luke could almost run right under it), and I almost didn't make the jump onto it.
Running warm up/down 6:00 [2] 0.67 mi (9:00 / mi)
Most of my warm-up was walking around with Luke, to get him signed up for a Rec course and into the computer, but I did get some jogging in.
Unable to force myself to do a warm-down afterwards, but I did do plenty of walking around, which was probably good enough.
Unable to force myself to do a warm-down afterwards, but I did do plenty of walking around, which was probably good enough.
Thursday Aug 9, 2007 #
Running 30:00 [2] 3.43 mi (8:45 / mi)
Easy run with Chelsea. Sergei came along as well. We ran on the path alongside Rt 67 back towards Woodland Park. Turned around after 16 minutes, since darkness was rolling in quickly. The return was easier and 2 minutes faster, since it was downhill.
Had almost blown off the run, since I carted the juniors around a bit, plus took a nap - IN A BED - after Chris supplied the troops with a large lunch and a place to swim.
Finally made it out for dinner at 9:27, at a place that closed at 9:30. In fact they turned the lights out as Chelsea and I came up, although Chris, Z and Luke were already inside. Decent pizza, excellent cold beverages, but the topper was that it was Thursday, so they provided awesome free cinnamon breadsticks with icing after dinner, with the purchase of a large pizza.
Had almost blown off the run, since I carted the juniors around a bit, plus took a nap - IN A BED - after Chris supplied the troops with a large lunch and a place to swim.
Finally made it out for dinner at 9:27, at a place that closed at 9:30. In fact they turned the lights out as Chelsea and I came up, although Chris, Z and Luke were already inside. Decent pizza, excellent cold beverages, but the topper was that it was Thursday, so they provided awesome free cinnamon breadsticks with icing after dinner, with the purchase of a large pizza.
Wednesday Aug 8, 2007 #
Orienteering 10:00 [1]
Served as a "bus" for the Jr Jr Training camp. 4 of the 5 groups came to my starting point, before catching the other 4 buses, so I went along my route (1 control every 10 minutes) just waiting for Zach's group to get me. They came along just before I left the 4th stop. Than a latecoming group showed up while I was on my way in.
Orienteering (Control Pickup) 40:00 *** 3.0 km (13:20 / km)
spiked:5/5c
Picked up some Orange controls with Zach. He led us (solidly) to each of the controls, I just got to carry the flags, e-punch units and stands. The youngsters had driven the van away, so I had no plastic bags, but I took off my sweatpants, tied the legs, and they made a fine carrying case for the flags and units.
Orienteering race 1:25:00 [4] *** 7.6 km (11:11 / km) +230m 9:43 / km
spiked:11/15c
US Night-O Champs. Blew C12 (about 7 minutes), after taking a safe route, but getting lazy at the attackpoint (road intersection, just over 100m away). Had a few other, smaller problems, but that was the bad one (I finished 6.5 minutes behind Emily and 2 minutes behind Ted Good).
Zach flew around his 2.2k course in under 15 minutes, for the win. Nate got Andrew by about 2 minutes, running his 4.7k Orange in just over 40 minutes.
More later - I'm being pressured to leave the HQ area so we can hit the road to Colorado Springs. Gotta make it in time for the Trail-o after all. How is trail-o not even worse than micro-o?
Zach flew around his 2.2k course in under 15 minutes, for the win. Nate got Andrew by about 2 minutes, running his 4.7k Orange in just over 40 minutes.
More later - I'm being pressured to leave the HQ area so we can hit the road to Colorado Springs. Gotta make it in time for the Trail-o after all. How is trail-o not even worse than micro-o?
Tuesday Aug 7, 2007 #
Orienteering 32:27 [2] 3.24 km (10:00 / km)
Did part of the Orange Day 2 course at a very relaxed pace, without a compass. Legs are still quite heavy on the uphills. I missed C3 - I was following a path along a reentrant, and it was supposed to turn left up another reentrant, but I didn't see that, so I ended up leaving the trail and heading up the next reentrant and moved onto 4. The line from 3-4 was basically an extension of the line from 2-3.
Splits:
To Start: 2:21
1 - 2:29
2 - 6:13
4 - 6:42
5 - 2:52
6 - 5:10
in - 6:38
Splits:
To Start: 2:21
1 - 2:29
2 - 6:13
4 - 6:42
5 - 2:52
6 - 5:10
in - 6:38
Friday Aug 3, 2007 #
Orienteering 59:36 [3] *** 6.62 km (9:00 / km)
spiked:28/31c
I'm taking the Zero-to-Orange "Train the Trainer" course. Our first exercise was at the end of the day. It was a score-o with 32 controls, but we were given a control card with just 24 spaces, with the explanation that no one would get them all. With 2 Blue courses coming up this weekend, I started out as easy as I could, with no intention of getting them all. I skipped #6 (they were worth face value), so I could be sure to get some 20+ flags. I got distracted by the kids who were playing ultimate near our camp site and missed #3 - no big deal. I relocated to go after 13 and saw 3,just 30m away, but decided to skip it, since I had already missed 6. I finished up, and realized I had time to run out and back to 6 (800m round trip, which I turned into 900+), and kicked myself for not grabbing 3 when I had the chance - could have had them all. And it turned out one guy in the class just missed #2, so I lost bragging rights by one point out of 600+.
Thursday Aug 2, 2007 #
Running 45:07 5.64 mi (8:00 / mi)
Long freakin' drive from Yellowstone to Elbert, CO. We were going to stop in Laramie for a run, but I forgot to bring any maps from last year, so we continued on to Fort Collins. I called my brother-in-law, who spent time at school there, and he directed us up to Horsetooth Resovoir, which was an excellent choice. We parked at the first lot and ran trails to the north. It started raining before we got going, eased up a bit, then poured by the end.
They took off before I could get out of the car, which was just as well, since I needed an easy jog to transition from driving to running. I ran out 15 minutes, then picked up the pace and followed the "foothills trail" back down to the edge of town, which meant I had to turn around and climb a ton, back above the resovoir. Eased up after 30 minutes or so.
Driving back thru Fort Collins, we encountered some mighty rivers flowing down some of the roads. I wasn't ready for the first couple - good thing we were in a high van. I allowed for an IHOP dinner stop to drag out the drive, with the hope that the weather would improve, which it did, moderately.
They took off before I could get out of the car, which was just as well, since I needed an easy jog to transition from driving to running. I ran out 15 minutes, then picked up the pace and followed the "foothills trail" back down to the edge of town, which meant I had to turn around and climb a ton, back above the resovoir. Eased up after 30 minutes or so.
Driving back thru Fort Collins, we encountered some mighty rivers flowing down some of the roads. I wasn't ready for the first couple - good thing we were in a high van. I allowed for an IHOP dinner stop to drag out the drive, with the hope that the weather would improve, which it did, moderately.