Training Log Archive: bishop22

Event: US Middle Distance and Relay Champs
 

Various running around before, during and after the US Middle Champs at Letchworth. I did not have any course maps, so I couldn't try out one of the courses in the early AM, but folks seemed to enjoy them.

I did get to pick up a few controls at the end of the day, one of which took a second attempt, without a compass.

Nate had an OK race to get 3rd in M-20, about a minute behind Gabe, but 5 minutes behind Jordan. He edged out John G and Michael Norris.

Zach got drawn down the mandatory trail towards the Advanced start triangle before he was able to correct, and lost several minutes to the first control. Had a couple of other errors, but managed to be the first USOF finisher (2nd overall) up on M-14.

And Luke made his A-meet debut. He managed 2nd place in M-10, and that can still be his official category for 3 more years. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to see him finish (or start).

Ran with G2 at lunchtime. That made me go 7.5 minutes longer than planned and about 30 seconds/mile faster than I would have, so not a bad run.

We ran the river loop in the usual clockwise fashion, crossing at Elmwood. I've forgotten about dodeca-Tuesday in recent weeks; we'll have to start making another run at that.

The weather was fan-freakin'-tastic! I hope it doesn't warm up too early tomorrow. It looks like the 10am conditions could be nearly perfect.

50 minutes on the range.

Chelsea was in a photo, from yesterday's track meet, on the Rochester D&C web site this AM. I am trying to include it here:



Too bad she is getting edged out, but at least it's a Hilton runner.

RH3 in Scottsville. The opening loop was a short, 9-minute, jaunt thru some woods, a marsh and a farmer's field. Excellent terrain but I wasn't warmed up, so I couldn't run it that hard.

The next 45-50 minute section involved a lot of medium green, marshes, swamps, some light green and occasional patch of white forest. We were also nicely informed that we were on private property. The laborers were going around putting up some posted signs that would have warned us, had they already been up. Apparently the swampland neighborhood watch took over, because a couple of SUVs started to follow us around. There was a HH at a power line, and the final section (10-15 minutes) of trail paralleled a posted property boundary (but didn't cross it) until there was a spot parallel to some RR tracks to get back to the road. A bit down the road a woman, not so nicely, informed us that the police had been called. I wasn't really concerned, since I did not run past any posted signs, but we decided not to circle at the parking lot, just in case.

Ran during the Hilton Spring Breakout meet.

Nate opened with the steeplechase, and did OK, 11:29. He has to drop at least 12 seconds to have a shot at Sectionals. He has to go under 10:45 to qualify in the 3200.

Then I ran a little over 3 miles, into the village of Hilton, around and back out to the school, then around the school a bit. On the way back I picked it up (tempo-ish) for a bit over 5 minutes. 23:30 was the total elapsed time.

Then it was Chelsea's turn in the 800. She was back in 7th or 8th nearing the 400, got by a couple, then a couple more at the top of the back stretch, then took off with about 250 to go and moved clear of everyone except the 2:20 Mercy girl. One girl (Hilton, I think) came back and edged her at the wire in 2:32.

Then I went north from the school for just over 16 minutes and turned around. On the way back I did 2 x 3min hard (interval-ish), with a 3 min jog in between. It was into the wind, but I was still under 15 minutes on the way back.

Back to the track and Nate's heel was very sore (same as in Texas), so he sat out the 3200, so it was just Kenny and Afro Thunder. I decided I had run enough, so I just hung out until the 1600 (Nico, Chris and Alex N) and the 4x800 (slow - AB, Whitty, KDawg, Nico)

C • Cover of Sports section 2

4:12/8:31
1:33,36,37,36,36
3:34,34

It has been quite some time since I've been in the pool, so I was sloppy and slow.

21 min of Random Hills-13 @ 89rpm
2 min w/dn-12

Legs felt a little lethargic, but my tender calf didn't bother me at all, so, I decided to push my luck and make it a mini-triathlon.

Beautiful day outside, but I had just gotten off the bike inside, so I just jumped on the treadmill, instead of going out. Calf did not bother me at all; it must be a bruise or something, not a strain.

1/2 mile @ 7.0mph
1 going 7.1-8.0
1.5 at 8.0

Another long day at the desk, with no break for lunch or swimming (but not nearly as long as last Monday).

Event: 30th Annual Billygoat Run
 

Billygoat at Clear Lake Scout Reservation.

After lining up the line, I didn't much look at the map on the way to C1, until we hit the trail - there were too many good navigators leading the way, so I just focused on not falling or running into people, as it was fairly crowded. When I did look at the map, I couldn't see a skip, so I figured I'd postpone thinking about that for a while. I punched C1 just ahead of the Saegers, and there was a clear line of runners to C2, which was due north, so I stayed ahead. As I approached, I saw Brendan taking a fairly long look at his map, and he went left, so I followed him. I noticed the Saegers went right, so I got quite worried. I didn't see Brendan's plan on my map, so after we went left of the big swamp, I thought we were going to go right of the next 2. Between verifying that C13 was C13 and starting down the wrong trail, before spotting Brendan on the trail (he had gone between the pair of swamps) across the way, I had fallen a minute behind him, but I ran the trail fairly hard and had caught up when we left the trail. When we joined the pack that had gone right, I had caught up to Nate, despite my delays and was still ahead of the Saegers.

I ran into trouble in the thick stuff leaving C4 and several people got ahead of me, including the Saegers and Randy. I think it was C6 where Joe B came in the wrong way and I had his bright yellow shirt to follow for a bit. I didn't see the trail that should have been used to get to C10, so I lost some time there. Before getting to C11, I thought about skipping the short out-and-back to C12, but I could see Joe went straight, so I continued on.

I punched C12 just after 3 cadets and they stopped to look at their maps, but I just got out of there, on the line. Happily, that brought me to a trail that I stumbled on before seeing it on the map, and I saw that it was going to be a good route for most of the way, so I picked up the pace, significantly. Sitting still, I think I have pieced together what I did. When the small trail curved around the spur near the main trail, I thought I was curving around back between 8 and 9. Somehow, I missed the main trail as I was distracted by the maze of stone walls (I must have thought the main trail was just a path alongside a wall). Then, I heard the creek and continued on the path to where it crossed. I thought I was at the main crossing, but when I got across, none of the contours lined up, and the trail was south of west, rather than north of west. I spent several minutes trying to figure out my error, looking for parallel creeks, etc. Finally, I realized that the creek had ended and the trail was running alongside a creek, and I figured out where I had to be. But the damage was done. Peter came in from the proper direction and punched just ahead of me, so I followed him past the pond and out to the road.

I was going to stay with Peter, but he is still coming back from injury, so I picked it up a bit and passed someone, then passed Jeff Saeger. I had planned on cutting left of Sperling Pond, but when I got to the trail junction, it looked real nasty getting down to the small trail, so I decided to go right. I got to the turnoff that was mapped, but there was a gate there, and it looked like it may be a private home, so I was stumped. First I doubted that I was seeing the right driveway, then I thought I might have to go around, but I was at the edge of the map. I finally convinced myself that I was supposed to cut thru, just as Peter came to the intersection - I had lost all of my hard effort. This was quite depressing and made it difficult for me to do much running towards C15, 16, 17. I committed to C18 before I noticed the little trail that I could have taken, had I gone left of the little pond. I walked most of the hill to C18, so Peter and Jeff were still just a bit behind.

So, now I had no choice but to skip C19, so I fought thru the mountain laurel towards C20. I knew I had gotten pushed to the left, but I didn't know how far left, but, luckily, there was a trail junction to confirm my position and the cairn was very prominent. I angled left to the trail and followed it all the way to the T, for an easy C21, then used the stone walls to aim for the patch of open land, to the road, for the final run.

I should have been under 2:10 (8 minutes on C13 and too much walking after I was bummed out and no longer behind anyone). Oh well, it just increases my desire to return next year. Nate had a pretty fine run. He needed to follow the 2nd group, instead of the 3rd.

The Goat - Splits