Training Log Archive: bishop22

Event: Billygoat
 

31st Annual Billygoat at Nottingcook Forest (Bow, NH)

PG posted the map (with his route) here.
Sprained toe made for tough going in the terrain - I had to make sure my left foot landed flat each step. This showed up most noticeably when I was passed fairly steadily in the stretch parallel to the marsh before the trail run from 3 to 4. I went right of the Saeger ladies' route leaving C4 (I thought they must have been going to the left option), but almost caught them at C5. I couldn't bear the thought of more terrain running at that point, so I went way around to the right on trails to C6.

I missed C7 to the right and took some time to recover (did not see the vegetation difference). C9 and C13 were also much slower than they needed to be, due to the toe.

I didn't consider skipping in the first half, because I wanted a reason to look forward, so C15 seemed like the only logical choice. I missed the trail that angled best toward 16, so when I eventually made it around to the clearing east of 17, I had to take a moment to relocate.

Skipping C15 is good, if you actually skip it, instead of just doing it out of order. I tried to go just left of west out of C17, but apparently I went right of west, and when I hit the trails at the power line, I made the trails match what I wanted them to be, not what they were. It had me confused, for sure, but there were others coming by and they looked confident, so I left the power line with them and spiked C15. Oops. Instead of taking the trail to recover, I tried to shortcut along the ride and paid the price in time and blood. And then went thru the muck, missing C18 to the north.

C19 was a whole lot closer to the trail than mapped. I missed C20 to the right (sounds like a lot of people did), saw a clearing to my right and went there before realizing there was more uphill to my left. At the time I thought I was in an unmapped clearing, but not there appears to be a clearing kind of under the "2" in 20. And that makes sense because there was a trail there.

I was hating C21, and in hindsight, I definitely should have gone trails all the way, to protect my toe. As it was, I drifted way right looking for an easy way to get thru to the road, and came out on the road just west of the trail junction, with Phil coming up the road behind me. I got to C21 just a little bit behind two others and caught them (and sat on them) halfway to C22. I climbed a small hill that made me realize we were to the right of the line, so I got to C22 first and didn't have to worry about out-sprinting the other three, which I didn't want to do, since they were all a fair amount older than me. I did almost lose it in the field, when I wanted to go straight, but the compass (and woods line) told me to go left-ish.

So, it was a fun event, although I spent too much time alone. I do need my toe to heel, and I am not in good enough shape to race on back-to-back days (at least when the second day is over 2 hours).

After the race, JJ let us know that we were the first family to have 5 official Billygoat finishers in a race. We went from 2 to 5 in the last 5 minutes.

C • Five? 3

Event: ROC - Webster Park [2009 Club Series #2]
 

ROC Series Race #2 at Webster Park - Red Course.

OK, with the Billygoat tomorrow, the goal was to go as easy as possible and still put up a respectable performance. With feet in CT and nate in Victor, the race was wide open. I was fairly clean - other than some small hesitations, I just remember the following: I overran C4 by 20 seconds (to the next spur up the trail), and I was at the wrong stream junction for C17 (?) (couldn't see it on the map, but it had a trail leading down to it, which after looking carefully, was not quite the right angle), and I cut in too early to C19, causing some unnecessary thrashing about.

I just saw the series standings, and it looks like Pavel managed to beat my time.

Red - Splits

Easy run from Spry while waiting for Zach's bus to show up from Victor. Included a couple loops around tiny Case Memorial Park, that I do need to map (along with Spry) before Zach finishes school there. Then perhaps his gym teacher will believe that he is a national age-group orienteering champ.

Speaking of Z, he won his second consecutive 1500m race, in 5:30, running the second half about 14 seconds per mile faster than the first half.

4:08/8:21
1:34,34,35,34,33 (on 2)
3:30,29

Nice hash from Mertensia Park. I was able to keep running most of the time (with the exception of our two HHs, the second of which was at Finger Lakes where I played some 2-cent slot machines and quickly lost $2. It was 2.1 miles of more-or-less on-home from there.

Once again, I could not make time to run before/during the track meet, and I was much too hungry after the meet, by the time I drove the boys home (via Hegedorn's). I've got to break this trend of unplanned rest days.

And my sprained toe is only recovering ever-so-slowly, despite these bonus days off.

C • Hegedorn's? 3

4:05/8:14
1:30,34,34,33,34 (on 2)
3:34,33
86,89,90,89 (golf)

Wow, it's been a while and it felt like it. The unpleasant surprise of the day was pushing off an early turn and being suddenly and sharply reminded that I have a sprained toe. Maintained caution after that.

Way better than last week. Shot 42, which included a fairly poor short game (highlighted by a 3-putt bogey).