Training Log Archive: mintore

Just a nice fall night in the woods. My race was run ok but not flawlessly. Control 30 was a full-on bingo control (not placed correctly and without fluorescent tape as a fall back it was annoying) and then I took a easy but longer westerly exit from the control. I was surprised at the end on how large the knock-on from this and a bobble between 34-25 was. On the return, I didn't have the confidence that I would have time to get 12 so I intentionally ran past it and 17 (which was on my return) with out pausing. If I had been careful, I might have punched them and finished within 2:00:59. These two and possibly one more were minimially lost which would have improved my standing. Just aiming to clear up to control 5 in the north and leaving 25,31,34 and 35 would have been a better strategy but I have not been south in so long, I chose by the heart.

Congrats to Mike!

A neutral run at dusk. Slow in the low light.

Loosening up after the weekend.

I should write more than I will about NAOC weekend but....

I had a frustrating, miserable middle race on day one but I didn't end up caring very much because all-in-all, it was a terrific, really fun weekend.

Briefly, I need to get better at adjusting to new maps and terrain and this need is magnified to the n-th degree by starting out on a solid middle course in a poorly timed downpour. I have never seen so many controls that aren't mine. I was starting to wonder if controls flags were an invasive species in that part of Adams Creek. So many mistakes were made that I can't list them all but they slowed me to a crawl by mid-race and I was simply pulling to make it back in 2h. The tale of Garmin was sad. At two points, one 10m and one 20 m, there are circles where my missing of the control and the return from extremely large loops barely touch. I rail... but I also appreciated the challenge and the chance to see if I can improved in two years.

The long was a bit better. Three legs deserve comment. The first was a control that I missed. I though was one of the harder legs. The control was on a rock on a hillside that required a careful approach. I ended up high but was worried that I had ended up further off course. I gained some cool from the previous day and very slowly sorted out my location and followed a string of rocks from a junk pile to the control (the lost 15 min should have been much less). Second, the next leg, I chose to eschew the wisdom of the trail run and took a risky trip through the medium green on a very long leg. Attackpt says that only 4 min was lost but the pain of barberry and picking of twigs from my teeth argues that time could have easily been made up by one of the other paths rather than lost. The next leg with Eugene Mlynczyk was fine and we separated picking different paths toward a clearing on a spur. Mostly, this went fine until I erred at the end attacking too far down the broken cliff line and found a nice clearing on a parallel spur. 10 minutes later, I had reattacked from the real cliff end rather than the more distant outcrop and the control was blazing in the sun. Problems, yes, but I was happier that the long had some flow.

The sprint went pretty well. I was focused and came to put in a decent showing. I had one tentative leg in the early and middle part of the race; the first was probably to my benefit in sorting out how the trails were marked. I made one larger mistake very late crossing a small marsh to a control by a gazebo only to turn and look back toward the target control. Two more passes through the marsh and I was heading forward. The most fun was running under the awnings for the yurts through the spectators and vaulting a wooden railing to the control. 14th of 26 -- a clean run would have been top 10. Something to work for but I was very happy with the day.

Brenda felt that her weekend improved every day and Aidan finished two solid runs with a really strong showing on the sprint. Good times!

RedX - Sprint - Splits