Training Log Archive: bgallup

Event: NEOC: Blue Hills Traverse
 

woo traverse! almost got magnus and tim, but blew it blundering around 19. i could feel it slipping away...

short version, one epic fustercluck on 19, one crap route choice, one meh route choice and three near-pin meanders.. back-and-forth with Aaron from 7 through the end. He was definitely the stronger runner, but I got back at him on micro- and medium- (meso-?) route choices.

1) Pushed out in front to avoid a conga line at the first pin. In right behind Ian.
2) Planned to take the southern trail, was curious what the Brothers were up to and followed them cross-country to the northern trail
3) End run around the north, drifted into the easement, caught the obvious terrain features (30s)
4) Back to the easement, up the hill third (or second-and-a-half, then third) left, to the hill. (20s)
5) Straight off the end of the trail. Not perfect at the end (15s)
6) Stupid route over the top. Not too slow, but a waste of energy. Bit of a wandering search party (Tim, Aaron, Will, Magnus, myself) at the stick. (2:00?)
7) Took the trail route north. Saw Aaron in the distance, made up some time cutting tangents. He was doing what I planned on, but he cut in a little late, on worse features. I just followed the spur.
8) Went off the apex of the trail, nailed. Aaron went a little low and fell behind.
9) Easement up to the drop, bang. Cut in a little early, to no loss.
10) Across the street, and stupidly up to the trail. Shoulda just went straight for it. Aaron stayed low, made up time, but I moved more decisively to the control. (30s)
11) Easy
12) Brief turn to 13. Nice. (10s)
13) Put some distance on Aaron. Drifted a little north, unexpected stone-wallish thing. (10s)
14) Solid trundle along the trail. Aaron finally caught up to me within meters of the flag.
15) Easy trail run, slowly losing distance to Aaron.
16) Took a second to reboot the o skills without any trails around. Went a little north, saw Aaron punching (20s)
17) Easy do
18) Saved a couple contours on Aaron, did some planning en route, and caught him right at the end.
19) Split up, both got epically lost, reunited saw ernst a number of times, PG and katia (caught ya?) caught up, we all punched together.
20) Trails. Dropped maybe 50m on Aaron.
21) Grinding it out. Passed Aaron in the woods when he took a wrong turn, got passed on the ski slopes. Tired knees hate downhills.
F) Man, slapping down this ski slope was the least fun finish leg ever.


Wish I had considered plain old running shoes instead of spikes. Took a bit of a beating. The entire map could use a sprinkling of rocky ground. Mapped rocky ground was a war zone. Some trails were brutal. Ate two gu. Very (very!) definitely helpful, but I'm worried I've killed my dog with the Gu-farts. Epic.


colorized splits. You know, in time for christmas. Got the Brothers Childs on a few splits, but only where they screwed up. Beat Magnus on a lot of splits. Just sayin'. Definitely didn't beat him on one, though.

interestingly, the bonus-paid-version-freebie at Winsplits for this race is the pack index

C • Quite happy seeing you come... 9

Traverse - Splits

No more worrying about filling up the GPS watch memory. Two full battery charges, 125000 trackpoints, ~35 hours of once-per-second sample, and the watch says the memory is only 51% full. I like. Call the capacity three solid days of logging, given a healthy external battery. The watch almost certainly has 4MB of onboard memory.

Although, the download speed actually does suck. Downloading 1MB took just over half an hour. That's barely than this guy. From 1973. And ANT allegedly does 1Mbit/s - 250x faster than this. Granted, I'm a one-sample-per-second-using edge case weirdo, but it just feels dated.

Fun fact, that wikipedia article implies that HR strap coin batteries should be good for three years. Or maybe that's 250x lower too and anything more than four days is a gift.

Heh. Did not see the end coming. Made in Australia, but light on the stereotypically Aussie deaths. Watch for superglue guy's waddle during the chorus.

decent bouldering, but a bit of a mixed bag - didn't get some stuff i thought i should, but did alright on some of the harder stuff. found another 3 that needs work, and no doable 4's in sight. continued improvement on the newer/wider/bouncier slackline, and got some solid toproping in. one-hung a 10d, cleaned a 10a, and grappled up a really burly, stemmy 11a. couple good poses for the calendar in that last one.

also got the 310xt. certainly seems like a step up from the 305. going to see how much memory it's got tonight.

also, two burritos. it was a good day.

calves are almost not sore. just a little twinge at the end of full contraction. this prolonged recovery (six days!) is either proof of training unpreparedness, or the onset of old age and slow recovery. one foot in the box already, eh?

C • 310xt memory 4

good bouldering. real clean on (most of) the 3's, and smooth on the 2's. two of the 3's still stump me. good slacklining, and even got some toproping in. some antics on a 10d/11a (two hangs), and three or so 10's of varying degree. felt strong on toprope.

-cool map of boston neighborhood names.
-dug up a good deal on a 310XT garmin replacement. might get it in time for the BHT
-calves ow.
-also, tried out the Catching Features ocad-to-CF process, and it's awesome. had a corner of the fresh pond map ocad, processed it, and it's easily recognizable.

i'd be damned if i wasn't going to get some mileage out of the last warm and dry day until april. last-minute dusk patrol in the outer burbs. carlisle's nice. wouldn't mind if the housing prices were cheaper. or the commute shorter.

monument ave was nice, per usual. lowell rd was a bit of a guess, but okay-ish. 4/225 was better than i expected.