Training Log: BorisGr

Elliptical intervals: 20x1' with 30" rest.

I walked the White course with Inara, Barney, and Pepper at QOC's local event at Swanson Road. Or at least, I attempted to. I should have had a clue pretty early on that Pepper wasn't interested in leaving Valerie, as she kept stopping, rolling in the grass, and pulling on her leash. All the while, Barney plunged on forward with all the strength of his little beagle legs.

Then, between controls 3 and 4, Pepper rolled in the grass once more, but this time, to both her and my surprise, came up free from her harness. She looked at me and immediately bolted with a speed that I had no hope of matching, especially with a backpack full of baby on my back.

She sprinted towards a group of NJROTC kids, who futilely attempted to corral her, and then veered back up towards the start/finish. I trudged that way, while one of the NJROTC ran full speed after her. I was terrified, but hopeful that she made her way back to Valerie.

It turns out that that's exactly what happened. I arrived huffing and puffing a couple of minutes later carrying an empty harness, only to find Pepper happily curled up under Valerie's chair. Relieved, I returned the harness and carried on, with all of this giving Inara a 15-minute split to #4 on the White course.

C • Turner 3

After Alli got back from running her Brown course, I did the Red course at QOC's Swanson Road local event.

RG: http://qocweb.org/routes/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map...

This was a nice course set by Craig Shelden. He did a good job of using the rather limited terrain and still creating an interesting course.

I felt strong physically today, but navigation let me down. Reviewing the course, it seems that I had little confidence in the map, and so when alarm bells went off for me on #3, 13, and 14, each time I quashed them by telling myself that I was right and the map was wrong and the control would just show up. Needless to say, it didn't, and I lost a lot of time, especially on 14, where I was simply too low and refused to believe it, instead convincing myself that the reentrants were simply overmapped. This cost me 5 minutes and a chance at beating Kenny, who was much more technically solid today.

On the bright side, my speed was good, and I won 12/19 splits on the Red course. As always, really nice to see Alli, Inara, and Barney waiting at the finish, and to hang out with good QOC friends.

Red - Splits

Did my new loop in Rock Creek from home. My approach today was to keep a steady pace on the flats and uphills, but let it fly on the downhills, as I am relearning how to do that. It worked pretty well, though I felt heavy and sluggish in the beginning - still fighting the remnants of the cold I got last weekend. This was my fastest time for the loop so far in three tries.

"Hills" on the elliptical at work at lunchtime.

Warmup on the elliptical at work. Still feeling the effects of the cold I got last weekend, so trying to be careful about rushing back to training.

Strength routine. Squats are starting to feel easier.