Training Log Archive: TomN

Event: QOC Meadowood
 

QOC Meadowood Red. Not the most auspicious start to the day, left my bag by the door and showed up at the event without compass, e-punch, shoes, clothes (well, I had clothes, but not the right ones). Not the most auspicious start to the event, either, 18 minutes to control no. 1, less than 200m from the start, 13 more controls to go. I think this map needs work. I had trouble getting motivated to run, but that doesn't excuse the sloppy control picking near the features. One good thing though, I brought 3 other orienteers with me, meeting and even exceeding the incentivized carpool threshold.

Tempo run at GSFC. 4 x (1 mile at T pace, 1:00 recovery). I was trying for 7:17/mile. Twice around the 2-mile course, and I know where the 1-mile marks are. Splits were 7:43, 6:45, 7:42, 7:12. So apparently I don't know where the 1-mile marks are after all. If you average them all together it's 7:20, so not too bad. The last mile was pretty clearly slow, though. It was the only one of the 4 that I had to switch from 2-2 to 1-2 breathing.

GSFC perimeter road, with an extra loop up the hill by the pond.

8 x (2 min on, 2 min off) with the "on" at about 1-mile pace. That and a short warm-up took me the whole way around the GSFC perimeter road. Knees feeling sore.

The usual circuit plus stretches. Legs feeling too beat-up to run today after 2 hard days over the weekend.

Event: QOC Lake Needwood
 

QOC Lake Needwood Red. This was a little aggressive after a fast 8K race yesterday. The course was long and steep. I had a lot of trouble with the westernmost controls, off the hill and on the border of the out-of-bounds area (4 and 6 on this course). I crossed the stream from the north just below No. 7 (102), but I didn't read the number and thought it was on the boulder to the west, because I had just come through a big open field at the river (which is clearly not mapped). I didn't go far enough west to No. 4, because the deep open stilt-grass infested reentrant was either not mapped or obscured by all the red and green lines, but either way I was sure it was the start of the open out-of-bounds area. I had given up and was heading over the hill to No. 5 when I thought, darn it, give it one more try and go into the out-of-bounds area this time. I found it in the rough open, not in the woods, same as 6, can't see why they're mapped differently. And I still can't see the big reentrant between 4 and 7 on the map.

Then I apparently skipped punching at the water stop, No. 9. I drank the water (in the little shot glasses), but I guess I must not have punched the control. Third mispunch in 3 consecutive events. That's mighty depressing.

I had no trouble at all with the control-picking the rest of the course. Oddly, I had trouble with the mandatory crossing points. I didn't end up crossing at any of the right spots, because I didn't see them in time. And my routes getting there were slow. It's like I didn't take those routes as seriously as if there were controls at the crossing points, which maybe there should have been.

C • Needwood 1

Red - Splits

Kensington 8K. First race as a 60-year-old, first place in my new age group. I've been running this race for years and never got close to an award before. Splits: 6:58, 13:58, 21:00, 28:33, 35:22. The entire 4th mile is one big uphill on E. Bexhill Rd. Of course, there's a corresponding downhill, and I would have liked a sub-7 minute split in mile 2 heading down to Beach Drive but it didn't work out that way.

Core strength and stretching. No run today, race tomorrow.

GSFC perimeter road with extra loop around lake.

GSFC perimeter road.

Core strength workout. I figured I'd take the next rainy day and do this instead of a run. And here it was. Feeling pretty strong, can't explain why.

GSFC perimeter road.

Sligo Cr. from Windham to Plyer's Mill. Felt pretty slow. Something tells me my subjective pace is miscalibrated. This is what I would have called 9:00/mile.

Event: QOC Lake Accotink +MTBO
 

Mass-start Red at Lake Accotink. The mass start didn't work out too well, because there weren't enough participants. (The same courses were available for regular starts while registration was open.) Courses had some challenges despite the confining nature of the park. One challenge was the 1:7500 map scale, which I never really caught on to, although I did notice that my pace counts were long. I also missed #9 on the first loop, going straight to 10 without noticing.

The herbaceous border on the lake near the dam was good for butterflies. Variegated fritillary, pearl crescent, E. tailed-blue, grass skippers, and a single dainty sulphur, a first for me, and not surprising, because it is well out of its normal range this fall, and is almost never seen in this area.

Intervals at Einstein HS. 10-min jog to track, 2 easy laps with 3 strides. Then 3x1000 in ??, 4:07, 4:04. First lap I forgot how to stop the timer on my watch, and I wasn't looking at all during the interval. Felt consistent, I'll bet 4:06 or so. Then another 10-min jog back home.

GSFC perimeter road with an extra loop (Parkway to North exit). Easy pace, an extra 20% distance, another beautiful day, felt great.

Forest Glen - Ga. Ave. loop. 4 strides.

GSFC perimeter trail. Seems like a long time between runs. I've fallen off the wagon twice during vacations in Maine. Why is it that good intentions plus great environment doesn't produce training? I need to start the quality workouts but soon.

Event: UNO Camping Weekend
 

Ultra-long Red at Pawtuckaway. 9 controls in 11 km is pretty clearly a route choice course. Given the Pawtuckaway terrain, it was also an endurance course.

I hadn't seen this map before, but I knew it by reputation. The intense detail was pretty intimidating at first look, but once out on the course, things started to fall into place. I took it pretty slow at first, and kept great contact with the map. Slow later on too, due to fatigue, with correspondingly less map contact. Still, fine navigation in difficult terrain, but slower than I would have liked. No major errors.

[Edit] Except at No. 7, where my punch didn't register. I know that I drank first, and while I was drinking I reminded myself to punch, but I can't remember anything positively after that. I sure thought I punched. Anyway, I was there, and I was pretty happy with the leg. Subjectively it was the hardest of all, but that could be due to tiredness. Swallowed a Gu passing around the lake, which is why I was thinking about water when I got to the control.

Funny that this was my first visit to Pawtuckaway having spent 20 years growing up about 10 miles away. I knew of it, of course, mainly by way of various boy scout camping trips, none of which I managed to attend.

No camping this time, and no Sunday run. Only a day trip from our place in Maine, 3 hours north, with work there to get back to.

Twice around the pond, down to Seely's, back around to Morrison's, then back home. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5648856