Training Log Archive: TomN

Training course set by Greg Lennon at Little Bennett, piggybacking on the Outdoor Festival. There was a central loop of 5 controls that we traversed twice, and the idea was to take a different route to each control and then compare times. E-punching was key to this exercise. My plan was to go straight on the first loop and try something different -- avoid climb or green woods, or take a trail -- on the second. Overall, I was 29 seconds faster on the second loop (8-13) than the first loop (2-7). On a couple of legs, the second alternative was clearly faster. The direct route 3-4 was slow for some reason, but the alternative (road to field) was great. Same on 7 -- the direct route tied me up in some green slash, but the alternative just to the west was super nice woods. Oddly, I missed the best route on the long leg to 6 (the trail), and neither of my other attempts were particularly good. Both times I thought I was farther along than I actually was, which caused me to slow down.

Something else struck me about this exercise. The act of thinking about alternatives put the whole leg more clearly in my head. Too often, it seems, I don't think enough about my route plan, and then I have trouble focusing on the execution of it.

Drumm loop, morning run. said hi to Matthew, a dog-walking friend, at the park. His dog, Kevin, was way off on the other side. I don't know if Kevin would recognize me without Jasmine. (Many of the other dog owners don't recognize me when I'm running, as opposed to dog-walking.)

Goddard perimeter road. Still a nice weather pattern, clear sky and low humidity. I deliberately tried to keep my cadence high, and ended up with a pretty fast run.

This fine day basically demanded a longer run. Temp in the 60s this morning, and dry. Through Forest Glen, past the pagoda, down to Beach Drive by the temple, up the long hill to the town.

Sluggish run around the neighborhood in the early morning. Then breakfast, coffee, and wham, fell asleep again. Eventually showed up at work. The nice thing about a late drive-time is listening to Diane Rehm on the radio.

Ran my own red course from the training yesterday. It went really well. Having been out there last week really boosted my confidence. It's not that I memorized things, it's more the belief that I'll see the reentrants and ditches and trails and rides when I come to them. In any event, I kept up good speed, maybe not maximum speed, and only had to slow down to spot the streamers.

I inspected 3 controls that people had reported problems with yesterday, and also picked up the water stop. All told, that was at least 10 minutes extra time, maybe more. I moved one streamer, replaced another one, and confirmed that the third one was in the right place. The one that was right, #38 (8 on Blue, 7 on Red and Green, in the broken ground) had been reported by several people as hung in the wrong place. Maybe it got moved yesterday, because it was certainly right when I got there today.

It was ridiculously hot even in the morning, and I must have sweated out 2 quarts of water. I want to run the course again when it's cooler. I should be able to get down around an hour.