Training Log Archive: elavallee

Magnificent morning to be out. There is a rafter of turkey that have been frequenting the driveway. I caught them off guard when I stepped out this morning. And they greeted me when I got back, reluctantly no doubt. The poults have gotten quite large and rapidly.

A little better weather to train in, but still notably hot a and humid.

Stage 1 of the tour de Glastonbury. I was inspired by yesterday's exciting finish. It also was good to loosen up my legs from yesterday's run, they were sore this morning. It was still cool this morning, but it's heating up fast. I went down route 17 to Chestnut Hill Rd, across Quarry to Manchester Rd., down Brook which quickly turns into Neipsic Rd., then over Hubbard and back to 17 to finish through the center of town. While many of this morning's driver's were courteous enough to give me wide clearance, I was a bit disgruntled at seeing a jeep passing another vehicle passing me going down the hill on Neipsic, then nearly causing a head-on collision with another vehicle coming up the hill right in front of me. That kind of reckless behavior seems intolerable. Fortunately no one was injured on this occasion. I am convinced that road biking is inherently more risky than mountain biking.

I am certainly out-classed by many of my fellow orienteers. However, I am happy with my performance today. I met my goal of doing a sub 30 5k. The heat was definitely a factor today. The course also had some rolling hills. Climbing those small hills made me think I hadn't been in the woods all year going up hills. Although, it is very flat around my house where I normally run. A different course on a different day and I might do better. At least I have a baseline now. I am surprised at how high my heart rate was. I have never seen it that high. Something about it being a race and the heat I think. I didn't really have a strategy for the race going into it and I thought I would just see how it played out for me. A little before halfway through I decided that for the last five minutes of the race I would try to push as hard as I could. I changed my mind after 2/3 of the race as I was feeling tired. Than I got on the last straight-away to the finish that was rather flat and felt I could try and increase my pace, but I don't think it was by much, maybe for about 2 minutes. I am not in good enough shape to even have a strategy I think. First place time was 15:55. I would like to see a big improvement in this, but I think it may be a long time to see this. I'd like to think I can stick with it. Discovering orienteering has gotten me this far. I quite possibly would have never run a race in my life.