Training Log Archive: Danny Riley

Event: DVOA Quail Hill Scout Camp
 

Way more physical of a course than anticipated.

8 and 10 were not great, but not nuclear, unlike 13. I hate complaining about the map but there was a fairly large building to the north that was missing on the map, so it threw me off quite a bit and I ended up really doubting myself a lot because of it. Did I miss it on the first pass and would've made a mistake anyways? Yes. Would it have been nearly as large if the building was there? I don't think so. I have to learn that there's sometimes mistakes on the maps and to adapt to that for sure.

Was absolutely crushed physically by ~14. Slugfest to make it to the end. Terribly hot weather for nearly October. Spent just as much time on course as I did off course picking off the spiderwebs.

Red - Splits

Yeah I've been pretty terrible with uploading trainings into AP (and actually doing the trainings...), so this last week looks more sparse than what it was in reality.

Meh.

Solo run with great weather. Tried best to not look at map or determine which leg to skip before actually starting.

Map comprehension was very limited, which made for a couple of small mistakes which added up big time. #1 on the top 10 for time lost, nice! Could've ran quicker too if I was more confident in the orienteering. It will come with more races this season. I don't even want to talk about control 14.

Could've ran maybe 15:00 quicker if everything fell into place and was more confident in my orienteering. Nevertheless, not a terrible run though. A great stepping stone towards much better, non-DIY races hopefully!

C • BG 3

DIY Goat - Splits

Tried to shorten stride as was Under Armour's suggestion.

Anyone know why I can only take extremely shallow breaths and feel tightness on my chest/lungs resulting in cramps when I run downhill? I'm not running at an unreasonable pace (nearly same as flat), my chest is upright, my form isn't significantly different, I don't even feel the exertion that I feel when running flat/uphill (it's not like I'm pushing myself, I'm letting gravity do a lot of the work). I just can't breath that well when running downhill and it hurts my pace cause I get mad cramps.

As far as I can remember this has been a thing since at least freshman year of college (two years ago).

Nose-deep in homework and realized I hadn't ran as the sun was setting. Also, I'm absolutely horrible at remembering to do the physical therapy drills.

Recovery. Garmin gets the elevation so wrong when I cross a bridge.

3 x 12 decline push-ups + 1 x 15, each w/ 0:20 rest
3 x 12 push-ups + 1 x 15, each w/ 0:20 rest
3 x 10 diamond push-ups, each w/ 0:30 rest
4 x 20 bench dips, each w/ 0:20 rest

Event: Election 2020 Rogaine
 

Wow. What an event. So glad that I was able to take part in such an amazingly fun race. Let me tell you a quick story about a wonderful lady named the Beaver Creek State Forest map. Our honeymoon period was wonderful; the first two controls were seamless and went exactly according to plan. Then, we had our first fight. And BOY was it a big one. We didn't see eye to eye, she told me a couple white lies then I got angry and stopped listening to her almost completely. Then, suddenly out of the blue, I started to learn how to read and react to her. And my god did that make a world of a difference. We started working together. We were unstoppable. Sometimes, she whispered wonderful secrets to me which helped me tremendously, and on several occasions she gave me the most wonderful presents when I honestly didn't deserve to find them.

In all seriousness though this was a fantastically fun event. I think the map is pretty revealing of the whole story, but I'll fill in some details:

I dropped CO and OR on the first loop after I couldn't find them from a little bit of searching; I made the decision on the fly to leave them and WI, NJ, and FL for a third loop. This was in retrospect a really good plan, but things went wrong that I'll get into later which prevented that.

After TN, everything was magical. The orienteering was perfect, and I even stumbled across KS completely by luck as I would've overshot it otherwise. I ran out of water after NH, so I solidified the modified plan to make a third loop to get the controls I listed earlier so I would have the fuel to take them.

My transition into the SW map for the second loop was horribly sloppy. I ran back and forth twice dropping off and picking up supplies which overall cost me as many as 15 minutes. One thing to note about this map is that the major trails are hardly visible at all in the woods, so I promise I'm not just an idiot for instantly departing the trail on my way to PA. It was calculated, and looking back on it, it was probably the best, driest route choice.

Just kind of doubting myself cost me time on the way to AR. It was a good recovery once I realized what was going on, but a nonetheless painful mistake to make.

I chuckled when I saw LA's placement. How appropriate.

I made the decision on the fly to drop NV and ID so I'd absolutely have the time to make that third loop. If everything went according to plan, I could have as many as 90-100 more points than I finished with, however...

The "beaver dam" that -- looking back on the map -- I was undoubtedly on was super sketchy. I'm talking mud up to just below your knees sketchy. Considering that I was told that it was crossable (IMHO it wasn't, but perhaps I was missing a route deep in the weeds; no fault to the meet director at all), I kept searching and trudging through the mud to try to find a route to cross, but I kept failing. I persisted for almost 30 minutes because CA was worth a whopping 55 points on the other side. Having sunk so much time into it, I decided it was more worthwhile of my time to make that third loop I was talking about, and accepted that those who took the road to the south would just have 55 more points than I could get. Looking back on it, I made the right decisions given the circumstances, and if I hadn't made the stupid stupid mistake around OR and CO way early in the race, I could've gotten OH, OK, CA, and maybe WA (good for 90+ points).

I accepted that I wouldn't win because of the above, so I made my way back for the third loop. I could've hit NC and still made the third loop, but no big deal.

Here's the kicker. About 5 minutes after RI, I checked my Camelback to find my phone missing, and I panicked. I had a meeting later this night and people were depending on me, so it was actually a problem. I made the decision to forego finding any more controls and make it back to the Start/Finish to maybe get someone to use the Find My iPhone feature before sunset so I could maybe have a chance of finding it. I continued with that choice until I literally "accidentally" found WY on my way back, and WY -> MT -> MS were in a straight line to where I needed to go, so I stopped briefly at them.

Made it back with more than an hour left in the event, but daylight was quickly fading so I went about with the phone search to no avail. That's a whole story in and of itself, but I'll spare you the details.

Overall, great day. If I hadn't made the early mistake, and also had the foresight to go South on the road for the Beaver Creek crossing, I would've had a legitimate chance of winning. Throw in not losing my phone and I think I definitely stood a very very solid chance of winning. The map just took adjusting to, but once I figured it out, it was some of the most satisfying orienteering I've done in a long time.

As for the route analysis, open it in a new tab cause it's probably too small:

Rolling, stretching, doing weird kneecap massages.

Physical therapist says it's runner's knee. Going on a two-week training plan to strengthen my left knee and ensure stability as per her recommendation. Still running Saturday.

3 sets of:
15 per leg - Supine Active Straight Leg Raise
15 per leg - Sidelying Hip Abduction
15 per leg - Clamshell
15 per leg - Quadruped Fire Hydrant

Followed by stretching.

3 sets of 15 bench dips w/0:30 rest, followed by 1 rep of 30
4 sets of 20 per-leg cross-body mountain climbers w/0:30 rest
3 sets of 11 triceps push-ups w/0:30 rest
3 sets of 10 decline push-ups w/0:30 rest
5 sets of 25-rep plank jacks w/0:20 rest

I've done 33 minutes, now 38, so I'm ready for 9 hours on Saturday now, right?

87 degrees and sticky hot. I thought we were done with this.

4 x 11 Decline Push-Ups w/ 0:30 rest
4 x 11 Push-Ups w/ 0:30 rest
3 x 11 Diamond Push-Ups w/ 0:30 rest
4 x 15 Bench Dips w/ 0:30 rest

Rolling and stretching.

Event: DVOA Warwick County Park
 

RouteGadget.

First actual real orienteering race in about 6 months; that's honestly crazy to think about. Keeping that in mind, despite the relatively poor outcome on the surface, I think it went quite well all things considered.

Controls 1-8: The split analysis shows I actually held a candle to some of the better runners for the first part of the course. To be fair, the orienteering wasn't really all that technical here, but there were certainly a couple instances where it wasn't completely trivial. Note, I ran the trail further up the hill from 4 to 5, I didn't just cut across like the GPS suggests.

Control 9: The first really technical control was also the site of my first large mistake. I think knowing that I can't trust the brown triangles would've helped, but this was largely a confidence issue. I had a decent route in, and if I wouldn't have doubted myself after crossing the wet ditch and bailed to the trail, I could've saved significant time here.

Control 11: Honestly, I don't know how I missed the control. The bearing was good, I stopped and looked around at the right distance, but just failed to get it exact and paid the price.

Controls 12-16: Not much to discuss. Time "lost" was almost completely due to fitness and hill-climb ability.

Control 17: Proud of the route choice. Think it was the best option.

Controls 18-Finish: Tired legs from the climb hurt my time here.

RED - Splits

Getting the knee checked out in a week. Still going to DVOA beforehand, though.

Holy climb. Left knee hurt a smidge.

I've decided to start using Attackpoint again now. The move-in process has finally ended, and I'm in NY now. Gonna try to check in once a day.

Event: Billygoat / DIY Goat, Mountain Lakes