Training Log Archive: maprunner

Local PTOC event. Too soon to go into the woods, so we stuck to fields and trails. Course was more like a sprint or a yellow course. Black overprinting (why???) made it hard to read sometimes. The first control was missing. I looked around a bit. Mike finally found it high in a bush. Navigation was fine but my legs were really tired from weights this week. Never felt good while running. Nice day, fun lunch afterwards.

route

Talked to my therapist about the set back last weekend (lots of painful moments when I would suddenly tweak my shoulder) probably due to inactivity, travel and skipped PT exercises. Also started new exercises to increase my range of motion behind my back, which hasn't improved much in recent weeks.

Updated log entries from the weekend with notes and routes. I still can't access my DOMA site (our router has blocked the site; who knew that routers could just decide to block a specific site, all on their own???) so I just have grainy jpg for now.

EDIT: I took down the map photos, because I couldn't 't figure out how to let you see them, but not all my other photos. I'll fix DOMA soon.

Weee! Is there anything better than being outside on a beautiful fall day?

Last minute reschedule of my weight training. so I went home and planned to bike. But the last innings of the Royals game were on, and I got sucked into watching that instead. So happy for all the true Royals fans (I'm not much of a baseball fan, myself).

I took an extra vacation day, and stayed home to decompress. And wait for our luggage to be delivered. Kept planning to do some exercise, but just managed a bit in the basement in the evening.

Smooth travels back home. Except luggage didn't make it again (we had a very tight connection in Newark). Much easier to be missing luggage when you arrive home.

NAOC Sprint. I was nervous about screwing up today. I really wanted one clean race for the weekend. I had an early start, so I warmed up and arrived at the start about 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Only to find out that there would be a 30 minute delay. So I hung out, waited, and then warmed up again.

Got the map at the start, and it was huge (11X17). This was a long sprint course (too long; winning time was 18 min) so I knew I couldn't run all out for this distance. Settled in to a comfortable pace, and was able to hold that (for the times I was running)

Big mistake at 2, when I didn't see the gray wall and thought that the center of the circle was on the inside corner of the fence (which would have been a way cooler, and trickier, control location). When I missed it, it took me too long to decide how to relocate; need to practice that for sprints.

Huge mistake at 7. I saw the trail option to the control but once again I decide a straight line route would be OK. Not. Did not figure out which trail I hit first, kept thinking I was looking for a rootstock at the end of a thicket (instead, the whole green blob was the rootstock, which they had mentioned in meet notes).Wandered around and finally found a rootstock that was my 86. Punched and left. Hit a trail way too soon, and then the trail forked. Whoa, something is really wrong here! Go back and check that control code. It was 89 !!! Whew, I dodged a bullet here (yes, I know, I should have caught it the first time....) Ran back and finally found a few other folks who led me into 7. Total disaster, once again.

Rest of the course was fine. Pleased that I was able to run a steady pace, and pain free. But again, super mad at myself for such a huge, preventable mistake.

Enjoyed hanging out and chatting with everyone after the race. Spectating as the elites finished was also cool. Too bad we had to leave early, so we missed the team relays.

Thanks to Ottowa for a fine weekend.
My route

C • The photos 2

Sprint - Course 3 - Splits

Update: Mike's bag showed up at 9:00 pm. Discovered this morning that everything was wet. I slept for 11 hours. Let's hit the long course!

Congrats to Kissy on her bronze medal!

Long course, NAOC

Slept a long time, but not restfully. I was anxious and nervous before the start today, and I had to work hard to get myself relaxed and focused. And I did a pretty good job at that.

Had a bit too much adrenaline at the start and did not see the trail past the marker, so I stupidly went through the woods and missed. Hit the trail and relocated just fine.

After that,I was more conservative with route choices, and took trails most of the way. I had a good run to 3, even though some of it was through the woods.

I worked hard to keep track of the trails as I left 5. Had some trouble with the small trails around 7, and then couldn't keep a straight line to 8.

But I was moving well and felt good and focused. I was shocked as I got near the finish and saw my time; this was fast! (It helped that this was a very short "long" course. The winning time was off)

I came in, quite pleased with my run. Then downloaded and saw "MP": I had skipped 6 !!!!

The last time I skipped a control was 2001. Why now???
I was so mad at myself. And disappointed. How hard is it to keep track of which number you're on? I know I planned a route from 5 to 6. My best guess is that I was using my magnifier to keep track of all the trails after 5, and since I wear it on my left hand, it probably was centered around 7. The attackpoint for 6 would also work for 7, so that's what I did.

Looking at Kissy's splits, I estimate that my time would have been 58 minutes on the full course, which would have been a good result. Oh well.
My route

Long - Course 6 - Splits