Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Evening run, while Cheryl and trailsnail were at a movie.

Whiting Rd, one loop around.

New shoes, very different than anything I've worn before. Very little motion control and not much cushioning, but lots of traction. Ankle high. Trailsnail found that Sierra had these for around $40 so I decided to give them a try. They didn't seem to cause any issues in this initial short run. They would certainly be far less likely to be pulled off the feet in deep mud like normal cut shoes would be.

Making progress. Pile is getting smaller (probably 80% gone), but the problem now is that we're running out of places to put them, as our trail is now adequately covered with chips ...

C • places to put 1

A bit more mapping at Highland. I've promised Joe B. that I'd have things in moderately good shape by this Saturday, so he can best prepare for coming here the following weekend to improve the map to trail-O needs and to work on trail-O course setting.

Event: ROC - Mendon Ponds Park Score-O [2011 Sprint Series #2]
 

Only 12 minutes before I ran out of energy and ambition, but progress is being made. I think the boat will fit back almost to where it's supposed to be.

Back yard only.

Mendon Sprint. I did OK, not great. Took the much longer but easier and much less climb trail route to #1. No issues with 2, 3, and 4. Slightly overshot #5 to the left, but ran into the linear rock feature and figured out where I was. Somehow got way off line to the north coming out of 11, and went past the N end of the marsh rather than the passage point marked on the map. But that might not have been too bad, because I could have wound up having trouble finding the passage point.

Finished 8th out of 22, losing to a couple of people I normally beat, but beating a few people who really should beat me.

Straight line distance was 2.1 km, and clue sheet said 105 m of climb (AP analysis of GPS track said 77 feet).

Mendon Score-O.

I had no real strategy, considering the unusual nature of the event, with a number of "stealth" controls not shown on the map, but revealed by map segments at other controls. I had no real idea of how they were going to be revealed until I got to the first control that revealed them. There were small map segments showing some of the stealth controls, with a pen at the control to mark them down on your own map. I immediately found two problems, one being that it seemed to take me forever to look at the small map segment and figure out where on the big map it fell, and the other being that there was one pen at the control, but many people waiting to write down the stealth controls. Peter Dady brought his own pen, a very wise move. He finished 2nd, quite a bit better than he normally would, beating some very good people in the process. I'm suspecting that wasn't a coincidence, that his wise decision to bring his own pen really paid off.

At the second or third control where stealth controls were revealed, I encountered a third problem, which was that I was sweating so much that my attempts to mark on the map resulted in the map getting soaked with sweat, and I realized if I had persevered, the map would dissolve eventually and that would not be good at all.

So what I tried to do, after writing down only two of the stealth controls, was to focus only on stealth controls that had high point values, and attempt to remember their locations. And then make an effort to hit as many high-point value controls that were on the original map as possible. That actually worked moderately well.

I wound up with 471 points, 140 of which were from four stealth controls, only one of which I had written on my map. A big blunder was that the only other control I wrote on my map, before giving up because of sweat, was 188, worth 41 points. I could have gotten it, I was close to it when I went for 185, but I just didn't see the scribbles on my map, and really just wasn't thinking.

On the plus side, three of the stealth controls I got were fairly close to the finish, 186, 178, and 184, two of which I stored in my memory, one of which was written down. I got those all within the last 8 or so minutes while I was heading back to the finish area. So that gave my point total a decent boost, which it very sorely needed at that point.

I wound up finishing 7th out of 38. If I had remembered to get 188, that would have raised my point total to 512, and my place to 2nd, but I'm guessing almost everyone, in an event like this, can say after the fact "if I had only done this". Well, that is, everyone except for the Schirminater, who got all of the controls. (Speaking of whom, I encountered him twice during the Score-O, and I was blown away by how fast that guy runs!)

Weight is lower than it's been in a while, but probably not real valid to pay much attention to it, given that I just finished two orienteering courses and didn't have dinner. But I'll record it anyway ...

Sprint - Splits

Mid-day run, on a cool (mid 50's), overcast, and moderately windy day.

We had a couple of small trees cut down, and asked to have the wood chips piled at the end of our driveway, to put down on the trail we have winding through our woods in the back yard. Actually, to clarify, and not to point fingers, but I wasn't the family member who asked for the wood chips.

The pile was much larger than I had imagined, and is very much in the way of where we normally keep our boat (barely out of the way of the three cars that reside in our driveway, under normal conditions), so there is some urgency around getting the wood chip pile gone. So I worked pretty hard for what seemed like a long time, and made it through only approximately a third of the pile before I pretty much ran out of gas (and my back was starting to complain).

More wood chip workouts tomorrow, I'm sure.

C • chips 2

Mid-day walk with Homer, to Finn Park and back.