Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

Running to work, then from work to the Harvard track, late as usual. legs feeling light and happy, rest of me feeling like there's a lot to do in the next few weeks.

Missed the first interval, so I did 5x800, 2x400 with the group, 200 jogging rest. Today the group was Terry, Andy, and Sam (SGB decided not to swim over from England) with another group of runners including Brendan, doing a modified version.

Feeling zippy, so I was out ahead of the group. warm day, cool breeze, ideal.

aiming for 2:32 and < 1:12 for 5k and 3k paces respectively.

2:34
2:30
2:32
2:30
2:32
1:08
1:07

a few laps cool down. Wondering if I should join the team for the Rhody 5k on Sunday, before the Nobscott meet. Logistically challenging, but maybe worth the trip. Been feeling a bit busy recently, so maybe I should be cutting back, but it sounds like fun and since it's a Grand Prix race, my entry would be covered by the club.

C • don't do it 10

I really love 2.5 k jogs to the start because they get my legs feeling zippy and happy. I ran with Boris to the start and really felt great going into it.

I started clean along the line, but got a little hesitant when I got into the circle, but I was in the right spot and the flag appeared just in front of me. I was a little rushed leaving the control and headed out towards #2 at the wrong angle, skirted the wrong pond, but then sort of figured it out and sort of just knew that my cliff was farther south, so I ran sort of recklessly down checking cliffs along the way. Very sloppy, and I lost about a minute on this leg and was shaken, but tried to be smooth to the next one. Looked down and noticed that I no longer had a compass. I went back up to the last place that I had fallen down and glanced around to see if it was lying amongst the leaves, but no luck. Realized that I didn't want to waste any more time looking and ran on towards 3. I got to the saddle and thought that my cliff was off to my left, when really it was to my right, I had just visualized it wrong. I then over corrected and dropped too low, and had to work my way back and up again. Another 2:30 lost and still frazzled. Pushed hard to 4, got too far right, but I was reading the cliffs and vegetation so I knew where I was. Attacking the boulder through the light green vegetation was a poor choice, because I missed it and dropped too low and had to climb back up 2 contours. I avoided the swamp on the way to 5, and used the trail run to compose myself. Hesitated just below the control trying to decide where the low hilltop was. A steep climb on the way to 6, but along a nicely defined slot, which lead me right into the control. It was a crazy cliff jumping down to the 7th, and I was focused and reading well so I spiked it (when I came back during control pickup, I had trouble on this one). 8 was a trail leg, and then 9 was easy apart from my initial attempt to leave the control at the wrong angle ( I had my eyes up and saw that the pond was off to my left). 10 was a tricky one, and where I might have tried to go straighter I didn't trust myself without a compass and so I wanted to attack from the trail to the left, past the ponds, so I wended my way past the swamps and around the hills pretty well. To 11 I stayed right and spiked it no problem, contoured as much as I could on 12 to minimize extra climb. To 13 I cut out to the trail and then side-hilled around the whole hill to the reentrant. An easy finish control and plenty left for a finish sprint.

A really rocky start, and a very methodical, routine, smooth end of the course. Even with a super clean course, Anders was well out of my league today. Some of it may be running speed, but I suspect it's more an effect of awesome flow.



After awards I snuck back out to retrieve 4 of the controls near the top of the hill. The woods are even more beautiful when you can relax and jog through them instead of having an intense battle.

Blue - Splits

A cool course, confident going in, and things were clicking along nicely at the beginning, cut through the marsh along the stone wall and looped the cliff to get to first one, then just sorta headed out towards 2, crossed the powerline cut and crossed the stone wall, but then didn't recognize the terrain in front of me... slowed down and then figured it out and turned left to collect #2, kept to the right of the line on the way to 3, below the massive cliffs and then cut into the marshy area. Nothing looked like I expected and I slowed way down to try to sort it out. Glad that Speedy was moving confidently towards the control, as that helped snap things into place. Ran hard out, staying down by the marshes along the line to 4, hit the stone wall and followed that to the top of the cliff and attacked from the top so that I didn't have the scale the cliff. Contoured along the ridge, then down and up out of the swamp, contoured the little hill before 5 too, and came right into the flag. 6 didn't seem to be such a tricky control, it was just a little lower on the hillside and there was a huge reentrant behind it, so I was perhaps too loose heading out on the hillside, I went below the first cliff because I had to drop that contour at somepoint, but the hillside was too rocky and I climbed right back up to get better running. When I made it to the catching reentrant, I couldn't get things to match up, but suspected that I was too high, so I dropped down and checked the cliffs below me, but didn't see the control and then I was too low. I climbed back up, and relocated off a saddle near the top, and came back to my original vantage point. Saw Eddie disappearing but still didn't understand where the control should be. Channeled Balter from a training camp many years ago when he explained that standing around doesn't get you more information, and that even running in the wrong direction can help because you'll see something you can use. I did this, running to the next ridge. When I turned and looked back I saw the flag nestled between two cliffs that I hadn't checked thoroughly enough I guess. 3:30 lost.

The woods were amazing on the way to 7, and I caught back up to Vadim here, and also saw Ian leaving the control. I decided that an easier route might be better for me, and took the powerline all the way around the mountain, coming right past #10, and the past the long pond. Caught Eddie again here and then the next two controls were smooth and quick. I had decided that I wanted to go right around the first hill. I executed that part of the leg nicely, coming through the stone wall junction, but then I continued to drop and instead of going just south of 15 and 16, I was forced to come along just north of them. I should have just gone a little farther and turned it into a great trail leg, but instead I slowly climbed back up those extra contours and came in along the little trail. Stopped to check a rock feature about 50 meters too early because it looked like a boulder to me and I had stopped orienteering once I got into the reentrant. On the way to 12, I dropped straight down to the stream and then ran up along the other side and curled around into the control. Stayed on the road for a long time into 13, and then gleefully headed to the drinks table at the finish area for some water and most of my Gu. I didn't like the idea of cutting up and over the ridges on the line, so I ran the trail on the left route to 14, coming right past 21. Climbed out of 14, and wanted to stay right on this leg, but managed to drift all the way down to the bottom of the hill on an extra mountain bike trail and now I had to run the trail back all the way again. Sigh, everytime I try to open up and just run... I hit the control perfectly from below, and then was very pleased to see Jordan when I popped up out of the cliffs to head towards 16. I read this one wrong, and dropped two contours on purpose even though I needed to climb instead. Lost a minute trying to make sense of my new surroundings and then regaining all that climb. A drop down the hill to the next, crossed the stream and contoured around to the left through the white woods to 17. Took a big fall, breaking Ken's FR305 in the process and then found the control. A bit wobbly to 18, as I was trying to dump the spring from the watch band into my pocket while holding the rest of the watch in my right hand. Saw that 18 to 19 was a trail leg if you just went basically straight. The climb out of 18 was feeling pretty brutal though and if I wasn't trying to impress Nikolay when I passed by I might have slowed down even more. Caught up to Ken as I neared the end and then I got that horse returning to the barn feeling, as I noticed the rest was downhill to the finish. I followed the stone wall in to 20, and then because I had already been past 21, I got overly confident on 21 and got pushed too far left and into the wrong reentrant. Figured it out quickly, but had to climb back up and over into the correct one. Then it was just a matter of running as hard as I could into the last control and the finish.

I lost a lot of time on the course, but my running speed was able to compensate for my various mistakes. Happy with my fitness.

Blue - Splits

Event: US Team Trials for WOC '11
 

Blue - Splits

Running to and from work. What a fantastic day :) weather is cooperating nicely and running felt okay, still a little thirsty after yesterday's exertions. Stopped at the store on the way home to pick up some groceries, but forgot the necessary ingredients for the thing I wanted to make. I really like this barley salad thing, but I neglected to pick up kalamata olives. So I played "clean out the fridge" which started nicely with chocolate that my sister sent me for my birthday and then progressed on to apple sauce, kale, and then pasta and sauce where I used up the rest of the cheeses, tomato paste, onions, pesto, and some stale-ish bread. I also cleverly added a tonne of crushed red pepper to the pasta, so I'll have lunch for Friday as Sam will be unable to withstand the heat.

Running to work, and then from work to the MIT track and then from the track home.

A fun workout. With SGB, Terry, and Clem. The plan was 2x (600-1200-600-400) with 200 rest between each.

1:52
3:47
1:53
1:10

1:51
3:54
1:54
1:10

Felt like hard work, but times were good considering the humidity and heat. The humidity was a real killer, on the way home I stopped to buy chocolate soy milk because I was so incredibly thirsty. I still didn't drink enough and managed to point my toes last night and was rewarded with an incredible cramp in my left calf. Boo for sweating too much :)

C • pointed toes 3

Just the quick run to work today. I took the shuttle home, and drove over to Katia and Giovanni's place for A-meet meeting afterward.

Helped Sam with the NEOC meet at Hale. I set out controls in the morning and picked some up in the afternoon. The woods were really junky, with lots of green briar and I was not having fun. I also managed to be responsible for the only misplaced control of the event, putting the control on an unmapped cliff. Sorry Sam. I spent the meet running the epunching/results and marveling at how comfortable Sam is a teaching kids and their parents how to orienteer.

Total guess as to distance out there today. Boris set a long control pick and we did the whole run at the speed of chat thing. A very pleasant exercise for me. I wasn't envisioning such nice woods and so my expectations were greatly exceeded and I had a great time out there. Good weather, good company, awesome day.

Feeling a good flow, only a couple of places where I got turned about in low visibility areas.

Really stoked about the A-meet coming up, as we're happily busy with arena design.

Run into work. Feeling pretty good, a product of improved weather for sure. Also ran into a college acquaintance and chatted for a little while. I got to hear about his epic plan to propose to his boyfriend, which involves a newborn calf being dyed purple and yellow. He's making me feel like a slacker in terms of quality engagement plans.

I took the shuttle home at the end of the day because it felt like a rest day was a good idea. It was a real crime to squander the sunshine, but on the plus side I finished the crossword and both sudokus and then Sam took me out for Chinese food.

Running to work, and from work over to the Hatch Shell for the Park-O. I arrived late but not terribly so, and there was a nice break in the crummy weather for a quick jaunt along the esplanade. Got a ride back to Newton with Ed and then we had a good dinner of simple pasta and sauce. We managed a pound of spaghetti between the two of us.

Giovanni's Park-o on the new Esplanade map. A long narrow map with lots of bridges, but plenty of details to focus on and stay sharp with. Lots of practice with punching using the diocese calipers of yore. Alexei squeaked out the win by 9 seconds, but I think that I ran pretty well actually. Maybe could have pushed a little harder or worn slightly more grippy shoes, but not much in the way of mistakes.

Super sleepy this morning. Probably shouldn't have stayed up and finished reading the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Though, to be fair, my legs are always a little empty on Wednesdays after track workouts.

Is it weird that when I'm running I think of writing emails to all the people I owe responses to? And then when I get near a computer I don't actually write any of those messages after all?

C • It's not weird 2

showed up for track just a few seconds after the group headed out on the first interval so I dropped my pack and headed after them. The interval plan for today was 800-1200-800 and then 7x (400) starting each 400 on a 2 minute cycle.

light rain, chasing after SGB and Mark (the other Mark) with Terry and Andy rounding out the lead group. The first interval was very slow, but picked it up after getting settled in on the track.

crummy weather. SGB was explaining that in cold weather, pulling your sleeves down over your hands can be bad for form. And of course he's right, because the shirt then pulls at your shoulders etc. but it was too cold to leave my hands exposed and my gloves were at home.

800- 2:48
1200- 3:51
800 - 2:31
400- 1:11
400- 1:11
400- 1:09
400- 1:10
400- 1:10
400- 1:09
400- 1:10

C • If this is the best your we... 18

Running to work. damp but a break in the real rain. From work to track , running late as usual (I keep getting locked out of my lab in the evenings, because I keep my room key in the lab, expecting the door to be open when I come back), and then from track home, raining for real now.

Running to work and then from work to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for dinner. I wanted to make something that felt warm because the rain and gloom was kind of oppressive today. Settled on fennel and sausage with tortellini and Hungarian Mushroom soup

C • food! 1

Event: Billygoat Run
 

What a fantastic thing it is to race through beautiful open woods on a well designed course with stiff competition. I had a great time today.

I raced well and even orienteered decently. Started out on the trail and settled in at a pretty fast pace with Jordan in the lead. I took the opportunity to scan the whole course and decide on a skip. For me, the criteria for a good skip control were 1) late in the course 2) saves distance. I settled on 33 and then refolded my map to fully concentrate on control #1. We left the trail and headed into the woods and I thought Jordan was heading a bit too much left so I stuck to my compass and climbed my hill punching just ahead... turning on my first control of the day.

Things were good for most of the race and it will be a whole book to recap the entire 100 minutes but I managed to keep the lead, apart from when Boris and Robert skipped 8 and I chased them down at 13 and where Sergei got ahead at 18 and 19 and finally until 29, then Jordan was out in front for most of a control before I snuck ahead again. Despite running most of the course with Jordan and some of the other guys it had the vibe of running my own course.

I did pop out onto the trail on the way to 3, very confused and thinking that I was falling behind, and then ran to overtake Becky, Alex and Hannah where I overheard them say that at least they had been in the lead for 10 seconds :) Then at #9 I had the surprise that the unit had already been woken up, and I thought that maybe Jordan had gotten ahead of me, but I soon saw the culprits, Boris and Robert, as they were leaving 12. They dragged me a bit off course on 13 and then Boris took a better route to 14 but Robert followed me sidehilling through thick green to the flag. I had finally gotten a little gap leaving 15 but promptly got way too far left and had to climb back up and recover, joining the pack again of Boris, Robert, and Jordan.. sounds like Sam wasn't too far behind either, since she saw us leaving.

I made a really boneheaded move on the way to 18, but at least I managed to pull Jordan off line with me, we got way too far right, trying to wend my way through the cliffs. I figured out where we had managed to go and didn't lose too much time, but expended a bunch of extra energy. I took 2/3rds of my gel at the water stop and then cruised down towards 19 where Sergei, Robert, Jordan and I all met up again to do the butterfly loop in a pack. This section of the woods is my absolute favorite, I would build a house there it's so nice. I got a little bit of a lead back up the hill to 23 and then lost that little gap again as I really messed up 27 because I saw a bunch of people leaving the control and I got pulled downhill thinking they were running to the cliff not from it. Jordan took a straighter line to 28 but lost some time descending the cliff on the way so we were back together again at 28. On 29 I thought the flag would be in the little quarry and didn't unpeel my sodden descriptions to read that it was actually trail junction in time to recover. Jordan took point heading off to 30 and then overshot and I circled back to the control first. I again got almost to 31 but was too far right and Peggy came through noticing I was lost and she asked if I was looking for "TO" before saying that I probably didn't want help. I was surprised that she would know the code of the control I was looking for and then realized that she probably had just passed it, so I turned and saw it and punched right with Jordan again. Jordan was also skipping 33 so with not much course left it became a trail race to 34. I pushed hard and ran the last part clean, enough for a 20 second victory.

On the disappointment side, in a shameless bid for style points, CSU was attempting to bring a pair of cute goats to the meet for photos and team pride. However at the last minute, Leroy and Lily backed out because Leroy was sick and had to go to the vet. At next year's billygoat I would suggest contacting Lisa at Goatboy Soap to see if she might be interested in providing some prizes or something. Here's hoping that Leroy has a swift recovery.

I wore Ed's FR305 for the course and until I can load my GPX file I will post my drawn in course on my DOMA site. here

C • recap 2

Billygoat - Splits

Garmin FR305 is added to the list of electronic devices that currently are not my friends. The battery seems dead. Watch works beautifully when charging in the cradle but goes instantly dead when I unplug it. Any suggestions? Perhaps again a victim of too much wetness not enough dryness. Le sigh.

Also, anyone have an old FR305 for sale?

C • Just mail it back to garmin... 11

to work, and then up to the track to run with CSU.

Intervals with running section. 3x (1000-600-300).

3:18 - 1:49 - 0:50
3:10 - 1:50 - 0:50
3:05 - 1:49 - 0:48

last set is faster because SGB showed up and I pushed harder to keep up with him and Giacomo really burned up the last 300. Nice work.

and also logging the cooldown because I'm keeping track of exercise for my work's Fitness Challenge, and I don't want to let the team down just because I don't have a good habit of logging every part of the workout.

Running to work and then home from work with a couple laps of the reservoir thrown in. I kicked a stump really really hard near the end of the course on Sunday, and the top of my foot is still a little bruised, but feeling better today.

Jeff Schapiro set courses at Powissett today and he was super accommodating and let me show up really early to pre-run a course. He meant to hand me a Blue map but when I got out in the woods I discovered it was a Red map instead. I knew about 200 meters into the course that something was wrong when the control description said cliff but there was a boulder in the circle.

Turns out that Red was a good choice anyway, because I was pressed for time and my legs were feeling a little tired from the day before. A fun course, and I made a couple of bobbles, but mostly I was able to run hard and enjoy the woods.

I scooted out and got back home with just enough time to shower and jump in the car to head to mother's day celebrations.

C • That map mix-up made me the... 1

Red - Splits

Red course at Estabrook. Ran pretty well, mistakes on 2 and heading to the finish where I should have been more careful or more sane, and then mistakes on 5, 6, 13 where the map was a bit funky and I wasn't good at correcting for a combination of my sloppiness and the map's flaws.

Better than last year out at this map, so perhaps I'm learning how to deal with this particular map and the challenges it presents.

Sam and Jeff were going out and running a second course after finishing the Red, and since I was bumming a ride with Jeff after the meet I decided to follow suit. I ran the Green and although I had been out in the woods already I still made some mistakes. On the way to 6 I ran through the swamp just to see what it was like (not a great choice) and on the way to 8, I got confused by a greatly expanded swamp (active beavers?) and lost some time figuring out where I was.

all in all glad that I went out again and got in another session in the morning.

C • green spilts 4

Sam had organized a junior training for the NEOC juniors that were interested. She set out a set of puzzle pieces at various control locations, and the juniors had the task of finding the controls, retrieving the puzzle pieces and then working as a group to complete the puzzle. I helped set out a set of pieces, including looping back on my trail to find the one piece that I accidentally dropped as I was running through the woods.

C • Was it easy to find the missing puzzle piece? 3

Playing around in Lynn woods in the rain. Test running for the US champs in October and then later exploring the map with Ed. Woods were wet and thick in places. The arena area for the middle is going to make for fantastic spectating.

Running up to the stone tower (depicted on the bulletin) to meet Ed. Too much running today and too much rain, leads to uncomfortable chafing.

After our jaunt on the map we stopped at a german/european sausage shop where Ed bought the entire meat counter and a jar of imported Nutella. The imported kind tastes and feels different (and I think better, but that's because of my formative memories eating nutella overseas).

Green - Splits

Red - Splits

To work, feeling great!

Home from work. Stopped briefly to watch Em and Eric play softball in the park ( I really just wanted to pet their puppy, Luna, who was tied up at the bench) and then stopped at the store to get ingredients to make five-spice pork with buckwheat noodles and radishes (quadrupling the recipe is important with recipes that are so tasty).

Spent a couple of hours trying to organize my maps binder for this year. I hate drawing my course on my maps until after I've scanned them in, but scanning takes awhile. I am pleased by how much I've gotten out on maps this year though, hopefully I can keep abreast of all the new maps I'll be getting now that it's spring season and park-o season.

To work. Feeling a little sleepy. Got up at 4am to skype the international office at Oslo University. Just to check that they got all our paperwork and to confirm that we really couldn't weasel our way into their Masters program. Sigh, this just means it will be more challenging to move to Europe and orienteer next year

Home, rushing so as to not keep Sam and Alex waiting.

Park-o at Cat Rock, set by Ed. I felt really blah leading up to the meet, and really great after I finished running. Got way too far right on #2 and a little sloppy on 5 and 10 as well, but legs felt good moving through the woods, especially heading back from 10 to the finish. Afterward I picked up a few controls.

Dan and Matt both came out to run, which was great. And a group of 10 of us stopped by a Thai restaurant in Waltham for dinner afterward (Dean suggested a mexican place, but it was Cinco de Mayo and that seemed risky) . Good food, good times :)

To work, but took the shuttle home. Had planned to do intervals at lunch but it started raining and I was easily swayed out of running more.

To work.

crazy day at work, busy doing a hundred things. Late leaving the lab and just planning to run up to the track to meet Sam and drive home.

mentally weary at the end of a long day.

Hey, they're still running intervals after all. So I jump in for the last 600,400,400 with the crew. It feels good to run hard with friends! Yay CSU. Giacomo really pushed me hard on the last 400.

To work, slow slow slow.

To Giovanni and Katia's place for the A-meet meeting. Legs felt great, running hard. Stopped at Whole Foods to pick up some cantaloups so instead of being uncharacteristically on time, I was the traditional 5 minutes late.

Long at West Point. A good race for me. Love the easy visibility and running speed. Will showed up and had a solid run too, he was losing time on shoe tying, but making it up by choosing better routes and executing them well too.

Long Blue - Splits