Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Flying Pig, Day 2: Long Brown at Yellowwood. Very solid though unspectacular effort. Navigated well, ran well, no mistakes beyond a few bobbles, though I missed a route choice (for #6) that would have saved a minute. Took my time early, conscious of not getting discouraged in the thorny woods (after yesterday's sprint); was strong at the end. It was fun after #2.

1,2. Could've moved faster on these two. Was very conservative because of the posted 230m climb. Afterwards, computed my climb as only 170, and it could've been less had I taken the better route to #6. Nevertheless, nailed both controls so had reasonably good splits.

3,4,5. Realizing most of the climb was behind me, picked up the pace, and still nailed all three.

6. Never even saw the road option. Right near the end of the trail run, left too early, examined the spur E of the correct one, realized the error quickly, and got to the bag without further ado. Lost about :10.

7. Thick woods and deadfall kept pushing me right. When I found myself close to the lake, turned left and pretty soon saw the bag.

8. Didn't see the uncrossable fence on the map, had to veer left and go through the clearing. Got down to the bottom of the big reentrant before really figuring out where I was going. Two bobbles, about :10 each.

9. Hadn't planned on going across the bridge, but as I left #8, saw someone doing it, thought it would be fun, so went that way.

F. How did Charlie beat me by so much in the chute?

Warm up: 500m flat jog, then walk up steep hill for 500m. Thought it would take much longer to get to start, so had to keep jogging around waiting for my actual time.

No cool down. Enjoyed sitting out in the sun for a while, with no particular place to go :-)

Yellowwood_Long_2013_Brown - Splits

Event: Flying Pig XVII and Eastern Interscholastic Champs
 

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching.

Yellowwood. Model event for the Long. Walk around to about 5 controls with Charlie, Matej and Chuck. White, light green and medium green all looked like light green to me.

Note: that came in handy on #2 of the Long the next day: I wasn't afraid to go through a large patch of medium green (no problem) that everyone else I spoke with went around.

Flying Pig, Day 1: Green/Brown Sprint at Indiana University. Would've had the fastest time among the Brown runners by 1:30, but punched the wrong control for #3 (identical feature, 40m away). Otherwise, a very good run.

1. Got out of the start triangle very quickly.

3. Left #2 quickly, staying on the path which was headed in the generally correct direction. By the time I realized I should've cut through the woods and gone around the right side of the pond, I was already far enough along that I figured I might as well go around the left side. Spotted the control across the pond, so this was going to be easy. Around the left side, some bushes obscured my view, but then visually picked up the control again. What I didn't realize was that it was a different control; both were on little dams on the stream feeding the pond, but the one I was now looking at was 40m further upstream than the one I'd seen earlier. About the same time, I saw Eric Buckley heading from my left towards the same control (his course had a different #2 but the same #3 as mine) and realized that we'd arrive at the same time. I had to decide whether to speed up to try to beat him there or slow down - focused on that, I didn't notice that I crossed a path I shouldn't have crossed, or any of several other hints that would have told me I was going to the wrong control. I sped up and beat him to the bag. But I didn't want to get in his way, so I left the bag in a hurry. Unlike the epunch units BAOC uses, the control code on these stands is not on the epunch unit, and in my haste (and given that this was only my 3rd control of the weekend), I hadn't spotted the control code at all. But as I sped towards #4, I had the feeling that I might have seen a hand-written "45" (and indeed I had) instead of the 70 I should have seen - but I wasn't at all sure. Go back and check?? A few years ago at Fair Hill I went back and checked a code I wasn't sure I had looked at, and it was correct so I'd sacrificed a minute needlessly, and I didn't want to do that again. I kept agonizing as I ran, and the more seconds ticked by, the more expensive it was becoming to go back (though, as it turns out, I had the fastest time on Brown by 1:30 and would've had plenty of cushion as far as going back and then getting to the correct control). So, I went on, still agonizing for another couple of controls, but eventually forgetting about it completely, so much so that when they told me at the download that I'd missed a control, I didn't even remember this incident for several minutes.

5. Did good job of spotting the best route through the olive green before I got there.

6. Only time all day I stopped in the middle of a leg. Didn't see either on the map or in the terrain that needed to be on the little path W of the parking lot rather than in the parking lot itself, so I was puzzled when I didn't see the small building. Figured out the problem pretty quickly, but in scrambling down the embankment to the path, I fell and rolled over twice. Fortunately, didn't hurt anything.

7. Went left because I couldn't tell if I could get through going right. Turned out going right was the better choice.

8. Yay, spotted the covered walkway on the map (something I often miss).

9. Got to the control circle and found Eric Buckley going up the stairs and Al Newman standing there looking puzzled. I stopped for a couple of seconds to double check, then went straight to the control.

10, 11. I came into the plaza from the S and left to the N; looks like the opposite was faster in both cases.

13-14-15. Love those short legs!

16. Ran less than full speed as I tried to figure out whether the control site was a crossable or uncrossable wall. Even now, it's confusing because it's a gray wall but there's a black line bordering it (what's that??). Taking no chances, bashed through vegetation so I didn't have to cross the wall. But as I punched, someone else reached across the wall from the other side and punched. That made me feel that it couldn't be an uncrossable wall, so went over it on the way to 17.

17. A little slow in the beginning, still thinking about the wall I'd gone over.

18. Left 17 running in the correct direction, but a little slowly until I figured out that the control was on this side of the creek (so I didn't need to go over the bridge).

19. Good leg.

20. Started heading directly for the control when I suddenly spotted the olive green on the map. Didn't see any daffodils, so should've realized I wasn't about to go through the olive green, but my instinct was to veer to the right to avoid any possibility of going through the olive green. It all happened so fast, I lost my place, and had trouble (as I kept running S) finding my place relative to the building on the right. Realized I was getting too close to the domed building, so turned sharply left and saw the depression W of the one with the control. Lost :20.

Did the last 3 quite well. Wasted zero time on #23, not even needing to look at the map, having seen the whole leg in advance. Yet my finish split wasn't that good, reminding me that at this point I really can't run that fast anymore.

Shocked when they told me at the download station that I'd missed a control; I'd completely put the misadventure at #3 out of my mind. I guess that shows good concentration :-)

Very good warm up jogging around grass (and over to the finish once). Felt loose and ready.

Cool down. Mostly walking. Went out to see what happened at the control I mispunched.

IU_Campus_Sprint_2013_4 5 Br Gr - Splits

Long travel day to Bloomington, Indiana, for the Flying Pig. Met Charlie Deweese, Chuck Spalding and Matej Sebo in Indianapolis and drove us all down to Bloomington. Excellent Ethiopian dinner at Caravan (aka Puccini's) on 4th St.

On the airplane, twice took ten minute walks up and down the aisle. Of course, I probably got more exercise lugging my bags from place to place.

Front of house. Just a warmup, but carrying preview map for Yellowwood (Sat's Flying Pig Long). Gorgeous day. Felt good. My legs wanted the race to be today.

2.5 loops: 610, 520, 219

Cool down

Went to the dentist for a routing cleaning. They lowered the back of the chair all the way to horizontal and WHAM! The benign positional vertigo hit big time. Maybe in that chair I couldn't get out of the position as quickly as when in bed, though it was still less than a second; nevertheless, the effect lingered for a while, which is not usual. Sure hope there won't be any problem on the plane tomorrow.

C • Vertigo 2

C • Vertigo 1

2 sets each of the 3 theraband exercises; one set of pilates mat, hips, thigh adductors.

Armstrong Woods (before driving home). Easy run with Louise, out to the old stone water fountain, then back by way of the trail to the amphitheater. Felt really lousy jogging in the parking lot before starting, but by halfway through felt quite good.

Time included a :20 (approx) loopback for Louise.

Cool down.

Weights (curls, military presses, 2 sets each instead of the usual 3).

At the cabin: All 3 (upper body) Theraband exercises; one set of pilates mat.

Armstrong Woods. Louise and I go for a moderate walk on the replacement trails (nice change) and then up a little ways towards the East Ridge Trail so we could go out to the little falls. The woods were wet and glistening - very ovely.