Training Log Archive: Charlie

Working out with Eric, primarily stretching and core, trying to protect the vulnerable right adductor and the vulnerable R shoulder.

The left ankle I jammed Sunday is still a bit tender, but much improved. It should be fine in a couple of days.

Event: Mike's Maze, volume 2
 

Rhonda's morning class, with Karen and Louise. Louise scored big house guest points by being up and ready for 5:30 am class, and of course is really good at it.

I am hobbling a bit with the sore ankle, but ice this morning helped, and then the class helped a bit more.

Corn maze classic. Very muddy, lots of fun. While mostly I knew where I was going, still made a lot of mistakes. I think I passed Janet 4 times in one stretch of 5 controls, as she was just executing quite a bit better than I. I particularly was losing focus by the time I got to 15, 16 and 17. The slippery footing didn't work out for me, though, as I strained my adductor (again!).

Rode up with George and Leslie, and back again with them and with Leif, dropping Leif off at Oslug's place on the pond in West Hartland. Very dark, but it sure looked like a great place.

My friend Tom Corcoran came and had a good time, so it seems that he may be coming more often.

Corn maze sprint shuffle. Seemed like this was a questionable idea, but I was resolute about just walking and so perhaps did no further damage. Still the slipperiness of it was not the best thing for a guy with a bum leg, so this solidified my decision to skip the night-o, which was fine with G & L, too.

A great time. Peter really was wonderful, everything working perfectly, all in exceptionally good humor, despite the technical problems earlier in the day and the mad scramble he had to do to get ready in time.

Corn Classic - Splits

Corn Sprint - Splits

Brown X Day 2. Another good day, with a couple of relatively minor mistakes and a few more hesitations than yesterday, but still good on the day, I think 6th overall on Brown X, and 5th for the two days. Nominal distance 3.6K.

Based on US eligibility, a silver medal in M65. Much unexpected.

Map and route

1. Downhill through lovely open woods with a stonewall on either side. The best running one ever gets. Crossed the little streams and the E-W trail, trail S, then wall to the corner, heading right for it, but the cliff and the flag were obscured by a tree, so didn't see it until I was more or less right on it. Spike.

2. Drifted R across the stream to the trail, followed it to the wall corner and then an easy attack.

3. Started along the line, but then corrected N so I could get down the cliffs. Jammed my ankle in the rocks. It was pretty sharp and I hopped a few steps, but soon forgot about it. A little lower than I thought I was, had to climb a bit to the control, but no problem.

4. Everything was looking good, maybe too good. Followed a reentrant down, apparently without checking the compass and ran into the two boulders before the trail, so corrected from there and got to the flag, but I couldn't find the SI box. I almost punched on the map before I saw it on a stand a bit away from the flag. So maybe a minute lost of getting off line, and another 10 seconds or so trying to find the box.

5. Left around the cliffs, then more or less straight through blueberry, but nice terrain, gently down. Right by the boulder halfway from the trail, saw the rocky cliffs to my right and right in.

6. Also pretty good. Red the boulder at the top of the green, the green patches, and saw the bag from about 40 M or so.

7. More or less straight on compass, picking off the rock just across the trail. Fooled a bit by rocks up higher and a bit obscured by the circle, but figured it out reasonably soon and right in.

8. Right of big cliffs, difficult footing getting down the hill to the trail. Left on trail a bit, then along the L side of the big hill, gradually climbing it and following the long spur down. Saw Karen Muffati leaving, maybe 45s or a minute ahead.

9. A little uncertain on this leg, not sure why. Drifted a little toward the wall, then corrected and headed right to it, but just slow.

10. Again, saw Karen well ahead, far enough away that I couldn't necessarily follow, but maybe I could go a bit faster heading in the general direction.

11. Pretty dumb. Saw that my control was at the end of the wall, and didn't even notice the parallel trail, instead climbing over the wall, picking though some rocks and stuff, instead of the nice fast trail. Probably 30 or 40 s lost.

F. My leg wasn't twinging, so I was able to finish a lot faster than yesterday.

C • Route to 11 1

Physical inventory after the weekend: Generally surprisingly good. I felt better after running Saturday than I did Friday, and better Sunday than Saturday. Saturday I was running with a fair bit of caution because of the place I had strained my quad a few weeks back complaining to me. Sunday I was still aware of it, but less so, and less constrained by it.

I did crunch my ankle a bit between 2 and 3, hopped down on a rock with my forefoot and the heel came down too fast and too much. Pretty sharp, but nothing like the time I really hurt it doing that 20 years ago at Harold Parker. Felt ok the rest of the course, but now that I am home it is pretty tender. Ice should fix it.

Sunday - Brown X - Splits

Event: 2016 US Two-Day Classic Championships and Sprint Relay
 

US Champs day 1 Brown X at Ward Pound Ridge. Quite a fine day. I approached it with some trepidation because my R leg was quite sore. The navigation was pretty easy, which suits me, and the woods nice and open. I never went very fast, but never slowed down much either.

1. Crossed the two walls heading a bit S of West, saw the hill developing to my left and came in below the top, spike. 3:06.
2. Generally SSE, staying below the hill on the right. Across the trail, where the marsh on the map was greener than expected, so I stayed up a line and came around from the right. Spike. 5:22.
3. Same direction, staying in the depressions with better footing. Climbed in along the top, coming from below would have been faster, but no trouble. Spike. 2:56
4. E to the trail, past the big hill and left up the marshy bit( which was quite dry) to the trail N to the junction and then contouring. It was a bit further than I expected, but just kept going a bit. 5:59.
5. More or less along the line, zigging and zagging a bit past stone walls and cliffs, hitting the trail near the water stop and easy from there. Could see the hill from the trail so just along the side of it. 6:27.
6. Had thought I would go straighter but ended up heading more E than I realized, getting to the marshy area near the stream junction and then turning N. Pretty straight from there, past the cellar hole, then the trail and the boulders beyond it at the bend. Just under the hill with the dot knoll, straight in to the rather unremarkable boulder. 7:40.
7. Keeping track of walls, along the right side of the NS wall, thinking I was right on, and stopped when I didn't see it. Stopped to look at the map and realized I had to turn down a line, so maybe lost 30 seconds or so. 4:27.
8. Pretty much along the line, not dropping down as far as the wall, finding it easy to wind through the nasty looking brush. I saw Lex up ahead, who seemed to be moving pretty well, but then she stopped a bit and I caught up. Across the wall, past the small wall segment and I could see it ahead. Spike. 4:25.
9. I was determined to go fairly straight and not take the trail around to the left. Up the hill thinking I would follow some wall segments, then realized there was a small trail up there. Jon Campbell passed me just before the trail, but I was moving well and might have passed him back except I was getting messages from my R quad to keep it under control, so just held my pace. 3:48.
F. 29, resisting the urge to sprint.

Probably my best run from a navigation perspective since WMOC 2012 in Germany. Surprisingly good.

Map and route.

Saturday - Brown X - Splits

Quads very sore today, particularly the spot on the right one where I strained it at the corn maze. Just a lot of rolling and stretching today.

Working out with Eric, added some goblet squats.

From PV with Rhonda. Trying to maintain core stability, but still starts to ache in the R hip after about 10 miles.

Rhonda's morning class.

Once around with Rhonda