Training Log Archive: JanetT

Good shake-out class and hip stretches were really needed.

I had a nice chat and drink (Brown's new batch of Pumkin Ale) with a few of the redheads at this event last Wednesday.

I'm not sociable enough to talk to everyone, but did chat with a few ladies (including the tall one with the yellow/gold scarf, Molly). Fun times. (I did leave after the toast and photos, to have dinner elsewhere.) Gingers rule!

:-)

Walk to start of US Middle Champs, Letchworth S.P. East
Temps in the upper 40s/lower 50s, partly sunny

After Glen left to head down the hill to the start I (starting 6 minutes after him) ran to the portajohns and then back, then descended the hill, arriving at the line 30 seconds before my arrive-at-start time. :-)

Brown (Y) Middle Champs at Letchworth East. SL 2.9 km, 130m climb; course by Rob Holmes

Ah, I wish I had younger eyes. Or better glasses. And a better process for fixing mistakes would be nice too.

I had a good run up through 5, then knew I had to carefully count reentrants to 6, but as I neared the circle I neglected to notice that the lower part of the target reentrant (under the circle and line to 7) was just a small wiggle in the index contour and not a sharp distinct contour like the rest of the lines above the index contour. I think I noticed the small wiggle in the terrain but was expecting a sharper indentation and was thrown off mentally. So I kept going, checking the next stream valley well beyond, up to the wide path (Finger Lakes Trail), down the wrong spur, back up to the FLT again, farther south on the FLT this time (but still went down a wrong spur) and down the spur south of the control, noticing it had the shape of the one south of 6, so down and up again. This time when I noticed the small wiggle in the hillside I climbed up to the sharper reentrant and found the flag. 30 minutes had passed, just on that one leg!!!

That took the wind out of my sails and I didn't push hard the rest of the way in knowing I was well out of medal contention. I'm very happy that they changed the rules about how many races count for ranking...this will undoubtably be a throwaway race.

FWIW, I took the low route around the gully from 2-3, having no problem counting reentrants there. To 8, I was befuddled about the shape of the reentrant, not noticing the part under the circle until I had my good glasses on after the race, but I didn't have any trouble with that or any other control besides 6.

On to the next races! Many thanks to ROC and all their helpers who put on this great series of events.

C • Your # 6 - 2

Middle Brown Y - Splits

Dinner tonight was at Rorhbach's brewpub on the west side of Rochester. Recommended! Beer was great (I had a sampler of their fall-type brews), and food was good too (I had the Park Ave Panini, a nice blend of flavors). Worth a trip if you're in the area.

Walk to start from bus drop-off; meet notes said 1.1 km with 70m climb. They got the climb right, but it was only half the distance so I didn't need to hurry as much as I thought.

Temp when we woke up was in the upper 50s, probably mid 50s by the time we raced, then dropped as the afternoon wore on. 46F by the time we left the park around 4:45!

US Champs Long, SL 4.2 km, 90 m climb

Well, except for number 1 which I botched by over 11 minutes, I had a pretty good race. I would have been happy with my time having those 11 minutes back. AP's error finder says I had an error at 3 but it was just in the execution of the leg, not finding the control (after having been in the green on my first attempt to #1, I wanted to avoid it from 2-3 so I swung wide right before crossing the stream and hitting the trail, then it was fine). Error from 6-7 was from not climbing immediately to run the ridge; instead I side-hilled. Again I found it without trouble, but not the ideal way to get there.

To 4 I went west, around the marsh and then up the hill to the trails, then cut in at the water-drop along the trail. 7-8 I managed to stay in the white woods SSW from the control back to the intermittent trail. When Charlie saw me I was going up and over the little spur and east of the green blob. Cristina went zooming -- and I mean zooming! -- past me here, in her recently re-acquired US Team uniform. There was a crowd on the trail heading toward 8 so I dropped down the hillside early and caught everyone coming in from above to easily spot the flag. Then it was zoom-as-much-as-possible from there to the finish.

Like others I was surprised at the non-green thicket for the Go control. I went right by the large mapped tree in the white woods N of the thicket and then came out into the field and saw the flag to my right and not my left as expected.

Marion Owen (Canada) again had a splendid run and won F60 again by a lot, with a time of not quite 53 minutes (to PG's not quite 37). Sandy was 1st US, with Mary Jo not too far behind and me about 5 minutes behind Mary Jo (who also had a lot of trouble with #1).

Long Brown Y - Splits

Event: 2014 US Nationals
 

For future reference, we had dinner with a group at Papaya's Asian Kitchen in the Marketplace Mall not far from where we were staying. Nice dinner and a good group.

See entry below for FR track.

Brown sprint at SML Champs, Genesee Valley Park in Rochester. SL 1.9 km, 45m climb. Temp in the low to mid 70s with a breeze (headwind was pretty strong during our drive west from Albany area, gusting in places). Nice course by Mike Lyons with some good tests of concentration.

Finished 6th F60 of ~14(?), 4th US behind Patty Lyons, Diana Todd and Mary Jo...Diana and MJ tied! 29th of 81 finishers on Brown. Marion Owen (mbo, from Canada) was FAST at about 15:34, only about a minute and a half behind the Brown course winner. She'll probably be one of the ones to beat in F55-64 next weekend at North Americans, too.

AP lists me with 31 sec of error, and I think I could have made up most of that taking the right-hand/western-most bridge from 5 to 6. At first it looked like a wash to me to use either bridge, but as I topped the bridge I realized I'd have to zig and zag under the highway, up and over a footbridge, and then back under the highway, though from there I could see the tree and flag easily. Coming via the other bridge would have involved two straight lines running then just swinging around the green so maybe a bit faster. I lost time to other stronger hill-climbers going from 12-13 (under the bridge south of the pavilion near finish to the tree east of the green blob). Someone came down that way into the control so rather than look more at the map and think about it I just headed up the hill. It would probably have been just as steep going around the green to the field or up the white woods, routes I never really considered on the fly.

Some specifics:
1--south from start triangle and around the green blob instead of through
3--I saw this was the underpass symbol so figured it would be down the hill
7--took the left/southern fence break because I hadn't seen the right/northern one until after punching
8--saw someone heading toward the break (George Hawes?) and went that way
9--rather than try to find the small path I ran around the green and into the veg corner I'd seen when punching 6. Dennis zoomed past me to punch and then headed through the woods to the western bridge so I followed him out
11--around the veg (rather than through)
13--up the loose slope from the path keeping along the guiderail
14--such a cute building! Ex-guardhouse???

C • Ha ha 3

Sprint Brown - Splits

Using the big balls. Some weight work at the end for arms. Some tough stuff!

Adductors (18 only @75#) and pulldowns (9) plus extra stretching. And a bit of one-leggedness on a convenient Bosu ball.

For anyone traveling through Albany this week (or any other time) with a couple extra hours to kill:

Albany I Spy

C • Exploring Albany 2

Used weights today. More side planks than I usually do so I may feel this in the weaker shoulder later. I wish we did a more active warm-up sequence (balance, warrior poses and plies) like when I first started this class. Now, most of the time we start either in child's pose or lyng flat on our backs. Meh.

Haven't done this machine in awhile because various body parts hurt but managed okay for 15 minutes (the rest was cool down), putting some effort into it. Hill interval level 3, 0.80 distance units (whatever they are and mean).

9 pulldowns @ 68.75# (enough adductors during Pilates that I didn't need to do more).