Training Log Archive: Gswede

A good climb up to El Yelmo. My legs felt very tired. I expect I am still recovering from the race last Saturday. It took me 3 minutes more than normal to climb up the mountain.

Temperature was really crisp. I took a few minutes at the top to enjoy the clouds rising up off of the lake. The silence there was amazing, almost no sound, just the water running down off of El Yelmo.

On the downhill I practiced controlled falling on the really rocky and technical sections. I think it would actually be helpful to wear some gloves to grip better and provide cushioning as I run down.

Orienteering finally!!

10k Course in Peguerinos. First section was made up of short and technical legs, second section was made up of long, fast legs. The second section was perfect for route choice.

S-1 Mass Start, too excited out of the start, took a bad bear into the control and ended up south/downhill of the flag, had to climb. +2 minutes

1-2 Easy, up the hill and follow the cliffs into the control, find the pit in the stand of trees, Clavado! +0

2-3 Bearing out of the control, up the ridge, along the ridge... too far along the ridge, came in too high on the control. I then overran the control and wandered about getting more and more worried about time and people catching me. +5

3-4 Realized how anxious I was getting so I stopped for 20 seconds (systematic orienteering, thanks Ben), looked at my next control and made a plan, then executed that plan perfectly. Ran past the ruins along the hilltop, past the ruins in the reentrant which then guided me into the group of rocks I was looking for.

4-5 Took a bearing directly north out of the control, ran along the bottom of the slope, then took the reentrant left/west straight into the rock.

5-6 Bearing and relying on the cliff as a catching feature, good one.

6-7 Oriented the map using the compass and the features, saw the cliffs I needed to run through, ran through them along the west side of the hill, came into the spur perfectly.

7-8 My map was not perfectly oriented which added about 30 meters onto this 70 meter leg.

8-9 Easy, orient the map, run along the hillside, count the features and use the cliff/ruin as a "big" control.

9-10 Map oriented? Good, go back to the spur, aparcado.

10-11 I overran this control and had to climb back up after spending time confused as to why nothing made sense. Got too excited on the downhill... oops. +1

11-12 Kept the map oriented, used the road as somewhat distant reference point, ran into the reentrant from uphill. No problems.

12-13 Climbed uphill, kept my eye on the big rocks as I climbed, used them as stepping stones to the control.

13-14 Pretty the same as the second half of 6-7, luckily didn't get turned around.

14-15 This is when the cross country race began. A 1.5k run across mixed terrain: white woods, open fields, trails, and paved trails. So I went very fast and I didn't get lost. I did however add some distance on that could have been cut off. Estimate: 50-60 meters.

15-16 Contouring along a hillside to the control. I watched as the two reentrants passed by and then started realllllly thinking about the next leg annnnnnddd overran the control. :( +.5

16-17 Whoa, I was running FAST at this point, Not sure of the actual speed, but I would estimate 3:00 to 3:30 per K. Downhill across the field, ran through the stream, jump over the stone wall, following the field downhill into another stream crossing, up the gentle slope onto the road, roll down the road until I saw the cliff that alerted me to get off road and head into the control, a little confused around the control... maybe too fast. +.5

17-18 Across the hillside through all the jara to the stream. I crossed the stream and didn't have my map oriented correctly, sooo I added 30 seconds to my course on this leg.

18-F Run, run, run, run, run.

Total Time: 70 minutes Total Error Time: 7.5

Warm up and cooldown.

A really fast run on Madrid Rio. 5x20/40's thrown in.

Commute-Run to school. 15 minutes, 20 minute tempo, 10 minute cooldown. Covered 5.7k in the 20 minutes.

Commute-run to my house, 15 minutes, 20 minute tempo, 10 minutes. 5.5k in the 20 minutes

Legs are still trashed from Sunday despite active rest and stretching. Stayed on the flats around town and kept a slow trot while trying to stretch out my legs with a few striders... very short striders.