Legs didn't feel too bad after yesterday's time in the woods, so after a very pleasant round of rogaine practice I stopped at the track on the way home. The plan was something short and quick to work on just getting the legs moving faster. The first thought was 4 x 400, but as I got near the track various other possibilities were considered, all consisting of some mix of 400s and/or 800s, not too many, a decent rest, but by the time I was at the track, I was back to the original idea, 4 x 400 with a good rest, going on a 3-minute cycle, 85-90 seconds each. Which is just what I did.

87.8, 85.8, 86.2, 83.7. Last one was hard work, and all were quicker than any running I've been doing recently. It helped a lot psychologically that a very short workout was planned. But still, good satisfaction, did just what I wanted.

(It's funny how doing a track workout on your own is hard for a couple of reasons -- no one for company and distraction from the pain, and also total freedom to do exactly what you want, no one announcing what the workout will be. Freedom is great, but sometimes life is easier if someone just says, Do this.)

A mile before, half a mile after.

Event: WCOC DuO #3, Huntington
 

WCOC sprint at Huntington SP in Redding, CT, orchestrated by Joe B (with help from Pavlina), added on to part 3 of his Du-O series (4-hour score-Os, half foot-O, half MTB O), all team fundraisers!

Sprint map.

Rain all day, heavy at times. I was planning to drive down with Phil, which was just as good because otherwise I might not have gone, and it turned out to be a fine day, perhaps with exception of my post-orienteering diet which consisted of a quart of chocolate milk, a bag of chips, and one of my special bacon double cheeseburgers on whole wheat bread (hold the bacon, hold the cheese, hold the burger), so that by the time I got back to Sunderland I was still feeling a bit bloated.

By a fine day, I don't mean that my orienteering was sharp, just that a couple of hours of orienteering in the rain turned out to be very pleasant, a sense that the elements were conspiring against me -- rain, wind, lots of puddles, slippery -- but as long as I did no damage to myself, it was a lot better than spending the day inside. And I don't think I did any damage, no bad spills, no ankle rolling. So a fine day.

But my orienteering certainly was not sharp. I seemed to have trouble reading the map on the run, though I think that was because the ground was on the rocky side and I was being careful not to roll my ankle. And my legs seemed to not have much zip either. So it was a very pedestrian trip around the course. Oh, well....

The Du-O, a nice trip around Huntington.

Map.

I'll add some more comments later, but there's an interesting show on the tube (last week's Masterpiece Theater, we never watch anything live, so no ads, not that there are any on MT anyway) and a cold beer in the frig that needs my attention.

Finally finished the Einstein biography, all 550 pages, though I passed on the 100+ pages of notes. Reasonably interesting, Wanting to give it a ranking, but under the binary system, 0 seems too low and 1 too high. (And why is the binary system from 0 to 1, and not from 1 to 10, which would at least make it look just like the decimal system?)

Took it back to the library, 2 weeks overdue, but no fines on overdue books as long as they are not an inter-library loan. Got 3 more books, a couple of easy-reading ones and a book of stories by Katha Pollitt, "Learning to Drive," think it might be interesting if I can get through it. Also had a nice chat with the librarian, her mom just died, lived just down the street, a stalwart in town, I should have gone to the funeral but forgot.

No training today though the legs felt ok despite yesterday at the track. Sprint plus Du-O at Huntington tomorrow, hosted by Joe, rain expected. With any luck I will move into the lead in the 2008 Sprint Series!

C • Rating 13

5K time trial at the Eaglebrook track, all by myself. Hoping for 21:00, did 20:46.

I had in mind to do this for several days. The Thursday track group sessions are over for the year, but I wanted to keep trying to go to the track once a week. And I want to see if I can get down to 20 minutes one last time. Which also ties in with getting my weight back under control. And if I can manage both of these, than better orienteering will follow. So several motivations which are all connected, and maybe makes success a little more likely.

Though I must say that actually getting on the track today was a challenge. Eaglebrook is a private school, has a very nice track. The group would meet at 5:30 pm -- and we had permission -- by that time any school activities were over. But I had a board meeting in Greenfield at 5:30. I had been planning to head to the track about 3, but then something came up that had to be attended to, one of my very much least favorite things to deal with, yup, uniforms, so I had to spend a while dealing with customs brokers and shipping agents and re-arranging delivery and hoping it will all work out, and by then it was too late to get to the track, run, get home and shower, and still get to Greenfield by 5:30. So I went with plan B, which skipped the return home and the shower.

So I got to the track about 4:30, and there was a soccer game going on, and a few spectators, some of them on the track, and of course I had no permission to run there. Bummer. Give it a little time, I thought, so I went off to warm up a little in the nearby forest, and just as I came back I heard a long whistle and the game appeared to be over. And people started to leave, ever so slowly, and I didn't really want to get out on the track until everyone was gone, so I was sort of lingering in the woods just above the track, sort of like one of those creepy old men who apparently are quite common, especially in DVOA land.

Eventually it was safe, and I zipped out there, a couple hundred yards on the track as a last little loosening up, and then off, really only time to do two miles, which is what I thought I might settle for. The plan/hope was to run 6:45 miles (well, 1600s), and the first one went by in 6:40, a little too quick I figured, well, if I could hold on and do 6:45 and then 6:50 that would be OK. And then the next 1600 went by in 6:42, and it looked like 21 minutes would be possible, and I must say at this point I had forgotten about the board meeting, totally focussed on the task at hand. And then the third 1600 went by in 6:38, and then the last 200 and I was done. And the wonderful transition in just 20 minutes from total dread of what was to come to total satisfaction. I believe the appropriate phrase is, so fine!

Straight to the car, and only 5 minutes late for the board meeting.

400 splits:
1:38.6
1:39.9
1:40.6
1:40.6 (6:39.7)
1:40.8
1:41.0
1:40.2
1:40.0 (6:42.0)
1:39.6
1:39.8
1:39.9
1:38.8 (6:38.1)
0:46.5

C • So fine, indeed! 10

Warm-up.

138

The diet is awesome. Or maybe it was using the lippo attachment on the vacuum cleaner last night....

With Phil, power line, towards the gate, bridle path loop, and back. Ankle was still feeling fragile, so taped it up a bit (used some of my fine blue duct tape) and took it very carefully on all downhills, including not landing on my heels, since that is when I have been hurting it. Made it through without any damage. So the run was a combination of a good effort on all the ups and super relaxed on all the downs. Which is ok.

Then some lunch, read an item about whether the elderly have a harder time sleeping well because they are old or because they have lots of things wrong with them, article seemed to say that it wasn't being old that caused problems, just the various ailments or pain or medications.

Then went upstairs and took a long nap....

The rain and wind of the last couple of days has brought down a lot of leaves (and covered over most of the rocks), all of a sudden it is looking like November, though we still haven't had a frost here. The latter is fine by me. I'm in no hurry to see snow and ice.

Think I'll go to Huntington on Saturday for Joe's Du-O' and sprint, team fundraiser. Trying to make an early move in the Sprint Series.... :-)

Time for a New Year's Resolution.

Whereas the current state of the G, which today checked in at

140

is an absolute disaster,

Whereas my pants are getting snugger, and

Whereas remedial action is required ASAP,

It is resolved that

The Diet starts tonight.

C • 140 16

Maps and a few comments from last weekend --

Middle distance (Red course)

1. Just went right at it. Think I was about right but didn't see it (I went out later to take another look....). Clue was a fallen tree, turned out the fallen tree was hung up, trunk was at about 45 degrees, control was on the south side. At that point I was semi-screwed, didn't know where I was. Checked out the next knoll to the east, and beyond it was a control in a low area, though not mine. Still didn't know where I was. Turned back to the west and lucked into my control. Lost 2 or 3 minutes, a lot of time standing around.
2. Time to get moving. Thick where I hit the low area, didn't see the flag, turned left, hit the trail, turned back. Another minute gone.
3. Really time to get moving. Barely picked up the intermittent trail, was navigating mainly by the open are off to my left. But the reentrant SE of the control was quite distinct. Turned there, spotted the control.
4. Never saw the trail, navigated by the marsh.
5. Out of control. Just running NW, not in touch, confused by thicker stuff, not sure if I was right or left. Out to field to check. Another couple minutes gone.
6. Past the end of the field, crossed another trail without seeing it, but followed compass and left side of shallow spur.
7. Trail, compass, read the contours, very distinct, easy.
8. Through the crap, along field, down the trail a ways, turned in, surprised that I had already gone too far.
9. Compass, aiming for marsh.
10. Out of control again, no plan, quite confused until I crossed the bike path, just before it turned my ankle, hobbling all the way to control. Good part was I was starting to understand what the marshes looked like.
11. North to the bike trail, then in.
12 and 13. No problem, ankle getting better.
Finish. Missed the trail, got hung up in thorns at the edge of the field. Overall, ran hard, got tired, way too much out of control orienteering, but some ok too.

Sprint

Much better, though it was also much easier. Got tired towards the end.
1-5. Out to the open as much as possible. Maybe not always the fastest, but safe.
6. A little left of west, then a little right, control popped up right in front of me.
7. On compass, stopped short, thought a bit, went a little farther, very happy to see it.
8-Finish. No problems, was doing better at looking ahead, spotting controls from a distance.

Classic distance (Red course)

A surprising day. Woods were supposed to be quite thick, but thanks to a good course, we saw only the best parts and could run around most of the crap. So speed (8 min/km) was much better than expected.
1. Trail, past the marsh, nice woods.
2. Compass and contours, scattered barberry (lots of little thorns), could avoid most of it.
3. Checking off reentrants, turned left when I was supposed to.
4. Woods weren't bad, just trying to find the line of least resistance to the field.
6. First sloppiness. Got the control ok, but was meandering a bit on the way.
7. Had first thought to go east to main trail, then north, but on reflection (while I was going to 5), it seemed the road was better. Which I'm sure it was. Zapped my ankle again on the little trail through the dark green. Limping badly to 7, eased up a lot shortly thereafter.
8. Lucky to spot the trail through the green south of the marsh. But then blew control, totally mindless -- was heading up the wrong reentrant when I saw Karl Ahlswede cutting across my route (he had just left 8). Boy he must be lost was my reaction. Nope.
9. Got helped into 9 by Karl and a couple others coming out.
10. Caught Karl.
11. Ok execution. Control was easy, but getting past the junk 3/4 of the way was a little tricky.
12. Another road run, my specialty.
13 and finish. Getting tired, but still working hard. Pleased with the run, good way to finish the weekend on a positive note.

How you go Sox!