Training Log Archive: PG

A couple of trips up South Sugarloaf (10:21, 9:40) just to remember what running uphill feels like. Mt. Washington is on Saturday.

Had to get a new pair of shoes yesterday. The Nike Pegasus I got in January are on their last legs -- the right upper has a growing hole, result of orienteering in them a bunch of times. But I've liked them, so got another pair. The old ones have about 500 miles on them.

The new ones seem OK, but the color has changed, now grayish and bright yellow. Just my style.

C • Expectations for Mt Washington 3

Event: NEOC: Mt. Tom
 

Yesterday's sprint training at Cemetery Hill, and my route.

NEOC meet at Mt. Tom. Nice course/event by Ian Smith single-handed. Red course, straight-line distance was 7.3 km.

Lots of rain overnight and in the morning, but it had stopped by the time I got there. The woods were wet, of course, but the running was quite pleasant (Mt Tom doesn't have much underbrush even in the summer, though it does have a few hills).

A decent run, wasted maybe 2 minutes at most. And very close to a scalpette (i.e. beating a member of the men's WOC on an individual split, yeah, I know, that's lowering the standard....), Ross only got me by 5 seconds on, of all legs, the run-in, 720 meters, not streamered. His route went places best avoided.

Legs didn't feel too bad, but then it was cool so I'd expect that.

830/1000

The course and my route.

Picking up some controls from the White and Yellow courses. Some walking, some slow jogging.

Red - Splits

Back home after a fine trip to Ireland, which included, quite surprisingly a lot of good food. I had decided that I probably wouldn't be posting my weight for a while out of embarrassment, but it's not nearly as bad as expected.

I was glad we had an early flight yesterday, got back to JFK a little after 1 pm, was home by 5, no traffic problems, got to Northampton before we were in the massive thunderstorms and rain as hard as I've ever seen it. Sure glad we weren't still up in the air circling around for a while.

But the temps in the 90s will take a bit getting used to. Last day in Ireland it was 50, blowing like crazy, rain squalls on and off. A very interesting and memorable day here.

A little warm-up. Temp was about 80F. Not so bad.

Cemetery Hill sprint training. Scalps! :-)

Good run for the most part. Overran 1 a little, but mainly because I had on just shorts and was looking for a nice gap into the woods. A nice face plant going in to 8. Stopped two or three times before 9, at smaller (i.e. very tiny) reentrants. Main problem was at 12, to the trail to the left, first stopped before crossing the side channel, then crossed it and checked out the big rock, no streamer to be seen, checked out the smaller rock, no streamer to be seen there either, so finally moved on.

At 13, went a little too far to the right, had to cut back. To 17, took left route, but took a while deciding to do it. Rest was fine.

Maybe could have been a minute or so faster. But put out a hard effort.

Nice course! Briars were optional.... :-)

815/1000

C • nice run! 4

And a little after.

Not too many dog walkers out on a Friday late afternoon, and no golfers to be seen.

sprint - Splits

Third and final day of the Shamrock. Best terrain yet, just fabulous. I was not quite up to the challenge, mistakes at 4 controls plus a little tactical stupidity, though total was only 2 or at most three minutes lost, plus tweeked an ankle half way around when dropping down a cliff. Still won my class handily, but got beat by the 16-year-old Swede....

Course was 4.4 km straight-line, not easy.

795/1000.

My course and my route.

So I started at 10 am with the 9 other course leaders. No one in my class was remotely close, but a Swedish M16 was starting a minute behind. Got to the first couple OK, but I was not feeling much zip, and they were uphill, and by the time I got to the second the Swede had caught me. And he takes off in the direction of 3, going a good bit faster than I am.

So you would think it might have dawned on me that if he was a lot faster than me (at least 25%), and we had had about the same times the previous two days, than his O' skills might be a bit suspect. You would think. But I followed him happily, right up to the point where I had clearly gone far enough, and there was no control and things weren't right. And he was standing about another 40 meters along, looking at his map, and looking at me....

Dropped down, got the control, 4 was easy, and by the time I got it he was back with me. He took off to 5, easy because you could see it from 100 meters away (the only one like that all day). And then we turned uphill and he was soon out of sight. Though I did get a glimpse of him when I was at 6 and he was way up the hill in the direction of 7, except he wasn't heading for 7, more going north, way to the right of it. And looking back to see what I was doing.

I spiked 7, spiked 8, and which point here he came again. And zipped past me. And for the rest of the course he never got too far ahead, there would be a burst of speed, and then after some more difficult section I'd catch back up with him.

We were together coming into 15, missed it a slight bit to the right, quite surprised, thought I had nailed it, and then he was sailing away to 16. I got down there, he was scratching his head, I missed it a touch, turned back, there he came, and that was that. Wouldn't have mattered if I'd nailed 16, he still would have had me.

All sort of amusing, felt like there was nothing I could do because the visibility was so good, also a little depressing because I'm so damn slow. And CSU doesn't yet make a camouflage O' suit, which is the only thing that might have helped.

But the orienteering was absolutely wonderful. As were the courses (none of the Swiss disrespect for the old men's courses). As was the organization. A totally delightful long weekend. I suppose you could say that the one thing we were missing was fog. That would have been fun.

Results.

View of the terrain from the finish, four shots from left to right....

C • strategy 2

C • interesting, interesting! 2