Training Log Archive: PG

Warm-up, just enough to get a little stiffness out of the legs. Was not feeling optimistic about prospects for the day, 12.4 course, warm day, two hard efforts yesterday.

Buffalo A meet, M21 long (Blue), 12.4 km beeline.

The course.

I feel obliged to say right at the outset that my splits are wrong. Not wrong in the sense of showing the wrong time, for in that they are sadly accurate. But wrong in how much time they claim I lost to mistakes, more than 10 minutes. I would guess I lost about 2 minutes, one at 7, a little too high, another at 23, tried to go through the dark green for some idiotic reason. The rest was like the supposed 9 second mistake I had in the chute of the sprint yesterday -- I was going the right way, just moving so slowly the computer couldn't quite believe.

And today was certainly a day for moving slowly. It was true to some extent right from the start, trying just to run at a modest pace, and choosing the most benign routes possible. I was starting to flag already on the way up to 7 and 8, but then the next few were more downhill. It wasn't until on the way from 13 to 14, taking the paved road, a very modest upgrade, and there was no way I was running it, walked the whole "hill", and I looked at my watch, just 45 minutes done, looked at what was left of the course, quite a bit, and realized that the next 75-90 minutes were not going to be fun.

And for the most part, they weren't.... :-)

So rather than detailing the agony in slow motion, and the endless walking sections, I should focus on the positive. First, to 18, I think I got the best route, right down the stream bottom for a lot of the last part of the leg. If it hadn't been a slow uphill slog the last 100 meters, I could have had a decent split. And then to 20, the one was downhill all the way and I did have a decent split. And then ditto for 28. And I suppose it's also positive that I didn't actually kill myself descending into the gully after 26, though that outcome seemed quite possible at the time.

Overall, just about 10 min/km, but given the nice woods and the generally modest slopes, that's pretty feeble. I think I could have beaten that mark by a minute or two if I hadn't drunk at all 6 water stops, but then I might still be out there.

What wasn't feeble was the organization of the Buffalo club. This was another fine day of orienteering. I really liked the map. The terrain was good too, reminded me of the "reentrants of doom" stuff near Cleveland, you had to be engaged the whole time or bad/dumb things could happen. And the people were invariably friendly. Bravo.

My route.

Controls: 1055/1000. :-)

C • finished map 5

C • I agree 2

Long - Blue - Splits

Event: Canal Cities Challenge
 

Warm-up.

Buffalo A meet, middle, M21 blue, 5.8 km beeline.

M21 for the first time in a while. Not a bad run, though shaky on the first half-dozen or so, my mind just wasn't in it, and then OK the rest of the way. Not embarrassed by the result.... :-)

My course and my route.

C • 8-9, 12-13 2

Warm-up, legs felt tired.

Sprint, M65, brown, 2.4 km beeline.

Good run, pretty much a max effort (that doesn't mean max speed), pulse was 175 at the end which is as high as it gets these days. No mistakes, couldn't have gone any faster. Though I suppose if I ran it again rested and without a map for distraction, I could probably go a minute faster.

I think I also could stand to work a little on my punching.

Note -- A lovely production by the Buffalo crew, map, courses, results service, karma were all great.

My course and my route.

C • 3rd place 2

Middle Blue - Splits

Sprint - Course 2 - Splits

Into Amherst for coffee with the Amity hills regulars, plus Ali. Did once up the hill just to see how it felt on a bike (easier). Very pleasant hour sitting outside on a nice morning.

Ali is off tomorrow. Bon voyage!

We meanwhile are heading to Buffao via chez Jospe in Rochester. Last time we went to Buffalo was for a somewhat different reason.

And then home through the UMass campus. Time to get more of it mapped so we can do some more renegade orienteering (renegade O' = no controls, maybe streamers, maybe not, certainly no permission, also certainly lots of fun and very little organization burden).

Then there's Amherst College, Smith College, Mt. Holyoke College, Earl's trails, Look Park, Highland Park, Eaglebrook School.... I got a version of OCAD from JJ, now just need to put it to use.

C • Woo! 15

With Walter, over to Amherst, then a few hills. Seemed a struggle, but there were a few hills.

Amity hills with Dave. 5:56, 5:53, 5:33. Good effort on the last one, remembered to breathe. Did not remember the 305.

Now off for a walk in the hills with Mike.

Control count: 995/1000

Just about there.

Over to the Stillwater bridge (mile 6.8), then did the 16.6 miles of the D2R2 course (in 1:38:45), then hme via 116. Interesting experience.

Used my road bike. maybe half to 2/3 of the D2R2 part was dirt road, mostly decent dirt road. Bike wasn't too bad, main complaint was I'd want a different set-up with the brake grips with more leverage. My hands were getting pretty tired hanging onto the brakes as hard as I could, and if I was doing that for a bunch more hours....

Tires weren't too bad. Could have use a little more traction.

Main eye opener was that it was a lot of work to just average 10 miles an hour. :-(

Quite depleted. Took no water. Stop in Conway on the way back for a soda, but still dropped 5 pounds.

Maybe I should go ride the same section in my mountain bike, see how it compares.