Training Log Archive: dlevine

With equipment, but I thought I was faster than that...

Cutthroat (discounted) with Steve B. (young and intermediate) and Steve K. (older and quite good).

Got there late and couldn't loosen up the back. Steve B was on fire to begin and led 3-9-4 before Steve K took the first game 5-12-15.
Second game Steve K dominated early then coasted to a 7-9-15 victory.
I was feeling the back, but got on a good serving streak in the third game and won 15-2-5.
I lead the fourth game early 8-0-1, but then it was 9-8-9. I trailed 10-10-14 before coming on strong to win 15-10-14. Back was so tight when I was done that I am not sure I'll even be able to run this weekend.

With equipment, a warm pool and a balky back.

With equipment, in a warm pool.

...had to leave early to attend a talk on hyperbolic geometry... (first time I've ever used that excuse!)

Cutthroat with Lucas and Steve K.

Playing the best two players in the group is NOT the way to come back after a six-week (or so) layoff.

Game 1: Couldn't pick up flight of ball. Lucas' new spin shot didn't help. Steve won as I flailed. 2-10-15
Game 2: A little better, but I still whiffed on too many easy shots. It was 6-8-10 at one point, but that was it for me. 6-13-15
Game 3: I played better still, but Lucas was on fire and Steve was tanked. 4-15-2
Game 4: It finally clicked for me and by now both of them were tired. 15-13-8

Event: ROC - Mendon Ponds Park [2012 Series #1] - Ice Breaker
 

ROC - Mendon Ponds Icebreaker

Ran Red instead of my age class as it was still only 6.7 km. Basically hit everything "dead on". Thought I made only one small (5-10 sec) goof at #10, but apparently I ran the first half of that short leg fast enough to cover for that. Winsplits says I lost 22 seconds at #12 which is plausible, but seems a bit high since the split was only 104 seconds. Got slow near the end but didn't really care. Only interesting route choices I made were to go through the green in both directions between #6 and #7 - it looked passable and it was; and to take the trail to the west on the way to #17. Not sure that the latter was a win, but it was close.

9th out of 16. Seven runners finished between 82:28 and 88:08. I was the middle of them and the middle of the three who finished between 85:00 and 86:00. Considering how I felt - not a bad run, but not a great one.

Red - Splits

Intensity is up because after the Rib Raid, this was a painful swim. After one length, I wasn't sure about more than one lap. After two laps, I thought four would kill me. It wasn't until I was halfway done that I thought I was likely to even finish. After I was done, the heart rate was a good bit higher than normal.

Same issue with intensity. Tough class! (Nobody else could tell the difference from normal.)

Event: Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Giant's Rib Raid
 

Giant's Rib Raid - with Mike Ball and Jim Miller

Very clever race. "Alpha", "Beta", and "Omega" stages. You only get the map for each stage after you have completed the previous.

Alpha stage was more or less straight orienteering. Short (700 m) trail run to spread teams before first two controls. 2-3 is "corridor" due to out of bounds and 3-4 is short. We had predicted that the pack wouldn't split until 4-5 and we were correct. We went north of the OOB area and found ourselves alone after a tough climb out of the stream. We lost a bit of map contact, but went in well; WinSplits says we lost 3.5 minutes here, but some of that was at the beginning of the leg. 6 was fine. 7 was top of hill (what a surprise). Last ten feet were a rocky climb. Coming down, Jim slipped and DISAPPEARED FROM VIEW. He had fallen in big crack and "done his ankle". We took a 'safer footing' root to #8, but he fell down again leaving #8 and hurt it more. There was a 2.5 km Bruce Trail run to a "manned" checkpoint (really the end of the Alpha Stage). We got passed by four teams here as Jim kept falling; he was losing equilibrium fast and Mike and I thought we saw the beginnings of shock setting in. The last 800 m of Bruce Trail was on the road and he did well there, regaining his self. We decided to try the rest of the Alpha stage. Leaving #9, we saw a "solo racer" and started to get annoyed before we realized it was Mike Waddington taking photos. He told Jim that most of the gnarly rock was done and that he might be okay. We finished the stage, catching one of the teams that passed us only to have them pass us by sprinting to the end, taking us by about twenty seconds. (Winsplits says we lost over eight minutes on controls 8, 10, 11, and 12 and that feels right based upon how Jim was (not) moving. Interestingly we supposedly did not lose time on the long Bruce Trail run, although we had the slowest split by over four minutes.)

At the end of the Alpha Stage, you get the Beta maps and wait for the shuttle bus. You will start the Beta Stage exactly forty minutes after you finish Alpha. Our bus came soon so we had about twenty-five minutes at the aid station. (Gear bags were available, but the weather was so good that almost nobody used them; we had sweats in ours to keep warm, but never put them on!) Turns out that to start Beta, there were teams heading out at 12:23, 12:24, 12:25, and two at 12:27 - including us. We took a very good route to #1 and found the 12:23 team there very confused as they tried to plan for #2. (Counting the fact that we "jumped" the other 12:27 team leaving Beta, we passed six teams on this leg; we were good, but...) We took a conservative route to #2 that proved to be a real win. Again saw Mike W. doing his Annie Liebowitz impression. Struggled a bit to #3 which looked to have a five-contour climb up to its top, but we found a land arch that made it easy. The descent was tough on Jim and we took off on the Walk The Line behind one other team. The spiked 3A just ahead of us, but we caught them 60 m later at the power lines because they were confused. They passed us again in that stretch and just as Mike and I were both thinking that it was a shame that the Walk The Line was so simple, two teams came the other way asking if we had seen 3A! Got 3B and headed out to the road for a long leg to the next section of map. Never saw the team in front of us, and got passed by one team about 30 yards before the turn-in. They took off down the trail and we did to, but we stopped at the first junction and went right at #4, figuring that we might see them coming in or going out (since we were moving so slowly). Spiked #4 and took off on the trail to #5; about three minutes later we saw them coming the other way on the trail. Spiked #5, cleverly, but completely fairly, hidden and then had the "through the campus (Brock University) leg" which was fun for us, but apparently lots of teams hated the maze of buildings. Down to #6 and #7 and The Relay of Lactic Hell. Eight contours up and down. Brutal, but we did it and took off to #8 which involved another climbing of the escarpment. We overshot #8 and lost two minutes and had a team on our tails as we went to #9. Out to 9A (no flag - as warned in instructions) and off the map. 9A->9B->9C->10 is all compass bearing and distance with only the circle containing the map. Cool, but the area was completely devoid of trees so you could often see teams ahead of you (or behind you). 10->11 was the Urban matrix. Mike took C&D and kept running into traffic and had to wait for traffic lights. Jim and I took A& B (shorter, but a bit more technical). I blew it and we came out of the woods one block off and had a difficult descent - although the time penalty was only a minute or two. We walk/ran through the neighborhood trying to chase down Ian Sidders. Alas, he was doing only A so he took off in a different direction. We got B and got on the road back to the High School (#11 was on the bleachers) and he caught us at the edge of campus. He ran by and beat us in by about 30 seconds. We didn't see Mike, so we walked in the last bit, but Mike didn't see us and did the same. We arrived at the flag about fifteen seconds after he did.

Omega stage. Each person gets a map, but it's basically contours only. There are multiple master maps and you can copy anything you want onto the map. Three controls (1:5000 map) and return. Mike and I each silently copy while Jim downs liquids. Off we go; the area is basically a small park of the Emery/Chestnut Ridge variety with open picnic areas and small amounts of woods. We mismapped the yellow and overshot #1 by a bit, but saw Ian's team coming out. Went to #2 and saw them coming up the hill we were going down. Bobbled it a bit, but got it okay. Then we realized that they were taking an odd (to our minds) route to #3. We had heard that the leading team had made a five-minute error on #3, but had won the race anyway because the team that was one minute behind them made a ten-minute error so we were a bit nervous. No need as it turned out; as we approached we could see Ian's team heading off to the finish, but my attack line took us to within 8 inches of the well hidden flag. (Jim couldn't even see it when I touched it and he was twenty feet back.) So, up the reentrant to the railroad tracks, back to the school and in. Mike had already done the tracks as part of the matrix so we were golden - or so we thought. Then Jim went down on the tracks. HARD. Mike and I weren't sure he could get up. Sadly, I was ahead and could see the finish flag. We pulled him together and somehow he was able to keep going. We had to really help him down the hill off the tracks, but he did it. We even ran the last 50m to the finish. 6:40:31. 19th out of 27 Full Raid teams (not counting the 1 DNS).

Given what happened, a very satisfactory result. We're all a bit sore and Jim's ankle could be mistaken for some Easter eggs. It was a GREAT course and we'll probably be back in November, but that's always tough for my team...

(Report on Wednesday; Jim is still on crutches with a technicolor ankle - not broken - and will be so for at least a week. Hard to believe he raced all that distance on it. Not sure if this indicates (lack of) intelligence or just bravery.)

C • Great race report! 3

Campus loop solo except for the howling wind...

Pool was a bit warm...

(Substitute instructor cranked it up a bit)

Quick set to try to get my mileage goal. Mileage accumulates slowly here and I got kicked out of the room at 25 minutes.

A smart person would have gone outside running for the last little bit, but I had left my running shoes at home so "off to the (too warm) pool" it was...