Training Log Archive: dlevine

Felt vaguely ill and could never get in to breathing or stroking rhythm...

Even this class was a bit of a challenge.

Wicked Workout

Not much to say; there were no times to shoot for and I was looking for a quick ride before my "appearance" at the open house for admissions.

Emery Park, BFLO "Try and Learn" event; "Green" course.

S->1: Past lodge, across street, down middle ski slope, and in. 4:25

1->2: Through disc golf course past a foursome, then marsh after bend in trail and in; see someone (Wightmans?) leaving control to help finish the nav. 5:54

2->3: Back south, to bend in road, then trail west bending south pointing me straight in. 5:31

3->4: Trail up hill to open area past befuddled foursome (says one, "Didn't we just see him headed in that same direction at the bottom of the hill) past two distinct trees by side of road before making a bad mistake and heading in to the woods at the wrong place/angle. I then get confused and look at the area near #8 instead of #4 while trying to relocate off the building I see in front of me - which is the one to the west of the numeral "4" on the map. Finally come to my senses and go in. 5:40 (estimate that I lost 1.5-2 minutes on a white control - ARRGH!)

4->5: Trail to road and across, aiming off left a bit to hit trail in reentrant and in. No issues. 2:34

5->6: More or less on line, crossing stream early and finding trail about the control; fed me in beautifully, 3:34

6->7: Trail back out, and then down to stream; stream to base of gully and then up the gully and in. Saw Erin Rycroft leaving on the upper right spur of the reentrant. 5:27

7->8: Back down the reentrant and up the steep bank on the other side. Caught Erin, but she sped up at the last minute and beat me to the top. I needed to re-oxygenate, but she must have, too, because I kept her in sight. She took the trail the whole way, but I hopped over to the road and attacked from due east and never saw her again. 7:40

8->9: Trail out of sight, then a bearing straight to the zone. Campsite confused me, but I could see the bend by virtue of the "gorge line". Fortunately, the control was only a step or two down from the top as I was bushed. 2:54

9->10: Southwest through field of least resistance to the trail to the road that bisects the park. From there, I angled in through the grody woods hoping (I think justified) that the time lost in the deadfall would be less than the time lost by going around. Came out about right and headed in seeing the rootstock well before I saw the flag. 8:34

10->11: On line out to road and then along hill line above the stream to the south. 2:50

11->12: Southeast to road to building to trail to building. "Dead" running leg. 4:41

12->13: Another dead leg. Trail to road. Decided to push it and take the road the whole way and then in. Saw flag from over 100m away. 5:17

13->14: Across stream on line, past repair work and towards control, attacking off parking lot. Crowd there and I was confused by the fact that I saw the flag way above the stream bend. I think that flag was from the training because the real flag was also there in the correct spot. 2:40

14->15: East to road to junction on line NW of control. Went south a bit and then decided to cut in through "white" woods. Woods are gnarly and I got pushed to the E-W trail so soon that I should have run the road to the trail. Trail in to control with no other issues. 4:54

15->F: Out driveway to road, then cut the corner where the fallen tree had wiped out the fence. 2:26

I know Tom Rycroft ran a 59, but I am reasonably happy with this run other than the SNAFU at #4.

Slow, as expected given a bunch of circumstances that probably each cost me 15 seconds each.

Event: 2013 Salomon Giant's Rib Raid
 

Event: The 35th annual Billygoat Run
 

Billygoat, Earl's Trails, Amherst, MA
Beautiful day, but my only goal was to run clean and get my shirt.

S->1: Huge mess leaving the start as the woods were a bit green. Went low and north following one of what appeared to be three trains. We were rightmost, but it was minimizing climb and I was comfortable. Saw all sorts of folks I knew but was unclear about whom I would be able to stay with. Hit the main trail E of the control and took the trails in to just above the flag. 16:32

1->2: Started with Sharon Crawford and Sam Levitin, but we split up at the second of the three N-S trails east of the control. Came in solid and caught a group that was confused by the cliff system NE of the control. WinSplits says that I lost 43 seconds here, but that must have been just general slowness. 14:59.

2->3: A group left in the general direction of #3 and fanned out. I was second from left with Ken Walker to my left. We were both too far left and came in behind most of the group. WinSplits says I lost 1:03 here and I believe that. 3:42.

3->4: Down the hill, follow the train. 2:03

4->5: Across the hill, Ken and I took the trail for a slight northerly arc into the control, 3:39

5->6: Debated this as a skip, but nobody else seemed to do it, so I slogged up the hill with Sharon, Sam, Ken, and a few others. 6:04

6->7: Everyone split up en route and met back at the control. 4:47

7->8: Our "pack" is now a trio - me, Sam, and Sharon. We trail hop over to the leg with some sketchy map contact, and then go clockwise around to find it with no trouble. We seem to have caught some folks, but perhaps these are slow "Lite"rs? 14:34

8->9: Followed Sharon N through the green, but a dogleg back to the trail was probably better. Otherwise fine. 3:03

9->10: Crowd dispersing again and our pack reforms; three of us together into #10. 8:37

10->11: Group disagrees about where to depart trail E of #16, but we reconvene near the circle so I guess it didn't matter. 14:51

11->12: First real "route choice" discussion as Sharon and I prevail so we all take the trail to the south. 5:13

12->13: More or less straight to it. 3:49

13->14: Halfway through the checkpoints in 1:38. Shirt is secure if we can avoid big errors, but more importantly it's time to head back and choose the skip. 22 looks tempting but it's a sucker play. [Splits analysis shows that I am right, but that I am the sucker; it was best.] Sam wants 16; I like 18; Sharon is undecided. We are all tired climbing the hill to the saddle on the way to 14 so we delay the decision. Down the reentrant, the hill to the right of the control is quite visible so this one is navigationally easy. 7:55

14->15: Comfortably in as we debate the choice of skip, choosing 18. WinSplits says we lost 49 seconds; surprised it's that much. 5:04

15->16: North across the trail and in; at the time, it seemed like a long way in, but looking back at the map, it makes sense. We were tentative, though. Lost 1:13, again that feels high, but... 5:55

16->17: We got dispersed again as we took different breaks at the water stop, but we came through it clean and "met" at the control. 4:21

17->19: Trail NE to main trail E. Just after it passed the green, we decided to "hop" one trail S and we took that one to its bend, 200m west of control, I attacked directly (a bit over the hill) but Sharon said that she was going around. I should have listened; she was in and out before I got there. 11:54

19->20: East up the hill, hitting the fence at the corner right on the line, through the start/finish zone and then in without much trouble. 6:09

20->21: Trying to stay right of the string, I bonked a bit both mentally and physically. Sharon and Sam began to open up some space and I zoned out for what felt like a real long time. (Obviously it wasn't all that long given the split.) As we approached, I started reading the topography a bit better and then noticed the flag as they were heading past it to the right. (To be fair, I think Sharon had just realized her error as I called out.) 4:07

21->22: It's now the homestretch and we trail hop west until we hit the trail just S of the control, Somehow I spot Ken Walker ahead of us on the trail (shouldn't he be done by now) running past where I think the flag is. And the flag IS there as Sharon and I see it at the same time. 6:16

22->23: Back the way we came, hopping trails as we approach the "band of saplings". Barb Bryant just ahead of us heading in at what looks like the right spot and is. Ken comes in just as we punch. 3:43

23->24: Southwest as Ken pulls away, but seems to miss it right. Sharon heads straight in to the green, but I try to go around a bit (hoping futilely for a break in the green) and she beats me to the control. 3:15

24->F: Could I catch Sharon in these 50 yards? Is it appropriate to do so? In the time it takes to decide, the decision is removed from my purview. 0:13

All in all, one of my better Billygoats and it is always fun to run with and learn from Sharon.

Billygoat - Splits

Hauling (and felling) brush at my mom's...

Oh Mama. A deceptive course as it looks flat, but the little bumps are steep. I was trying to take it easy as I was skipping regular class so I didn't strain anything before the Billygoat, but I pushed it a bit at the end, trying to catch the Y leader - missed by 25 seconds, though.

It took me until today to understand why these easier courses are tougher than expected. They look flat, but of course the x-axis is at a whole different scale!

Tough (and a bit long) today. [The long being noted more in how it made me later for work than for the effort it required. It's a "tight window" between class and work.]

Random @ 15

Just the body weight stuff.

Same machine as Friday, but now it's working again.

Three singles matches vs. Brian. Played them perfectly: 21-13, 21-15, 21-14. Just enough to keep Brian from getting too mad and upset without giving up more.

Having completed a course in less than 30 minutes, it was time to knock off the 30-minute proving ground "course". So half an hour of dragon hunting got me 74,028 points and only one "swim". Too bad, 75,000 sounds like such a nice goal.

Falcon Flight. Y's best was 29:55 so I shot for that - and obviously made it. Second best was 35:xx, so you know the competition is "thin" in Olean.

Line-O as part of annual BFLO club meeting at Emery Park. Would have been noticeably faster, but at about the halfway mark I felt a thorn in my shoe. After 100m it felt worse so I stopped and took off the shoe. In the end, I found a roofing nail in my sole with the point coming through into the shoe box. Running was much nicer after that.

With about 100m to go and the finish clearly in sight I was concerned that I had found only ten of the eleven ribbons. I started jogging in, wondering how much of the loop I would need to do (a second time) to get the last one when I saw it on a branch only 40m from the finish.

C • Missed 2

Displays stopped, so in the end I "only did" 30m, but I did it in 16 seconds. I guess I was tapering for tomorrow's GRR that I'll miss. :-(

C • We'll miss you too. 2

Cutthroat with Steve B. and Jerry. Heavily discounted again...

Five three-way games and one singles with Steve B. Only the third game was even vaguely competitive as I was down 4-11-2 before winning 15-12-6. Singles was 21-3.

The poorly named "Rough Rider" course. The shortest and flattest that I have done so far. Would have been tops on the board by 88 seconds.

Dragon Hunting. Did learn that every time you go in the water, the penalty increases by 1000 points. I lost 6000 for three swims when I had "bonus speed" and couldn't make a turn.

Accidental warm-up. Thought I was "in session", but an older exerciser fell in the area and I got off to help. Machine had reset before I got back.

Monkey Pass.

Karma must have been with me because despite sore hamstrings, I managed to eke out first place on the leader board (though I still have no account). First time I beat the mysterious J. Reid, however.

C • No account... 3

HEAVILY DISCOUNTED

None of us had played in over a month, but general conditioning counts for a lot as the results show.

First, two "come-from-behind" victories in singles against Jerry, 15-1, 15-1.
Then four cutthroat victories, the closest of which was 15-5-4.
Then singles against Steve B., trailed 0-4, won 21-5.

I did manage a few tough rallies and enough twists that I actually feel it today, but mostly it was a lost 80 minutes.