Training Log Archive: dlevine

Rabbit Run course - Good ride; easily top 10%, but missed the all-time Y record (which I did not know) by one second! P: 258; C: 55

Quick dash to one control that I set at for the Ellicotville Adventure Run. I had a dream that I misset it, but like most of my dreams, this one (thankfully) didn't come true.

Control Pick-up for the Ellicotville Adventure Race. I hiked the ski hill and walked to the water stop on the Finger Lakes trail. Got the three FLT controls and then four more on my way down (and sometimes up) the ski hill. Even got a ride for a bit over half a mile at the top!

Width @ 10; Random @ 16.

All the regular exercises in all sorts of unusual orders in response to a lot of people behaving outside the norm for our time block.

Evening Bliss course - Good, solid - if short - ride. Top 5%, but the season is only three days old...

P: 262, C: 56

So, a very successful FAIL. The goal was to sneak in early on the first day of fall and post a very fast time so that I could be the fastest in the world on this course. FAIL. Some guy beat me by over 90 seconds - although I am second in the world. Wanted the all-time record at the Y too, which I didn't know in advance; missed that by 2 seconds. ARRRGH! That said...

Lost Trail course; all-time best for power for me. P: 265; C: 59

Well, although I reported as "exercised", some of those one-minute sessions were 70-80 seconds on my watch. I know that Einstein says that time slows down as one approaches relativistic speeds, but I also know that I don't exercise at that rate.

Width 10/Random @ 16

Alpine Splash course. Top 13% overall, missed top 20% in age group by one second. P: 235, C: 56

Dragon Hunting for ten minutes; remarkably inefficient and even took one swim when I was sure that I was slowly hugging the shore line. 22,845 points got me second at the Y. The sad thing is that I put out a weak power of 176, but lost to someone whose power was only 100. P: 176, C: 62.

Somehow, the heart rate was already low at the end of the ride, so it dropped below 100 almost immediately.

First time in a long time - and I felt it.

Rates as a 2 because this morning's workout killed me enough that simple steps were quite tiring. That said, Phil's foot injury prevented him from moving forward so we had to bag after one game: 15-4.

Control Placement for Ellicotville Adventure Run. Nine controls placed from five different parking spots. Spiked seven of them; in one case I saw a broad cairn when looking for a rocky knoll; I knew it was in the wrong place, but got confused anyway. The seventh one had no ribbon however and it took three attacks to convince myself that I was in the right place.

Some of the rides on the map are definitely a bit overgrown while others are clear like hiking trails; it all depends on the activities of the mountain bikers.

Coastal Run course - Top 8% overall, two seconds off of top 10% for age group. Personal best for power. P: 257; C: 58

Bent Spoke course - Top 10% overall, top 13% age group, tops at Y. Good ride. P: 236, C: 57

Vetting for Ellicotteville Adventure Run at Holiday Valley. Checked out ten locations; had a nice leisurely stroll and only one brief encounter with briars. New trails related to bow-hunting(?) made the back side of the ski hill much more pleasant to traverse. One odd map error(?). One site that was supposed to be a root stock had no root stock, but did have an electrical switching station. I suspect that development turned the green X into a black X! Either way, we moved the site about 40 m to another root stock.

Chasing dragons for 15 minutes. Pretty wimpy ride as I had no motivation and no real goal. Scored 35,301 which is not even quite top third. Back to the real courses - albeit in the "Easy" division - for a while. Thirteen rides to go to make the year's goal of having completed every course.

...when you don't ride hard, the heart rate comes down easily... :-(

Fruitdale course

Wanted to break 15 minutes before I started. Saw that the local best was 13:26, but didn't think that was in the cards. Decided to ride as hard as I could for as long as I could, not worrying about a bad "positive split". Paid off. Time was top 8% overall. It was six seconds off the local Y record, but I didn't know that until just now. P: 248; C: 58

City Express - a tougher course than I'd hoped, although the hills are definitely real. Half a mile shorter than last Thursday, but five seconds longer. Did drop a few percentiles, too, but not that many. P: 227, C: 56

That clears the top three categories. On to the easy stuff.

Random @ 16

BFLO Score-O at Camp Schoelkopf

Worked registration and had an entrant show up 90 seconds before the mass start, so I started late, but not as late as I might have as Phil took over for me when he saw I was "behind".

Start->5: Chased Brian Thomas around the lake and into the field. He started in and I passed him halfway as the two of us created a herd path that was undoubtedly appreciated by those who followed us. I know it was an advantage to come later because I was able to go out a lot faster than I came in! 4:28 (my actual elapsed time, 51 seconds faster than recorded split.

5->9: Down trail and in off the corner of the field past the boulder. Came back out the same way; Brian was going in as I came out. 5:58

9->1: Straight to dock. Saw Rainee first head to the camp exit, then turn around and come across lake "at me" 2:13

1->4: Saw Team Orange as I came up the side trail from the parking lot. They beat me to the control when I went the wrong way around the building. 2:59

4->18: Over the bridge, through the field, and up the hill just after the stream. Spiked it. 6:21

18->23: Tried to go straight, but drifted right. Caught myself at the stream, turned left and found it with no problem. 4:03

23->25: Saw three Maritime Marine students coming up from the stream junction. Crossed there, but drifted left and found main creek (okay, the steep hill down to the main creek) as I drifted left. Between the torn down tent platforms and then down and up right to it (NOT a recommended path) 8:39

25->20: More or less straight at it with stream and then field on my right. Saw Mike Lance as I crossed the field; hit trail and took it in. Sloppy running but otherwise fine. 5:18

20->15: Didn't want to dogleg so I headed SW, but drifted too far south and went through pine forest to clearing due E of control. Shape of access road confirmed location and I went right too it. 3:55

15->7: Back to road, down and around to field, then in. A bit sloppy in the field. 4:29

7->12: E through woods to road, nearly taking wrong fork, but somehow saving myself. 2:10

12->14: Fumbled a bit at water stop and took extra time. Spiked control on dead line although split won't show that. 3:10

14->10: Went back up, intending to go high, find trail and go around swamp. Ended up going back down (gratuitous climb) crossing swamp and losing map contact. Slowly re-established contact just N of control and then saw it from above. Very sloppy. 4:54

10->17: Straight to it using stream as handrail. Past Patty Lyons going in the other direction. Figured I might be able to beat her as I was more than halfway done and she hadn't done 1,5,9 at the start so we were even in that respect. 5:05

17->24: Past Steve Lacomy and Henry Davis above the landslide, was tentative, but went down and found it. 5:01

24->22: Crossed stream and saw about seven folks crossing in the other direction. Took field up to road (big mistake; I had already forgotten the lesson from #5). At road, went E a bit, then turned in and spiked it. 4:25

22->19: Paralleled the road until I saw a good path down, then ran road, turning in a bit before the control. Skipped the water this time. 4:11

19->21: Out to road, turned in on trail and lost it as soon as it crossed the stream. Eventually found it again, but was too tired to run up the hill; tried a brisk walk. 6:04

21->16: Trail straight to it. Saw Rainee leaving; she commented that she had spent "too much time" looking for it. 2:52

16->13: Took trail through green, intending to cut through white woods, but they were less passable than the green. Crossed stream in next pine forest, turned E and then crossed the stream when I thought I had gone downhill enough. Saw flag immediately upon recrossing. 4:23

13->2: Intended to go to 11, but had troubles keeping map contact. Eventually reconnected at campsite midway between 13 and 2 and revised plan. Couldn't find trail behind bathrooms and took the other one down and doubled back straight to control. 6:32

2->11: Straight shot. 1:45

11->6: Road all the way; saw unknown orienteer leaving control coming back at me.3:02

6->8: Tried to catch other orienteer, but she turned up hill. Was going to "cut the corner" to the flag, but hit the bend before I saw a good spot. 3:04

8->3: Road all the way. 2:10

3->Finish: Planned to go through woods, but trail was enough nicer that I took it to the road and then ran up and in. 1:56

2nd place (out of 21) behind Lach Yadkov, who beat me officially by two minutes, but who started even later than I did. 3rd place was about twenty minutes back.

Car-based control pickup. Drove S, picked up 24 and 22. Then drove back a bit and picked up 17 and 19, including water stop.

Payne: 15-2, 15-2, 11-3.

Dragon Fire course - Rode pretty hard, managed top 15% overall. P: 225; C: 56

Billy Goat Falls course; tougher than I remembered, but I love that the "Billy Goat" course is one of the ones that uses O-flag symbols for the checkpoints. P: 217; C: 56

Trying unsuccessfully to get the heart rate below 100.