Training Log Archive: dlevine

Got to the pool having slept poorly and started swimming, but my tummy kept telling me to stop. After not too long, I listened to it...

Random @ 18

Finished my mileage for the Ironman challenge. Now it's on to the run stage. I have forty days to make 26.2 miles. How ever will I do it?

Phil and I decided to do a "biathalon" workout. First half was in the (university) pool. Pool was cold and clear and my stroke count/pool end judgment was off and I had some really weak turns, particularly at the deep end, but I felt okay overall. Also stopped briefly in the middle because Phil did and I thought he was in distress. (It was only a goggle "emergency".)

Random @ 18

Surprising how much the swim took out of me. I was moving at only about 90% of speed for much of the first half. Eventually I got up to speed, but I was definitely more tired than usual at the end. Still, a fun experiment.

From staging area out to Emery Road and back, checking out the fields (very wet) on the way.

BFLO Emery Park Sprint

Start -> 1: Right off in the direction of everyone else. :36
1 -> 2: Passing Fred on the way; saw the flag right away. 1:37
2 -> 3: Right to the shelter, but I only saw one boulder. Got confused and paused before moving forward and seeing the other boulder in a hollow. 1:23
3 -> 4: Disc golf path to road and down, dodging paving vehicles. 1:48
4 -> 5: Again dodging the paving vehicle. 1:24
5 -> 6: Slow up hill. Couldn't run as much as I should have. Also got distracted momentarily by a score-O flag (#1). 3:44
6 -> 7: Didn't bother to use the compass and ran straight towards it. Turned out not to matter as I saw the clearing to my right and the reentrant and spiked it. 1:31
7 -> 8: Back to road to culvert and then straight through the woods. 2:12
8 -> Finish: Right it, dodging puddles. 1:09

Ran hard enough that late in the race, I was thinking, "I'll have to run slower in the score-O. Ankle felt good.

Emery Park 90-minute score-O

Pre-race: Decided to go out towards #23 and proceed clockwise. The advantage of this was that it would leave the lowest scoring group to the end so I could cut whatever ones I wanted out and would also make #1 a natural "re-entry" to the staging area. I actually thought that I should be able to get them all, but thought that either my ankle might act up or I might be misinterpreting the course.

Start -> 5: Big crowd, almost the same leg as Sprint #1. Second to control. 1:18

5 -> 4: Quick as possible to mowed lawn, cross road, disc golf path to control. 1:42

4 -> 14: Out of streambed towards road. The one guy in front of me was veering right, obviously on a different plan. I thought about it and realized that the leg between 15 and 14 would be the longest (avoidable) dead run of the course. Changed plan to start at 14 and go counter-clockwise. Veered right at the 18th disc golf tee and only had a small problem in the wet field. 2:40

14 -> 8: Very short leg on which I lost a bit of time as the flag was "in" the vegetation and a bit low. :49

8 -> 23: SE to road junction, up road to avoid stream; overshot a bit before turning in, but could see the flag almost immediately after entering the woods. 2:13

23 -> 7: Contour across the slopes, then down the steep stream bank. Was able to see the flag from above (S side of stream bank). 2:30

7 -> 13: Out to road, paving vehicles no longer in site. Saw someone coming up towards #7, but then he turned off (towards #12?) before we passed. Almost overshot, but turned in at just the right point, 2:07

13 -> 12: Debated taking the road, but figured that the woods were open enough. Down several disc golf fairways, right to it. 2:22

12 -> 2: Up to road, but couldn't really find the trail to #2. Eventually found a "clearer set of woods". As I approached, I saw Mike Lyons come in from my right. He looked confused, and I was bummed because I knew that I was "showing" him the trail. 1:48

2 -> 6: Road to junction, then right it. LOTS of folks in the area, including Doug Kennedy. I saw two of them punch before I got there. 1:11

6 -> 1: Out to road to hill I hated on the sprint. The good news is that I'd been here before. 2:26

1 -> 11: Back to road, saw a pair on the trail above the site. Ran right past and spotted the flag and then saw Stina Bridgeman coming in from the left. Said "hi" as we punched. 1:45

11 -> 22: The conversation with Stina flustered me (apparently) as I veered left and ended up having to make a major correction. Again, saw someone else coming out as I went in. 2:26

22 -> 20: Up the hill, using the steep bank as a reentrant. Passed the gentleman I'd seen leaving #22 and almost caught another guy. 2:27

20 -> 21: Had to figure out how to cross the ravine, but the guy in front of me was most of the way down, so I figured he had a good way. I went NE to follow him and crossed the stream. Went up onto the spur on the other side, but he seemed to think he was near the correct reentrant. I could see the field and knew that we were one reentrant north. Veered right to the flag. 3:30

21 -> 19: Just run along the ridge. Saw a couple of folks coming from #19 who were looking one reentrant too soon (from their perspective). Beautiful running. 3:20

19 -> 3: Down and up. Spiked it. 1:15

3 -> 24: This is the field that I always hate. I debated to take the road and cut directly in. Decided to go through the field. There was an unofficial truck path that seemed to be going okay, but then veered off. I decided to head straight to the control, but the vegetation was high and i misjudged the distance, so lost time. 5:25

24 -> 18: Started down a "herd path" that ended up taking me to the clearing by the road. Across Emery Road through field and up to the road. Cut in at the clearing and followed the stream up, but this was a mistake because there was so much "slash" on the ground. Did see Mike Lyons going the other way. 6:43

18 -> 10: Out to road. Saw Tom Rycroft (sp?) who asked what the time was as he hadn't started his watch at the start. Around shelter to bridge to control. 1:49

10 -> 17: Downhill towards it. Saw it early, but once again the footing was bad due to downed trees. 1:04

17 -> 16: A good bit east to go around on the road. Heading up the road, I saw Stina crossing it on her way out of the control. Didn't say hi this time. 4:58

16 -> 15: Swung south and came in from SW to control. Starting to rain, now... 3:10

15 -> 9: Dirt road to park road to field and a direct approach from the SE. 1:57

9 -> Finish: Out to road to park entrance at Emery Road, now realizing that I should have left #4 and #5 to the end as I am about to run right by them again. Crossed and veered left towards house (not mapped as OB) and was surprised to find a (tied up) dog in the back yard who clearly did not want me taking that route. Veered wide and ended up coming in from the other side of the tennis courts. Kept running a bit, but could see that no one else was in sight of the finish so I didn't push it too much. 4:23

My time is off my watch, but the overall times seem to be about two minutes higher. Came in about 90 seconds behind Tom and about five minutes behind Mike in third place. A decent number of people got at least 335 out of 350 points. The score-O would have been much more interesting with a 60-minute time limit. So it goes.

Payne

15-3 (tied at 3)
15-5 (trailed 4-5)
11-1 (trailed 0-1)

Not even as exciting as the score makes it look. (He'd run too far yesterday and my serve was on.)

Pool was so warm that it started to feel like I was swimming through syrup. I pushed, though, and am happy with my time.

Yet another new instructor... Each new instructor seems to make the class easier and shorter... This is NOT a good trend. (It even gets me to work earlier...)

Random @15

Short workout on the stairmaster because I arrived late and the bikes were full. Short because I was trying to get back in sync with Phil.

Just before starting the last set, the fire drill went off. Not a long delay, but it was already going to make me late so I think I came up with my most unusual excuse for cutting a workout short (by a trivial amount).

Random @ 18

Three laps of the Allegany River Trail with a boost to round up the mileage (for the Ironman challenge). I was alone so I was worried that I would "slack off", but I kept a respectable pace until the last 0.5 mile that I used as a minimal cool down.

Random @ 18

Event: Niagara Falls Sprints
 

BFLO - Niagara Falls Sprint

Afternoon pass through to turn on e-punch units/vet course/PR/etc. before competition starts. Ran only a bit as my ankle was VERY ginger.

GLOF O-Cross 3

My ankle was very sore and I just wanted to make it through what I thought would be a fun course. Out of the start, I veered off to the right too much near #1 and fell to the back of the pack. Did fine navigating to #2, but I couldn't find the flag. I saw the flag in the depression which was clearly for a "different fork" and wandered on the hillside as I watched other folks punch it. Eventually, I couldn't make sense of anything and went to see it only to discover it was mine. Yes, it was on the north side of a small hill, but as with Saturday, I would have clued it differently. (The lesson is that I am not the course setter and there is more than one way to do things. Duh!) Up the hill trailing a bunch of folks - but not everyone as I had left a few guys on the hillside above #2. Clean through #5. I took a decent path through the green to #6, but then took the trail around the ravine to #7 because my ankle hurt too much. Nice idea, but this detour was TOO long. Caught Stina at #7 as she came in from a different fork. I tried to cut straight to #8, but saw that she was passing me on the trail, so cut down.

Second loop was slow and painful. Awkward to #9, but clean. Fine the rest of the way although I suffered greatly climbing in to #11 and #12. Had no wind to go to #13 and fell behind several folks. Clean to #14, but again had no wind climbing to #15. Just wanted to finish and was happy that the third map had only 800 meters. Followed the elephant trail to #17 and then took a path to #18 that curved slightly north of the line. Vaguely enjoyed the last down and up to the GO control. Ankle problems best evidenced by a 28 second finish chute split. Yuck!

Given the ankle (bad), an acceptable run. I'll be walking the "vetter's run" of the Goat Island sprint on Tuesday, though.

GLOF Long

The effective end of my weekend. I made a dubious route choice out of #1 and then executed it poorly. To add injury to insult, I then stepped into an unmapped hole and sprained my ankle badly enough that I debated stopping the race. (Hammer says that I should now start an Attackpoint thread about unmapped holes, but I'm worried about the bandwidth implications.) I hoped that I could work it out and tried to make it to #1. In keeping with the theme for the day, I was slow, but effective. The rest of the race was cleanish, but slow. Winsplits says that I lost 5:40 total with over 5 minutes of that coming on leg 1, but it also says that my overall leg score was down quite a bit from yesterday, so the ankle problem was real. (Swelling and bruising Monday and Tuesday back this up.)

Nice course; neutral run since it was the best I could do under adverse circumstances.

Long 6 - Splits

Event: 2010 Golden Leaf Orienteering Fest
 

Got to the GLOF site with little time to spare (wrong line at Canadian customs cost me over twenty minutes!) but I knew that I have had trouble getting up to speed quickly so I wanted to run hard for a bit before the sprint.

GLOF Sprint race

Fine to #1, but went back to the trail for #2 when I should have crashed down the hill to the bridge. Then, leaving #3, the field was so enticing that I didn't see the way around (90 degree departure) that would have saved a bunch of climb. In my defense, no one I spoke to saw this during the race. Overshot #5 by a bit but saw my error. Went West out of #7and down to the stream. It had looked runnable when I crossed it from #3 to #4, but wasn't so much so where I was. Once I hit the main stream, I was fine, but sucking wind on the hills. Clean through the spectator area, but I missed the exit option on the trail to the right and went straight at #11 which was further than I expected. Then clean through #14. Attacked #15 from behind the cabins and was surprised to find the control at the bottom of the streambed as my quick reading of the map had put it one contour up. So, down and up one last time before finishing.

4th of 9 in my age group (top US - I NEVER get to say that), and 16th of 33 on the course. A good, not great run, so I'm happy with that.

Winsplits says that I lost on 34 seconds (on #8) so I have to be happy with that, too.

GLOF Middle 6

A bit rough to #1, but right on. Crossed the stream a bit too soon on the way to #2, but I recovered reasonably. Sucked wind up to #3, but it turned out okay. Tried to contour to #4 and came in WAY north of the control and spent what seemed like a long time working my way south to the flag. Clean to #5 and then took the high road to #6. Coming down, I couldn't find it and wandered around long enough to be caught by Stina Bridgeman. We sort of triangulated on it together and I took off to #7. I went through the circle just right of the flag thinking that I had crossed the saddle. Stina came in behind me, punched and left. I relocated off the swamp and then the fence corner and found the control in what I would have called a gully more than a saddle. (Lesson NOT learned by Monday). Through the woods/swamp to the Northbound trail heading to #8. Once I hit the main trail, I was clean the rest of the way in, including seeing #10 from a great distance. #12 screwed me up momentarily as I saw the feature and the radio transmitter. I thought the control was stolen until I touched the transmitter and saw the flag hidden behind the tree while looking for a manual punch. Those rocks were slow, too.

Not a very good run, though I had recovered to beat Stina (who apparently blew #8). I made large mistakes at three controls in the first half of the course (Winsplits says over 7 minutes) and I was very frustrated. Nothing like the morning, but it was a great course and a beautiful day.

Sprint 4 - Splits

Middle 6 - Splits

Payne - Never could get the rhythm of the game; in any of the three rounds

7-15 - really never got it
15-7 - he was off at the beginning (I led 11-1) but I wasn't really on
11-6 - Okay, it was 6-5 and I finally found some ability, but it was mostly serves

Warmish pool...

"Comedic" class as the instructor has laryngitis and had to "mime" the moves unless someone nearby would "echo" them for him. As the class went on, the nearby folks realized the potential and stopped being so cooperative. All in good spirits.

Random @ 18, but the bike was the one that skips. (They moved it on me!)

Warm pool and kinks from Sunday. (Not enough warmth to help with the kinks, though.)

Event: Hudson Highlander
 

Hudson Highlander 15

Start -> 1: Followed the pack. I'm continuing to have trouble "getting up to speed" in my workouts, but I didn't want to put lots of effort into warming up given how long I expected to be out. 17:02

1 -> 2: There is a small train still heading to #2, but the navigation is easy. 6:17.

2 -> 3: Just Sam Levitin, me, and Zach and Dan Barker moving down the hill. 3:33

3 -> 4: All four of us together to the unmapped trail. For some unfathomable reason, I thought we were NE of our actual location and decided to follow it for a while. Even more unbelievably, Sam followed me. Zach and Dan disappeared. When we finally turned off it, Sam and I decided to visit each stand of laurel in this section, getting totally lost. Moving very slowly and randomly, we eventually came out to see the last runners heading up a ridge. One of them explained that they were on their way to #6 and Sam and I began the "jog of shame" as we ran against traffic all the way back to #4. Splits analysis says that we lost sixteen minutes here. I was also the last Highlander to punch there. Great, four controls in and I'm already in last place. 28:45

4 -> 5: Sam and I join Sharon on the way to #5. Fortunately, we've been over most of it already. 2:24

5 -> 6: Up the ridge, past the swamp, Sam even double-checks the code on #9. I veered off right and lost Sam and Sharon and found the cliff system just off the 8->9 line, relocated and went in. Saw them leaving. 17:19

6 -> 7: Tried to catch them, saw Eric Smith and Paul Beckwith near the flag. Beat them all to the flag by a moment. 3:25.

7 -> 8: Train down the hill, but through a bit too much green to be fast. 3:25

8 -> 9: I went left of both swamps on an old (unmapped) road. Did well until I missed it right and went into the green with a bunch of (Lowlander) cadets and Eric/Paul. Realized that the flag had been in white woods before, relocated and got it. 12:43

9 -> 10: Down to the road, passed by cadets. Could see Sam and Sharon ahead. The three of us attacked semi-cooperatively and got it at about the same time. 7:05

10 -> 11: Followed Sam out, but Sharon was slower. Got to the map exchange and realized that Sam was waiting for her. Figured I'd go on ahead and they would catch me. 5:49

11 -> 12: Down the trail I could periodically see a pair in front of me. At the "V" (21:54), I caught Francis Hogle and Bob Bullions. Walked up the hill with them, but slowly opened up a gap after cresting the climb. Saw numerous other groups coming back to #13. Heard Zach say to his father, "You're not seeing the trail I'm talking about." Also saw the NEOC rogainers (Barb Bryant, David Yee, and Adam Rudner), as well as Susie DeWitt and Craig Webber. 58:49

12 -> 13: Back down the red-dot trail, remembering Zach's comment. I took the red-dot trail down the spur to the white-cross trail to the flag. Splits analysis says I lost half a minute here, but that could be route choice and could be eating at the aid station. 21:07

13 -> 14: Contour, climbing slightly and approach from above. 4:30

14 -> 15: SW to trail, around and down. When I hit the road, I saw the NEOC group being hesitant as they went in. I joined them and beat them slightly to the control. 12:10

15 -> 16: Hurried out of there hoping to put some distance on them, but ran right by the control into the green woods. By the time I figured out my error, they were gone. 4:33

16 -> 17: Poor choice of exit sent me due north to the road only to decide to double back and do part of the trail run again. Followed trail up past power lines and cut in. Saw cliff system with the yellow and cut around. Caught both NEOC group and the two Russians. Drank heavily while thinking about the King of the Mountain. 16:56

17 -> 18: Considered redoing the trail run, but I had hated that climb and even after I made it to #12 again, there would be climb to do, so I decided to go right of the line, hoping to find the "white corridor". Headed out and realized that the NEOC group was doing the same thing, but was higher on the hill than me. We met at the white corridor and were together the rest of the way. We hit the trail and Barb decided (for all of us) that we would go up the reentrant and cut over to the summit. We slogged up the climb (but it WAS better to do it all at once, passed the shelter by the bare rock and came out on top. I drifted left a bit, but we all found the control with little trouble. 28:43

18 -> 19: Barb decided that going down the spur first was the right idea, but I liked the direct approach. I went down the hill to the east, saw the swamp, cut over to the control. As I was punching, I saw them coming down the hill and I waved, hoping that I looked helpful rather than gloating. 6:07

19 -> 20: Went east to the stream and then proceeded to get lost in the cabins spending WAY too much time befuddled before crossing the power lines at the junction. Turned in and worked my way towards the control, slowing down to explore the reentrant just south of the correct one. Saw a flag on a man-made object (right under the control circle) but heard voices and saw the NEOC crew leaving the correct site going down to the road. Good karmic payback. 23:08

20 -> 21: Decided to go more or less straight at it. Was rewarded by finding #22 (whose code I recognized). I made a mental snapshot of the area and continued until I saw the water tower and contoured around to the road and down to the flag. The NEOC crew was just coming in from below as I punched. 7:49

21 -> 22: Down to the map exchange for a quick snack of bananas and gatorade before heading right back out. The NEOC crew looked like they were determined to take advantage of the break for a bit. Road to control at trail junction and then in to the site I expected. 12:22

22 -> 23: Back past #20, through the cabins, including the long driveway that starts at the tennis courts. Caught Zach and Dan Barker at the driveway. Slogged with them towards #23. Dan seemed very tired and Zach had stores of energy that I could only envy. Alone, I might have pulled up early, but Zach led us in even as Brian Sutherland wandered in the circle. 26:29

23 -> 24: Downstream to the trail, I started to focus on #25 and spent too long on the trail. Realized the swamp was staring me in the face and I cut in and up the hill where the Barkers were pleasantly contouring. Crossed a deer path by the swamp and climbed in a good bit behind them. 10:01

24 -> 25: Cut low to the deer path and made it to the road slightly ahead of the Barkers and Brian. Foolishly climbed the gnarly power lines (Brian went around more easily in less time) and headed down the road. When I saw the yellow area, I cut in and over the spur. Found the flag first among the four of us and waved Brian over. Nice communal drinks. 18:05

25 -> 26: Others cut up, but I decided to just contour. As I was coming around, both Brian and Zach were running down to the power lines. Thinking they saw the flag, I veered off, but no luck. Dan came in "last" walking right to the flag. 8:41

26 -> 27: Due north on road past cabins to paved road. At the power line junction cut in (as did the Barkers) while Brian ran ahead on a longer, but more road-oriented route choice. Climbed the ridge, but made a parallel error and came out to the west of the control. The Barkers were having trouble, too. Dan seemed really tired, but we all saw the cliffs past the control and figured out what was going on. 17:59

27 -> 28: Down to the road and past the stone wall up the reentrant. Realized that I really needed to be left of that big reentrant and climbed its shoulder. Was rewarded by seeing Susie and Craig at the flag. Waited for the Barkers, though. 6:33

28 -> 29: Down the hill trying to use as much white as possible. Tried to skirt the first swamp to the right, but hit a lot of that dark green at the power line. Did skirt the second swamp to the left and could see the flag from about 200m. Also saw Susie and Craig moving from 29 to 30 across my field of vision. Damn they made up a lot of time there! (Turns out that I was wrong; they were headed as I thought, but hadn't been to 29 yet.)
Went in and waited again. 12:37

29 -> 30: Heading out slowly, across the power lines to the trail just west of the road. As I hit the road, I see that Zach is now running full out and is going to finish strong and that (presumably) Dan has said he is fine on his own. I run to the clearing, past the cabin on the low side and to the flag just ahead of Zach. 6:50

30 -> Finish: Let's see. It's me versus a 16-year old on a race of 250 m. The only way this turns out good for me is if the clock goes back five years and I run fast enough to beat an 11-year old. Not going to happen, so I dial it back. 3:22

All in all, a good, not great race after a monumental gaffe at the beginning. If I could go out faster, I could have stayed with some of the folks in the 6-6.5 hour group, but that's something to work on for next year. The good news is that this is a 50-minute improvement over last year. Also, as I write this 48 hours later, the stiffness is already abating.

Highlander - Splits

Was planning to ride the bike for a bit before my match with Phil. A student I've never met saw the racquet I was setting down and asked if I played (duh!) and if I would be interested in a quick game. I said sure and we went over to the court. He was good to go before even a warm-up swing and offered me the serve, so I agreed. My first serve was an ace and he was impressed. He was faster and more powerful than me, but I was both lucky and able to keep him off guard with finesse. I won 15-1, but that is SO deceptive. I won no more than 60% of the points, but he put two in a row together only once. We were both dead to the world after the game. I could NOT have beaten him again.

Payne

Neither of us had played in four months (other than my warmup) so it started slowly.

Won 15-7.
No one led by more than 2 until I led 14-11; trailed 14-15; won 17-15.
Won 11-5.