Training Log Archive: bishop22

Event: Western States + Intercollegiate Championships
 

Day 1 of the Western States Champs, south of Tucson, near Kentucky Camp. I took a conservative start, following the dry stream bed about halfway, which helped me get a feel for the contours. Was cautious going over the hilltop to C2, to make sure I was finding the correct reentrant. I had a bit of a miss on C3 - didn't pick out the "scattered trees" boundary very well. C4 was great, but C5 was a big problem - Greg Balter was catching me on the short trail halfway to the control, and he left it to the right of me, but I wasn't sure that we were on the same course, so I sort of ignored him. Too bad, since I blew about 2.5 minutes searching to the left and not being able to make the contours line up. Gabe S came into the control right after me. We were near each other going to C6, but I went right near the bag and he went left, and had to circle around.

The next stretch was slower than it needed to be, since my legs were feeling quite heavy from all the training. Gabe passed me at C7 when I stopped for a drink and I couldn't close the gap when I saw him intermittently on the way to C8. Going to C9, I crossed the power line right on the line, as planned, but then I went left of the line and did too much up and down on the last few spur/reentrant pairs as I kept changing my mind on whether to stay low or not - lost 1.5 minutes according to WinSplits. Power line was also a nice cheat in getting to C10. I got to C11 by going the road until it turned sharply, where I cut across and then stayed left of the scattered trees until the last big reentrant.

Legs remained heavy, but the last 3 controls were pretty much follow the line. Not a bad run, but it looks like I need some additional conditioning, or zero mistakes, to be competitive in M45+ - the competition was much tougher than in M35+ or M40+!

Sprint Race at the Tucson A-Meet. My legs were even more worn out than this morning - imagine that. Went left around the reentrant to get to C1, then went right of the line to hit C2 nicely, then spiked C3 as well. I went to the right of the hilltop on the way to C4, but feet pointed out that I was near the bigger hilltop, not the little one that I meant to aim for. My pace count eventually ran out and I looked to my right, and there was feet punching. He gave me a good line to C5, but then he was gone. I ran just left of the curve in the road on the way to C6, but that meant I was too far right, so the 2 people that I had passed slipped back by me. I passed the woman on the way to C7, but not the guy. We were then back-and-forth the rest of the way (even though he only had one working arm, he was running about my speed) - I was getting the jump on him leaving each control as, by now, I was successfully using Nate's thumb compass to get a quick reading on a departure bearing each time.

Finished 2nd in M45 and about 10th overall, so not a bad result considering the state of my legs. I even managed to beat Samantha, which has been a very rare occurrence.

Various w/up and w/dn stuff

Sprint - Splits

Red 1 - Splits