Training Log Archive: bishop22

BFLO Canal Cities Long at Chestnut Ridge - Red Course

I was hoping for a better performance than the Middle, and started out well enough. C3 I was too far right coming out of the woods, but still had a very nice split, as I ran hard in the open and up the road. C4 was a problem, as I ran nicely through the woods on a rough bearing and hit the stream at a bend for an attack, but I was farther right than I thought and it took me way too long to figure out that I had to run toward the local hilltop in order to find the flag.

Some trouble on C6 (wound up way left when I hit the big clearing), and too slow in the woods heading to C10, but otherwise fairly clean thru C14. I was especially happy with my route choice and effort going to C12. Missed C15 left.

C16 was a disaster. Split says I lost 25:26, but it was even more than that, as I had an opportunity to move quickly, had I kept my wits about me. What all went wrong? Had selected a route that was mostly road, then trail, to get pretty close, pretty quickly. But when I got to the first road, I somehow ended up focusing on C5 instead of C16, so I thought it would be a good idea to hop down to the ravine instead of crossing on the bridge. The ravine I was in bent to the right, so I got nervous and climbed out. Stayed close to the rim for a bit, then started heading east and followed the top of the next, smaller, ravine, crossing it when I had a chance. I was thinking it would turn left and point me towards the control, but I was not on the right one. Ultimately decided to go east until I got to the boundary. That never happened. Instead, I hit the big ravine and I could see the rest room near the start across the way, so I was way left. Tried to angle towards C17 and cut south, but wound up running almost randomly on trails, trying to figure out which ones were mapped. I finally decided that when I hit an E-W trail that I would run east to the boundary, and I did. But the boundary I hit was in the south part of the clearing well S of the control. By then, the wind was long out of the sails...

Just chugged in from there.

Running around to get to the start, after making sure the finish was OK.

Long - Red - Splits

Event: Canal Cities Challenge
 

BFLO Canal Cities - Red Middle at Sprague Brook

No excuse for not being able to go under 10min/km. The terrain was quite open and runnable, the visibility was good and the level of detail was just about right for me to be able to process. But, the Splits say almost 7 min of errors, but that is an underestimate, for sure. Big problems were on 7 and 11. Need the map to help me remember...

BFLO Canal Cities - Course 3 Sprint

We were warned that this was mostly open, so I tried to be ready to "run a 5K race". I was reasonably pleased with the effort when I finished, although I knew I had lost some critical time leaving C7 in the wrong direction - splits say it was a 27-second mistake. Other than that, it was just little things - I could have been under 15, but not by much.

For a while, it looked like the boys would sweep the 3 courses, but in the end, Tom Svobdony got Zach by 3 seconds. The spectating possibilities were great after I ran, so I got to see Luke, Nate and Zach, including Zach's confusion near C10.

Middle Red - Splits

Sprint - Course 3 - Splits

Perhaps a short jog would've been best, but decided to take it easy today.

Giving myself some credit for running around during this morning's junior camp training. I had them do terrain intervals on a 400m course that I streamered (short stretch was on a trail). The bigger kids did 8x400, with 6 and 4 offered for the younger groups.

This training was surprisingly well-received by all, given that we were nearing the end of the long training camp.

Convention Sprint at Webster Park

A friend of mine likes to say that what gets you in trouble is not what you don't know, but rather what you know but ain't so. That was my problem on my "home course" today. Everything was pretty straightforward, but when I crossed the road to get C8, and didn't spot the indistinct trail as I sprinted past, I "knew" it was no problem, because there were easy ways to cut through, even though the map showed the darker shades of green. Turns out that might be true in the fall, but not in early August, as the thorns became truly impassable. A minute, cuts and a couple of detours later, I battled through to the teepee (which I had known was the man-made object).

So, Zach got me by 20 seconds and Eugene by less than that.

Mass Start Training #1 at Webster Park. I don't remember the time and it looks like they are not stored. Finished just behind Jeff Saeger and beat him, since he punched the start farther ahead of me. I could never quite get by him - I kept thinking he'd make an error or hesitate to give me an opening.

Mass Start Training #2. On my own for this one, although I sometimes heard footsteps (can't remember who it was - one of the juniors). Didn't push as hard, mostly because I was worn out from the Sprint and first training.

A Xerox picnic was going on near the tennis courts, so I got some cheering. nate had already come through, and they had thought he looked a lot like me.

Webster TDS #4 Sprint A - Splits

Memory-O as I ran around to pick up the streamers from this morning's junior camp training (each person labeled a streamer and placed it in the woods, then came back and marked it on the map. Then they did a memory-o on other people's streamers. This went well, for the most part.

OUSA Convention Daily Sprint race at Letchworth.

Sloppy going to C1, then small errors for the next few as Tyler got by me. Way left to C7, then finished up as best I could.

This course was "thrown out" because of mis-numbered controls. But at least we only had one course tossed at the convention, so better than the US Champs.

Can't remember the exact time or distance, but I did the Donut-O with Z. A few times he took safer routes while I stayed in the woods. And I didn't actually go to C2 when we could see it across the marsh, but Z went around for it and we met back at C3.

This was an excellent exercise.

Letchworth TDS #3 Sprint A - Splits