Training Log Archive: jcampbell

6.10am: Definitely a bit colder 20deg (43degF) compared to yesterday. Feet cold by the end. Cycled the loop, Out West River Dr 19.53, back Kelly Dr 17.25.

Good stretch after cycle.

6.00am: Cycled around the loop at a steady pace. Out 19.03, Back 17.01.

Good stretch after cycle.

2.00pm: Rotterdam, Netherlands: did a cycling tour of the key sights and architecture of Rotterdam with Cor, who I met the day before at Heathers lacrosse game in Amsterdam. A fellow parent of one of heathers team mates. Turns out Cor plays for the Rotterdam Philharmonic orchestra, whose music director is Yannick Nezet-Seguin, the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Well, we had a magnificent several hours exploring the great architecture, drinking coffee, cycling, great conversation and an excellent meal. The perfect introduction to Rotterdam and a new friendship.

C • NIce connection 1

6.05am: Cycled the loop. 53degF. Pushed pretty hard, especially coming back on Kelly Dr. Out 19.05, Back 16.22.

Good stretch after cycle.

10.20am: cycled out to Conshocken coffee shop. A strong head wind plus had to weave slowly around the Aids Walk participants on West River Dr. Good steady pace. 55.48. 5 minute coffee and slice orange and nut cake. Pushed hard on the way back, still seemed like a head wind in places. I guess trail really turns quite a bit. Back:47.17.
Felt good to be out having some exercise, but calf definitely not right to run yet.

Good stretch after cycle.

C • Foam Roller 2

NAOC 2014 - Sprint Race: Arnprior
I grew up in the next village to the Arnprior in Scotland that this town is based after. A big difference. Arnprior is Scotland has speed cameras and if you drive at the 30mph speed limit you will be through the village in less than 30 seconds. With maybe 20 houses at most it would not work for a sprint race.
Anyway, I do not seem to be able to fully kick this stomach bug. That said it was a beautiful day and decided it was all the more important to focus on the race at hand and enjoy Randy Kemp's courses. Off to a strong start in the town and happy with route choices through 6. 6-7: the first leg in the woods lost time as there were quite a number of rootstocks so did not hit the right one to start with. No problems 7-8-9. 9-10: lost time as drifted to the right and 10-11 hesitated a bit. Pushed hard 12,13,14,15 and 16. 16-17: lost some time working out which tree. 18-Finish: Not clear which direction so went right to start with and had to backtrack.
Pulled my calf muscle 3 controls out which is a bummer, but overall happy with result.

Good that Alison had a good sprint race and sprint relay with strong runs from Tori, Erin, Will and Alison.

Sprint - Course 3 - Splits

NAOC Ottawa: Long- Carp Ridge - hidden Meadow Farm
A dreadful nights sleep. Don't know what I ate for dinner that I deserved this. Major diarrhea! Hardly got any sleep and even debated whether to run. Opted for the Coke trick which worked for the race.
11.00am: Slow and steady to 1, 1-2: went too far right and when hit trail a bit uncertain where I was, opted up hill, relocated and then bobbled a bit in clearings. (Lost a good 1-1.5mins). 2-3: a good long leg which executed well. 3-4: ok including pit stop and saw Ernest Linder pass,so had caught 2 mins on him. 4-5 Ernest got away at control so didn't see him.Trail leg with lots of junctions. Ended up at control circle before Ernst. 5-6: Straight line parallel with Ernst. 6-7: Another trail leg, Ernst got ahead a bit. 7-8: Hesitated on the trails. 8-9: the bad leg: looking back I went more NE than NNE which made me hit a different trail and got really confused with trail junctions. Stopped, tried to work it out a couple of times, then took a risk to follow trail. When crossed stream in clearing realized I was further east than thought, but in a better spot. Up hill and nice wood to power lines and straight forward to control. 9-10: just tried to keep running hard.
Turns out my error/hesitation had cost me about 5 mins over Ernst so he got me by 4 mins. Overall happy with run considering my lousy stomach situation.

Long - Course 7B - Splits

11.00am: NAOC 2014 Ottawa,ON: Middle
After yesterday's model realized this was going to be a very technical course with not all features on map and subtle contour differences - 2.5m contours. Important to take bearings even if lost a bit of time doing so.
Ok to 1, slow and steady to 2, ok to 3, lost about 1.5 min on 4, as drifted too far north. The distinct vegetation boundary was more distinct further north as an areal of fir trees, whereas the distinct veg boundary shown was not obvious at all. Surprise as approaching 5 as saw Rick Bressman who started 4 mins ahead of me. 5-6 know to be careful on this leg. Across power line right of way okay and r to stream to follow into control. Got confused as stream seemed to disappear before and when at control initially I thought it was not mine even though I knew I was near. 6-7 another leg to take carefully and check off features along the way which I executed well. Rick was further to my right. Hit control ahead of him. 7-8-9 executed fine - on bearing and reading features. 9-10 had an interesting part crossing two beaver dams. 10-11-12-13-14-15 clean and accurate. 15-16 lost a minute + as got caught at wrong trail! Overall happy with my run, steady, a reasonable pace with minimal mistakes. 6th place and first USA. Downside Ted de St Croix demolished the course in 33 mins!

Middle - Course 7b - Splits

Event: NAOC2014 (North American Champs/Ottawa O-Fest)
 

NAOC - Ottawa, ON: Middle Distance Model Event
2.00pm: walked a number of legs with Carol to try to get a feel for the map. Very technical, 2.5m contours and a lot of stuff not shown on map. Tough to read in places even with magnifier. Tomorrow the aim is to use compass bearings and stay in contact with map.

6.05am: Cycled the loop steady pace, stopped a couple of times to try to photograph A Blood moon - total eclipse of a full moon. First view about 90% covered, then saw fully covered on way back on Kelly Dr, just before it dropped over the horizon. Pretty cool. Out 20.01, Back 18.44.

6.15am: 63 degF and cloudy. Cycled the loop pushing a good pace. Seemed like a head wind most of it both ways! Out 18.56, Back 17.26.

Good stretch after cycle.

7.0m.
: Finally a visit to Tony the chiropractor - much needed.

9.45am: Cool 45 degF but sunny, cycled out to Coffee shop in Conshohocken. Crazy to start was sponsored walks on both West River Dr and Kelly Dr. Went out Kelly and managed to work ones way around them. A decent head wind most of the way. Out 55.55min, coffee stop 10 min, Back 46.44 min. Pushing along at a decent pace on the way back, raised seat at one point and think better drive as a result. Met some cyclist groups doing part of the East Coast Greenway. They are doing it over a 10 year period - seemed a cool idea.

All Day: Philadelphia Independence Dragon Boat Regatta on Schuilkyll River.
So race day had arrived. A damp and drizzly start to the day, luckily not raining when we raced. Turned out nice and sunny in afternoon. First race was at 8.55am. Had a great race, excellent start and just kept going, in the lead from the beginning, but we sagged about 50m out perhaps as well in the lead, but made the A Division okay. Time 2.21. 2nd race wasn't until 2.00pm. Had a hard time lining up at start due to head wind and not best steers person. Not such a good start and despite driving hard, came 5th, (time 2.28), so final race in A Division consolation. Final race 5.00pm: drove hard and came 4th (time 2.24),behind 3 strong teams who practice several times a week and are a lot younger than us. Overall we did fine 12th best boat out of 152 participants in the festival. Not bad for a team where the average age is probably older than 50!

C • Nice 1

6.00pm: Final practice before race day. A good strong practice, though Marylyn as drummer is pretty painful as she is pretty clueless.

Alison arrived home - great to see her.