Training Log Archive: wilsmith

Easy jog, feeling waaaayyyy too lazy. Still not feeling quite up to intervals, although they'll have to come soon to fit them in before heading west! Gradually stocking up (or replenishing) on much-needed sleep, though.

Nice hike today for a few hours (unsure of time), but I'll not log it as it was flat and easy and involved a stop for ice cream at one point.

Late night on call last night - feeling slow today. Just a little jog to keep things moving. This week's pre-Trials training calls for some shorter stuff and some speed stuff. Wonder when I'll get the latter in???

Mia's doing great and eating well. But not sleeping the best just yet. Operation "GetMoreSleep" is not yet a complete success, although its spinoff "WilSleepsOnSofa" seems to help once I've been awakened one too many times in the wee, wee hours.... ;-) Katta's doing well, although realizing more and more that she should take daytime naps whenever possible too.

At least a jog after work to move the legs - but feeling pretty heavy still. We'll see about more tonight - last time I feel asleep before the end of the Ducks-Oilers game....

Tough days - feeling super heavy. A bit of stepper at work to move the muscles. Was hoping to do more but forgot about a dinner party - Mia's first night out. No problems....

'Nother rest day - this one simply because I just couldn't muster enough "get up and go" to make it out the door. Probably just as well - burning the candle dangerously short these days....

Rest day - would have been a rest day anyway, even if I wasn't covering in the ER after a night of (nearly) no sleep. Busy day too - didn't even get a chance to eat supper until I stumbled home well after midnight. Sigh....

US Team Trials Day 3 - Long distance at Hawn SP.

Ah, this was the day that was so close to being great. I again felt a bit sick before the start and hadn't slept well the night before, but I wanted to get out there and get the job done.

I had no real illusions about being able to run a top pace today - I knew it would hurt and that I would just have to battle through somehow. In the US Long Champs I faded after about 105 minutes - with this week of illness I wasn't sure how far I'd make it this time around but I'd give it a go.

In the end, it went really, really well except for one control, which went really, really badly.

Bad news first: we were told beforehand that some sections of the map had grown up and were greener than mapped. Well, on the way to number 4, I managed to go though one of these sections and my rough compass was sufficiently sloppy that I missed the target, and ended up on a parallel feature. Looked pretty similar, so I searched around - nothing. Searched the next one up - still nothing. Then looked more closely at the map - couldn't actually decide what it was the circle was supposed to be on - still can't really decide even now sitting still and looking carefully. I hope they upload the maps - if they do check out Blue #4. Anyway, I then decided that I should be looking beside the reentrants that I had already searched. So back again - still nothing. Another look around (it's a little bit thick - maybe I missed it - "it's on some kind of vague nebulous feature, or else my circle is off" was my line of thought) - still nothing. Bail out south and lo and behold, there's the flag hanging high in a kind of bland area. One of those locations that if you hit it directly or get led in you think nothing more about it, but if you miss it, you're a very unhappy camper....

Turns out, after looking at splits, that I lost a remarkable 8 minutes there - can't believe how fast the time flew by! Haven't made a mistake like that since August 2004. I guess there's still a lot of learning to do!

But the good news: made a great recovery from there and except for a little bobble on the next control (again through greener-than-green), took the rest of the race very cleanly. Even better, the pace I ran actually would have put me in amongst the leaders. Was able to maintain a good pace right through - although I did have to force myself to run up the hills in the end - it was starting to get tempting to walk a few steps....

My time was 101:37 - the winner (a crafty Swampfox) ran it in 91:11. Without the 8 minutes of blundering and dashing around on number 4, I figure I would have actually had a decent shot at the title today. Excellent news considering the past week. On a great day, maybe 85 was do-able. Today, 90 was in reach. But I'm satisfied with my 101 as well - a painful mistake (compounded by unusual control location), but I'll fix that for next time, not to worry. And the legs are there - with some rest and a little more sharpening I'll be "fit for fight" on the long distance at trials, too.

C • Belated Congratulations! 7

Warm up and cool down for the above.

Blue - Splits