Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

Labor day Hi-jinks! went to the WCOC meet at Sessions woods. I heard in the parking lot that Will had run quickly and so I knew that I had to push pretty hard if I wanted to beat his time. I started out pretty well, and felt like I was getting a good flow. Also, before I pulled it off (too tight), my heart rate monitor showed me racing at 183 which I know for me is about what I want for racing effort.

That being said, it wasn't a perfect race, I had an error on 3 where I was coming up and over the hill and got pulled down the wrong reentrant which in retrospect was a mistake I was aware of as I was making it.... as I had to fight my compass when i was trying to follow the hilltop. I guess I was reading the hilltop wrong and I should have stayed on my original line.

Then next section I got moving well again, and didn't make another big error until 7. I was kinda rushed leaving control 6, and still felt a bit rushed as I left the trail at the base of the hill going over to the spur. I thought I was reading the slope of the hill well but I was too far right (downhill) and then overshot by quite a lot. Hit the trail and came back to the control from the bottom of the hill. This mistake seems to be a variant of the mistake I made at the end of the Long Quali at WOC.... let's call it "coming along a slope in a low visibility area without a good enough plan".... I think to avoid this problem I need to be able to a) recognize this kind of control when I'm racing and b) be sure to find a point feature to navigate from.

The rest of the course went well, getting tired but pleased to have been so fast even with two mistakes.

Memory Sprint- not sure about the time and distance... will have to go look that up sometime. The course was really taxing mentally. I had trouble right from the beginning as I somehow missed the really big road on the way to the first control. Naturally seeing a really big road when I wasn't expecting anything threw off my groove a little. I was going to go back to the start for another look at the map when I saw Boris searching around too. When I saw that other runners were going past the road and into the woods, I was quickly able to go to the proper hilltop and find the flag. Next couple I thought I was getting the hang of things but then I missed the flag on 4 ( Boris saw me head off in a funny direction, but I think I must have gone right past the rocks... spent a few minutes back and forth on the hillside before finding the flag). On 7 I memorized the wrong control location, thinking it was the hilltop and not the spur below the hilltop... so I had to come back to 6 for another look at the map... I was so close the first time. Marie had caught up to me by then, and I spent the rest of the race trying to get ahead of her.

very fun, but hard to know how much to memorize and how "solidly" it had to be in my mind so that I wouldn't get lost.

Afterwards hung out with fun people, ice cream, mini-golf (a good effort by me overshadowed by Sam's superior skills and a poor showing of rock-paper-scissors with Mike landing me in 3rd place), dinner, dessert, and ribald conversation. Also lost spades to the BorKat but we performed valiantly :)

vindmølle = windmill (I'm truly a sucker for mini-golf :) ) we discovered that there is a pro-tour for mini-golf and that they are crazy people

Red Course - Splits

Orienteering Training with the Saeger Clan down at the Blue Hills. Jeff planned for us to do three loops from an old relay. We ran on old reject maps which were just fine for training purposes. all these distances I have measured by FR305.

The first loop was the longest and I made it even longer by mistaking a printing error for a distant finish circle. I was "finishing" my course just as Sam and Hilly came cruising through. They were surprised/confused that I chose to stop and then told me that all the courses are supposed to start and end in the field. Oh well, the extra running is good training.

Not perfectly clean orienteering but actually pretty good. Running in the blue hills is a rough awakening - for me and my poor inov8s - after a summer in the open forests of Hungary!

C • FR305 3

Next loop was an old Red course, still pushing quite hard but some mistakes as well. It was quite fun to pass the same people over and over and over around the pond. I guess we looked quite ridiculous or very hard-core running so many laps in the area.

My last map had a remote start and finish area - on the other side of the pond - and again as I headed out that way I came across Sam and Hill finishing a loop. They took the same lower route below the pavilion to get to the marsh trail which was slower ( I told them so, and then tried to prove it by running at their pace and beating them by staying higher and closer to the line). I think when you are used to running a route a certain way you never think that there might be a faster way to go.

The last map was a green course and I didn't have too many problems with the orienteering. I was starting to get tired as I finished my last loop around the pond. But very pleased to get so much orienteering in.

C • Remote start and finish 2

In the evening, we drove out to Greenfield to celebrate Jeff and Judy's 34th wedding anniversary. Dinner with the family was great. Fettuccine carbonara won out over gnocchi this time which brings me to the word of the day, one that I fully expect to be plenty useful in future conversations... because what can't be improved with...

bacon = which is spelled the same in norwegian as in English... maybe not pronounced the same though. I haven't worked my way up to that yet. Though my dad sent me this link which contains some audio that is downloadable to ipod.

biking around. to work, then over to the MIT lab for blood samples and back, then over to the Harvard Track and then home. lots of little trips.

CSU was doing a mile time trial tonight, so I went over to the track to join in. Brendan was the only other one around at 7, and we didn't know if others were going to show up so we warmed up and started running. after 800 meters with some pickups thrown in every alternating 100 meters, we got down to business. Brendan started out and then I waited 30 seconds and set chase. I was kinda hoping to run 4:40 but I am happy with the 4:54 that I ran considering. my first 400 was 68 seconds, and then the rest were more like 75 seconds. Weather conditions were ideal but my legs were kind of tight, especially the quads.

Alex and Lori and Ian did arrive and after Alex got a warmup in I ran a second mile trying to rabbit for her. She wanted to run 6 minutes and we came in pretty close. I didn't have a watch to time it ( I had lent her mine) and so my pacing was kind of horrific, but it was a good cool down.

but then we played around with Presto, trying to get him tired out. Sprinting around the track and then back and forth along the infield. That dog is wicked fast.

Also of note, two college freshmen came up to our group asking if we were the track club they were hoping to meet. We said no, and then fell over ourselves trying to recruit them for orienteering :) not sure we were successful

kanin= rabbit

(two meanings, one with me trying to run a 6 minute pace and the other was what presto wanted to go chase after we got him all tired out)

C • Kanin 1

C • WCOC Sessions Woods 3

running to work. wondering if running with a backpack is good, bad, or neutral training. It certainly feels harder. Added a lap of the reservoir and was thinking that I would rather spend the day running in the sun than continue on into work :)

Running home after work, with a stop for groceries. I hope that I can keep motivated about running even when it gets dark and cold out.

Ryggsekk = backpack

Biking to work and then from work up to Alewife to go bowling with CSU at Lanes and Games. The CSU planning meeting was fun, with a lot of enthusiasm for more trainings. If anyone isn't getting the training emails and wants them, just let me know. Afterward we went bowling. My team, "Married Couples" came in second place behind team "Slovenly Dressed". I had a poor showing with the lowest score by far. But I still had more fun than Ian who had high expectations and a scowl at least for the first game :)

Alex and Ed gave me a ride home, which was very nice.

Pia didn't know how to translate gutterball into a scandinavian language so instead we'll use:

bowlingbane = bowling alley

C • Translation 4

Biking to and from work. After work I helped a friend move from Cambridge to Brookline, which was decently hard work, as her new apartment is on the 4th floor of the building. I was amazed at how tightly knit the chinese scientific community is. At one point as we were moving in, a set of 8 extra people showed up and started carrying stuff around. Many hands make light work.

also, my journal club presentation got postponed indefinitely, which makes me wish that I had spent less time working on it at home.

trapp=staircase

Got a bit of a late start because I got wrapped up trying to prepare a journal club presentation for Tuesday lab meeting. Added a lap of the reservoir anyway, because I wasn't feeling very generous towards work and thusly didn't feel the need to cut my run short just to get in "on time". Plus I never seem to leave "on time". Journal club is one of the reasons I know that I'm not really meant for a long-term job in academic research science.... it shouldn't take me so long to prepare for these things.

Running along the water is really nice, maybe it's the smell of the water or something calming about how the waves lap against the shore...

Getting home after work. Stopped at the store for supplies. Sam made a really awesome salad ( I think I liked it more than she did) with wheat berries and goat cheese and tomatoes. Apart from needing to prepare the wheat kernels for 10 hours beforehand the recipe was great.

opptatt = busy