Training Log Archive: gas_turbine

~5:45, Prior to leaving. J quickly figures out that he's not going to get his usual 1-2 hour Sunday walk, and so he starts misbehaving (i.e. raids that cat's litter box).

With headlamp, it is very apparent that the common area in the neighborhood is a minefield of poop (yuck). Never been like this before - some new owner must not be picking up. Options:
1 - do nothing
2 - put up anonymous sign requesting to pick up
3 - send email to neighborhood list...

J made me pay penance when I got home. Still in O clothes (changed into sweatpants, as it is cooler out), went for walk to Powder mills park. For some reason, J likes to go to the S area (where the last PM O meet started from). Luckily, much of the water is gone, although the roadway in is not really walkable.

And crossing the field at Arrowhead, he breaks into a trot, only for me to find out too late that the intention was to get a deer poop treat. (More penance for me).

Coming out of the park, he took the long way.

The good:
1 - got them all
2 - won 2 splits (one tie), finished second on one
3 - the GPS lines (except #1) are generally straight - beat my usual 1KM course = 1 mi Carl distance (not by much).

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Finished where I deserved to finish given my knowledge level - I need some training in how to interpret the map. Also, as I finish mid-pack at club level (except on non-technical / trail challenge type events), I should be finishing back here. For me, this was a challenge, and a very good thing to learn from.

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The bad:
Killed myself by looking all around the little hillocks on the way to #1, whereas if I knew how to interpret contour lines, I should have realized I should be looking for a hill larger than a house.

I went back to the start TWICE to try to just get a line, rather than look and interpret features (it all looked like complicated bogland to me). Needless to say, 15 minutes later, I'm dead last.

After that, I was very tentative - just took tree to tree with compass. Great method for walking in the park (and a good park and walk it was), not great for a race.

I'm not really in love with the terrain through #7, and it showed - I have 'lost time' on each of the first 5 controls, but only one thereafter.

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After passing under the power line, the terrain changed - more open, better sightlines, more run-fun and not slog bog.

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Overall, pretty fun. ... although I may torture myself with a road race to atone for my performance. You know, a sport where you can turn your brain off...

Flag pick-up

Fun to do this, as you can spike finding controls when you are not under pressure (and the AP is close, of course).

Middle Green Y - Splits

Oooh, sore this morning. How come it is so bad when the average pace was nowhere near my 5K race pace? (or even my normal workout pace). Different kind of running for sure.
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J not to thrilled that he does not get his 2 hour weekend walk!
(nor is he thrilled about the rain).
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Rain makes an interesting twist - as someone new to wearing glasses, I have run into that fogging problem.
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Today's goal: LEARN. I'm not a distance guy, so today is to avoid the 30 minute WTXAI (where the X am I?) controls. And learn the terrain.
Almost a quarter mile of climb today in running shoes. Good fun.
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... time to head out!

C • Good luck 3

The rain had made some areas quite difficult - especially when holding onto a bunch of control stands. Glad that VirtO and turbodog offered to pick one up that was on a path headed their way.

Car came by us twice, and on the third time, stopped and asked how to get out of our neighborhood. ..

That EXACTLY sums up today's O meet.

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Clue sheet holder saga is over. I bought a strap-on one from Berman O store - they were selling out of the back of their car. And it was MUCH cheaper than that football arm playbook thing.
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I win! I get to have the largest amount of pionts added to the Attackpoint metric (time, that is).

I also get to have many learning opportunities. Unfortunately, I was clueless from the get-go. Just not prepared for this terrain, and have real trouble deciphering non-obvious landforms.

Um.... I guess today was my statement that I'm an orange level navigator. Sad part was that my biggest (of many big) error happened where I took a wrong path at an intersection . Just didn't see it. So I was looking for control 4 North of the path I was on, rather than south. 45+ minutes. YOWZA

Not that it was the fault of my eyes, but I may wear my normal glasses tomorrow - can't hurt.

The faster controls were not real. At that point, I was in the wake of a couple of other green runners.

This one knocked me back to 48.4... it took over as one of the 'excluded' scores.

Long Green Y - Splits

Event: 2014 US Nationals
 

Ok, changed my mind. I'll go to work for a while this morning, otherwise, I'll drive E nuts pacing around the house before heading to the sprint race.

Weight is good considering I didn't run off 1 lb this morning.

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Was going to take the whole day off, but then realized I'd just pace around the house all morning. So I went to work for the morning, and was moderately productive.
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Went straight to the event after eating lunch & stretching at work. I don't usually go through that part of town. The West Henrietty / 390 interchange is a nightmare. Glad I don't have to drive through there often. Ended up using google maps for navigation, as the car GPS just would not accept anything near where the golf course was.
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Came home before 5 - picked 3 cukes (probably the last ones), 3 tomatoes, 2 wimpy cantaloupes and a big pile of beans (1 more picking left?). It was 6:15 or so by the time I finished preparing the beans. --- delicious.
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Went to the field N of Edgewood (the main road), as I needed more than the 'playpen' beneath the oaks to warm up in. Legs did not feel like they were moving all that fast. .... But did find a hotel right there with a nice bathroom to utilize....

4th of 9 in 50+, 9th of 81 on course.
I made my stated goal of top half in at least one of the races. Yay, because I'm not very good at forest orienteering.

I give myself a B+, but that half-grade cost me a medal! However, given my AP ranking, I should be no where near there. (Hope this raises my measly "47.0" ranking in AP.... [up to 49.4 - I'll take it])

Heck, I beat Arthurd for the 2nd time ever! - first was at an A-meet way way back in 2009. (gotta pick my glory moments here)

This was really fun. I had never run a sprint like this one- ROC sprints usually have fewer controls, and they like to stick the controls in difficult places, so it is less a case of selecting a route than finding the dang thing. (Ok, I'm still smarting from my Powder Mills debacle).

Very pretty day, warm, windy. Dangerous acorns pelting down from the skies.

I ran a clean course (for me) overall, it could have been much worse.

Took a while to get into the flow. It is so unlike a 5K race, where you know where everyone is and the overall pace. Not until I got on the first bridge did I feel like I started running (the bridge had "slow" [for the bikers] spray painted on it - it shocked me into realizing that this was a race).

1 - intentionally conservative - took the path all the way.

2 - conservative going down to the control under the bridge - took the stairs.
3 - ooh whee - my GPS indicates straight lines! (not very often!)
4 - took advice I read of 'pick a path and go' for sprints. Don't know which bridge was better, but I took the S one (and had to go over two). If only all controls were like this one - nice and long, and easy navigation (5th fastest time across all groups).

5 - picked a path - didn't look at map well enough to realize there was a nice path south of 4 - I went all the way to the break in the fence. Probably cost me 10s, although split analysis does not pick it up.

6 - clean

7 - took path around. Turns out there was a straight shot from the building.

(somewhere before this point I banged my knee into something ... I happened to see a bloody spot at around this point)

8 - took it easier than I should have

9 - swung around N of building and took the trail. Not the fastest choice at all, but conservative, and not a killer.

10 - straightforward, but opted against taking a trail, as I could not find it right away.

11 - Finally get to run again. Ironically, I thought that this leg cost me a lot of time. The split analysis does not show any lost time, but my GPS will show me blowing right by the trail under the bridge - even though I had just been there a couple minutes earlier. I probably did lose 10 seconds here (per GPS), as I was starting to run hard.

.... unfortunately, this thought starts running through my mind, and I start to push too hard (see 13).

12 - conservative, no worries.

killed myself on #13 - typical runner mistake of saying "I'm not pushing hard enough", and not concentrating. Lost 30 seconds per split analysis on that one, which was EASY. .... ironically, I didn't realize how much I had lost until the split analysis. (GPS is closer to 45 seconds loss).

14 - Playing it safe - down the open area to the path, then under the bridge.

15 - back to my cut-through, ... but in a panic, cut through earlier, which was slower. Not great, not terrible.

16 - I'm slowing down in a relative sense on these short ones (all being in the 30's position.

17 - what was that funky little tower?

18 - gotta be around here somewhere. Oops, we are almost done. What? We just started!

19 - ? will have to look at the GPS as to why I lost 6+ seconds there. I don't remember anything offhand. (GPS indicates this is correct - I seemed to be going straight, then veered northwards

20 - finish hard (heck, tied for 6th fastest time on that one). Later on, when finishers came in, some would fall when trying to stop at the L of these controls as the grass had gotten slick.

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Being first to go was interesting (and painful) - I was watching as the results rolled in, first the highs - as I was sitting in first place ... after three runners, I was still in first, and my head started to expand.
.... and then the lows, as first I fall into second (by 8 seconds - I had the lead after 2 'legs' on the monitor, but coughed it up)
... Then another went, who was even faster after 1 leg, but then he was much slower after two (phew).
.... Then TomO went, and he was way ahead after every leg.
.... then another who started fast and faded.
.... Then Bo. He was really far ahead after the first leg. When the time came for the second, I knew I had fallen off the podium, because he was not going to mess up after that.

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Buying the football play holder for my clue sheet was a failure. Time was ticking ticking ticking...
First, I had to take it off to try to shove the clue sheet in, the clues were bigger than the holder... then, it turns out I put it in so the writing was upside down. I ended up using the clues on the map....
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C • Nice effort 4

C • Clue sheet holder 1

Sprint Green - Splits

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conern about a bug coming on yesterday and into last night. Woke this morning without it having become worse - I'm currently blaming allergies for this one. Phew. Still, I have not been sleeping well.
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Had to do Something.

Added 30s at end of 'star plank' someone told me about. Then I thought, "it's stupid to do a brand new exercise right now". So I stopped.

J up early with me, as he needed to go - he skipped his pre-bed pee because the rain was coming down hard. It was not very windy, so it was coming straight down.

The rain did not cause too much leaf loss (yay), but it must have gone by relatively quickly, as there were no puddles this morning, nor did it soften the lawn, which in the last 2 days has gone relatively hard from lack of moisture.

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Going to WornerKohn tonight for 'put bags together for nationals' party. Nothing like 'dessert served' to get me motivated!

I's on the complete opposite side of ROC (NW) metro ara to where I live (NE). Since work is 1/2 way, I'll stay and eat dinner there. Peeled one of my cukes so I'll have some veggies to go with cheese sticks, fruit, bagel (grilled cheese?), etc. Thought about going to a restaurant, but I'm cheap and lazy... We'll see.
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All this talk of planks on arthurd - I just couldn't get myself motivated for them today..

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From meet work party...

Wow, Worner-Kohn is putting so much work into it. As a competitor, you never really think about the scope of details that goes into it. Maps / bags / bins / boxes everywhere - great logistical challenge. All going different places at different times.

I got to operate the 'big' bag sealer, probably made in the 60's, but still it did a great job. .... So a large portion of the big maps were sealed by me, so you know where to complain. I did a bunch of the sprint reds (upside down - could not see anything). Unfortunately, there may be air in the bags, as I could not flatten them perfectly. Each individual map seems OK, but as a stack, there is definitely air trapped in some.

(a hint - if it is at all baggy, bite the corner off your bag so the air escapes when folding... just saying)

What a ROC crew - swimminLindsey/Rick/Linda/'lefty' Dick/ccSteve/Carol/Sandra/Rick(2)/Dayle/Sergei/Anders/'Doctor' Chris .... (may have missed some who were in the other room)
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Did get to check out some 'ice bug' shoes. I may have to buy a pair for this winter, given my increasing propensity to go down hard on ice (4 times last year).

Vendors won't be selling at the parks - the county $1M insurance requirement is too large.

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Bought an improvised clue holder on way to WornerKohn. I figured I wouldn't be able to make my recent method (clear packing tape, duct taped to arm - don't laugh, it worked really well).

So I went and bought an 'arm playbook' that football quarterbacks use. Unfortunately, I have skinny runners arms, so it does not fit perfectly. I'll have to jury rig something with safety pins and/or .... duct tape.
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PM park - Corderoy road.
Dark, and weird because of fog/mist. Only saw one critter (orange eyes). At first, I thought they were reflectors, because they were low to the ground (post height). Eventually, they shifted up a bit, and later I made out the outline of a deer (no surprise there). Later, I heard deer in the marsh to the side, but could not see them - well, I'll assume they were deer, and not psychos.

Didn't push anything (but didn't lollygag either) - a little worn down today, but in a good way. Assisted by odd sleep for last few weeks as the weather has not settled into "wrap yourself in a duvet and hibernate" mode.

Today J wanted to go out before my run. He's been doing that more and more lately. Doesn't matter much to me which goes first, in fact it might be better this way around, as it is a mini warm-up, and makes it such that there may be more sunlight during my run (not really).

News today down in the company gym - someone found a (really cute) baby snake - from the photo, I'd say it was a king snake (black with white rings).

It explains the incredibly strong mothball smell yesterday. The building manager found 3 yesterday in another tenant's area, so they figured just spread a lot of mothballs around.

...
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Question --- how long do you have to put the SI punch into the control? I always waited for the beep, but I think I don't need to. Is it sure to record it if I just stick it up to its neck and pull it out quickly?
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C • beep 4

Thought it was cool, but it turned out to be a little muggy.

Darker these evenings - could not believe the number of people running in the dusk with no reflective gear or lights. Interestingly, the late night walker/dog walker types all have visibility.

Kept seeing odd flashes - only later did I hear thunder, so I really started to hustle J with about 1.5 miles left (I was getting scared given the flash frequency, and the fact I had to crest the hill to get home). ... Have yet to get rain 40 minutes later, but it still is flashing and rumbling. Maybe a storm is going S/W of us.

---> on radar it looks like the red blobs of storm are a n/s line that is sweeping across the state south of the thruway (which is 1 mi from my house), but it looks like the major parts have already passed to the east. .... on second thought, when I put the map in motion, it looks like it is coming up from the south (very slowly), rather than the usual from the west.

It's been 5 days since I did my early-morning run, and it certainly has gotten darker - headlamp required. All others out at this time also have flashlights. Interesting how the dark makes me feel my body more - I'm still beaten up from the weekend, so I just felt creaky.

Being dark, there's less temptation to look at the watch for an idea of pace. I thought with the way I felt, I'd be doing 7:30's - the first downhill felt so much longer than usual. Finally looked at the 2 mile marker (mailbox) - 7:12 pace or so. Hmm. Ended up at 7:10, which I'll take. Any faster would be bad - I need to remind myself "easy week".

Heck, I've already thrown a whole bunch of shoes in the back of the car, so I won't forget them for Friday - I may (or may not) go to work for a couple hours on Friday, as work is 2/3 of the way to Genessee Valley Park. I figured if I went to work, I'd better prepare in advance, as it would just be a weird day.
Shoes - normal Nimbus running shoes, merrell road racers, merrell 'barefoot road' shoes (more like racing shoes). Game day decision, I suppose.

Flipped through my running notepad - I'm ~10 lbs. lighter than last year a this time. I'm working out a bit more, but I'm sure that getting off of 1 med, and weaning off the second is playing some part.

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Starting times are up for nationals.
https://orienteeringusa.org/eventregister/a31/regl...
I'm starting really early all 3 days, so I can't use other people's trails to help (or at least to have knocked down briars and such). Note to my competition on Green - if you see my trail, it may be completely wrong! (Especially in Letchworth).
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News agencies are all over the place in terms of forecast
Right now it's 50% chance of rain on Friday, 30% for the weekend. How's that for not committing to a prediction.
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Did lat bar rather than pullups because of frustration from last few times. However, I'm losing strength there as well (not surprising).
Increased dumbell twist from pushup position to 20#'s. oof.
Squat jumps - definitely fatigued from weekend, but good to be doing this.

Gotta do the planks....
More difficult today because building reeks like moth balls. I hope this does not last long.

pretty evening - maples turning red in spots.