Training Log Archive: JanetT

Event: NEOC Earls Trails BYOM
 

We've had two excellent (takeout) dinners here in Rockville, from:
Fontina Grill (Italian) and Farmsook Thai. Brought food back to the room and ate here. Yum. Both highly recommended.

Parking to Event Center/Finish of TT Middle. Dropped off a bag with change of clothes/water, etc. for after race. Had a plastic bag to put it in in case of rain, which was a good thing as there was apparently a bit of hail (which I missed).

I forgot to wear my HR strap, so that data is likely bogus.

From Event Center to Start, with a missed turn

TT Red Middle course, 5.3 km, 55m climb, on the Hoyle's Mill 1:10000 map in Germantown, MD. Temp in low to mid 50s with chance of showers still in the forecast.

Very, very challenging terrain with subtle contours required skills I don't use as often--pacing and bearings. I did fine through the first 9 controls (I forgot to take a split at #1) being close enough to the line to see a flag when I'd gone the proper distance. Glen started before me but had a bit of an error on #1 and passed me on the leg to #2. Rick Worner passed me on the way to #3, and I saw Linda K ahead of me leaving #9.

Then I managed to mess up the bearing and lose count on the pacing. I hit rock features about where they should have been (a bit more than halfway through the 600m leg), but I couldn't identify which rocks they were. Once #10 didn't show up where I hoped it might be, I had no idea where I was, and attempted to head for the stream to relocate but it took some time before I saw something I did recognize, the house/private land WSW of the last control. By that point I'd already been out over an hour and a half, and decided to head on in, getting the last control on the way. Anyone who navigates this stuff successfully deserves to be on the Team!

I wore both a long sleeve Techwick shirt and a short sleeve O shirt over it, which was almost too warm, but I was glad I had them on the leg from 8-9 when I heard thunder and felt some rain and a temperature drop. Apparently it hailed some at the finish, and enough at the parking (a couple miles north of where I was, or less) to cover the pavement...Wyatt said you could have skied across the lot, if you had skis.

Happy I managed well for the first 9 controls, anyway! Tomorrow's Brown course won't be quite as long but will have more climb.

Route Gadget shows I was at the rocks I wanted to hit on the way to #10; I just couldn't interpret that the rocks I was seeing matched the map there.

C • Amy and Valerie 3

I picked up a fleece jacket(?) on my way to the road from 8-9, and dropped it by the side of the road, figuring someone might pick it up from there. No mylar balloons.

Finish to parking, where I forgot to stop my watch, so there's extra 0 time included in the track.

Middle Red - Splits

Event: US WOC Team Trials
 

After driving through rain showers and dropping temperatures (60-50) and arriving when it was 51 and raining, I wimped out on running the 3.4km sprint and took a rest day. Nice to catch up on news with some of the team trialers and others putting on the event, plus other attendees (Judy & Jeff, and SteveT and Clint). Better rested for tomorrow, maybe. ;-)

Hopewell Park (no killdeer sightings today) and neighborhood across from us. Upper 50s and cloudy.

"Train your dragon" class w/Deanna

Biking at Nockamixon (which just opened for the season a few days ago). Upper 70s to 80, and somewhat humid, so sweating/dripping was involved. I need to remember to take a buff with me to wipe sweat off my face if I stop. There were at least two places where I stopped my watch to take a picture and forgot to restart it.
Upper Cold Spot, Upper Hammer, Lower Hammer, Lower Cold Spot, Haycock (twice...love the features there).

Mayapples are in full bloom here...lots of them along the first part of Cold Spot trail (the first one I rode). Many Virginia springbeauties too.

Wanted to get out before showers turned to rain later today. I still got sprinkled on a bit but not much. Around the neighborhood, and to the park to check out the killdeer. (Saw two, plus two mallards and some red-winged blackbirds). Mid 60s and cloudy.

Yesterday as we were getting ready to drive to MD for orienteering, we saw a fawn in the grass out back. While we watched it, an eagle landed on the one of the towers of the power line that bisects the community, and the fawn moved to a hiding place on a neighbor's patio. Then a raven(!) landed on a nearby roof! They're (supposedly) uncommon in our area.

Event: DVOA French Creek State Park Central
 

Event: QOC Patapsco CCBC
 

QOC Patapsco (Hilton) Brown course at CBCC, designed by KWjr, 4.3km, 145m climb (not where I went). Weather was great; a bit on the warm side at around 80, but the humidity was low. I downed an entire 16oz preparation of Vitalyte after I finished (and could have consumed more). I was wearing a HR strap, but the numbers look high.

Legs 1 & 2 were the same as on the Red course, which Glen did. He passed me before I got through the green along the field edge going to #1, and I could see where he punched at #1 (and a group that got there in between us). He was long gone after that.

I had a good line (mostly straight) to #2 but messed up after going too far N on the spur and looped around to it (2:30-3:00 lost). Then a 5 contour slog back up the hill to #3. To #4 I did okay, though I got caught up in some brambles trying to get from the powerline back into the white woods. One thorn accompanied me for the rest of the course.

#5 looked easy until I got into the detailed area (not a great Brown Course control location; the boulder on the line, with no clutter around it, would have been better), when I stopped short because I didn't see a spur beyond the stream but did see trails. I second-guessed myself and checked upstream and crossed there hoping to see it. Finally found it a little below where I'd turned around. About a 6 minute error. :-(

The last stupidity was on the way to 9; I crossed the first stream on the trail then headed NNE, crossed the next stream, but lost confidence where I was and ended up on the trail a couple contours up and had to drop to it off the trail; another 2 minutes. Total of about 11 minutes of errors.

And then there's the issue of climb, if Attackpoint reports it correctly. (I don't climb well, obviously.) :-)

Still, a great day to play in pretty open woods for the most part.

Brown - Splits