Orienteering race (Norwottuck Green) 56:41*** 5.99 km (9:27 / km) +246m7:51 / km spiked:9/11c
Pleasant outing to Western mass- never been to Amherst or Mt N so made a day of it with Roz. Not as much fall color as hoped for but nice drive from Rt2 via 202 to Am (anything to avoid Mass TP).
Interesting and enjoyable course set by Ian, and was warned to be careful with trails. Contour detail was good although rock under-mapped. Decent run and was physically hard. Got off line on 7-8 (losing maybe 1:30) and stopped to tie laces (1:15) between 9 and 10. Had little trouble with #9- 30sec - despite unmapped trail and fact that control may be 25m off center. Used TC today and felt confident. Sl=5.5 ish- I measure 5.53.
Lunch in Amherst- ran into Dean and had a nice chat. Then home via sundry farm stands. Nice day out.
4 PM
Walking23:00 [1] 2.0 km (11:30 / km)
Quick stroll, then home to pack. Fortunately postponed departure to first LHR flight in am, gives me a bit more time to get stuff done.
Gorgeous day outside today. Fall in the air, smells galore.
12 PM
Orienteering (technique) 25:10 [2] **** 3.6 km (6:59 / km) +55m6:29 / km
Compass and pace work. Firstly compared thumb compass (LH) with baseplate (RH). In general more consistent and efficient with thumb (TC) vs. baseplate (BP)- pulling consistently to left with BP, occasionally to right with TC (thick woods). Pace count good +/- 5m.
Fallish today- big leg session planned at midday with trainer.
Spin warm up/down 20:00 [2] 9.0 km (2:13 / km)
easy effort before strength wo
Strength (legs and arms ) 45:00 [4]
30mins legs with 2 sets of reps of squat jumps, rotations, box jumps, bounds, hops and resistance sprints in high intensity short recovery mode- tough session (pulse 120, legs wobbly!). Followed by 15mins of push ups and shoulder presses- relief :-)
Dusting off the cobwebs.
Possible interval session today (600s)
Note
Loaded routes onto RG for further analysis. Overall some good legs execution wise but generally lacking confidence in this terrain- many hesitations, some warranted - maybe not enough map simplification. ran extra 500m on day 1 by getting off line early and not correcting soon enough - after control 5, saw 10 before heading to 6! Major disappointment was day 2 with stupid error on leg to 12 with 'simple" control- firstly smart route choice would have been to head straight to trail. Instead tired to go straight- not even aiming off (!!) and paid the price for speed by getting well offline and hitting the trail where I did not expect or even recognize at the time, thus compounding error. I was impressed with tp's handling of terrain on both days.
Mental note / training to look for simpler route choices where speed can be used, and remember control exit drill to avoid 180s. Also I used base-plate (both errors were drifting to left) for these 2 days and I seem to be doing better direction / bearing wise with thumbie.
Jogging warm up/down 25:00 [2] 4.2 km (5:57 / km)
Before and after intervals with 4x50m strides plus drills / stretches
Track intervals (MIT) 11:24 3.2 km (3:34 / km)
Plan was 5x600m at I pace (85%) = 2:19 with 200m recovery. Legs seemed fairly spritely and finished with a quicker 200 (90%). Recovery 2 mins or less. went as follows:
2:10
2:11
2:13
2:11
2:07 (Avg = 2:10.6 or 43.5sec / 200)
31.20