Training Log Archive: PG

Event: US Champs
 

US Sprint Champs, M60. Not a bad run except the first control, which was pretty bad -- when I found it, the feeling was, I sure hope that's mine. Which is not a sign of orienteering under control.

The rest was good, except one leg where straight was quicker than my route around on a trail.

Nice day, nice course.

Pretty good warm-up, some in the woods, worked up a good sweat. I think I felt better during the race as a result.

Today's sprint course (Green course).

C • Picture 2

C • routes 6

Sprint Green - Splits

Thinking back to the first day of the A meet in Chicago a week and a half ago, and to all the comments about how flat it was, I thought I would look in the archives for maps of a couple of places that I've orienteered that were definitely flatter.

Found one of them so far, day 1 of the Austrian 5-Day in 1996. The contour interval was 5 meters, though all I can find on the map is a couple of very short form lines. But because of all the other stuff on the map, the orienteering was quite cool. And it did get hillier towards the end, I think we had to cross a couple of low earth walls....

The other place was on the island of Gotland off the east coast of Sweden. Definitely not fun, not at all. Maybe I destroyed the maps?

C • Flat 5

Back to the track for a short session (I've been staying off the trails to cut the risk of zapping my ankle) -- was maybe supposed to be 4 x 800 @3:10, but I wasn't totally committed to that, and after I did the third one a little too quick, doing the fourth just didn't have any appeal. I believe I said to myself, Good workout, that's enough, quit while you are ahead.

3:11.9, 3:08.8, 3:04.9, 4-minute cycle so not much rest. Interesting in that the third one felt harder at the end, but my legs also felt looser.

I'm psyched about trying to get my 5K time back down close to 20. Sometimes you just need a goal.

A mile before, a half-mile after.

C • 1:58? 2

A late afternoon run up along the river, beautiful out although verging on chilly (had our first frost of the season last night), just kept a steady pace and felt not so bad. Town line 17:50, 2-silo loop 18:40, back from the town line 17:12.

As usual the absolute hardest part was getting out the door. But very pleased for having done it.

Toying with the idea of running the Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving Day.

Legs didn't feel too bad after yesterday's time in the woods, so after a very pleasant round of rogaine practice I stopped at the track on the way home. The plan was something short and quick to work on just getting the legs moving faster. The first thought was 4 x 400, but as I got near the track various other possibilities were considered, all consisting of some mix of 400s and/or 800s, not too many, a decent rest, but by the time I was at the track, I was back to the original idea, 4 x 400 with a good rest, going on a 3-minute cycle, 85-90 seconds each. Which is just what I did.

87.8, 85.8, 86.2, 83.7. Last one was hard work, and all were quicker than any running I've been doing recently. It helped a lot psychologically that a very short workout was planned. But still, good satisfaction, did just what I wanted.

(It's funny how doing a track workout on your own is hard for a couple of reasons -- no one for company and distraction from the pain, and also total freedom to do exactly what you want, no one announcing what the workout will be. Freedom is great, but sometimes life is easier if someone just says, Do this.)

A mile before, half a mile after.

Event: WCOC DuO #3, Huntington
 

WCOC sprint at Huntington SP in Redding, CT, orchestrated by Joe B (with help from Pavlina), added on to part 3 of his Du-O series (4-hour score-Os, half foot-O, half MTB O), all team fundraisers!

Sprint map.

Rain all day, heavy at times. I was planning to drive down with Phil, which was just as good because otherwise I might not have gone, and it turned out to be a fine day, perhaps with exception of my post-orienteering diet which consisted of a quart of chocolate milk, a bag of chips, and one of my special bacon double cheeseburgers on whole wheat bread (hold the bacon, hold the cheese, hold the burger), so that by the time I got back to Sunderland I was still feeling a bit bloated.

By a fine day, I don't mean that my orienteering was sharp, just that a couple of hours of orienteering in the rain turned out to be very pleasant, a sense that the elements were conspiring against me -- rain, wind, lots of puddles, slippery -- but as long as I did no damage to myself, it was a lot better than spending the day inside. And I don't think I did any damage, no bad spills, no ankle rolling. So a fine day.

But my orienteering certainly was not sharp. I seemed to have trouble reading the map on the run, though I think that was because the ground was on the rocky side and I was being careful not to roll my ankle. And my legs seemed to not have much zip either. So it was a very pedestrian trip around the course. Oh, well....

The Du-O, a nice trip around Huntington.

Map.

I'll add some more comments later, but there's an interesting show on the tube (last week's Masterpiece Theater, we never watch anything live, so no ads, not that there are any on MT anyway) and a cold beer in the frig that needs my attention.