Training Log Archive: TomN

McComas across Georgia Ave, Sligo Creek bike path to Dennis, back to McComas.

QOC Rosaryville Red. Not a great course -- too many doglegs, and it seems like there were better control placements available. Still, as it turned out, I didn't meet anyone coming out the doglegs, and I managed to get confused a couple of times on the way to the controls. On #2, I ran along the wrong edge of the field (a compass check would have revealed the problem), not a big time loss. On #7 I got on the wrong trail (twice!) and had to backtrack to the control, for about a 4-minute loss. Should have ignored the trails there and read the contours up from the river. Coming out of 4, I got tangled up in green when there was a clear way around it. But that was it for mistakes, and I tore through the rest of the course for the win on Red.

Red - Splits

More running on the bike trails in Highlands Ranch, CO.

Denver, CO. Exploring the paved trail network in Highlands Ranch.

QOC Mason Neck Red. This is challenging orienteering any time -- flat, few features, leafy woods -- but 50 deg.F and raining made it a challenge just to survive hypothermia. The directional rootstocks were the most useful features in the terrain. It will be interesting to see how well the map ages.

Finding the point features was hit-or-miss for me. Many times I ran right to them, other times a near miss and a scramble. No. 11 was particularly frustrating, because I had used it as a collecting feature on the way from 5 to 6, but I missed it when coming from 10, relocated to the marsh, missed again, relocated again, and finally found it. It looked just the same as it had the first time.

Red - Splits

Drumm loop. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5236884

GSFC perimeter road.

Butterflies this run:
American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)
Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)
Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme)
E. Tailed-blue (Cupido comyntas)
several duskywings

The Pine Elfins seem to have disappeared. Short season for them.

GSFC perimeter road. Legs feel good, but I sure was low on blood sugar.

Butterflies this run:
blackish swallowtail (unidentified)
Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)
Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon)

This was the first appearance of grass skippers (but I haven't been out here in a week). They're pretty hard for me to identify in the field, but this one I think is right. Likewise the Comma -- I didn't see the eponymous marking on the underside, but it had dark hindwings like summer form Commas.

Warm-up. Medium jog, 3 strides, then about a half-mile at race pace. About 5 min rest at the starting line.

GSFC Spring 2-mile. The race clock was facing the wrong way at the finish, so I'll have to wait for results to get my time, but it was almost certainly my fastest 2-mile in the last 5 years. And Vdot 47. (Edit: nope, 46.7, darn it.) In any event, it was right in line with my expectations, and confirmation that training has been going well this spring. One-mile split was 6:33, and I dogged it a little after that, picked up the pace again on the hill. (Edit: obviously not enough.)

Unfortunately, can't make the 10K next week, going out of town.

Race tomorrow.

Georgia U.S. Championships M60 Green Middle. Well, I'm pretty disappointed in my performance. Two terrible controls, probably 15 minutes lost between them, and for no real reason that I can tell. A loss of concentration, a couple of minutes go by, and suddenly I can't account for where I've been or what I'm seeing. Relocation was hard in this terrain, so after a few minutes I bailed out each time, on #1 back to the start, and on #16 back to the finish. No problems on the re-do, and not doing anything obviously different, either.

Aside from those lapses, a pretty good run in enjoyable terrain. From 2-15 I was having a fine time, staying in contact and moving well, making safe route choices while keeping a tight line. Too bad about the endpoints.

This was a fine meet, and well organized. The start crew on both days could have been a little more forceful about announcing times and names. I nearly missed my starts each day although I was standing right there, just didn't know I was called up. The maps were good and courses challenging, and remarkably different on the two days, especially considering that they were in the same park.

C • Tough Day 2

Middle - Green X - Splits

Georgia U.S. Champs, M60+ Green Long. Late start and the heat was definitely on. Not much of a warm-up, a 10 minute jog. Had trouble finding #1, but I still think my route choice was good. Following the trail from the start, I left it where it crossed the ditch and headed southeast, past the corner of the campground, then hit the road just where it entered the green. Attacked from the field just after the T, and no control in sight. Thrash ensued. A 16-minute control, way too long. #2 was fine, 3 got in the marsh too high and came down to the spur, 4 no problem. #5 was fun. I followed the road all the way to the sharp bend before the river and came down along the veg boundary to the beaver dam, crossed the stream just after that and there it was. Failed to cross the road at first after the radio control, then got my head back into gear. Or not. Out of #7 I forgot which control I was going to, navigated perfectly and spiked the control, but it was #11. Still, a decent attack point for #8. To 9 I ran along the embankment on the S side of the stream, then crossed at the fork and went up the spur and directly over the summit of the hill. Good thing, because the control area was confusing. Then back to 11, been there done that, took a good line to 12 but felt slow on the run-up, kept checking the map to make sure it was right-side up. Third place finish.

Long - Green X - Splits

Another mini-workout in the morning. Last couple of days I have not been feeling well, and my RHR was up both days (46). Back down today, and that's a good thing.

GSFC perimeter road.

First run on a new pair of shoes. The Brooks Adrenaline GTS-11's I've been running in for the past year are the best shoes I can remember owning. I didn't like the GTS-12 version this year. The fit isn't as good. I took home a pair of Asics GT-2170s, but when I compared them to my old shoes, they looked so much bigger that I was convinced I needed a half-size smaller. Plus they weigh more than the Adrenalines, and feel clunkier. So I took them back, and this time the guy found a pair of last year's Adrenalines, on sale for $69. So I gladly bought them, and another spare pair as well. So here's the question: should I put them both in service now and alternate between them, or save one for six months and make the switch then?

Butterflies this run:
Silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus) first of season, and pretty early
Tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) been seeing these for a couple of weeks.

Re-ran last year's red course at Fountainhead, having missed this year's course in favor of the Flying Pig. A number of the control locations still had orange streamer tape, and I remembered them all pretty well. Maybe a little slow, but focusing on navigation and staying in contact. Took route choices I wouldn't have made in a race in order to maximize off-trail time.

Intervals at DuVal HS track. 4x1000 in 4:08, 4:00, 4:04. I tried to keep up the pace on the second interval, and I guess I succeeded. Too well. Actually, it was the fastest interval in the last year. But I'd rather even them out.

GSFC perimeter road.

GSFC perimeter road (skipping the last parking lot loop).

Butterflies this run:
American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis): 1
Eastern Tailed-blue (Everes comintas): 1
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus): 1
Juvenal's Duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis): many
Eastern Pine Elfin (Callophrys niphon): 2
Duskywing sp. (??): many
Cabbage White and Clouded Sulphur: yeah, yeah, yeah.

Pretty good haul. The Pine Elfin was a great find. Same butterfly as yesterday. Its status is listed as "unknown" in Prince Georges County, MD, meaning it hasn't been seen in a long time. I sent an e-mail to the keeper of the Maryland records, and he was happy to learn that the species was alive and well in P.G.

There is another duskywing flying in the area, and I can't figure out what it is. It occurs in a different place in my regular run. More observation is necessary.

GSFC perimeter road.

Butterflies this run:
Clouded sulphur (many)
Cabbage white (many)
Some sort of blackish swallowtail (1)
Some sort of elfin (2)
Some sort of duskywing (many)
The swallowtail was gone too fast for me to see. The elfins and the duskywings are too confusing for me to identify on the spot. I'll go out with a camera and a net (if I can find it) and try to figure them out.

Flying Pig Day 3, Big Bone Lick, M60 Green. OK, I went into this with the wrong attitude. Take it slow, don't screw up, so of course I screwed up mightily on the way to #9, mistaking a deer trail for the first trail down from the crest of the hill, then traversing 150m on the wrong trail until a sign told me I was headed toward the bison. Oh, shit. Backtrack to the narrows, cross the creek, and, competence finally restored, spike the control in a bunch of parallel ditches. Executed perfectly on #10, finding the first deep reentrant high up and heading down the middle of the spur, past the control in the pit to the huge tree visible from high up. A careful attack point to #12 from midway on the path around the bison, then a compass bearing to #13, stopping in the ditch to look at the map, then crossing over to find the reentrant just after it. From 15 to 16 I stayed outside the fence, attacking from the corner. Another howler ensued when I couldn't fnd the go control and lost a couple of minutes running around in the parking areas. Given this mess it wasn't surprising that I didn't finish first. Bill Cheatum had a good run and got me by 2 seconds in M60. I was only sixth on Green and deserved that or worse.

Overall a great event. There was a lot of diversity in maps, terrain, and individual legs. The courses were well designed, controls were placed as mapped. The starts and finishes operated smoothly, and Vlad's enthusiastic announcing was a huge enhancement to the meet. I led the pack in M50, M55, and M60, and Addie took gold in high school varsity. Unfortunately, we had to leave to make a 2:30 flight, or we would have stayed for the awards and another lap around the playlist.

Middle Sunday 5 Green - Splits