Training Log Archive: TomN

17th SVO Stumble, at Rocky Ridge. The weather turned out much better than it looked when I got up this morning, cloudy but no rain at the park, and yes, it did rain all day back home. I ran well, following when convenient and passing when it seemed profitable. The woods were nice, the rocks interesting, and overall a much better experience than the last time I was here (2009, and both the map and I have improved since then).

I was on my own heading to the first window, went in low and took them A-B-C-D, running with Ben Ahlswede for most of the window. Controls were visible from some distance away. Fast up the hill and alone to 9-10-11, where I caught Mihai Veres. I passed him up the hill to 12, and ran with Ryan Stasiowski in the next window, H-G-F-E.

Bad route to 17 (went up past 12, along the ridge to the clearing, then dropped down) and found Mihai and Ben at 17. Ryan ran away from us going up the trail, Mihai and Ben went low, and I went all the way up to the road. I almost chased down Istvan Nagy on the road, finishing 1 sec behind him. The others were slower on the low route in.

5th overall in the Short, not a bad result.

Short Stumble - Splits

Forest Glen-Georgia Ave. 70 degrees and sunny. Crazy.

Ran with Addie! Drumm loop, without the half-mile bit around Homewood Parkway.

GSFC perimeter road circuit.

QOC Cabin John Red. A nice course by Amber T. gave us some good route choices (and opportunities to make mistakes), and avoided the crappiest areas. I expected to come back whipped and bleeding, but the only scratches on me were left over from last week.

I managed to keep one foot dry on the first river crossing. Ran with Jon C. around #2, then made a bad error on #3, didn't go far enough and kept looking for the control in the wrong place. Did it again on #4, going all the way down to the tip of the spur, way too far left (kept wondering where the steep section was), and had to backtrack through ugly terrain. Settled down after that and avoided major errors until 16, the problem there being momentary confusion about which control I was going for. That allowed Dan Quinn to catch me and I didn't have the motivation to stay with him, but I made back almost 50 seconds on him on the simple route to #19.

Much cooler today than it has been this season. Nice in the woods, but I was immediately cold after finishing.

Control pick-up. I'm glad I didn't change my shoes, because I got them wet again crossing the creek twice.

Red - Splits

Drumm Loop. Mid-40s and windy this morning. Pretty slow pace. My ankles hurt.

Out the back gate and around Old Greenbelt.

Third leg on a 6-point relay team. Our assigned first-leg runner didn't show up, so we picked up Kim Jepsen, whose two teammates were not ready on time. I ran well for the first 8 controls. Passed Peggy at the barn, passed by Jon Campbell at the next control and Jon T. at the 8th. Then a complete cognitive breakdown heading to #9, map upside down, couldn't figure out the difference between 6 and 9, knew where I should be going but couldn't make the map read correctly, finally stopping in the middle of the arena until the brain fog cleared. It was embarrassing, and what's worse, I dropped two relay places, because I was ahead of both Peggy and Vadim up until that point. It's an odd feeling to be so completely disoriented, and I have to think it was lack of oxygen. Even with that 2-minute error I managed 8.5 min/k, pretty close to my orienteering limit.

Mid-Atlantic Champs at Rosaryville, Green course. I had one idea going in to this course: run like hell. The shortcomings of this strategy made themselves known on the 3rd control, when I inexplicably found myself too far south and east, at the barn, instead of cutting the diagonal as intended. Then at No. 4, a good route choice turned bad when again, without understanding how, I ran too far and off-bearing, this time hitting the road south and west of the control, somehow missing the spur entirely. Another little mistake on the easy control #9, getting into a parallel ditch. Pretty clearly outrunning my ability to think. I finished 8th, scoring points but just barely.

Green - Splits

Relay Leg 3 - Splits

Oh, finally, a run! There has been a lack of motivation, plus some sickness, etc. Goal for the next few months is to not let everything lapse for the whole winter so I have to start from nothing next spring.

QOC Hemlock Overlook Green. Fairly easy control placements, but interesting route choices. Overall, I was happy with this run. I had spent a lot of time in this park last fall, and there wasn't much that could surprise me. The only time I lost was from 1 to 2, I headed back to the parking lot and down the trail along the creek (washed out and hard to find), then turned right and ascended the ridge, also on a trail, then down the NW slope, which was very steep, and the control was at the bottom of the feature, which involved downclimbing the rock. I thought my route was good up until the very last bit, so steep and rugged. Probably better to stay low and go around the ridge. I think good choices everywhere else.

Green - Splits

Surgery today to remove some lesions from my scalp (let's not use any word beginning with "c"). Not supposed to get *any* exercise for the next few days. But I've been walking a few miles a day, and I still did it today, it's too nice out and I'm too bored otherwise. I'm making an interpretation that "the next few days" doesn't include Sunday.

I could definitely feel yesterday's core strength exercises just under the ribcage. So something did come out of it.

Some core strength plyometric-type exercises. Haven't done this in a long time. It hasn't improved with time.

A walk in mid-afternoon, too nice out not to take advantage of it somehow. Butterflies: I saw a Great Spangled Fritillary and a Buckeye. Both are late-season species, but still, this is pretty late.

Whoa, orienteering is hard! I had no idea where I was all the way to 1, finally continuing on to the trail and going the wrong way at first, coming back and attacking from the little square bunker by the creek. Then a good stretch (a little slower, out of respect for the terrain) to a clumsy mistake on 9. Another good stretch all the way to the end, but couldn't find the finish control at all. Ran by it twice, only saw it on the third pass because someone else was punching. The only consolation, and it's not much of one, is that about 30 other people lost even more time than I did. Oh, and it was a great day to be in the woods, turning sunny and warm after the early rain.

Adv - Medium - Splits