Training Log Archive: veinbuster

Ukrainian O Cup

My Garmin said 1.86km. I did a rare update to the race record distance.

I went out early because the temperature was expected to drop through the weekend. I was pretty happy with my navigation today. I found map orientation critical in many places on the course.

I didn’t take the optimum route to the first CP, but I did make a safe ‘error’. I then burned a few minutes trying to read the QR code manually, expecting this to be the 2nd check. Turns out that start didn’t count as a CP - I should have looked closer at the count after punching in. This and agreeing to an interview for a college student after punching in at the start had me leave CP1 7-10 minutes late. Not tragic, given I wasn’t racing for position.

Good transit through 2-4 and into the box. A couple of fast women passed me 3 times over 5 CP. My off trail short cuts on snow shoes let me slip ahead while they ran a trail. They left me behind on a longish uphill trail and were one CP ahead coming out of the box.

A group of 5 walkers were distressed when I didn’t punch an obvious control, so I took the time to verify it wasn’t for me and explain to them how it worked. They wanted to text me when they saw more flags. Burned a few more minutes before getting back on track to CP5. Here I noticed time might be tight. I had a good line to CP6, but the bushwalking was brutal. I was sinking almost to my knees with snow shoes and lots of fallen timber was disguised by deep snow. Not to mention a big elevation change, so my legs were shot at the top. Turns out overshooting on the trail and cutting back would have been better given the snow depth, but I assumed Bush snow depth would be similar throughout this relatively small area.

Now time was really short. CP7 was a bit of a hike, but a good nav test, so I went for it. I did wonder what the missed CP charge versus overtime charge. Turns out a CP is worth about 2 minutes - not a trade I would make going for points. Finding CP7 without mishap was satisfying though, even though my time ran out while I checked my path to CP8.

A junction on the trail I took from CP7 didn’t look like what I wanted so I made a safe choice. Next junction made it clear I wasn’t where I wanted to be, so I sacrificed CP 8 and made turns north or east to get to the boundary trail that would take me out, and a free shot at CP9. Slowed a bit between CP9 and the finish because a couple of families were using the trail as a sledding hill.

Dead last among people who went out this morning - not many.

Knowing to CP/time tradeoff, I would have skipped CP7&8. And maybe gone to find them after clocking out.

I thought of trying the beginner course tomorrow, but it is pretty straight forward. If it isn’t sinfully cold, I might do it as an exercise, and go find CP8. I think it is pretty easy to find going backwards.

C • O Cup 11

And now, a bunch of estate running around

Day 3 soloflex
Left wrist severely limited dips and chin ups

But I have a new phone whose battery should last through a cold O cup

C • Congratulations! :) 1

Oura wants me to take another rest day. I don’t think I will comply.

Zwift Yorkshire
UCI world champion TT course

There was a lot of elevation on this course. After finishing a lap, I decided to target 400m for the session.

Pretty relaxed warm up to start. With nothing to contest on the course, as soon as I finished the first 5km, I did a power burst. I couldn’t set a new personal best, but did match my current 1 sec & 10 sec levels. I backed off too soon to set a new 20 sec standard.

Of course, they put a KOM just after my burst. I just added a bit of power every minute and managed to cross the line in the top 20%. A short descent and they had a sprint, which I set a new mark for.

It as clear that my heart wasn’t recovering as well as it normally does today, so I didn’t push the rest of the course. Second lap I was going to try to keep my heart around 150, but I hit 400m elevation in the middle of the KOM, so I went ahead and ramped up a bit extra power to shave 4 seconds of my PB.

Then a proper cool down. It was harder than I expected to ignore people passing me on the next climb.

Day 2 soloflex and free weights

We broke 5C today!
I would have missed it organizing stuff if I hadn't had to pick up something from the lawyer.

Oura has said 2 days in a row to take it easy. It now recognizes night time heart rate of 45 & 47 to be elevated. And noted a slightly high temperature (0.2 & 0.5C), so I used one of my last Covid rapid tests - negative.

I’m overdue for London, and don’t want to take anything, but really don’t want to take Covid. They’ll test again before I go to the residence areas.

Day 1 soloflex and free weights