Training Log Archive: ernst

Townsend NEOC event. Nice course by Doug S - 6.3 km. He kept us out of the green (mountain laurel) areas for the most part. Compared to yesterday, this was very (very!) runnable, even the light green parts. A lot of standing water, and most streams had multiple branches that were not on the map, but it was obvious.

I started out with imprecision on the attacks of 1 - 3 probably lost between 30s and 1 min on each. 5 was a problem control, because the dark green was not precisely mapped - I encountered additional boulders each of which could have been a candidate location. I caught up with J Campbell who had relocated to the trail and Bridget, meanwhile Victoria and Paul were catching up with us all. Jon and I met each other on and off for the rest of the course, but each navigated individually on different routes to the majority of controls - I tended to be in the lead out of the controls, but then imprecision on the attack made Jon catch up with me. I came too high on 9, but corrected very nicely. I forged ahead spiking through 10, 11, 12, but blundered at 13; somewhat a bingo control when you attack from the E as we did. Several equal sized small boulders in the area and the fine form line stuff (2.5 meter contours on this map) was not recognizable when you approach up the hill. Lost 3 minutes and Jon caught up with me.

Then a goose chase through the flats / light green. Never saw Jon again after 14 until the finish, and was surprised that he was ahead of me. Apparently he had a faster route to 15. But in the end I beat him by 1.5 minutes, so I ended up 2nd, 16 minutes behind youngster Ethan. Not too bad! One of my better finish at Townsend.

Control Pickup. Had the same leg to # 13 from my course, and still could not find it immediately. Grrr!

Event: UNO - Harris Center
 

Harris Center, Red Course: 6.1km. A Ruutopold production, and it was expertly done as usual. A tough area, mentally and physically. I searched for # 2 did not go far enough (2 min). 2 to 3 was just about the toughest: felt like descenting Mt. Adams basically down a boulder/rubble field. 3 - 6 were easy finds. A bit of a detour to 6: from the NE tip of the big marsh, went straight E to smaller marsh/pondk, as if I wanted to go to 8, but then SE from the marsh all the way to 6 was quite runnable. 6-8 were no problem - my routes were good and controls were easy to spot except I overshot and drifted on the attach of 7 (1 min). Also 1 min mistake at 9 - dropped too low instead of contouring over. 10-12 were fine except I could not follow the trail - did not see the very highly hung blazes. I lost over a minute on 13 assuming the pond would be farther from the edge of the field; remember Ernst the 7500 map !!! grr. About 6 - 8 minutes mistakes, just about what I lost to Jon Campbell and put me in second place.

Control Pickup. Estimated running/jogging/walking time.

Run to work, usual way. No detours. Only slightly stiff from yesterday.

Biking home on road, via fish pickup. Same every Friday it seems.

Marathon training. To Wednesday Hill to Lee, then Lee Hook to 152, Lang's Lane to Rockingham, then S road to Newmarket, then Packers Falls, then the loop via Mill Road to Spruce Wood and home as usual. First half mile was warm up, then the plan was to choose a comfortable pace that I could maintain. I settled into 7:15 which eventually degraded during the last two miles. Last half mile on dirt road and trail. I'll see how I feel in two days. This was to test if I could still run roads without too much damage to feet etc. Perfect conditions: cool, dry, partial sunshine; around 60 F, temps dropping. Half marathon split at around 1:35 which is not bad.

Run to work. Usual way.

Running home with hill detour around field and up to myhill. Medium tempo.

Running to work. Usual direct route.

Running home via W Foss Farm. In light rain. Moderately soaked in the end, but really refreshing.

Bike to work, all on road

Running home. 4 hills at tempo and bit of looping around to achieve close to 5 miles. Aah ! a cool fall day gets the engine going! 45 F on my arrival. Ideal for running.