Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Event: NEOC: Traverse and Mini-Traverse
 

Woke up with the cold no better, and thought about bagging the Traverse, but then thought Traverse! Even if a bit longer of a drive, totally worthwhile. Also, Ed and Alex were driving.

It snowed a little on the way out but the course was mostly dry, thank Allah. Pretty good running. I tried to stay with Ethan, Ian or Will for the first control and did, but my body was in no shape to go that fast today. Lost contact with Ethan on the way to 2 and fumbled my way to the wrong cliffs, so much for navigating well. At this point I was behind Alex and some cadets going up to 3. But I made some time on the climb and then mostly navigated well to 4 and 5 and 6, with lots of people.

To 7 I took a lower route which didn't seem to lose too much time, and maybe saved my legs, but probably wasn't optimal. 8 started with some self-navigation and then following Alex to the circle, 9 I tried to do on my own but went up the wrong reentrant (I don't like this area of the map) and followed again, then on to 10 and the start of Seven Sisters and the other map.

Three quick controls in a little maze of trails and then a quick check of the map and "ooh, yes, I am taking the road around the quarry. This worked well and I put time on Alex (who also took the road, but not as quick to make the decision) and even caught up to Ethan, who was in struggles. Puttered to 16 and 17, not big errors, but not perfect, and 18 I could have taken a better route. (It was in here that a branch caught one of the safety pins holding up my socks and put it in to my skin, ouch. Need a better system there.)

My cold was still there, too, so I didn't have much get up and go, and slogged up the hill and around to 19 with Alex, then we both made the decision to go around the mountain to 21, which I ran well. Spiked 22 quite well (good attack point, really fun terrain back there) then slid down the hill to the bench 23 is on, overran the control by 10m or so (looked back and "oh, control!" or I would have run to 24) got drawn north by an elevation feature to 24 but that located me well for the attack, overran 25 on the downhill (no attack point). Went up the trail and spiked 26 rather well avoiding a bit of climb. To 27 I went down the trail to the power lines, across the power lines and down the reentrant there, and wound up hitting the stream maybe 10m from the control.

Then it was a slog up to 28 (navigated well, at least) and run to the finish.

I wish I'd felt better, as I could have gone a lot faster. But running through the woods was so much fun, it was definitely worth the trip. I even got a little work done in the car. A little. And it was very cold at the end.

Of course, I always feel like my navigation is coming back right when we run in to ski season …

C • 540 2

Traverse - Splits

Classic rollerski day. I guess I should classic at some point, right? Skied with Robert and a couple of juniors, pretty easy taking the long loop without extensions. (Apparently Gordon and some other started early and went for a 3+ hour ski with all the extensions.) With the Traverse tomorrow and maybe coming down with a cold, this was plenty.

Rock paper scissors: loser runs the big hill.

I actually went 5-3. So five little hills, 3 big ones.

43 sections in 39 minutes, certainly not moving fast, but getting the strength in?

Warm ups and cool downs

400-5(800)-400.

Ran the first three 800s feeling pretty good, then turned it up for the fourth (someone said it was the hardest, so, yeah). Wound up finding an extra gear by everyone at the end of it. 2:40ish, didn't lap my watch because I'd already borked the first one hitting the wrong button.

Then felt pretty bad on the last one without a full recovery. And sandbagged the 400.

Abs, slower this time. Harder, too.

Nice evening, but my legs were apparently still tired from the weekend. At least not broken from running up and down an icy mountain!