Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Last easy elliptical session before the Highlander.

Stretching at home. Inara tried to help by climbing on me.

The Highlander is this Sunday!
Start List: https://www.orienteeringusa.org/eventregister/a40/...
Who is going to win?
The favorites are GSwede and feet.
The outsiders are ken,TraktorE, Andreas Wibmer, Wyatt, iansmith, Klepperton.
The young guns are PeterZ, VilppuV, whubsch, AJ*.
The dark horses are Juanma*, ondra*, Arnold.

* = registered for Lowlander. But will they switch at the last moment??

Predictions (Reality):
1. GSwede (1)
2. feet (2)
3. ken (5)
4. Vilppu (7)
5. TraktorE (8)
6. Wyatt (6)
7. PeterZ (13)
8. Andreas (10)
9. iansmith (12)
10. Arnold (11)

Top female:
1. acjospe (2)
2. Violeta (1)
3. Peggy (3)
4. Sharon (5)

Elliptical intervals, 4x4'.

Elliptical warmup.

Regular strength routine, while listening to old Trivial Warfare episodes.

Another one-way run home through Rock Creek. Alli dropped me off just north of the Soapstone Valley trail after baby swimming class. Baby swimming class is the best. Also, Inara didn't cry after being dunked today. Progress.

Delightful afternoon surprise Skyping with SugarMuffin and parents. Yay for friend-babies!

C • Did Sugarmuffin & Inara enj... 5

Elliptical intervals: 20x1' with 30" rest.

I walked the White course with Inara, Barney, and Pepper at QOC's local event at Swanson Road. Or at least, I attempted to. I should have had a clue pretty early on that Pepper wasn't interested in leaving Valerie, as she kept stopping, rolling in the grass, and pulling on her leash. All the while, Barney plunged on forward with all the strength of his little beagle legs.

Then, between controls 3 and 4, Pepper rolled in the grass once more, but this time, to both her and my surprise, came up free from her harness. She looked at me and immediately bolted with a speed that I had no hope of matching, especially with a backpack full of baby on my back.

She sprinted towards a group of NJROTC kids, who futilely attempted to corral her, and then veered back up towards the start/finish. I trudged that way, while one of the NJROTC ran full speed after her. I was terrified, but hopeful that she made her way back to Valerie.

It turns out that that's exactly what happened. I arrived huffing and puffing a couple of minutes later carrying an empty harness, only to find Pepper happily curled up under Valerie's chair. Relieved, I returned the harness and carried on, with all of this giving Inara a 15-minute split to #4 on the White course.

C • Turner 9

After Alli got back from running her Brown course, I did the Red course at QOC's Swanson Road local event.

RG: http://qocweb.org/routes/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map...

This was a nice course set by Craig Shelden. He did a good job of using the rather limited terrain and still creating an interesting course.

I felt strong physically today, but navigation let me down. Reviewing the course, it seems that I had little confidence in the map, and so when alarm bells went off for me on #3, 13, and 14, each time I quashed them by telling myself that I was right and the map was wrong and the control would just show up. Needless to say, it didn't, and I lost a lot of time, especially on 14, where I was simply too low and refused to believe it, instead convincing myself that the reentrants were simply overmapped. This cost me 5 minutes and a chance at beating Kenny, who was much more technically solid today.

On the bright side, my speed was good, and I won 12/19 splits on the Red course. As always, really nice to see Alli, Inara, and Barney waiting at the finish, and to hang out with good QOC friends.

Red - Splits

Did my new loop in Rock Creek from home. My approach today was to keep a steady pace on the flats and uphills, but let it fly on the downhills, as I am relearning how to do that. It worked pretty well, though I felt heavy and sluggish in the beginning - still fighting the remnants of the cold I got last weekend. This was my fastest time for the loop so far in three tries.

"Hills" on the elliptical at work at lunchtime.

Warmup on the elliptical at work. Still feeling the effects of the cold I got last weekend, so trying to be careful about rushing back to training.

Strength routine. Squats are starting to feel easier.

Easy spin on the elliptical to shake out legs after the weekend of racing.

Stretching

Event: QOC Hemlock Overlook
 

Shorter warmup today, as I was running a bit late.Skipped the strides.

Was rushed getting to the start this morning and had to abbreviate the warmup a bit, but felt good once I started.
RG: http://www.vmeyer.net/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?ac...

S-1 (+0:12): Took it somewhat slow going down the hill, as I wanted to get off to a clean start. Was surprised to see the control on what looked like a stream when the description was "spur", but it was mine, and I punched.
1-2 (+0:03): I felt yesterday's course in my legs as I climbed up to the trail, but I figured this would be the case for everyone. Decided to take the upper trail, as the green blob on the lower one gave me pause. No problems attacking from above.
2-3 (+0:00): Fun leg through open forest, across a stream and then along the side of a hill. Spike.
3-4 (+0:01): Tried to avoid the green slash as much as possible, but still got stuck a little.
4-5 (+0:00): Fun downhill leg, just important to know where to cross the stream. Didn't see the flag at first, but the marsh was prominent, so kept going and finally saw it behind the rootstock.
5-6(+0:00): Straight to the trail, then between the two obvious hills to the control.
6-7 (+0:00): Went a bit high, past the bunker/building, then dropped a bit to hit the flag.
7-8 (+0:01): Slow on the climb to the trail and still slow on the trail, then down and up across the stream and to the flag. Hammer took a wider route to the right on this leg, but it doesn't look faster to me.
8-9 (+1:29): My big mistake for the day. Went straight and thought I knew where I crossed the trail. As I climbed, I saw a reentrant going up and followed it, expecting to be led to the control. Instead, I ended up on top of the ridge and then dropped down to the opposite side. Saw what turned out to be the women's control on the marsh, figured out where I was and ran back to the flag. About 1:30 lost.
9-10 (+0:12): I paused here to let myself calm down and avoid consecutive mistakes. Crossed the streams at the junction, then climbed.
10-11 (+0:04): Straight, nice running.
11-12 (+0:00): The long leg. The route that jumped out at me was taking trails through 17 and then cutting across to the next trail. I didn't see anything better and stuck with this route, executing well and feeling pretty strongly here. Still surprised to win the leg by almost 40 seconds - I don't typically do very well on longer legs. This seems like a good sign.
12-13 (+0:22): I probably spent 10-15 seconds just trying to open the water jug and pour some water. A side effect of starting first. When I got to the control circle, I didn't see the flag, which cost another 5 seconds or so.
13-14 (+0:00): Pushing hard here. Could see the flag from a long way away.
14-15 (+0:11): Climbed up to the trail loop, then through the gravel pit, down to the field and in. Lost a few seconds breaking trail through the bushes, but clean otherwise.
15-16 (+0:11): Considered going straight, but the thornbushes looked too thick, and so I took the trail around. That was definitely slower: Hammer was 11 seconds faster going straight.
16-17 (+0:00): Straight to the trail, then trails all the way around. Having passed this way on the way to 12, I knew the woods were junky, so I just rounded the last part on the trail.
17-18 (+0:00): Three-way tie for the win on this one, but the guys on Red Y (Sergey R, Turner) crushed us on this leg, just on pure running speed.
18-F (+0:01): Happy to hear and see Alli and Inara cheering at the finish. Sad to not return the favor when Alli finished her course. :(

A really fun day in the woods. I was enjoying this course most of the way and felt like I orienteered well for most of it. It's nice to put together a weekend of two good races without feeling constrained by my back for the first time in ages. I hope this is just one more step forward in the recovery process.

I was also really glad to see Alli go out on the Brown course and run well and have a good time. Hopefully the effects of Lyme will pass before too long... Thanks ROC for a great weekend of orienteering!

C • Back 1

Day 2 - Red X - Splits

Event: Falls Classic - Letchworth State Park
 

Good, solid warmup, including drills, strides, and stretches.

Falls Classic at Letchworth State Park, hosted by ROC
M35, Red-X
RG: http://www.vmeyer.net/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?ac...

I woke up with a cold this morning and had been getting pretty bad sleep the last couple of nights. On the other hand, the past two months of training, jump-started by the SML Champs races in Idaho, had been pretty good, so I wasn't sure what to expect from my body.

S-1 (+0:00): The leg S-1 started off with a 70m climb, and I could tell on the way up that my legs felt pretty good.I was able to run most of the way up, until the final steepest section into the road. Spiking 1 gave some confidence.
1-2 (+0:00): 1-2 was very similar to the first leg of the Blue course from 2014 long champs, which I had studied the week before. Another spike.
2-3 (+0:36): This leg started down a green reentrant full of thorns and brambles, and I had the privilege to break trail for everyone else on the course. I executed cleanly, but perhaps not sufficiently aggressively through the green.
3-4 (+0:23): I ran down the ridge to the trail and then attacked down off the trail bend. It's possible that going straight would have been faster.
4-5 (+0:00): Contouring and staying just above all the fallen trees.
5-6 (+0:00): Cut through the light (and some dark) green over to the road, then road to trail and attacked through the shallow depression in the green. Ran just past the control, then turned around and saw it. Probably lost 10 seconds here.
6-7 (+0:00): Still feeling good here. Contoured around in the white woods, then over to the road. Cut the corner from the water stop, then ran along the telephone line to the open marsh, then climbed up, following the stream all the way to the control.
7-8 (+0:03): Contoured most of the way, but let myself drop a bit too low and then had to climb in order to pick up the two shallow ponds that led me into the control. Could have executed a bit cleaner.
8-9 (0:00): Straight. Picked up the hilltop about 120m north of the control and dropped just a bit lower to make sure I saw the flag. Spike. Here, I started seeing people for the first time, as the course crossed near the start area. It was nice to see other runners, even if they weren't on my course, after a lonesome journey thus far.
9-10 (+0:14): Thought about going straight, but decided to climb up to the trail. Started to get tired here, so the climb felt like a slog. Got going a bit on the road, and then an easy attack down from the water stop.
10-11 (+1:00): Route choice error. I certainly should have climbed up to the trail again. Instead, I went straight, imagining nice running along the contour shelf. This didn't materialize for the first half of the leg, and I was fighting the vegetation and micro climbs and drops the whole way. I did hit the control dead on, but not without much hesitation along the way. Time loss of a about 1:15 here, I think.
11-12 (+0:00): Made sure to hit the stream between 11 and 12, cross it, and follow it down. Spike.
12-13 (+1:25): This was my worst leg of the day. I don't think I registered that 13 was a full 5 contours higher than 12, and so I never pictured myself climbing along when planning this leg. Instead, I climbed gradually and expected to end up at the control. In addition, I got thrown off by an extra stream and thought I was already at the final ridge before the control circle when I arrived at the big stream halfway through the leg. I was thoroughly confused and had to convince myself that I was way too low and climb up to the flag. Probably 1:40 or so lost here.
13-14 (+0:07): Dropped down and ran in the nice woods between the lake and the OOB area, then followed an animal path across the swamp and climbed.
14-15 (+0:00): Aimed off a bit left to make sure and pick up the subtle ridge the control was on. Clean here.
15-16 (+0:37): Feeling very tired here. The woods were junky and the three climbs were slow. JayXC won this leg by running the road all the way around. I had not expected that to be the faster route, but it clearly was. Good to keep in mind.
16-F (+0:05): Slow.

Overall, I was satisfied with my race, especially the first half. I came apart a bit in the second half, but managed to limit the damage. Probably about 4 minutes of total time loss for the course - not ideal, but not too bad either. Ended up winning Red X over Nick by 3 minutes and over Hammer by 5, including winning 8 of the 16 splits.

I then hung around on the tarp with Alli, Barney, and Inara next to the download. It was a nice place to be, as many friends old and new stopped by and chatted. It's fun to see my former competitors through all the junior classes, Patrick Shannon and Steve Brooks, showing up to races with their families and kids. Hopefully our kids will all race each other for years to come.

We then went to the AGM, where Kris presented a concise and informative report of how the BOD has started the process of putting the federation back on solid financial footing, after reaching a low mark of having negative unobligated cash at the end of 2016. Things are looking up financially.

Finally, Alli and I had dinner outside in Mt.Morris, and were joined later by Alex and Ed, Ian, Kris, and Bob F. A great evening with fine company.

Day 1 - Red X - Splits

Intervals: 4x4' on the elliptical.

C • Friendly wager, may be. 40

A one-way run in Rock Creek. Alli dropped me off at the Soapstone Valley trailhead after baby swimming classes at the Wilson Pool. I ran down Soapstone to the start of the Western Ridge trail, and then all the way up Western Ridge, around Boundary Bridge, and home. One-way runs are fun.

C • I like one-way runs too 1

Late in the evening at the Blair House gym

Event: DVOA Hickory Run Sand Spring
 

Event: QOC Lake Accotink
 

Event: 2017 SART (9/9/17 & 9/10/17)
 

I ran a Blue course from the March 2017 QOC event at Wheaton. When I was here in March, I ran Brown, so a few of the controls were the same. The forest was much more overgrown, especially underfoot, than I recall from March, so it was probably somewhat slower running. I am not sure I ever found two of the controls - on a (non-existing?) pit and a tiny cairn - but I think I was close enough to have seen the flag had there been one. On the day, JTor ran 61, so would have clobbered me. On the bright side, my back basically didn't hurt the entire time, and there was a wonderful wife and cute baby cheering me on at the finish.

C • wheaton 3

Blue - Splits

Sweatfest.

Elliptical intervals at work, 1'-2'-3'-4'-4'-3'-2'-1'.

Pretty much full strength routine at lunchtime. One-legged squats are hard to do while keeping the knee straight.

Running in Rock Creek, same loop as the previous week.

Event: Labor Daze
 

Back at work.