Training Log Archive: syd

Event: Green Corn Moon ROGAINE
 

Green Corn Moon Rogaine

Watch continually dropped satellites, so I gave up on tracking after a couple hours. Distance is 2x straight line.

Check-in started at 4, so I had 2 hrs with the map. The map was so small, it was printed on just a single 8.5x11 sheet of paper. Looking at the layout, there were a high density of points near the start/finish that looked pretty easy, mostly on trails, so I opted to save those for the end. The plan was to hit 2 high pointers in the northern section, head S through the narrow part of the park, grab the S points CW and then back up to finish the N section.

Had a rough start. Got a little confused by the trails through the disc golf course so I ended up climbing all the way up the hill just past 76 first (I had planned to hit 83 first to ease into the hills....). I had a lot of trouble seeing the first few flags. Walked right past it before seeing someone else punch and realizing where it was. Also struggled with 83. Again, just couldn't see the flag. I was in the right spot, but didn't have a lot of confidence, so I re-attacked and found it. Whew. Things started looking up after that. Just had to brush off the navigation cobwebs I guess.

No trouble with any of the points as I went S to 75. As I was headed down the hill to 70 it got pretty dark, so I paused to put on my headlamp. Turned out I was just in a thick area, it didn't get full dark for a while, but I could still use my light to look for the controls. The reflectors were so much easier to see than the flags. One of the only times I looked forward to the dark.

My night navigation went really smoothly. Almost all my bearings were spot on. Ended up going down the wrong spur to 80, but I realized my mistake and found the correct spur without losing much time. After getting 73 I got a little worried about time, so when I passed 33 and saw a group of 6-7 people stumbling around in the woods I decided to just drop it. Also dropped 31. Wanted to save enough time at the end to grab the higher point CPs in the N section.

Made it back to the N part of the map with ~45 min to go. The points were all on trails, so they were quick and easy. All went really smoothly. Dropped 60 because I didn't think I had enough time. Finished with a few minutes to spare....I probably could've made it to 60. Oh well. Pretty happy with how I did. Navigation started off rusty, but by half way through I was feeling really good.

Beat BF by 20 points :) 3rd solo and 5th (?) overall.

76, 83, 52, 71, 53, 61, 75, 41, 70, 62, 57, 40, 80, 65, 73, 43, 44, 63, 32, 56, 45

Asked Ed for some open water swimming suggestions and he did not disappoint. Checked out Trout Lake at ILRA. It was a suprisingly enjoyable swim. No weeds, the water was quite warm. Didn't wear my wetsuit, in case the water is too warm for it at the race. I was amazed at the number of other people we saw training for swimming there. Would definitely go back in the future.

Felt a little better than our last 18 miler, but not much. Knee was acting up at mile 5, but we stopped to stretch and I never felt it again. Last long run!!! Let the taper begin :)