Training Log Archive: oxensd

Long distance at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, last event in the nicely arranged MNOC WOC/JWOC team trials. I ran green, 7.4km, 180m climb, according GPS I covered 9.9km and 189m climb. Mostly nice open terrain with lots of leaf covering, and wet with many marshes providing alternatively good navigation handles and/or wet and muddy experiences (see below!).

Disappointed in my run, several really dumb mistakes. Right out of the start I decide to go NE to hit some trails, instead of the obvious due north to hit a road. To add insult to injury I managed a parallel error by confusing two trail intersections, and almost ran off the map. At least 2 minutes lost (Attackpoint didn't report that, oddly enough). #2 was OK, fun navigation, I ended up slightly north which cost 30-45 seconds.

#4 presented some route choices, I went pretty straight through, at one point saw a small clearing and made for it...turned out to be a marsh with 1 meter of water under the surface. Barely made it back to "shore", crawling across the wobbling marsh cover. Then made a really strange mistake as I got closer to #4, failed to see a small path and then just got confused, ended up 200-300m northwest close to a big marsh. Really dumb, had I just followed the compass and the contour lines I would have been fine. Have no good explanation for the error, other than perhaps that the marsh 250m due north of the control was mapped as being wooded, but was in fact completely open. Confused me but in hindsight I should have had more confidence in my location.
UPDATE: having now looked at my GPS track, my error was even worse! I ended up WEST of the large open marsh 500m NNW of #4, having mysteriously executed a 90 degree turn due West when I should have gone south, at a 90 degree turn of a path. No wonder I was confused! Lesson learned: use the compass, duh. Am keeping my old comments above just to remember how confused I got - lesson for the future, hopefully.

Somewhat made up for #4 with good navigation to #5, and decent runs to 6 and 7. Then made a ridiculous parallel error on #8, left the path too early and everything fit just fine...ended up SE and E along the large impassable marsh. Figured it out but cost 3-4 minutes. Really dumb mistake again. #10 was really easy due to the two big path crossings. Could have run faster to 11 and 12 and goal but legs didn't quite work at the same speed as brain!

Fun run but mad at myself for 12-13 minutes worth of silly mistakes.

Alexandra won both days in Yellow/White, great boost for self confidence. Time for orange soon?

Green - Splits

MNOC Middle Distance, at beautiful Interstate Park next to the St. Croix river. Decided to move up one class to Red, since Green seemed too easy at only 4km. Famous last words...4.9km, 210m climb, according to GPS I ran 6.98km (see below for explanation!) and climbed 234m. Lost a little on #3 by getting too far to the left (unusually for me, I tend to veer to the right). Route choice to #4 was along the path and then due south, as the cliffs made for slow running at least for me. The most interesting route choice was #7, I went straight through as the terrain was surprisingly easy, I suspect many went all the way around (400+ meters longer). For me I think going straight was slightly faster, though not sure looking at the split times.

Lost 8-9 minutes on #9 by failing to see it on the map as it was so close to #8. Didn't discover my mistake until almost at #10, and had to run all the way back. First time for that kind of mistake for me, ever, incredibly frustrating!

Great day overall, I had fun even though I'm no shape to compete with M18s or M35s, running-wise!

On the way back to Minneapolis enjoyed the "Vilhelm Moberg" trail in the towns of Chisago City and Lindström, complete with the roadsigns declaring their sister cities of Algutsboda (hardly a city!! though it was Vilhelm Mobergs birthplace) and Tingsryd, both in Småland.

Red - Splits

Event: USA & Canada - WOC/JWOC Team Trials OUSA National 3 day meet