Training Log Archive: ebone

Warm-up run before day 2 of the U.S. Champs. My stride had an easy feeling, and my legs felt noticeably good, in comparison to how they have felt for the past couple of weeks.

I ran day 2 of the U.S. Classic Championships. As I did yesterday, I started off a bit roughly (although I caught Ross Smith two minutes at the second control), but I had developed an expectation that I would have to apply great mental and physical effort to complete my weekend plan* today, and I quickly reached a high level of focus, which I maintained for nearly the whole run. Looking back at my race, it was quite clean, with my course review suggesting that my biggest single time loss (around 30 seconds) came from a somewhat convoluted and unnecessarily far around route to the left from control #12 to #13. My total lost time was around 1.5 minutes, which I'm fairly pleased with after yesterday's troubles.

My running performance today was a breath of fresh air, as my legs felt better than they have in any race over the past few months or maybe even all year. There were some times that I felt like I was bogging down a bit going uphill, but I always rebounded quickly to a good pace, and I never felt like I was hitting the wall. On the other hand, I didn't feel like I had very good top speed, and while I pushed hard over the last third or so of the course, I felt a bit flat and like I couldn't match my speed from the opening stretches of the course. Also, although I kept pushing for most of the run, my legs didn't feel that heavy toward the end, which made me wonder whether I was really running as fast as I could toward the end. Still, I felt just a bit nauseous during the last 40% of the course, and after the run, I felt quite tired and like I was going to fall asleep, so I think it was actually a very good effort.

* Back to my plan:

Saturday -- this course looked like it would be the more technical, so I planned to run at 85% effort, giving myself some extra breathing room to move smoothly and efficiently through the sometimes somewhat rugged or technical parts. This plan mostly worked, except that I had trouble getting in synch with the map early then had a few loss-of-focus/map-interpretation errors in the loop of short legs in the sage.

Sunday -- in addition to a fairly clean run, the payback from an easier pace on Saturday was supposed to be a little extra kick in the legs on Sunday's longer course. Whether or not my somewhat easier pace on Saturday facilitated it, I was indeed able to turn up the speed on day 2. The other part of the plan was to concentrate extra hard to:
A. Pick fast routes -- mostly succeeded at this, and
B. Nail the controls, not taking the seemingly easier terrain for granted -- mostly succeeded at this, too.

Goals and results:

Earlier in the year, I had looked toward this race as a good chance for me to pick up my second ever U.S. Classic Champs gold medal. After my somewhat disappointing physical performance over the summer's races, capped off by a bad cold (or other virus), I was much less optimistic about my chances. I still hoped I could pull out a gold or silver medal, but the field was strong, and my lackluster run on Saturday (7th overall and 5th U.S.-Champs-eligible, 5.5 minutes behind) didn't put me in a very good position. I was happy to be third overall on Sunday, just two minutes behind the winner, to net me a 4th place overall and a bronze U.S. Champs medal, behind William Hawkins, who is having a good year of training and racing, and Leif Anderson, who seems to be enjoying the dividends of his renewed training and put together two very solid runs for an overall margin of 1:16 ahead of me.

After battling my post-race sleepiness, I went for a very easy warm-down jog. My legs felt remarkably weak and tired at the start, then I felt much better and more awake at the end.

A couple short stints of control pick-up after the post-awards rainstorm had mostly subsided.

I had a twinge of the (intercostal muscle?) pain in the left side of my chest just during the last minute or so of jogging.

Blue 2 - Splits

Easy warm-up jog before U.S. Classic Championships day 1 at Diamond Bay.

I ran a conservatively-paced race for day 1 of the U.S. Classic Championships. My intent was to focus on navigating and running smoothly, saving my legs for tomorrow's 15+ km course, but I had a little trouble getting mentally warmed-up to navigating, and I lost a little time early then a little time later, for a total of at least 2:15 lost. The course was fun, sort of a long middle distance style course.

Easy jogging warm-down with Christoph, Ross and Boris after the race.

Blue 1 - Splits

I ran the Green course at East Pelican Bay. I ran easy, but I took my pulse a couple times on my wrist (since I forgot my HRM transmitter strap at home), and it was around 160-162, which is higher than I would've guessed from my perceived exertion level. The course was fairly easy, and I made no significant errors.

1.5 hour nap and 10.3 hours of sleep at night.

Setting then picking up controls for O training at the First With The Most map.

Shadowing Joe Barrett (M12) from Kansas City during a control picking course on the First With The Most map. We were out for 43 minutes, but we made many stops during the training. Joe did an impressive job navigating the challenging course.

Wm-up jogging, mostly very easy and in-place, before one-man relay race.

I ran fairly hard in the individual motalla race at Jubal E Spring map. I felt okay for the first two loops, then I conked out on the last two. I navigated well and had very little lost time.

Jogging to the course area at Bisbee Hill to set controls, jogging back to the Jubal E Spring event area, then jogging back to Bisbee Hill again.

Setting controls for a precision compass course at Bisbee Hill.

Some running while shadowing during the compass course, then picking up controls.

I ran the Green course at easy-to-medium intensity at Middle Crow's Toe. I had one significant mistake, on the first control I think, where I hit the ridge low and went down to look for the control before going up.
I don't remember the exact distance or number of controls.

Shadowing Channelview team members, Jesus, Erik and Juan, on the training course at Plains of Despair.

Event: 2008 Laramie Daze & US Champs