Friday Nov 30 |
 | Trail Run 31:21 [2] 3.5 mi (8:57 / mi) | |
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| Easy A.M. jog, after lifting. |
Thursday Nov 29 |
| Track 7:59 [3] 1.0 mi (7:59 / mi) | |
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| Indoor track, after a tiring 10 hour day. Started with an easy mile warm-up ... |
| Track 14:14 [4] 2.0 mi (7:06 / mi) | |
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| Then a tempo run that was going to be four miles at about 7:10 pace, but I needed to stretch the hip after two miles, and decided I needed to do something more focused ... |
| Track 6:33 [5] 1.0 mi (6:32 / mi) | |
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| So I did a faster mile. Felt pretty good, though breathing hard by the end. |
| Track 4:30 [3] 0.5 mi (8:59 / mi) | |
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| Cooldown. |
Wednesday Nov 28 |
| Orienteering 20:00 [2] 1.5 km (13:20 / km) | |
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| Mt Tom again. There were four yellow controls north of the road that needed picking up. |
| Orienteering 36:59 [4] 3.53 km (10:29 / km) +195m 8:13 / km | |
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| Just had time to sneak in the orange course before going to work. A good, hard effort. Goal was 10 m/k, but with about 6% climb, that wasn't going to happen. |
Monday Nov 26 |
| machines (elliptical) 30:00 [3] | |
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Sunday Nov 25 |
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| Event: Mt Tom
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| Orienteering 5:00 [4] 1 km (5:00 / km) | |
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| Oops. The control number for #9 on the yellow clue sheet was wrong. Fortunately, I found out before it affected more than 2 or 3 people. Sprinted out to tape on a correction; jogged back. |
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| C • very speedy 3 |
| Orienteering 46:00 [3] 3 km (15:20 / km) | |
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| Picked up all the e-punch stands south of the road. Moving along at a good clip until the stands started feeling heavy and unwieldy. Time includes stopping to velcro the flags, about a minute each. |
| Orienteering 6:00 [3] 0.6 km (10:00 / km) | |
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| Joanne was picking up the remaining five (mostly orange) e-punch stands, but missed the red control in the reentrant north of the road. It was getting dark, and the gate was closing, but I just had time to zip out and grab it. So the e-punch equipment is off to Boston and the Blue Hills for next weekend. |
| Note | |
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| The meet was a big success. Perfect fall day near 50 degrees. We had 120 people out on 96 separate starts. A surprising 29 starts on red (22 finishers) exhausted what I thought was a generous supply of pre-printed red maps. Fortunately, I was able to print a few extras on site. E-punching went off without a glitch. It's an amazing system, almost idiot proof. |
Saturday Nov 24 |
| Orienteering 3:00:00 [1] 10 km (18:00 / km) | |
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| Putting out controls and SI units. (NEOC has this cool vest with 16 velcro pockets to carry the units in.) Just enough jogging to make this loggable. Beautiful day, though a bit chilly. Should be 10 degrees warmer tomorrow for the meet. |
Friday Nov 23 |
| Trail Run 24:07 [4] 3.1 mi (7:46 / mi) | |
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| Didn't feel motivated to do a long run, so instead I did a moderately hard tempo run on the Noho XC course. 34 degrees, so I wasn't dressed for speed: I had two layers on top and my heavy trail shoes.
7:45, 7:36, 7:53, 50. |
| Trail/Road Run 36:37 [2] 4.0 mi (9:08 / mi) | |
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| About two miles before and two after, very easy. Legs felt really dead by the end: hard to imagine running 26+ miles on them. |
Thursday Nov 22 |
| Orienteering 1:00:00 [2] 4 km (15:00 / km) | |
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| Put some flags out at Mt Tom, mainly as a way to get some exercise before pigging out at the in-laws. |
Wednesday Nov 21 |
| Trail Run 54:35 [2] 5.0 mi (10:55 / mi) | |
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| From Amethyst to the (true) summit of Mt Orient and back. 37 degrees, mizzling, wet slippery trail. Very slow, probably the slowest I've ever done this. 22:45, 6:42, 5:36, 19:30. |
Tuesday Nov 20 |
| Track 20:46 [4] 3.0 mi (6:55 / mi) | |
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| Wintry day, good day to run indoors at the track. I did my standard three mile (really 4800 m.) tempo run. 27 seconds faster than two weeks ago, and with about the same perceived effort. Progress? 6:57, 6:56, 6:53. |
| Track 7:56 [3] 1.0 mi (7:56 / mi) | |
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| Warm-up mile. |
| Track 4:20 [2] 0.5 mi (8:39 / mi) | |
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| Cooldown. |
Monday Nov 19 |
| Trail/Road Run 55:21 [3] 6.5 mi (8:30 / mi) | |
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| Puffers Pond loop from UMass. Really a road run with a 1.2 mile trail segment in the middle. My legs didn't like the road, but it's part of my marathon training. 8:50, 8:44, 12:45, 7:57, 8:48, 8:15. |
Sunday Nov 18 |
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| Event: WCOC Wooster Mtn Meet
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| Orienteering 1:12:17 [4] 6.5 km (11:07 / km) | |
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| Went down with PG to WCOC meet at Wooster Mtn, a map in progress by Rick D. (The portion used today was called Hemlock Hills.) Lots of rock and steep slopes, similar to Tarryville, but also some nice open woods running. Temp in the low 40's feelt cold before and after, but perfect during the run.
I had a good run today, but it seems I can't get through a race without doing something really stupid. Today, it was going to the go control first. Fortunately, the go control was more or less in the same direction as the route to #1. I should have lost less than a minute, but then I missed the go control and ended up losing more than a minute and a half on the first leg. But after that, only two one-minute misses on #2 and #5. |
| Trail Run 7:00 [2] 0.7 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
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| A short warm-up, mostly seeking out a semi-private place to take a dump. |
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Red - Splits |
Friday Nov 16 |
| Trail Run 1:08:55 [4] 8.0 mi (8:36 / mi) | |
| weight:142lbs |
| 40's, perfect running conditions. I find that having a goal on a familiar course where you know what all the splits should be really helps motivate me to do a good run. So, I picked the Frost to Depot and back route with a goal of 69 minutes, a minute faster than Peter and I did this a couple of weeks ago. And, indeed, having that goal, and knowing what splits I should hit, had me chugging along at just the needed pace. Some of the usual leg and foot discomfort, but I had good energy on the hills, and never had to breathe very hard. "Quite pleased with myself."
8:07, 9:26, 6:40, 11:22 (35:39); 10:51, 6:19, 8:47, 7:17 (33:16). |
Thursday Nov 15 |
| Track 24:19 [2] 3.0 mi (8:06 / mi) | |
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| Indoors, after lifting, after dark. Wanted to do an easy, recovery run. This wasn't it. Legs felt like crap. |
Wednesday Nov 14 |
| Trail Run 1:40:08 [3] 10.0 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
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| A very pleasant run with Peter at Norwottuck, mostly on bike trails. Probably a couple hundred little hills, with constant twisting and turning. My longest run in nearly three months (not counting the Highlander). My stamina was fine, but legs were feeling creaky by the end. Distance is a wild guess. |
Tuesday Nov 13 |
| machines (elliptical) 30:00 [3] | |
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| Giving my back, which is sore from the weekend, another day off. |
Monday Nov 12 |
| Note | |
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| Spent an enjoyable two hours at Mt Tom in the northeast kingdom, exploring, mapping, checking routes for my courses. Pleased that I can keep very close map contact with minimal use of the compass. That may not sound like much, since I was walking, but I couldn't have said that a couple of years ago. |
Sunday Nov 11 |
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| Event: WCOC Sessions Woods
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| Orienteering 1:15:42 [4] 6.3 km (12:01 / km) | |
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| WCOC Sessions, red. Nice fall day, nice courses by Rich N. I had two very stupid legs which cost maybe 8 minutes. Otherwise a very good run, spiking lots of controls, and moving well through the open woods in the north. |
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Red - Splits |
Saturday Nov 10 |
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| Event: NEOC - Estabrook Woods
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| Orienteering 1:12:13 [4] 7.7 km (9:23 / km) | |
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| Estabrook Woods. I don't much like running on this map, but I needed to pick up the e-punch equipment for Mt Tom, so ... I did what was advertised as "blue", but it was very easy navigation, a mix of yellow and orange legs. I had a pretty good run, but I lost 6 minutes on #3, where the map is wrong, the control was in an unmapped reentrant, and I'm pretty sure not where it was shown on the map. Still, six minutes? I guess I should have been searching more vigorously, rather than standing around critiquing the map. Otherwise, just a one-minute miss on #9 (a boulder in the green), and maybe a couple of around routes where straighter was a bit faster. |
Thursday Nov 8 |
| machines (Elliptical, kilimanjaro) 30:00 [3] | |
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| After heavy lifting. |
Wednesday Nov 7 |
| Track (tempo) 21:13 [4] 3.0 mi (7:04 / mi) | |
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| Smith indoor track. Right on goal: 53 second laps. The pace was manageable, but sore/tired legs made it hard. 7:04, 7:06, 7:03. |
| Track 8:12 [3] 1.0 mi (8:12 / mi) | |
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| Mile to warm-up. |
| Track 5:00 [2] 0.5 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
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| Some junk. |
Tuesday Nov 6 |
| Trail Run 49:46 [2] 5.2 mi (9:34 / mi) | |
| weight:141lbs |
| Frost towards Juggler, but turned left at the stone wall to do the Ellsworth Barnard loop, then back along the tree farm, and some bushwhacking down to the pond. A crisp 46 degrees, trails leaf-covered and wet from morning rain. Old man pace. Checking out some body parts to see if they still work. |
Sunday Nov 4 |
| Orienteering 1:04:27 [4] 5.96 km (10:49 / km) | |
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| Day 2, Green. Woods a bit more open, though I was also slower, especially on the ups. Really, I don't think the orienteering is that hard here: I can read the map OK on the move, and lots of features (i.e. reentrants and spurs) are large and clear. One just has to remain focused, have a decent compass when crossing a vague area between large features, and keep track of where one is. But not always easy for me to do when I'm trying to run hard the whole way, as I was the last two days.
I had a decent run going through the first 11 controls with only one 3-4 minute mistake. But on the way to 12, the last leg of any substance, I tripped and did a face plant into a log: smashed the right side of my face, with a nice cut and bruise next to the right eye. The orienteering was all downhill from there. When I finally got moving again, I apparently headed off about 45 degree from the angle I was aiming, and lost 4 minutes on the leg, taking way too long to figure out where I was. Then I lost another minute on the next trivial control where I just had to head straight down to the big river. So in the end, it wasn't much better than day 1, with 10 minutes or so lost. I moved up a couple places to eighth eligible M50, since a couple in front of me bombed.
Overall, a bit of a disappointing weekend, in spite of the well-organized event and well-designed courses. I suppose my times weren't much worse than usual (no disasters); but I'm not happy with the usual. |
| Trail Run 15:00 [2] 1.5 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
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| Some jogging to warm-up. |
| Note | |
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| But I wasn't disappointed in Adam! He took US sprint champion in M14 on Friday, then won the M14 US champs classic with a total time 10 minutes ahead of the next US eligible for the two day. (He was second overall, beaten by a fast Canadian.) He ran three yellow courses, all in under 8 m/k, and (from examining the splits), with no mistakes over a minute. And he only started doing yellow courses on his own this spring! He's psyched to move up to orange. |
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Day 2 Green X - Splits |
Saturday Nov 3 |
| Orienteering race 1:00:16 [4] 5.08 km (11:52 / km) | |
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| Day 1 of US champs. Woods pretty thick, including lots of green briar. I was moving pretty well but a couple of bonehead mistakes, on 1 and the yellow level 10, cost about 4 minutes each. Both times, there was a split-second decision not to follow the planned route and to instead just head for the flag; both times I wasn't secure in my attack. I wish there was something I could implant in my brain that would give me an electrical shock every time I do that. Lost about 12 minutes total, so the best times of around 51 were very doable. Instead I was way out of the money, 10th eligible M50. |
| Orienteering 30:00 [2] 2.0 mi (14:59 / mi) | |
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| Did about half of the classic model with Adam. Also includes jogging to the model, back to the parking, and then to the start. |
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Day 1 Green X - Splits |
Friday Nov 2 |
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| Event: US Champs
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| Orienteering race 20:06 [5] 2.5 km (8:02 / km) | |
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| US Sprint Championships, Prince William Forest, VA. An OK run, good enough for third M50 of those US eligible, fourth overall. I had good energy, but mistakes on three controls totalled a bit over two minutes. Just lapses in concentration: too much of the absent-minded professor in me to excel at this sport. |
| Orienteering 30:00 [2] 2.0 mi (14:59 / mi) | |
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| Jogged the model event with Adam. Then some running to warm up. |
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Sprint Green - Splits |