Saturday Dec 15 |
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| Event: Valley Forge Battle to the End O' Marathon
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 | Orienteering 6:03:13 [3]29.2 mi (12:26 / mi) | |
| weight:142lbs |
| Valley Forge O-marathon, put on by Wyatt. Forerunner says I covered about 29.2 miles. Temperature in the 30's was good for me. Really, the course was a 42.2 k white course, which was fine. There was still enough interest in the navigating to keep the mind occupied (except for a couple of really long trail legs).
I did about what I expected, so I can't say I'm disappointed: what I expected, and what I did, was feel fine for the first half, and then have a physical meltdown over the second half. So I took increasingly more frequent and longer walking breaks, which made it physically and psychologically tolerable. The second half felt more like a rogaine than an orienteering race.
I started out with Peter for about the first 75 minutes; Randy was there (and Tim Good and Mike Bishop, early on); but I was struggling a bit to keep up. Hilary passed me going to the first aid station, and I arrived as the others were leaving. At which point I said, "too fast for me", and let them go. But to my surprise, I caught Randy about four controls later, the one at the end of the road, as he apparently was rethinking his next route. I was with him or had him in sight for the next four or five legs, losing him for good just before the half. I had to change shoes at the halfway point - the sole on one shoe came loose and was flapping with every step. By the time I got going again, Jeff Saeger had come in and was heading out, and I had him in sight for a couple legs, but I couldn't stay with him on the long trail run. Then, to my surpise, I saw him again coming from the back way to the depression on the trail, and we were together for a few more legs, when Christina caught us. Jeff and Christina went off together, and I fell back before the aid station on the road, and did the rest on my own. Just one mistake to speak of, as I was transitioning between maps: cost about a minute (or a bit more at the pace I was going!)
I'm really glad I did this. Too bad, though, that my body can't hold up for this long a run anymore. But I don't think I did any damage. I'll take it easy until the new year, then try (once again!) to build up without getting injured. |
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Marathon - Splits |
Wednesday Dec 12 |
| Track 13:58 [4]2.0 mi (6:58 / mi) | |
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| 2 mile tempo run at the indoor track, after lifting. Required a non-trivial effort. 7:01, 6:57. |
| Track 12:25 [3]1.5 mi (8:17 / mi) | |
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| Mile before, half after. |
Tuesday Dec 11 |
| Trail Run 54:39 [3]5.0 mi (10:55 / mi) | |
| weight:145lbs |
| Southside of Norwottuck, starting from parking area off Batchelor Road. Bike trails on west side of lower access (including IA and RC). An out and back, even though when I turned around I was 3/4 around a loop back to the start. Trails were all ice, either solid or loose granular; but not a problem with my studded o-shoes. A pleasant, relaxed pace. Nobody human besides me was out there, I'm sure of that. 30:00 out, 24: 39 back. |
Monday Dec 10 |
| Road Run 32:56 [3]4.1 mi (8:01 / mi) | |
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| Short UMass loop, moderate pace. |
Sunday Dec 9 |
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| Event: WCOC Five Ponds meet
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| Orienteering 1:44:20 [4]*** 7.7 km (13:33 / km) | |
| spiked:15/18c |
| 5 ponds, red course, set by Peter Grollman, from the spring meet in a deluge that nobody went to. Some challenging legs, made especially challenging because I couldn't read the map at 1 to 15 except at a standstill (which I should have done more often!). Three bad legs. Lost about 12-13 minutes on 13: I was in the right area (but couldn't say precisely where because I wasn't reading the contours well enough); then I had to relocate twice before finding it, the second time relocating on the big cliffs 150 meters east of the control (never saw the trail I had planned to use to relocate, though I must have crossed it twice). Also lost four minutes on 2 (map made no sense if you were off to the right; I came back to it from the trail near the marsh/pond to the east), and about four minutes on 5 (a couple minutes on route choice, a couple by going past and doing a big circle around the pit). So not a very good day. But I loved the open woods section from 6-12! (Though maybe the road would have been faster to 11; I went right of the line). I'm missing some splits because the e-punches malfunctioned; I guess I need to punch my watch too at WCOC events :) |
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| C • Splits 3 |
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Red - Splits |