Training Log Archive: maprunner

A long day at LeanAgileKC 2017 conference. Exciting, but long. I gave a presentation on my Kanban projects at work. I was the lone manufacturing rep among the speakers. Everyone else works in IT. I don't care, I think Kanban and Agile are totally cool.

C • Agile and Kanban 3

Mike and I went to Perry and I ran part of his course from last week. I need to practice running on areas with lots of trails. I tend to either zone out when I'm on a trail, or get lazy and only think about the trail and not the contours or other features. I was advised to skip 1, so I went to 12 first, then onwards.

So my goal today was to always know what I wanted to do with each trail: cross it, turn left or turn right. I give myself a B. I missed one time where I planned to turn left (crossed it instead on the way to 3) and also I expected to follow the straight line from 2 to 3, but I drifted south and crossed more trails than I expected. And on the way to 9, I thought I would cross a trail and keep going uphill, but I misread the contours (I was tired).

I liked the leg to 5. I have problems with long legs and crossing trails, so this was really good practice. Did not enjoy falling over the barbed-wire fence halfway there (Mike had even warned me that there were unmapped fences). As I approached 5, I realized that I should probably turn around in order make it back on time, and I had successfully navigated most of the leg, so I went to 6 instead. This was fun because I had never been in this area before. Scared up a flock of ducks and some pelicans.

The woods here are nicer than Kill Creek yesterday. It was nice to be out, but my legs were tired. I pushed hard at the end, knowing I would be a few minutes late. I pretended I was on my way to the finish at day 2 next weekend, and I should leave nothing in the tank. So I pushed.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

PTOC event at Kill Creek, Advanced short. I wanted to make this a good practice for next weekend, so I treated it like a real race. I warmed up, stood around at the start for a bit and then took off.

Map (below) is Mike's long course. I saved my Garmin track after the race, but somehow it disappeared. Maybe my memory is full? Any way, using Mike's map instead. My course went from 1 to 6, then was the same as his.

Decision time right away at the start. I did not go the same way as Mike, I took the southern route and stayed on the trail the whole way. I knew the grass near 1 was rough and that I would have to walk, whereas I could keep jogging (slowly) on the trail route I chose.

Down to the paved trail, then on to 6 (on Mike's map) I took the same routes as him through here. As I approached 8, I saw Eric (a tall man in a bright orange coat). He punched ahead of me but when I got to the field after the control, he was nowhere in sight. How was that possible? Made me doubt that I was in the right place, took it slow through the tall grass (I went on the straight line, different than Mike's route). Turns out that Eric was just out of view around the woods to the east, he was right behind me at 9.

I was doing a good job of ignoring Eric and reading the map. I was talking out loud a lot but I found it helped me concentrate better. I was also moving fairly well, jogging non-stop on the trails and walking purposefully through the woods.

I took very similar routes to 10, 11 and 12 (not much route choice here). I saw Blair leaving 12, and he was on the north side of the stream. As I punched at 12, I thought to myself, I'm getting tired and thirsty, I should drink. That distracted me and I didn't see it as a sign to be careful. I just blindly headed back across the stream. I should not have done that, I should have stayed on the side where I was. Doh!

I caught up with Blair on the way to 14 but I went straight and he missed it a bit. I was glad to have the practice of seeing, then trying to ignore, other people.

Pushed it hard on the run in, telling myself you never know how everyone else is doing. In the end, I beat Gene but lost to Sandy. I was pleased with this race, it was good practice (mentally) for next weekend.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=spi...

Blair and I went to Heartland to check out the courses for the Pre-Possum. Slow walking, checking points and talking over course design. Blair designed the course, and I was his mentor this time. The last few winters, we have been pairing up newbie course setters with experienced course setters. It's a good plan, working out well to help the club develop.

Nice night to move around on west campus. Cold to start, but was dressed just right for the end. Felt good to move my legs.