Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Letchworth Dam Good trail race. Woefully underprepared for this race, plus it didn't help that I ran two fairly hard O races yesterday. Another annoyance is that one of my contacts came out a few tenths of a mile (Edit: 0.5 miles; I can see from the GPS speed information exactly where I stopped) into the race, and I couldn't get it back in with no saline and no mirror, so I ran the race with one very blurry eye, making it tough to perceive the roots, rocks, drop-offs into the many streams that needed to be crossed, etc.

The 14.0 miles is what the race claims its distance is. My GPS said something like 13.4 miles, but I know that it lost reception on multiple occasions.

I question the 910 feet of climb that AP calculates -- it sure felt like much, much more. Garmin Training Center says 10,000 feet of climb but I know that is totally bogus. I'm guessing more like 1500-2000 feet.

Comments on the "race" (if you could call my slow pace "racing"):

I have to give my gratitude to trailsnail, because w/o her influence, I certainly never would have done this race. :) (Thanks SO much, trailsnail!)

I was about 15 minutes slower than when I did this race in the inaugural year in 2009.

I ran the first mile or so with trailsnail, wanting her to help me set a conservative pace, and I'm sure the race would have been more pleasant for me if I had remained at her pace for longer.

It had rained a third of an inch the night before, according to a park person, and the trails were quite muddy, especially on the way back after basically the whole field had covered each piece of ground twice by then. And as mentioned, the lack of the contact had a pretty major effect on my ability to confidently pick out the obstacles in the trail, and it was esp. an issue when making the sharp descents to the stream crossings.

I was fading significantly even before the turn-around, and continued fading, although I passed maybe 8-10 people on the way back and no one passed me, so it seems that others were fading more than I was.

Bob Lonsberry looked like he was having a great race -- he was on the way back and looking strong when I was maybe half a mile from the beginning of the turn-around loop.

Hmmm -- interesting, the results are on-line now, but I don't appear in them at all!! My time would have put me ahead of 13 runners; it didn't list people by place or say how many finishers there were, but a rough estimate is there were around 70 finishers.

I'm getting a bit disenchanted with Medved-run races, as I did the Medved 15 miler at Mendon this spring, and they had me in the wrong age group (and I would have won my correct age group). Now they don't have me down at all ...

I see that Bob L. had a time of 2:25, one place ahead of Patty Lyons, so that is in fact a very impressive performance.

C • mud 4

Event: ROC - Genesee Valley Park Score-O [2011 Sprint Series #5]
 

Warmup for sprint. Did not have the GPS running, so the distance and time are very rough guesses.

Sprint at Genesee Valley Park. Only bobbles were #1 and #11. The direction to #1 caught me by surprise, as I expected the course was going to be to the N and W of the start, and definitely hadn't expected any semi thick woods off the bat. Took a couple of tries to find a way into the woods; once I broke through the thick 5 m or so near the parking lot, it was pretty open, although there was lots of poison ivy around, which I ran through as there didn't seem to be a good way of avoiding it.

On #11, I passed it but didn't think it was my control because it didn't seem to be on the same side of the vegetation that the center of the circle was on. After I was about 10 m past it, I decided I'd better go back and check, and sure enough, it was my control. In looking at the map later, it does not seem quite right relative to the center of the circle or the control description. But not much time lost (AP split analysis says 8 seconds, which seems about right).

GVP "Trail Challenge", "6K" distance. Nice format, very friendly to runners who are new to orienteering. Easy navigation but with route choices.

I'm sure tomorrow during the Letchworth Dam Good 14 mile trail race, I will wish I had not done this race ... I was definitely dragging by the end, and my pace showed it.

C • good luck! 3

6k TC - Splits

Sprint - Splits

Fairly short "shake off the dust" urban run, as I hadn't done any running in the previous two days. I wanted to do something but I didn't want to overdo it because I'm planning on orienteering tomorrow and doing the 14-mile Letchworth trail run on Sunday.

With trailsnail and my daughter Andrea, who lives in Ohiopyle, PA, and is visiting us for a few days.

Whiting Road and Gosnell.