Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Event: ROC - Genesee Country Village and Museum Regular Meet
 

Event: LAOC Barton Forest Frolic A-meet
 

Green course at Gen. Country Village nature center. Great terrain, great map. Sadly, not a great performance on my part, in particular on #10, where I made a 10+ minute error by running well off of the map and taking a while to realize it.

It took me a while to get into the scale of the map. I recalled that it wasn't 1:10000 but carelessly forgot to know ahead of time exactly what it was. So things were coming up a lot sooner than I expected for a while.

No issues with 1 or 2. For #3, I planned on heading in the general correct direction but aiming off to the right to the E-W stone wall, then follow that to the N-S stone wall, the junction of the walls, and the control. I aimed off a little too much which wouldn't have been a real problem, but then I spotted a control and of course, just HAD to check it even though it was pretty clearly not at a wall junction. So I lost a minute or so by doing that.

No real problems going to #4; took a slightly rough bearing and then used the shape of the hill before #4 to adjust to where I needed to be, and came out right on it. Also no problems with #5. Again, used the hill before #5 to adjust my route.

#6 and #7, similarly not difficulty. Followed the long spur down to #6, then a compass bearing, and using the side of the hill that #7 was on to adjust the route slightly.

I got off on #8 for some reason -- came out on the trail north of where the spur was. Just careless compass work I suspect. Might have lost a minute.

No problem with #9.

#10, major problem. For some reason, I decided to not take a direct route (which had no opportunities for trail running/walking), but instead head more south and pick up the trail that runs along the S boundary of the park. I apparently crossed that trail w/o realizing it -- not sure how that could have happened, obviously carelessness. So I wound up off of the map, roughly (I think) in the vicinity of the word "ditch" in the legend. I spotted in the distance a plowed field and thought that was the edge of the nature center land, but in fact I was well onto private property at that point. I was puzzled because there were some features I encountered that seemed like they SHOULD be mapped (like a decent sized clearing, and two tree stands). FINALLY it occurred to me that I might be off of the map ... I headed north, finally saw boundary signs, and when I crossed the boundary, things started making a bit of sense. I was finally on that trail (along the S boundary of the nature center), but I didn't know where along the trail I was. So I ran W under I hit an intersecting trail, then knew where I was, and from there navigated to the control with no trouble.

AP split analysis says I lost around 7-8 minutes, but it had to be more than that. I took 17 minutes on the control, while Ravi took 6 minutes, and for most other controls, he and I were pretty comparable -- sometimes I was a bit faster, sometimes he was.

No additional disasters. Had some brief confusion in the area around #12 (control code 185) in the area in the SE portion of the map that had a lot of rough open and green mapped, but didn't lose significant time.

All in all, a great course on a great map in a very interesting new venue. Thanks to everyone (mappers and course setters) who made this meet possible.

Green - Splits

Hojack Trail walk/run. Went SE from Klem this time, to Holt Rd and back. Side trip down a mowed 10 meter or so wide patch that went along a very small stream, for Homer to have a few drinks from.

Fitness Room workout at the Rec center. Made it short because I had Homer in the car, having gone straight there from the Hojack Trail. Not really concerned about his well-being, as it was no more than around 55 out and I had each window rolled down about 4 inches, plus I found a tiny bit of shade to park in. More concerned that other people would see him in the car and then THEY would get concerned, call in the police, etc etc.

Did slightly higher weights on most of the apparatuses (apparati??) than I've done in the past, so it was a moderately intense workout even though short.

Pickleball, and a pickleball picnic, organized by trailsnail (thanks!). Had lots of people -- maybe 25 at the maximum?? I probably only played 3 games but it was still great getting together with the whole group.

Homer, Cheryl, Freddie, and I went to the playground on Empire Blvd. Cheryl and Freddie stayed at the playground while Homer and I took a walk in Lincoln Park. No GPS carried; distance and climb are guesses.

Indoors at the Rec Center. 17 people on 3 courts. Quite a few good games. I played pretty terrible in one game, halfway decent most of the rest of the time.

Fitness room workout at the Rec Center.

After fitness room workout, I was watching some pickleball action (Mike and Debbie S., Pam, Debbie H., and a number of racketball players, some of whom were quite good), when I got pulled in to play a game. It was Debbie S. and I against Mike S. and one of the racketball players who was pretty new to pickleball, and Debbie and I won fairly handily.

Second try in about 3 weeks to ease myself back into doing at least a little bit of running. Walked 1:15, ran 0:45, over and over. As usual, my knees felt OK while running. The key will be how they feel tomorrow and the next day.

Homer got to go for a swim in a nice deep section of a creek at the midway mark.

Webster Park. Quite a few new (or almost new) players, but all showed great potential so it was encouraging, not frustrating, having them there.

At Genesee Valley Park, with Cheryl and Homer.

Two days ago we attended a wedding celebration at the Roundhouse at the park, and I found out that Cheryl had hardly ever been there (and didn't realize that the canal intersected with the river in that park). She liked the little bit that we saw on Saturday, so we went back for a somewhat longer walk today.

Homer got to go swimming twice in the Genesee River.

Multiple stops for various reasons; estimated time spent stopped subtracted from total.

Over to Finn Park, with a stop at the creek. Once again, Homer had essentially no interest in the creek as it was fairly low, although he could easily have found a place with around 8 inches of water to do some wading.