Training Log Archive: Sandy

Oh boy did I hose a couple of legs on this course!
1- fine
2 - was doing fine but not really understanding the map and stopped just a little short not really seeing how a reentrant could be where it needed to be for me to be where I thought I was. And yet it was there and all I needed to do was go a little further and I would have been fine. Instead I stopped decided I must be somewhere else and climbed. Got a slightly better read of the hillside and then went right to it. But lost several minutes.
3 - good; liked this leg - perfect middle leg
4 - total disaster; I must have gotten way left of the line out of #3 but had no clue I had done that. My plan was to skirt the swamp to the left and climb the hill to the saddle. I knew something was wrong since I wasn't seeing a big stony ride up the hill but then I found some rocks and thought okay. It didn't seem quite right but thought "ah, just climb the hill and the saddle will take you in". I was stunned when I got to the top of the hill and saw my #1 in front of me. Good thing I recognized it - I was about 300m to the NE of where I was expecting to be. Not sure how long it would have taken to relocate if I hadn't had that to tell me exactly where I was since I don't think I would have thought to consider that far away. Not a good leg.
5 - okay but slow and stopped to think about things one hill top too soon so lost a little time; using the magnifier (or wearing glasses) would have probably helped.
6 - a bunch of GreenX guys were at 5 with me and took off south and pulled me along for a bit until I forced myself to go where I needed to go so lost a bit more time there
7 - another not so good leg; I was really annoyed that the course was going down to the bottom of the hill and didn't hold a good line; drifted to the right and was having trouble understanding the roads since not all the buildings around the gate are on the map. But still, should not have taken me as long as it did to get over to my control.
8 - a long slog up the hill but apparently a good split
9 - went by #1 again but this time on purpose. Meant to stay high longer but sucked down into the rocks too early and crawled over to the control losing more time.
10 to F - fine

C • AnnieMac . . . 1

Brown sprint. Finally - a relatively clean course!

Couldn't believe 1 was as soon as it was but checked the flag and it was mine. Same with 2 - could I really be there already? Yup, guess so. 3 was good. By then my eyes were watering and I really couldn't read the map very well and all I could see was that my circle for 4 was in between some big long cliff/rock things. Was surprised to see a flag just off the trail about the time I started thinking about what I might be looking for and didn't think it could be mine but again figured I'd better check it since it seemed like it could be mine and it was. Went back to the trail and continued on but now really couldn't see the trail on the map so had no idea where I was but it seemed like I had gone about the right distance and someone that looked like they could be on Brown went down into some rocks on my left and I figured hey, could be mine, let's check it out, this approach is working pretty well and sure enough mine again! Whew - done with the rocky stuff and no time lost.

Decided to just climb straight up the hill and bash my way through green if I needed to but found a little dirt track that led to some stairs that dumped me out on the road. Jogged along the road until the grassy area and was trying to figure out what to use to attack but saw a flag and ran for it. Good thing I was checking codes. Not mine! But knew where I was enough that I looked where I thought mine must be and saw another flag that made more sense. Mine. Wasn't sure if I was allowed to cut through the shrubs around the monument but it sure looked like everyone else was so I did. I see now there is some green mapped around the monument but it doesn't look like the olive green.

Took the road around to the left on 9 since I couldn't figure out whether I could get through lower down and I didn't feel like stopping to check. I ran on the grass which was nice and soft and it was a sort of rest for my mind and I actually planned ahead a bit. Through the area inside the buildings wondering if I was really allowed in there and across to 10. Went left around the building which I think was a bit faster even though you dropped a contour or two. I remembered that the stairs hadn't made sense to me the last time we were on this map but that there were stairs and so I just tried to go hard. Couldn't run up though - was really out of gas by this time. Read the walls right at the top of the stairs and went left and ducked in to 11 and then finish.

Day 2, Mid, Green Y - Splits

Day 2, Sprint, Brown - Splits

Event: West Point A-meet
 

Decided to run F50+ for the middles, F55+ for the sprints.

Was not a happy camper when I turned over the map and saw I needed to go down several contours through green and rock. After spending way to much time trying to figure out how to do it, finally just dropped down into the nice big reentrant where I could see an easy way down without too many rocks and then climbed to my control.

Remembered a nice mossy trail down the spur on the way to 2 and wondered if it would still be like that - it was! Love that trail. But then proceeded to mess up the control by not being careful when I left the trail.

3-8 was a lot of fun; perfect middle controls.

I glanced at 8-9 on the way to 8 and thought drop down and go left around the mountain to the flat spot. But after dropping a couple contours took a closer look and realized there was no real flat spot and the right route to the trail and then road was clearly the better choice. Dithered for a bit and finally sucked it up and climbed back up the contours and went right. Definitely the correct decision but stupid not to have seen it and stayed high.

Decided to take the road to 10 but was totally confused at the junction being sure I wanted to go one way when I needed to go 90 degrees a different way. Trusted my compass (thank goodness) but very shaken that a road junction hadn't made sense.

Not too bad but definitely lost time on 1 and 2.

Sprint around Camp Buckner. Tentative in the woods just because of the footing. Bad route to 7 and got over one building - pretty stupid in retrospect but at least the positive is that I must have been running hard to be brain dead enough to make the mistake! At least a minute lost there.

Will need to think about wearing glasses for sprints - really had trouble reading the map in the busy area.

Day 1, Mid, Green Y - Splits

Day 1, Sprint, Brown - Splits

Oops.

TNT with Dasha. Only wanted to do 30 minutes or so but there was a lot of walking in this loop.

TNT - last real workout before Sandy's 15k (there's a 15-20 minute easy run on Friday to loosen up the day before the race). It was 8 repeats of 1 min hard, 1 min recovery. It's fun to compare this workout to the very first one we did on Feb. 5 which was 8 repeats of 1 min hard, 2 min recovery. We went much slower on the recoveries tonight - but only got half as long - and much faster on the hard effort pieces. Was really pleased to see that.

A perfect workout for loosening up after the Billygoat. Still have some sore muscles from that. Hopefully, this workout will put me in the right frame of mind for the middles at West Point.

A small TNT, just me, Sandy and Karl.

C • NICE 1

Must be dehydrated...