Training Log Archive: z-man

TT - Middle. Felt surprisingly good in the morning despite a hard race the day before. Legs felt light and zippy. Plan was to race full speed right from the start. Missed #1 by ~ 30 sec as I ran right past and north of it. Stopped, figured out that I overran it and spotted the flag. A bit shaky to #2 by taking less than ideal exit from #1 following my compass and not really reading the map, but corrected in time to avoid a bigger mistake. Clean on #3 and #4 at full speed. Looked up ahead on the way to #4 to plan my next route. Never saw #5 on the map and proceeded downhill, left of the marsh to a trail around the hill, eventually climbing to #6. Careful and clean to #7 and then taking leftish route to #8. Spotted Wyatt, who started 3min in front of me right before the bag. Caught up to him at #9 and split away on the way to #10 by going to the left around a hill past smaller marsh. Clean to #10 and #11, but fumbled #12 as I didn't drop down enough and ended having to come down to the bag from far left. Had plenty of zip left in my legs, which resulted in tying Jordan in the battle for the finish split.
Really liked the course, did plenty of things right and a few things terribly wrong. Wish I had another shot at a similar course that day.

TT - Long. The plan was to start conservatively and not to rush. Had a little bit of a mix up on #2 as I missed a cliff on a map prior to the bag and spent a bit of time scratching my head. Then decided to attack from above on #3 as to avoid dealing with cliffs on the edge of the hill. Was clean on both #5 and #6 reading ahead and checking off things that I expected to see. Put my compass into use on #7 but missed the trail at the fire break and had to come back a bit losing a bit of time there. I haven't really planed the route to #8 but after punching 7 I immediately saw the all around route which looked simple enough for me as opposed to a straighter route which Boris took and which he executed rather well. Then spent a bit of time at #10 trying to decide whether I should climb over the hill or go around. Looked at my watch, and decided that it was too early in the race to take on big hill in such heat, so bailed to the right around the big monster. Executed it well, though could've cut a bit more before getting onto a smaller trail that lead to the shelve where the control sat. Then ran right past the water table as I wasn't sure if it belonged to orienteers or other park visitors since no one was around it, and there was no cup sign on the map. Caught up to Clem on #14, and proceeded to a lower route on trail while Clem went higher to the right. I got to the big trail with no problem and was waiting fpr the 90 degrees turn to begin my hillside run. Saw a bend, jumped into the woods, A minute later, realized that something wasn't right. Circled around, checked a couple of cliffs, still couldn't make sense. Slowly backtracked to the big trail. F$@k! Too early, not my bend. From there attacking was easy. Got frustrated a bit, and couldn't comprehend how did that happen. Still don't. Was a bit slow on #16 as I had difficulties matching map with busy area around the bag but was careful enough to not go too far down and got to it ok. Started to feel really thirsty, but ate my powergel on the way down to #17 any way after taking a brief look of what was still ahead. To #19, bad route. Decided to stick with the familiar trail, but it was just too far off the line that a straighter route on the left of the lake was a lot faster even with an early climb. Drank a bit of water at #19, and immediately felt refreshed. Pushed hard for the remainder of the course and working with my compass to #21. Finished strong, feeling pretty good physically, which was surprising given how tough the race was. I think that a cleaner race and in a bit cooler weather 95 min was very doable.
Great course. Lots of route choices, some of which I didn't even realize they were there.

C • Strange 3

Blue - Splits

Event: US Team Trials for WOC '11
 

TT - Sprint. Started near the end of the starting block with Vadim 1min ahead of me and on the same minute as Ali. Did not really warm up properly and it was hot so I didn't want to overheat before the actual race. Made a small mistake on #2 as I thought that I could run around the stairs through the gray. No go, so turned around. Then a little one on #5 as I missed the gap in the fence and ran around the building instead. Then on the way to #7, I wasn't sure what was the gray area was. Was it passable or not, so followed Ali into the tunnel. Not a very good route but not a disaster. Caught up to Vadim on the way to #10 but then almost skipped #12 as I turned myself into the tunnel towards #13. Caught myself just in time. Started to feel pretty good here as if I finally warmed up but at #13 didn't see the little opening in the structure and spent 10 seconds kissing the door. Finally figured it out. Almost overran #14, but saw it just in time. Finished feeling good, as if the race has just began.
A weird race. Never felt like I was really racing it. Had a lot of energy afterwards.

C • sprints 3

Blue - Splits

Spoke to my boss about the possibility of me making the team and going to WOC. The earliest he could let me go is Friday, August 12, or the day we file with the SEC. Not what I was hoping for. Such is the life of a public accountant... sigh...

C • That is fine... 13

A decent effort on trails at Lewis Morris before the sunset. Spider babes errr... webs were in my face all the time. Had to get one hard training out of my system this week so this was it. Hit 190 on the last uphill. Perhaps could eek out a few more beats but decided to not push it all the way and keep it reasonable. Tapering for the weekend has began.

C • Spiderbabe! 3

Easy run at Eagle Rock. Legs felt pretty heavy, though the objective was to take it really easy today.

Saxon Woods - HVO Local Meet. The course had a lot of trail runs and I was running way faster than I was reading the map, as a result, made errors on 2, 4, 6, 10, 12, and never went to 15. On the bright side, I felt like my speed was good, so it turned out to be a good training after all.

The control pick did not materialize but I felt like I still had some gun powder left. So after arriving home, I immediately headed to Eagle Rock for another mud run on soggy trails. Felt pretty good even on the few uphills that the park has to offer.

Mud running at Eagle Rock. Legs are still sore but I felt like my speed was still there.

Event: Billygoat Run
 

Good course, tough race. I had high hopes for this one, especially after a very disappointing showing at WP. My result was ok, but I fell short of my expectations. The plan was to stick with the lead pack and just tough it out till the end. Didn't happen. Right after the first bag Ross set the pace and it felt like we were running a sprint rather than a long course. Up until the seventh control my focus was to not lose sight of Ross and Jordan who were running ahead. Ross pulled away from us on the way to #10 and I was chasing Jordan as hard I could. We caught a glimpse of Ross around #12, but then Jordan and I took different routs to #13 but I arrived there right after him. As soon as I turned around after punching the bag, I saw no sign of Jordan. Started running towards #14, but my legs refused to move. Decided to skip and benefited from the flat trail run to #15. Was alone till the food station, picking my routes carefully and waking up the units.
Then the train arrived consisting of Ross, Jordan, and Robert. I dragged myself behind around the butterfly loops but Ross and Jordan broke away from Robert and me on #28. As pace eased up a bit, my legs began to feel better and I focused on not letting Robert get past me till the very end. I nailed #35 as Robert was taking a bit higher route leaving him with no room to catch me.

Despite coming short on my goals, there were still positive things that I can take away from this race. For one, my legs felt considerably better than at WP, and that's a huge positive for me. Also, I think I picked good routes when I was running on my own and avoided two steep climbs that a lot of people did. So for now, will just focus on getting more training in the future months.

C • take a look at this 2

Billygoat - Splits

At Eagle Rock sharpening my bearing technique. Asked Nadia to draw a course and headed out of the door. Glad a I did as I still messed up a few times.

Decided to mix things up a bit at Eagle Rock by doing some terrain intervals. Had pain in both ankles while running to the park, but they loosened up as soon as I hit the slops. Saw a deer for the first time in quite a while after the winter hunt. A sole survivor? Also, a speedy fox, who cleared the cliffs like I can only dream of and disappeared into the woods. Things are slowly coming back together, I think, after the horrible run at WP. That run still gives me nightmares.

Trail run with Greg and Vadim. Worked up some hills in the process. Legs felt sore, but loosened up a bit after first 15 min or so. Nice weather and delicious BBQ afterwards. The season in LM is officially open.

Exploring local streets with hills at Verona. Felt tight.

At Eagle Rock trying to figure out why I couldn't run any hills at WP.

WP-Long. A disappointing race for me. Had empty legs and couldn't move uphill at all. This was really aggravating. Plus a ~ 5min error on the fist bag did not help neither. Was searching for something that didn't exist in unmapped rocks, still should have taken a safer route from above as opposed to contouring around the hill.

Long Blue - Splits