Training Log Archive: Charlie

At the lake with Rhonda, George and Leslie.

Down to the bridge with Rhonda and Leslie

3x10 back squats at 75#

Went down to the little pond to listen for frogs, stepped on a small sharp stick that went right through the sole of my shoe. Foot is really sore.

Brown X Long

Long walk to the start with George. Legs felt pretty tired from yesterday.
1. Started 2 min behind George, caught up to him around #1, just along the trail to what seemed like a good attack and on compass. No problem.
2. Leaving the control, my compass was giving me problems, pointing north when I got to the trail headed W, which panicked me a bit and I turned around, before settling down. The hill forms were pretty easy to read, and the control was in a nice spot. So maybe 30 seconds lost on the trail trying to figure out which direction I was going.
3. Fought my way out to the trail much farther E than I wanted, pushed that way by laurel. Once I got to the trail it was easy enough to get down to the long knoll and go in.
4. Long trail leg, frustrating because I couldn't make my legs go. Stayed with the trail figuring it was best to have the shortest forest to cross to the control.
5. Not my best work. Headed in the right general direction, but I thought the green would be more apparent, so I wasn't paying enough attention to the rocks and contours. Got into the general area, saw people coming from my left and it looked greener there, so drifted. Finally found some rocks, but I was way down by the marsh, so navigated from there. By then looking at the splits I was about 5 minutes down on Dave Cady.
6. Up the reentrant, Karen Muffatti was up ahead and a bit to the right. Went past what turned out to be a Brown Y control in the reentrant, kept going looking for the marsh behind it and then my control on the cliff just to the right.
7. Seemed like it took a while. Across the reentrant, under the cliffs, kept going until I could see the green marsh growth, looked around and spied the control to my left.
8. Up across the spur and under the cliffs, planning to go to the really big boulder and downhill from there, but I could see things opening up earlier, and saw the boulder way down the hill. Checked off the big boulder in front of me, then angled downhill. Hard getting down there, rocky and slippery, and the flag was right around the far side of the boulder.
9. More or less on compass, aiming for being just above the pond corner, followed the stream for a bit, and saw the big boulder just across the trail.
10. Straight. Clint was taking pictures. Arrived just behind Jim Arsenault.
F. Passed Jim and worked pretty hard to keep running. As it turned out, I made up 19 seconds on Dave Cady on the run-in, beating him by 4 seconds for the race and 7 seconds for the three race total, so we were pretty closely matched.

Long - Brown-X - Splits

Event: West Point Annual National Ranking Event
 

Brown X Middle

Middle Distance course Brown X at Black Rock Forest.
1. My split sheet showed a time of :39 for the first leg, which seemed improbable. Turned out there was a 1:08 discrepancy in the start punch, which got fixed in the final results. Anyway, a pretty good leg to 1, saw the knoll with the wraparound cliff from a bit off and just headed right of it.
2. A little dicey getting down the hill and across the stream, saw the flag once I was heading up.
3. Up to the trail, along just a bit, in between the green patches and it was just a little further than I expected, but no problem.
4. Through a bit of green and across the first stream, aiming for the big rock and across the next stream. Knoll not looking much different from a boulder was just slightly to the right of my line.
5. On compass, staying right of the boulder group, hit it right on.
6. Downhill, around the cliffs, headed into the saddle, looking for the knoll at the top of the SW reentrant, just a little farther than I expected, but a spike.
7. On compass, following the countours and staying under the rocks. Easy enough.
8. Also easy, could see the long knoll from a distance and picked out the right knoll on top.
9. On compass, could make out the line of cliffs, but I was a little low, ahd to climb up a line or two.
10. At this point things were going really well, but somehow I drifted left and pretty soon I was just walking in circles. This turned out to be about a 5 minute walkabout.
11. Confidence a little rattled, I was hesitating a bit, and then a young fellow behind me fell hard and I stopped to see if he was ok, saw Steve T just behind him. A little slow, but reading things ok and came into it from just on the right side.
12. Still a little rattled, attempted to follow my compass, but got off to the left. Saw that I was in the wrong place and corrected over to the right, getting there behind Steve and about the same time as Leslie. Probably about 40 seconds lost.
13. Hustled down the hill to the trail and along the trail, picking up a little time on Steve. Saw Clint taking pictures which confirmed where the last control was, and then passed Steve on the run in. Ended up second in M-75+, 31 seconds behind Dave Cady. I was about 3-4 minutes behind Steve, who had started after me.

Brown Sprint

Brown Sprint at Trophy Point. No mistakes, but legs felt very dead after the morning. Glen started a minute ahead of me, but he overran #2 and I saw him for a bit before that, then he ran away, but he missed 6 and I caught up to him there, ran away again, and then he overran 10 a bit and I almost caught him there, before he ran off again. A pretty good race for me.

Middle - Brown-X - Splits

Sprint - Brown - Splits

Up to Cocoon to say goodbye to the kids, lunch at Khe Yo with Jess, George and Leslie, then later back to pick up the car and head to West Point.

Strolling around Central Park with Rhonda, George and Leslie, Jessica and Shep. Then lunch at Mediterraneo and subway home.

Pleasant dinner with the group and with Eric Nyström and his wife Maja. Eric has a new job in NYC. Dinner at a Greek restaurant near Brookfield Place.

In NYC today.