Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Beaver Brook. Hanging White/Yellow controls for UNO meet.

Beaver Brook, picking up controls (not the same set as what I had hung). One more control, and less distance, but picking up is substantially faster than hanging.

RHIN-O, Ratlum Mountain, 3.3 km, 140 m, 2nd. Nancy and I arrived just in time for dinner, so I did not go out before eating, and then there was socializing to be done, so it was well after 9 before I started, and as predicted, the precipitation arrived just as I was about to start, in the form of sleet. Sleet isn't so bad, it just bounces off, though sometimes it causes flashes in the headlight beam that look like a control reflector. Right from the start I missed the trail I wanted and lost some time, then on #2 I wasn't sure how far along the trail I had gone and did a little back and forth before plunging into the woods. Dubious direct route to #3 instead of going out to the trail. The next few went fine, looks like I probably had the best splits on #5 and #6 despite going over the top to #6 instead of around to the left. #7 through #9 were similarly fine. On #10, I lost a lot of time not being able to cross 50 m of woods to find a trail -- I probably did find it, but couldn't follow it, and eventually ended up back on Derby Road. No problem once I finally got to the trail. By this point the sleet had switched to rain, and I wasn't wearing my rain-repellent glasses. The only real problem I had on the rest of the course was a slow time pushing my way back out to the trail leaving #12, and maybe moving slowly because my glasses were fogging and I was also getting my headlamp beam reflected back into my eyes by a cloud every time I exhaled. Surprised at how good my result was. My watch hadn't been fully charged in the morning, and I neglected to charge it on the drive to Connecticut, so it ran out of juice five minutes before the end (time and distance are adjusted). And then followed more fine socializing.

splits

I have a minor but annoying injury from yesterday. On my way to control #2, I was crossing a logged area and stepped on a log. There was another log just behind it, and the way my foot landed, it got kind of caught between the two, with the rear one binding against the back of my left heel. It was tight enough that when I went to lift that foot, it wouldn't budge, but I still had forward momentum, so I started falling forward. My foot will bend forward like that, but only so far. No injury to the ankle, but I ripped a piece of skin off of the Achilles area, and that's sore now. Superficial. Right after it happened, I said some bad words.

C • dangerous place 1

Sessions Woods, 6 km, 1st place. Nice day, warm (50 F, T-shirt weather), nice course in wonderful CT woods. Only 1 control that wasn't a "spike", but several others where I lost time. A little bit of snow in the woods, and enough recent leaves down that I really couldn't see a lot of the trails, which was no big deal, and in fact made it nice, running mostly on contours.

A little bt of loss on #4, when I started out slightly too far right, hit the small trails, and wasted some time detouring around on them. Left #4 way too far left, distracted slightly by an inquisitive tiny dog, and finally saw that I was way off on the compass (which is why the features weren't making sense), corrected, and had no trouble from there. On #8 I got delayed a little bit when I found a sugarbush in my way, and had to get past a lot of tubing. Routes to #9 and #10 were a little curvy. I attempted a straight route to #12, didn't recognize the trail when I was crossing it (except in retrospect) but just kept going, and passed #5. Should have been easy from there, but I didn't pay enough attention to my compass and drifted way right, had to run back on the trail. No problems after that. SA shows 2:36 in errors, but it seems like more than that (though it seemed pretty good at the time).

splits