Training Log Archive: Rainbow Unicorn

4.6k Blue Course at Hawn State Park - Weingarten, MO
Tricky rocky terrain here - I felt it was hard to differentiate between rocks/trails/cliffs on a map like this at first. Was fairly hesitant on my way to 2, but found 3 OK despite a search at the control. Veg was pretty thick at 6 and no problems with 7-10. Must have been low on oxygen after the climb, as I was slightly disoriented coming out of 10. Hustled the trail to 11 to make up time, which I paid the price for... Contoured around to 11 but was up 3 contours too high in the rocks near the top - I should have descended down while skirting the reentrant off the trail. Bobbled around badly here and was much too high - was also thrown off by people going to 14. Finally realized I was too high, but went into the wrong reentrant (which also had a control). Glad I checked the code. Andrei finally caught up to me here (he started 4 minutes behind me), and we pushed each other to 12-14. Put on a bit of speed down to 15 and the finish, but was still dismayed by the 5+ minute loss on CP 11.

Went half way up the hill and forgot my clue sheet holder. Descended to pick that up, then went all the way to the top. Chickened-out on rocking the VFFs for the first time on a rocky sprint descent O-run and returned to bottom to change shoes. Climbed the hill back to the top (again) and was ready to go once I got there!

2.2k Campground Sprint at Hawn State Park
Uphill start, then chose too high of a line to #2 and should have contoured more. Down the hill to 3-6 without any problems - saw Buckley near 5 as well, but I was in too much of a hurry to say hi! Was a bit south on 7, which cost 5-10 seconds, then chose the over-the-hill route to 8. Was able to execute it decently, but wasn't sure how it would compare to the road route. In hind sight, despite an OK split, the around route would have provided easy sailing and a preview of other controls. After the race I was just glad not to have overshot 8.... CP 9 provided a lot of post-race fodder. Went into 10 too far north and lost another 10-15 seconds. Made clean lines to 11 and 12 and PFC pushed me home at the end of the run for a good split there too. No major mistakes and a nice overall effort. Lots of fast dudes though, came in 4-5th overall.

Hawn middle - blue - Splits

Hawn sprint - Splits

Grunt - Splits

Event: A-meet and 2nd Annual Gateway Grunt & Runt - Hawn
 

2.5k Sprint at Kennedy Woods in Forest Park
Awesome urban venue for a sunny race in the woods. Had trouble getting on the map during the first 20 seconds or so, but not bad. Was hesitant on number 10 since I was getting dumb at that point, but only lost 5-10 seconds. Route choice to 11 may have been better along the trail/road. Made a minor blunder coming out of 14 and went south, running past the start area, which cost me ~15-20 seconds. Overall good run, but highly unlikely to best AndyD's time of 14:27 without mistakes - that was super fast.... Placed 2nd overall alongside JWilliams.

Cool down run while catching up w/ DFrei (Alpine Shop).

Forest Park sprint - red/blue - Splits

Run w/Guer, Bulent, & Mo around Isles, Calhoun, and Harriet. Probably should have only done 2 lakes with the SLOC O-meet events starting tomorrow, but I was spurred on by a heated conversation of health care & tobacco. Mo played it smart and ran home after two lakes.

C • Thank you, O-gods 3

Bike to school.

Bike home.

Bike to school. Nice weather for a ride - around 40 for sure. Didn't have to wear a shell layer or shoe booties, which is always a nice sign of springtime.

Bike home.

Match at the U w/ Mo and PDub. Came away with a 3-2 victory, but we should have likely done better. We controlled most of the game and their goals were rather flukey. In the end, glad we didn't let them tie it up.
To PW - ANY goal for your own team is not embarrassing. I thought it was TOEriific! Things could have been worse.... Did you see this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYJttBJq6lw

Midnight Moonlight Alleycat race w/Tom & Scotty. Fox Shadow gave a good description of our ride and the sketchy gas stations that we visited. Downtown is a crazy place to bike at 1am, especially when trying to push the pace in a "race."
What Tom failed to mention is that on the leg to Santana Foods I took us from the Guthrie across the river all the way to where University and Washington came together. This basically turned what would have been less than a mile long leg across the Stone Arch Bridge into a 3.7 mile leg - not a good way to get ahead of our hipster counter parts. Sadly, I can't navigate without a map in Minneapolis, as I don't know street names.... After this mistake, Tom pulled out the trusty iPhone and we had instant map - Ah, we could see the light! From here on out we enjoyed the ride a bit more and kept the pace a bit easier.... The hipsters had already finished the race by the time we came in for the 3rd leg, but that was only a mile or so.... Fun to get out and experience the Minneapolis night scene - I think we only got heckled about 7 times passing by house parties.
Ride home after 2am was a bit chilly, and very reminiscent of the riding done during an adventure race in the early morning before the sun comes up. A little slow and a bit out of it mentally, but still a great time on the trusty steeds with good companions.

Subbed w/Mo for the Mad Dogs, a team which my bro normally plays for. We dominated most all of the game and came away with a 1-0 win. Wish we could have put a couple more in the back of the net.