Training Log Archive: PG

A really nice weekend hosted by DVOA. Enjoyed it immensely.

I was talking to Tom Overbaugh, the course setter for Sunday's courses, after my run on his Red course, and telling him how good a course it was -- lots of variety, controls all placed fairly, plenty of route choice, and in general using the area really well.

And he mentioned immediately how much help he had gotten from his OUSA course consultant, Boris Granovskiy, lots and lots of good feedback and good ideas.

And I knew just what he meant, because when I was course setter a couple of years ago for the 2 A events at the Western Mass 5 Day, Boris had been my course consultant. He was full of ideas, very demanding in search of the best courses possible, and attentive to every detail.

I just now looked really carefully at my map from Sunday. Before I looked, I was quite sure that I would see that the circles and lines representing the course would be cut so as to not obscure important details, that the control numbers were placed to be obvious, legible, and not in the way, that there would be at least some change of direction at every control (so someone would be much less likely to not see a control). And when I looked, those were all true. I already knew the course was great, but those other things, details, matter a lot too.

Boris is a pro. I had the good fortune to have his help, and now Tom has also. And the participants all benefit.

Loop at Earl's Trails, clockwise. Easy pace for the first 4 miles or so, then harder on the rest (mostly downhill). Trails were in pretty good shape, some small muddy sections but not much.

Legs a little tired from yesterday I think, plus fat and a high resting pulse.

Warm-up.

Red course at DVOA A meet.

Good run. A little more fighting spirit than I've been showing recently, though still not enough.

The course --



Oops, that seems to be a course from 35 years ago when the park was called Carpenter State Park. But pretty much the same.

C • Neat! 8

White Clay Creek - Red - Splits

Event: 2014 US Relay Champs and Intercollegiate Champs
 

Warm-up, low energy. Should have warmed up a lot longer.

Second leg at the relays hosted by DVOA at Fair Hill, on a CSU 9-point geezer team with Ken Sr first leg and Gail the anchor.

Ken came in a couple of minutes behind the Chicago guy, and maybe just behind a couple of others, so I had Natalia out of sight ahead of me. And she has won gold at the World Masters and is no slouch.

I had a rather blah run, low energy and almost no fighting spirit, but I wasn't missing any controls so I suppose that is good. Saw Natalia for the first time a couple of controls before the end and I think I was about 15-30 seconds behind her at the finish.

The funny thing is, I think I would have pushed harder if I'd felt we had a chance, but with Gail having to walk the last leg I had no hopes of any overall success.

And so imagine my surprise when her name popped up on the computer at the pre-warning in first place, and then there she was coming up the finish chute with no one in sight behind, having spiked the course and motored pretty well too. Who would have thought?

Big smiles all around.

C • Gail is a pro 6

C • Big smiles 2

Down to Holyoke for the %K around the reservoirs. Did a lap of the course to warm up. Very windy, otherwise beautiful evening.

Strange start to the race -- felt really tired after a couple hundred yards, breathing way harder than I wanted to. But eventually things calmed down. Got around the course pretty well, just not quite fast enough, missed the age-69 record by about a dozen seconds.

And they were doing results on an age-graded basis. Second overall in that, also by just a few seconds. Though a friend of mine in his early 60s who can still run 18+ for 5K would have won very easily. If he had shown up…. :-)

Good effort, anyway. And then hung around afterwards with Steve and his friends at the Elks, had a beer. Life is OK.

Just a little bit of slow running afterwards.

Event: Cemetery Hill Training 1
 

Around the Sugarloafs. Legs were tired (but not sore) from yesterday, but livened up after a couple of miles, or maybe I was just trying harder, or maybe I just had the wind behind me.

Down to Northampton for the Tuesday evening 5K XC race, weekly from April to September, now in its 28th year. All directed by the same family. Remarkable.

Warm-up was a full tour of the course, about right, though I should have added in a few faster bits too. Got done about 10 minutes before the start. Legs seemed OK. Plan for the race was "comfortably hard," predicted time was 23:55.

Better than I expected overall, though not so much in the first mile, already felt winded after the first downhill, and more so the first uphill although I was trying to take it easy. 7:33. Second mile, much more down than up, definitely felt better, decent pace but not hard. 7:19. And then last mile uphill, decided I should have a go at the age-69 record of 23:28, and that meant doing mile 3 in 7:50 or better, so I put out as real good effort, passed several folks. 7:44. And then the last tenth, 40, moving as quick as I could at the end to hold someone off.

So very satisfying. And sucking wind afterwards for long enough to know I had put out an honest effort. A faster time would require more effort in the first two miles. But this was more than good enough for now.

And won three coupons for a race entry, so if anyone is in town and wants one, just speak up.

And then a long break for socializing, and again busting my diet, this time with a couple of tasty chocolate chip cookies, then off for a final jog as it was getting dark. Ran into Phil, so had company for most of it.

Tomorrow he's putting on the first of several Wednesday beginner's events at Cemetery Hill, see if we can recruit a little new blood. Good for him. Gail and I will go over to help out, also Amy and Steve R.