Training Log Archive: Wyatt

Mix of grass & pavement, trying to keep up with Angelica on this recovery run. Legs were a wreck at the finish yesterday, and it took at least 20 minutes for them to warm up today from the same wreck, back to movable at the pace they were okay with at about the 3 hour mark yesterday.

Event: Hudson Highlander XVI
 

Event: DVOA White Clay Creek
 

Highlander. I love mass start orienteering. Add in Harriman, and it's a great combination.

It was clear from before the start that Will (who's won how many HH's) and Boris would be the guys I should try to hang on to. And that mostly worked for a while at least.

1st leg was quite an adventure, with a mass run across a parking lot w/plenty of cadets, and then a painfully twisted ankle, but w/surprisingly light damage no less than 30 seconds into the forest. After shaking that off a bit, on the campground roads, I pushed to climb up the line of bodies, and managed to get to # 3 right with the leaders - 10 of us in 10 seconds, I'd guess.

For the scramble, I was thinking to sweep left, but Boris and Will were doing CDEF, and hanging with them was more important. Unfortunately, while thinking this over, I allowed a pretty large gap to grow between me and Boris/Will up the paved road. I closed a little of that gap into C and D w/slightly better routes, but they took off out of D both pretty hard, and way out to the left of the line (by overshoot I later learned) and I momentarily lost sight of them. After some scrambling to try to catch up, pulling myself similarly far left, I gave up the sideways chase and started my own navigation due north. Unfortunately, I ended up picking an awful line through a lot of laurel, and by the time I popped out, Sergei F. and Andrew Childs (lowlander 1st & 2nd) had caught up, and Ino longer was in sight of Will/Boris. Sergei got a little lost approaching E, as I chased Andrew into the control. Andrew led to F, and then I took the line-through-green route to the right toward 8, breaking ahead of Andrew in the process.

At the changeover, I was told I was 2 minutes back, and despite that knowledge, and desperately wanting to get in sight again, I could only muster a trail run with 2 minutes of further time lost to the leaders. :(

Then it was time for the huge loop around Rockhouse. Alone through 17, I then saw Will, then Boris climbing out of 18 on what I later learned was the KotM leg, so I was inspired by thinking I had a shot, if one of them ran out of gas. On the way down to 18, I was picking a line toward 19 for what looked from the map like it would be KotM, though my actual climb up the hill I found a more direct line. This leg had my only level 4 HR after the 1st hour :) Very happy to find out today I won KotM. A satisfying consolation prize.

After 19, things just continued on, with the expected gradual muscle fatigue starting to kick in, more noticeably after 2:37. Another out-and-back view of Will & Boris near 22/23 was another inspiration, as I imagined (seems unlikely in retrospect) that I was holding my ~5-minute gap. "I could still be 2nd if one of them gets tired..."

That, plus GU/water at 22, and I was feeling pretty good up toward 24, and happy to see Vadim coming in to 22/23, where he appeared to be in 4th place, all alone.

And then on the way to 25, reality set in. Taking the trail around toward 25, I was still pumping my arms and swinging my legs as hard as I was two hours earlier, but the view of the ground was dramatically slower. Felt like running, looked like walking. (I stubbornly refused to walk any of the rest of the course, aside from the steep uphills that I would've walked in the first hour - despite that darn ground moving by at walking-speed much of the time...)

By 25, the mantra had changed to "if there's anyone behind me with any legs left, I'm gonna get passed."

When I picked up the last loop, and saw it was just the 1:4000 sprint map, I didn't even bother drinking - 'no time, I might get caught'. In retrospect, some water/fuel there might've been good, as the slowdown continued...

28-29 was amazingly slow. Darn... legs... won't... jump... over the blueberry any more...

30-31, on the dog leg across the parking lot, every stick crack on the hillside below 29 was the 4th-place competitor coming to get me. All I could see was the couple doing Orange trying to find their way down, but perhaps one of the last cracks was Vadim...

Happy to find 31 okay. Mapping and visibility were dicey there. Passed Sandy F. (lowlander) into 32 and surprised camera-Greg. Only had one more nervous glance behind me as I ran across the parking lot to the go control, and in the chute. I was trying to run a respectable finish, but my GPS clocks me at 5:36/km on the last 300m of net-downhill pavement... Angelica was way faster there.

Nutritionally, a big dinner, and 1.7 large bagel breakfast 1.8 hr's before the start proved a bit too much - not horrible, but I didn't have room to drink that much during the first half of the race - only by the end getting to the point where eat/drink GU felt okay. For future reference, a more modest meal set, longer before the start if breakfast, is more sensible - and GU+water should suffice during a long race moreso that huge meals.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with 3rd. Closer to Will & Boris would've been nice. Better nutrition likely would've made closer possible, but hanging with them the whole way will require further training...

Wonderful to be able to run 26km in Harriman, on aging, but still amazing maps. Thanks JJ & HVO!

Checking ink color printout tests at local UPS shop laser printer

Finished checking all the controls for Evansburg, and updated the vegetation and trails along some advanced course routes.

Bounce U toward Phoenixville & back, then home

So I was late to intervals, and missed some of it, so I added on a 1 x mile at the end. 5:51.8. 0.4 seconds slower than March 23rd... :)