Training Log Archive: ginger

Event: QOC Clopper Lake
 

Wow, this was fantastic terrain, and a well-designed course. Slightly disappointed that I didn't go all-in on the red course again today, but physically I probably wasn't truly ready, and I did want to finish in a reasonable amount of time so we could start heading home. Legs were a little tired today, but my lungs were feeling better. Jeremy came back after about an hour on his course, saying that his ankle wasn't holding up well, and he had a lot of frustration on #3 (which ended up being a common control for us). Took it a little slow and deliberate to #1, just trying to get a sense of the map, since I hadn't done any of the model controls. Had a solid attackpoint into #2, but it was maybe a little too far away from the control, because I then got distracted planning my route to #3 and got a bit overconfident and overran the control by about 50m. Knowing that people had had trouble with #3, and not seeing a strong attackpoint, I chose to go fairly straight and use the vegetation boundaries to my advantage as much as possible- spike! The time AP shows as lost on this one was at least partially due to my shoe laces coming untied, maybe I should have paid more attention to that thread. Careful compass work to #4 got me to my attackpoint, but I had a little difficulty inside the circle (and I'm not dead sure the placement was 100% correct, but it was close enough). 5-8 were straight-forward, but I was just a little lower than I thought going into 7, looked up the hill, and there it was. Chose the up-and-over route to 9, in hindsight, going around to the right would have saved some climb, and was probably faster. Also attacked 1-2 contours too high on 9, and overshot the control heading instead for the large rock face to the SE of the one I wanted. Check the # on the control, got confused for a few seconds because everything else seemed right, but then as I headed down the hill just a few meters, I saw the correct rock face to my left. AP shows no time lost on that split, but I definitely lost a minute or two.
Overall, I felt like I used attackpoints well today, and did a fairly good job of picking routes that I'd be able to execute smoothly. Places for improvement included more careful reading of the contours/terrain from the AP into the control on 2 and 9, and taking a better look at alternative routes on 9 to minimize climb, especially since my legs were pretty tired by that point.

C • Baby care 3

Sunday - Green X - Splits

Event: West Point National Meet
 

At first glance, it would seem that the West Point curse struck again for me, but I actually felt pretty good about this course. Still fighting off a bout of bronchitis, so although my legs felt pretty strong, my lungs weren't quite up to the task today. I had a lot of fun on the first part of this course, though, and I was really trying to focus on a lot of the technical work we did last fall. Overall, I was picking attackpoints well, and not getting too hung up in the rocks, which is a definite improvement for me over past years. By the time I was at 10 or 11, though, I was starting to cough a lot more, and my lungs were starting to hurt, so I couldn't quite bring myself to slog up the last couple hills to get controls 15-19. The route choices for the long legs felt a little uninspired, too, as it was functionally a long trail run to the attackpoint, then a slog uphill into the control.

Saturday - Red - Splits