Training Log Archive: Nielsen

Event: West Point
 

West Point Day One (Blue)

More orienteering in the rain. Started the course slow. Took a bit to get used to the slanted northing lines. The landscape was also much different then what I'm "used" to orienteering on (not like I've done a lot of orienteering). Should have taken the road to C1, instead ran the ridge before eventually cutting down. Clean but slow. Fumbled C2 a bit, area was just generally hard for me to read. C3 was a freakin disaster (24:58). C4 was no problem. C5's split wasn't great but I thought I was really clean and steady. The rest really went pretty well with a small miss on C6, trouble with fog on C9 made me miss slightly high. Found C10 beautifully but failed to read my control descrition and lost time at C being confused about where on the cliff it was. Such stupid roockie mistakes. C11 I decided to climb it out to a safe attack point but it paid off nailing the control in a solid 10:38. C12 ran to the boulder cluster just a little low of where I needed to be. C13 missed slightly left. The rest were cake.

So overall not a great run but lots of good lessons for next time. Looking forward to O'ing again.

blue - Splits

The Muddy Moose Trail race. It lived up to it's name. I'm still not sure how I was convinced to run a 14 mile race for the hell of it. Poor sleep, an upset stomach, and a general feeling of just not wanting to be there made for a mediocre effort. I placed 6th. The winning time was an impressive 1 hr, 33min, considering all the mud. In all of the cross country meets I've been to I've never experienced this amount of mud.

Nice run in the woods in Planfield, NH, with Erin. Trails are very muddy and soft making for tricky footing. Went on a new trail for a bit and were able to stay off roads completely.

A nice ride out RT120 in Lebanon, down through Meriden. Lots of elevation. Didn't feel quite so strong but average speed was consistent with other workouts.

All kinds of silly drills and then 3x125m x2 threshold intervals. They were pretty tough. I think my form is slowly getting better.

Went ok. I was pretty sloppy. In my opinion the features in College woods are really vague. I didn't have the worst run of the day. I felt really strong physically.

Went riding with my new AR teamate. Things went ok. The trails were really wet and muddy.

C • just ok? 4

Run down the rail trail.

Big Blue Off-Road Triathlon, California part of the Xterra series

Swim: 2x600m w/50m run in between
Mountain Bike: 2x9mi loops (huge elevation)
run: 2x3mi loops

Total Time 2:19:45

Not a good swim. Wetsuit was so tight (borrowed) and water was very choppy. I had trouble breathing and whenever I came up for air a got a mouthful of water. Can't really use it as an excuse because everyone else had the same issues as far as rough water goes. I can say that I was not swimming up to the level that I've been training at in the pool. I need more experience swimming in a race setting. The pool is not the same as a windy lake or ocean. I lost about 4 mins to the leaders on the swim.

I felt very strong on the bike. The elevation was unreal and at times I remember being surprised that they actually had us ride this stuff. Way more technical than AR bike legs and I bet it would have made a pretty brutal MTB race.

Being so far back after the swim I had a lot of ground to make up. Passing people was a pain do to the narrow trails and technical riding. In hind site looking at results, I should have pushed on the bike harder, but I was concerned about burning out my legs on all the climbing. The down-hill sections were an all out effort but I could have pushed more on the accents.

Run went well. I had no trouble off the bike. Again, I should have pushed harder on the bike. The course was flat, at least it seemed flat compared to the bike course. I had one of the faster run times of the day which is encouraging.

Overall, a great race!

I'm taking it rather easy this week because of this upcoming weekend's race. It's my Xterra debut and I want to be well rested and strong for it.

This past weekend's long juants in the woods were a bit rough on the ankles and lower legs. I'd rather rest up and race this Sat without pain.

It was late but I was nervous about the race and wanted to get it out of my system. The weather was really warm (65 degrees). Erin and Chris came along too.

Some weird Cheek2Cheek drills
3x200m steady state intervals

an easy day.

For this race I decided to start off slower and cleaner since Sats. race started off very poorly. It worked pretty well up until C3 were I got pushed all around by the sea of thorn bushes. I ended up way to the left and had to traverse across, counting gullies until I thought I was in the right spot. I got to the right area but then failed to notice how high on the bank the circle was. Because of this I over ran the control and then eventually got confused as to which set of gullies I was in between. After relocating and realizing that the control circle was not down near the water I found it rather quickly. Needless to say, I lost a great deal of time on this one. The rest of the course went pretty smooth. I forced myself to take it slow and be more cautious of thorn bushes. I think un-runable fields of thorn bushes in the woods should be marked in Blood Red on the map rather than green. Oh and additionally I lost my SportIdent e-punch somewhere between C14 and C15.

On a brighter note I ran the 12K (which was more like 18K with my route choices) at a pace of 12mins per K, which is a 2 min improvement over Sat.

My adventure to C1 is too embarrasing to describe so I wont. C2 was basically a disaster taking more than 16mins ( over ran the control all the way to the river...yup. I'm still amazed I was able to relocate and find the control ). Pretty smooth but slow to C9 were I ended up heading to far right and over running. Then ok until C15 where I decided pricker bushes made for a much better route choice than the trail.

Pretty rough day for me. I think I was moving at around 14mins per kilometer. Not so hot. I tried my best not to get too discouraged.

warm up before race

Ran to try and catch Erin's start after my race. I missed her by 4 min. Then ran back the finish to catch that.

Blue - Splits

Event: Flying Pig IX (US Team Trials)
 

Yes, a "4". Fact is I simply can't navigate well enough to run at a "5" level.

The sprint was fun. I spen 27 secs on the first control because I couldn't find the start triangle. However I think this had more to do with inexperience rather than thin, miss-colored lines. I also started off very slowly, nervous and slightly disoriented until C3. Then I started gaining some confidence and got more of a feel for things. I was as smooth as I can be on most controls after C3, hesitating a bit at the begining of C9 (trying to find best route choice) and making a really silly decision on C10 (bush wacked rather than just following trail in - ended up over running). On C11 I ran the path out around the large area of trees (to the North) and then headed back South, accross the field to the back of the building. Another poor route choice but my split actually didn't suffer quite so much do to it being all open running.

Like I said, it was fun. If orienteering ever becomes a sport that I can be competetive in, I don't think Sprints will be my race. I'd like to think I've got above average leg speed but I think the longer the race the more enjoyment I would have.

Sprint - Splits