Training Log Archive: bishop22

Quite an awesome trail set by Fetch from near the Fairport baseball fields. Early on, he had a nice swamp crossing, wehre the water may have been only up to my waist, but since my legs sunk into the muck on the bottom, it went up to my chest. I had doubts in the middle about whether my legs would make it out.

That was balanced by a wonderful piñata stop, with a decorated styrofoam cooler hung from a branch that was broken, sending down a cascade of beverages.

There was a long run back to the start, but we'll let that slide.

OK, so I was good yesterday, getting in a run during Zach's soccer practice. Today, I was not. I was trapped at work longer than planned and got to the track meet just a few minutes before it was underway. I stayed pretty busy during the meet (the Gates hurdle crew was non-existent - too busy talking about their lost classmate, perhaps).

I may have been able to sneak in a run after the 4x800 relay (I tried to make three even teams, but two outperformed and one underperformed, so at least it was very exciting watching Vanzo come oh-so-close to catching Justin), but by then I was too cold and hungry to do so.

An easy jaunt thru Webster Park, since Zach had soccer practice up there from 6-7:30. I parked at the lot on the east side of Holt and ran with a map that I grabbed on the way out of the house. I couldn't find the Permanent Course map, which turned up in the car, AFTER the run, but that was OK, because I got to try to find as many permanent controls as possible, from memory, and I managed to grab 20 of the 24. I forgot about #3 (I think), which is very close to the intersection NW of the missing control on the hilltop on the west side of the map. I also forgot about the one in the junk west of a clearing, and I got the one next to the west parking lot on Lake, but forgot there was one south of that. And there was one on a hilltop, that I guessed wrong about and went to the wrong hilltop (too far east).

I ran almost the entire time (slowly, to be sure - just not in a couple of heavy, wet deadfall areas), but it was a heck of a lot more fun than just going out and running the roads (I could not have done that for an hour today).

C • Nate Wins 3

So, it was nice to visit with Chelsea last week, but I'm not sure what kind of "education" she is getting while living on Burton Third. The Tech reported this. And they made the local news.

Another day off. Had to go in early (after arriving home from Boston after midnight) to leave early for track practice, but wait, track practice was at 10am or something, so I guess I have time to mow the lawn (well, the back at least; the rest can be handled by my favorite tool - a teenage son).

And then, I have to leave to go...

New Monday league, out at Brookwoods, since Chelsea is spending my real golf money.

Started out great - we started on 13 (par 5) and I was sitting just in front of the green in 2. I proceeded to skull a wedge into the trap behind the green and took a 6. Then I hit a real bad stretch from 15-18 (3 in the water) and when all was said and done, I had posted a freakin' 50. I guess I'm ready for this league.

CSU A-Meet at Middlesex Fells.

Brutal day for me with the heat and having to worry about the sprained toe from yesterday. No map handy to relive the nightmare just now...

BTW, unlike Ski-O, a bad day of orienteering is still an awesome day!

Sunday Blue (raw) - Splits

Sunday Blue - Splits

Event: CSU Pine Hill A-meet
 

Blue Middle Semi-finals at CSU meet in Middlesex Fells.

Nate lost his compass just before the start, and he was starting 8 minutes behind me, so I left my compass with Chris at the start for him. Apparently he found his compass, but just too late for me.

I figured it wouldn't be too bad, since my shadow was pointing directly north, but it turns out that I rely on my compass a great deal to measure distances for pace counting - losing that was just as much an impact as the north-pointing.

It was a good exercise - I was reading the map in a much more detailed fashion than usual. But I also lost a fair amount of time.

Perhaps I'll update this when I have the map.

Middle Distance B Final at CSU A-meet at Middlesex Fells (Pine Hill).

It was a bit warm this AM, but it was ridiculously warm this afternoon, which made for a very tough second race of the day.

I did go out a bit on the conservative side (running-wise more than navigation-wise), and was OK thru C4. When I came over the hill toward C5, I just couldn't decipher the rocks on the map vs real life, so I lost some time sorting that out. Then I was slow picking my way over to C6.

I was good for a couple of controls, then had the big error of the afternoon. I didn't see the right route to C9, because of my worthless eyesight and the "settlement" boundary. I thought I was being clever going out the way I came in, to catch the left trail quickly, but apparently I blew through the first intersection and the minor disaster was on. I lost at least 4 minutes and fell back behind Dylan and a couple of cadets that I had put some ground on.

I was then OK thru 90% of C13, but lost some time with the confusing trails near the bag. Ended up going straight toward C14, which was probably a minor mistake, since the trail was pretty twisty. C15 was slow going up the hill. I didn't quite catch the cadets who took the high road at C16, so their route was better.

Saturday Blue Semi - Splits

Saturday Blue Final - Splits

The legs decided that a day off was in order. I did take 2 38-minute walks from the hotel, though, so I wasn't a total slug.

Ran with Zach for 37 minutes from the VoTech school behind Wakefield High. Very nice running around the trails near Breakheart Reservation. We were able to do some terrain running without leaving the trails, since the area had plenty of rocks and roots and stuff. We ran for a bit before picking up an orange-blazed trail heading mostly south. After 20 minutes, we turned around and took a chance and stayed north-ish on the orange trail past where we had joined it and that led us back to the power line, from which we could see the school.

I was having enough fun that I decided to make it 45 minutes after dropping Zach back at the car, and did another loop.

When I got back to the car, I discovered I have a very nice bruise-type thing on the back/inside of my right thigh. I assume it is related to the groin trouble that I have been having.

C • Irrelevant, 3

Hit the MIT track with Nate, Zach and even Luke. Nate did 4x1000, while Zach and I did 4x600. Luke decided to do 4x400 (and went 1:59, 1:45, 1:41, 1:37).

I was 2:11, 2:10, 2:09, 2:07
Zach was 2:13, 2:13, 2:14, 2:15

Recovery averaged 3:12 - 200m jog, then mostly walking.

w/up was 10:58 and included a lap outside of Briggs.
also did 2 x 100m strides before starting
w/dn was 8:31

An intentional day off, to give the groin a break.

CSU Park-O Meet at Pine Banks.

Combination of a still-tight and mildly sore groin, plus poor navigation (I never saw the scale on the map until after the race - I thought it was 1:5, but sometimes it seemed not), led to an extremely slow time.

But it was another day of practicing on a map, and that is certainly a good thing.

Chelsea joined us, so that was very nice, even though the course was a little too tough for her. Zach was only a few minutes behind me. And Luke did great on the beginner course. I won't mention the other kid, since he has to log his own training.

Trying to loosen the injury before the Sprint. Couldn't get myself to head out after the race (just cold enough that it probably would not have helped too much).

West Point Classic from Camp Buckner.

I was still sore, so I wasn't expecting much, and I did not get off to a good start on the first control, but, despite moving rather slowly, I only made a few other mistakes, and wound up with a reasonable time overall.

More later when I have my map?

Classic: Red - Splits

Event: West Point A-Meet
 

West Point Sprint on their campus.

A very nice Sprint course, with nice changes of pace between some technical terrain and some campus running, with a few tricks of uncrossable walls, stairs and pass-thrus to keep the map reading challenging.

Sadly, my groin was aching before the start and got much worse early on, and I had difficulty moving.

West Point Middle at Victor Constant Ski Slope

So, my groin was quite sore following the Sprint. I even came across Sandy and officially requested that the Middle not count in my rating. Not that the rating means anything for an also-ran like me, but I am hoping to continue my YOY improvement, and did not want this performance to hurt those chances.

I knew that I would be slow - I wasn't sure that I'd even be able to finish - but I didn't think my navigation would also be so poor: I lost significant time on each of the first six controls. I don't have the map handy and I can't get Route Gadget up (it claims I don't have a JVM, which seems strange since I even downloaded a JDK when I installed NetBeans), so I can't relive the ordeal right now. I do remember having difficulty coming down the hill from the penultimate control to the go control and into the finish, having to shorten the stride length to avoid pain.

Decent w/up before the Sprint; sporadic jogging on the way to the Middle start (although much of the walking could have been counted as a w/up) and some w/dn after the Sprint (walking only after the Middle).

Sprint: Red Blue - Splits

Middle: Red - Splits

Went in to work early, thinking I could swim at lunch and still head out for West Point by 3:30, but problems abounded and I couldn't swim, or leave until almost 4:45.

Very nice hash from East Rochester. Mostly off-road and included a stretch of very sweet terrain. An area that may be big enough to map, but probably would have all sorts of ownership problems, but in a perfect world...

Fairly large turnout, since the Germans were in town (the reasonable weather didn't hurt, either).

First race of the 2009 Dirt Cheap Trail Series, from Devil's Bathtub at Mendon Ponds.

Fun race. I was able to keep myself under control with West Point coming up this weekend, which makes for a much more enjoyable run. And my time was still faster than last summer (in the other direction).

I passed a bunch of people by staying on the muddy trail near the first marsh, as they were searching for higher ground, which meant sidehill running for them. But a bit later, my shoe was untied and I lost 12 seconds (and about 9 places) taking care of that. Went back and forth with Dumpster a few times. Near the end of the race Saran'y and Dumpster went by, but Dumpster rolled his ankle on the last turn, and went down. Much like last summer, when he caught a log and went down in front of me late in the race. I think I was 4th in 45-49, missing third by less than 30 seconds, making me wonder what I could have done.

Groin a little sore afterwards - I first noticed that after the longish run on Sunday, but thought it was better.

C • How 2

An easy 15 minutes before the race, and a very easy 14 minutes after the race.

ATTENTION ALL WOT NOOBS: Orienteering information is available at the Webster Distance Runners blog today. We will work in a couple more training sessions before the Buffalo A Meet, and there are two more Rochester local meets before then (including one at Webster Park!).

Took the day off after a late night doing the federal taxes for us and Chelsea (but not Nate, yet), and our state taxes are done. In to work early and no lunch so I could leave at 3:30 for the track meet. Too busy at the meet to get any running of my own accomplished.

Exciting meet (well, for our team) - I think we won 103-38, with the distance boys contributing nicely: 1-3 in the 1600 and 800, and 1-2 in the 3200 and an easy win in the 4x800. Nate was the "1" in the 3200, running 10:24 with Kenny almost the whole way and plenty in the tank at the end (72 last lap). He then beat the splits of 3 of the 4 "A" relay guys, running 2:11 just a short time after the 3200.

But the best thing about the meet was the number of PRs that were set, and the number of people that put in solid efforts in the 4x800 at the end of the meet. Once again we were able to field 4 teams.

4:07/8:14
1:30,32,35,32,31,28 (on 1:55)
3:26,18

I had someone to catch on the last 100, so I was able to dig a little deeper. Mostly I was slow, due to being a little worn out from yesterday.

Since I went to the [2.5 hour] Vigil last night, I was able to get out for a very nice Easter morning run while the troops went to Mass. Ran from home to Ellison Wetlands via Empire, thru to Old Browncroft and back via Creek. Since I wasn't quite at an hour when I arrived back home, I did the short block to add a little over 3 minutes.

It was very sunny, but chilly and my hands were cold early and late (going into the wind), but I still managed a 7:15 mile on Creek, mostly into the wind, late in the run.

I'm sure I didn't get the Wetlands section right, but here is the rough version of the route.

Stopped off for a run at Black Creek Park on the way to the Sabres season finale (a nice, 6-1 win over the Bruins that eliminated the Bruins from President's Cup contention.

The trails were sloppy to flooded in places, but had some real nice sections, especially on a yellow-blazed trail that I had never noticed before. I lost that trail for awhile and did some terrain running, but eventually the wet sections forced me back to the trail.

Ran with Zach at Lincoln Park. We parked at the one-room schoolhouse to avoid two miles of road running (round-trip). We headed into the park from Empire and went south until the eagle nesting area barriers forced us west, then we wandered mostly north out thru the Y to Bay-Creek and the car.

I forgot Zach had a soccer game at 9 tonight, or I would have cut it a bit shorter for him. I think the hills in the park take even more out of him than they do out of me.

ATTENTION Webster Orienteering Team.

I wanted to clarify some points about the change in direction that I proposed after the track meet tonight.

Since it looks like we are not quite ready to run Orange (especially at West Point, where the maps/courses are usually especially challenging), I am proposing that we make our team debut at the Buffalo A-Meet. It will be held on May 16th and 17th, a weekend we do not have a track meet. The travel arrangements are much simpler - I can give everyone interested a ride there and back. The lodging arrangements are much simpler (and free) - I have several houses where we can spend the night on Saturday. And, it gives us a few more weeks to prepare.

Those extra weeks include two local Rochester Orienteering Club meets: May 2nd at Letchworth - a very nice map (and we have no track meet), and May 9th at good old Webster Park (we do have a meet, but it is the His/Hers invitational which usually has very limited entry allowances per team). I will also figure out a way to fit in one or two training sessions.

Finally, if anyone is still interested in West Point, we can still make the arrangements, but I would recommend running the Yellow course.

Ran around a bit before the track meet at Fairport. We lost 72-69, giving up a few points here and there, while Fairport gave up nothing. Our top miler had to work today (only because the meet was rescheduled from Tuesday), and that was very costly. We had to use Nate in the mile, and he wasn't able to bounce back and win the two mile. And we had to use AJ in the mile, and he DNF'd in the 800, which cost us at least a point.

The exciting news was that we had enough distance runners to enter 4, count them, 4, 4 x 800 relay teams (with Whitty, Nate, Vanzo and AJ taking the victory over Fariport).

4:03/8:11
1:30,31,32,32,20,29 (on 1:55)
3:25,21

I thought Monday was slow because of the weekend's efforts. Today's swim indicates that I'm slow because I had too few swims in the previous 3 weeks. I need to find time to run and swim in the same day.

Ellison Wetlands

I couldn't pull myself away from my desk at lunch, while I awaited the latest rankings, to see how Nate fared. It's looking good, but not he waits for the official selection stuff to happen.

Anyway, I didn't get out of work until almost 7, so I didn't start running until around 7:15. I decided I would run out the old main trail until it got halfway dark and then turn around. But it didn't get halfway dark, so I made it all the way to Old Browncroft, up the hill and left on Parkview to #22 before 25 minutes seemed like a good turnaround time. On the way back, I was almost run over by feet flying down the switchback section of the trail, but it was getting too dark to chat or try to keep up with him, going the wrong way.

On the way out, I had taken a couple of slightly bad turns, which I avoided on the way back, plus I was to the lot from the brick gates in 3:37 (out in 4:51), so I had to run over to the outlet and back to make the run symmetrical (in time, if not in distance).

4:01/8:03
1:32,34,35,34,33 (on 1:50)
3:30,26

The weekend's efforts (yes, I still need to log those) left me pretty worn out today. I had enough time for a 300 w/dn, or 100 plus a 4-minute soak. I chose the latter; my legs thanked me.

Long Pig at Mt. Airy

My legs were fried from yesterday. Legs 1, 4 and 6 were long, and included plenty of trail, usually my strength, but I was molasses. I had trouble with the hills in the second half of the course.

Sunday Long Red - Splits

US Relay Champs at Mt. Airy

Anchored ROC Bottom, the ROC 8-point team. We finished 2nd, well behind OKansas, and safely ahead of the next team, in the club category. We were 4th overall as I couldn't pass Nadim near the end.

Rick, Patty, Linda and Nate won the 12-point relay handily.

OK, so I was slow and sloppy, but this distance must be a little shy (perhaps the route was measured as if we can walk on water).

During the whole race, in the back of my mind was the thought about having to still run the relay later today, so I could never push myself properly. And I made a couple of errors early that were just large enough to bum me out. I need to be able to rally in situations like that.

Limited warm-up before the Sprint because I was making sure Nate had a handle on his volunteer duties at the call-up line. Not his favorite thing to have to do: call out names loudly.

Warm-down was limited to walking (not logged). A more suitable w/up for the Relay, but that w/dn was limited to a jog to the car before awards - that was a mistake, since Sunday is another race.

Saturday Red_8pt - Splits

Event: OCIN 25th Anniversary / Flying Pig XIII / Relay Champs
 

Short Pig at McFarlan Woods (a corner of Mt. Airy)

Well, what a way to celebrate my birthday: Luke won M-10, Zach won M-14, Nate won M-20 and I somehow managed to win M45+ by just one second!

The start was setup on a trail, and I started jogging along the trail while I located the start triangle. This was almost a disaster, since I almost panicked, but I realized I could see the reentrant, calmed down and recovered. C2 was a nice confidence builder - a long leg with a clear route. C3 wasn't bad, and I came over the hill to C4 knowing just where it would be. That was fun. I ended up going way left to C5, as the trail was so much more appealing than the hill. It looks like that probably cost me no more than 10 seconds. Pace count told me when to look for C6. Hustled down to the stream on the way to C7, but came down at a place that wasn't so friendly for the last 5-foot drop (a common occurrence over the weekend), so I lost a bit adjusting my route. Had to aim right when climbing the hill, to bounce of the trail. I saw Greg B here.

Heading to C8, I aimed left and hit the small trail, just before the main trail, giving me an easy attack. I think I caught Tori near C9 and had a nice bearing to C10 before I punched. I got a ways ahead of her on C11/C12, but then I blew C13 a bit, due to trouble seeing what was on the map. By the time I sorted things out, Tori had caught back up. Somewhere around C14/C15, Greg B reappeared. Leaving C15, I ran hard down the hill, but had to slow a bit after almost taking a tumble when things got slick. Started up the first trail on the other side, realized that I should be on the other trail, but when I started to slide over to switch trails I almost cut Greg off, so I continued up.

Leaving C16, I followed the line to the first clearing and failed to understand that I could following the clearings to the open area, and got hung up in some green stuff while going to the trail. I pitched my map and compass before punching C17 and contoured a bit to C18, while running very hard, allowing me to beat Nate on that split. My finish split was 2 seconds faster than Mark Voit, allowing me to slide past him (but I was still slower than Nate).

Patty was 3rn in F50+ and Walt picked up a rare medal, 2nd in M65+, so we all ended the day with medals.

C • One Second 1

Warm-up included going to the start, coming back and going there again, plus some jogging. I wisely went out for a 10 minute w/dn.

Friday Middle Red - Splits

Our opening track meet was rescheduled from yesterday to today. I was expecting to have some time to run before, or perhaps during the meet, but the meet was looking very close, so I spent some extra time with the troops. I think that was especially important, being the first meet, and I don't think they were in the habit of a consistent warm-up routine.

Anyway, Rush-Henrietta is one of the top distance teams in the area, so we would have to perform well to grab any points. We did get some good news to the effect that 2 or 3 of their top guys weren't able to compete, coming off an extra long indoor season.

In the 1600, Nico took a valiant shot at the win with just under 800m to go, but couldn't quite hang on and settled for third. We went an amazing 1-2 in the 800m as Vanzo set the early pace and AJ had a blazing second lap to run 2 minutes flat (Vanzo was 2:02). Nate patiently sat in 3rd place during the first 5.5 laps of the 3200, then made a move which wasn't covered strongly, so he took off and ran away with the stunning win in a huge PR of 10:22. The other coach (whom I've known for over 20 years) had been expecting 8 or 9 points, but got just 4. I was chastised after the race for "illegally aiding the runner", but there was no grounds for that, since my movements were perpendicular to their line of travel only, as I crossed the infield to cheer on both straightaways. Nate's win meant we only needed 2 relay wins, which we got in the 4x100 and 4x400, but we added an exclamation point by winning the 4x800 by a huge margin.

No time for a run after the meet, since we had to hustle off to Buffalo ahead of tomorrow's drive to Pig territory.

Ellison Wetlands, from Empire. Some easy running, some not so easy. I ran out the White trail for 21 minutes, which only got me about 1.5 minutes past the small bridge over the small stream (to the tree down across the trail). Came back the Yellow trail, which I thought would be more of a shortcut than it was to White to Peach to the main trail. Finished up with a quick-ish 3:38 from the brick gate to the parking lot.