Thursday May 29 |
 | Trail walk (Dog walk) 40:00 [1] 2.3 mi (17:22 / mi) | |
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| This time I made no effort to run or jog. Just got out and got the stiffness out of the legs. Dogs happy to be out in woods again. |
Monday May 26 |
| orienteering race (TT Long -- Blue) 2:19:31 [4] 11.87 km (11:45 / km) +525m 9:38 / km | |
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| After yesterday's disappointment, the Long race was a pleasant surprise. I did run out of gas at the end as expected, but I managed to avoid cramping, and I actually managed to orienteer fairly well. Had a very solid start with the exception of #2, where I flew down the hillside but then was confused about where I was when I hit the lower trail. Nevertheless, I found I was reading the vegetation well from #3-#5, and was gratified to learn that I chose the same route along the ridgeline to #6 as PG (although sadly my execution was quite a bit slower). Despite this, I did catch sight of David Onkst (who started 2:00 earlier) as he left #6, and succeeded in reaching #9 before him. In between, was passed by Nate Lyons (who certainly looks like he will be among the next generation of elite US orienteers). Rest of run was solid if a bit slow. I question my route choice to #11, where I ran around E side of campus instead of going across the middle, and I missed a bit high on #15, allowing myself to be caught by David Onkst and Mike Norris, but otherwise I have no complaints. I ultimately finished seconds ahead of David and 2:00 behind JJ, which I found quite respectable given my expectations. All in all, was satisfied with my performance running with the big boys. |
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Blue Long - Splits |
Sunday May 25 |
| orienteering race (TT Middle -- Blue) 1:02:18 [4] 4.84 km (12:52 / km) +190m 10:46 / km | |
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| I was fully expecting this to be my best event of the weekend, as it did not show up either my lack of top-end speed nor my lack of endurance. However, it proved to be my least satisfying. I fought to maintain contact with the map all day long, and in truth, I only ran 3 legs well. I'm not sure which leg was most indicative of my day, although the leading candidates were certainly #2, which I salvaged only by stumbling across #3 first, #3, which I failed to navigate cleanly despite having just run the leg in reverse, and #18 (the GO control), where I spent 10 seconds running in the wrong direction around the parking lot, I'm sure to the amusement of the accumulated spectators. The scary part was that there were no real disasters and I even managed to run the hills, yet my time was an uninspiring 13:00/km. On the other hand, it certainly was a beautiful day, and I again finished comfortably out of last place. Oh, the simple joys of life. |
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Blue Middle - Splits |
Saturday May 24 |
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| Event: US Team Trials
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| Road run (Warm-up) 8:00 [3] 1.0 mi (7:59 / mi) | |
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| Warm up lap around my brother's neighborhood trying to work out the kinks after drive down late last night. |
| orienteering race (TT Sprint -- Blue) 26:39 [4] 3.49 km (7:38 / km) +83m 6:49 / km | |
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| A solid run after the first few controls. Needed some time to get acclimated to map (particularly with regard to recognizing stairs) resulting in some slow legs on #2, #4, #6. After that, I was pretty happy. Had been caught by all three runners starting after me (Dylan Thies, Ian Smith, Eric Bone) by #10 which was a bit demoralizing, but then did at least have the satisfaction of recouping the lost time on Dylan on the lower half of the course. Ran most of the last half of race in sight of Ian. I had the brief pleasure of choosing a better route to #20, but then he sprinted by me again on the way to #21. Was happy that route was essentially all downhill as my uphill running is clearly a weakness. Finished comfortably out of last, which had honestly been my expectation going into event. |
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Blue Sprint - Splits |
Friday May 23 |
| Trail run (Dog walk) 40:00 [3] 2.5 mi (16:00 / mi) | |
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| Usual jog in place with dogs. A few extra sprints up hill at end waiting for Sidney to catch up. |
Wednesday May 21 |
| Weights 20:00 [3] | |
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| 130 lb, 120 reps (25, 25, 25, 20, 15, 10) |
Monday May 19 |
| Weights 20:00 [3] | |
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| 130 lb, 115 reps (25, 25, 23, 18, 15, 9). |
Sunday May 18 |
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| Event: NEOC--Houghton's Pond
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| orienteering race (NEOC-Houghton's Pond Red) 1:19:18 [4] *** 5.8 km (13:40 / km) | |
| spiked:10/14c |
| Very pleasant day with many good legs,but the mistakes/problems were killers. Most egregious problem was trying to execute eastward compass leg from #2-#3 after punching #1. There were many clues that I was making a serious error, from the thicker vegetation ("curse the mapper for not updating better") to the steeper and longer climb ("I really thought my conditioning had improved, but maybe yesterday's race took more out of me than I expected") to the fact the the top of the hill was on my left, not my right (no, I didn't have a rationalization, so I finally stopped and figured out my mistake). But the damage of 5:00+ was already done. Rest of run was fairly clean with the exception of small hesitations at #5 and #10, and a 9:30 problem at #11 which was due at least in part to an inadequate map/poor control placement. I managed to navigate to just outside the circle when I was drawn off by a flag on a small knoll. I correctly figured out that the knoll could only be one feature on the map about 50 m N of my control, but when I ran down the re-entrant, there was no flag. I then wondered if perhaps if I had simply run by it, so I climbed back up above the wrong control. Finally, I bailed out S to the trail, hitting it near a mapped boulder that seemed to be in the right place, but chose to run the trial to the nearest intersection before making the next approach, this time hitting an apparently unmapped reentrant E of the circled area. Although I cannot take all the blame for this problem, it did seem that others probably dealt with the problem more efficiently than I did (10:05 from the time I hit the wrong flag). During each of my last four major errors, I have circled over the same area for far too long before firmly relocating myself. I think I will have to bail out earlier in the future to avoid throwing good time after bad. Oh well, at least it was a good work-out, and the conditioning held up reasonably, even if Ian Finlayson again left me in the dust. |
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Red - Splits |
Saturday May 17 |
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| Event: WCOC Huntington meet
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| orienteering race 1:50:22 [4] *** 7.72 km (14:18 / km) | |
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| Ugh! I'm too experienced to have been so out of contact with the map. Started poorly by circling wrong feature (off the clock) for the first control. Then the wheels fell off. Had absolutely no contact with the map after leaving #4. Was trying to make sense of where I was when I compounded the problem by trying to make my way to #7. Realized I was heading for wrong control, but now thoroughly lost and embarrassingly unable to relocate. Finally hit the marsh NNE of #10 and confirmed position on #10. Sadly, I still managed to take two stabs to get to #5/8/11 both times I approached from #10. I also managed to miss it once approaching from #7. All in all, a demoralizing performance. Rest of race was not bad, although I somehow managed to miss #17 even with a stone wall handrail. Despite the disappointing performance, I thought the map was interesting and the course was quite well thought out. Thanks to Petr Polivka for an excellent event. |
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Red - Splits |
Friday May 16 |
| Trail run (Dog walk) 41:00 [3] 2.3 mi (17:50 / mi) | |
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| After failing to motivate myself after 2 straight difficult overnight shifts, I finally got out with the dogs for an easy jog in place before a planned weekend of orienteering. Felt less energetic than I would have liked after two days of rest. We'll see if energy back by tomorrow. |
Tuesday May 13 |
| Trail run (Dog walk) 43:00 [2] 2.3 mi (18:41 / mi) | |
| rhr:55 |
| Got ready to go for a mid-range road run, but dogs saw me getting ready, so had to take them first. Did usual route at very steady warm-up pace. Day was delightly with bright sun but slightly cool breeze. |
| Road run 37:27 [3] 4.5 mi (8:18 / mi) | |
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| Went back to my Original circuit which I first started running when I began my first attempts at training back in 1999. I cannot recall my times from that era, but I don't think I was able to do 8:00/mi over this somewhat more hilly course. I do remember how much the small hill at the 1/3 mark took out of me on that very first run. Today was a solid run, even though I approached it without making any attempt at high performance. I feel as if I am making steady progress in my conditioning. I will give things a real test this weekend with back-to-back Red/Blue events in Redding, CT and the Blue Hills (hooray for getting this event back on the schedule). |
Sunday May 11 |
| Road run 32:06 [4] 4.1 mi (7:49 / mi) | |
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| New route out and back from Kyra's riding farm. Goal was 32:00, so not unhappy with effort. Splits were 8:39, 7:41, 7:37, 8:09. Distance works out well with Kyra's cool-down period after riding, so can watch lesson, get exercise, and still be ready to leave on time. However, first option would still be an actual O-event. |
Saturday May 10 |
| Trail run (Dog walk) 38:00 [2] 2.3 mi (16:31 / mi) | |
| rhr:58 |
| Well, after my aggressive run yesterday, Sydney had to drag my sorry ass through the woods today. In point of fact, I hadn't really slowed down to her speed, but I sure wasn't sprinting ahead and doubling back either. Was really stiff, and it didn't get better as the run progressed. But at least I kept my feet moving the whole time and worked up a bit of a sweat. Sydney was actually a bit faster today. Perhaps having me constantly in her sight provided some additional motivation. |
Friday May 9 |
| Road run 1:31:43 [5] 11.3 mi (8:07 / mi) | |
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| Weather perfect, recent training limited, and no events on horizon for the weekend, so tried again for a PR, this time on my route circumnavigating Needham. Felt a bit stiff at start, but by second third of the route, I really felt as if I was stretching out my stride nicely. Carried a good effort all the way to end, and was hence quite depressed to find myself 2 full minutes off my record pace from last summer. I can attribute perhaps 45 seconds to delays occasioned by inconvenient traffic at the major intersections, but that still leaves a big drop-off in performance. Perhaps my more aggressive training will still yield results in the upcoming months, but I may have to recognize that deteriorating performance with age is a well documented phenomenon. |
Thursday May 8 |
| Trail run (Dog Walk) 40:00 [2] 2.8 mi (14:17 / mi) | |
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| Usual jog in place, although did about 1/2 mile at full speed in 200-300 m intervals before doubling back to wait for Sydney. |
Tuesday May 6 |
| Trail run (Dog walk) 40:00 [2] 2.3 mi (17:22 / mi) | |
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| In middle of 3 straight overnights starting after weekend of O at West Point, but weather just too nice not to take out dogs. Done at standard glorified jog in place pace. Sydney a bit more perky today. She may have a few more months left, but I keep thinking that every time I go out with her it may be the last time. |
Sunday May 4 |
| orienteering race (Red Classic) 1:27:04 [4] *** 6.94 km (12:33 / km) +275m 10:28 / km | |
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| Finally, a good run. Actually, almost a great run. Was able to read map much more effectively than on previous day. Made one dubious route choice on second long leg (8-9) opting to try to go straight S through mountain laurel, then executed it poorly by allowing myself to drift W and drop into an essentially impenetrable swamp. The damage was probably in the 5-6 minute range. I then overcompensated on the following leg taking longer run on trail rather than easier direct route. Nevertheless, finished comfortably in top half in M45 and quite competitive with many who routinely finish ahead of me. A good day to revive some confidence in my skills. |
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Classic Red - Splits |
Saturday May 3 |
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| Event: West Point A-Meet
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| orienteering race (Red Middle) 1:35:59 [4] *** 4.23 km (22:41 / km) | |
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| Ugh! Dreadful performance. Started by cleverly failing to check code on obvious wrong control on 1st leg. Then climbed 4 contours, relocated and came back to the same control. That was the least of the mistakes. Subsequently managed to reproduce same error running, then walking to #5. Only managed to hit #5 by accident when I adopted strategy of looking for #6 before trying to backtrack to #5. I could go on and on, but I don't think my ego could take it. |
| orienteering race (R/B Sprint) 29:58 [4] *** 3.1 km (9:40 / km) | |
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| Another depressing event, this time because I actually avoided any big mistakes, and still finished very close to the bottom. I felt as if I only lost a few seconds at my minor bobbles, but my splits suggest otherwise. I don't really enjoy sprints as a rule, probably due to my limited success, but I did appreciate that it was a well designed course. |
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Sprint R/Bl - Splits |
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Middle Red - Splits |
Friday May 2 |
| Trail run (dog walk) 45:00 [2] 2.3 mi (19:34 / mi) | |
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| Jogging in place with dogs. Sydney very slow today. Not a good sign. |