Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Warmup... though it was already plenty warm

Westchester County Challenge Middle Distance - Blue course

I went off to run after announcing, and it was very hot by then. While I was announcing for the team trials, Balter told me I would run the course in 51 minutes. To my amazement, he was dead on.

I started two minutes after the speedy Aidan, and did not expect to see him at all. I opened cleanly, if tentatively, since I hadn't raced in the woods since November or so. Almost right from the beginning I was walking most uphills - feeling both the heat and the lack of training. To my surprise, I heard Aidan behind me as I was coming down into 8. He caught up on the way to 9, and was gone up the hill to 10. I then proceeded to screw up 11, as I stopped too high on the slope and then turned the wrong way to relocate. A minute gone. To my surprise, Aidan came into 11 from the opposite direction at the same time. We split up to 12: I went low along the stream, he went high. As I came into 12, I could see him a couple of contours too high, sailing past. I did ok on the next couple, but then was too low on 16 and had to climb up, losing 20 seconds. This time, I was less surprised when Aidan appeared behind me.

He flew past to 17, and I could just see him drop down towards the trail on the left heading to 18. I decided to go straight, though in retrospect should have gone a bit right of the line to avoid the steepest sections. This leg shows up as a mistake for me, even though I executed cleanly, which means I was either far too slow, or my route was bad, or both. To my surprise, Aidan was just in front when I punched 18.

I ran after him to 19, but he went off too far to the right, so I went to the control instead. He flew past me for the last time as I walked up the hill to 21.

All in all, I was pretty satisfied for my first race back after a long layoff. Importantly, my knee that was operated on in February did not give me any trouble. The sciatica does not seem to have gotten worse, but it's definitely something I need to figure out, as it is quite painful, especially when standing.

WOC TT - Middle Blue - Splits

Event: Westchester County Challenge
 

Team Trials Sprint, aka my first attempt at running hard since knee surgery in February. This went about as expected. I could keep up a decent pace for about ten minutes, but then wilted quickly due to the heat and lack of training. This was not a difficult course: most of the route choice options differed by no more than five seconds, but it was still important to choose correctly and maintain good flow, which I certainly did not have.

It was fun to hang out at the finish and spectate the trialers, while keeping Inara from running off. I was surprised by the high number of mispunches by top athletes on a relatively straightforward course.

Splits: https://attackpoint.org/racesplits.jsp/race_28321

Jogging warmup, mostly with Alli.

Morning stretching and core, complete with Inara climbing on my back.

Elliptical intervals, 4x4 minutes. 2J!E.

Elliptical. 2J!E.

Coaching. We had another Mid-Atlantic Junior Team training session today. I used existing controls from the QOC local event to create a pairs map contact / relocation exercise. Each runner in a pair has every other control on their map. As the person with #1 on it leads the way to #1, the other person has to follow along and identify the location of #1 when they get there. Then the second person leads to #2, and the roles reverse.

We had an odd number of juniors, so I paired up with Sam L. It was good to get out and to watch Sam in action. The heat and steepness meant that we weren't moving quickly. At the end, I stayed behind a bit longer to help Valerie search for a runaway beagle. Luckily, Pepper returned shortly.

Neither Alli nor I ended up going out on a course. When I am coaching and Alli is helping with SI, it is difficult to also get out on a course, especially if Inara hasn't napped. We have concluded that the optimal number of parents per child is three.

C • PPC 8