Training Log Archive: oxensd

West Point long red / M45, at Camp Shea. This was a really tough one - terrain and course, and I did terribly poor. Worst run in several years. Lack of focus, stupid route choices.

Good running weather, high 40s and a bit of rain. The terrain was really tough, stretches of it extremely rocky and steep, which I don't enjoy. I gave up trying hard en route to 5, and changed into "nice day in the woods" mode...7.9km but actually ran 11km, climb advertised as 310m but I did 478m...

#1 had the right idea and was fine until the approach 200m before the control. Then got distracted by lots of runners lower down, and unthinkingly went there. Ended up 200m below the control, found the little stream and followed it up. But not far enough, thought I saw the stream ended, and concluded it wasn't the stream on the map (lots of raining producing extra streams?!). So went down again, before reorienting going back up again. About 7 mins.

#2 Steamed along just fine aiming for the corner of the fire corridor. Except it really doesn't exist anymore, without a lot of guesswork for the unitiated (why is it still on the map?!) and I didn't find it, or at least wasn't sure. Thought I saw it higher up, but no. By this time saw several runners and went towards them - again! Should have immediately realized I was too high up and too close to the steep slope. 3 mins.

#3 spiked it. Decided to approach from above owing to the tricky approach, which was the right decision, but looking at GPS stayed a little too high. Climbed 15-20 m unnecessarily.

#4 only control I am mostly happy about in the whole race. Wish I could have run faster on the rocky paths.

#5 got to the path without problems, then left my brain behind on the path. It (the path) was very rocky, So cleverly I thought let's do the climb now and cruise to the control on the ledge. Well, 1) a terrible idea given how steep and rocky the slope is. I had to hang on for dear life and was barely able to move forward; and 2) I managed to climb 15-20m too high. "spiked" the control, but wasted about 8 minutes on the slope. I really don't know what I was thinking - shockingly bad decision to leave the path so early!

#6 had decided while on the slope to #5 that I wasn't enjoying this, so stopped trying to go fast. Hesitated about route choice, but decided on the path which turns out to be the correct choice given that the forest was really dense/should have been green. Stefan S went straight and is sure going around was faster. Came a little low but ok, probably 1 min.

#7 as far as the straight route choice is concerned I did fine. Thought long and hard about going around on the path but decided against it - wrong choice. Clearly faster. Probably lost 6 minutes on route choice.

#8 at this point I was really fed up and more or less walked through the dense bush.

Finished towards the bottom in M45 and on Red. Sloppy navigation in very challenging terrain, poor route choices. Really mad at myself. Lost about 25 minutes, AP only reports 12 but that is clearly understating my troubles...

Map and GPS:
http://www.oxenstierna.com/davidoxenstierna/orient...

Long - Red - Splits

Event: 40th Annual West Point National Meet
 

Middle red at West Point national meet. Beautiful day, sunny and low 50s, slight rain while I ran.

Missed #1 by being a little low on the slope, lost 2 mins.

Spiked everything else - except for the finish! From #11 there was a big fence right in front, with now indication which way to run. I hesitated, looking for openings, and went left, which turned out to be correct. But then I - naturally I thought - ran towards where all the people were gathered, and thought I saw a finish-looking place. Ran to it, only to be told "the finish is in the middle of the field!" So it was...controls in the middle of the field with no other indication. Poorly planned I must say...lost 45s.

But besides the arrangement around the finish, good course and had a good run. Pretty pleased with my time, would have been below 10 min/km if it weren't for the snafus. This is my current goal, to beat 10 in NY/CT tough forests, which is materially faster than I ran last year or the year before. Placed around the middle of Red (M35 through M45, M20, F21), owing to lots of fast runners...

Map and GPS:
http://www.oxenstierna.com/davidoxenstierna/orient...

Middle - Red - Splits

Cardio 1, Level 4. 4162 steps

Leg extensions 3x20 30 lbs
Leg curls 3x15 20 lbs

20 minutes Cardio 1 Level 2, 3000 steps

3x20 30 lbs leg extensions
3x10 20 lbs leg curls