Training Log Archive: j-man

Warmup

Team Trials Long.

Another very good race. Even better than yesterday. Eddie's suggestion that this was "home terrain" stuck in my head. I believed it. And I'm pretty confident in "home" terrain.

Started out smooth and purposeful, but not "hard." A little off on 3 and had a big scare on 5 as I drifted left despite my compass and was not 100% as I made my final approach. That was a disaster averted. Thanks!

On the way to 6 I saw Joe, but then made a parallel error. I probably lost 45 s there? Anyway, passed Joe again to 8. Middle of course good.

Had another small loss of contact on the long leg, but recovered. Leg after I saw Tex and got a bit careless.

Lost some time on 15 -- I think it must have been route choice related -- I went pretty much exactly on the line, whereas it was possible to avoid some of that climb.

Anyway, felt a little tired later but again emphasized conservativism and safe routes. I thought I was having a good race and I didn't want to screw it up on the final few legs.

Back to the parking lot, up that darn hill.

Blue - Splits

warmup

A very good race.

This was the race that I dreaded during the weekend. I really just wanted to limit the potential damage.

I felt really smooth starting out, though, and the first controls were my style. Starting out to number 5, alarm bells went off -- that was a hard leg. So, I opted for what I considered a safe route, swinging by number 6. I knew I coul not afford to miss there. Looking at splits, I am surprised I did lose time there to others, as I thought I may have been moving well enough to compensate for distance. No matter.

Eric B. was at 5 right before me, and I took off after him.

The next few controls we were basically together. I still wanted to take some safer routes, and it paid on 7 at least as I spiked it while he came in from right. But, on 11, I misread, thinking I was on my way to 12, drifting left. I didn't care that I couldn't see Eric anymore, but then I realized what I did and pushed hard to reacquire contact with him so I could coast for a bit and pull myself back together.

Anyway, onto 12. We went largely straight across and up the stream. Midway, some things on the map didn't match perfectly, but since the attack was easy, I didn't care. Well, anyway, we flubbed it. I think we saw Greg, Grant, and Spike in the vicinity. Those guys all either found it right away or found it quickly. I relocated eventually, and found it too. I don't know what happened to Eric, but pushed onto to 13 to catch the train. Soon acquired Grant and saw Spike. Then, the Swampfox swwoped in like a banshee--now, with the alliance operational, I knew it would be OK. Still, I went a bit far right and high on 14 and we (Swampfox and I) hesitated and were a bit right on 16, but otherwise, so no additional damage.

Anyway, it was a good race. I concentrated well, took reasonable routes, and had good legs. However, I did appreciate having Swampfox show up. While running with Eric and earlier, I felt smooth and comfortable, but, I was beginning to lose the edge later in the race. Swampfox ensured that I got it back.

I think I lost a total of 2.5 minutes? 1.5 - 2 on 12 and 30 seconds elsewhere. Don't think 5 was a real loss.

Cooldown with Dasha and Greg.

Blue - Splits

Event: US Team Trials
 

warmup

Team Trials Sprint.

An OK race. Reasonably good technically, though maybe too conservative on route choice. In any case, I missed or failed to take some optimal routes and did few excessive switchbacks.

The bigger porblem was that I did not feel like I had good legs today. Just did not feel fast. Maybe the heat?

Overall, as I had high expectations for this race, I was disappointed.

Cool down with Greg on the rails to trails path.

Sprint - Splits

Should have taken a light. Fell off the curb and scratched up various things on left side.

TNT
Down past the police station.

Split back on the "race course" was ~23:00 but I stopped to talk to Chris. And it was at level 2.