Training Log Archive: smittyo

Mt. Pinos Relay, Green Leg. There were 6 teams running the advanced sprint and the green was the mass start, first leg. My competitors were James Scarborough (BAOC), Alex Kiperman (LAOC), Steve Smith (BAOC), Dan Greene (BAOC), and Rich Parker (SDO). I managed to stay with the back of the pack for about the first 3 controls and then fell behind and didn't see anyone again. I finished within about 5 minutes of most other runners (which I consider respectable against this crowd) and my team picked up time on the other legs to end up in 3rd place. This was a physical and very technical course. Controls on steep hillsides with multiple rock features meant being very careful not to fall downhill and lose contact. I feel that I accomplished this quite well and made good route choices with good attackpoints. But I lost seconds in almost every control circle due to lack of precision with the rock features. I was pretty much just getting into the circle and then looking around for which rock actually had a control on it. At number four, I overshot and then missed it again coming back, losing a few minutes rather than seconds on this one. The feature was somewhat difficult to see within a lot of downed trees and lack of precision here was a more serious error than at other controls.

Event: LAOC - Mt Pinos: Three Sprints and a Relay!
 

Sprint #1 at Mt. Pinos. My primary goal for this weekend was to rack up sprint points. I had hopes that the field might be week enough that I could win all three sprints. That wasn't the case, but it was nicely competitive at just my level. This first sprint made use of the little campground area and the subtle area just south of the parking lot with a few longer legs to get between these two areas. No major errors, although I'm sure getting out to the trail between 3 and 4 would have been faster than the straighter route that I took. I was 2nd woman to Ann Marie Cody from Caltech.

This was a downhill sprint from the top parking lot ending at McGill campground 250m below the start. Fun, fast, and technical. I was passed by many but beaten by few. To fit the course in, this map was 1:10,000, which took some adjustment after the 1:5000 earlier course. I managed to pick up the sprint win on this one, coming out ahead of the other women.

While 65m climb doesn't seem like much, after two other races at 8,000ft. elevation, it was brutal. This last sprint was much less sprint like for me. I walked virtually every uphill section. No major errors, but some hesitation on the way to #11 due to misreading the map. Nevertheless, my pace for this race was quite a bit slower than earlier in the day. I was wiped out. I was 3rd woman behind Ann Marie Cody (Caltech) and Lauren Knight (lknight94-BAOC).

Walked to the gym and back. I had an orientation meeting with a personal trainer. You get one free personal training session with your gym membership. It was interesting. She measured me in all kinds of ways and said that I had too much fat and too little lean body mass and needed to change that. Showed me the weight equipment and then wrote out a very basic plan of eat right, do cardio, do resistance training, and take vitamins. Kind of wondering about the vitamin thing. I've never taken any supplements and don't really understand why I shouldn't be able to get what I need through food. (Although I admittedly don't eat right). Her explanation was that in order to get all the nutrients I need through food I would have to eat too many calories. Vitamins are needed because they are non-calorie laden nutrients. I don't think I buy it.

Pushed pace intervals on a hot jog. warm-up followed by 5 x 1, 3 x 2, 2 x 3, 2 x 4. mostly one minute long easy pace recovery, but a few two minute long including some walking, hydrating breaks.

1 min run / 2 min recovery / 8 reps in the bunny field

Warm up / Cool down and recovery between intervals.
Found out today that my AOWN moment last week was a lie! The water in the creek is from a man-made not a natural source. The energy company (I think) is doing some sort of minor drilling in the middle of the bunny field and they set up a pipe that is draining run-off into the creek, so that's where the water is coming from. Bummer, I thought I had seen a rare occurrence.