Training Log Archive: W

Well, my everything was fairly sore, particularly my knee, so it was just a light jog with a light 250 meters of climb to the top of Ski Slope Way. I was mildly scoping out what the switch back road looked like in anticipation of my later in the week Time Trial, and yowza, its relentless. I think if I started from Careg's house, I could run along northwood, then make the right and start the climb up to the top. That would be about 5.5k, climbing from around 2000 meters to 2250.

Not bad at all. Could be a slice!

Now, WHO'S WITH ME?

Legs, feet, achilles, quite unhappy today! My lingering knee soreness from some hard core snowboarding last week was also being a little annoying, but all of those things are sorted with some light warm-up (and someone saying go).

This was a quite pleasant sprint around the Mills College campus. Fun little canopies, lots of small passageways, plenty of risky olive green, and a bit of forest too.

I took my sweet time on number one because it was easy to spot that number 2 was meant to be tricky. And, yeah, I lost 4 seconds on number 1, but pulled back another 7 on number 2, because I saw the significantly shorter right route and was able to run it decisively and quickly without hesitation, and figure out number 3 on the way. If anything, I think I was most pleased about that, because it was a really focused and productive start that set the race on a strong foot.

I kept that level of mental focus going for the rest of the race really well, I felt. Conversely, I was not running my heart out. It was a strong concerted pace, but this was no WOC-level effort. I'm not suggesting I wasn't trying, but that extra snap and drive was not quite there. However, it was traded off by the smoother navigation. I think there's more strategery to be had there, and I need to go to races that have a more balanced combination of beating people and getting beat by others. I'm finding myself entering races that have either one or the other. When is China coming up again?

C • Four seconds 3

I hadn't intended to do this race, but there were extra maps, so, heck, let's jump in! A fun little cool-down Farsta on the same map. Not a ton to talk about, basically the same requirements as before. Each loop was in a distinctly different direction, so there was little to no risk of getting pulled by irrelevant controls. Just leave the start in the right direction, and no problem. Nice opportunity to work on some high speed punching though. Sometimes it worked, sometimes, less so.

A nice weekend of racing and many things to be pleased about and equal number of things to work on. One of which is this damn achilles. But, I bought some sweet blue argyle kinesio tape, so that's pretty much 95% of the battle.

Sprint Blue - Splits

Sprint Relay Variant X - Splits

Conversely, sometimes, things happen.

After yesterday's debacle, I firstly went back to my ipod and gave some long and hard thought about my procedure and all the things I need to do to be successful. Although I didn't execute all of them perfectly, merely executing them at all at some points was a huge improvement.

It was helpful that the terrain was sufficiently easy that I could execute much of my system on easy mode, and be reasonably assured of success. Right off the bat I took it easy enough that I could spot 1, and then plan for 2, and similarly the run to 2 I could make micro-adjustments in the plan later on the leg, and get a rough idea of the next few. Being so open I focused on keeping my head up, expanding my vision, and trying to see a big picture of the important features and run at a consistent speed. I even thought I climbed pretty well, and wasn't really forced to a walk on any of the uphills until the very long slog on the second long leg, 10-11.

After that there's no doubt the suffer-fest began in earnest, but I made some good choices on smaller route choices that saved me time and climb, and I felt at that point that I could maintain this until the end. Quite a few times, though, I had to yell "focus" to get my mind back on the task at hand, but that helped a lot. (Aside: I would have really liked to have done this at 1:15000)

The tides can turn so quickly in this stupid sport. Sometimes, things happen.

Long blue - Splits

Event: Run Black Diamond
 

Well. This was quite the day.

Sometimes things happen.

It started out at 4:20AM when I got up to catch my flight to San Fran. A two hour connection in Seattle, then arriving in SFO at 11:45, wherein I sprinted to hopefully catch a train to get to the station that someone was going to pick me up. I missed the train, and had to wait an extra 15 for the next one. Eventually I got to the station, 30 minutes late (I was never going to get there on time), and managed to catch them as they were pulling out of the parking lot to leave me behind. Phew!

Then, a quick 45 minute to the race site, and then finagled someone to give me a ride up to the assembly. 12 hours after my day started, my race started.

And wow, did I suck!

As the first forest race of the year, I expected some rustiness, but fundamentally I did none of the things I should do to navigate properly. I used my compass almost not at all, I made zero plans, I left controls without having clue of what I was doing, I didn't read ahead, basically everything I should be doing, I didn't.

So, I botched number 2 and ended up on the wrong ridge because I didn't take a bearing to check my direction once crossing the fence. I did 4 way, way too low because I didn't look to see the height of the control relative to where I was now. I went from 5 to 8 because I upside down number 6 looked like a 9. And then I skipped 9 and when straight from 8 to 10. I botched 12 because I didn't check my control description and couldn't identify where the control was in the circle and didn't take a stop to be absolutely sure. I realized around 18 that I had skipped a control and was definitely not going back, but even then I didn't do anything properly for the last few, and bled time each control on silly little things.

On my ipod I have a list of things I do during each leg, and I haven't looked at it in six months and didn't look at it before the start. I pretty much navigated like I was sprinting, which creates some super, super bad habits for the forest.

This did not feel good. But,

sometimes things happen.

Middle Blue - Splits

I'm pleased I was able to get in at least a bit of a run between jobs. For a while there I suspected I might not have time, since I realized I needed to re-set my computer up for remote usage next week in Tahoe, so that was an extra half an hour. Still, I managed to get out and get in a bit of a jog in the surprisingly cold weather! Got back just in time to do almost nothing for 2 hours except online shop. OOH, speaking of which, now that I've remembered, I need to do some online shopping.

Hopped on the trainer for a morning commute to nowhere. I got there quickly.

Headed out on the model map for this weekend's US Team Trials. I wanted to at least get the rust out of navigating in the forest a little, on Friday I will have woken up at 4:30AM to get my flight to San Fran, and then hustle all day in the hopes of just barely making my not remarkably late start time (despite asking for one!). I wouldn't be overly sad if I missed it, I just hope I get out and run the course at pace, even if my first control inadvertently takes 34 minutes instead of 4.

As I was going through the loop, I observed that this was an unusually high level of rose bushes for California, at which point I realized that this was not in fact the model map, but was the Edmonton River Valley. Huh, I wonder how that happened. Oh well, O+ is O+, wherever it may take place. Hopefully I got at least some of my good habits back in my brain.