Training Log Archive: Rainbow Unicorn

Play-offs at UofM w/Mo (PeteW still in STL).
Good game for the first 40 minutes. I scored two goals in the first half, one off of a rebound volley and another off of a PK after the goalie took me out. Felt pretty strong and crafty out there, despite having run so much in the past 4 days. Another 3rd goal put us up 3-0, until the last 10 minutes of the game when the other team put on big-time pressure and our defense crumbled with a few unlucky events. They scored 3 goals and it went to a shoot out tied at 3-3. Ugh!
I shot first and missed with the instep - should have passed to the corner like I did during the game. Mo took the second shot and missed too, right off the side bar and out. Our goalie came up huge though, and on the small U of M goals dominated the opposition. Our next two players scored on their kicks and we pulled off the victory. Finals are in two weeks.

C • Nice job 1

16.1k (skip 2) Grunt Mass-Start at Hawn SP
Traveled to 1 & 2 rather conservatively. Tucked in behind the leaders and thinking about skips. Ran on the road behind AndyD most of the way to 3 - he picked up a bit of speed on the downhill and I tried to keep up into the woods. He ended up going a bit low into 3 and I stayed higher and met up with PeteC near the control. Back up the reentrant to 4 and saw JWilliams (I think) coming out of the control and Mo going in. Several others around as well.
Got to 5 w/decent pace and ran the low trail down to 6 solo. My skips still undecided, I checked the map over while I was on the trail and made up some time. Unfortunately, I lost contact with the map and when I reached the trail bend where I wanted to get off, I wasn't sure if I had run too far with the mix of streams and trail crossings near both 6 and 10. Ended up taking a foot trail north, realized my mistake, and cut over towards 6, but too far south. Got to where I thought 6 was, but I was too far east still. Finally made it to the control, but not before dropping 3-4 minutes. Ran the reentrant up to 7 w/Tom, Fredrik, and others, and spied Andrei from a distance ahead. Ran to 8 again and bobbled slightly west, another 1 minute mistake. Saw Ian and DFrei here as well.
Tried to pick up the pace to 9 to regain some lost ground but was hesitant over the flattish terrain and coming into the desired reentrant. Went too far south out of 9, pulling Tom with me, but recovered more easterly to the trail/stream intersection and on to 10. Took the spur up and over w/Tom while sharing skip strategy, deciding on 23 for sure and maybe 13.
Took a big digger on the way to 12 after hitting a prominent line of barbed wire (Why does this always happen to me?) - Tom helped me up and Fredrik made sure I was OK before heading on. Skipping 13, Tom and I ran the spur down toward 14, which was an easy find. Fredrik followed us a bit here, and upon getting close to the CP, realized that he had committed to skipping 13 as well. Made our way to 15 up by some rocks, Tom got pulled into an earlier reentrant, which cost a bit of time and energy to catch up again.
Fredrik put on a good pace to 16 and 17, and I think we started to gap Tom here. I followed a touch here and tried to relax while drinking my last 2 gulps of drink. Put a little distance on Fredrik on the way to 18 and 19, saw JasonP on the Runt and caught up to JWilliams. Bobbled a bit at 20 w/JWilliams, in the right reentrant but didn't spot the control tucked under. Fredrik closed the gap again and the three of us ran to 21 together. With such good runners on my tail, I hastily filled my bottle and drank it on the way to 22. Skipping 23, ran basically due north to 24, but hit the larger reentrant to the west. Took a PFC moment to stop, breathe, look at the map, and realized that I just needed to hop over the small spur to the east. Looked over my back and saw Fredrik right behind me looking for the control too - yikes! Popped over and nabbed 24, and then ran in the direction of 25 with lots of speed, hoping to put on some distance. Mostly contoured around/over the spurs to 25, but it was an in-and-out control and I soon saw Fredrik coming up the reentrant on my way down - maybe a 30 second gap at best. No problems navigating to 26 - just a hike up with my hands on my knees, trying to go as fast as possible. Took a rather steep/sketchy route off of the spur down to the trail, over the bridge, and onto the finish.
Ended up in 2nd overall, ~3 minutes behind speedy/solid AndyD. Fredrik soon followed, less than a minute back - awesome effort on his part. Overall it was a decent run - a few bobbles in the start set me back a couple minutes, but solid navigation 9 and on (minus time spent looking for 20) set me up for a great finish.
MNOC represented with solid finishes all weekend long - so proud of our crew and the community that we have up here. I think for a club to roll 12 deep to an event like this is spectacular (thanks to the airlines for having price wars 2 months ago)!
Great to meet and catch up with folks from adventure racing, CAOC, BadgerOC, PTOC , and others.

4.6k Blue Course at Hawn State Park - Weingarten, MO
Tricky rocky terrain here - I felt it was hard to differentiate between rocks/trails/cliffs on a map like this at first. Was fairly hesitant on my way to 2, but found 3 OK despite a search at the control. Veg was pretty thick at 6 and no problems with 7-10. Must have been low on oxygen after the climb, as I was slightly disoriented coming out of 10. Hustled the trail to 11 to make up time, which I paid the price for... Contoured around to 11 but was up 3 contours too high in the rocks near the top - I should have descended down while skirting the reentrant off the trail. Bobbled around badly here and was much too high - was also thrown off by people going to 14. Finally realized I was too high, but went into the wrong reentrant (which also had a control). Glad I checked the code. Andrei finally caught up to me here (he started 4 minutes behind me), and we pushed each other to 12-14. Put on a bit of speed down to 15 and the finish, but was still dismayed by the 5+ minute loss on CP 11.

Went half way up the hill and forgot my clue sheet holder. Descended to pick that up, then went all the way to the top. Chickened-out on rocking the VFFs for the first time on a rocky sprint descent O-run and returned to bottom to change shoes. Climbed the hill back to the top (again) and was ready to go once I got there!

2.2k Campground Sprint at Hawn State Park
Uphill start, then chose too high of a line to #2 and should have contoured more. Down the hill to 3-6 without any problems - saw Buckley near 5 as well, but I was in too much of a hurry to say hi! Was a bit south on 7, which cost 5-10 seconds, then chose the over-the-hill route to 8. Was able to execute it decently, but wasn't sure how it would compare to the road route. In hind sight, despite an OK split, the around route would have provided easy sailing and a preview of other controls. After the race I was just glad not to have overshot 8.... CP 9 provided a lot of post-race fodder. Went into 10 too far north and lost another 10-15 seconds. Made clean lines to 11 and 12 and PFC pushed me home at the end of the run for a good split there too. No major mistakes and a nice overall effort. Lots of fast dudes though, came in 4-5th overall.

Hawn middle - blue - Splits

Hawn sprint - Splits

Grunt - Splits

Event: A-meet and 2nd Annual Gateway Grunt & Runt - Hawn
 

2.5k Sprint at Kennedy Woods in Forest Park
Awesome urban venue for a sunny race in the woods. Had trouble getting on the map during the first 20 seconds or so, but not bad. Was hesitant on number 10 since I was getting dumb at that point, but only lost 5-10 seconds. Route choice to 11 may have been better along the trail/road. Made a minor blunder coming out of 14 and went south, running past the start area, which cost me ~15-20 seconds. Overall good run, but highly unlikely to best AndyD's time of 14:27 without mistakes - that was super fast.... Placed 2nd overall alongside JWilliams.

Cool down run while catching up w/ DFrei (Alpine Shop).

Forest Park sprint - red/blue - Splits

Run w/Guer, Bulent, & Mo around Isles, Calhoun, and Harriet. Probably should have only done 2 lakes with the SLOC O-meet events starting tomorrow, but I was spurred on by a heated conversation of health care & tobacco. Mo played it smart and ran home after two lakes.

C • Thank you, O-gods 3

Bike to school.

Bike home.

Bike to school. Nice weather for a ride - around 40 for sure. Didn't have to wear a shell layer or shoe booties, which is always a nice sign of springtime.

Bike home.