Training Log Archive: PG

And the bat lady goes on and on....

C • Awards 9

Wam-up, from the lodge over to the start and a bit more around and about there. Hands (well, fingertips) getting very cold.

Long champs, M70, 3.8 beeline. OK.

Quite happy that this "long" course didn't take too long -- looked at the Green course and it was substantially longer and harder and it would have been just a long slog. And Red and Blue....

Not much in the way of problems, and I think my routes were mostly the right choices. Not a particularly inspired course, but it could have been much much worse. For example by putting us in the green a lot. Spent quite a bit of time on trails of one sort or another, but that suited me just fine.

From the finish back to the lodge. Ran all the way up the hill without too much difficulty, but had it in a very low gear.

Stopped to change shoes and then a loop around the golf course. Legs feeling pretty trashed, moving slow. But good to get it done.

Today's long map (click on map for a larger image) --

Long - 4 Brown 70+ - Splits

Event: Flying Pig XIX - U.S. Individual Champs - Sprint-Middle-Long
 

My sprint map (click on map for a larger version). On comparing routes on my second run, splits showed no difference on 1-2 and 2-3 for left vs. right. I'm pretty sure lower was better on both 6-7 and 9-10, but I didn't test the upper route. And left was slower by 10 seconds on 12-13. (And my route to 12 was certainly slower.)

C • 12 was tricky 2

Good warm-up on a rather cold day. Finished about 10 minutes before my start, just about right.

Sprint champs, M70, 1.9 straight line. Reasonably mediocre. Thought my one miss was at 12, down when I should have been up. But rerunning the course reminded me of mistakes leaving 6 (not knowing which way to go, and changing my mind), and leaving 7 (not having a plan to get up to the upper road, so once again diddling at the start of the leg), and once more, leaving 10 (not having realized had to swing around to the left).

Mental laziness in all cases, just not looking ahead at all.

Excellent map and course.

Cold almost immediately, so jogged back to the start/parking.

And once there, put my long-sleeved shirt and hat back on. And then it occurred to me that, since today was supposed to have some more running, why not run the course again. Mike Minium said it was OK, I'd been about the last starter, so off I went.

Took different routes whenever it was possible. No mistakes, of course. Ran at a just slightly less effort than the first run. Splits showed clearly that each of my three diddles cost about 10 seconds, and the bigger mistake about 30 or so. A good teaching lesson.

And then a final jogeroo back to the start, with Alex this time.

And a decent effort for the day, about 6, about what I hoped for.

Sprint - 4 5 Brown - Splits

Around Sugarloafs. Listening to Barney Frank makes it easy to pass the time.

I've never had a car detailed. In fact my car tends towards the other end of the clean-chaos scale. But the place I park at Bradley offers various basic maintenance services while you're gone, from washing the car to oil changes to detailing. And this time my car got the full treatment, all of the above, washing, oil change, detailing. Cool.

The only problem was I didn't order any of it.

So it was quite the surprise when they asked if I wanted to put the roughly 240 bucks on the same credit card as usual. Even I can figure out that's a lot to pay for 5 days parking unless you're in Manhattan.

We had a lively discussion for a while. They pulled out their half of the parking claim ticket, and pointed out that I had signed the back where the the services were spelled out. Actually, not signed but initialed. On close inspection, I'd apparently used the initials WB and also used quite a different handwriting.

I took them a while to come to grips with the fact that they had fucked up. Still questioned me suspiciously for a while. Multiple phone calls to the manager or boss as to what to do. When what to do should have been painfully obvious, tell the customer the usual "Have a good day" and send him on his way, and then figure out if any systems or controls needed to be changed.

But they strung me along a little, so time to fight back.

Hmm, by the way, what kind of oil did you put in it? My car takes synthetic oil. They look at the service slip. Regular oil.

Change it.

So my fine Subaru has now had two oil changes and looks as clean as when I first got it. And I'm sure it is happy. And as for me, I got home 45 minutes later than expected, but given travel these days, if that's the worst that happens on a trip, that's not so bad.

Trails at Richard Russell SP. The usual struggle.

I think I orienteered here about 20 years ago. Will have to check my records.

C • '96 Georgia Navigator perhaps, 3

Ran the cart path around the Jones 18. Very pleasant, light rain so no one out. And certainly cooler than yesterday, so made it up all the hills, though the last one was not with much to space.

But good willpower getting it done. Had just finished tromping around the other 18 in the rain, up and down, so the legs already had done a little work. Felt tired for the run, but not too bad.