Training Log Archive: piutepro

Sprint at Hope Lake at the CNYO A-meet. The rain stops as planned and hoped for. I am not fully awake, as it seems. I study the map too much on the way to #2, should have just followed the compass instead of reading contours. Ted Good passes, we get to control together.
On the way to #3 I see the other control before the trail. I am promptly losing contact, while my control smiles 20 m in front of me. On the way to #5 Ernst Linder and Randy catch up. I punch, they don't see/hear it and keep searching. I don't get very far, they chase me down at 7 or 8.
The train stays together, at #13 I try to cut through the woods, no smart, I get stuck and Ernst goes around, is faster.
Not much of a sprint energy, need to warm up better.

I do a real run before the middle distance race, not the buzzing around in circle at the start. This gets my engine going and I am ready to run better.

Middle distance at Hope Lake. I start somewhat slow, figuring out the green stuff to #1. Too much thinking. On the way I see Patrick, who has a seizure. Bernie Breton and some other people are there already and take care of him. I check with Bernie, he says they do what they can do. Still, for some time I think about it and hope it works out. I know that he has seizures sometimes, not much can be done besides staying with him, make sure that he is safe and it will pass after some time. I hear the ambulance howling, but I also know, that normally they can't help him much.

I keep going, stop short on the way to #3, but I figure it. Some not clean running along the hillside, but ok recovery. Before #7 an unmapped jeep trail. Go up on hill, read contours, get to control. A branch hits my eye, the contact lens is gone. Have a while to adjust to half vision, put the reading glasses away. Left eye reading, right eye scanning.

It gets easier on the open fields, more light to see the map. Find some good rhythm, even some speed on the jeep trail along the lake. Good run for the rest, too slow to #16, I only see late that the control was visited in the sprint, it is the trail control. It is dark in the woods, hard to read the map.

I catch Clint Morse, he stays with me, tries to outsprint me in the finish. I win, but collide, slide and miss the punch. So he wins the punch sprint. Happens. Have a good time, finally have some sense of speed and even trust my navigation.

Red - Splits

Sprint - Strong Lungs - Splits

The "Run to warm up for tomorrow" loop. It is warm, I take it easy and imagine, that I am warming up for the race. Relax, breathe, use the running to get the energy up. Afterwards we drive to the CNYO meet, with questionable weather to come.

Not much traffic after leaving the Hudson Valley while driving up. Route 17 is wide open and mostly open. At 8 PM we are up there and get ready to camp in the motel.

Map practice at Bowdoin Park. For some reason this park induces sluggishness in me. Maybe it's the outdated map, or the green or the rocky ground. Anyway, I do a round of sprint and middle distance legs, most of it off trail, which means green and scratch here.

Some training has to be slow to train slowness and mindful navigation. I learned this somewhere on a web site.

Maybe I should drink a bottle of Mountain Dew before my next visit at Bowdoin to get me amphetaminized.

The "Alpine Power/Late Night Productions Ltd corporate" Loop. I finally found a sponsor for my regular short loop. They pay for for stickers, hats and double-insulated fleece wests as well as the anti-vegan-rottweiler-whiste, which immobilizes any roaming only playing muscle dogs.

I complete the Highlander Announcement and begin the wave of ads and spam with a post on AP. I get the first registration a few minutes later. Which proves what an incredible successful medium this web site is.

In the meantime I spend time figuring out the overall design, which might include some foreign maps and time travel. The stages of the course are set by a joint venture of Alpine Power, Late Night Productions Ltd and HVO. Who is who in this conglomerate? I can only guess, since the names are in the vault, as the courses are. The vault is a dark place, which opens only after midnight, to the music of some obscure college radio station playing music nobody else ever has heard of.

I have become CEO of this joint venture by necessity, since the previous producer has been eaten up by his job and needs to deliver solutions of the other kind. The IBM kind.

The "Thousand Perfumes of Weeds in the Rain" loop. The warm-up and warm-down run to the river. It starts to rain, but since I have a hat, it stops quite soon.

4 x 3 min. tempo runs. I decide to fight the sprint stiffness with some sprints. This is an old homeopathic recipe. Fight the devil with the devil. Something along these lines. For a change I run in the middle of the afternoon, to avoid the upcoming rain. Except that the rain doesn't come. So what. Maybe I get used to running in the daylight anyway.

The "How to take it easy when you want to run your heart out" loop. I am somewhat tired from yesterday, maybe from the sprints, maybe from driving home without a good cool down. I rather would run more, but I guess I have to give my body some time off to recover. I always feel when I do easy runs, I have less energy. I guess I like to adrenaline kick of a good fast run.

Think about the head-to-head racing or regular interval starts. I prefer the intervals, despite the thrill of head to head. It is not much of a thrill, when you are dumped so unceremoniously by some fast younger legs or passed in the last meters. I prefer the crafty classic approach of orienteering myself, with an occasional boost by passing or being past by a runner started before or after.

Racing in a mass start like the Highlander or the Billygoat is something else, because there is plenty of time for strategy, mistakes and exhaustion in such a race.

Various warm-ups and warm-down and nervous jogging around before the three sprint rounds. I probably would need a half hours of warm-up before each sprint, but this gets tough with three rounds. And the wait time in between is enough to slack and having to warm up again.

Sprint Finals at Hickory, 3 rounds. I am seeded in the top group. Have not much of a chance to keep up with the flying young legs and there is not enough stuff to outwit their brains. The most fun is the last round, when I am racing against runners with a similar speed. The lead changes constantly, At one time I don't even know that I am ahead and vice versa.

Well, I guess it's a reality check for the age being what age is. Still, I got my high seeding by doing well throughout the year in the sprints. For the master class I am still doing pretty well. Still, maybe, somehow, I could build some more speed. Got to try it, have time till next year.

Sprint #1 - Long - Splits

Sprint #2 - Long - Splits

Sprint Final - Long - Splits