Training Log Archive: RJM

hudson/stow 5k
http://www.active.com/running/hudson-oh/run-for-th...

Middle at the pig. Beautiful day. I decided to try and push a bit today and see what going fast is like. A bobble on control 1, but ok, then felt really good by and large through to #6. At that point (perhaps oxygen debt, but perhaps not) i somehow headed 90degrees off (south instead of west, and spent a good long time (4minutes plus) trying to relocate. This rattled me, and i never really recovered - each of the next 5 controls had serious errors, some of which i recovered from after a little confusing, and some (like 11), which took perhaps 10 minutes of head scratching and utter bewilderment - i had no idea where i was! In retrospect many of these came from two proximal issues (both of which were partly related to oxygen debt). 1) poor compass work (sometimes from the slippery map cases, other times from magnifier in odd position). I need to take more time to more carefully orient the map and keep it in position. 2) lack of attention to details on the map near the circle - 11 was two lines below the ridge I was on, but i didn't realize that at all until finally stumbling onto the control.
Though a poor performance, this was a valuable learning experience (especially because I did better than usual in the first two events).

Sunday Middle - Green - Splits

Walk model event to check mapping style

Physical but fun Green course. Lost 2 minutes on a control 1 (a 2 minute control), but pretty much on target with navigation other than that. Long leg (2k, 24minute) leg i intended to go left, wound up to right which worked pretty well except for a couple of minutes lost in an unexpectedly deep and muddy reentrant, and a parallel error climbing the final hill. Probably lost 4 minutes to those errors). I made other errors, but am generally pretty happy with this - my mistakes are getting smaller, and my recoveries quicker. I tried to push as much as i could when i the route was clear, but the vegetation and hills didn't make that easy.

Saturday Long - Green - Splits

Event: Flying Pig XIV - U S Interscholastic Championship
 

Model event at Flying pig, East Fork

run to start area - with 1 minute to spare!

Decent but not great run at flying pig (East fork Turkey Ridge). Blew the long leg (11:36 split; stan's was about 6 or 7 minutes, and we had similar splits most of the rest of the way) - didn't have a good plan (didn't even see or think about the trail options), and while drifting just couldn't make the map and terrain match each other. Luckily relocated fairly easily, but only after wasting a fair bit of time. One other error (1-2 minutes) on a parallel misidentification, but pretty clean other than that, though I never revved up the running legs the way I thought i could and would. Still, good map contact and quick route choices most of the way. Very nice course (though moving control 8 about 200m south to a patch of green would have made a nice difference). I am pleased overall.

Friday Middle 8-Green - Splits

Reran 2 legs from saturday's hinckley course to compare route times.
both about 500-700m with the same 2-3 line reentrant system(s) in between.
First one (control 5-6) took 5:10 or so no matter which way I ran - beeline (450m route of travel) or around most of the climb (620m).
Second one was more interesting - both John R and I for some reason headed to the right, where the reentrants were deeper and more numerous, and the route was no shorter, while bob and Alexis west over the tops of the reentrants. My rerun shows about a 33% time penalty for my stupidity. I don't know why i didn't see this much superior route, but learning to do so would have saved 2 minutes on this route.
Did all this at 7:30-8:30 AM before a very busy day at the field station and school. Did not feel especially fast or on top of things, but glad I did it.

running between plots at BNP for flower census

TP in, felt a bit sluggish. Saw pair of kingfishers at beech trailhead. Returned same, felt downright slow and sluggish. Might just be the heat (upper 70's)