Training Log Archive: bishop22

After a longer than expected drive up to Orangelville, we arrived at the model event site right at 4, but missed the end of the event. So, Nate, Zach and I just did some wandering to check out the terrain. Very hilly, but with the sorts of vegetation we are used to. I actually did stumble upon 1 control.

I don't have the map with the details, but I turned another very promising race into a disaster. I made no big mistakes thru the first 9 controls. I was reading contours like never before, and that seemed to be a good skill for this map (when the contours were accurate, I guess). C10 was a nightmare: I think I drifted a bit left and got distracted by another control. I knew I had another 60m to go, so I tried to adjust and move on, but the bearing led me into some nasty undergrowth, so I bailed and tried to reassess. I thought I could see the other mapped undergrowth patch, and tried to get the right angle, but the contours didn't line up; then I had most of the contours lining up, but the overgrowth patches didn't make sense, so I bailed to the road (10 minutes later), which was only 100m away (so I should have gone there much sooner), and quickly found the control. I had a couple of small mistakes on the way in, but nothing too bad. I think that without the 13 minute mistake, I may have been respectable - the running was much easier than out west, and perhaps I am not as out of shape as I thought.

The registration was supposed to start at 8, but our breakfast in Brampton didn't open until 7, so we hit the road at about 7:30 and got to the site at 8:30, which turned out to be 75 minutes before the registration materials showed up at the site. So much for the 10am start, which became 10:30, then 11, then 12. I've never seen so many people gathered at the start before.

The start was over 2K away, and there was no shuttle (as advertised), so Zach basically covered his course distance before the race, and again after the race. Luke also got to cover the distance to the start and back with Chris, since the finish was also over there.

Nate and I jogged much of the way to the start, for a warmup that turned out to be way too early.

COC Sprint. Just when I thought the afternoon couldn't go worse than the morning, err, earlier in the afternoon, I was mistaken. Again it was evil C10 that was my downfall. I wasn't running quite as well as this morning thru 9 controls, but fairly solid. C10 and C11 were both long trail legs, so I thought I could do some serious running. But I ran too fast, and blew way past C10, and couldn't relocate (I thought I was only a little past). Fast people (like John F and Hammer came flying by, but I was reluctant to follow because I didn't want to get all the way to C11. As it turned out, backtracking wasn't allowing me to relocate, so I had to go forward anyway, found C11 and returned to C10. Only blew a couple of controls on the way in - ran all the way around the pond to get to C12, after missing a trail junction, then couldn't see the trails on the way to C17 and ended up hitting the fence at the property boundary before recovering. Oh, I also embarassed myself in front of the fans by running by the last control. Nate beat me 14 seconds to 26 on that leg. I did manage to tie him on the finishing leg, a whole second ahead of Zach.

If I blow C10 again tomorrow, I will quit this sport.

Nate and Zach both cruised thru their courses in about 17 minutes. Zach's time included about 2.5 minutes on the last control, so he could have been really quick.

At least the start was delayed only about the announced amount of time. But I guess that turned out to be a problem for 3 or 4 SI units that must have run out of batteries while waiting for people to show up. This made for quite a mess at the download (which started way late to begin with).

All the various problems aside (mine and the organizers'), the sprint course was one of the better ones I have run.

Ran part of the way to the start to get Z a start time, then did some warm-up with Nate. Afterwards, I did a long-ish warm-down while waiting for the download queue to disappear, so that I could walk, let alone run, tomorrow. Then it was a bee-line for the Beer Store, where they sell OV for the low-low price of $20/12-pack.

The whole awful day was completed by hearing the end of the Bills game on the way back to the hotel (I didn't know it was a 6pm kickoff), when the Browns overcame a 3-and-15 and kept a field goal drive alive that broke the tie. I thought I'd see some OT at the hotel.

Did some warm-up with the team before our Blue & Gold intrasquad meet. Then running around during the race. My Gold team defeated the Blue team 27-28 in both boys and girls. For the boys it came down to a 1-second gap between the 4th runners. The girls weren't quite that close. Chelsea outkicked a Gold girl in a photo finish for 6th.

Arrived at the COC Model event at 4pm, but no sign of any organizers. Nate, Zach and I wandered in the terrain a bit (I actually stumbled on a control), before heading out of there.

First swim in almost a month, and it felt like it was longer.
4:02/8:21
1:33,6,6,6,5 (on 2)
3:28,26

Took Wilbur out, since he was in town from Phoenix. Record bag line (almost an hour), so we only had time for 9. I shot 41, despite 2 doubles (pulled second shot into the water on 3 and hit a tree on 9). Did pick up a bird on 5.

10 min w/up
13 min run before stregth work
12 min w/dn

C • Part of XC coaching? 3

Speed/Strength work at Ellison Park. The 400m loop was thru grass that hasn't been mowed in awhile, was wet with dew and was not flat: added 3-4 seconds to each interval.
3x400 before the hill work
89,89,88
2x400 after the hill work
90,94

6 x "45 sec" hills at Ellison Park. I could have picked a better spot - the place we were was almost parabolic shaped, so most of the kids had to walk near the top.

Other jogging after repetions and down the hills.

First run with the XC team. We had them scheduled for an easy day, so I followed behind the top group. We ran from North Ponds out the Hojack trail past Vosburg and back.

C • Coaching XC team? 3

We stayed in Salida one more night, so we had to leave at 7am to catch our 12:45 flight, which didn't arrive in Rochester until almost 9pm.

Started off OK - chose to run around on the road to C2. Missed C3 to the right and as I was searching Anders caught me (from 4 minutes down). I punched just before or after him at C4 thru C7, but didn't see him all that much in between. I did notice that he walks uphills with his hands behind his back (speedskater form). I came down the hilltop just before C8 and missed the control. I thought I may have been on the hilltop to the left, so I went way right before coming back, probably a minute behind Anders. PG caught me on the next leg, so I picked up the pace. His line seemed right of mine (he was aiming for the trail junction, I was conservatively aiming just left of that), so I lost contact. I had a costly problem at C10, not recognizing the shape of the clearing, so I spent some time looking high (I originally thought I had spiked this leg, because there was a control just about where I was aiming, but it must have been Green). I missed C12 right, and just could not read what kind of yellow or yellow/white combinations were on the map, so I just headed for what looked like the center of the local boulders (I could see I was on the edge of the serious boulders). I then missed C13 left, but it was probably the highest control of the whole week, so I saw it from a distance. Getting to C14 was tricky, but I knew right where it would be when I got there. I punched just behind someone who was pretty quick - thought I had a better line to the GO control, but he edged me out, and outkicked me by a couple of seconds.

Nate and Zach both made some errors today, but they were small enough that they each hung on to win their age groups!

Just a short warm-up. No real warm-down, just plenty of walking around and a little football tossing with the boys.

Red Day 2 - Splits