Training Log Archive: AliC

Distance rxc, mostly double pole. On the early side, well, because the whole day was and hey, the sun was going to set! Quads are still quite sore and complain particularly when I go any down stairs.

Anyways, out for bike path + Wildwood x 2 loop, looking at ski-o maps from Sweden: Lygna Nord, Idre Fjäll, and Ånn. Even tried doing some awkward skate while map reading, probably a good idea to start training that up too!

14 min core + 12s for hammies

Event: SMOC Pontiac Lake
 

Warm up with Ian, stretching out the 10-mile sore legs... quads were really the sore bit for me, calves and hammies seemed fine.

SMOC Red - Pontiac Lake - QuickRoute

The goal of this race was to really race, but also to read the map well, with quick looks and trying to get actual information out of it with each look. I think I remembered that focus for at least the first few controls and occasionally thereafter. I did get caught more than once passing by something I intended to note while map reading, probably a sign the looks aren't quick enough yet!

Anyways, was solidly beaten by Ian (6 minutes), partly on a few bad legs by me, but he was also just going faster than I was and had a generally good race. I'm happy with how I was moving through terrain today, it wasn't amazingly fast, but a step up from the past few meets in this terrain/vegetation mix, so a good thing!

1 - Somehow Ian got a full minute on me on this one, yikes-a-roni! Need to come out of the start more rarin' to go and perhaps with a more distinct plan that I stick to, like heading straight W from road corner.
2 - Ug. I made a plan (stay on road til yellow), but then was reading ahead, so wasn't sure about where I was on road and just dashed into the woods. Bad move, it was slow and in order to avoid nasty green I ended up far left. Got back on track using the hill on far side of road.
3 - Bearing off trail corner, while using the shallow reentrant I had to cross too.
4 - Bearing from trail corner, plus using hill before control. The beginning of fun contour times!
5 - Used trails until right at the end, then depressions to lead me in.
6 - Had a plan, but didn't follow it, boo! I meant to be on the S side of the hill after the first marsh, I think that was a slightly better route. Then I missed crossing the first little trail and was kind of scared when I crossed the second trail, because it didn't make sense... continued on going S, firmly relocated on marsh before control. Not truly punished, but was out of contact for a bit.
7 - Short leg on bearing, trying to read ahead while going up hill.
8 - Meant to be a bit more on line, but pushed by vegetation and was just trying to keep the pace up. Slight confusion right close to control, I now don't have a great reason why...
9 - Pretty good, used compass, contours.
10 - On a bearing across vaguer stuff, then noted first row of distinct depressions, knew exactly where I was, but didn't pick up that there was another mini row before my depression, so slight hesitation on way in.
11 - Ug. Hadn't even looked at this long leg before 10, so then was really slow leaving 10, and even then, didn't go in the right direction, I was intending to go more directly SW than SSW, and intercept the trail that I ended up on after a U-turn. Some stuttering in the middle of the leg too as I tried to select a route/make sure the trails made sense.
12 - Fine, trying to make a plan to 13.
13 - Opted for cross-country, having noted both E and W trail routes. Executed pretty well.
14 - Ugly, ugly. I didn't see a reentrant on the map, so things didn't make sense. So I headed in kinda the right direction, and then made a hill on the far side of the reentrant try to be mine, but it wasn't so went over to a hill that definitely had an open patch on it, realized it had to be the hill beyond 14 and went back to 14. Pretty bad...
15 - 16 - Finish - All fine.

C • whoops 5

Control pick up of 5 then 4, such nice terrain around 5!

A study in depressions at the recommendation of PG (well, he actually recommended reentrants, but depressions were more the main feature on this map). After waving 'hi' to a hunter stationed in a tree (not a dear, thank you!), sought after reentrants to figure out all I could about them from the map and what were most helpful IDing characteristics.

The easiest feature to use was shape, if it had reentrant protrusions in certain directions or curved a bit or something like that. Next easiest was the direction it extended, if not totally round. Something that I found helpful that I didn't really expect to was which side had the lowest edge to the depression's rim - usually a direction in which there is a saddle of some sort. Something I didn't find helpful was if it had a little form line depression at its innermost to indicate the lowest part. At least from above it was really hard to see where that was. The slope gradients around the depressions were almost always pretty even, so that was never that helpful for distinguishing depression from depression.

Also noted that small depressions are very shallow on this map (the brown 'U' symbol) and form lines are also very shallow (but there) features.

Good to have done!

Randy's 10 Miler - Monclova, OH

Whoa! Another fast gal was there, and she totally got me. Saw she looked speedy at the line, but then she took right off at the same pace and didn't let up.... We, along with two guys, had sort of a lead pack through mile 1, in whoopsie, 5.45. That would be too fast for me I knew. In the pack was my pal Kevin I'd run most of the 16 mile trail race with about a month ago, he said he was aiming for sub-60, I thought that also seemed a bit fast for me, but the pace didn't feel terrible, so just stuck around....

Other girl pushed ahead after 2 mile mark, I decided I had to be brave and at least try to go with her. Gave up on that by 3 miles, but she was just slowly gaining, not making much distance, I figured maybe I had a chance if I could just keep it up and she wasn't pacing right. Kevin caught back up to me and we ran together for a chunk of the 4th and 5th miles, he took the lead after I grabbed a gu at the 4 mile water station. But then he gapped me and caught up to the other gal. Then it was a long remaining 5 miles by myself, some slower, 6.26ish (into the wind) and some keeping under 6.10. By the end, they had a good 1.30 gap on me, I think Kevin did just sneak under 60, out kicking Angela at the end.

Unfortunately Angela doesn't live right around here to train with, she lives an hour away in Michigan, but fun to have another gal to compete against, maybe will see her at some other races!

C • Man... 7

Warm down with Ian. Legs shot, they really didn't want to budge, but hopefully getting some blood flowing through was a good thing! Quads hurt the most while running, but back-of-leg muscles were more complainy during warm down.

Snuck-in specific strength in between colloquium (on ultracool dwarfs, i.e. sub-stars because they don't fuse hydrogen) and colloquium dinner. Speaker was a post-doc from CfA in Cambridge, but can't say I convinced him to become an orienteer... ah well.

5 x tricpes, 2 x no poles, 5 x single stick, 2 x no poles, 5 x double pole

Blah, cold and rainy. But I went out to Wildwood to do my tempo, meant to do a straight 25 minutes, but my shoe came untied halfway through, so 12 and 13 minutes. Took it kinda easy, since my right hamstring hasn't entirely recovered from weekend activities yet.

Saw 2 other runners, 1 walker and 1 cyclist the whole time. A huge contrast with your average nice day out there!

Read the Barrens and Carelton University maps.

Pushups, 22s

I saw exactly zero other people on the bike trail and only a few hearty dog-walkers out in Wildwood. Which is fine, easier to not run into anyone when there are fewer bodies about! Was a bit windy and just cold, but hey, winter is coming, so gotta toughen up anyways!

Read maps of Vargen (ski-o), Double Duck Flats - West (middle of NAOCs 2010) and Hickory Run Campground sprint. Need to keep focusing on keeping up the speed while map reading, won't happen if I don't think about it...

C • Need to keep focusing on ke... 5

Normal running drills. Breezy...

And abs, back, SJJs, while butternut squash bread pudding cooked. It was amazing, highly, highly recommend!

C • Squash Bread Pudding 9