Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Hiking in the Dolomites. Alli and I climbed partway up Sass Rigais until just below the via ferratas that require harnesses and helmets that we did not have. Amazing views from the saddle we got to. The Dolomites are such stunning mountains! As with all the spots we visited on this whirlwind trip, I'd love to come back here.

Warmup

WOC Relay

I ran the 2nd leg for Team USA, after Eric and before Giacomo. Eric had trouble early on his leg, but ran well after that to hand over the relay to me in 30th place, about 1:30 behind Canada, who sent out Robbie on the 2nd leg.
It took me a little while to get into the map once I was in the woods, and I lost time on both the first (probably about 30 seconds, just by choosing mediocre lines through the forest) and the second (about a minute in the control circle) controls. This was frustrating, but the race went better after that. I took good routes with solid attackpoints and executed well, though I was not feeling particularly speedy.
With about two controls before the spectator run-through, I was surprised to see Robbie, as well as the Turkish runner who had started 4:20 in front of me, come into my control just behind me. This certainly gave me a boost of energy and I ran hard to stay ahead of them and try to put a little distance before the arena passage. The last control before the spectator one was tricky, in an area with tall bushes and lots of sticks on the ground, so none of us could see each other. I found the control first, after losing about 20 seconds in hesitations, and was running through the arena with Robbie and Musa from Turkey not far behind. The crowd support at the arena was once again great, thanks to the awesome American fans!
I ran really hard through the arena to stay ahead and realized that I needed to take simple routes for the next couple of controls because my brain was beyond any sort of thinking capacity. I took simple routes, but still lost time, slightly overrunning each of the first two controls of the last loop (about 0:15+0:15 lost). At the second to last control Robbie, who had a shorter forking before this, was ahead of me, but I saw him take a poor line out of the control and managed to get past him by running as hard as I could out of the control. In the end I just held him off to the finish and tagged off to Giacomo, who ran a solid relay race and brought us home in 29th place, a few minutes behind Canada and Will Critchley.
All in all, it was an ok run from me, but not great. Losing a total of 2:30 or so in mistakes was a little too much for this terrain, and having other teams around me probably would have helped me run a better, more focused race. Still, it was great to run the WOC relay with my awesome teammates, and I am quite sure we can come back stronger and better next year.

Results: www.woc2012.ch/files/results/woc2012_relay_results...

Beer relay, organized by Ross and Murray. Definitely counts as training!

Relay model event. I started by jogging a few legs and found the terrain to be quite nasty. I then picked up the speed a bit and raced Eric for a couple of intervals of several controls each. The terrain definitely seemed more fun at high speed, so that's a good sign. I do not usually enjoy or do very well when orienteering in terrain where vegetation features are the key to success. It will be a challenge to race well on Saturday,

Intervals by Lake Geneva with Patrick in the evening. After a warm-up, we did 4x90" with 2 minutes rest and then 4*30" with 1 minute rest. Good session. Next up: cheering for Sam in the long final tomorrow!

Blog post: http://usa-orienteering.blogspot.com/

C • Middle Race 4

Jogging the men's sprint final course at Ouchy. Really fun course, needed to think about route choice on every single leg!

Really tough race: the terrain is a lot more difficult than it looks, with very low visibility the whole way, tons of branches on the ground, and just needing to fight, fight, fight the terrain the whole way. I will look closer later on, but I probably made about three 30 second mistakes and was mostly pleased with my route choices. I fought hard and gave everything out there, and this result is about as well as I could have done today, and my best WOC middle race since my very first one in Switzerland almost ten years ago. I am proud of my race today and excited to get better and give it another shot in the future. Thanks to everyone on AP and elsewhere for your support! The US definitely had the biggest and loudest cheering section in the arena today, and it felt awesome running down the finish chute.

Winsplits: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.a...

C • Great job Boris! 15

Warmup

WOC Middle distance qualifier, Heat B

Write-up of my race day: http://usa-orienteering.blogspot.ch/2012/07/day-at...

Winsplits: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.a...

Map: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_E1DVS9_UTU/UASYn6u2JbI/...

Event: WOC 2012 - Lausanne SWITZERLAND
 

Warm-up and a cathartic cooldown jog with Sandra from the hostel.

WOC Sprint Qualification Race, Heat A

What can I say? I prepared as well as I could under the circumstances, but my shape just wasn't remotely good enough. The course did not offer very many technical challenges, and I could see a majority of the controls from quite far away. I think I took questionable route choices on two long legs, but the splits show that it didn't make any difference. My splits were pretty consistent, and I really doubt I could have run this race any faster today. I was really disappointed in the finish and am still reeling a bit, but I am also excited to go cheer for Ali and Patrick in the finals, and to refocus for Monday's middle distance. Thanks everyone on AP for your support!

Result: 29th place, 17.3% behind the heat winner

C • Dude! 5

WOC 2012 starts tomorrow, my first World Champs since 2007 in Ukraine. I have thought a little about results goals, and here is what I've come up with, with the caveat that I am quite uncertain of my shape, as I've been dealing with injuries and other unpleasantries for the last few months.

First, my results summary so far:

middle qual:
2003 - 25th, 24% back
2005 - 22nd, 30% back
2006 - 34th, 51% back
2007 - 32nd, 66% back

sprint qual:
2003 (final) - 45th, 29% back
2005 - 20th, 22% back
2006 - 20th, 24% back
2007 - 23rd, 17% back

Goals:
middle - ideal: top 15/20% back; good: top 20/25% back; minimum: top 25/30% back
sprint - ideal: top 20/15% back; good: top 25/20% back; minimum: top 30/25% back

It starts tomorrow. I am excited. Wish me luck.

C • good luck 18

One more sprint training on the model map. I drew myself a control picking course with lots of changes of direction, forcing myself to be accurate going into and out of controls, something I was sloppy with yesterday. I did 2 controls easy, 1-2 hard. Finished up with some strides on the track. Getting excited for the races!