Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Some jogging around before my relay run.

COC HPP Fundraiser Relay - Team QOC, Leg 3

Relays are great! I was excited that there was one at the COC's and was happy that we found a way to stick around for it.

Alli and I joined Jon Torrance for an all-QOC Team, with Jon running 1st with all the hotshots, Alli second, and me anchoring. I figured we had a pretty good team and could be in the mix if things went well. I was feeling a bit better this morning after sleeping for close to 13 hours the night before - still not much appetite, but only the occasional stomach cramps now.

Jon went out in the mass start and came back in (I think) 12th place, about 6 minutes down on Damian and Andreas, plus another 5 behind Emily, who had accidentally been given a leg 3 map.

Alli had a solid run on the second leg, and sent me out in 9th, about 9 minutes behind the leading teams.

As is often the case in relays, I was full of adrenaline and took off at Emily-speed from the start, spiking 1 and 2 and immediately passing a couple of teams. I ran into some trouble at 3, where the map showed a full-contour hill that was indistinguishable in terrain from the ground around it. This cost me about 1:20, but I caught another team there. I ran well to 4 and 5 and saw another pack of 3 teams heading to 6. I reeled them in, but then one got ahead again as I took a bad direction out of 6, losing about 30 seconds. I got in front again on the way to 8 and stayed ahead on the trail legs to 9, 10, and the finish.

As I was finishing, to my surprise people were saying that we were first and that there was a team gaining rapidly behind me that we just held off. We ended up winning by about 5 seconds, and Alli is off to a perfect start to her orienteering relay career!

RG: http://orienteering.ca/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map&i...
Results: ottawaoc.ca/Results/20170807_results.html

The whole COC weekend was a really fun experience for me. From the orienteering, to the sightseeing in Ottawa, to the atmosphere, to seeing old and new friends - just excellent! I think we badly need an annual festival like this in the U.S. The Colorado 1000-day used to be like this, but nothing has really come up to take its place.

Thanks to all involved in the organization! We will gladly come back to orienteer here again.

C • Congrats! 2

Feeble warmup

COC Long Distance - M35, Course 9

Last night's lasagna did not sit well, and I had increasingly bad stomach cramps throughout the night and in the morning. Woke up unsure if I was going to be able to run and without much of an appetite. Felt somewhat better on the drive to the arena and eventually decided to start. Definitely glad that I did!

Right from the start I could tell that I basically had only one speed: a solid trudge, so taking routes other than straight line wasn't going to make much sense, except to avoid climb. Went fairly straight to #1, using the stream crossing before the control as a solid attackpoint. Then lost a bit of time on the was to 3 as I was breaking trail through tall grass on the ride as the first starter.

My navigation was pretty good on the first part of the course, with the exception of losing about a minute on #7, when I took a bad bearing into the control and ended up stuck in the green.

When going through the spectator control (so much fun to have Alli and Inara cheering for me!) I unfolded the map and realized that basically all the climb was on the second half of the course. That didn't bode particularly well. The splits show me losing time on 16 and 17. I spiked both of those controls, but was mostly walking at this point, especially on anything resembling an uphill. Between not being in shape to run over an hour and low energy from my GI issues, the last few controls were definitely a slog. I added some stupidity to the picture when I went to the wrong #19 before realizing and coming back to punch mine (looks like at least Leif Blake, Peter Z, and Christian M did that too - the latter did not manage to recover).

Still, I was happy to finish with a respectable time and improve on my technical performance of the day before. I am very impressed with Leif Blake's course-winning time of 65:51. I had no shot at that even when healthy. I ended up 5th on the course (behind two ladies and two juniors) and 1st in M35, getting some revenge on Mr.Duca.

RG: http://orienteering.ca/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map&i...

Course 9 - Splits

Warmup for the middle distance

COC Middle Distance - M35, Course 9

I was pretty excited about running a middle distance race in technical terrain. Alli and I did split starts for the whole weekend so we could trade off Inara, and I had early starts each day.

Right off the start, I was surprised by just how rocky the footing was. It felt hard to find any flow through the terrain for the duration of the race. I started off well. In fact, I even won the first split and had the leading time on course 9 after 3 controls. I felt physically slow and not explosive, but was in control of my orienteering for the first 7 controls.

Then, the wheels came off. I got on the wrong open rocky hill going to 8 and could not relocate for the longest time, as suddenly everything looked like a dot knoll. Even once I figured out that I was on the wrong hill, I still took another loop before finding my control. 3:45 lost here.

I tried to shake it off and keep going, but immediately screwed up, just overshooting #9 and correcting in the wrong direction. Another 45 seconds gone.

I stopped, refocused, walked the first few steps towards #10, then started running again and spiked it.

With the renewed confidence I attacked #11 and again, missed it despite knowing where I was just 75 meters from the control. All the bumps were looking the same to me, and it took another 1:20 to relocate. Just like that, 6 minutes (!!) gone in four controls.

I kept running hard and didn't make any noticeable mistakes the rest of the way, but I was very disappointed with my performance. Still, it was a fun race in challenging terrain, and I'd love to have another crack at it.

I think that not orienteering and racing enough is a big cause of my problems. But also, I think that orienteering in QOC-land makes you lazy. The features are big and the woods are open, so you don't need to be as precise: you can always correct on the fly, and you can usually spot the flag if you are in the control circle.

After finishing, I tagged off to Alli, though Judy Kemp took Inara while I talked to Hammer about the details of getting a kids' orienteering program going.

The evening was made complete by some lasagna and repeated and comically thorough domination of Ian in Severn Wonders.

RG: http://orienteering.ca/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map&i...

9 - Splits

Alli, Inara, and I spent the rest day walking and driving around Ottawa. We really enjoyed it. It has all the things I would want from a major city (good museums, culture, restaurants, diversity, public transit) while also having plenty of green spaces, access to big parks (Gatineau!), and great skiing, skating, and orienteering. I think after this visit, Ottawa is pretty high on our list of potential places to live.

C • Ottawa 3

COC Sprint - Perth, Ottawa

Dropped off Barney with Valerie, made the flight to Syracuse, rented a car, drove north. Everything was going according to plan until we hit the Canadian border at thousand islands. Apparently, we were not the only ones interested in escaping to the north that day. We were in line at the border for about an hour, which meant that by the time we got to Perth, I needed to immediately change and run to the start.

I was apprehensive about running the sprint because at the last one I ran, in Idaho, I felt dead slow and just plodded along. Of course, that was on zero training, and this was with at least some training going in. I felt ok from the start and was excited to see the course when I turned over the map.

The race went mostly ok. I think I chose the wrong routes on 10, 14, 19, and definitely 20, where I did not go through the water, losing about 20 seconds. I also had small time losses (3-8 seconds each) on 8, 11, and 14. On 14 I was running across the main street, expecting the crossing guards to stop traffic in both directions. As I was the first person crossing there, one of the crossing guards forgot to put up his stop sign, and a car had to slam on its breaks hard to avoid me at the last minute. I think they figured it out after that. :)

My speed wasn't terrible given the amount of running training I had done (none), so I was mostly satisfied. Certainly, losing about 1 minute total during the race is a lot for a sprint, but that's what I get for very rarely racing sprints these days. Damian's time of 14:41 was certainly impressive. I did win M35, but was 17th overall on the course, which included M20, M21, and M45. (Of other old guys, I was beaten by the eternally young Brian May, Jon T, and Wyatt).

RG: http://orienteering.ca/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map&i...

Running to the start

5 - Splits

Easy elliptical at work with some 30-second pick-ups thrown in.

Mostly stretching, but some strength too.

A rare late evening workout, after dinner. Not the best feeling in the world. Planned to do 80 minutes, then 75, then dragged myself through 65. Need to eat smaller dinners if I am going to hit the elliptical in the evening.

Elliptical intervals at lunchtime at work. I did 4x4 minutes with a 2 minute rest.

We spent the morning and early afternoon helping out and hanging out at QOC's Intro to Orienteering event at Wheaton. Alli helped Amy run the epunch, and I did some beginner instruction and some baby-minding.

It was a really fun event with a great atmosphere. I think that these beginner-only events are a really good way for the club to attract new people without intimidating them. Heidi and Dave do an excellent job organizing these. I wonder if Heidi would be interested in giving a talk on these at the Convention in November.

Over 70 people showed up, and most seemed to have a great time.

After the event we were allowed to run the white or yellow courses as part of QOC's Summer Short Series. Since the yellow course was the same as the year before, I ran by memory after spending a few minutes looking at the map. It mostly went well, and I purposely took simpler route choices to minimize mistakes. Still, I miscounted trail junctions going to #6 (I needed to count to 1, but I counted to 2) and ended up off the map (though I didn't realize it, since I didn't have a map). I remembered having seen a yellow blob to the left of #6. Now I was looking at a field to the right of me, so I figured I should run through it and keep going. Luckily, that worked, as I was only off in direction, not distance. I am guessing I lost about a minute and a half. No problems the rest of the way.

Event: Canada 150 Orienteering Festival
 

Running! In the rain! I didn't have enough time to make it to the gym and back and get a workout in, and it was pouring outside, so the obvious solution was to go run. It was fabulous! The Mall was one giant puddle, with tourists rapidly dispersing in all directions to hide from the torrential downpour. The Washington Monument loomed in the distance as an uncertain outline in the clouds, and neither Lincoln nor the Capitol were visible from the middle of the Mall. I was drenched from the very first steps and really enjoyed myself the whole time.

It was also clear that my body is not at all accustomed to running. I need to slowly start reintroducing it as a part of the routine, while taking care to not overdo it with my back.