Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Warmup and drills. A little more rushed than I had planned.

Boulder Dash Day 2 - Blue Course

Map: http://www.dxdeluxe.se/linnekartparmen/show_map.ph...
Winsplits: http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d...

For the first time in a while, I was not the first starter, and so I was pretty pumped to run with people when I got to the start line. I started 3 minutes after Will and watched him dive right into the woods from the get-go. When I started and flipped my map, my immediate instinct was to take the trail around to #1, and so I did a 180 and ran right back through the start call-up lines and through the finish on the way to 1. I had a good split on this leg and was off to a confident start.

I picked up Patrick Shannon (+6 minutes) on the way to 2 and punched it a bit ahead of him. I was feeling fresher than the day before and took off for #3, expecting to run hard through the section of the course that went through simpler terrain. Of course, I forgot that I should orienteer too and immediately made an embarrassing parallel error, thinking I was one trail junction further than I was. Over a minute lost there.

I knew that Jordan started 3 minutes behind me and was not surprised when he caught up going into 4 and eventually passed me going into 5. He easily dropped me on the climb up to 7 and I never saw him again.

I was pretty shaky in my orienteering on the next few legs, missing a trail to 10 and stopping short to 11. I stopped and refocused at the start of the long leg to 11 and ran the first half well, hitting the trail exactly where I wanted to. When I took off on the side trail, however, I quickly lost it, and ended up guessing wrong when trying to come back, ending up further south of the line than I wanted to be. On the bright side, when coming down a cliff I found myself right next to a porcupine, the first one I've seen in the wild! It was right in front of me, turned around, puffed up its quills, and waddled away. Pretty cool!

In the middle of this leg I was slogging through the swamp and the green, but finally climbed into the white woods and followed the stream to the swamp to the control. I felt like I had lost time on each of the last few legs, so I was pleased and energized to see Will appear at 12 as I was coming into it.

After hitting 13 together with Will, I had another meltdown in the same exact area where I lost 8 minutes at NAOC a year ago. I could not make sense of the area around 14, thought we had overrun the control, and took nearly 5 minutes to relocate. Will relocated immediately and punched the control over 3:30 before me!

I was pretty discouraged at this point, but decided to snap out of it and push hard for the rest of the course. I ran hard and clean for 15-16-17 and then sped up again to 18, spiking it at full speed and seeing Will appear once again! I promptly screwed up 19, losing about 15 seconds, but recovered and finished right behind Will.

My "orienteering angry" final section of the course seemed to work well, as from 14-F, I was 14 seconds slower than Greg and about a minute faster than Jordan. Maybe I need to channel this anger with myself whenever I orienteer...

I was again surprised to end up 3rd for the day and thrilled to finish 3rd for the weekend in a pretty strong field. This felt like a big improvement from June, when I was consistently 2.5 min/km slower than Will Enger in every race.

Alli had a strong race on Green, showing that she is successfully overcoming Lyme and getting better at orienteering with every outing. Barney, Inara, and I happily cheered her into the finish.

We finished the weekend with a buffet lunch with Martin at Jesse's in Hanover and a looong drive back to DC. Thanks again UNO for a wonderful weekend of racing! I hope to have more chances to race at Burnt Mountain and finally take revenge on the Bermuda Triangle around the 14th control.

Sunday - Blue - Splits

Event: The Stockville
 

Solid warmup and drills.

UNO Boulder Dash Day 1 - Blue Course

Map: http://www.dxdeluxe.se/linnekartparmen/show_map.ph...
Splits: http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d...

Unlike during the ROC Event and the Highlander, where my legs felt fast and light, I felt heavy and plodding the entire weekend, with little energy. So I tried to minimize time loss and keep moving. I started cautiously but cleanly, except for a 40 second mistake in the circle on #4, where I struggled to distinguish the different hills with cliffs. I was encouraged by executing the long leg to 6 well, but lost some steam after the climb up to 9. I ran to 10 without a plan and was lucky to get away with only a 30 second time loss. I was fairly clean on the tricky section from 13-17 before missing 18 to the right.

Looking at the start list, I expected to be somewhere around 6th-8th, so was pleasantly surprised to end up 3rd on the day, only 8:40 behind the impressive Jordan.

Barney, Inara, and I then walked Alli to the start, adventured back to the finish, and hung out there while friendly orienteers took turns petting the dog and baby.

The dinner at Dartmouth was really nice too, with a good crowd of orienteers taking over the upstairs area, and Inara amusing the undergrads by crawling around the dining room floor. We then hung out some more with Martin, Ed, and Will at our AirBnB that unexpectedly had an orienteering map by Ed Hicks hanging on the wall.

Saturday - Blue - Splits

Event: UNO Boulder Dash
 

Trying to get warmed up for the sprint by climbing Quarry Hill to the start and then doing some drills. In the process, I learned from Francis Falardeau that there is a tick whose bite makes you vegetarian.

The whole family drove up to Hanover, NH for UNO's Boulder Dash event. We drove up Thursday after work and stopped for a visit with PG and Gail, who graciously took us in, baby and all. We got to witness PG's battles against the attacking woodpeckers, see the gorgeous views from the top of the fabled Sugarloaf, and drive around some of the Gagarins' stomping grounds while Inara slept.

On Friday we made it up to New Hampshire and took turns running the sprint set on the most technical part of the Burnt Mountain map. This was a good warmup for the weekend, as I flailed and zig-zagged my way around the course and was soundly beaten by TraktorE. It was great fun, though, and I appreciated the opportunity to run on Burnt Mt. not two, but three times this weekend.

Afterwards, we had a nice dinner with Alex, Ed, and Martin at Lui Lui, site of our wedding reception a year ago.

Sprint1 - Splits

Warmup. Trivial warfare.

Most of my strength routine plus stretching.

Elliptical intervals, 4x4 minutes.

Morning run on my now standard loop in Rock Creek. I did a bit of a fartlek, pushing hard on the shorter uphills and downhills, and slowing down for the flat sections.

Elliptical at the gym in Columbus.