Training Log Archive: El Chucko

first hockey game of the year with the Geology team in U of A intermurals. Scored the winning goal in a close 3-1 win

Alberta Long Champs at White Earth. Finished in second place, just over 4 minutes back of Damian. Was a very interesting race tactically as the tables turned compared to yesterday. Today I started first and Damian was 4 minutes behind me and I screwed myself by having problems with the first control and before I knew it Damian had caught me by the 5th control. After that, it was very much a cat and mouse game, but it was difficult to get much ahead as it was 'straight is great' terrain with high visibility so it was next to impossible to take a long route around without falling back. I knew I had to try to make a move, and tried a few techniques such as dropping a bit back and hoping Damian went off course, picking up the tempo considerably, an 'overshoot and hook back', and trying alternate routes where possible, but never managed to open up more than a 30s gap. Generaly we diverged slightly on routes and converged towards the controls and watched the other person closely during attacks so that they wouldn't spike it and be gone while you weren't paying attention. This meant that we both made a 6 minute error on a really confusing area near 12, a 1 minute error at 14 and a 3 minute error at 17. To add insult to injury, I had a 15s lead going to the second last control but ended up losing the 'first across the line' race anyways as I missed the last control to the left by about 50m. Still managed to finish about 20 minutes ahead of the third place guy, Dave R.

Event: Alberta Orienteering Championships
 

Alberta Middle Champs at Victoria Trail. Won a fairly close race. Made a 30s mistake on 4 and a 2.5 minute mistake at 6 when I caught Damian, but other than that I was focusing pretty well. Damian K was 1.5 minutes back, Wil C was 2 minutes back and David R was 3 minutes back.

Alberta Sprint Champs at Victoria Trail. Won my second race of the day with a very solid race. Was a tricky forest sprint, more difficult than the middle but only made 2 small 15s errors. Finished 1.5 minutes ahead of Dave in second, and Damian and Wil blew up and were over 10 minutes back.

some control pickup after my Wednesday night event

hanging controls at Terwillegar for my night o tomorrow. The winning time should be just under an hour, and while I was slower due to having to hang controls the runners will be slower due to the difficulties of running at night, so I would have to say that this is pretty perfect timing in terms of the length of the course.

played in a golf tournament for the company I worked for this summer. First time golfing a real course (rather than a pitch and putt), needless to say I was pretty terrible. Was strangely sore the next day, although that may be more due to the fact that I didn't use a golf cart so carried around a bag of clubs all day with over 7km walk. Beautiful sunny and warm day, probably one of the last ones that we will have like that this year

club sprint champs at Rundle Park. 2nd, over a minute behind Wil C (didn't know I was THAT much slower). Bland course, bland map, not too much that this decided that a 3k time trial couldn't

to/from uni. messed up my rear tire pretty badly when trying to jump over this curb

was late for uni, and then was late somewhere I had to be in the evening

to/from Terwillegar Park

Testing my orienteering course for the Wednesday night event in 2 weeks that I am putting on. They were about 1/4 too short as I didn't realize that the map was actually 1:7500 until it was too late

Forest B event at Oskahtak. Finished in 1st place, +8:29 ahead of Geraint (2nd) and +10:11 ahead of Wil C (3rd). Good race, ran hard and was simplifying and focusing well. First time I have had a dominating (+5min) win at a forest event, which is something I have had the physical and even technical skill to do before but perhaps not mental. Had 3 attacking errors, losing about 1 minute each, but overall my navigation was smooth and bang on. Won 12/22 fastest splits, and my time loss (behind winner) on the 10 legs that I lost was 3:52, leaving an ideal time of 44:54.

to/from Hawrelak

Wednesday night orienteering at Hawrelak Park, final one of the season. Beat Wil C. by over 2 minutes. This year, out of 8 City Cup events that I attended, with age handicaps figured in, I had 6 1st place finishes and 2 2nd place finishes

against scott, 7-5, 0-6, first time I have ever beaten him in a set

to and from the tennis courts

some singles and doubles tennis

Wednesday evening orienteering at Whitemud South. First place, managed to beat Wil C. Don't think that the beers that I had in the afternoon because of first day of class really helped my running time.

Biking to/from Whitemud South