Training Log Archive: El Chucko

Moose Creek Splash Long Distance. I will go ahead and say that this was the hardest orienteering race I have ever done in my life. 12th place 3rd race in a row, winning time 1:55:55 (Wil Smith).

Really wasn't pleased with my race, but I can take 3 positives out of it: 1. I actually navigated pretty well in the famous Mt. Laurie super complex contour area, 2. I finished the race despite all the adversity I faced in it. 3. Desite running for over 3 hours, I was still able to dig deep and get the fastest finish split for the 3rd race in a row.

Notes: Made a 5 minute mistake on 3, a massive 21 minute brain cramp on 5, a 2:30 error on 8, a 15 minute brutal route choice/ crap attack error on 24 and a 3 min error in the steep gullies of 25, as well as a few smaller mistakes under a minute for an estimated error time of 50:30.

Starting out, it took me about 30 seconds to find the start triangle and then was faced with about an 100m leg to the first control. Control 3 was in the weirdest terrain ever, a wasteland of thickly vegetated ridges, small depressions, knolls and boulders spaced so closely that the map was a jumbled mess and barely decipherible. Control 5 was one of many gullies on a broad hillside which I attacked too high and ran around for around 15 minutes with my head chopped off before finally bailing and still making a mistake when attacking again. Controls 7-20 were in the ridiculously detailed contour area. Sometimes I wasn't sure what exactly was supposed to be going on in the terrain but my strategy of slow, deliberate pacing and then attacking with very precise compass and looking for the control feature worked like a charm. I was really tired for the last hour of the course and could barely muster more than a slow jog but on the long leg to 24 the 2 features I was relying on didn't actually exist. It was as if the mapper was confronted by this massive area with car sized boulders and thick vegetation in between and just gave up and decided to call one area "region with many boulders" and the other area the thickest green so that nobody would be foolish enough to venture into there.

C • you beast 6

Event: Moose Creek Splash (Canadian Team Trials West)
 

Moose Creek Splash Middle. 12/17th place, winning time of 30:32 (Mike Smith). Had a pretty good race and was satisfied with the result. Made a number of small 15-30 second hesitations/ errors but nothing bigger than that. Estimated error time: 2 minutes 50 seconds

Moose Creek Splash Sprint race.12th place, winning time 13:21 Mike Smith. Felt OK about this result, although it was a pretty sloppy race navigationally for me and I wasn't as sharp as I would like to be in a sprint. Made a few 10-30 second mistakes, Estimated error time 1:50

to/from work

to/from work. A bird shat on me.

Couldn't make it to orienteering today, so did intervals instead. Did a 10 minute warmup, followed by 5*(5min hard, 5 minutes moderate/easy). Felt strong

5*5 min hard (~1400m?)

5*5 min moderate/easy

to/from work

to/from work