Training Log Archive: cporter

Core Workout Class- mostly pilates moves today so lots of akward looking exercises that we all got a good laugh at ourselves about. I do like the pilates, but I also miss Chloe's more bootcamp-like class of push-ups/sit-ups. The pilates is really enjoyable and I do feel my core working, but it just lacks the same intensity - also, I don't think that 25 min is long enough to get a good pilates workout.

Hickory Run - Green Course. This race would have to rank as one of my top 3 worst races for the year. Not that I ever run well at Hickory Run, but this was one of those races where you begin to question if you have ever in fact orienteered in your life before...with the exception of #2 I didn't make any really huge errors. On #2 (which I might add was not a terribly long leg) I made it to my catching feature just fine and then ran about 30 degrees off my bearing. I knew I was off fairly quickly, but it still took me a while to admit to myself that I screwed up, bail out to the nearby powerlines, and then reattacked the control and found it just fine, so that wound up being a leg that took me 11min when it should have only taken me 3:30. Ugh. What is really more bothersome about this race was my complete inability to run on a compass bearing, which was essential to navigating this course (there wasn't much in the way of route choice for a lot of the legs, in my opinion.) I am also one of those unfortunate orienteers that doesn't consistently pull to the left/right of their bearings, I go either way. It was actually commical in this race because I seemed to switch directions every control - maybe that was due to overcompensation from the previous let, but I'm not sure I was that cognisant that I was doing it during the race. My favorite part of the race (sarcasm) was when I got my hair stuck in a tree branch on the way to #9 - the branch wouldn't break and I couldn't get my pony tail out so it too me over a min to get untagled. That situation pretty much sums up the whole race. By the end of the race I did have a few cleaner legs, but by then I had lost so much time that it didn't really matter.

US Team Training Camp - Chang of Direction Training. Middle distance type course with short legs and a lot of direction change. This training was as much a challenge of will as it was skill. After running 16+ km collectively on Sat. and then my disaster of a race on Sun. morning, I was exhaused and fed up with Hickory Run. Fortunately I ran the course pretty well, although for a lot of the training I wasn't alone which as Sam and I had discussed gives you an extra boost in confidence as you move through the woods - it also incidentally kept me moving through the woods period when my body really didn't want to. For most of the course Sam and I were in each other's sights, but I feel like while we were both aware of each other's presence, we were doing our own navigating so I don't feel terribly guilty about keeping her in my sights. The added advantage of keeping up with her is that I was able to show to myself how much my body really could take and still navigate reasonably well. I will have to say though the best part of this training was finishing - whether by design or not Tom had us finish right next to a dammed up stream with a pool that was just deep enough to take a quick dip in to cool off in the extremely uncomfortable heat and humidity that plauged us all weekend.

Control Pick up with Alison after training - just walked because we were pretty damn tired.

Event: DVOA Training Weekend - Hickory Run
 

US Team Training @ Hickory Run - Our first training for Sat. was a simplification course which Tom had us look at beforehand so that we could discuss route choice with o'teers of similar ability level (Sam Saeger, Victoria Campbell and I made up our group). Then we ran the course and once again discussed how well we were able to execute our planned routes. In retrospect this training went the best for me. I only had "trouble" with the first 3 legs and that consisted of just a little hesitation and coming into sight of the control from too far to the left/right of it. I think most of that just had to do with getting my head into it since I haven't orienteered for 3 weeks. Otherwise I was really pleased with how this training went...

US Team Training Camp at Hickory Run - Chang of pace course. This would have to be the the training that went the worst for me. The couse consisted of "sets" of one longer leg with an easier control placement that you should be able to hit with a rough compass bearing and therefore travle pretty quickly through the woods to and then two shorter legs with difficult control placements that you would obviously have to slow down for. For this training, we paired up and "raced" each other through each set. One person took off and then the other waited 30-60 sec and tried to catch them and then we discussed what we did after each set. I paired up with Victoria Campbell. Unfortunately I don't think that each group gave previous group enough time when we started and so there we ended up in one massive group running through the woods. I admittedly was extremely distracted by this and virtually stopped navigating at some points and I don't think I was the only one to do so. It didn't work in our favor either because at one point we actually all ran to the wrong control which was hung on a similar feature about 30m off from ours (In our defense there were a lot of flags out in the woods, but still not an excuse) and some people left for the next control before we realised that we were at the wrong spot. So needless to say this was a messy training and I don't think I got much out of it, besides a lot of frustration.

US Team Training Camp - Sprint. Just a self-timed sprint course through the camp. I was really slow on the sprint because I was already exhausted from two earlier training sessions. Even though I was slow, I kept a fairly consistent pace, but mental fatigue definetly caught up to me during the sprint. I had several legs where I just literally could not make sense of the map (which is pretty pitiful because I pretty much know the camp inside and out) so I just took a bearing and ran on that and hoped that I'd either see the control or eventually figure out where I was going - worked about half the time. At one point I was so tired that I hit the camp road, stopped, looked at my map and could not figure out where the road was on the map (ummmm there is only 1 road that goes through the damn camp!) To add insult to injury I did this right in front of the West Point cadets that were sitting out in front of their cabin - it must have been hysterical to watch me stop, stare at my map blankly, run one direction for about 10m and then turn around and run the other way once I finally figured out where I was! Needless to say, by the time the sprint was completed I was feeling pretty humbled.

Kickboxing