Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Lake Ranch Reservoir, with Louise. Casual walk. After a mile, my knee starts getting worse. During the last mile, it really ached. By the time I got home it was killing me. Ibuprofen really helped, but this is a big concern.

I first hurt it during the Long Champs on Sat, when I stepped in a hole while trying to avoid some thorns and felt a shooting pain in my knee. Finished that race without any problem, noticed it warming up Sunday but it didn't bother me during the run. Sitting on the plane for so long going home made it pretty sore, but it wasn't too bad this morning, so I wasn't expecting this kind of irritation just from walking.

C • deadly long race 2

US Champs Middle. (NOTE: Leg-by-leg details are in my split comments on AttackPoint. Also, my route is on the GAOC RouteGadget site.) Not a good day for me. I suppose I could invoke a lot of excuses for today: a third straight poor night's sleep, mugginess, getting torn to shreds by vines, not much emotion left after first two races, but the bottom line is that my focus wasn't there. I never really picked my way carefully, which could have enabled me to avoid vines and pick out the many available features. Kept trying to use the strategy that worked so well yesterday (namely, run hard, compass and pace count, look around if necessary when you get there), but that was inappropriate in this terrain, and I never adjusted. Charlie walked all the way and beat me!

Longer warm up than anticipated because we had to park so far away. Today got off to a bad start: went to get a bandaid for a cut on my hand from the first aid station. After much bumbling by the person staffing the station, got the bandaid but was late for my start. (Of course, it's my fault for not getting to the first aid station much sooner.) Had to jog faster than I wanted to the start, and by the time I got there had to go all the way to the map boxes. Still, I didn't feel rattled and it was actually a good warmup, so can't blame any of what followed on this.

Middle - Brown - Splits

US Champs Long: 1st Place in M65. (NOTE: Leg-by-leg details are in my split comments on AttackPoint. Also, my route is on the GAOC RouteGadget site.) Ran surprisingly well, especially over the last several legs. Made me realize that I'd underestimated my conditioning on yesterday's sprint. The last two months of good training (relatively injury free for the first time in two years) must have made a difference.

Many people lost a lot of time on #6, which it was generally agreed was mis-mapped, being actually about 60m further from the river. Fortunately for me, I had realized during the first leg that I wasn't going to be able to identify the subtle details on the map, so I employed throughout a strategy of compass and pace count, see the big features, look around if necessary. That worked beautifully on most of the controls, probably saved me on #6 (the misplacement didn't bother me), and didn't hurt me too much on the other three I didn't nail (1, 3, 8) because in each case I was able to figure out which way I was probably off and so to go in the right direction to find the control.

Peter hurt himself twice while out on the course and was unable to finish, opening the possibility of a championship for the rest of us. I was fortunate to be able to beat a number of very good orienteers (Gord Hunter, Bob Putnam, Bill Cheatum, Charlie DeWeese, Jim Hall, Francis Hogle, among others) and quite unexpectedly win the Long.

Charlie re-injured his hamstring and bruised his toe by stepping in a hole, which was also the cause of Peter's injury. I also stepped in a hole, I think it was after leaving #6, and felt a shooting pain in my left knee. It didn't bother me the rest of the way, nor too much the next day, but stiffened up on the plane ride home and really hurt after a short walk on Monday.

Good warmup in the start area (plenty warm so it was easy to get loose, and my heel didn't hurt much - thank you, ibuprofen!).

No warm down to speak of (too excited about winning), though I did some good stretching after a while.

Long - Brown - Splits

Event: US Individual Championships (Sprint/Middle/Long/Trail)
 

US Champs Sprint: 2nd Place, a distant 3 minutes behind Peter but nearly 2 mins ahead of the next competitors (Gord, Charlie). Solid run, no navigation errors (that is, always went where I intended to go), 3 small route choice errors (total :30). Finished very strongly; should have started running hard sooner. (NOTE: Leg-by-leg details are in my split comments on AttackPoint. Also, my route is on the GAOC RouteGadget site.)

Good 14 min warmup (1.25 mi)

6 min cool down (0.4 mi)

Sprint - Brown - Splits

Fly to Georgia for the US Champs. Left home around 10am, met Charlie in the Atlanta airport around 8:30pm, drove with him, Tapio and Steve Gregg to Carrollton, arriving at the Econolodge around 10pm.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching (entered on Thursday this week due to tomorrow's race).

Front of house: 545, 508. Raw, chilly morning. Legs felt good, achilles only mildly sore. Got going pretty well. Just loosening up for Friday.

Legs reasonably ready, conditioning decent but not great. The big thing: can I get some sleep and also let go if all the things that have me stressed.

All the usual stuff, but only 2 sets each instead of 3.