Training Log Archive: Atropos

Long Distance Event at the COC's.


Wow! What an amazing race. It was long and complicated with crazy route choices and terrain like nothing I have ever encountered. Half way through the race I was running across a rocky open ridge between two ponds and all I could think about was how much I love orienteering. I was proud of myself for finishing (and, therefore, claiming the silver medal woot) but also because although I may have wandered a little bit, I was never lost and I corrected all of my mistakes quite quickly. There was a bit of controversy over the crossing of uncrossable lakes but since I was familiar with the rules it never occured to me that I could save time by trying to cross some of the marshes.

It was a fantastic end to a fantastic week of orienteering and I think this race will go down as one of my favourites ever. Bravo OOC. I look forward to coming back next time.

Long Course 9 - Splits

COC sprint at the NRC. It was a very simple course technically so the race came down to foot speed and smoothness. I had one or two small hesitations but I was so far back simply because I cannot run as fast as the other girls. I maybe could have run a little harder but I am not sure if I would have finished!

Warm up for race.

Sprint Course 4. - Splits

COC middle event.
The terrain was pretty complex with lots of trails and many small contour features. I wanted to make sure that I was accurate and I did ok at that. I ended up running with different people at different times but didn't stay with anyone for the whole race. Ended up one hill over on number 5 with Galyna and Abby but I corrected much sooner and got ahead. I made a few other small mistakes but nothing major. Felt sick afterwards but still no puking.
Ended up as 3rd Canadian even though I was a long way down the list and I was the only person to guess two out of the three people in the betting today so I won 170$ on top of the 15$ that I won on Wednesday!

C • Nice! 1

Warm up and run to start.

Middle W21 (Elite) - Splits

First leg of the COC relay on a team with George and Alex. It went pretty well. There was quite a bit of forking and I ended up at the wrong control at one point but it was only about 20-30 m from my control so it wasn't a big deal.

Ran second leg of Sass Peepre relay with Rachel and Laura. It was pretty simple but fun.

Prologue sprint at Carleton University. I caught the girl (Cheryl) who started 2 minutes ahead of me at the first control and got a bit confused going to the second control because I didn't check my direction. I then went up too early into 4 by following an elephant track through the green. I got covered in big burrs and even had them in my hair for the rest of the race. The rest of the race was clean except for one or two tiny errors and my speed was much better than it has been. I wasn't able to quite shake Cheryl and we were together most of the race. It looks impressive in the results that I beat Emily Kemp but she was just jogging on her banged up knee.

Chase Sprint at Carleton. This was a really fun race. The women's category started last so I barely saw anybody out on my course. The course was much trickier than the course in the morning and there were lots of technical route choices. I felt like I did a really good job of planning ahead and anticipating. I only made one mistake where I got caught in a fence but almost everybody else did as well. I considered climbing it but ended up going back and around. I ran harder than I have in a long time but I still wasn't fast at all speed wise. I started to get "the sickness" near the end and decided if I was going to make myself sick, I might as well run a race that I could be proud to puke over so I ran as fast as I could to the finish and collapsed in a big heap. I was really slow compared to some of the other girls but I felt that I executed this race almost as well as I could given my current fitness. I felt queasy off and on for the rest of the day but did not lose my lunch. I am going to put this race in the win column.

C • Win! 2

Warm up for various races.

Sass Peepre camp. Following and coaching juniors.

Classic race in Ottawa. I walked the course because of my nausea problems. Solid but slow at the beginning, I lost focus at the end and made a few stupid mistakes.

Event: Canadian Orienteering Championships
 

Farsta Race in Ottawa. I started off running but I felt sick so walked the rest of the course.