Training Log Archive: W

Westerns Long. I would have really kind of liked to race like this last week, but I was much calmer now so I generally executed everything fairly well. Certainly, I was less enchanted with my route choice to two, as the obviously good one was totally not noticed by me. On the other hand, the route I took was more difficult and I generally executed it perfectly, so let's call it a great value. I think that in general, my plans were better, I was more focused, and the map was a little on the easy side. There was one control where I simply could not come with a plan and it showed, since I got lost. I imagine this requires just a bit more skill to be confident in seeing smaller features as big features.

Quickroute here:
http://orienteering.ca/doma/show_map.php?user=will...

I had a great plan for this race: "Don't be stupid".

And HEY, it worked!

Although I think the map and course were relatively easy, I'm most pleased that once I caught my two and four minute man (both very good in their own right), I didn't completely implode in worrying more about them than me. Sure, I did a little, and hurried a bit more than necessary, but there were two long-ish legs where I was able to run through them, and then I nailed the next 4-5 to put myself solidly in the lead. Unfortunately one of them caught me again when I decided to go over some cliffs rather than around. Turns out the other side of cliffs are really steep. Almost cliff like.

So, good race. I think I could and should have run faster in certain spots, but I was being very deliberate and very careful, especially with leaving a control with a solid plan (welcome to two years ago).

Event: Western Canadian Championships
 

Wait, I'm supposed to log on this site? OH RIGHT!

Western's sprint. I raced at varying levels of embarassingly bad. I think I've done so many urban sprints that I forgot that sometimes, you actually have to navigate in a sprint. In reality I should have approached with the attitude of it being a very short and fast middle, but I did all the lazy things you can kind of get away with in an urban sprint (like basically using your compass only as thumb-bling) that totally screw you over in a forest sprint. But, I got maximal bang for my buck as I went from 7 to 9 to 8 to wrong way to 8 to 9 to 11 to 10 to 11 again. Bonus controls!

I didn't take a day off, per se, I played tennis. If I had to trade a long run for tennis, I would take the long run since I'll be far less sore. So, this run had to suffer through some soreness in my hamstrings, and particularly my left shoulder. Still, it felt good to get off the trails and on to the road and run [relatively] fast. Sure it may have been a highway with psychotic truck drivers. But, it was a refreshing change. I'm convinced I'm getting sick so I felt I had to scale it back a little.

Then again, I've been convinced I've been getting sick for a month now, and it still hasn't happened. Fingers crossed!

Relay day! Alas, I did not have a team, so I figured I'd do the first leg by myself in the mass start and then see what happens. We had a bit of a group going until number 4 where I managed to nail the control and Thomas did not, so I was free and clear until the end. I made some dumb mistakes in the latter half which was actually quite tricky, and wasted some time at the control that *cough*, wasn't quite put out yet, but if anyone was to get stuck at that first, the guy with no official team was probably the best one to have that happen to! I took a detour to the finish to point it out, and all was sorted out.

Because of the mistakes in the latter half, unfortunately I finished the first leg within sight of the real leaders, so as I ran to two I decided it would be unfair to lead the front team into the controls, so I packed it in to let the race decide itself independently. Kinda wish I hadn't botched those controls because then I would probably been free and clear to do the whole thing, but, oh well. I could feel a cold coming on, so best to play it safe.

Well, I probably cared too much, and that was my undoing. I put a lot of pressure on myself for this race, because it would have meant sweeping the nationals, and also three-peating the nationals long. And I really think it was mine to win, and I lost it with big mistakes on 2 and 13, 13 being the most egrigious.

Even now I'm not entirely clear where I went. The problem was I left 12 and was unclear on which of the two possible re-entrants I was going down, but I had an arrogant attitude that I'd either see the flagging to 14 if I was in the second one, or I'd cross the spur and be in the right re-entrant. Neither of those things happened, I crossed over the spur and saw neither the control nor any flagging, at which point I decided to go down to the creek, and try to relocate from there, but I got to the creek and didn't know where I was along it. That was pretty dumb. Eventually though I think I determined where I was and came back up to find the control.

I suspect I passed over top of the rock I was looking for, but with it being on the underside I blew right past it. At that point I really started to chase the race and lost more time on 15, 18, and took poor routes to 22 and 23.

Quite disappointed, no doubt. A physical long is my kind of long, but I stopped focusing for a lengthy amount of time and I screwed myself. I need to find a way to re-direct my passion for competing well in a particular race into productive thoughts and actions. The less I care, the better I seem to do sometimes.

Long M21E - Splits

The hardest part of the race was finding the start triangle. After that, I felt like I was lost the entire time. Although it looks relatively easy, the Whistler village map was quite tough because everything seemed to happen so fast. I was most definitely unclear on where I was coming into 5 and 8-9. I think I took several weak routes, too, including 7-8 and 11-12. But, it wasn't all bad, I think that taking the stairs from 10-11 was a solid choice and I had that figured out before arriving to 10. I also wisely invested time from 3-4 by coming to a full stop and figuring out exactly where 4 was, which was the undoing for a great number of people.

I didn't feel the fittest I've ever been, but I tried to channel advice and whenever I felt I needed to hurry I just relaxed a bit and tried to smooth my stride out. However, I'd like to see myself to a bit more planning during some straight running, such as between 10-11 and 14-15 and especially 19-20. I think I would have saved a few seconds on the following legs if I'd done that.

All things considered, though. A solid, if unspectacular race.

Sprint M21E - Splits

Event: 2014 Canadian Champs
 

Nationals Middle, the one national championship that has eluded me thus far.

The rumours were flying around at the arena about how difficult, both physically and technically, this was going to be. Certainly the finish chute suggested it really, really would be. It was twisty uphill sprint with some rocks, logs to jump, and basically a cliff halfway. If the finish is that gnarly, the rest of the course must've been!

I actually found, while running on the warm-up map, that it wasn't so bad, because the mapping was so ludicrously good. Distinguishing between rocks and non-rocks, cliffs and non-cliffs, small marshes, plateaus, it all made sense. It seemed quite easy to completely botch it since it was quite difficult, but I never felt like anything was ambiguous or misleading.

Ultimately, my undoing to Thomas was that I was being too careful. I tried to stay in the moment and not get too ahead of myself, but that required to scale everything back very much, and I also missed key information that would have saved time, especially at 12 when I didn't grasp the sheer size of the hill behind the control, which was so distinct that it should have made finding that particular control a cakewalk. But, I stopped too high and wasted 20 seconds standing still.

I didn't lose that kind of time on many other controls, but there was simply quite a bit of stopping and walking, double-checking, and being sure, possible to an excess. It wasn't feature paranoia, which is good, but I'd still like to be better so I could walk slightly further out on the razor with the confident of not falling off.

Another question, why don't I race like this in Europe? Criminy.

Middle M21E - Splits

Geez, that was a lot of driving. Used Thursday to work and pack and drive to Canmore, then spent most of Friday driving from Canmore to Whistler. I will say, the road from Cache Creek to Whistler is both pretty fun and pretty amazing. The part with the huge canyon with the ? river is quite amazing, and the rest just wanted me to take up (virtual) rally driving again.

But, I finally finally got Whistler and had a chance to toodle off to the training map at Lost Lake, which is apparently not relevant for either races, but, whatever! I found myself distracted and not focused, so I felt that needed to be remedied for tomorrow's Middle.

Shock and awe: it DID!