Training Log Archive: mm-ha

Event: Jukola 2012
 

Venla, second leg on a sunny, hot finish summer day.
Orienteering went better than expected, but the heat was killing me, so I was slow running and on the brick of getting cramps on the end of the course. Drank on each refreshment control and lots before the course, still was thirsty most of the time, but apparently well enough hydrated as the brain was working all the way to the finish.
Fun to orienteer and the terrain and also fun to have so many people around me - but still managed to be alone in the forest from time to time...
Definitely have to be back in finnish terrain :))
Details:
1) Long, long run to the start triangle in the crueling sun, hated the hill in the middle of the taped route.
Then from the start triangle to the control I made the (maybe) biggest mistake of the day: all went well until shortly before the control when I drifted to far north and didn't let myself wonder why all the other were going more south (mental note to self: if you're the only one choosing a different route, chance is you're just plain wrong). Was confused by the stone plates and couldn't interpret them properly. In retrospect, I understand were I was and what happened. Was actually pretty near, but took me a while to relocate. 3:30
2) Carefully and a bit slow, but spiked.
3) Easy
4) Spiked. Could have maybe used the path north and going a bit more direct?
5) Easy, spiked
6) Was the only one taking this route choice. Still not conviced that it was too bad, but lost lots of places here. Maybe not only because of the route choice, but because I was getting tired and without anybody in front was moving slowly?
7-9) Fine
10) Was so tired by now that I even walked the last part of the taped route after the refreshment station :( Then a long, hard climb up the hill
12) Unnecessary climb on the first part, should have gone around the first hill, but didn't see the route. 30s or 1 min?
14) And running to the wrong last control first. 30s?
All in all a lot better than expected orienteeringwise, but as bad as I know my shape is right now runningwise. And I'm not made for the heat...

Getting up before 4am to travel to the airport and fly to Helsinki for Jukola/Venla (was the only affordable flight) - Jesus, why am I doing this? Just because to years ago as a photographer I thought that once in my life I want to run there myself...silly me?

Running/walking around on the model map from Jukola to prepare for tomorrow. Was a bit scared of the terrain and everything after my only experience in finish terrain 2 years ago, but it actually went a lot better than expected. After the first control I figured out what I could use for orienteering (contours, stones, paths, stone plates) and what better not (vegetation, except for maybe swamps, but had some problems with those) and it went OK.
It was fun to orienteer in that kind of terrain.
Only the try out of my new-bought o-shoes wasn't a succes - there are for sure nice for some terrain like maybe wineyard-o and stuff, but they don't feel really secure on the rough and stony terrain. So back to the old ones tomorrow
Details:
1) Super-slow and careful, reading the map every step. Realized immediately that I couldn't really distinguish the vegetation - luckily there's more than enough other stuff to use for navigation here. Stones and contours are mapped nice...
3) Got a bit confused with the paths leaving the bigger road. Actually the better route of course would have been going on the road longer, but I took the more complicated one on purpose.
4) Again taking the non-ideal route on purpose.
5) Wanted to attack the control from above, but got confused by the smaller stone plate which I didn't see on my map and thought I was already on top. Realized soon that I was coming low and found the control navigating with the bigger cliffs. Only back home I realized what caused the confusion
8) Again taking the more complicated route on purpose. Dropped to far north and a bit too low when leaving the path and was confused by that first. Don't have a really good sense of distance in this terrain :(
10) Idiot mistake, getting tired maybe. Made a parallel mistake and took me far too long to correct myself...

Tuesday-uni-training. O-training on the campus and hardwald. Still tired from the trade fair and the sleepless nights, so took the short loop.
Orienteering OK, apart from a silly 1 min. mistake on 2 and a slight hesitation on 11. Running felt slow, but seems to have been not to bad...