Training Log Archive: Canadian

Event: Kingsmere B-meet
 

Warm up for the West Point long. Did this warm up to the start with Ian Smith. Had a good chat about various things and was in the mood to just relax on this course, take it slow, and see how clean a race I could get.

Finally! Not a great result but respectable orienteering that I'm happy with.
Took the first three controls slow and careful and then picked things up and started running a little more aggressively. Opted for the direct route up the hill to 4 and sidehilled to 5. 6 and 7 were fine but then I was low on 8. A little bit more focus on the compass could have helped with that. Straight to 9 which popped up sooner than I expected. Fast running to 10 and then through major patches of mountain laurel to 11.
I stopped at 11, took a gel (I also took one before the start) and planned my route to 12. I came out to that first path further left than I was expecting to and so crossed it without noticing it because it was lower down the hill than I was ready for. I was aiming for the indistinct trails that I crossed but I followed the hill side and the compass to end up on the right trail anyway. The rest of the route went as planned and the saddle was a super obvious attack point! Coming out of 12 I thought to myself that this was the point at which I would make mistakes since I was getting tired. I saw Becky and someone else going in to 13 which made that easy. Then I let them lead me to the wrong control - there's that mistake I saw coming. I thought I was paying attention to my compass but obviously not enough.
I got stuck in the swamp and lost a couple of minutes there on my way to 15. Had I gone around the tip of that swamp just a few meters further everything would have been ok. Ran right past control 16 and dropped a contour by a cliff but corrected fairly well. 17 was fine and as I came out I saw Hans going in to it. He started 16 minutes behind me and I pushed a bit to see how long I could keep away from him. He had pretty much caught up to my at the drink station below 19 when I stopped for water and to grab another gel. I was somewhat surprised he hadn't caught me sooner but pleased and thought that maybe I could keep him off to the finish. Hooked around to 20 while Hans went a little more direct we punch at almost the exact same time. I got to the trail to 21 sooner and got 21 ahead of Hans. I went around the side to 22 and Hans showed up at the top of the cliff as I started looking for the control. Then we raced down to the GO control and I punched both the go control and the finish first!

Thanks for the extra push Hans!

map

stretching - 29 min

Long Blue - Splits

Event: West Point A-meet
 

Warm up to the West Point Middle. Long route up hill - everything felt ok.

West Point middle race. I am so out of shape! Partly because I am so out of shape I couldn't properly get into this race. The thick scraggly blueberries sapping energy and slowing everything down didn't help of course.

COMPASS, COMPASS, COMPASS! I've been getting better about using my compass more but as my gps track shows it's not good enough yet! The first control at least I was able to correct quickly and then had no problem finding the control but the 6th leg was hideous and lost me probably 4 minutes.

In general I'm not pleased with this race. Too slow, stopped short too many times to try and match the terrain to the map (it doesn't help that some things were inconsistently mapped), and generally lacked confidence in my orienteering... and had issues with my compass...

map

stretching - 15ish minutes

Warm up for the sprint. After this morning's race I really wasn't ready for another race. I opted for the running shoes, orienteering socks, and shorts on the theory that it was a sprint. It was a thick forest sprint though...
Did a bunch of running around and a bit of stretching as my warm-up. Not what I would consider enough if I was going to be racing hard and well.

Embarrassing. I was just not in race mode for this and then couldn't get into any sort of orienteering mode whatever. Overshot controls, took poor route choices to avoid straight routes through the woods that were energy draining but faster, and was generally slow. grr.

map

Middle Blue - Splits

Sprint R/B - Splits

Appointment with Sean the pedorthist to ask a bunch of questions. Got a free upgrade to the heel lift for my inov-8s since the old one kept slipping around and I've scheduled another appointment to see him for a gait analysis. We'll see what comes of that!

And travel afternoon to West Point.

Picking up controls from yesterday's training event. Half of this was walking as a wrapped up the flags or up hills. I'm feeling the amount of running I've done in the past week and a half.

On another note, I'm impressed with how many people were out training yesterday in the pouring rain. And everyone seemed to really enjoy it despite getting soaking wet!
I've put the long course up on the hpp doma for those that want to see it. The flags are down but I'm happy to send anyone a copy of the course if they want to come and run it.

Went in for a athletic therapy session with Brian again today. He was pleased with how my hips were and I had him look at my left knee which has generally been tight and sore. It turns out my back is super tight and that I need to be stretching my hips mostly to keep my knees in shape.

Good to know.

Setting out flags for today's TACO.

stretching - 20 min

stretching - 26 min @ 11:45