Training Log Archive: EChild

Up. Long way to the start.

I don't like Glen Affric. I wanted to do a long course at some point, and after yesterday I definitely didn't want to run super hard. The result was a miserable slog through Glen Affric, a place where you need to avoid all the dark green, medium green, light green, light yellow, dark yellow, and white on the map if you want to have fun (at least that's what it felt like). I think if I had the energy to really race I might have been able to fight through more of the vegetation, but pretty much the entire time the forest was working against you no matter what you did. I was actually surprised my time was as fast as it was, seeing as by then end I really didn't want to be out on the course anymore.

S6D - Day 5 Glen Affric - C41 - Splits

Up. I took this warm up fairly seriously. A lot at stake today...

As I mentioned, a very important race today. On the way to the event, Greg and I were engaged in some very enthusiastic heckling (of which my heckles were consistently better), but then Greg proposed a bet. It wasn't a typical bet where we gamble over money, who has to buy lunch, or something else equally lame; no, this bet was slave-for-a-day. The loser has to do anything the winner says for the rest of the day.

I agreed to the bet, figuring that my chances of winning were almost guaranteed (realistically 50%), even though Greg had run in the same forest the day before during the WOC relay. I also considered that Greg is a much stronger runner than I am, and while he did have a hard race yesterday, I had run fairly hard as well (although not as long). My hope was to get into Greg's head just enough that he would be distracted during his race and make a mistake, and as long as I pulled off a clean run I would be able to beat him.

Then the bet became more interesting, as we tried to loop Kseniya into the deal, who was also running M20S that day. She very quickly declined, but the proposal that she would be given a time handicap was soon brought up, and Greg bargained over how much time she would be allotted. Greg, of course, sucked at this part and agreed to give Kseniya a 12 minute handicap, which coincidentally was how long Kseniya started before him (so if Greg finished the race before Kseniya, it would mean he had beaten her in the bet as well). My start was only 4 minutes after Kseniya, so I need to catch and lose her early in the course if I wanted a shot.

At first, my greatest concern was losing to Greg. He knows no form of mercy and would be an cruel ruler if I were to be subjugated to his authority. Then Greg and I slowly realized what a mistake we had made. The course was just over 5km, and Kseniya had a giant handicap. She could effectively run around 2 min/km slower than us (assuming we run between 6-7 min/km) and still win the bet.

This is why I took my warm-up seriously, but I was feeling very good when I walked up to the starting line, and I was able to focus in on my race. I haven't orienteered this fast in a very long time. I made some small mistakes, getting off to the left or right of some controls, but I was able to correct them fairly quickly, and I spiked many (possibly most) controls as well. Early in the race I was breathing hard, but I pushed myself despite everything, reminding myself that I had to outrun Greg and somehow obliterate Kseniya, but I made sure to always pay attention to my navigation.

I first saw Kseniya leaving number 4, which was early enough to give me a chance at making up the 12 minutes I would need in order not to be a slave-for-a-day. Unfortunately, the vegetation around number 5 was incorrectly mapped (3/3 orienteers agree the green area was larger than mapped, particualrly because the control was mapped in a white area but in the forest in was right in a clump of extremely thick vegetation), so Kseniya caught back up to me. Then I got off to the right on number 6 (I was drifting right a lot today), so when I was leaving 6 I noticed Kseniya running into it. After that point I never saw her again, but I was pushing fairly hard to make up and lost time and collect those extra 8 minutes.

As I said before, my race was fairly clean, no huge mistakes, but I did get off to the side a few times on my route choices. I definitely began to slow down as the race progressed, but I was conscious of this as well and really tried to zone in like I would in a running race, and I pushed to make sure I kept up my speed as best I could. I was the first person in M20S to run across the finish line today, and then the waiting game began. Would it be 8 minutes until Kseniya finished her course, or did we give her too much of a handicap? Would Greg run a clean race with no mistakes and beat me out just on speed? Would I have to be someone's slave-for-a-day, or would I gain two servants of my own to obey my every whim until the clock struck 12:00?

Find out by checking out this link to WinSplits: http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d...

C • amazing what a little motivation does 10

Up

Ran W21E because it was around 5km. The woods were amazing (part of the map from yesterday's WOC Middle), and even in the crappier portions I was able to move well. The map scale was 1:7500, which threw me off at least once, and I had two significant mistakes overall, but I also got off my compass quite a few times and either hooked controls or had to correct halfway through the leg. I was still fast enough to win the class, though. Thankfully all the elite women were running in the relay.

Up

O-Intervals with Greg. He wanted to run a few legs in the woods with other people to prepare for the relay, so I got to do some fast running today. The woods were extremely fast and fairly flat, so it was easy to pick a direction and go. The vegetation could get in the way sometimes and was less fast, but most of it was white woods.

Up

I wasn't planning to run super fast, but right out of the start I was feeling good so I decided to push it. 4 significant mistakes on the course at number 2, 7, 10, and 11. I estimate at least 3:30 in lost time, but it's hard to say since one or two of those mistakes were poorly executed route choices. I was 7 minutes behind the leaders.

Splits: http://results.scottish6days.com/day1/m20s_splits....

C • The two ahead of you 6

Ran on the long model because I wanted to get out in the woods a little, even though I'm not racing anymore at WOC. It was mostly in open areas with marshes, which is only going to be part of the long. What I figured out from the short model course today were a few things:

1- In order to run fast, one must minimize the time spend in bracken and heather.

2- Contouring, mostly due to the heather, is not a good route choice option.

3- Running a leg on one's compass, mostly due to heather and bracken, is not a good route choice option.

3.5- It is important to pay close attention to the compass at all times to avoid parallel errors.

A quick note, I'd like to apologize for falling behind in my log the past few days. In Lagganlia where we were staying (pre July 30th), there was almost no internet, so I wasn't able to pull out my laptop and write anything. I know I'm not racing anymore, but I should still be training the next few days and I'll try to say what I can about WOC.

As for today, I could practically log even more running because of how active I was running from one place to another in order to take pictures of the sprint relay. All my pictures should be going on Facebook soon, I just need to sort through and edit them.

C • Thanks for catching us up 1

C • Your perspective on the races? 4