Training Log Archive: Matej

An incredibly fun Long distance Blue course at Shell Ridge. Fun is obviously a subjective term, but in this case, the course was runnable, full of interesting route choice, physically challenging, technical in places, and free of angry hornets, ferocious cows, and scratchy bushes. If you ask me, that definitely qualifies as fun!

Map link (sorry for the relatively low quality of the image...)

#1 was a straightforward control at a rootstock (which I still managed to overshoot by a little bit), but at #2, the real fun started. I took the straight route, passing through the fence crossings in the saddle between the two big hills and following the long re-entrant southwest to the road. I then promptly overshot the control, but relocated quickly.

For #3, I ran west through the flattish area to the saddle between the two steep hills, and then up between the two green patches. On #4, I dropped down into the east-west streambed and followed it all the way to the control, passing some mountain bikers along the way.

#5 was the first major route choice, and I had already prepared for it, choosing the longer route that followed the winding road to the right but cut down the otherwise brutal climb to a minimum. After passing through the massive saddle, the rest of the leg was literally all downhill. #6 was straightforward, and I ran up through the spur junction to attack #7 from the clearing.

#8 was another critical route choice; I took the most popular and likely optimal route choice that followed the paths to the north of the line and avoided the southern route-choice's 20-contour climb (I had kind of had enough of 20-contour climbs after yesterday). #9, #10, #11 were technical controls in the intricate, rocky, and steep northern sector of the park.

#12 was the final major route choice; again, I tried to conserve climb, this time by taking the eastern path that led me past the start triangle, through Borges Ranch, down the re-entrant with control #14, and up through the saddle to #12. Again, most of the Senior Team went some version of the straight route, which was much more direct but also significantly steeper.

The rest of the course was pretty uneventful, except for what happened at control #17. I had been waking up quite a few of the controls on the course up until that point, but I received an awakening of my own here. As I was about to punch the control at the base of the cliff, I heard a sudden scratching noise quickly followed by a muffled thud and an ominous whirring suddenly heading in my direction. Everything happened in less than a second. Two eagles, each with a wingspan in excess of three feet, came flying out of a cave in the cliff at ground-level, their wingtips coming within inches of my face. I screamed; I'll admit it. That happened to be the control where Eric passed me (he beat me by 9 seconds in the end), so I guess I have a legitimate excuse... (-;

I finished 1st among US juniors, and 5th overall.

Long blue - Splits

Event: Run Black Diamond
 

This was brutality at its most fun, a Middle distance Team Trials Blue course that wound through deathly steep hillsides overgrown with manzanita bushes and open fields where mining activity had created a unique set of complex contour features.

I had a prolonged struggle at the start line with my control description holder; I finally got it to work, two seconds before I started. As a result, I started off the race quickly (perhaps too much so), and was fortunate to have no issues with the first two controls. The third control was where the climb factor began to kick in; I overshot this control by a bit to the right, and Austin, whom I had passed to #2, punched in front of me.

#4... was more mountaineering than orienteering. I crawled (literally, we were on all fours) up the hill steadily, but not as fast as Austin, who gained a substantial lead to #4. We followed the trails through the thick, nasty green to #5; the approach to the control involved some more belly-crawling under manzanita, and I got my visor ripped off my head on multiple occasions.

#6 was a tricky control, but I attacked it from the clearing far to the east and hit it straight on (Austin took a route to the south). On the way to #7, I used the rootstock visible in the distance to find the surprisingly well-hidden pit, and #8 was straightforward. On the way to #9, I lost sight of Austin as I entered the steep thickets once again. I plunged down the big re-entrant to the indistinct path, which I then followed into the control (which I found after thrashing in the green for a while). For #10, I contoured to the rock outcropping, found the area of bare rock, and followed it into the boulder.

#11 and #12 were my biggest mistakes of the day. I almost mispunched on #11; there was a remarkably visible control on the Red course to the north of mine, and I remembered to check the control code just in time. On both of these controls, I thrashed around in the dark green for a while before finding them; the contours were almost impossible to read at such a fine scale.

#13, #14, and #15 were brutal slogs up hills, but once I got into the saddle where the start triangle was, everything changed. The course ran downhill, and I was finally able to pick up speed and actually run while orienteering. I overshot #17 but hit the power lines and quickly relocated. I ran to the trail bend on the way to #18 to save some climb, and found #19 and #20 without a problem. Climbing two wrong spurs on the way to #21 was another annoying mistake (I was getting a little brain-dead at that point), but I pulled it together, running up the last few hills and down to the finish.

Overall, I would say I had a decent race; I made a lot of mistakes, but all of them were minor bumbles in the control circle that were resolved within seconds. The Long distance awaits tomorrow...

Map link

I finished 1st among US juniors, and 4th overall.

Middle Blue - Splits

Start times:
Friday - 2:05 PM for the Middle at Black Diamond
Saturday - 9:01 AM for the Long at Shell Ridge
Sunday - 9:12 AM for the Sprint at Mills College
- 11:00 AM for the Sprint Relay at Mills College

A slower-paced tempo run. Can't wait for Team Trials, though I feel like I've been saying that for the past month or so...

The Pyramid (Of Doom)

Warm up

400m (target time 1:23) (real time: 1:20) 0:42 rest
800m (target time 2:47) (real time: 2:48) 1:23 rest
1200m (target time 4:10) (real time: 4:21) 2:05 rest
1600m (target time 5:33) (real time: 6:01) 2:47 rest
1200m (target time 4:10) (real time: 4:23) 2:05 rest
800m (target time 2:47) (real time: 2:55) 1:23 rest
400m (target time 1:23) (real time: 1:29) 0:42 rest

Warm down

Hill sprints at Wunderlich, again mostly in preparation for Friday. I went very easy on the downhill recovery (not taking any chances before the coming weekend).

3x1.13km (+107m) hill sprint, 1.61 km (downhill) recovery
6:16, 8:17
6:11, 8:18
6:23, 8:13

Event: BAOC: Pt Pinole
 

A "Middle-length Sprint" at Point Pinole. From control #2 onwards, the course had the character of a control picking exercise, with sharp changes in direction and many, many controls. Other than a few ~5 second bobbles (mostly due to blown compass headings), I made no major mistakes.

Edit: Adding a RouteGadget link

A brutal Middle-distance training at Briones designed by my dad, in preparation for the ridiculously steep Black Diamond Middle (can't wait for Team Trials!!). Again, thinking like a cow paid off, as did going around, not through, the major re-entrants. I made no major mistakes, although I did take a suboptimal (read "pretty silly") route choice on one leg.

Edit: Adding a map link...

C • Team Trials 5