Training Log Archive: Tyrannosaurus

This race went very quickly from one of the best forest races I have ever had to not. Controls 1-11 went amazingly well. I had very small bobbles on 1, 6, 9, and 10, but they only took minor corrections, and overall my orienteering was just really on for this first 2/3 of the course. Then, two steps before control 11, I stepped in a hole, my L foot plantar flexed much more than it should have, and I heard a loud pop from the front outside part. I do slight rolls my ankles relatively frequently in orienteering races when its in rocky terrain, but it never hurts for more than a couple steps, and there's never a loud pop. I walked for a few steps out of 11, but then started running again since it didn't hurt. However, mentally the ankle put me off my game. I was worried about it, and then thinking about that more than my orienteering, and I started thinking about how tired I was, and using my ankle as an excuse not to continue to push physically. I read the control description for 12 (shallow reentrant) instead of 13, so did some wandering around the reentrants near 13 trying to figure out what was going on. Plan on 14 was poorly executed, and then I didn't go to 15. Just didn't go to it. I think I looked at 15 on my map, and navigated from there to 16, which was not all that different than 14-16. It was still just down the hill, to the trail, take the trail. I didn't need to be really paying attention while on the slope or on the trail, so I wasn't. I didn't even realize I had missed 15 completely. This is my first mispunch maybe ever, but definitely in a big race. In my first national meet (interscholastics 2015) my epunch missed a control, but the control box had correctly recorded my punch, so that was a narrow miss of a mispunch, but the closest I can remember to one. It was an extremely disappointing end to the race, especially with how great the majority of it was.

Map:

Control Challenge Total: 89
Send your challenges to control.challenge@orienteeringusa.org

Ankle is not too too swollen, but it definitely is swollen. I'll be out of the relay :( and then hopefully running again Monday.

WOC TT - Middle Red - Splits