Training Log Archive: markg

Recovering from yesterday. I'm having difficulty walking with the damn blisters on my big toes.

C • damn blisters! 4

2nd place, 4 min behind. This was a pretty tough race in technical depression terrain with quite slow forest. Lots of people made lots of big mistakes.

I was a bit intimidated at first (I think due to the lack of complex orienteering opportunities this year) and, also feeling a bit tired from yesterday, started slowly and took very conservative route choices. I lost 40 sec on the #1 and about a 1 min on #3, then Mark Astridge caught me at #4.

Started to pick things up a bit then, spiked #6 nicely and then dropped Mark on #7 when he took a different route choice and fluffed it. Spiked #9 but lost 40 sec because I didn't see the flag and ran off down the spur.

Was starting to get fatigued at this point and blisters under my big toes were getting painful. Was helped by Adrian and Nicki running out of #10 and pushed hard for the next couple, catching Adrian on the way to #12. 3 min error on #13, a 110m leg. Bugger!

Pushed on hard again after this, luckily spiking #14, a bingo control, but getting really tired and feeling a stitch coming on. Lost 1:30 to Alaric on a long last leg across an open paddock because I just didn't pay enough attention and ran a stupid, circuitous route.

Feel happy with my run and think the training is paying off. I need more strength, this terrain really wore me out.

M20-34,M35-43,F20-34 - Splits

Event: Alberta Orienteering Championships
 

1st place by 2 sec to Brian May. I had a good race making only one navigational error (40s on #12). Pace seems sort of slow, only 5 splits under 8min/km, but looking at my HR data, I don't think I could have managed any faster -- my max HR for the race was 193 which I thought was my maximum until the sprint later in the day.

Lost 30 sec on #2 also after cutting the side of my head open by running into the end of a pine branch. The resulting headache didn't affect me too much!.

Took the lead in the race for the first time in the finish chute!

An interesting sprint around a scout scamp -- lots of little tracks through some small buildings, the vegetation was quite thick in a lot of places. I would probably have taken 2nd place but got a bit confused at the end and skipped control 19 (out of 20).

I had trouble warming up, was certain I was going to get a stitch, so I started slowly and eventually the would be stitch faded away.

I tried to concentrate on my flow through the controls but it was very difficult for a number of reasons. The map seemed to be printed badly and it was very hard to see the course marked on the map without slowing down or stopping. Running through the thick vegetation at sprint speeds on short controls also contributed.

Made a few little mistakes prior to my blow-up; maybe 1 min overall. Would have been happy with this result had I not mispunched.

Warm up and down for the middle and sprint races

M20-34,M35-43,F20-34 - Splits

Run to UoC for a light session at the gym. Took the UoC sprint map and ran a few random legs.

Legs a bit sore after Monday night's ints so went for a run and stretch to loosen things up.