Training Log Archive: ebone

A planned rest day. I had a bit of pain in my right foot (not uncommon after a weekend of racing) and in my left knee/hamstring (the usual).

My throat intermittently feels like it might be getting sore. I hope I'm not getting sick again.

Warm-up running before day 2 of the Western States Champs.

Day 2 of the Western States Champs at Boggs Mtn. Again, the course was good but not great, and I thought it could have used more long legs and a somewhat greater variety of terrain encompassed.

Here is what I wrote on Route Gadget:

Compared to my run from day 1, this one seemed during the race to be generally cleaner and more controlled, but looking back on my lost time on each leg, I see that there were several small execution errors. Fewer of them were misses in the control circle, however.

I got ahead of myself map reading future legs from #5 to #6, and I stopped short and had to relocate, losing about a minute. On #12, I foolishly thought I could feel my way into the boulder on the side of a subtle hill by taking a running back-bearing on the hilltop and eyeballing the distance--not a good tactic on this course. Like so many of the other controls, this one was not visible from very far away at all, and my 30 meter miss turned into a 2 minute time loss, my biggest of the day, when I eventually bailed out to the hilltop to reattack and find the control.

I continued to have small losses of time on subsequent controls before losing nearly a minute looking for the final control, which many others had trouble with, too. I had a fastest split on the long leg from #17 to #18, but I'm pretty sure I could have been about 40 seconds faster by taking the trails to the left early on, rather than weaving and stumbling in the green as I did.

C • Map 5

Started a warm-down jog but stopped to hang out with Terry when she got back from her course.

Blue 2 - Splits

Event: 2007 Western States Orienteering Championships
 

Brief warm-up for day 1 of the Western States Orienteering Championships at Boggs Mtn. State Forest.

Western States Champs day 1. There was quite a bit more climb than advertised today, and my legs felt somewhat tired again this weekend. I hope I recover from this tired-legs feeling before U.S. Champs. The course and terrain were interesting and challenging. I thought both during and after the race that this type of terrain and course setting would have really given me problems 10-12 years ago, even after I had already had good results in other races. Experience and tactical flexibility count for so much in orienteering!

I was somewhat disappointed in the course setting. This sort of terrain cries out for long, route choice legs to be set, and there were very few by any measure. I think the style of course setting was meant to keep competitors from doing much trail running, which is an understandable but misguided goal.

Here is what I wrote on Route Gadget about my run:

When I turned the map over at the start, I was taken aback by the appearance of the map (sort of continental European) and route choiciness of the course. I didn't expect so much green or so much relief (nearly 400m from top to bottom). I thought the terrain would be flatter and simpler and that the navigation would be quite straight forward, so I had to make an extra effort to concentrate on the downhill start.

For the most part, I had a pretty good run from a strategic standpoint, going fairly cautiously for much of the course rather than running as fast as I could and thereby increasing my chances of making serious navigation mistakes. Still, I was not as careful as I should have been on some controls, and I had small misses on controls 1 and 2.

Controls 3-7 went well, but I lost about 2:00 on control 8, when I departed from my good attack to go explore the wrong clearing, relocated, then hurried my reattack and missed again.

The rest of the course went pretty well, with small time losses due to route choice, misses or hesitations here and there. I stopped short on control 15, and I second guessed my aiming off on control 20.

Warm-down jog after orienteering.

Blue 1 - Splits

Ran from Middletown, CA, West to the county park, around the trails at the park, and back. Route. I mostly ran on the soft shoulders when on roads. After a long day in the car, my legs felt somewhat stiff, and as usual my left hamstring hurt in the early part of the run. Once I got warmed up, I felt pretty good but still somewhat slow in the legs. My stride was long and powerful, though, and I ended up running somewhat briskly in the middle and later parts of the run.

Planned rest day.

Running South and back on the Pacific Crest Trail from Chinook Pass (5400+ feet). There were a few inches of snow over much of the trail. It was pretty alpine terrain, and the fall colors were in full flair.

I don't know whether to believe my weight, taken on the scale at my mom's before brunch. That's very low for me.

Jogging while vetting part of the course for the Yakima Street Scramble, a short demonstration course for the Yakima Joint Conference on Health.

Easy running at the arboretum and botanical gardens, then at Yakima Sportsman State Park. My legs felt good once I got warmed up, and I felt like going faster but restrained myself. I ran at dusk, and both parks were beautiful in fall colors and nearly deserted, so I just had the sounds of animals and a bit of hum from the nearby freeway. I saw several fairy rings in the grass at Yakima Sportsman SP.