Training Log Archive: wilsmith

US Sprint Champs - race 1

Campus sprint, dead easy terrain except I read the dark green hedges as forbidden to pass, so added 2-10 seconds onto each of several legs unnecessarily. Oops!

No high speed at all - can't move the legs fast enough. Was happy to be within ~10% of the winner (Falcon).

I suppose without the extras added in I'd be much closer to the winning time, but would not have been able to go under 15 min today, I imagine.

For the above.

US Sprint Champs - race 2

This was the forest sprint, and mad did I feel DEAD tired out there. Within about 4 controls, fatigue really set in and that was that.

On the long leg, there was a MAJOR mapping error. The straight option looked OK - you would simply run down to an open, flat field, straight across, and then up the hill on the far side.

Unfortunately, there had been significant work on the land since the map was made, and apparently this was missed by the controller and course setter. A tall, uncrossable fence was extended blocking the way, and if this wasn't enough, excavations had created a large area of broken ground as well as a pond that effectively cut off access to the nice flat field, at least from where I approached it. And on the map, it should have been totally unobstructed, white forest transitioning to open field. Instead, I was forced to sidehill run along the leg, which was decidedly NOT faster.

Anyway, if it was my championships I guess it should have been voided as it was clearly an unfair race, particularly in a sprint situation. But as it was not my own championships, I didn't think it worthwhile to lodge any kind of protest. Considering even with that loss of time I'd have still be well back out of the medals.

Legs VERY tired. Ouch.

For the above.

Event: Flying Pig XII
 

The Pig WRE. Except that it wasn't a WRE - not for me anyway.

We dutifully got up at 0330 (after packing until midnight), trekked to Timmins, flew to Toronto, and there a problem developed... The guy who was supposed to offload the bags from our flight onto the US Customs belt apparently felt sick at work and just walked off the job, without telling anybody about it. So we waited and waited (along with about 10 others from the same flight - all heading off to southern vacations), until finally they were able to pinpoint the problem and deliver the bags. Sadly, by that time it was too late to get through customs and onto our flight, so we missed it and sat in Pearson for a few extra hours.

Drove like mad from Columbus to the Pig venue, but arrived only 5 min too late for Katarina's start. Since it was a WRE, we were out.

She raced it anyway, and actually won by over 2 minutes despite feeling as bad physically as she has ever felt in the past few years.

For my part, I started quickly but a mistake on #4 and then I lost my will to push around this "extended sprint" sylte of race. Cruised around, in a not-too-shameful 42 minutes, considering I haven't been out orienteering since the US Champs last fall, and haven't seen anything remotely resembling forest or orienteering terrain in 5+ months.

It felt awful being out there, but it will come back quickly - it always does.

C • so sad 1

For the above.

Not feeling great, but it had to be done. Actually only did 3 sets, what with the upcoming weekend, to be followed by a week straight of cruel and unusual punishment in Czech Republic's WOC terrain along with MrPither, Falcon, SandyHJ and the Norwegian team. If it feels anywhere near as bad as today, well - it'll be rough.

Poor sleep again, thanks to Princess Mia, as well as a late-night truck versus transport truck incident on our local stretch of the Trans-Canada. At least there were survivors this time - the two other recent transport-related crashes locally involved 75% fatality rates (all VSA on scene).

C • vsa? 3

First intervals (other than the treadmill) of the year. Ouch.

I can feel that I'll be fortunate to be within 10% of the winners this weekend. However much fitness I can generate indoors on the mill and outdoors skiing, it doesn't translate over to orienteering fitness very quickly. Always seems to take me about a month to make it all work. Luckily, trials are not for a month and a half....

I guess being sick over the weekend didn't help much either. My weight on the scale was down by 2.4 kilos today, just from inadequate intake during the illness. Ouch.

Still sick, but not as bad as yesterday. At least I could drink and eat a little bit.