Training Log Archive: slauenstein

Warm up and cool down (about an hour after I finished).

US Champs, Day 2: Remarkable Flats map.

I had about 2 minutes lead on Samantha Saeger going into this race and I knew that I could loose 2 minutes to Sam if I had a bad race. So I concentrated on have a clean race and keeping a constant speed. I honestly thought that I would have to conserve more energy because of the length of the course, but in reality I probably could have run more aggressively. The terrain was really quick and very open, although there were some tricky rocky parts and boulder cluster hills. In the end though, I didn't really make any mistakes to speak of, 45 seconds to the 2nd controls and maybe that much to control number 6 as well, but all in all an clean race. I was 2 minutes ahead of Sam again today, meaning I won my first 2 Day US Classic Champs! Yupee!! :-) Living in Switzerland, I don't really get to win things very often, so this was a real treat!

Results are here: http://uschamps2008.com/index.php?option=com_conte...

C • "US Champ" - sounds good - ... 9

Red Day 2 - Splits

30 minute warm-up and a very short cool down.

C • I see you made it home! Ve... 3

US Champs, Day 1 on Diamond Bay

This was a solid race with a really good start. I decided to take it on like a middle distance and push the pace hard from the beginning. I was a little hectic on my way to number 3 and made a small detour on my planned route because I misinterpreted the trails. This cost me 45 seconds. After that I was really smooth and felt good. I guess I was pushing the pace pretty hard because on my way to 10 I could feel my head get fuzzy. I tried to slow down and check the map more carefully, but I still didn't manage to keep a clear head. I went down the wrong reentrant and lost about 2 minutes on the mistake. I don't know for sure, since I didn't take splits. Punching a control card was a hard enough task for me, I couldn't handle also taking splits.

I felt satisfied, but not really thrilled in the finnish. I was glad the time was good and of course it is nice to run well in a "higher pressure situation," I need all the practice I can get.

Red Day 1 - Splits

There was a possibility to do two training today, one in the morning on the East Pelican Bay map, which was considered the "model" event for the US champs and then in the afternoon at Pelican Bay, which was consider very relevant for the US champs. Boris, Will, Kat, Christoph and I did not want to do a morning and afternoon training and decided to do two short O trainings both in the morning and then have the afternoon to relax and hang out.

We went to Pelican Bay first and did a short loop around. I was orienteering well in the beginning and met Boris and Will half way through. Boris complained of making lots of mistakes, whereas I was feeling really comfortable in the terrain. Ironically, right after I left the two guys to continue my loop, I made a horrendous parallel error. I had no idea where I was for several minutes since everything had lined up so nicely. Ugg. ;-/

After a 30 minute break or so, I headed out on the red course on the East Pelican Bay map. I didn't do the controls in order, rather doing them in an order that made a circle around the map, so that I got to all the different areas of the map. I felt better during this training then the earlier and was more in control of my orienteering. It is so much fun to orienteer in this type of terrain.

Happy Jack Map

Took part in the morning "race" at Happy Jack. It was nice to have a course to run and controls in the forest. I was just jogging, but felt the altitude anyway. Had a lot of fun.

First with the Most Map
In the afternoon, I helped out at the Junior training and took part in the talk about preparation before a race. After the talk, the elite runners who were there offered to shadow or be shadowed by a junior. Tori Borish took me up on my offer. I let her shadow me first and I told her what I was looking for and what I was thinking on the way to the controls. After about 4 controls I shadowed her for a few controls. She was a little flustered to have someone shadowing her and made some small mistakes at first. After several controls, she got into a rhythm and was running well. At the end she asked if she could shadow me again, so we switched roles. I think it was a good combination to use when a runner already has pretty advance orienteering skills. I could give her some tips, but she could also watch how I orienteer.

It was really fun to help out at the junior training. It's been a long time since I have been involved in US orienteering and I really like coaching.

My brother and I drove up to Wyoming in the morning and wanted to do an O training in the afternoon. A wicked thunderstorm stopped us from going to the map we had hoped to get to and we ended up "just" going for a run near the campground. Kat was with us too.

Rest day to try to take care of the foot... we'll see.

Event: 2008 Laramie Daze & US Champs
 

I planned to do a interval training, but was skeptical because my foot has been hurting me since O-Ringen. I went out and did a warm-up and some running drills and then wanted to do 4 x 1 mile repeats. I did one of the miles and decided to call it a quits. My foot hurts more when I run fast and it was just too painful today. I don't want this to get bad. Did the mile in 6:36, not awesome either...

C • The last few days/weeks/mon... 2