Orienteering 1:15:00 [0] 4.17 km (17:59 / km)
An easy stroll around the training area in Hamilton. Wanted to get out in the forest, but without doing much running at all, since my cold from yesterday is definitely a cold. I'm doing everything I possibly can to keep it away, plowing back the vitamin C, hydrating profusely, lots of tea, but I can feel the subtle sore throat and the colour of the mucus is, well, you know, changing colour. So, this kind of sucks. I knew I was due for a cold but figured it would happen during China. As it stands if I were to tick two weeks from now, that means it'll pretty much finish the day I get back from Asia. Doh!
Orienteering race 1:00:00 [5]
shoes: New Balance 1600
Okay! Nationals Sprint. Definitely have a solid cold kicking in. You know, just check the colour.
But, no matter, it didn't seem all that bad, I could still breathe just fine through my nose and it only meant a bit of a dry throat.
Had the pleasure of starting dead last, so lots of time to hear what was going on, see what was going on, and worry. Lots of worry. Warming up on that turf field is nice and soft, but its also a little draining, I suspect I felt like I wasn't running as fast and being a bit more fatigued because that surface is relatively slow, at least compared to the track beside it.
Anyway, the race itself. I studied the old map a lot and used the Google street view to tour campus so I had a good idea of where the dead ends and the gaps were. I didn't actually expect the course to cover so little of the campus, and I ended up running the same passageway three times. Not to say that was the only option, but sometimes I like sticking with a familiar route, since I gives me time to do other things. I got really lucky at one control where I was reading ahead and very nearly forgot to go to it, but it appeared in my line of sight so I double-checked and realized I was actually supposed to go there.
On the long leg, I ran quite slowly and spend quite a while studying the best option, in case going straight across the track was a good choice. But, going straight meant going down the ravine and going back up, whereas around meant you could bomb straight down the spur into the control, which I think was the best choice. After that the course was straight forward, so I really really opened it up and pretty much run balls out from there. I tried to channel all of those times I finish uphill intervals by sprinting right over the top, though in this case the top happened to be another, like.... 400 meters. It felt real nice.
So, no major mistakes, I think, but there were definitely times I should have been more productive with my planning, once I started to see other people I was too focused on gaining on them than planning. Still something important to work on.