Training Log Archive: bigE

Totally wiped today. No strength, brain melted, nothin left...

Hanging controls for the Relay.

Felt like I was missing the action so ran the last two legs just for fun. Left for the first loop a few minutes behind the leaders and caught them up on course. Wasn't planning on running a second time but decided I was having to much fun chasing down the others to stop. Went out a second time just behind Will but couldn't catch Nick. In the end Will ran me down over the last km of trail running. Was a lot of fun duking it out on course.

Big thanks to David and Gord for helping with the controls as well as all the other volunteers who lent a hand. Wouldn't have been possible without you guys.

Once again felt slightly nervous about this race after last year but spent much time preparing before the actual event. #1 goal was to precision orienteer to the first contol. #2 Was to keep full contact through the race even if it meant slowing down.

The race went about as well as it could have gone. Had numerous successes. Realized from the GPS that I lost about 6:30 in total, three times less then last year. Largest mistake was 2:30 on #14 (pictured right) where I neglected my #2 goal and lost contact. Was excited to be be almost finished and let things get away. Started to really feel tired at that point and disappointingly blew another minute to #21. A little bit more discipline would fix these right away.

When I found #3 I noticed right away that the water jug, displayed nicely beside the control, had water pouring out the spout. Taken by the moment I dived for the jug and stopped the flow. Unfortunately after the heroics I neglected to punch the control and so miss punched. I would have come third but was quite far behind Wil who ran ~1:28:00. Nevertheless I am happy with my race. Took me a bit to get a hang of things in the beginning. Most of the five minutes I was behind Wil had been lost before #4. After that I feel I orienteered well.

C • CBC 2

C • Splits 1

Event: Ontario Orienteering Championships
 

Was nervous about this race. First of the weekend, had so many problems at the COC's last year. Also felt tired after yesterday.

My #1 goal was to plan every leg and I succeeded with only two 45 second exceptions going from my attackpoint into the control circle. I lost the gold by one second after drifting off the line to the go-control. Nevertheless satisfied with my race. My discipline on the course has improved enormously since the Yukon. Also think I've mastered my pre-race.

C • :-) 1

Legs felt respectable but was lacking the energy to handle the intensity of the sprint. No disasters but very sloppy in the forest.

Course 8 Middle - Splits

Course 4A Sprint - Splits

Biked to and from Jeffs but went the wrong way and got lost in the Greenbelt...

Got caught in traffic so had to race around the course and hang the flags faster then Jeff and Brent could find them. Decided I might gain time by mountain biking the trails. This was in fact a grave misjudgment on my part. The following two hours saw me essentially mountain bike orienteering across the highlands (some of the most difficult mountain biking in the green belt) as fast as I could.

At the end of the day felt pretty exhausted having biked to and from Jeff's, given a 1.5 hour long interview with Jeff for CBC radio 1, plus the long race through the March Highlands... far from an ideal rest day.

On the plus side, the interview went well and the 8:30 broadcast Saturday morning was pretty cool. Unfortunately can't find a recording on the web :'-(

C • Klondike & 2nd Line 5