Training Log Archive: Canadian

First real orienteering in a long time.
Technically didn't do well at all but really enjoyed being out in the woods.

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Average plan score 3.5/5
All over the map because I couldn't control my focus. Some worked out (some extremely well) and some totally fell apart. Turns out the average is ok and I should maybe be more pleased with it than I am? The problem is that where it didn't work it was a complete unacceptable disaster.

Roughly 19:20 lost on a 93:20 final time... That's about 21% - Far too much. On the plus side that would put me at 74 minutes which is a good time for those conditions. I thought my lack of fitness and sore knee would slow me down a lot but the poor conditions and thick woods were to my advantage.

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Overall plan: 5/10.
My overall plan, written out in advance was: "I haven't orienteered in a while so this all about getting in a clean race before the winter. Start out as slow as needed to have a good first leg. Take the time to plan that leg properly. Take each leg as inidividual legs and plan them carefully. Use the high visibility and large features such as hills to navigate carefully and accurately. Remember my performance goal throughout and keep focusing on having plans and a clean run."
Generally good but missing huge, critical parts. I didn't think about and consider the rough, thick, and very rocky sections of La Peche and how to deal with those. Nor did I fully anticipate just how technically difficult parts of the course might be.
When I got up this morning I wasn't excited about nor particularly interested in orienteering today. I knew right away that was a bad sign but wasn't sure what to do about it. Couldn't get particularly focused during the warm up either. Took off only semi-focused and when the second leg was thick and didn't involve large features that through me off right early. It also doesn't help that I was going much slower than I'm used to orienteering.

Leg 1: 5/5
Across the field, past the copses in the distance, up the hill by the boulder and along the obvious veg change while keeping track of distance and looking for the knoll by the veg. boundary. Worked perfectly.

Leg 2: 1/5
Picked the right route but beyond that didn't get past picking out the major features in the terrain. Focused on getting through the thick vegetation instead of the plan. Not good at all. Lost 4:30 ish from the attackpoint to the control. All I needed was a compass bearing but I hadn't consciously planned what I was going to do.

Leg 3: 2.5/5
Picked up the major features along the way but didn't plan the attack nor create an image of the area around the control. Picked out the hills, spurs, and re-entrants and was looking up for them from a distance but ended up climbing way past the control because I thought the control was at the top of the re-entrant but I didn't notice that beside the control the re-entrant continued up an extra 2 contours. Partially this was due to the mapping and that the control circle wasn't cut over them but I should have noticed it anyway. After climbing an extra 10 meters it took me an extra 7:30 ish before I finally saw that drop and was able to relocate. 8:30 lost.

Leg 4: 3/5
Key here was compass bearing and picking out the very obvious pond right before the control. What I missed was paying attention to my bearing from that pond into the control. I was caught trying to read a whole bunch of similar looking little hills and got sucked downhill and 45 degrees left. Stupid. 2 minutes lost.

Leg 5: 4/5
Spiked this one but it was a reasonably easy control down to the large saddle and pick out the re-entrant between the cliffs leading right up to the control on the top of the hill. I didn't look at exactly where that would lead me relative to the control and hesitated at the top because there was a massive parallel spur off on my left. The correct spur was ahead and slightly to the right.

Leg 6: 4.5/5
Down the hillside staying on the large rounded spur with the re-entrant with stream on the left. Cross through the nasty vegetated swamp on a bearing and look across to the big hillside to try and pick out where along it I am and where to climb up. The plan was then to either go around and up the re-entrant to approach the control from the back or climb over the spur to the control depending on how rocky the hillside was. (It was medium bad so I went over.) Didn't have a good attackpoint for going over and the map was quite simplified on the far side of the swamp (the 2012 updates stayed east of the swamp) so while I had no problem finding the control I definitely didn't spike it.

Leg 7: 4.5/5
Picked the big swamp I wanted to avoid then the two large hills and the re-entrant in between. Plan was to skirt the swamp along the top of the massive hillside look for the two hills and re-entrant contour around the first hill, drop a contour crossing the re-entrant and climb a few contours to go over the nose of the second hill. From the top of the second hill start looking for the spur and re-entrant (contours were very general here). The control was in the re-entrant and I didn't have problems finding it but I wasn't sure exactly where in the re-entrant the control would be. Reil led me to the control.

Leg 8 4/5
Over the hill on a bearing (had to correct my bearing almost immediately) and then down the very broad re-entrant looking for the rocky hill tops and spurs on the left. Around the green swamp at the bottom and over the form line hill and then to the obvious hill I should be able to pick out in the distance. It worked perfectly but apparently the green swamp was just as fast (I was sure it would be slower) and I hadn't properly picked out the last bit of the plan around the green swamp properly in advance.

Leg 9: 1/5
Down the hill keeping an eye on the direction and then through the bottom and up to the ridge then stick right to the boulder by the hill. This plan was really just going through the motions. Not nearly good enough and it showed in the miserable execution. 4 minutes lost.

Leg 10: 3/5
Missing some key features in the last 200 meters. Probably would have been faster to go straight through the first swamp rather than skirting around to it's left.

Leg 11: 5/5
Spiked this one. Plan was down the ridge looking for the slight hill at it's end, out to the trail with an eye on direction, confirm where I am left/right on the trail by the contours on either side. Leave the trail up the spur where it comes down to the trail. Up to the first high point but skirt it to the right and look across the broad re-entrant to the low hill with the re-entrant (control feature) behind a knoll. Look for the knoll as I approach.

Leg 12: 3.5/5
Over the first hill up and across the second ridge and down into the low spot with control while checking for exact location as I go over and down the side of the ridge. Should have been looking for specific features picked out in advance on the ridge.

Leg 13: 4.5/5
Super easy along the trail and look for the spur with knoll 20 meters off the trail. Should have also made note that I was going over a massive saddle but only noticed it when I got there.

Leg 14: 4/5
Down and up the switch-back trail up and along the ridge cutting corners along the way. Noted the vegetation and big clearing along the way. The control is 5 meters from the trail on a knoll on the map... in reality the knoll wasn't really there and the control was 40 meters away. Not a problem because I saw the control. Maybe the 'trail' wasn't actually the mapped trail.

Leg 15: 3.5/5
Down the hillside in the right direction and across the flat spot with stream to the nose with cliffs (control feature) on it. Note the large hillside dropping off to the right. Should have been more specific about compass bearing. I drifted to far right and had to correct across the second half of the flat area. 20 seconds lost.

Finish: 5/5
Down the hillside in a large re-entrant beside where I came up for 1 and back across the field in the same spots as the beginning.

Long Advance - Splits

Easy cycling. Felt a little something in my right knee around 35 minutes but it didn't persist so I kept going.

I was debating doing this cycling yesterday but was feeling tired and struggled with the decision to do it or skip on the theory that my body is telling me I need more sleep and an extra workout won't help. I woke up very refreshed this morning so maybe I made the right decision?

C • Cycling 1

A whole bunch of planking while watching S2 E3 of Sherlock:
75 sec front
75 sec right side
75 sec left side
75 sec front
45 sec oblique
45 sec other oblique
75 sec front
60 sec right side
60 sec left side

75 sec break between each

Total: 9:15

C • Well done Mr. Holmes 1

Plan was to do some deep water running prior to physio but the pressure from the water was aggravating my knee which I did some slight damage to yesterday while playing 'soccer' as a warm up yesterday. Water running last 3 minutes before I gave up to hang out in the hot tub. Much more enjoyable than water running anyway :)

Not all there today. Didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked.

It really hit me this afternoon that I haven't been paying enough attention to my sleep habits. I've been spending too much time doing whatever in the evenings and not quitting to go to bed when I should be. It's really affecting my training now.