Training Log Archive: Bash

I sure wasn't expecting this, but I learned today that I won yesterday's middle distance Canadian championship for my age group! I didn't have a great race, but I guess everyone else had even more problems than I did.

Yesterday's sprint results aren't available yet, but I know for sure I didn't win that one.

Canadian Orienteering Champs - Long

I felt good about this race, even though I finished behind two of the women I beat yesterday. My race wasn't perfect or super-speedy, but it was controlled and thoughtful. I lost contact for a couple of minutes each enroute to #7 and #11, but stayed calm, relocated from a trail, and got back on track. I had to abandon my fogged-up eye protection glasses after the first few controls, which made me more cautious in the bush than I usually am. And then I got a stick in the eye, and something scratchy stayed in there, which was somewhat distracting. Oh, and then my sunscreen (totally unnecessary on this rainy day) dripped into my eyes so they were stinging and watering. Hmm... why did I like this race so much again? Well, other than the eye problems, it was a lot of fun - varied terrain, interesting controls, and my legs felt decent.

When I finished, I knew that I would be happy with today's race, no matter what the result. Even though this was a bronze medal (45 seconds behind 2nd place) compared to yesterday's gold, today I felt like there is still hope for me to become a decent orienteer!

COCs

COC Middle Distance

Not that I was expecting much, given the short recovery time after the Raid, but this race went WAY worse than I'd hoped. Everyone's start was delayed by 2 hours. We didn't know how long it was going to be, so I warmed up and cooled down 3 times, ate the gel I'd brought for afterward, drank all my water, and lost any focus I might have had. If only I'd known, I would have had a bigger breakfast and brought more food to snack on while waiting. I'd expected to be finished by 10:45 a.m., and instead I started at noon.

I started out uncharacteristically well - I almost always waste time enroute to the first control, but not this time. Things got a bit slower from there as I took time to get accustomed to the map and vegetation. Then I just blew up looking for #7. I knew what to look for, but I just didn't see it there. I ended up backtracking and finding controls on two other courses before I made it back to my #6, took a bearing, and stomped over to #7 with a careful pace count. It took almost 15 minutes to go a few hundred meters - arggh. A bit later, I got a weird heart arrhythmia (which I've had before occasionally) and had to stop for awhile to walk, breathe deeply, and worry about whether I was going to die in some lonely re-entrant. Luckily, it went away within 5 minutes, and I was able to run at a moderate pace after that. Not sure what triggered it.

So... I managed to squeak out a finish - and doubled my time from last year's COC middle distance! Oh well, some other people out there had an even worse time, including 'Bent, so I won't complain too much!

COC Sprint

This race went better, although I'm not a sprinter. Nick Duca put together an excellent course. Unfortunately, the SI units were non-functional at 5 of my 18 controls, which meant time-consuming map punches. A lot of us were commiserating about the difficulty of seeing the trails on the map, especially as the forest got dark later in the day. I wish they had used easy-to-see black dashed lines for trails, instead of going with the sprint standard. (Actually, Sudden felt that these maps weren't sprint standard either.) But putting all that aside, it was a fun run - not a good one for me, but well worth doing.

Man, I need more O practice.

Continued post-Raid grogginess, but my body feels better than it usually does after a major race. I'm definitely not in the zone for the Canadian Orienteering Champs this weekend, but as the defending silver medalist in the middle distance, I'll go out and give it the old college try!

COC Festival Relay with Ian Sidders (Leg 1) and Glenn Birnie (Leg 2). Ian had big trouble with one early CP, but otherwise had a good race, and Glenn did well too. I ran the final leg, and other than losing a minute on #3, things went fine. I am definitely rusty at reading and understanding the map quickly. Although I'm still tired to the point of being sleepy after the Raid, it doesn't feel like my running is a whole lot slower than usual. Maybe I'm 10-15% slower, but mostly I'm just out of practice when it comes to O.

Another so-called "rest day" that was totally exhausting, mostly in a non-physical way.

Most of the race laundry is done, much of the gear is clean and dry, and now there is some time to think.

The only adventure race on my calendar for the rest of 2006 is the Salomon Adventure Challenge Champs in September, plus 'Bent and I are doing a 24-hr rogaine earlier in the month. For several years, I've been saying that 2006 would likely be my last year of training for AR, and now the time is approaching. Eek.

The problem is, I still haven't figured out what comes next. After such a fun weekend in Quebec, part of me is thinking that I want to keep on going. But we don't have a team anymore, so this is a convenient time to bow out. And there must be a limit to how long it makes sense for a relatively non-athletic person to keep competing against younger, fitter people in such a demanding sport. AR - especially the long races - is tough on your body, and so is the training required, so it's not one of those sports that most people plan on pursuing forever.

I'll keep orienteering for sure, but it doesn't satisfy my craving for endurance activities. I'll probably do occasional trail running races, but I'm not that good at them. I'm quite sure that my only MTB after AR is over will be recreational, other than riding on a large team in the occasional 24-hr relay.

Hmmm.... I'm thinking that maybe the answer is to direct my energy back where it used to be for many years - wilderness tripping and other outdoor activities. We've seen some great places through our AR events, but we've reduced our other travelling and exploring. Our AR skills will make it possible to do things we didn't do in the past, which could be fun.

But I don't know - it's not that easy. I've met a lot of great people through AR, and it's tough to just walk away from that scene. And I've rediscovered my competitive nature, years after I stopped the only sports I was ever actually good at. (Believe it or not, those sports were.... curling and golf. Anyone who guessed THAT correctly gets a beer or three.)

So I'll just keep on thinking, I suppose. No rush to figure this out. For now, the priority is to plan our trip to New Zealand, which is only 2 months away.

Before we signed up for the Raid, I'd already paid for the week-long Canadian Orienteering Championships Festival. I've already missed two races, so I thought I'd race today, even though I'm still groggy from the Raid. This was a Thomass format, and it actually went pretty well. I haven't orienteered since early June, and my legs need a rest from the weekend, but my nav was reasonably good, my running was OK, and my bushwhacking through dark green was awesome after spending a weekend in Quebec!

Long, long, long drive from Quebec, arriving home near bedtime. Far too many calories consumed due to post-race piggy appetite.