Training Log Archive: Bash

NAOC Long Distance at Rocky Ridge. Another gorgeous autumn day - great to be out in the woods. As predicted, I did go "boom" on this course, but not as badly as in some Long distance events I've done. As an adventure racer, I used to think that my best event should be the Long course, but my results have consistently proven otherwise. I'm not sure whether I'm unable to maintain a good level of concentration for long enough - or maybe my slower running speed comes into play more when there is more trail running . Although I'd like to be good at Long Distance, inexplicably I've turned out to be best at Middle Distance. For someone who tries to train for 48+ hour adventure races, this makes no sense.

I pushed a lot harder today than yesterday, and it was difficult going in places - scrambling up beside cliffs, crossing swamps, hauling myself over deadfall and making my way across rocky areas without re-spraining my ankle. It was an interesting and challenging course, with one long leg across the map where apparently we all made different route choices. Things went reasonably well (except for a minute of wandering near one control) until just before #8. I'd been leading the race by more than 2 minutes at #7, then I made an 8+ minute error in the trail network near the end. Grrr - I was so sure that I had a bombproof plan, but I found myself wandering forlornly from intersection to intersection until I finally found a distinctive set of intersections that allowed me to relocate. I felt like a total rookie. It shouldn't have been that difficult to figure out, but my brain just didn't seem capable of settling down and solving the problem, thanks to adrenaline, fatigue, anxiety or stupidity - not sure which. ;-)

In spite of that dumb error, I'm reasonably happy with the race. I finished 4 minutes behind the winner, which was enough to knock me to 4th place in this competitive field. I won a few splits, which rarely happens - including the split to #1, which NEVER happens. Usually I make more errors - or worse errors - in the Long, so today represented some progress.

As suspected, my past-the-peak physical fitness wasn't a big factor this weekend. Even if I'd gone into it with more training, it's very clear that my nav skills need more work than my speed. No sense outrunning my ability to interpret a map.

NAOC Middle Distance - Rocky Ridge

Many people know how scared I am of the terrain around Hilton Falls. Today's course was very technical, and I relied more on compass bearings and pace counting than I have since my early days of orienteering. There were more opportunities to run than I had expected, although there were lots of rocks and deadfall to keep the overall pace down. Also, I stopped completely for a few seconds to plan each upcoming leg.

So here's the amazing thing... In a good field of competitors, I was leading the race with two controls to go. I didn't feel as if I'd screwed up, but obviously my route choice to #10 was slow. It doesn't matter - I'm blown away to have won the bronze medal behind Peggy Dickison and Sandy Fillebrown, with the three of us separated by just over 1 minute. That's WAY better than I'd hoped. Big thanks to Hammer for patiently devoting several hours of coaching time to help improve my confidence in the Hilton Falls terrain.

Once again, I went into this race straight from the registration table, with no chance to mentally prepare. I'm beginning to think that mental preparation is just not good for me.

Not to jinx myself, but I have a feeling that my luck will run out tomorrow somewhere in the Long. I'm not sure I've had enough sleep lately to be able to concentrate that hard for that long.

Ran to the start while chatting with one of the ultra-polite young cadets: "Looking forward to your race, Ma'am?"

Event: 2006 North American Championships (Golden Leaf Orienteering Fest)
 

Pre-race prep for my first North American Orienteering Champs:

Up at 6:30 a.m. to drive to Milton to handle first 4 hours of NAOC registration. Then quick change into race clothes, pack up all the boxes of registration stuff, pick up lunch at Timmy's to eat during the drive to Hamilton, find parking on busy McMaster campus, carry all the registration boxes into Student Centre, work with an excellent team to register a crowd of enthusiastic sprinters, then oh yeah, my start time is coming up - better get outside right NOW. Head was spinning - totally not in race mode.

My sprint around McMaster campus felt slow, but accurate, and I only regretted one of my route choices when I looked at my map afterward. I'm not great at interpreting maps drawn to sprint standards, so I'll need to spend some time on this. Considering that this was totally not my type of sprint (urban, fast), I couldn't believe how much FUN I had. The weather was perfect, the map was good, the students were interested, the course design was fun - a great time! The race was the only "relaxation" time I had over a 24-hr period, so that was probably part of the fun too. Anyway, I ended up in 2nd place, less than a minute behind the amazing Andree Powers, and just ahead of GHO's new favourite person and SI guru, Valerie Meyer. Better than I expected, and now I'm wondering if I should go into every race with my mind totally focused on something other than racing.

Sprint 2 - Splits

Training at Hilton Falls West. With 360 people coming to the North American Orienteering Champs, I'm guessing that the registrar (me) isn't going to find time to go out on the training map during the scheduled sessions.

It was nice in the woods, but the highlight on this gorgeous day had to be the drive from Palgrave to Hilton Falls - wow! Autumn leaves are close to their peak.

I did a reasonable job out there today, although it feels like cheating to rely so much on bearings and pace counting in this difficult terrain. I realized that I'm drifting to the right on my bearings, but when I went back from the control in the reverse direction, I would usually hit my starting point, so I just need to be more careful. My one big mistake involved missing a trail junction. There were so many leaves down that I didn't notice the trail. So I'll need to pace count even on trails.

Ran into Hammer and MrPither getting ready to head into the woods in opposite directions. Hammer was wearing enough SI units that he could barely stand up, and MrP was heading out to the training area.

Better finish packing for NAOC. Early morning tomorrow (and Saturday and Sunday).

Map memory exercise in Churchill Park. It went reasonably well, although I should probably try to remember more information, e.g. rough compass directions and angles between controls.

Next we went on the NAOC sprint training map in the southeast corner of McMaster campus. Fun! But there sure were a lot of people and vehicles to avoid. Hammer tells me that we'll be in a quieter part of campus for the real sprint.

Back & forth to McMaster from Churchill Park.

Well, the decision on the 2006 Hudson Highlander has been made for me. BulletDog came down with kennel cough today, and ThunderDog may not be far behind, as it is very contagious. As a result, they can't go to any of the places they were supposed to stay over the NAOC weekend, nor can they go to the dental office where they take turns working, over the next 2-3 weeks. Since I absolutely *have* to be away for NAOC most of this weekend, 'Bent is going to be the responsible parent and miss a couple of big family events - his and mine. He's got another big family event the following weekend, so that'll be my turn to stay home and be responsible - thus missing the Highlander. Hopefully I'll still be up to running 26 km next fall. :-(

BulletDog and I tested version 2 of my sprint course for the Indian Summer O. Not feeling very fast today after Saturday's race, but it was a beautiful day to be out - warm and sunny, surrounded by autumn leaves in electric hues of red, yellow and orange. It's going to be a super-fast course with relatively easy nav to suit the mix of orienteers, triathletes and newbies. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict a win by Sudden in 11-12 minutes.

While watching the Daily Show. Sunday's yoga session was good for leg strength too - I should do more of that.