Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

Score-O @ Point Defiance Park. I was a bit late arriving and so was a little scrambled in the planning phase and probably didn't make the best plan. Also spent probably five bonus minutes searching for 142 which tucked into a small depression in the flat green. There were three or four off-trail control locations where the map was fuzzy at best, so you always just have to take those with a grain of salt and accept that finding the flag can be as much about luck as skill. Legs feeling sluggish but did at least manage to clear the course with 5min to spare. Lovely day out, and I saw an elephant while orienteering!

C • Nice! I had trouble with 18... 2

I think it is time to return to the light. Since about November or so I've been feeling pretty disillusioned with orienteering (for example, I came very close to not applying to the national team). For the most part this has been due to the nagging knee issues which have dogged me off and on for the past year and a half or so. As I'm sure most of us know, dealing with a sometimes-better sometimes-worse chronic pseudo-injury takes a psychological toll on you, it gets to feeling like things will never improve and so at some point you get tired of dealing with it and just step away.

All of which is to say that over the past few months I've devoted little mental or physical energy to orienteering; I've run at most of our local events when they come around but have done almost nothing in the way of running or other training. Instead I've been focusing on other things - for example, in October I got recertified as a soccer referee (I refereed for a couple years as a teenager) and have been using that as a way to get at least a nominal amount of physical activity (besides the fact that I had been meaning to do it for years). In other news, I also moved last month and am starting a new job in a couple weeks.

Anyway, unsurprisingly I've often not been orienteering well of late (see: WIOL Champs, PHX NRE) but I attended six of the seven COW events last week and with the exception of the first race was able to run decently given the circumstances, and more importantly I didn't have any knee pain or injury setbacks. So things may be looking up, perhaps I haven't lost a prohibitive amount of fitness, and maybe my competitive fire will be rekindled soon.

C • Yay! 7

C • He lives! 3

Middle - Blue - Splits

Long - Blue - Splits

Event: GCO: California Orienteering Week (COW), Part 2
 

Sprint - Blue - Splits

Middle - Blue - Splits

Middle - Blue - Splits

Event: BAOC: California Orienteering Week (COW), Part 1
 

Middle - Blue - Splits