Training Log Archive: Austin F

My race was less strenuous than the past two days because it wasn't as hot but it was pouring rain the whole time. Thankfully the rain drove the heavy fog away a little bit and I could see where I was running in the woods. I navigated well for most of it but had trouble finding the flags because everything started looking the same with lots of pits and downed trees.
1 mile warm up and I ran around 7 miles o the course. didn't really cooldown because it was thick at the end of the race and i wasn't able to run as fast through the trees.

M21E - Splits

Third day of the competition and 1st of two world ranking events. Today's race was half the distance of yesterday's but hurt twice as much. I started out too fast because I really wanted to do well today and after overshooting the first few controls I realized they put almost all of the climb on the course in one consecutive string of controls going up the mountain (which was essentially like trying to run up one of the firebreaks to the house of dreams in the middle of a race) so after cussing at myself to the course designers i made my way up it and then finished the course. My ankles were sore afterwards because once we came back down the mountain it was on a rocky hillside and the footing wasn't the best.
It took 1:09:15 to run around 5.5 miles on the course

M21E - Splits

Today was the longest race
I thought since we were in the mountains and above 6,000 feet it would be a little cooler but nope lol. Still hot. I stopped at every water point that i could on the course and didn't care if it was bottled or tap because I just wanted to make it through the race and worry about that stuff later. I took a Gu energy gel packet like halfway through and felt amazing for the last 30 minutes but it was a tough race.

M21E - Splits

First day of the Big 5 South African Orienteering meet. Its a huge difference from Georgia as its nearly 100 degrees today, or at least it felt like it, and its almost a desert with sandy ground and low bushes that all have thorns. Today the race was inside a game reserve with only herbivorous animals. Thankfully this helped out a lot because the animals made lots of small, tight paths going through the thorn bushes so i didn't have to try and fight through them. About halfway through my course a herd of Wildebeasts ran a couple meters in front of me and I had to wait for them to pass. It was both scary and really cool and afterwards I had to get back into the racing mindset because it definitely took me out of it. My brother ran too and I was kinda jealous because he got to see giraffes while he was out there. Overall it was a good first race. I didn't do as well as I wanted but I also ran in the the elite category now since I can no longer run as a junior. It helped that it was really flat today because I haven't been running hills but I think that will catch up to me later in the week.

M21E - Splits