Training Log Archive: BorisGr

I am back from the snowbound northeast, but that doesn't mean my own personal training camp has to end. I drove to Great Falls MD and reran the Blue course from last month's local meet on this beautiful fall day. I put in a good effort, but definitely ran out of gas about two-thirds of the way through. I still could not understand the area around #1, just like last time, and also made a mistake on 17. Fairly good otherwise, just tired. I improved my time from last time by 5 minutes. Fairly certain I can be faster on fresh legs.

Advanced-Long - Splits

After an evening of good games and good food, we woke up to a chilly morning. When we headed out to Silas Condict for the day's first training, the temperature was just over 20F. The exercise was O-intervals designed by Sergei. For a training like this, which is meant to be done at high speed, it's really helpful to have streamers out, and I am really grateful to Sergei for taking the time to hang them and then start ahead of us and check the locations again.

We ended up being a pretty big group, as we were joined today by Jeremy and Sagi from HVO, plus a couple of their adventure racing buddies. This was a great training. There were six intervals of about 5 controls each. We either mass-started or did a staggered start on the intervals and gathered at the start of the next one each time. I worked really hard, pushing through the snow and looking for sneaky route choices to try to get past people. I felt good in the beginning and finished first on three of the first four intervals. But in the end, it was The Misha Show. He demonstrated the effects of consisted training by smoking us on the last two intervals and dropping Ian and me on the sprint from the last control to the finish. Well done Misha!

C • Misha 3

I wasn't sure if I had another training in me, but Ian's enthusiasm was contagious, and so Misha and I came along. I am so glad that we did! The three of us ran a green course on Eagle Rock, taking turns leading legs. There was much less snow here than on the other maps, and so we were able to push the pace fairly well and we finished this session just as it was getting dark.

I had a really great time with everyone and am especially thankful to Kseniya, Nadia, and Sergei for their hospitality and lots of yummy food! What a fun time!

I drove up to Harriman for a Thanksgiving training camp hosted by Kseniya and Sergei. Leaving snow-free DC for the snowbound hills of Harriman seemed like a mistake when I arrived to this winter wonderland, but after two days of training and hanging out with good friends I am confident that this was absolutely the right choice!

The first training was a course that was meant to be a memory-O that we did in pairs. I ran with Balter, and we ended up shortening the 6km course to about 4km, and it still took 80 minutes. The snow was deep, ranging from shin-deep to thigh-deep in places. We still managed to screw up a couple of controls. This was fun, though probably not the most effective training of orienteering technique. On the other hand, the woods, lakes, and hills of Harriman were gorgeous on this sunny, snowy, wintery day.

After a break and some food, we set off for a second training. This time I ran with Misha and Kseniya on a control-picking course. There was a little less snow here, and the short legs made the orienteering more challenging, so this was a much more effective training. To our surprise, we encountered Ian about halfway through. He was hanging streamers, so we convinced him to turn around and run the rest with us, collecting the streamers along the way.

Event: Thanksgiving Training Camp
 

Warm-up. Reluctantly got myself out the door and decided that running through the zoo will make me happier. It did not disappoint! Tigers and lions were out and active, as were elephants and pandas. One panda was up high in a tree. It was pretty cool, despite the big crowd. No primates though.

Tempo intervals - time to start speedwork again, but gradually. I did 2x10 minutes with a 2 minute rest. Aimed for 4:00/km, ended up running closer to 3:52 on average. It didn't feel too bad.

Morning run to work. Hit every red light on the way, seemingly.

C • red lights 4

Running home from work in the dark. Really nice temperature out - chilly, but not too cold.

Morning elliptical

Nice long run in Rock Creek this morning. Felt pretty good and relaxed. Ran into Jimmy towards the end of the run.

C • hamstring 10

Event: QOC Cabin John
 

I set the courses for today's QOC local event at Cabin John Park. It was my course setting debut for Quantico.

I had never been to this park before, so after designing courses and running around the map to hang streamers last week, I had to move quite a few controls and make some changes to the map. Mostly, there were new rootstocks and patches of green, and I had to remove some rocks and dot knolls. Plus, there was construction right in the middle of one of the nicer areas on the map.

This map presented some unusual course setting challenges for me, especially for the advanced courses. The map is small and narrow, and fairly urban. There is also an active road crossing the map east-west right in the middle of the map. I ended up deciding to use loops to take advantage of some of the better terrain the park has to offer. I think it worked out relatively well, and gave me the opportunity to offer an UltraBlue course that Lacho, Jon T, and a few other brave souls attempted.

I think the beginner and intermediate courses - something I pay a ton of attention to when course setting a local event - worked out relatively well. Based on past results, I set a short Orange course (jut 3.0km), and I think that was good, as the rate of DNF's and extremely long times seemed pretty low, while the fastest times were still reasonably long.

The worst thing that happened is that two e-punch boxes went missing during the event. They were both on controls that were hung on Thursday, and someone must have cut the boxes off the strings they were attached to, in one case even removing the "Do Not Remove" sticker and leaving it behind. The control flags were left in place, which is good for minimizing the damage to competitors, but I still feel pretty terrible about it, both for the competitors and for the damage caused to QOC.

Finally, I should say that volunteering for Quantico was a great experience. I got all the support I could possibly ask for, and my responsibilities were both very limited and made very clear to me. Unlikely everywhere I else I have ever set courses on a local level, I was not responsible for either map printing or organizing control pick-up, which made my life a lot easier. The sheer number of people volunteering for this small event and the efficiency with which they were organized into tasks and shifts, speaks a lot to Quanitco's impressive organization. I feel very lucky to have ended up here upon my move back to the US orienteering scene from Sweden.

Thanks in particular to Amy L, Jon P, Tom N, Greg L, Valerie M, Tori C for all your work!

C • A fine debut 1

Running to work

Running back home from work in the dark.

Treadmill running, speeding up every 3 minutes. Speed was 9.2 by the end.

Pilates with Alli in the living room while banana bread was baking.

C • This is how 3

Warmup on the treadmill

Some leg strength and core in the gym early in the morning.

US ultralong champs, first part. I was really looking forward to this race, but right from the start felt like I had nothing. I think the weekend of tooth pain, painkillers, lack of sleep, and everything else caught up with me. I tried to run hard for a while and spent some time going head to head with Wyatt and Sam K from SVO. I even pulled ahead of them by over a minute at 7 when they both made mistakes. But on the way to 8 I could barely move, and they passed me like I was standing still. I ran a few more controls until the passage through the arena and decided to stop there. I always feel ashamed when I quit a race, and I don't do it often, but I suspect it was the right call this time. I slept all afternoon and all night and still feel pretty weak a few days later. Congratulations to Lacho, Wyatt, Sam, and Justin B, who ran impressive races! And thanks to Nadim for a great course, which I hope to take another shot at laterm this winter.

Warming up with the Balter.

Despite my constant toothache this weekend, it was really fun socially. We got to host Izzy and Brigitte at the beginning of the weekend, learning a number of words that the kids use these days ("This toothache is mad chips.")
And then we got a whole horde of Russians on Saturday night - so nice to have all of them over at our place!

UltraLong Championships - Blue - Splits

Running to the start, plus a short cooldown

Long Day's Night A Meet - Middle distance race

I felt ok most of the race despite being hopped up on painkillers for my tooth. I ran a fairly clean and controlled race, though did get off my line a couple of times. I caught Andis around #8 and could not get away from him the rest of the way - he is strong. I was tired in the end and lost time just on pure speed, but probably could not have matched Lacho's time even on a good day. I ended up 2nd, just barely ahead of impressive Cadet Jacob Grant.

My route gadget: http://qocweb.org/routes/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map...

After the race I did some announcing, and then held an info session for the new Mid-Atlantic Regional Junior Team. We had a ton of kids show up, of all ages and abilities! It was great. I am excited. We followed up with a dinner where we split up by course and went over our races. Probably about 40 people at the dinner, including the FUMA contingent and a number of other juniors from QOC and DVOA, plus Sergei, Greg, Kseniya, Nadiya, Izzy, Alli, and Brigitte chipping in with course review. A great evening!

Middle - Blue - Splits

Event: QOC Long Day's Night
 

Warming up on the steep hill to the start

US Night-O Champs!

I was very excited to run this race - my first night-O since moving back from Sweden!

I had been having a toothache the last few days with a weird swelling on my gum under a tooth that had been giving me trouble before. I finally went to a dentist today, and the verdict was: the tooth has to go. So I got the tooth pulled. This was pretty painful, and I was on heavy painkillers the rest of the day.

I was pretty nervous about running the Night-O, and still wasn't sure if I'd run when we got to the event, but eventually decided to do it (shocking, I know). started out very carefully and took it pretty easy for the first half of the course. I still made a couple of small mistakes, but was really enjoying the open woods and the chilly night. I finally picked up the pace in the second half of the course when I decided that the stitches in my gums were doing fine. This went pretty well, though I managed to screw up the last control. I ended up 2nd, behind Mattias Eriksson, who ran a very good race, and just ahead of Kenny. So much fun! Probably the most enjoyable orienteering for me this fall.

Route gadget with my route: http://qocweb.org/routes/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map...

Night Championships - Blue - Splits

Intervals on the treadmill in the morning, 4x4 minutes with 2 minutes rest. For the record: 0.5% incline, speeds 9.5-9.7-9.8-9.9 .

Hanging streamers at Cabin John with Alli and Poppy

Hanging streamers at Cabin John (was out for 3 hours)

Event: DVOA Brandywine Creek State Park - Mid Atlantic Championships
 

Long run in Rock Creek Park on a beautiful fall day

Event: NEOC: 2014 Troll Cup
 

Intervals on the treadmill: 10x1 minute with 1 minute rest.

Running to work in the morning

Morning run in Rock Creek, still in somewhat of a shock from the dreadful election night. Are there any Republican orienteers? Can they tell me their rationale for voting the way they do? I really would like to understand.

C • voting 24

Morning elliptical.

Just happened to notice something about my orienteering recently. Here are times per km for all my races since moving to DC:
8:11 (QOC local)
8:03 (QOC local)
7:45 (SVO Stumble)
7:42 (US Long)
7:44 (US Middle)
8:08 (NAOC Middle)
7:42 (NAOC Long)
7:45 (QOC local)
7:47 (Night Champs)
7:11 (QOC Middle A Meet)

Pretty damn consistent. Would be nice to move the average down 30 sec/km or so over the winter.

C • Times per km 3

Event: QOC Great Falls MD
 

QOC Local Event in Great Falls

Decided to just start training again and not wait for the cold to completely go away because, as Peggy put it, "that's just what we do."

Ran the blue course on the windy and beautiful Great Falls map. Really fun terrain with great visibility. My brain wasn't really into the orienteering apparently, and I flopped around through a lot of the course, making big mistakes on 1 and 18 and smaller ones on 4,5, and 8. I also whacked my shin hard on a think branch sticking up from the ground, and it's really big and squishy now.

It was nice to get out in the beautiful terrain and run the nice course. Would love to get to orienteer on the island here, too.

Alli ran around the orange course with our friend Laura and had fun.

Advanced-Long - Splits