Training Log Archive: BorisGr

Having learned my lesson (for the time being) about racing when sick, I instead spent Sunday eating sandwiches and spectating the World Cup Final with Kat and Sandra in "downtown" Stein-am-Rhein. Fun spectating, but pretty awful announcing, with a very pro-Swiss crowd and a very pro-Swiss announcer, who basically cheered when Norwegian Öystein Kvaal Österbö, who came in with the lead, turned out to have mispunched, putting the lead back into Swiss hands. Speaking of the mispunch, the runners had the same control twice - once after passing the spectator area after the first loop and getting a new map, and then again as the last control. This seems like the kind of thing that the runners should be notified ahead of time. A number of people (Österbö, Marianne Andersen, a few others) mispunched here, and a bunch of others (including Annika Billstam) missed lots of time by not seeing it and having to come back. It seemed quite unfair, especially since some runners got to start at the same time as another runner was running through the spectator area (same chute as the start) and saw the other runner punch. If I were a Norwegian team leader, I'd consider protesting...
Between this and the fighting and myriad mispunches at 25-manna, sounds like this was a pretty controversial week-end in orienteering.
Oh yeah, you can see the maps on Österbö's website: http://folk.ntnu.no/oysteios/

C • controversial 32

Warm-up

World Cup Round 9, "Middle distance".
What a weird format - supposedly middle distance, but with a 47-minute winning time and 1:15 scale. Strange.
Definitely did not feel 100% healthy, but started anyway. Stupid. I just absolutely hate not racing and just sitting by and watching, but I think I am slowly learning the hard way not to race sick. Got stuck in the green on #1 and missed #2 by about 30 seconds, passing on the wrong side of a treed from it. Was caught by Scott Fraser already on the way to 3 - not a good sign. Orienteered well for the next few controls and stayed ahead of him, but quickly realized that I just had no speed or strength at all and faded on the first steep hill, going up to #7. Pretty much clean, but slow after that all the way to the TV control, where I did not understand the map at all and was milling around about 10 meters away with like five other people - lost around 45 seconds, I'd say, probably all of it caught on video. No mistakes after that, just a couple of hesitations in an area that was unreadable at full speed at 1:15. Then trudged down into town for the last couple of controls, through the streets of Stein-am-Rhein. Felt like I might need to stop and walk the finish chute. A pretty pathetic effort all-around.
As usual, one needs to take away some positives in order not to go home and just give up altogether.
1) I guess my actual shape isn't as bad as the result shows, as the sickness must have had an effect. Does anyone know how big a difference being sick can actually make, in terms of minutes or percent?
2) For the first time since, perhaps, July, I felt like I was actually right on target with all my compass bearings. This is encouraging. It's totally lame to blame equipment, but I finally feel comfortable with a compass for the first time since I broke the last one I liked on Day 1 of O-Ringen. (I've gone through 4 since then!!)
3) I managed to focus and run my own race and actually had attackpoints and mental images of what the control circle would look like for most of the controls. This may have been, though, partly due to my low speed.

C • Does anyone know how big a ... 5

Got to Stein-am-Rhein, Switzerland on a lovely, sunny afternoon. Settled in and jogged over to the model event with Kat.

Jogging around the model event with Kat. Both of us were moving quite slowly, though I was feeling slightly better than Kat. The terrain was nice - mostly very runnable with high visibility. Not too much contour detail, but rather steep hillsides.

Running to and from KG.

Needed to see how it felt to run hard, so I came over to the clubhouse for the 25-manna training. It will be sad to miss 25-manna this week-end - it really is such a fun event, and Linné's first team has a good shot at a really excellent result. But anyway, this was a forked mass-start course. I just did the shortest version, 3km, and started out easy. I picked up the pace as the course went on and ended up running quite hard for the second half. It felt ok, so I think I'll upgrade my chances of racing on Saturday from the 40% I was at this morning to about 70%.
Oh yeah, the first one back from each course got a cinnamon roll, so I got to enjoy one after my arduous 3km course. :)

C • Nice one! 3

Felt like it's been a while since I've pressed the "add training" button! I am still sick, but getting better. Coughing and a somewhat sore throat are still there, but I think things are going in the right direction.
It felt so good to run! My legs felt so fresh - almost too fresh! Surely, this feeling will be gone by tomorrow, but it was nice to cruise around Stadsskogen paths and feel like I was flying, even if I was probably just jogging along.

Still had a slight fever last night, but starting to feel a bit more human now. Can't remember the last time I didn't run for that long.
On Friday I fly to Switzerland for the last round of the World Cup. Not exactly filled with self-confidence after a week of coughing up phlegm. Hopefully, I will be healthy enough to run, at least. What's more exciting is that this will be Kat's debut representing the US. She is in great shape - will be cool to see how she does in her first really big races! And, of course, watching Sandra race on home terrain will be exciting. So, if nothing else, I will be a really loud cheerleader for our awesome girls.

C • Go USA team! 12

A combination of Spike's blog entry and Thierry Gueorgiou's analysis of his WOC 2004 middle distance race (one has some free time in front of the computer when lying sick at home...) reminded me of a simple technique tool I have been neglecting a bit too much recently: making the control bigger. I think Spike's example illustrates this tool very well - instead of telling yourself you are just looking for the feature the control is on, create a larger picture of where the control is located, including contours and vegetation when possible. Will try to focus on this next weekend to try and minimize mistakes in the circle which have plagued me all fall.

C • "Search surface" 2