Training Log Archive: BorisGr

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