Training Log Archive: Tundra/Desert

More bus.

Bus stop.

Bus stop.

Now, goals for 2003:

1. Stay healthy. (This does not necessarily mean injury-free.)

2. 5K: 16:50; 10K: 34:55 (either one), before mid-June.

3. I believe 1 and 2 are necessary for:

a. US Short Course Champs: Top 3
b. Moscow Classic Champs: Top 6
c. Jukola: 115% for my leg(s)
d. ERC: 1st

3a is doable. I was 4th overall in 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2002.

3b is a funny goal. It is more of an indication of running speed through woods with compass than actual orienteering, but it will be fun to try. It is also probably the hardest, both because of the competition and the possible specifics of course setting. But it is a fairly valid yardstick. I would have picked some other, more interesting Russian competition, but there aren't any that have the same field consistency and that that I would be able to get to in June.

3c is the most important one. My best run ever was 14% behind the World Champion, Janne Salmi; the second day of the pre-VWC at Afton Alps, near St. Paul, in 1997. MNOC lost the results.

It is great that there has been interest in the Jukola among the Americans. The trip should work well for the Team. I'll do my best to contribute, both organizing and competing.

3d will be interesting. I don't think too many good teams will show up, and the prestige of being first at the first-ever European Champs is something to go for. (To go with the title at the first-ever US Rogaine—yes, the title.)

I believe that in order to achieve the goals, I need to do:

Starting next week: 6 weeks of base training, average 120 km, 3 weeks on/1 off;
Interval training from there on until closely before the Short Champs, twice a week; 3 on/1 off regime, 7–8 hrs/week for "on";
One week of altitude training, most likely in February, most likely the Sierras;
80 O races for the season.

The interval training may have to get interrupted for the Arizona Rogaine. I will also probably try to do the CNYO Rogaine; the US Rogaine Champs late in the season would play into preparation for 2004.

Racing/training schedule:

* Way Too Cool 50K;
* Junior training camp;
* Spring Cup (unless the Pig suddenly appears, reborn);
* American River 50 miles (if I feel like it—may encroach too much on the process);
* SVO event;
* Short Champs (may punt on the Long);
* Moscow Classic Champs;
* Jukola;
* St. Petersburg racing/training;
* Swiss O week;
* ERC;
* Providian Relay.

I'll also do the rogaines mentioned and other A meets, just possibly not take them that seriously. I use most of my O races as training, except the ones that I have real goals for. At this point, I have absolutely no interest in the Individual Champs; I'll go but I don't care how I do. I will not be able to properly peak for the Champs after having peaked in June, and still be able to put in decent rogaine training. I'll need to refocus my training on preparing for the World Rogaine Champs sometime in September 2003.

So, Spike suggested that people would post more about their plans and goals. Not having a personal blog yet (a blessing?), I thought I'd use the Comments to talk about mine.

First, the completed season (2002). For the first time in many years, I did have a set of goals. They were not all set at once, and I kept tweaking them. The whole reason I could make any plans for this past year was that my lifestyle stabilized in 2001, and I finally found financial and time resources to do O and rogaining. My life priorities also had changed somewhat, compared to my late grad school days.

The goals, and the results achieved, were:
US Short Champs: Top 5—was 4th
World Rogaine Champs: Top 4—were 5th
US Individual Champs: Top 5—was 6th
(those were overall, not eligible/ineligible, regardless of who shows up). Note that the US Rogaining Champs was not one of the goals.

I think I worked really well on achieving the goals, especially the US Champs result. It is quite worthy, given the strong field, and is my best US Champs Blue performance to date. I have no illusions about the greatness of said result in the grand framework of things, however; I am still a mediocre orienteer (mostly 'cause I'm slow) but a decent rogainer. I think I'll give O up to another couple of years, then focus completely on my rogaining.

I started the year with structured training for the first time since 1998. I knew I had some work to do, as during the break I took from O in 2000 and the first half of 2001, my 5K time went up to 19:17, 2:29 slower than the PR. The endurance suffered as well; that was why I mostly ran Red and Green in 2001, unable to survive for more than an hour.

I was short on base training this year, mostly because I did not pay much attention to it. I started interval training early in the winter but had an achilles tendon injury in March (first serious injury, ever). Looking back, I think the injury was mostly due to the transition to orienteering in the Bay Area. Things weren't going particularly well in the spring but I pulled together a reasonable Short Champs.

My mindset underwent a fairly substantial correction in the course/after my visit to Moscow where I stayed for 7 weeks. I could see how far some people had progressed, and how large a contribution to one's orienteering success proper running training was. This is something one tends to lose track of in the US (or in Sweden, for that matter). I got my training act together and was able to put in about 3 months' worth of serious interval stuff, mostly after the WRC. I attribute my (relative) success at the Individual Champs to this interval training, and the weakness on Day 2, to the lack of base mileage.

Alongside with training for the Champs, I worked on my rogaining. I realized that I sacrificed quite a few O-races, and some training, in favor of the preparation for the WRC; the bulk of long, slow running was done in the winter, and some, in early summer in Moscow. (Note that I do not qualify those as good base training for O, mostly because they were done at 30–50 s/km slower effective pace than the required "easy" pace for running training.)

The US Rogaine Champs came as a late addition to my calendar, but with Eric as a partner, I could not pass on it. The Rogaine Champs, however, cost me 2–3 weeks of interval work in preparation for the Individual Champs. I fully understand that the two sets of interests are not really compatible if I want to up the performance past a certain point. I think that 2003 will be an O-year, and I'll start to get really serious about rogaining after the summer, with the WRC in AZ, May 2004.

The next Comment will be about the goals for 2003. Great stuff is in the plans if my health holds up.

Warmup before Day 2 of the Individual Champs. Stretching was 2'30.

The Champs, Day 2. Another clean run. What I had feared, happened: I ran out of energy around #10, undoubtedly due to low base training. Was continuously cramped after that; figured an about a minute loss for that on #11, 12, 13 each. Felt quite upset that I had to read the map on those legs, instead of focusing on proper leg turnover, center-of-mass flow, and the breathing pattern.
I did get a hope of help when I came upon Patrick Shannon at #3. He was considerably faster on the uphills than me, but insisted on taking different routes. I was hoping that he would pace me until the end of the race. I kept him in sight until #8 where I drank and he didn't. I couldn't catch up after that and lost sight of him (and J-J). If he just stayed with me, I may have endured satisfactorily through #11–#13. Still, 3 minutes would not have been enough to beat Vytenis who placed 5th.
The Champs, as a whole, worked great for me because the courses only demanded about (subjectively estimated) 90% coarse nav (which I do well, with the technique of minimum map contact) and 10% fine nav, and no route choice whatsoever (at which I suck). I think these were the best Classic Champs for me, both in terms of % behind the winner and overall place, since the 1993 M20 in Harriman (3rd overall after Farquhar and James).

Blue - Splits