Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Event: ROC - Night-O & Sprint
 

Webster Park Sprint. I felt pretty good about my run. No major bobbles, but a couple of less than optimum route choices. I finished 4th, getting beaten by Nate, Gil, and Rob H., all of whom are much better orienteers and runners than I am. So no shame in losing to that group! Also, I beat a few people who normally would be ahead of me at most orienteering events. So no serious complaints about my performance.

The route choices where I could have done better were going to #6, where I planned to do the shorter, more direct way through the woods but somehow overshot it and found myself near the trailhead, so I just took the trail back to the bend, costing some extra distance. So I guess this wasn't a route choice problem, but rather an execution problem. Then coming out of 6 going to 7, I took the trail again, without thinking about it too much -- I guess since I came in that way, it was more mindless to go back out that way. Again, I could have saved some distance by going through the woods. And then going to #7, I went up and then back down rather than staying low and taking the trail along the creek. I'm not really sure if that cost me a whole lot of time , but it certainly didn't seem like the optimum way to go.

C • #9 4

Night Score-O at Webster Park. Really bad. I used to think I was pretty good at Score-O's, but I haven't been lately. I seem to manage to pick very poor strategies, and don't execute them very well. Then I typically change my mind about the strategy several times, leading to an even worse strategy. This event was similar but even worse because of the additional challenges of it being at night. I had a lot of trouble going back and forth between looking at the map and looking at the terrain. I think something that would help is making it more like a memory-O, where I look at the map and then remember what my next 4-5 turns etc. should be, but I found myself referring to the map way more often than that, with each glance at the map costing me a lot more time than it would during the day. I'll blame aging eyes (partly) on that.

I wound up with only 11 controls. On two others (the famous 122 and 106), I was at the center of the circle but no control in site. However, many others had the same issues with these controls and missed them also.

ROC Sprint - Webster Park - Splits

Warmup.

Interval workout. From OCD (B-313). Ran on Rye Rd off of Latona, where a few of us used to do intervals many years ago. It is a fairly straight, flat, lightly trafficed residential street with some shade, around 850 meters long. We had previously figured out a start and end point for 800 meters, with a midway point for 400 meters. My GPS watch showed that the distances were fairly accurate but one of the 400 meter stretches was around 10 meters short, so I adjusted the start and end points accordingly.

8x400 meters, average 93 seconds (ranged from 89 seconds to 99 seconds). Warm and humid day.

Cooldown.

Slow, medium length run on a very humid morning (72 degrees with 68 degree dew point). From home. Woodland to Bay to Rt. 104 bike path, to 5 Mile Line Rd, to Klem, Bay, DeWitt, and back home.

My weight after the run was a record low (for the last 15 or so years, anyway), and I can't believe it's really legit, even though I drank water on the run and more after the run; I'm sure after I fully hydrate, it will come up.

Mid day run from work, at OCD (B-313, near Ridgeway and Weiland). Ran down Ridgeway to Lake, to Driving Park, to Mt. Read, Ridgeway, and back to B-313.

Air was much more humid and oxygen-laden than I've been used to lately ...

Recovery run, from the Pike's Peak Ascent the day before. Anne and I both felt remarkable good, considering.