Training Log Archive: simon

Event: National Capital Orienteering Festival
 

GPS: 5.8km, +120m

Worst... race... ever...

Instead of spiked controls, speaking of boomed controls is much more eloquent: 4 major booms on the first 8 controls. After a first nice and rather easy control, I boomed at 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th controls, each time getting worse and worse, to the point where I would stand in the forest, completely lost, without a single clue of where I lost map contact, and doubting everything, including the map and the compass.

Not sure exactly what leads to this disaster, except perhaps a combination of too high self-confidence after past weeks success, very low visibility in forest due to new foliage, which I am not really accustomed to, and perhaps fatigue of the past week of work. During the race it was clearly a gross failure to recognize my mistakes and to adapt my o'technique to the terrain and map at hand. Plus, didnt have much of pleasure with the terrain, which I found too green, and the course layout, which I found angular, adding too much "accidental" complexity to the "essential" complexity of the terrain (to speak in SE terms)

After the 8th control I pretty much jogged around the course, and still managed to do some slight mistakes.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/570227...

GPS: 2.55km (6:39) +80m

After the middle disaster, running the sprint was rather a formality, especially since it was the same terrain with a scale-up map. Notable difference in weather though, because we ran under a cold "douche" after the hot sun of the morning.

My only goal was then to have a clean race, and perhaps to redeem a bit of confidence. I almost blow it up on the first control, then it was an ok race. I just took it slowly in the forest, where I finally managed to feel in control - legs felt quite powerless too. Not a bad race but clearly not a strong one, as there was much more people in front of me than behind.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/570227...

Total warm up for both races, around...

Sprint Course 3 - Splits

GPS: 8.27km at 6:03, +320m
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/566999...

Nice training organized by Thomas on the Mount Royal (actually the first training in many years I think). He draws some courses, including one on contours only map (exlcuding even cliffs!). Good training, except that I am beginning to know the mountain very well, so most of the time one eye on the map was sufficient to know where the control stands and how to get there. Actually getting there was not sufficient as you still have to find the red ribbon. It still is a very nice feeling to have this fast speed sensation in forest while having an almost flawless orienteering.

And the training was followed by a nice barbecue. Thomas and his friends may have launched a new tendency in Ramblers.

Event: Stars Spring WRE
 

Event: ROC - Bois-de-Liesse
 

GPS: 8km at 6:18, +40m
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/564583...

Stars WRE event. A very intense event, as the map displayed lots of contours at 1.5m intervals, plus an impressive amount of single tracks from MTB. It was my first real race since I leave France, and so a pretty good test of my current aptitude. Well I'm pretty satisfied with the whole process, even if is far from perfect: my physical shape is good enough to sustain a good pace during the race, yet I still have my routines to read the map and make my orienteering leads the way (almost, sometimes it was more "on the fly" relocation). Perhaps the area which could benefit the most to my result right now would be focus and endurance concentration. I made too many small mistakes towards the end because I couldn't focus on reading the right details.

If I had time this week, I should go for a deeper analysis with best/worst leg and gps trace...

C • Nice Race 1

GPS: 3.3km at 4:41, +15m
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/564583...

Stars sprint after the WRE. Well, it was the same map, slightly enlarged, and we passed in the same area during morning, so most controls were evident. Still a very good sprint since I finished fourth behind some fast guys.

M Elite - Splits