Training Log Archive: Anvil

Those who know more that I. Is the 5 peaks course at Highlands this Saturday worth a 320km (return) drive?
http://www.5peaks.com/schedule.asp?p=on&raceid=251

C • Xc 16

TNT. 3x8'/2.5' + 4x1'/30".
Pretty dopey tonight. Took the 8 mins at tempo pace due to the princess heel and general malaise. Bonus of this is that I felt super bouncy and strong for the one minuters.
Almost pulled out of today early on, but glad I didn't - running through crunchy bright Autumn leaves never gets old.

Fun Real Round the Bay with Trav and turbo. Took turbos route which is a little different to mine - will be adopting the section after you exit Mac from here on in. Perfect weather for it.
Feeling the races from the weekend in my legs. Heel still sore, but not unbearable.
Also, it seems that some of you didn't realise my account was hacked yesterday. A good rule of thumb, I'm unlikely to compliment anyone on a finish chute victory in their log.

My Princess foot set me back today. Not sure why Sudden and Hammer still deal with their knee pain. Canucks are stupider than us Aussies.
Except Bender. He's awesome.

C • Run through it! No pain no ... 4

Totals for the weekend

Ontario Long Champs - Carp Barrens
Great to be out on this area again. As has been mentioned elsewhere, after landing awkwardly in a parking lot during the sprint, there was quite a lot of pain on the heel of my right foot.
Was OK whilst toe striking, so just tried to do that as much as possible - but wasn't able to go at top speed in the terrain.
Developed a fairly painful blood blister on the ball of my foot due to trying to stay off the heel and slowed down a lot in the final, less interesting section.
It's a shame I couldn't go at full speed, my body was feeling good and strong on the run to the start. I suspect this may have been a blessing, since I never really had any troubles through the course except on #3 and #13 where I lost contact and took some bad, wide routes.
Thought it was a better course than last years COCs, much less of an emphasis on the 'gotcha' traps. Half an hour faster than last years Long, so some progression there at least. Very surprised to end up in 5th place at the end.
Fun weekend of races. Hats off to OOC.

http://dontgetlost.ca/dgl_doma/show_map.php?user=P...

Course 8 Long - Splits

Event: Ontario Orienteering Championships
 

Ontario Middle Champs
Plan was to simplify, push a little above my comfort zone, check my compass out of every control and only use the smaller trails when they present themselves to me (ie don't go searching out the less distinct ones).
After being a little shakey at the beginning I hit a good groove on 2-6 and had even sneaked into the lead here.
Then a minor disaster led into a bigger one. Got dragged off line heading into #7 by the larger, more obvious clearing to the NW. Problem with that was, since I entered the circle in the opposite direction, I exited in the opposite direction - classic 180 (even the needle pointed in the right direction - I was just looking at the wrong pole). Making matters worse, everything fit, the trail hit a junction where I expected, then bent where I wanted to attack from and then the contours and vegetation was close enough for me to make it fit, until I crested the small ridge where the control should have been and nothing behind it made sense...
Anyway, when I finally get to 8, I've lost about 9 minutes on the leaders from 6. I figured others would make mistakes as well, but not this big. Decide to say myself for the arvo sprint and cruise the rest. A little error on #12 where I don't check the compass from my attackpoint, but that's all - I'm particularly happy with the straightness of my line on 10-11 and 14-15.

Had a similar problem with the map today that I had last year, there's something about the track network I can't put my finger on - something doesn't feel right. I don't know if it's me or the map, but there were a couple of times where I had to stop, stand still and make positively sure I was on the right trail heading in the right direction.

http://dontgetlost.ca/dgl_doma/show_map.php?user=P...

Ontario Sprint Champs - Beaverbrook
A surprisingly enjoyable and more difficult than expected sprint. Looking at the satellite photo I assumed this would be a fairly straight forward parkland sprint. We did get some of that, but also some good route choice and some couple of tricky, scratchy forested sections.

Started off well, spiked the first and solid through the early urban section. Had read ahead well so was prepared for the upcoming forest zig zag. Stayed straight and didn't let the forest push me round here which I'm happy with.
Didn't take advantage of the easy grunt through the middle of the course to plan the final forest section and paid for it with some sloppy lines (#16), sub par routes (#17), dodgy entry (#14) and exits (#17). Possibly could have saved some seconds on #19 by veering right and entering the forest at the fence edge.
But, it wasn't a bad result. I expected the Flunky to dominate such a fast looking sprint, so to finish only 14 seconds down and swap the lead with him many times over the course of the race is pretty pleasing.

It's no secret Sprint is my best discipline. Though I'm not a naturally fast runner like these races favour - there's something about the need for total precision at such a higher intensity that really works for me.

http://dontgetlost.ca/dgl_doma/show_map.php?user=P...

Course 8 Middle - Splits

Course 4A Sprint - Splits

General running round during the ARK v ARK Attack Capture the Flag event spectacular. I thought I'd be able to take part to balance off any team uneven-ness, but it slowly morphed into a regular, coachy role. Impressed by how many of our kids in the general ARK population are proficient with the map - automatically orienting north and what not.
Also impressed how fearlessly they run in the terrain - giving no thought to ploughing through streams and barrelling down gnarly slopes.

C • Impressed 9