Training Log Archive: AliC

Yeehaw! Made it to Cali after overnight travel this morning, got accredited and finally convinced the hotel front desk to let me know where my teammates were staying. We are in a snazziferous hotel, the tallest building in Cali and, by rumor, the 3rd tallest in all of Colombia. Eric and I have a pretty sweet view out full sets of windows on two sides.

After semi-digesting lunch over a game of 7 wonders, we headed out for a team joggeroo along the river. Lots of stopping, picture-taking, investigating this or that. Fav thing has got to be the collection of cat sculptures, each decorated differently by different artists.

Legs were happy to be taken for a jog, they feel a bit blah from travel, but not bad. Time for a final tune-up tomorrow on a model map, then let the Games begin!! =)

C • 7 Wonders 2

En route to the World Games! Think Ross and Sam are already there, Eric arriving way late tonight, I'll get in tomorrow morning.

I attempted to check out a guidebook to Colombia, but utterly failed to find the South America section if there was one... ended up with a book of Paul Coehlo quotes instead?

C • Cali 3

Hmph. So right quad got sore again after long run + ankle plyos! What is up?
I think maybe something related to the really bad muscle bruise I got before WOC; today the pain felt like it was in the same place at least, so maybe the tissue is still rearranging/healing?

At least it's not as bad as last week, I just felt like rollerskiing was the better choice anyways and travel tomorrow = rest day!

C • eep 2

Core times

Longish run, another nice cool, sunny day! Ran from home, so bike path boredom both out and back, but solved by reading of Oxford City Map (memory lane!) and TED talks (rockin' violinist, WikiHome, effective charities).

Easy ankle plyos. Since last weeks attempt was apparently overkill!

Jens's Riverbend (ILRA) Course

Yay! Some orienteering in between WOC and World Games! This was great, a little course created and streamered by Jens in a new little section of map.

Veg was thick, as expected, but not terrible everywhere. The worst walls of it were around the field sections by #7. And I appreciated the new bonus trail that helped to #9 and a bit to #10!

Analysis:
#1 - A wall of green on the correct bearing from the start, so picked my way through the open stuff by the pond, then more on a bearing from there. Nice through the pine trees for awhile...
#2 - Chose big trail approach, sailed in through the green correctly.
#3 - Bah! Was nice running, so didn't bother going up to big trail. But then faked out by bike path, thought it was the big trail, and then things on the far side of the trail didn't make sense. Just kept going on bearing a bit more, hit big trail, aha, sense again!
#4 - A nice leg! I went pretty direct, was a smidge more to the left of the line than I would have liked.
#5 - Go up! Another nice leg, visible, not crazy green.
#6 - Bad! Planned to right of the line the whole way, somehow didn't. I now don't know why I diverged from the route I was on so badly. Loss of focus I guess. Recovered when I realized a marshy big low point was on my right, had to be the depression with funky veg stuff going on, I figured.
#7 - Used as much rough open as I could, because that was nice, then towards the end, thickness. Somewhat ok actually in the lowpoint.
#8 - Ug for just getting out of 7, but then to 8 was ok once I was in rough open. Used the nice rough open approach.
#9 - Wee for new trails. Used it for a good while, diverged when distance judging genie told me too, had gone just a bit too far.
#10 - Used the magic trail a bit more, headed off to marsh.

Thanks much Jens!!!

C • Apologies on 7 2

Whoa there, strength before running? Had to let the iPod charge...

Toodle around Wildwood, quad feels all the way back now, phew! Beautiful running weather. Read the map for the Dreiländereck sprint from before WOC last summer (3 countries, 1 race!) - I had such a rough time finding the darn start triangle for that, poor form!! Afterwards, two Planet Money podcasts.

C • Good girl quad! 3

Gotta keep up on these hammies, so snuck in a morning 3 x 3 x 10.

Quad is almost there, so headed over to the track. More Boris tunes!

Quad felt basically ok in drills, except for kick-backs where it complained as it approached full-stretch. So didn't push those and maybe it's good as 'dynamic stretching'!

Veeery chill 4 x 1200s. I decided to not care at all about the time, just to go what felt like happy-quad pace. But, instead, a diaphragm cramp held me back and was just painful on the first two. Ah well. I will get some good training in again, soon!

Later in the eve, played badminton at a friend's house. Reminded how terrible I am with hand-eye coordination. But fun. =)

Whoa there cold front! Yay for a cool + crisp break, gorgeous!

C • We got that too! I was goin... 7

Right quad was at least up for a mild joggeroo today and felt pretty good from 5 min-35 min; it started complaining again at the end. I am really in awe that one set of ankle plyos (ok, on top of tempo Sat and long run Sun) did this much damage! Esp since it was entirely asymmetric. Shape up right quad!!

Lots of folks enjoying Wildwood today, crowded trails. I rocked Boris music for the first 2/3s then looked at the WC Final map from Swizerland, in, hm, 2008?

Also crowded bike trail back home!

Then ate a hamburger in hopes that cow protein will help my quad recover.

Hmph! Right quad is still mega-sore, so gave up on running after just a few strides. Instead, I biked to pick up my CSA the long way, wasn't bad at all, might have to do that more often!

C • Thank goodness for biking!! 2

Recovery rxc, right quad is doms-y sore today- from reintroduction of ankle plyos? Anyways, a nice ski around, finished the last 10 minutes by starting up Boris's "Kick Ass" playlist. Will have to listen to the other 26 songs another time, looking forward to it. =)

Oh yeah, and still lots of no poles. Arm strength will come, but not quite needed yet!

12 min core and then whipped up some bacon cabbage! Still some carrots, pattypan squash and half a kohlrabi to try to polish off before incoming CSA tomorrow afternoon...

C • kohlrabi 9

Local paper article on me at world champs. Woo! Thanks to Glen for making the contact.

C • nice article 3

C • Nice article! 4

Really enjoying my lazy weekend at home, but interrupted it with a long run at Wildwood. Entertained myself with sprint maps from Trondheim WOC, TEDtalks (robots, diabetes, homes for health), and just daydreaming...

Body felt a bit off from yesterday's tempos + restarting the hammie exercises. Particularly right hammie felt tight/sore.

So thankful the absurdly hot/humid weather broke!!

Ankle plyos, time to get back at these too!

Mega overnight thunderstorm (I woke up to my printer flipping out from some electricity surge?) meant it was cooler, but unbelievably, even more humid. Cycled over to Wildwood.

Warm up, listening to Freakonomics podcast on Game Theory and Jane Austen. Cute, but I'm not totally convinced. Did learn that the film Clueless is based on Austen's Emma (how did I not know that?) and that at least according to the Freakonomics guys, game theory isn't all that powerful in economics (best in situations when only two/three players and the game is either played once or an infinite # of times).

Anyways, did a 2 x 10 min tempo, interrupted by drills and some easy running in the middle! Legs felt good, knee niggle has faded, recovery week success!!

Hammies, just 10s, gotta get back into it!

In honor of having registered for next year's Birkie, took a little tour de Ottawa Hills on my rollerskis. Mostly no poles, because as soon as I tried to use them blisters threatened...

I had a tweaky knee starting from last night, some strange pain on the inside-back of the left knee. It hurts most when I put weight on a straight leg, but I don't do that running, so this felt fine! Hot out.

Puddle-of-sweat 12 min core.

And then headed off to SoundTrek, a sort of roving meal of live music in uptown Toledo, enjoyed! (The flashes of heat lightning all night made for an interesting backdrop!)

Woo! Will be teaching a Tuesday-Thursday evening intro astro course this fall. The Tues/Thurs schedule should still leave some time for o-weekends, happy about that!

C • Congrats! 1

Little morning joggeroo in the cooler time of day. Legs feel ok now, probably ok to do more tomorrow! Main goal is to feel fully peppy again before World Games...

Zumba! Good to be back at it, definitely some new routines in the past 3 weeks, gotta catch up! =) Legs feel ok, probably time to try a joggeroo tomorrrow!

Home! Finished 1984 on the flights, way more fascinating/terrifying than Les Misèrables. And a tomato was ripe when I got home, mmmm!

Also, it's dark outside.

Helsingin Suunnnistajat Iltarastit at Ruuhijärvi

Legs were totally toast, as evident when Brendan and Riikka and I jogged from the car to registration. Sooo had a bit of an orienteering joggeroo around. Easier to find controls at a slower speed and I really enjoyed the area. Yay rocky hill tops of easy running!! And the marshes were really dry and nice to run through too. Had fun, but think my legs need some more serious rest...

C • Cali 6

19th at WOC Relay with Sam and Hannah

My weakest run of the week, which never feels good to have happen in the relay, when teammates are depending on you! I was doing well until the long route choice leg (#4), which I made I think in the end an ok choice to go straight on (I had the shortest version, others the trail was definitely the better option). But then I didn't leave the big trail right, even though I identified where I was when I came out. I'm really not sure how that happened...

And then things were just a bit panicky, because I realized I'd lost the fast bunch I'd been with earlier on, and I really wanted to get time back. But that made for some further time loss on just sloppiness, boo! Still, nothing totally game-ending and Sam and Hannah both had decent runs to end us in a solid 19th place.

The best news- it looks like we probably have two women's spots for the middle and long next year. Woo!

C • two spots 8

29th in Middle Final at Vuokatti Keima

Woo, cracked top 30! (Being top 30 in both distance races this year was one of my sort of stretch goals, so very pleased to have made it in both!) So a good race, but there was also more time to be found out there.

#3 and #4 were both a bit rough as I bent off my bearing to 3, and caught, while to #4, I just couldn't find a good plan, so was going carefully, but even with that, went to far and had to hook around. To the long route choice, #7, I didn't execute my chosen plan well, trying to run too fast and thus not picking up the signs (like not climbing enough) that I was falling off the route. The last loop went almost all fine, with just a small miss to #14, where I was too far left and confused by just how generally open and rocky the area was.

Jogging in the meadow hearing the rest of the runners post faster and faster times... =) Chatting with Judith Wyder, who had had a good one and came storming by me at 5, I kept up until 6...

11th in Middle Qual at Vuokatti Koljola

A good solid run. I pretty much spiked (albeit slowly) the first 3 controls which I'm super happy about, because it was very tricky stuff right off the start. For 4, I was a bit wishy-washy with my plan and sort of got dragged into the route I took, which worked fine, but didn't feel good to be flying more seat-of-pants. I should have taken just a few more seconds and committed to a route, either the left route around, or just going straight over the hill.

The rest of the controls after that were a mixed bag. Some speeding up because racing Celine and the Italian that I'd acquired at control 1, but I was the fastest of the bunch, and I think wanting to try to run away from them made for the mistake at 8 (didn't go high enough to be where I wanted). To 10, the long downhill leg to the pit, I actually lost quite a bit of time. I guess it probably actually required less fear, because of the very distinct vegetation beforehand and the field after, to catch, if needed.

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More detailed analysis:
Start - 1: Whoa there, tricky leg off the start. I didn't push it to the start control, just tried to read map and figure out a plan. The marshes under the line could get me most of the way in, then would have to be more careful. Executed well, it was just a matter of hopping from cliff to cliff to get me right to the control.
2: Lots of reentrants, too slow to keep track of each. So I went on a bearing, hoping to notice the small cliff about 1/3 of the way, and then really attack from the big cliff right under the line when I got close. Worked perfectly, even kinda slid on my bum down the cliff, it was pretty slopey.
3: Just go south, climbing, then go a bit west to climb up to the flat area, big boulder easily visible to use to drop right into the reentrant.
4: Eep! Route choice. So I didn't fully choose a plan to start with and sort of started running off, because the Italian was right behind me. So my execution was very reactionary, just sort of muddling along on this leg. I additionally had a small problem within the control circle, due to an imperfect bearing from a clear feature only 170m or so away.
5: Now running against both FRA and ITA, with FRA leading this leg. On a bearing, obvious marsh-nose-reentrant halfway through to check off.
6: Still in a pack, bearing, again knoll/marshy stuff to check off halfway there.
7: Here I definitely took the lead, bounding downhill, right into the reentrant that led to control.
8: Boo, I kept leading. And missed too low. I was partly suspicious, but mistook one feature for anther (but really, it came *far* too early), caught really by the distinct veg-change.
9: Could see from 8, but I got eaten by a marsh along the way, like, difficult to extract leg eaten.
10: Should have just gone faster, and maybe more directly from the edge of the semi-open brashing area, too hesitant, but also off!

Warming down, a bit with Hannah and a bit with Sam.

C • Relay start 3

Easy-peasy tour de Pökkelöpera, because the middle model map had quite a hike to get to anything interesting. My legs feel more generally tired today than yesterday, but my right hammie is actually feeling better, which is a good sign!

Notes:
1) Much lower visibility than the long. Will have to orienteer much more precisely.
2) Hill tops, even small ones, are good features to pay attention to. Visibility is higher from them, usually, and not bad footing, and they are on the map.
3) Paying good attn to compass will probably be key, but the more solid features that can be noticed along a route the better.
4) Mostly the route choices might be straight, but some seconds evaluating routes around, particularly that have solid approaches to the control will be important. There is much more time to be lost in the control circle in this terrain.

Wahooooo!! Very happy! Cracked the top 20 with an 18th place for my best ever at WOC and the best American individual place ever, I think. Was a good solid race and really hard physically by the end... More later!

C • Awesome 30

Around the model map that contained a chunk of woods from the long qual. Including my worst control, #10, so got to check that out again... Right hammie a bit sore, but legs otherwise in an ok, if not 100% sprightly state! (Much better than how they felt for long final in France.)

18th in the Long Final at Tipasoja

A stadium start that actually used exactly our last control from the long qual for the start control. The first loop had some good playing in awesome open woods, particularly off the start. The first loop finished with a fairly epic route choice that after some sitting and wondering while walking up the hill from #10, I opted for the somewhat gutsy route around on the far left, using a big trail and a road. What finally convinced me was the extreme ease of finding the control from the road, while for the straighter routes, you first had to find the river crossings and then find the control itself, amongst and uphilll slog through green.



With that over, we had a map exchange in the stadium. I knew things had to be going pretty well because maps 17 and 18 were still there, so I was at least 4 and 2 minutes up on those gals, respectively. The second loop wasn't as long, but had quite a few controls in trickier greener sections of the map. I felt a bit tired going into it after my long road run, but I knew I had to keep focused, that a lot of time could be lost in the green if I didn't have solid plans and execution. The whole second lap went pretty well for me, the only problem was with the very last control, where I simply didn't exectue my 'go straight' plan very well, losing about a minute. Gotta keep the respect for the orienteering *all* the way to the finish!

It was awesome to finish and hear I was in fact in the lead, so neat! (Quickly taken by my 2 min back girl, Amelie after about 30s.) And very happy to stay tuned and to realize that not all the gals behind me were actually faster, leaving me in the top 20 after everyone in. Woo!

A waddle with Cristina around the team tents. Veeery slow, tired tired! Rasa was somehow managing to carry on a phone conversation while warming down. =)

Woo! And through to the sprint final with a solid race in the qual. I finished 4th in my heat, 1:05 down to Simone but only 30ish seconds back to Merja Rantanen and Annika Billstam.

A good run, but I had some fumbling with the first water route choice to #5 and then again in the confusing mini-golf area. Splits also show that I was slow off the start, but it's better suppose to start solidly than mistakenly, so not too upset about that!

Time to chill for the final now.... they report that there will be lots of artificial uncrossable fences, will have to be very aware of route choices!

C • artificial fences 3

C • Rupali and Brad were here 3

And 25th in the Sprint Final in Sotkamo!

My was it tricky! There were *tons* of artificial fences. Everywhere. Not a second you could space out. I got trapped significantly once (#9) and lost about 30s it looks like. I really was hoping to improve on last year's 20th place, but 25th is totally respectable and will keep me hunting down the ways to improve...

C • final 4

C • And the RAR is real! 1

Warm up on the warm up map, getting into the 1:15 scale and all the mapping things, went pretty well, legs feeling good!

Woo! And through to the final with a 9th in Heat 1 on Tipasoja Törmänkangas.

A good race, I even won 3 splits. But there were some less-good bits too, including a parallel-feature induced mistake to #10, that I at least could have recovered from better. Also wasn't super fast to #1, probably using the road in would have been faster.

My route choice to #2, which was something like a 2.5k leg involved a lot of marsh running. I think something else must have been faster if Simone + Tatiana were 2.5 min ahead, but not sure what exactly...

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Long qual course analysis

Alrighty, some more thoughts now, at a more relaxed pace than hurried-after-lunch. =) I am really happy to have made the final, and not just by the skin of my teeth (9 minutes behind the winner, but 9 minutes ahead of 15th place, too).

[leg time, time back, placing]

1 - [3:21, 1:15, 20] Not that awesome. I told myself to chill to #1 and just come up with a plan and then execute. The problem is that the plan wasn't that good. Plan = cross marsh, go straight, note yellow reentrant along road, during into linear depression chain on bearing. Reality = Cross marsh, ug, that steep uphill green looks *really* slow. So skirt, skirt skirt marsh, end up on forest trail on shelf, not on my map… come out to big road, decided I must be on where the forest track is shown coming in (it only extends 50m though on map) and pop into the control. Best change would have been to come in on major trail in the first place, second best change would have been to come up with a solid plan after giving up on 1st plan.
2 - [16:44, 2:26, 8] A loooong leg. I came to a full stop to evaluate before jetting off. I choose a route that strung together the edges of little marshes and then running through a big marsh at the end. The little marshes were great to run along, I was smoking it. But then I think the big marsh was just too energy sapping to be the fastest route. I'm still not sure what was the fastest route. There were versions both right and left that could be made to string together some trails… I did hesitate a bit on my approach to the control, felt rusty orienteering after so much just running through marsh!
3 - [1:25, 0:07, 7] Totally proud of this little leg! Not excellent visibility, but I kept on my bearing, aided in confidence by a pace count and didn't stop at the earlier control I saw that wasn't mine.
4 - [1:42, 0:09, 5] Went out to road, control was very obvious from there. Took sports drink and water as it was the first water control.
5 - [6:07, 1:15, 8] Blasting just north through marsh came out on trail, had to jockey a bit E on trail to get the north section of trail at a junction. Went E a bit on the upper trail to save some climb, then turned in, skirted between depressions then up to the high, first checked out wrong mini-hill before mine.
6 - [4:55, 0:31, 5] Blasting just left of the line, noting veg boundaries was very helpful on this one. Minna (3 min back) passed me on this one, raised my feistiness a notch. But then hitting the last veg boundary, was time to turn to my control, so I ignored where she was heading, spiked my control on my own, woo!
7 - [3:46, 0:51, 12] Hm, not so great, just hesitation knocked me off the pace on this one. I couldn't make great sense of the veg changed indicated on the map. And ok, the one I was puzzled by wasn't marked as distinct, so maybe shouldn't have been so attentive to it.
8 - [2:49, -0:10, 1] Woo! First leg I won! So Minna punched 7 at about the same time, and at least started the same way I needed to go. Ok, so time to try to keep up the running at her pace! Mostly worked, but she continued on past my control, while I had to go punch it, so lost her at that point.
9 - [3:20, 0:38, 8] Saw and upper route and a lower route and lower looked safer. So went with that. But it might not be as fast.
10 - [7:00, 3:26, 19] And ouch. I really did have a plan. Bearing to where veg boundary of semi-open and hashing meets big trail. Then over a little hill, hit ride, climb hill on it, drop into reentrant on far side, look for little W-facing reentrant. The problem initially: parallel feature. Instead, I went to the junction of the veg boundary between the white and hashing and the big trail. And there was a hill in the appropriate place, awesome. But then there wasn't a ride. Hm, I'll go climb the hill that seems to be in the right place anyways. So I do, and then I see a control, but maybe in a depression. Check it out anyways. Then scold myself because I knew it wasn't far enough, so I go further N. And I find another control, this time in a reentrant, but not mine. Puzzled, and panic is starting to rise…. Bop around a little bit more, decid to bail to NE-SW running road. Don't quite there when I relocate on an obvious hill, and then go off to find the control. Only afterwards did I realize I did a contour flip within the circle, which wouldn't have totally saved things but meant I might have recovered better.
11 - [3.37, -0.03, 1] I looked at my watch at 10, saw I didn't have much time to try to make it under an hour. With a predicted winning time of 45, I thought that's what I'd have to do to make the final. So I flew on this one. And spiked it. Faster than Simone, woo!
12 - [3:04, 0:26, 11] I still went fast for most of the leg, but I misread control description and thought I was looking for a hill. But then I found a very nice depression right where I was expecting my control. Panic, look around, try to make sense, realize a depression is circled on the map, recheck CDs, ah ok, go punch.
13 - [1:59, 0:18, 9] Just trying to fly on a bearing. Apparently not as fast as some others though. Slight hesitation as I approached because you couldn't really see the flag, although there were a lot of cameramen…
Finish - [1:07, -0.03, 1] I didn't really mean to take this as hard as I apparently did… I was tired going up the finish chute, and no calling out of my name because Minna was being interviewed. Noticed it had taken over an hour by my watch, figured it would be a close call to make the final… happy it wasn't!!

C • Congrats 19

Event: WOC 2013 Vuokatti, Finland
 

Some jogging testing at the Katinkulta sprint area. Just 6 test controls out, but it was very good to see how things were mapped. Nearly everything is crossable, despite the fact that I don't think I should mow down beautiful flowering rosebushes.... hope they plan things around them, but I'll wear full leg covering for sure!

And then over to the Sotkamo (sprint final) model. Things are mapped differently. Much more uncrossable hedge symbol to be careful off, but it's quite obvious and taped in places it's not, I don't think there should be problems. There was one narrow gap between house and fence that I checked out that was pretty uncrossable because someone's recycling bin was occupying that space. But in general, liked the mapping, and it doesn't seem like there will be mega-traps. I wonder how much woods there will be on the sprint final...

Long Model - Huhtikangas

Wyatt dropped Alex and I off in the far zone, where there were some different looking marshes to explore and try to orienteer around. This area was really good to check out because it's quite different than the super-open fast forest and likely there will be some forest of this type on the course.

Notes:
Yellow open - filled with meter-high under growth, so not stellar fast, but would be, if say, more than a few people had tracked it up first...
Medium green with ditches - yeah, thicker. Pretty slow going. Some different type of tree was growing here which was deciduous and fanned directly out from the ground, making things thick. Similar to fighting through SMOC light green.
Ditches - solid ones are *big* a bit hard to jump over, dashed are obvious, but not a problem to get through
Brashings - Here was recently thinned young stuff. Lower visibility, but not terrible and harder to get through. The little stumps (1-2 inch diameter) poking up everywhere made the running a bit tougher.
Yellow marshes - pretty sucky marshes, not fast running, compared to the white open woods. But very visible, so good for nav.

Controls:
3 - On purpose took a bad route to check things out, but then didn't do a fantastic job in from the trail. I must have mistaken a hill, then was on the correct bearing from there, which took me to a white zone with lots of little hills, momentarily confused, then realized exactly where I had to be and went south to my knoll.
4 - A scary control in a formline reentrant in some light green. We talked about how to do this one as a group last night. The safest route was to bail the 200m to the trail and head back in. I tried the more gutsy route of straight, which worked. On a bearing, noting nose on left, then I think I went through the white woods and then headed south, detecting a reentrant. I came to a full stop to evaluate if it was the white reentrant on the to W of the control, but decided it was definitely light green and went two steps further to see the control.
6 - A long leg, again took a route across marshes just to check 'em out. It was fairly hard going and I bopped around a little bit more than I would have liked to. Will have to dedicatedly go through any light green zones. Came out at the end to the wonderful open woods, making the control quite easy.
7 - White wonderful woods, just a bit light green at the end, but no prob finding the hill from the previous hill.
8 - Through green, but had a clear attack of a N-S linear hill to guide me in.
9 - On a bearing, pacecounted, exactly 50 paces to the centimeter on 1:15, going downhill.
10 - Pushed through the green on a good bearing, wasn't sure if the formline was up or down while running, but was pretty sure based on other things on either side. (So visible!)
11 - Spikety spike, just left of unavoidably obvious nose.
12 - Used the trail, because it was right there. Bearing from the turn in the ride, right down to it, pacecounting for comfort.
13 - Walked up hill eating blueberries, then cruised on in from the top. Noticed a photographer right at the control, so tried to look fly in and out. =)

A good session, happy to have checked out what's up in marshland! Bruise is also feeling the best it has yet, although still noticeable.

C • good luck tomorrow!! 7

Moving day! We're now in the official WOC accommodation, although we might try to mix things up so we can be in the same place as a team, we're split up at the moment.

Right before dinner Cristina dropped Brendan and I at the top of the ski hill (Vuokattinvaara) for a mapwalk down the hill. It was really great to do. The top zone was lousy with cliffs and they had to be huge to be mapped. Less so as you got lower. Light green at the top could also be almost the same as white woods, while down lower it was much harder to get through. Lots learned, although, also, many mosquito bites acquired.

Long training at Tipasoja Riekinkangas (quickroute)

O-tervals today, so bringing a bit more speed in now that my quad isn't extremely sore anymore. My goal was to be fully focused on all o-terval legs and that brought some really good legs. I was disappointed in 2, both of which are lower visibility. The pace is just going to have to change as these lower-vis areas are entered. Slower pace, a sure bearing and confident checking off features is just the way it's going to have to go. 30s lost to slow speed and more map checks is just far better than 3 min lost by needing to relocate!!!

O-terval 1:
1- Solid bearing, to trail, bopped over to reentrant from trail corner.
2- Low on trail, came up when the super-steepnes alongside it faded, climb and spike!
3- Straight W bearing, checked of hill on left crossing road, spike.

O-terval 2:
1 - Yeehaw, what a nice straight line! Had the veg boundary and the nose to help.
2 - Nice and straight until almost there, then I got scared I didn't see the control from the road, so decided I was maybe not in the yellow reentrant I thought and made to head NW before turning because I saw the swamp.
3 - Just left of line, picking off features.

O-terval 3:
1 - On bearing, two spurs, then my hill, spike.
2 - On bearing, noting hills on either side, wanted control to be a bit more left than it was, but caught (could have used gap between swamps?)
3 - Not good, diverted from bearing looking for the control when I got quite close. I didn't read some of the contours right, I thought the little hill in the circle would be the high point, but there is actually an earlier ridge, so I went off W while on that looking for the control. I redid this one, spiked it that time!

O-terval 4:
1 - Decided to take this leg easy, but to go through the green to just deal with it. It really wasn't so bad, perhaps came out a bit left of line, but knew it by how close trail junction was.
2 - Oof. Hard. Bad (too left) on bearing the first time and took ages to relocate. Went back to do a second time and had hard times just getting back walking. Being very dedicated to my bearing the second time worked, but this is a zone I'd really have to have a strong AP or slow way down in in the race.
3 - Bearing, easy.

O-terval 5:
1 - Easy, bam!
2 - Good on bearing, diverted to a hill too much on left just at the end.
3 - Good bearing, straight to clearing.

A great session. Lovely woods, got to be careful in green and semi-open where the trees can also get thicker.

Joggeroo with Alex to the Lohtaja sprint. More running than I really meant to do, at least we got there after Alex asked at a convenience store!

Cristina's planned Lohtaja sprint

Went at some speed, but not fast, trying to just practice good sprint technique. Reading my control descriptions, planning ahead, looking up. That all went ok, but will be much harder at full speed. Almost messed one up at the end, #15, shorter to stay south of the building and come around because of an uncrossable fence to the building's north.

Rest day tomorrow, and just easy, easy here on out!

Tougher middle training on Tolhonvaara. A bit of a battle to get through the woods everywhere it was light green, and much lower visibility. I'm not terribly happy with how I orienteered, although the GPS track doesn't look that bad. It's just that several times I pretty much fell upon the control. So it's nice that that happened, but really, I need to find the feature and be sure about it, not just be lucky.

1 - Up the trail until the corner that led me into the white woods, then around the edge of the very steep then dropped into the reentrant.
2 - On a good bearing to start, kinda fighting through the semi-open and the light green, but then wussed out and used the trail fro a bit instead of heading straight onwards, which probably would have been faster.
3 - Not so bad, on a bearing, happily found the reentrant I could just fly down, but I fell and nailed my hip hard, so was more hobbling.
4 - Went pretty straight (a little wavy), but Brendan pointed out that given the nastiness of the semi-open with brashings, going north around that zone would have been better. Saw cliffs to my left that made me sure where I was, so then cruised on in, was a very wee reentrant.
5 - Didn't pick up on the open yellow that I was expecting to, turns out I was too far left, bad bearing! Caught myself beyond the light green zone after I didn't pick up on the formline nose. I saw a hill off to my south, realized mine should be the one after that - at least 100m off.
6 - Straight south, down to marsh and back up, easy, spiked.
7 - Bent left to try to avoid some of the light green, also helped avoid a steepish reentrant, but then a bit harder to place myself on the nose. I was just starting to sense that I should drop down west because the nose was very nosey, and the control was right there, sooner than I expected. My .gpx track doesn't make much sense here...
8 - Was hoping to bend around the light green to the east, but failed. In the light green, I must have hit the unmapped continuation of the forest track, so that made me thing I was further west than I really was. So when I emerged from woods , I thought I'd have to go east, but then there were big boulders there, so reeval, go west, control right there, again.
9 - Dragged off bearing, downhill, hit forrest track, was able to make things ok from there, but poor compass skills!
13 - Used a forrest track (not always on the map) then a veg boundary, somehow missed the depression in green that I was quite close to, but kept on my bearing for lack of any better plan, hoping to relocate at the edge of the big hill. Found a sall hill top, decided it was the one in green NW of my depression, so followed it, expecting to see another hill on the far side. Nope, there was my control, just sitting pretty. Jeez.
14 - Bearing, spike.
15 - Plan was to just go up along edge of nose, but at one point, I started heading too far S not, SE, so corrected. Almost litterally fell on the control before seeing it, but at least this time I was sure about the feature.
16 - Long leg, with green and uphill. Dragged off bearing (not enough uphill) in the light green, probably because it was just such tough going. Was able to climb instead in whiter woods. Then popped over the hill on a trail and attacked from where the trail started to descend.

C • Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! 3

Scamper to the start with other giggle. Well #40, because both of our starts kinda involved going through an open and active quarry, which we decided we'd rather avoid...

C • Hand heat flashlight 2

Pöllyvaara long training (quickroute)

Woo! This was gorgeous and awesome and only thing that could have made it better is if my bruised quad were pain-free. But maybe that kept me from going to fast and is a good thing in disguise. I think I'm going to like running the long...

The course was connected by Brendan using the training controls on the map and flowed quite wwell. No too long legs, but some good tests of going on a bearing, and a good tour de different types of vegetation.

Vegetation notes:
White is simply beautiful. Sometimes you can see >200m, it's amazing. Underfoot, it's generally spongy, either moss or low blueberry, not much brancy deadfall at all.
Light green is denser trees and more moderate visibility than white, so a little slower to get through too.
Dark green - didn't see that much of this.
Scattered yellow open - Small sparse trees. Possibility of pinballing around them a bit, but I found visibility quite good in these zones.

40 - Diagonal trail junction, was a little too low, but reentrant was very obvious.
44 - Cruise accross wide-open slope, stay on spur, could see control and very distinct saddle from about 200m away. Beautiful!
43 - Hardest control of the course, but my bearing was very solid and took me right to it. I hesitated as I approached the lower-vis light green, trying to sense the form line reentrant.
46 - Used trail, turned off nicely onto a good bearing from a rootstock. Rootstocks are not that large here, just maybe a meter.
45 - Trails to trail junction and then in on a bearing, still just gorgeous running!
47 - Bearing, new I was on by crossing trails when they were just barely separate, then through row of depressions over hill and in. My is that one deep depression!
37 - Used ridge trail, should have gone right of hill on approach. Slight hesitation in the circle, because I thought the overhang was the small building, not the x, so looked for the pit slightly in the wrong spot.
36 - Taking it easy out of depression land due to sore quad, then cruised along the top of the quarry, before using a trail for a bit and heading in on the right bearing.
49 - Bam! Right on that bearing, happily checking off features along the way. Hill on side of road and high point of marshes to my right made it easy.
34 - On a bearing, then the semi-open was very visible and I spotted the rock on the hill right by my control ages away, so just had to run to it.
32 - Bearing, which was made easy by a power pylon right on the line that I could just run to, then in from there over a hill top. Visibility rocks.
31 - Nice on a bearing, until I was pushed around a bit by light green towards the end. Should have used the trail.
33 - Oops! Contour reversal! A little off bearing from the trail/powerline junction, realized when a big depression was visible, so then was heading south, hoping to go over a hill and see my reentrant. But nope, that's a depression and my reeentrant was already facing. Only realized when I ran into the control. Bad.
35 - Bearing to trail to bearing, just a bit of hesitation as I descended the first ledge on the way down, wanted my reentrant already although I knew it should be lower.