Training Log Archive: AliC

Long run- a bit of the 3k red loop, over to the 2.5k red loop, to the 6k blue loop (really cool dunes here), to the 5.5 red loop that I hadn't been on yet, and the 2.5k blue handicapped accessible- and therefore paved- loop.

The new red and new blue loops weren't really that interesting, think I'll keep using some of the closer more interesting ones.

My arms were really sore by the end of my run. I think it's because it's so flat that the pattern of my arms is always really similar, while ups and downs would change the motions slightly. That, plus the fact that my arms are still just much weaker than normal!!!

The usual stuff.

Warm up, down, and the recovery time between intervals.

Intervals around the yellow 5k loop. 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 minutes, with half as long recovery in between.

A good workout, I was feeling it towards the end, the yellow loop is about the 'hilliest' close loop I've got, it goes over a bunch of sand dunes in the middle of the loop.

So I had made a little map of the trails in a certain section of the woods, to practice just reading a map and navigating quickly. About 5 minutes into my run: torrential rain and thunder and lightning. My little map became useless, but it was a fun run in the crazy rain!

The usual.

Cycled to Hoogeveen Station from the telescope... I think it's around 12k.

Warming up along the road before the start. Met nice Dutch orienteers!

Holland is flat, and even with 2.5m contours, there were very few on my map!! The area (De Paalberg) was heavily path-networked and the forest was tough to run through, so often it was a matter of finding the right path route between controls. This sounds like it would make things easier, but it was really difficult for me- paths all looked the same, junctions were confusing, and I had to slow down a lot more than I thought I should have to in order to make descisions and not run ahead of my navigation. (The map is apparently not very good- a recent storm in Holland has changed things significantly.)

Things I did well: 1) Paying attention. I knew when things were going wrong, and relocated before I got massively confused. 2) Used my compass to figure out what trail I was on. I had never done this before really, it was cool that it worked! 3) Slowing down near controls. I wasn't amazing at actually finding the controls always, but I slowed down, knew where they were supposed to be, and found them.

Things I need to work on: 1) Distance judgement. On so many paths, it would be really good to have a better sense of how far to run along the path before turning into the woods. 2) Compass at trail junctions. Trails where hard to tell apart when they were coming at all angles at big wide junctions. If I knew coming into a big junction what bearing I was going out on, that'd be quicker.

Fun times! Hope to get to the next 2 Wednesdays as well!!

C • Belgium 5-days 2

C • It's is nice to read how you e... 1

Hurried on home to beat the dark! (It was 10:25 when I started cycling, and still didn't quite get dark before 10:55 when I arrived back at the telescope!)

Out to and around the yellow loop- I like the yellow loop, it has a few 'climbs' in it, maybe like 15m of climb total in 5k? =)

Wimped out on the 10 minutes of abs as I'm sore from soccer yesterday, but did the rest of the normal stuff after 5 minutes of abs...

I'm really psyched to go orienteering tomorrow!

To the soccer field and back- wasn't sure exactly where it was, but Lhee is a super-small village, so it wasn't too hard. It's difficult to hide a soccer field.

Wowzer, was that a good workout! Astrophysics soccer game, but people took it a bit more seriously than astrophysics ultimate frisbee back at Oxford. I just ran all over the place. Had a few well placed passes, collided with a few large men- even my own goalie took me out once (on accident, but as far as I can tell he dove straight into me.)

It was also ridiculously hot out. No shade.

Came back to the Real World: Astrophysics house and had cold honeydew and beer. Life is good.