Training Log Archive: AliC

Travel to Seattle, via San Francisco and *then* LA, which is just backwards. Most notable thing was being asked if I was from CSU by a CSU runner on my first flight. Apparently the meet shirt (which yes, I was still wearing!) and the map of Pine Hill I was looking at gave it away... =)

NEOC A-meet at Baldwin Hill

2nd to Sam by 4.5 minutes, and just narrowly in front of Hannah by 10 seconds. A mixed day orienteering-wise, some mistakes, but none totally terrible. I may not have always been making sure I kept up with mapreading while going through thick vegetation.

Going over my course with Alexei afterwards was helpful, he was able to point out that in a few places, my bearing-taking was really failing me and that in general I don't really plan routes so much as go straight unless something really obvious pops out. And he correctly guessed that when I see a control or the control feature in the distance, I sort of sprint all out the control, punch, and then have to pause to map read and take a bearing once I get there. So now, am going to use that time instead to proceed to the control at a more moderate pace, but plan next route, and most specifically, how to leave the control while doing so. The goal is flow.

1- Bad bearing from depression at end of reentrant left me puzzled staring at the northern rockwall. Was too high.
3- Went straight, across marsh, up green nose (slow!) and then up hill. Aimed off north, hoping to see boulder patch on the nose, but ended up hitting boulder in reentrant.
4- Stayed low, hit marsh, then around hill, passing the cliff. Checked out the hill with two boulders first, should have read in the circle more!!
5- Blah. Totally pushed by green way way off my bearing and hit the hills to the West. Seriously, must use compass, especially when dodging fallen tree trunks!!
6- Stone wall = handrails pretty much the whole way.
7- I stayed high, knew exactly where I was crossing the stone wall and just traipsed across the row of hill tops.
8- On a bearing, saw water, was careful into control (scarily low visibility!).
9- Not at all good. Went into the green (trying to avoid a little climb- but I'm strong, a little climb is worth avoiding ugly green!) Ended up crossing marsh, going over on my ankle while doing so. Argh!!! Even had the brace on, maybe needed to be even tighter... Definitely hurt, had to walk for a bit. And then was pretty lost, but just went north to stone wall, and relocated.
10- Woo! Easy, fast!
11- Good most of the way in, but failed to make out just before circle features well. A West Point guy kinda led me in.
12- Had decided on the left route actually, but then some downed trees pushed me right, so I opted for that.
13- Went on a bearing, slightly off at end to other control really nearby.
14- Bah. Sailed into the control, almost. But the small boulder on the map looked huge, so I thought it was the huge boulder below the control on the map and that I'd missed the control. So searched above it for awhile, too long, before actually going down to check out. Very annoyed, but I just should have had more confidence. I really didn't pass enough stuff to be at the big boulder!!!

512/2000 - Over a quarter now!

Warm up, including a field trip to see the finish with Jordan.

Control collecting. Stopped raining just before, woo!

521/2000

Red Sunday - Splits

Event: Fall Foliage Festival
 

Felt very sloppy, again and again, but others found it tough too and was good enough for second.

1- Could not make sense of the rockiness on the way, ended up too low and nearly hit the trail before going higher.
2- Went sort of over the hill, but didn't like the trails, so went through green briar instead. It went ok from there, some hesitation close in.
4- Ran past the boulder at first, it was wee!
5- Terrrible, went downhill to big trail on totally wrong bearing. I hit non intended trail and had to figure out what had happened. Really did not look at my compass that whole time?
7- Mistake with streams after crossing the perpendicular trail, plan was to head left along the first stream to the stream junction and then up to control, but I was already wrong side of the stream junction. Marie, who started 2 min back, caught me here.

479/2000

C • Canada mittens! 2

CSU Pine Hill A Meet Part 2- Reverse Chase

Mostly this race went really well. But one terrible control- #8, which I had multiple mistakes to. First I messed up the trails, then being unconfident, was totally thrown off by a big pool of standing water off to my right on the approach to the control. Had I not made a mistake earlier in the leg, I probably would have just kept going to check out cliffs on the other side of the hill behind the marsh, but instead, I panic-ed and started looking for where the marsh should be on the map, but none of those locations made any sense. Relocated off a stone wall, but was still unconfident although heading to the right spot. In the end, led into the control by Sam. Turns out the 'marsh' was an area of yellow in a reentrant, except, while racing, I didn't process it as a reentrant because of non-cutting of the control circle.

1- Through first start, turned of trail after little hill on right. Green briar!
2- Took trails on the left side, was a bit low, saw stone wall before heading up at the end.
3- Contouring over, stopped at another control on the way. Was not sure what the giant black blob in the control circle was supposed to be- a cliff??
4- When I was running, thought this was a black 'x' and wondered what sort of statue was in the middle of the woods, but found control on its boulder field.
5- Almost a mistake, didn't have clear connection over the flat area, was trying to stay on a bearing and pick off when it started going steeply downhill. Stopped to evaluate when I hit hill, because hadn't picked out the reentrant I wanted, and saw the control right nearby.
7- I went straight. Which I'm not sure anyone else did... thus less of a spectator control for me. Wasn't slower though, and I had confidence in this area from the morning's race.
8- The terrible control. The in-the-circle error described above, but the trail error occured earlier. I cut back out from the control to the trail, but then took the second left instead of the third. I realized that something was wrong, because I wasn't going uphill, so then started just cutting east. Finally really located myself at the major junction northwest of 9. Bah. But kept moving through it, with this alone, probably only a 1.5, max 2 min time loss?
9- Racing Sam. She seemed to have a better clue, but went to/close to the top first.
10- To the north of the lake via trails, still racing Sam, but I avoided the temptation to try to be faster on the trails, instead really focused on reading ahead to 10 and 11. Sam took a wrong turn slightly to the wrong side of the lake, so then alone. Took 10 from the little trail.
11- Little trail, cutting across to little trail in right direction, then a bit of contouring.
12- Fly!

491/2000

Collecting controls, counting the ones I really orienteered to (6/8).

Knee quite a bit sore after the double races...

497/2000

Red_qualY - Splits

Red_finalY - Splits

Morning, just on the bike path and quite a chill ski. Mostly double pole, and some gorgeous leaves in the morning light!

C • You had enough snow to ski? 3

Event: U.S. Corn Maze Championships
 

Woo! US Corm Maze Champs!!

Couldn't quite live up to my first-place seeding, totally destroyed by yak-hat wearing Greg....

Such such a blast though, and good training, had to stay totally with it all the time, very hard to keep up with your speed on such a small-scale map. My biggest mistake was when I said oh, I'll head that way until I hit stuff and then can head left into the spiral. Wrong, ended up in a long straight thing, going through the 'CONDENSED' and then back at the spiral from totally the other side. That was about a minute, whoops!

Compass was zero help. And it smells bad, its strap needs washing.

Umm, also, my max HR was higher at the sprint in from this than in either US Classic Champs races...

469/2000

US Corm Maze Sprint Champs

Too devious for me! Fine to 1, too close to the top of the maze to 2, which ended me up at 4, whoops! And then saw the quicker route out of the maze, but missed the channel I wanted to go down and just went out the top, which was slower...

473/2000

Control collecting, went into the spiral again too, since that's what I messed up in the course...

Classic - Splits

Sprint - Splits

Morning rollerski, River Rd., sans the injured Alex, so a lonely training. And chilly- 36 degrees when I started! Went out and did 4 x double hill intervals- there's a two bump hill, so I did an interval up the first hill, down, then up the second- forwards and back, times 2. A good session for sure.

Felt last evenings ab workout already... So I focused on trying to get more power out of the legs, also did 10 min no poles and 10 min double pole on the way there and back.

A dog-walking lady commented that the downhills looked more fun than the ups. Well, kinda, but also more dangerous!

C • Muscle soreness 1

C • aww 1