Training Log Archive: AliC

World Games Sprint Relay - Rio Pance West

Eric started us out, but didn't have the race he wanted, finishing 5 minutes down to New Zealand and 2.5 to China. Sam had a great race though, catching a full 3.45 back on New Zealand and passing China. So back in the game! Ross then headed out, and also had a good one, no major mistakes, dropping just a minute to NZ's Tane who was in contact some with Bertuks during the race and coming in with China's Quoaping Li.

First two controls were fine, I had the easier forking to #1 and #2 was just at the gate that allowed us onto the eastern portion of the course. Then I had some problems with #3, ending up at the big boulder east of the double small boulders I wanted. Probably lost 30s here? And maybe more, as Ross's brilliant route of along the fence was almost certainly fastest!

Some ski-o skill on little trails to #4, before the infamous #5 which caused perhaps all of the many mispunches of the day. Basically, there were two controls a similar distance off a big trail, just about 50m apart. One was a knoll, one was a boulder. And those with the knoll (myself included) had to run past the boulder on the best route to the knoll. So particularly those running with others were tempted to just punch the boulder, it sounds like...

Then we had a control-pick from #6-#10 that I just didn't do that well with. No major mistakes, but slow, some large degree to having to unfold the map and check control code numbers. #11 and #12 were routes you had to choose how to execute heading up hill, I did a bit of a cut to #11, but went around on the left to #12.

#13 was the gate again (easy, more of a radio-check than a real control), and #14 an easy boulder right off a trail. But then forking took me to the ugly #15 through gross high grass. I felt so slow and was unable to go much faster than a walk despite using everything I had! Maybe a way more around to the right would have been faster? #16 was the spectator control, which I needlessly battled through a marshy reentrant to. While doing so, I thought I remembered no one else looking like they were battling so hard, but I didn't really see the way around. A bit lazy-brain, I think.

Lots of cheering at #16, but more vauge in the 'try to go get her' vein, not so much the 'she's 30s up, you can reel her in' vein, which is fair enough, because Georgia was 1:35 up at that point. I took #18 and #19 cleanly, but saw no sign of Georgia. Then climbing to #20, she was coming back down at me heading to #21. She was too far ahead to chase down going the same route, so my route choice was forced to the upper route, because I just had to try to do something different. I was happy as I approached #21, her lead had dropped to only 20s.

#22 and #23 I just screamed down the hill, very much aided by chasing Georgia down. Honestly, I didn't need to look at my map much. Used a buliding and Georgia to get me to #22 and then I remembered where #23 was from our walk into the stadium, so I just cut directly to it, taking a bit better line than her. Still, she was just ahead and got to punch first at the single punch at the last control (planning fail). I wasn't fully confident in my sprinting, but then it was just time to give it absolutely everything to the finish. We both did, and I ended up just that important smidge ahead. Happy I did some full-out strides this summer, sprinting usually isn't my strong point!

C • Ah, so fine. I'd been guess... 3

Aw shoot! I had a good run, but I did a loop in the wrong order and so, DQ. (Apologies to anyone following the GPS and shouting at my dot to go the other way!) Otherwise, I would have been 11th, just a few seconds out of the top 10 (if clockwise and counterclockwise approaches are vaguely equivalent for that loop, that is.)

So I'm this strange mix of happy with my run, because it really did go pretty well, only 3 min back from Minna who won. But mispunching heavily tempers that happiness. So, I'll just be multi-emotioned for awhile, I think.

Psyched to play the sprint relay with our team tomorrow. We'll be Eric-Sam-Ross-me and get to face the jungle again! (One of the cool things of today - banana trees growing at the pre-start, with two big bunches of green bananas hanging down. They are strange looking!)

C • Have fun 2

C • DQ 1

World Games Middle Distance at Rio Pance

Almost very good, but slipped going the right direction around the loop. Still, very encouraging some splits are right up there with the top women, and I was in 7th place at #23, before messing up the loop... fun to do a sprinty middle distance. Some sections of paths surrounded by green were even ski-o like, reminded me a bit of the WRE near Victoria I pre-ran a few years ago!

Cool down, first with Sam, then a bit more with Judith.

Wahoo!! 5th in the World Games Sprint! And just 3 seconds of getting to stand up there, with the US flag raised and get a medal... can just taste that now, although I am still just totally happy with 5th as sneaking into the top 10 was the original goal!

The course has a lot of running and then some control-pick type sections in the little areas of park. These weren't hard, but would be if you ran totally all-out in the simple urban areas and didn't have enough brain oxygen to count trees/change direction properly.

I'll write up a bit more post shower!

C • yeah! 15

A good chunk of time chatting with Sam and Minna under the tent, then out into the sun to warm up!

World Games Sprint - El Ingenio

Well, yeah, mega-woo for a good race and ending up in 5th!!! Like most of my recent races, I started kinda slow but got into it. The easiest legs were generally my best splits, so yep, still best at running and not the even easy technical stuff. On one side, that's frustrating to lose all those 1-2-3 seconds on not hard little legs, but maybe on the other side, it means that it's just got to be possible for me to get faster!

How it went:

1 - Through the tunnel under the road from the stadium, then head rightish, ah! that's a big tree, scamper, scamper. Stopped extra time at the control because I didn't hear the beep. Beeps were abnormally quiet, just kinda had to trust.
2 - Out to path, in the white woods, only option.
3 - Eep! Most hesitant control of the race. There were tons of dirt mounds all around, and I had to find the right one. I really didn't come up with a good plan (good would have been counting trees), so just descended into the mess of them and ran the right way until I saw the control.
4 - And time to run! Saw Sam going anti-parallel just entering the urban stuff, made sure to cut across the open zone available. I could hear + feel my breathing being quite hard, knew I didn't need to think about taking it up a notch at all.
5 - Again, the route choice was about finding the way you could cut across the most yellow en route. Saw the Chinese girl one minute up coming at me as I approached the control, figured I had about 30 seconds on her.
6 - Picked my way out of the urban, then, which tree? First of the ones really close to the trail.
7 - Follow line of trees, to bamboo grove.
8 - Pop up and over path on the burm, then the tree closer to the trail after the burm gentle corner. Really chasing down the Chinese girl now, but what? She headed off towards #10 from #8. I really hoped she'd turn around, but she didn't, and ended up DQ'ed.
9 - Compass, up and over burm, spike.
10 - Back into urban, had seen the route choice before, and had decided on going right and using the narrow S passage. Further right gave an option for a little more open-cutting, but apparently it wasn't nice yellow, so ended up a fine choice.
11 - Feeling tired, but just kept at it, picked the left route which allowed for one yellow cut.
12 - Back into the park, I saw that it was going to be a lot of little changes of direction. I wanted my head screwed on totally right for this section, so I intentionally eased maybe just a bit the pace heading to 12, taking the right route. Saw the earthbank easily, went to end, and heard that I was doing well, as this was the spectator. Ok, focus, focus!!!
13 - Used the paved trails and their obvious junction to guide me straight to trail/ditch junction.
14 - Again, used the paved trails as a guide, could see the control on approach.
15 - Which tree? Control totally hidden behind, but should be the second one after a gap, so choose the right of the two, correct!
16 - Up to the path on top of the burm, hestitated very slightly at the first trail that descended into the green, but it wasn't around the slight bend, so waited, and got it right.
17 - Now really chasing down my 2 min up girl, Ausrinne K. from LTU, she went a bit wrong, I use the paved paths again.
18 - Back to the same control as #14, again was using paths.
19 - Compass and trees to right the right place to descend. Right on Ausrinne's heels now.
20 - I choose straight back out on the trail, as opposed to through the light green, I think faster, got ahead of Ausrinne. Then, eep, where is this black X that is the last control? Must be in the funnel of tape, approaching, approaching. Ah! The pink cat sculpture that was in the bulletin. Then sprinting it in!
Finnish- Announcer said it was tight, so I booked it in. And it was, 0.5 down to the Ukrainian, and apparently I lost that place in the run in! Gosh! But, she is a speed demon, she had the fastest run-in time and I had the second fastest, so I'm not beating myself up that much.

Many from many teams gave me great congrats after the race, a really wonderful feeling. This sport has an awesome community, even on the highest levels.

Cool down with Sam, in the super small area we had for the teams. About in the middle, I heard the news that I was in 5th! A big hug from Sam, and an instant smile on my face! =)

Boarded a bus and driven across the city to our sprint model area, Rio Meléndez. Knew we were there when we started seeing controls out the window. =)

Little warm up with Ross and Sam, noting things about the map. Most interesting feature- the crossable river which was actually pretty significant. But it was only actually crossable in some places, because often there were uncrossable cliffs (very steep earth bank actually)... Also, there were cool-looking bamboo thickets along the river edge, some harmless, some apparently consisting of man/woman eating Colombian thorny bamboo. It might even be worse than green briar. I hope I don't find out!!

Hoppin' around, doing my drills!

Then actually went around the course I had designed.

River crossings = doable, but not crazy fast, because both descent and ascent can be a bit slow (steep banks), and then the bottom is all rocky, so much slower than running up top. Still, if a bridge isn't handy, could be a good choice, although them saying we would never have to worry about cliffs being crossable in the race at the team leaders meeting makes us wonder if maybe river crossing won't even be an option...

Urban stuff = pretty standard. A lot of olive green, at least on this map. Mostly it was walled off by fences, but not always. And while the buildings are marked, any type of surface can be olive green, from totally open to woodsy, to high hedge. The trees seem mapped well, although mostly is the bush symbol, and occasionally they were bushes, not actually trees.

Veg colors = med green was apparently thorny bamboo = bad! Dark green was thick bamboo growth, definitely faster to go around. Light green was totally fine to get through, less dense bamboo. Distinct trees did seem quite distinct.

Trails - there, not really worth navigating by.

Straight to the giant meal tent afterwards, then we went over to the big arena to watch 7-a-side rugby. Fast paced game with only two 7 minute halves! We watched South Africa vs. Colombia, Canada vs. Hong Kong and France vs. Brazil before scampering back home.

C • River crossings 2

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