Training Log Archive: slauenstein

After a long nights sleep I thought I was all better, but as the day continued I realized that my body was not up to much. Had to sleep for several hours in the afternoon. Hope tomorrow will be better.

Woke up at 5am this morning with a pounding headache and knew something wasn't right. Got ready to run at least the relay, but within a few hours I had to declare defeat... I felt nauseous and the headache was worst and my body started to ache as well. Made it through spectating the sprint and the mixed-relay but I couldn't really enjoy it and in retrospect I certainly missed out on something. The low point came as we were driving to Lake Placid, I had to throw-up and after that my stomach cramped for hours and my body ached. Horrible. But I slept for 12 hours and felt much better in the morning on Tuesday.

C • :^( 1

NAOC long distance.
I wasn't sure I could run this whole race since I was very tired and sore from yesterday. I also slept badly. But I didn't want to let anyone down, so I started the race hoping I could finish. It did not go well in the beginning and I lost A LOT of time to 3. After that things got much better and by the 2nd half of the course I was having fun!
Glad the result got me in the points for the cup. Felt like I certainly played my part in winning the cup even though I could run the sprint because I got the stomach flu. Will have fond memories of this NAOC's!!

With all the hype and talk at the house about who was going to win and if the US could win the BK Cup and about the direct spots for WOC, I actually even felt a little nervous before this race, eventhough I had no pressure and way not trying to achieve anything except for having fun and orienteering well. At my speed (being 4.5 months pregnant) I had no reason to want more.

After my warm-up my nerves went away and I started to look forward to the race. Starting off, I took it careful to number one, but saw what I wanted to see. Took a round about route to number 3 and really started to gain confidence in the terrain on my way to 4, but ended up loosing a minute to 4 because I missunderstood the green. So, was careful to 5 and 6, spiking them and seeing what I wanted to see in the terrain. Looked at 7 and thought, oh this will be difficult and made a safe plan, following the small river to the marsh, over the small hills, to the small lake, saw the yellow hilltop, two dot-knolls and than my yellow hill. Continued to be careful, but pushed the pace when I could and I was having fun. Got caught by Lisa and Lovisa just before the spectator control. Since Lovisa started only 2 min behind me I felt pretty good about the fact, but I took a different route to one control and lost them, so I wasn't with them on the final loop. I lost some time on the that loop because I was getting tired a sloppy, but all in all a good race. Probably lost 2.5 min in total.

I was basically in shock to find out that I had won the North American's and even more in shock when I realized that it means I can start at WOC next year. With the baby coming in March, it may be possible that I could get back into shape by August, but we are going to wait and see how things go with 2 children, etc.

Winning this race was kind of like "a dream come true" for me in a way. I had always had races during my orienteering career that were very technical and I never got through 100% clean. One big mistake ruined what could have been a great result. I always longed for that one race where I was the one to get through clean and win (or have a better than normal result). So even though it's not a moment when I wanted to win, it still feels good.

Event: NAOC2014 (North American Champs/Ottawa O-Fest)
 

Model event at the North American champs. The terrain is difficult and will take a lot of concentration and attention. I found it to be the hardest because the light green really cuts down on visibility and the contours are only 2.5 meters which means you can't rely on big features. Direction out of each control will be super important.