Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Vancouver Sprint Camp was incredible fun! It'll take a while to log all the sessions. I'll start by just putting in a brief description of each one, along with a gps track if I have one, then I'll go back and add details.

C • sounds like quite a fine time 3

University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Sprint Camp Session 8, Race 4. 2.7 km, no climb. Gave this one my all. Great fun, did really well. If that length is accurate (in the meet notes it said 2.4 km) this would be one of my fastest paces ever. Navigated really well, pushed the pace at many opportunities, especially in the second half.

UBC, Vancouver. Sprint Camp Session 9, Race 5. 1.9km, no climb. Made my only significant mistake of the camp, 1.5 mins on #12. Part of that was due to what I think is a mapping error.Very difficult because of the many small loops of controls and the fact that the control numbers were placed on top of buildings and were hard to see. Still great fun, though.

UBC Setup Expert Male - Splits

UBC Chase Expert Male - Splits

Jericho Beach Park, Vancouver. Sprint Camp Session 3, Race 2. 2.5km/25m. Rained over night, but just occasional drizzle here. Course was too easy. Didn't want to run hard at this stage, but there wasn't much to do besides run, so did put some effort into it. Managed to finish well ahead of my peers.

1. Made left turn too quickly, but realized it immediately. Lost :10. Lost more relative to others because I wasn't running hard.

4. Marg and Brian went straight, right through the light green, with no problem. I took the path, intending to cut straight to the control once beyond the green, but even there the veg looked too thick so stayed on the paths. Cost me :30 and so led to my worst split.

[Orienteering race - Sprint]

Good warm up and cool down in the assembly area.

Instead of cooling down in the assembly area, probably should have jogged over to where the training started. Instead, later drove over in Francois & MJ's car. After I aborted that little session, jogged and walked back to my car, catching up with Alex Kerr and chatting a bit.

Jericho Beach Park, Vancouver. Sprint Camp Session 4. Didn't do much of this because it seemed not worth the physical effort in comparison to all the other sessions that I need to feel OK for. It was several loops in the area we had gone through just S of the lake, picking out the right control when you got near it. Walked over towards one set of controls and saw that it was very easy to pick out the right one.

Totem Park (on the UBC campus), Vancouver. Sprint Camp Session 5, Race 3. Mass start Farsta, 2.2 km, no climb. This was really fun, all about keeping your head. I navigated extremely well but didn't go all out physically (the races tomorrow are the ones I really want to go for). My time of 16:40 is from when I punched at the Start Triangle. My official time was 1:20 mins slower, with :50 of that due to my misunderstanding the start procedure.

Went to the meet in the Ellis' car. Got there just in time, but no time for a warmup. Though I heard some instructions for the mass start (in four waves), including that we weren't standing in the start triangle, I didn't get that we were supposed to go to the start triangle and punch before heading to #1. So, I start heading for 1, wondering why no one else was going that way. After a bit, figured out that everyone was going to the start triangle and punching, so I had to go all the way back and do that. Cost me about 50 secs.

After that, navigated extremely well and without much hesitation, only once or twice missing the optimal route, but not by much. Did particularly well (reflected in the split rankings) on the first leg of each succeeding loop, which I was able to do by reading ahead on the next map while I approached the Finish on the current one. Also did really well on course B leg 4 (determined S route was best while running on the road to 3) and 4th course, leg 2 (found the middle way, with Marie-Josee in hot pursuit).

Note: My ordering of the first 3 courses was BCA. Other people had different permutations, making the split rankings in AP meaningless. Easy to identify course C because it had 5 controls and the others had 4, and also it had one extremely short leg. Better yet, in Winsplits the legs are rearranged so that the splits ARE comparable, though the legs are not necessarily in the order you did them.

Unfortunately, the gps couldn't seem to get the signal in the start area, which was among some very tall trees.

[Orienteering Race - Sprint]

Cool down (hadn't been time for a warm up), partly with Joanne Woods.

Totem Park (UBC), Vancouver), Sprint Camp Session 6. A line-O on the same map as the race a few moments ago. Didn't find this very compelling, especially with one more race coming up this afternoon and then the two I really want to run tomorrow morning.

Memorial Park West, Vancouver. Sprint Camp Session 7. Two-person relay. Raining and cold, wasn't into it. But my teammate Mari-Josee wanted to do it, so did it at modest effort. No official time and couldn't get my GPS going, so just estimating from my watch. Each leg was 1.1 km, took about 7 or 8 minutes. Had a little trouble on #8 on the first leg and then accidentally skipped #9. On the second leg, one very small error, leaving #7 too hastily and hitting 9 before 8 (which was only about 25m away).

Would've been a fun challenge on a nice day at full speed.

[Orienteering Sprint practice]

Jericho Expert Male - Splits

Totem Farsta Expert Male - Splits

Event: Vancouver Sprint Camp
 

Met up with Marie-Josee, Francois, Erin Schirm and the Petersen twins on I-5 north of Seattle. MJ went the rest of the way with me. Lots of rain, heavy at times, but when we got to Vancouver, the sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the afternoon. Gave rides to Katie and Sarah and Zack Hoeffner from Ohio, who we met at the hostel (meet HQ).

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises. Eased off on the latter as the week wore on.

Oak Meadows Park, Vancouver. Session 1, training with Brent Langbakk. Sunny after heavy morning rain, so the ground was very wet. Total for course was 1.6 km.

Just jogged through it, unwilling to go faster with a race coming up in less than 2 hours. The artificial constraints on the map might have made it challenging if one was running hard, but it was much too easy for me at jogging pace.

There were two copies of the map on a single sheet. The first copy had 5 controls. Many of the trails were marked as out of bounds, with a few gaps, to force you to keep from just going straight. The second copy had six more controls; this time a number of patches on the map were marked as white and you were not allowed to go into them.

Note: GPS track is completely wacko here. Didn't get the watch started until I was going from #2 to #3. Took a split at 5 (end of the first exercise) and then again at the start of the second exercise (38 secs). The time of 7:46 for the second exercise is almost certainly correct, but the track is so far off it's hard to say if the distance is correct. The finish (final split) is pretty close to the correct location.

Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver. Session 2 of Sprint Camp, Race 1. 1.9km/72m. Very detailed park on a big hill. Mapping of paths and stairs could have been clearer. Tried to save legs by going slowly on all uphills. Really good navigational challenge, felt like I did it very well, and it was fun. Had to stop 6 or 8 times to see details on the map. Turned out to be my lowest scoring day, maybe because most others were very familiar with the park.

2. Leaving 1 on a direct line to 2 looked like it would be extra climb (but that was wrong), so went NE then N to the road. At least that gave me the opportunity to work out the details of the rest of the leg, which then executed flawlessly.

3. Had to stop at the end of the dashed line path because I couldn't make out the paths on the map from the contour lines.

5. Almost ran past the building, but it was my highest rank split (3) as I retraced my route from 3 to 4.

6. Leaving 5 NE and then W through the field might've been faster than what I did, SW then a long the path, because reading the path was difficult.

8. Looked at the path SSW of the big round building, but didn't go that way because it seemed to be blocked on both ends. In actuality, those are stairs that are printed with lines that are too thick. Walked up the long stairway on my route.

Otherwise, did a very good job of navigating on the run.

Drove to the race with Katie & Sarah Petersen and Zack Hoeffner.

[Orienteeering race - Sprint]

Warm up: 8 minutes, ~.7 mi; felt pretty loose.

Spent a long time speaking with Coach Brent before doing my cool down, which was done mostly by jogging back to the car (off the SE end of the map).

Cool down: 5 minutes, ~.3 mi.

Queen Elizabeth Expert Male - Splits

Fly to Seattle in the morning, headed ultimately to the Vancouver Sprint Camp.

Front of house. Started off to do an easy mile or two, but my legs are still tired from Sunol, and I'm feeling a lot of stress from preparing for this weekend's trip and (much more so) the summer trip to Estonia, so after getting to the 5.0 mark just stopped and walked back.

Theraband interleaved with core, weights, hips. Two sets of the arm exercises, and omitted "punches" because I think they've been hurting my neck. Alas, the next morning my neck was sore again.

[Strength exercises]