Training Log Archive: ndobbs

bit of strength training the last couple of days since not running

Guardamar Norte

training run with Boris the morning of departure. Same course we ran the wednesday before (arrival day) but in reverse order.

ball of foot is well-bruised after the day before.

A fantastic week in Spain, many thanks to Boris and Jan for making it possible

to and from the map

Sierra del Oro, afternoon
From Boris' log:

After a drive involving several U-turns and several moments when it seemed we would never find the map, we finally got to Sierra del Oro, twenty minutes behind one of our cars, twenty minutes ahead of the next one, and an hour or so ahead of the girls' car! But it was worth it!!! The terrain was incredible, with lots of route choice legs and huge mazes of canyons and steep reentrants and beautiful hillsides. Very tough, physical terrain - "a manly course", as Tomas put it. We did part (about two-thirds) of last year's Costa Calida classic course, including an awesome 2.8km leg with myriad route choices. I was pretty pleased to be just a minute slower than Micke on that leg. After the long leg, Neil and I ran together, both pretty tired, but navigating well and pushing each other. It was lots of fun and excellent training, by the end of which I was totally exhausted. A fantastic final full day of camp!!!!

was this one sierra del molino?
More great orienteering terrain, fun course. Took the scenic route after splitting up with boris a third of the way through, abbsolutely amazing runnning along the ridge...

tired after the long leg, had some trouble...

Training run with Boris in Cotos Cuadros (or some such)

Beautiful views from the ridge on the way to 8. From Boris' log:

Long dstance route choice exercise with Neil. In the beginning, we kept picking different route choices and waiting for each other at controls, but after a while, ended up just running together. Nice terrain, ridge-and-valley, but not too steep, with fast woods but rock underfoot. Beautiful views in all directions from ridgetops on a gorgeous day!!
Hanging out with no shirts on and sunbathing afterwards - in February!!!!

Marina - El Pinet

Sprint qualifier... had the misfortune to be in a heat with two talented male swedes and and a girl on the swedish team... despite inferior fitness (or willpower?) managed to be in sight after 13 controls out of 14 thanks to a couple of mistakes by the leaders. then made a mistake myself, so finished well off the pace.

Park race Guardamar, Sprint Final.... couple of small mistakes... not particularly happy, but given my tiredness had trouble running and map-reading...

warm-up for sprints

Guardamar Sur
with Boris, managed to do the first few controls as well as B, afterwards he was running stronger... lovely terrain again.

To and from the map. As it was I wasn't overly enthused about going training again after the previous days' exertions. But we had fun. Honestly. Makes for a story, although not as interesting as if Boris HAD actually swam the canal (or both canals as it turned out later)... from took twice as long as to...

from boris' log:

Getting to and from the Guardamar Sur map. I thought that getting there was an adventure, as we had to cross a canal by climbing up a highway overpass and then make our way through the town's dirty industrial part and busy center to find the map, but it was the way back that was the most memorable. We tried to run along the beach to get back, but hit a marina, with no way to get across the water. Afer more wandering and some fence-jumping, we eventually found ourselves less than 100 meters from our campsite, separated from it by two canals. After seriously considering swimming and (not as seriously) building a raft out of wooden crates, we cursed and ended up running all the way around, up the highway on-ramp, across the bridge, and down on the other side, adding an extra 4km or so to the run...

Fuente le Higuera
Cost Calida Day 2
Chasing start

Managed to catch some swede by the second or third control, all went fine until the fifth when I didn't realise that I was VERY obviously three contours higher than I should be and so missed my open area... lost a couple (three at least?) minutes on this control. Apart from that was pretty clean. Could have saved another minute on routes... fun competition. Congrats to GG for breaking into the big time and posting the days fastest time (30:XX), and to Tommi for winning overall and Mats in second...
gg looks like he's going to be a top top orienteer in the not too distant future...

warm up for the compet