Orienteering race 1:42:17 [5] *** 11.4 km (8:58 / km) +375m 7:42 / km
spiked:16/17c
US long-0 champs at Thacher State Park. I have a good run, some route choices could be better. The legs feel much better than yesterday. I sense some speed on the trails, the pay-off of the tempo runs. I am glad to find that at my tender age (49 as of today) I can improve my speed.
A pleasant weekend, with a better race on Sunday. I enjoy the long race. There is room for improvement on the map. The course setting and control pick-up of the last week was a lot of time on the map, but in at a slower speed and many hours in the woods. Exhausting for the body, like the almost four hours in the woods on Wednesday. Race map reading is fast, just a glance and a decision. As course setter I have to check all the elements. As Spike comments later, 'you got to change your mental attitude for the race'. Right.
I meet Max, a sweet boy with a hearty appetite for bananas and dirt diving. I sort some gravel rocks with him and we also have a course review together. He is understands the route choices right away and points them out on the map. So far he seems to like orienteering. Definitely a better choice than becoming president, the other option when growing up in Washington.
Running warm up/down 30:00 [3] 5.0 km (6:00 / km) +50m 5:43 / km
I run away from the camp, along the road, to do a thorough warm up. 20 minutes of steady running, some martial arts, stretching, than more running. I need time to wake up. The body seems slow and resists running. I keep running, since I know after 20 minutes or so I feel better.