Training Log Archive: AdventureGirl!

52 was the magic number today for Hammer’s birthday!

My own beddddddd

C • welcome home 2

WOC Relay - Leg 1

This was so much fun. The incredible rain made things even more epic.
Goals were to stay in control of my race and sit back a little to use the others but not rely on them. I wanted to be confident in my own orienteering, and push hard when I could.

Things started off through the lake/start chute and got really narrow quite quickly. I took the power line for a while but it was so rugged that I cut off with a group down the small trail. They didn’t seem to be going to my forking so I broke away from them there. Looking at the GPS now I realized that I took the wrong route to my first control. Didn’t even realize that there was a trail almost directly there. Lost the pack with my forking way too early because of this.
There were people quite close to me while going to my second control so I really pushed to catch back up. Really hammered the spectator loop even though I could barely see in the rain. After that I was just less than 50m behind the second pack until control 9 where I made a small mistake. I had taken a roundabout route and then jammed my ankle between two rocks. I took a few walking steps and then told myself to HTFU and kept going. I didn’t take a good enough bearing from my AP and was hesitant going into the control which was on a cliff on the far side of a hill. Found it quickly but the pack in front of me was out of sight. The rest of the race was nice and clean. Was really confident coming through the thick green at the end, and that made me really happy since that terrain had screwed me up so many times in training.

Overall I’m super happy with this race. I was able to push hard and navigate very confidently essentially on my own for most of the race. After the uncertainties in training, that felt really good. And I was so happy that my ankle let me fly out there too! What an awesome ending to a kinda stressful week!

Ran part of an open course as intervals with Pia. A great confidence booster training by nailing a bunch of controls and running fast.
Ready for the relay tomorrow!!

C • Awesome! 3

Back to one of the previous training maps that I only walked on last time. Went out to the farther intervals to practice some side hilling legs. Got to 13 and then totally missed 14 which was right on the line to 15. Oops. Anyways, the side hilling was hurting my ankle so I crossed over and finished the second last interval. It was really good and clean, I had good plans, and was looking up to anticipate. Good stuff. Jogged back through 1, and then finished with 2 strides on the road. They felt good!

I decided not to run the WOC Long today. I am really, really sad not to be out there in the woods today. I prepared so well for this race and I feel physically fit enough to power through it all. I know that this is the best decision for the long term but it was not an easy one to make. It's frustrating because my ankle doesn't feel incredibly sore today. It's still not great but I feel like I could have suffered through the race.
Oh well.

C • Tough call to make! 6

Event: WOC 2019 - Norway
 

WOC Middle Q - 23rd, heat 1.

My goal going into this race was to push as hard as my ankle would allow, and to channel any thoughts of pain into keywords to double check my navigation. I wanted to have a slow and controlled start to the race, and build from there. The sequence was compass > look up > attack > control.
I took the run up to the start nice and slow to develop a very strong plan which I excecuted perfectly. I knew before even coming over the hilltop exactly where my control would be. Then to 2 the same thing, looking up high to see my flag about halfway through the leg. Looked ahead in the course to prepare myself for a longer leg up next.
Going across the big, soaking wet marsh I tried to hop over to what I thought was nice soft moss, but it was actually something hard and I jammed my bad ankle. Here I thought to myself "okay let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here" and slowed down to get up the hill right after. The ankle didn't feel good but I pushed the thoughts away. I felt confident coming across the hill side to my attackpoint which was a big cliff before 3. But I was just off the red line and found another large cliff with a marsh near it (which was much more wet from all the rain). Found the other course control and bounced off the valley just behind the control. Here is when I started panicking. I tried to cut across the hillside again but I was still not low enough. More panic. Finally realized I was too high and came farther down to the control. I was frustrated and took off to 4 without going through my sequence and goofed that one up too.
Big breath time. 5 was pretty perfect but going to 6 I was not feeling very confident. 6-8 I was just so out of the right headspace. I was distracted and not making good plans, plus feeling very hesitant. Then I almost forgot to go to 9, but figured it out at the last second.
I think going to 9 was when I got back into it a bit more. It was an easy leg and fast running (well, as fast as my bum ankle would let me). I really tried to focus back into my sequence and get a good plan. This was the routecoice leg and I picked the wrong routechoice in terms of time, but it was one that I could feel confident on. Was super slow going up the cliff, and this was NOT comfortable on my ankle.
A little hesitant coming into 11, but then smooth sailing to the end navigation wise. Ankle did not hold on long enough for me to push as hard as I wanted to into the finish, meaning that Anton came up behind me and blew by. Too funny.
Forced myself into a walking cool down because my ankle wouldn't really allow much else.

Overall, I enjoyed the terrain out there. I am so frustrated at not being able to do my best effort because of this injury, but I am satisfied with the overall performance. I think that the little stumble that re-hurt my foot in addition to the mistake at 3 just really blew me out of my headspace and left me worrying the rest of the race despite trying to turn them into good thoughts. Though, compared to the first training I did here 2 weeks ago, I am really happy with my overall orienteering in this terrain.

Bring on the relay redemption.

MIddleQ - Women 1 - Splits

Model map with Anton. switched between leading, following and going ‘harder’ alone. Feeling very confident in the areas which are not riddled with small cliffs and knolls.
Ankle is feeling tight again when I dorsiflex my foot. It’s okay when running but uphills are not as fun. My right leg is (opposite side) is also quite sore from taking all the jumps and climbs to protect my left ankle. Gotta stop doing that so I don’t ruin all my core work that I’ve been doing to even out my legs!
My goal tomorrow is to make any thought of concern for my foot into a keyword to look back at the map and focus.
Overall feeling ready for tomorrow in the condition that i’m in. Obviously, more time would be nice so that I can actually run...but the goal for tomorrow is to not go full send in order to run a very clean, very in control race.

C • Good luck 2