Training Log Archive: the kempster

Recovering from the weekend to be ready for the x-country meet this Thursday. Played football in gym and had a field hockey practise, but nothing very physically demanding. I can't wait until the rest of the class learn how to play football so then we can play some real games. Unfortunately, football season at Nepean is in the spring, so I'll have to wait a while for the school team...

Was a really fun course except I made some really stupid mistakes because I was going way too fast. Control 3 on my first 2 maps I messed up pretty bad which cost me a lot of time. By the 3rd map Carol and I were running together so it was super fast!!! It was really nice running although some parts did have a lot of deadfall which made it tricky. When I ran along the trail along the side of the cliff it was kinda scary just glancing at the fields below, so I stayed away from there most of the race. Other than those mistakes, I only made a few little bobbles which is pretty good considering the pace I was going at!!!

I learned from yesterday, and took it slower through the tougher parts so as not to waste 10-15min screwing around hopelessly in the woods. Control 1 and 2 was really good, nailed them right on!!! Our first long leg to control 3 was pretty good until I got within 5m of the control. Once I got off the trail, I took it really slow checking everything but then I found a control which wasn't mine which really threw me off!!! And it ended up that it was within maybe 2m of the control!!! I ran right past it, but thankfully after about 3min, I said enough is enough and relocated off a swamp. I was a bit worried about 5 because it was mostly off a bearing through a swamp but I found the boulder on the other side and ran right into the control! For 6, I ran farther down the trail because I wanted to know exactly where I was going off the trail just because I've had bad experiences with that, I did get a bit off my bearing, but only lost about 10sec there I think. I started going around the left to control 7, but then decided to turn back and go to the right. It was definitely a very thick, wet and interesting choice. I had to cross a swamp, a "stream" another stream that was practically a river but luckily I found a spot that had tons of rocks to cross. And there was a lot of green, it was definitely very nice to get onto the trail and then spike 7. (Attack point: small dried up pond) While going to 8, I found it hard to read all of the cliffs so I mainly relied on the swamps or atleast what was left of them. 9 was beautiful!!! I ran along side of the ridge and my plan was to run out to the trail if I couldn't find the control in 10sec. Well, that was unnecessary because I practically triped over it!!! 10 was an easy one, and then there was the last long leg of the course. I cut across at the small part of the swamp and as soon as I got to the trail, I started looking for the really small one. Ran that all the way to the next large trail and it was just a trail run for about 800m. Made a bad route choice cutting across the swamp because I really had to fight my way through it was so green. Once I got out of there I mostly trail ran just so I would know which trail I was on the whole time. Cut across along the ridge and then ran right into the control. The rest from there was homefree. Just run towards the music!!! Hehe, almost, still had to make sure I knew where I was or I'd never find control 12 and 13. But after those 2, you could just sprint to the last control and into the finish shoot. Very happy with this race and my placing!!!

I totally bombed this one mostly because I was trying to go too fast, the terrain was pretty techinical, and my orienteering was just sloppy. Pretty disappointing! Spent 13:00min on control 1, not really sure what I did except the I got way off my bearing and was 100m down the trail. 2 and 3 were ok managed to do some pretty good relocation near the control. But then, 5 was a disaster. I was going in the right direction, everything was fine, and then I hit another control that wasn't mine which screwed me up. I thought I knew what the feature was, but for some really stupid reason, I went running off in the wrong direction. Darn it all!!! Finally my race started to pick up and I didn't make any major mistakes after that. The trail network near the very end was deadly and I did lose a couple minutes in there, but nothing serious. The last 2 controls, I wasn't reading my map at all, ok, I guess really rough map-reading, but I guess I was lucky to find them because some people had a lot of trouble. I just kinda ran towards the music hehe! :-)

Middle Course 7a - Splits

Event: 2006 North American Championships (Golden Leaf Orienteering Fest)
 

Wow, what an intense sprint!!! It was definitely fast and furious like the organizers said!!! It was pretty tricky trying to read the really fine details that really mattered while running or else you'd end up at a dead end. Started out pretty strong and didn't make a mistake until control 5 where I wasted 10sec checking a control number that wasn't mine because I wasn't sure exactly where mine was. Totally messed up 13 because my map was oriented funny and so I wasn't sure which of the 3 identical parts of the building the control was on. I started running around one, then went back and then figured it out. 35sec later which cost me a couple places. Really stupid mistake there!!! Got a bit confused on 15 because I didn't know the control was in the corner by the wall but I still finished pretty strong and I'm happy with my race. I ended up placing 6th in F20-34

Didn't go too hard at practise today because I had the beep test, a field hockey game, and the NAOC's later on, so I didn't want to kill myself right before. Went down to the beach and did loops, I'm not sure how many, just that we went for about 15min.

Did the Nepean beep test which is way different than the Broadview one. The guy talking is really inconsistent because sometimes, the level would end at .8, or sometimes at .10. You could never tell!!! And it was way faster. The first level you were jogging instead of just walking. I made it to level 11 and the second highest I think was 8.6. I had a headache before but I don't think it impacted my run that much.

Headin' off to Hamilton tomorrow morning directly after band, (had to fit atleast that in if not x-country). The sprint is tomorrow so I'll time to recover in the car.

Did some more scrimaging in gym which was a lot of fun. The kiwis went undefeated the whole time until the last game where we lost by one basket. We played so well though and just schooled the other teams. The last team we played had this one girl that would practically jump on you to try and get the ball away. Really scary!!! :-)