Training Log Archive: hkleaf

Event: US Team Trials
 

US Team Trials / SLOC A-Meet - UMSL, St. Louis, MO.
M21+ Blue - though everybody ran the same course.

It was warm, with temperature approaching 90F at the start. The sun was also out the entire time, which makes it even harder to sprint around. After a solid week of cool soggy weather in Cincinnati, it's a bit hard to adjust to the conditions today.

Oerall not a great run. Had some minor mistakes (poor route choices/hesitations) at 2, 3, 5, and 15. Plus a huge error leaving 7 (poor map reading). All told, they probably cost me ~2 minutes, which in a sprint race is a lot. No doubt I could still improve on my speed a bit (I would've been smoked by 3 minutes even with a clean run!), but more so on minimizing my navigation mistakes.

Despite my mediocre result, I still had a fun time out there. It was my first urban sprint o' experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I definitely would love it if we have some in Cincy in the future.

Warm up/Cool down run around spectator area. Distance is an estimation. My left shin was bothering me a bit in pre-race warm up. Not sure if I'm dealing with a possible shin splint or just the lingering effects of the marathon still. It did get better after warming up, and I didn't feel any particular discomfort during the race.

Before and after race.

US Team Trials / SLOC A-Meet - S-F Scout Ranch, Farmington, Mo.

My first experience having a pre-race run in a model area. It was fun getting some extra training in. I only ran portions of a couple legs at race speed, the rest was at a slow jog/walk so that I can take in more of the terrain while cross-referencing the mapped features. The distance and climb listed are from the actually mapped course, but I certainly did much more than that exploring other areas on the map.

Even though it was after 6pm, it was still really warm out there. I was just happy to be free of tics when I got back from the course!

Sprint - Splits

It's probably not the best idea to go into a big race without running/training at all the whole week. But since I'm still fighting this cold, I figure resting and saving my energy is the smarter choice here.

Of the 2 prior A-Meets that I competed, I never fair well running the Blue courses. I'll try to do better this time, with the focus on keeping better map contact (i.e. finding my optimal o' speed).

OCIN Event - Camp Friedlander, Loveland, Ohio.
Green - EC was at the Lower Camp Craig this time.

It'd been raining here since Thursday, with the temperature dropping to the 40s. So I thought it could be miserable out there, especially with all the steep slopes. As it turned out, the rain stopped just in time when I got there (late start), and the footing wasn't terrible ala East Fork last month.

First time orienteering since the OCIN Flying Pig, and first time running hard since the other Pig. Legs felt reasonably good, and my navigation was ok as well. No major mistakes today, though Mike did have plenty of interesting route choices for the course. I've done well here at CF both times now within the last year. The feature-rich map really helps me stay in contact much better. Now if only I can translate the success onto an A-Meet...

The only downer was me taking a spill running onto a wooden footbridge going from 5 to 6. I went in at an angle with a decent pace, and fail to realize rubber studs and wet wood aren't the best of friends. The next moment, I was skidding across on my side, and proceeded to slide off the bridge down into the reentrant 6-7ft below! Thud! Thank goodness I didn't hit any sharp/hard objects at the bottom there. Now I've got some battle marks all up and down my left side (arm, ribs, thigh) to show for it.

C • Slime Covered Wooden Objects... 2

Helped with some control picking around the lake afterwards.

Been under the weather the past several days. Caught a cold Thursday I guess, and been stuffed up since. Unfortunately sleeping it off isn't the trick to rid of this nasty cold, at least not yet.