Training Log Archive: VeganKeegan

Long-Sprint - Splits

5 by 3 minutes with a 3-minute break + cool down. Felt really bad going into this and it was super hot out (okay it was only 75 degrees but that was the hottest it's been so far this year) so thought I'd do really bad. And while it definitely felt awful and was not much fun I managed to hit the pace I wanted to go and made a good workout out of it. I did have to give myself an extra 30-second rest on the last two reps but besides that a clean workout. The distances below are definitely not right but there in the right ballpark.

0.95km
0.96km
0.95km
0.95km
1.02km

General thoughts about the course: The vegetation was very overgrown and hard to move through which made the compass bearings a bit harder. I thought the map was 1:15 for about half of the course when in reality it was 1:10. This resulted in me just being very confused for the first half of the course before I realized what had happened. I also started this slow(walking pace) then slowly sped up after each control until I was running harder than race pace. I noticed that my best bearings came when I was running at training pace. When I was walking I was going too slow and kind of just got distracted and when I was going all out I just couldn’t quite keep up.

1) As I said above I walked this control. I managed to take a very straight line which I was happy about but the angle of the line was pretty far off. In terms of distance from the control, I think this was my worst leg but since I managed to go so straight the whole time it wasn’t too bad.

2)Very similar control number 1. Very straight compass bearing, very slow speed, and drifted just a bit to the right. Since this was a shorter control I didn’t drift as far but still not great.

3) I started jogging at this control and managed to nail 3. Probably the best bearing of the day.

4) Another very good leg. Veered off a little at the end but overall almost perfect.

5) Again good leg. Moving now at a little faster than training pace but not quite race pace.

6) Trail and the swamp under the white messed me up a little but still a good leg.

7) My head was very out of it on this leg and changed directions a few times but managed to still almost nail the control. This was exciting because it showed that I was starting to be able to do good bearings even tired.

8) Decided to speed it way up and see how my bearings were at full speed. I was running pretty much as fast as my body and the forest would allow for the final few controls. My bearings get a little worse overall and I mess up this control, again going a little right, but it was encouraging how close I got considering the speed.

9) Again very fast running. Probably not quite as fast as the prior leg but still faster than race pace. Good straight line but my initial bearing was just a little off. Ended up farther away from the control than I wanted.

10) Tried to take both 10 and 11 at speed with no break at the control (up until this point I had stopped at each control to make sure I was in the right spot and catch my breath a little). Going to 10 went well. I nailed the control but not really sure how I got there looking at the GPS. My bearing was very much not straight and I just got kind of lucky. There is also a chance I didn’t make it to the control and I just changed my GPS to match but I’m pretty sure I was in the right spot.

11)Took a little bit of a break at ten because I was trying to determine if I was in the right spot or not. Then took just an awful bearing out of the control. I think this had to do with me being a little tired, having strayed a bit from 10 in order to make sure I was in the right spot, and me just really wanting to go to the road. I then also messed up my distance estimation and thought I was at the control when I hit the first trail. All in all, not a very good leg.

Finish) trail run to finish

All in all, I would say I did pretty well in this exercise but could definitely use some more practice on precise compass bearings. In general, it seems my mistakes come from taking an initially bad bearing and then following through on that and I tend to aim a little right.

C • you orienteer? 8