Training Log Archive: Becks

More later - Becky's Awesome at Brainard.

Okay, up now at : http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=bec...

I was tired when I started today and struggled a bit with concentration. Missed the path I wanted at 1 and did a nice banana, then really struggled with finding the correct boulder for number 2.

Number 5 direction was just totally off, and couldn't figure out whether I was supposed to go up or down. Decided to pull myself together after that.

The technical bits that followed were a delight, gorgeous woods and great mapping. Got most things spot on, aside from 9 where I drifted on the flat and thought I'd arrived a few crags too early. Quickly realised my crag wasn't opposite a hill and figured it out though.

12 was tricky, and as I suspected I did go past the site and dropped into the steeper re-entrant. I did go right over the control though, so my line was good, and would have been fine with a flag there.

At 16 I ran over the feature, but realised pretty quickly and corrected.

18 I had no plan and it showed - took the easy way out of the control, not realising that I needed to climb. Never saw the path, but realised very quickly I was too low. Not a fun climb up!

Then came the road running, and my legs finally came alive again! Garmin reckoned I was running just over 4 minute kms and it felt strong and easy, not tough and ridiculous. Just had to beat the body into submission, clearly!

Too far right of the line on 25 - hit the hilltops nicely but should have done a quick compass check. Misinterpreted the re-entrant the boulder was in as starting lower down, and thus headed to the wrong bit of the hill.

Silly route down from the final control, but it looked rocky the right way and I was being a pansy.



So all in all, maybe today should have been called Becky's sometimes awesome, but she's definitely rusty and needs to focus more in vague bits where the orienteering is less fun. Managed to stay ahead of the Ali though after she almost caught me at 12 (giving a motivating toot toot!). It's not like she was running without a compass or anything.

Oh, wait... :)

Event: WCOC - Sessions Woods
 

Yey! The orienteering thing! George planned a really fun course at Sessions Woods, making the most of the fun and interesting bit by interspersing path runs with short technical pick sections. Lungs felt better than they have done previously, legs a bit tired uphill but it was really fun. Analysis later as I had to hand in my map, as loads of people turned up. Yey!

DOMA is down for now, so here's the map:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/faintgirl/6114771114/...

Set off dead confident to 1, but then I hit the col and the control wasn't where I expected. Head scratched for a bit and then found it, but a good few seconds lost there.

2, 3 and 4 were all spiky goodness. 5 I stopped way too short, in fact, I had to stop myself from doing this again at multiple times in the course. Confidence? Just running too slow?!

6-16 navigating really well, good flow, but tired on the uphill bits of the tracks.


17 was my biggest error. I took the water I could see as the marsh, and it wasn't, the whole area was just soggy. Ended up drifting too far to the left, thought I might have gone over the bobbly hill but wasn't sure, just kind of carried on, then I saw no trees ahead, and realised that was the small pond. Corrected and found the control pretty quickly after that. My compass is not good in the thicker stuff, need to work on that.

20 was further to the right than I expected it to be - came off the hill pointing straight at it and it wasn't there. A bit of confused looking around and I spotted the control way further than I expected.

23 bobble not an error as such, but that looked to be the path of least resistance through the green.


All in all not bad, planning ahead well and attacking in the right places. But it would be nice to feel springy instead of whatever my legs were today!

Red - Splits

A highly inaccurate timing for taping the controls at Tarrywile, kept forgetting to restart my watch and didn't stop it every time I stopped. I felt crappy out there. My legs feel strong and springy by my lungs are not right. I don't know whether it's allergies or illness, but at least going home next week will enable me to determine which of the two it is. Slightly refined my courses, got a bit stuck in some brash trying to cut from full TD courses across to where the kiddies ones went, and saw a ton of seriously cute deer. Really enjoyed the control picky legs on top of hills, physically felt better on those and was navigating well. I should have taken water.

Also, there was a car in the middle of the forest, miles from a road, and up a very rocky path. It was a very old car, so maybe the trail used to be bigger. Whoever drove it up there had some guts!

C • so 4

Jog to Science Hill and then an adaptation of Graeme's sprint course, just missing out going inside the Divinity School, as I've done that a bajillion times. Mentally okay, but need to be planning further ahead, physically, I feel about 60. It feels like lungs rather than legs, which is not a problem I've had before. Surprisingly tricky course with lots of stairs. Wobbled a bit physically on 6 and took the wrong route choice for 9, having to climb some extra stairs.

QR on my DOMA (Cristina rocks!)

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=bec...

Obviously didn't screw up like that at 10, the track bears no relevance to the ground there at all - too low down.

C • nice course 5

Event: World Police and Firefighter Games Orienteering Event
 

I have no idea why, but today I am thoroughly pooped. Lots of time on my feet at work I guess.

Incredibly convoluted plans for going home part two complete! Visa pick up booked, trains booked. Now I just have to make sure I get up at 5am the day after a wedding to be on a train to Aberdeen for Deeside training fun with FVO! :s

It'll be great to see people, but it'll also be great to get to Duirinish and not have to do anything for a week afterwards :)

C • Can I come? 3

Last day at 27 minutes. Was back to humid again and it didn't feel particularly good. Legs are tight. The first two weeks are always the worst though.

Bleurgh, felt like rubbish this morning! Only had one cocktail at girlie drinks yesterday, but that seems to be enough these days. Tired legs and tired me. Probably ten hours on my feet didn't help yesterday.

So where is everyone going? New Hampshire or Ottawa?

C • NH vs. Ottawa 33