Training Log Archive: AliC

Solid warm down after, less solid warm-up beforehand, as I wasn't sure when Helen would be coming, so I just pranced around the waiting zone.

Masenstafetten Relays, Leg 2

Not real fast, but actually quite ok for me on Swedish terrain I think. Biggest mistake was on the way to #1 (~5 min), just totally lost track of where I was. Think I just wasn't focusing enough, and wanting to run fast- must learn the virtue of patience to the first control.

I had about 4 other 1-2 minute mistakes, but none really horrible, was mostly headed the right way and picking things up, just had to go real slow...

Super impressed at the speed the 1st and 2nd women's teams passed me with. I ran with them on the path from the spectator control to the end of where the way to 7 was a path route, but there was no way I was going to keep running at that speed and be able to orienteer. Really cool to see that.

To and back from the ultrasprint area.

Hogbergsparken Ultrasprint training.

So wowzer. 1:1000 map. I couldn't run basically, at all. Needed walking speed to make sense of things, and that was even quite hard!! Did the courses in C, B, A order, and did actually find all of the controls.

Really great fun, and way more challenging than I would have thought!!!

Varsity Relay

I had the long leg, so got to be in the mass start. Went really well, actually, by far my best run in Sweden, but of course, it was much easier than most as some field running, and lotsa paths to use. A bit of a mistake to 23 at the end, otherwise relatively clean.

2008 Varsity Match, Norra Lunsen

Whelp, ok. Not great, not terrible ok. My goal was to avoid over 5 minute mistakes, which didn't happen, but nothing over 10 minutes at least!!

Stuff to learn from: basically, I needed a bit more patience and respect for the intricacies of Swedish forest.... The legs when I ran fast-ish *and* were clean were amazing though. Such fun!

Training on Nasten from the clubhouse. I had set myself a 4.4k course and a little extra control-pick loop without controls. Worked hard to try to find a balance between running and knowing where I was, which I suppose is what it's all about... had 2 catastrophic failures, but was able to relocate for both pretty quickly.

To and from clubhouse.

Training on Aland.

I did the 3.9k course, it took about 50 min, which I thought was pretty ok. To number 2 took a bit, esp. once I got nearby. Thought something was a marsh that wasn't, basically. Everything else went reasonably well, if slow.

Went back out after finishing the course and investigated stuff. Tried short map memory things and utterly failed. Would need much more familiarity with this type of terrain, I think!

Wahoo! Orienteering in Sweden! Bit of snow on the ground + frozen marshes.

Did a pairs exercises that was planned for us with Helen- there was one easy trail route and one harder straight route to each control and we kept alternating. We did it backwards, as most people had started going forwards. This was fine, but the trickiest stuff was at the end, and I was a bit confused off the start. By the end, things were much more understandable. And it was pretty clear that it was better to go straight, even if it meant slowing down quite a bit.

Event: 2008 Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Match
 

Brief warm-up. Still chilly out...

JK Relay, Women's Trophy, Leg #1

Bah! Not so great. Totally, totally screwed up to the first control, and weirdly, I kind of knew I was at the time, and didn't try to avoid it? I saw a control that looked like it was on the right feature to be mine, but thought that my bearing was taking me along to a different control I could see, that most people around me seemed to be heading to too- so I went to that, which wasn't mine, then kept going for a bit, being a headless chicken generally. Lost at least 2 minutes.

Things went better for the next few controls, then made a perpendicular (!?!) feature error on a set of branching streams. No excuse for this, quite terrible. Must remember to look at (and believe) my compass on relays! Making this error lost my contact with the map, and probably lost another 2 min to number 6. Blah.

The end of the course was just a cross-country run in (last 6 controls), so I caught quite a few women just in that part, slightly redeeming my mistakes in the actually orienteering part of the leg.

Warm down, up to the cars, back down to the start, back up to the cars, really starting to snow now....