Training Log Archive: AliC

Boo, I'm not heading up Mont Blanc right now. =(

Forgot to mention, but yesterday in the relay, my right ankle really started hurting. I thought about it a few times, when it became particularly painful during the race, but there were more important things at hand. Immediately post-race I realized something was more wrong than normal and it hasn't gotten better since.

In fact, it's all swollen up now, especially over the outside ankle bone-nub, but also a bit on the inside. Which is strange, because it doesn't actually hurt in those places, it hurts in front and behind the ankle joint, when any forward or back motion happens. Totally don't know what might be wrong, but it hurts, I can't walk normally, and so I'm not hiking up Mont Blanc. Was really sad to have to make that call, because I was really, really looking forward to it!!!

So now the mission is to do things to let my ankle heal as readily as possible. Currently on the R and E of RICE, however haven't found any ice nor a pair of scissors to cut tape for compression and the local Carrefour is closed because it's dimanche.

C • R & E 2

Somehow didn't quite have enough time for a real good warm-up after checking out the arena layout + putting on stuff...

Wahoo!! A really run, came in 3rd for the first leg of the relay! Was super-fun to be running around those top gals, and I totally stayed enough in contact to go to the right forkings. I even think I was the first one there to my second forking, woo! It was definitely hard to run and orienteer at that pace, but was amazing to come into the stadium for the spectator control in easy sight of 1st place and then move up into 3rd before the handoff. A really nice ending to the week! =)

And, with good runs by Sandra and Sam, we came in 15th overall, we think the top relay result ever for the US women in the relay!

C • Wonderful race, congrats to... 20

Mostly just chatted with Judy to the start, walking, but a bit of a jog before and after (including going to the wrong start at first...)

Easy-peasy jog around the OM-A course at Jorat. Many of the teams were doing this, a very elite field today on OL for instance, with many of the men who will run the relay legs for Finland-Norway-Sweden. The Swedish women opted for OK instead (only 2.9 k).

Anyways, a nice putter around, thinking about route choices in this terrain and just also about finding controls. A few mistakes- one because a line wasn't cut, hiding a trail, a second because, well it was just a tough control to find, probably should have aimed off, and a third because I just goofmuppeted it. Third one was the worst...

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1 - Trail to dashing into a ditch on the side of the trail, no prob.
2 - Up trail until yellow, but then I became confused upon hitting the earthbank, kinda decided it was the earth wall that should be later on. Continued on anyways, which was good.
3 - Cut, trail, trail, pace count.
4 - Trail on the right, found ditch a-ok
5 - Follow ditch to bend, quick hop into ditch #2.
6 - On a dedicated bearing through green, hit it well.
7 - Bah, followed invisible trail under red line!! Confusion!
8 - Scarry 'end of trail' control. The best technique for these is definitely to come at them from the trail end, aiming off if required. Of course, if set like this one, that's really hard, because trail is behind the control, so seems so wasteful..
9 - Most whoops of the course. Followed trail that 8 was on the end of, but then took a bearing as if I hadn't. Turns out, that doesn't really work. Ended up lost in patches of green too far to the W.
10 - More trails, spike.
11 - Straight, confidently on compass.
12 - Should have exited more directly to trail from 11, but fine.

Relay model @ Les Gares 10

Drew a little course, and ran around. Back into the land of flatness, few contour features and much vegetation. Okidoke, gotta make it work! I think very accurate compass work is the name of the game when not on trails. Sometimes I was just a bit off and that 1) takes extra time and 2) sometimes you don't see the control. So for tomorrow, want to be accurate on my compass and take the trail routes when I should.

However, I will be starting first, so it's going to be a bit of a different game. There will be loads of women around, going to different forkings and probably just flying on the trails. I'm very excited to try running the first leg, see if I can keep up with the lead pack, but also nervous! I will have to just be diligent to always be in contact, even if it means losing the pack. Going to the wrong fork is just much worse!!

Mini warm-up joggeroo

C • First! 9

And beautiful- a 1h drive + cog railway up to ~1800m with an awesome view of Mont Blanc to the south. Acquired number and starttime and then downhill jog to the start... ok a net-climb race again!

Had enough time for drills.

Day 4 - Long - Bretaye: 2nd in Women's Elite

Holy moly long race! I knew the 8.6 + 380m climb would be a tough one, but I thought still maybe under 90 min, not so much... But I really enjoyed it and had a good race, think I paced it just about right, I was tired at the end, but could still push up the last hill and into the finish.

Orienteering-wise it also went well. Didn't get the route choices perfectly right, but avoided the worst options at least. Also some slowness to stay in contact in the complicated bit towards the end. I came in 2nd to Julia Gross (results), who is on the Swiss team and got 2nd at the WUOC sprint, according to Sandra. Our WRE points are pretty similar, but she got me by ~3min. I bet the very fastest women would have been at least 10 min ahead, because somehow they can just do that...

***Route choice zone:***
1 - (0.25) Just hesitant in the green.
2 - (1.41) So I avoided the really silly over-the-mountain straight route, but didn't quite find the all the way around route where you came up solidly from the bottom, looks like that was faster...
3 - (0.19) Followed an elephant track more S than I thought, ended up in a slightly longer road run, ate some chocolate (key!). =)
4 - (0.25) Over the hilltops, which was probably a good choice, but the time was lost in not going out to the trail immediately, going through steep stream valley instead. And maybe can skip the first hilltop and go for open marsh instead.
5 - (0.08) Took the lower elephant track
6 - (0.11) Pretty good, through open marsh.
7 - (0.00) Woo! But still not perfect, Alex resurfaced after I passed her, found a better way through the stream valley, involving less green.
8 - (0.00) Compass, elephant tracks.
9 - (1.27) Whoops, should have stayed on big trail longer...
10 - (1.50) Whoops again, should not have scaled the giant wall of contours, there was a nice way around on the left and at least a better way on the right... this was my worst route choice fail.

****Tricky zone:****
11 - (0.34) This is more time than I think I should have lost on this leg... I went through saddle and down, maybe would have been better skirting big cliff?
12 - (0.45) Picked my way slowly, managed to get through the right bit of green to my reentrant, but not confidently.
13 - (1.11) Micro-route choice fail: ended up climbing up a green cliff, arms + heel hook required, not a good idea at all... Gosh, I am just losing time left and right on this section....
14 - (0.21) Finally, not too bad in this section - ran to big cliff, around the bottom and spike! Perhaps better around top.
15 - (0.05) A wee leg, but no probs.
16 - (0.00) Trail run!
17 - (0.23) Oooh, tough leg, find mini reentrant in green, scared, scared, scared. Turned out of yellow reentrant too early, but scoured far side of nose to find without too many probs.
18 - (0.48) Oh! This confused me because there was a little form-line hill with a marsh *on top*. What? Usually little round contours with marshes in them are depressions...
19 - (0.09) Not bad.
20 - (0.25) Somehow was too hesitant? This was easy, I should have been faster...

**** Running zone: ***
21 - (0.15) Down, then up. I am very impressed that women were running this faster than I was, I was definitely trying hard!!
22 - (0.01) Short leg, almost had it.
Finish - (0.07) Wow, again, very impressed I got beaten by 7 seconds in the (uphill) finish chute!

Middle @ La Pile

Used Sandra's entry on DAL (Women's A Long) for today. The terrain was most like previous WOC in France, but a little more manageable. Limestone rubble-ness made for tough running in places, but only in places, not absolutely everywhere.

It wasn't a great race, but no big mistakes, it was nice to never be wandering out there. Some serious hesitations though, gotta get over that.

#1 - Behind the Argentinian dude from the start, I could have passed, but he was running fast enough. Then straight up up up to the control, on compass, noted a boulder on the way.
#2 - Compass to trail junction, slight scoot around the hill, before up and over continuing on compass. Thicket before boulder = helpful!
#3 - On compass, uphill, slightly hesitant, should have just gone for it.
#4 - Wishy-washy, then decided straight. For first 2/3, I went well, hitting the trail junction, but then I wussed out b/c of green and I went around to yellow depression, then went through green anyways? Boo, bad judgement call. Then I was looking for a cliff in the middle of a lot of limestone broken stuff in green and I heard the beep of the control before seeing the feature or the control.... Not awesome end of the execution!!
#5 - A bit hesitant, but straight too on compass.
#6 - Compass, nervous through green, could have been less hesitant, because there was a hill to catch at the end.
#7 - Hm, missed a trail route this time. Whoops. Did spike, but not best route.
#8 - Ug. Most hesitant, was wishy-washy on decision from the start and then couldn't figure out what yellow depression I was in, even after full stopping for a good long bit. Continued on anyways, found control, a bit lower than expected. Better: straight on bearing, pass yellow dep., go down nose.
#9 - Compass, spike
#10 - Wonderfully open yellow! I can see things! Should have gone around on left instead of right though, left was less rocky, thus faster.
#11 - Down yellowness, up trail a smidge, compass on in.
#12 - Compass, spike!
#13 - And back in the open, although was a bit tough to get there with the limestone rubble.
#14 - Somehow slightly left.
#15 - Running, running

And then spectating the middle final. Cheered hard for Louise coming down the chute, just got there in time. Then we were all surprised by Simone N-L making a mistake, misreading which control to go to next and doing 16 ->15 instead of 7->8 or something like that, whoops! Left the win open for Minna, although she very well might have taken it without Simone's mistake anyways. Tove had a very determined finish-chute run to cement a 2nd place with a Russian in 3rd.

Men's side was bonus fun, since we had chosen teams by draft to see who won, top 5 of our teams of 7 to count (Boris won). Favorite Theirry just didn't have it today, and so totally cool to see a new nation win a gold, a happy day for Latvia!

Running *down* to the start with Ian, ok will be an uphill race... =) Chatted about our race focus goals. Mine was to try to make the right decisions between trail vs. straight routes.

Open Long at Mont Chaubert

Ok, so this was just more fun than yesterday. Legs were tired, but the orienteering was just more interesting. There were rocks and contour features and still also trails and veg changes. It was an uphill course though, not friendly to the tiredness...

A few problem controls:
#2 - Summited the ridge that should take me down to the control, but didn't have enough patience to place myself precisely on it. So couldn't strongly attack. Stopped first too early, then too west. (45s?)
#4 - Bah, again a little too little patience, I didn't process things fully along my path to lead me into random corner of thicket, instead ended up too high by a control in a pit, then attacked once from that, failed, regrouped on a trail came in again, found the pit again, finally found the control. Very poor. So what should have happened? More dedicated compass work from when I passed the boulder I ran into. (3-4 min?)
#8 - Poor route choice, climbed more than necessary. Should have contoured, then trailed. (20s?)
#15 - Slightly off on bearing in thick stuff, 10m too far SE. (10s)

And then, spectating time! Found the Team USA spot along the finish chute, met up with the junior contingent - awesome that they are extending their Europe trips to get some more orienteering in! Think many are even heading to Oringen after this too. And then speedy ladies started coming up the pretty life-sucking-out of you finish chute.

The orienteering was tricky out there on the qual courses, many, many returning (even some of the best) unsatisfied with their races. Out of Americans, Hannah and Eric were happy with solid races, and Boris had a really quite good one, including an awesome finish split time! =)