Training Log Archive: z-man

This was one epic long course! My legs felt ok before the start, which was a surprise to me but still I knew I needed to survive till the end so I decided to pace myself and not be aggressive from the start. I got somewhat confused by a trail on the way up to #1 which I didn't see on the map, so I stuck to my compass and climbed up the rocky reentrant that led to marsh half way up the hill and it was fairly straight from there. On the way to #2 I kept looking at #4 and decided to go left to maximize the trail at the foot of that giant hill that had the control on top of it. I was doing ok on my route to #5 but then misread a hill as a depression and found myself staring at the marsh behind the control. The climb back up wasn't an amusing one. Then stupidly dropped into a rocky reentrant to the left on the way to #6 where I spent too much time carefully going down and then up another rocky one. #7 was pretty clean, I decided to stay high as much as I could to avoid climbing the green looking hillside and managed to avoid most of it. A bit too sloppy to #8 but then really unfortunate route to #9 where I decided to climb up and use the string of marshes. Half way up, immediately knew that I should've taken the trail on the lower route, but it was too late. I was clean to #10 and then decided to go right on #11, Somewhere half way through the green I got pulled too much to the left and popped to the trail right down the middle. Made a turn to run around, but then jumped off the trail and started climbing up and over the huge hill. It was risky, as attacking from the top is always tough, but I got lucky and didn't lose too much time even with my slow climb to the top. Then down the spur trying to stay in the white woods and not wanting to go into the green reentrant and hit the trail right where I wanted. Wasn't feeling particularly fast but got to #13 without any issues by staying on the trail as much as I could before crossing the open marsh. Had trouble climbing the two contour lines to #14 and started to feel very tired. Then not particularly fast to #15 and the rest of the course but always working with my compass.
Since I started first, I had a long wait at the finish for others to come in. Still am surprised that my result turned out ok and think that again I got lucky as other runners had issues on this tough course.

Long Blue - Splits

I had high hopes for this race provided that I've already been on this terrain and knew what to expect. But given my current fitness level I needed a strategy. It may sound strange, but I decided to adopt the high risks high rewards one. The plan was to approach the fist control with care, study the course ahead, get a feel for the terrain, and then get aggressive.
Even with care, I almost overshot the first control. This should've rang bells in my head that orienteering wouldn't be as simple as I remembered it be with leaves on the ground. But plan was already set in motion and I got aggressive. Using compass and aiming for marshes I wasn't particularly clean and even lost contact with the map around #7 and then at #12, but both times recovered with minimal losses. On the long leg to #15 I started to fade and then totally botched #16. I am guessing I was rushing with my compass and got pulled to the left. I knew I've got far enough and stopped to reassess. Not liking/knowing the surroundings I decided to relocate and run south towards big marsh. This is where I stumbled upon the bag. so a nice middle race save right there. Then into the marsh, to the island and then to the dry land towards #17 and the last two bags.
I wasn't and still am not very happy with this race. I think I got lucky that many other runners had their own issues on the course so my result was somewhat ok in the end.

Middle Blue - Splits

Event: 2013 U.S. Individual Championships/Team Trials
 

It is sort of strange that most success I ever had in sprints were in wooden ones. Those times are long gone it would seem, and as such, there was nothing unusual about this race. Average run, average result. I could've been 30 sec or so cleaner, but still way behind the top three.

Sprint Blue - Splits