Training Log Archive: cporter

DVOA's Chasing the Star Long/WRE - I know some people weren't a fan of the terrain today, but I thought that the courses were designed well considering that all we were doing was running around one big mountain. I especially enjoyed the latter 2/3rds of the course where it was a little less steep so contouring wasn't so tough on the ankles and knees and the woods were more open(would have been spectacular if I were faster). Long courses always prove to be difficult for me since one of my weakest areas in orienteering is route choice. Today was definetly a good boost of confidence in that area. With the exception of one long leg I was able to make a decision fairly at the control (or at least found my way to a major road/trail that I knew I needed to take and made the rest of the route choice en route) and executed all but three of my legs well. The legs that gave me trouble were 3, 7, and 9 and consequently were the three legs that I believe I lost the most time on. I also lost some time on my way to 13, just because I know I wasn't running nearly as fast as the other women running the WRE. I also bobbled 14 and 18 a bit too. Otherwise I felt pretty good out there. I maintained a fairly consistent pace throughout the course and managed to keep my head pretty clear throughout the race (another problem of mine on long races) and maintained my focus.

This weekend for me was a fantastic experience for several reasons. First of all it served as a great way to mark the end of what can only be described as a harrowing first year of grad school. It also served as the kick-off to the excellent summer of orienteering that is ahead of me and finally it has given me a solid understanding of where is stand in the field of orienteering. I have a lot of goals for the next couple of years, but before this weekend I had been sort of running blindly through the woods without a map and compass and hoping that I was going in the right direction with my training. I had no expectations going into this weekend, but I can say that any unspoken hopes that I had were fulfilled. I am very pleased with where I am right now and I am very much looking forward to where I may be going in the future. I greatly appreciate that Peter gave me a mention as the 3rd alternate for the women's US team (Thank you Peter if you happen to read this!) not because I had any hope for WOC this year (because all the women are going to be healthy and run great races this summer!!!), but because I do have high hopes for making the WOC team in the future. Now I know that what I have been doing (although not enough) has been helping - all I have to do now is do more of that, plus some, and do it better.

Red Y Long - Splits

DVOA's Chasing the Star Middle Distance - I feared that my other competitors would feel that I had an advantage over them since I have run at Hickory Run before, but to anyone that knows the map that is nothing to worry about. My race alone should be proof enough. Overall, my race was fairly clean (besides being slow, of course), but I managed one major error and a couple minor ones that significantly added to my time in the woods. First of all I botched my route to #1 - I definetly was not focused and I hesitated and second guessed myself just out side of the control circle which added about a minute of error. I ran pretty cleanly until my leg to #6. I had a solid route choice, I just failed to execute it. Upon reviewing what I did and where I ended up, I think I actually took my compas bearing to #7 which was about 30 degress and just a little farther from #6. I didn't even question that I was going the right way because I found another spur to run down (which was my plan for my way to #6) and I even hit a swamp that I thought was the one that I planned to use as a collecting feature along the way. Since I was running on a rough bearing and had a pretty solid linear feature to catch me I didn't look too hard at my map. When I hit a marsh, rather than the stream I knew something was wrong. Fortunately there were three good features (marsh, rocky ground, and distinct veg boundary) to relocate off and I was able to use the vegetation boundary to lead me thorugh some otherwise bland terrain to the control. It was a nice recovery, but I'd say it still cost me at least 5 min. From there on out I didn't have too much trouble. On my way to #8 I found a bit of fence that had the line connecting the controls drawn exactly over it and completly covering it that would have made me less hesitant in my route choice and on my way to #8. I also bobbled #8 a bit as well as #13 and then had another hesitant route to #14, but other than that every thing else was pretty clean. Again, minus the whole being too slow thing. Another thing that also slowed me down were my shoes. I desperately needed a new pair and wore them for the first time today - even though they fit pretty spectacularly when I first tried them on they still rubbed a bit which made the last km or so pretty painful.

RedY Middle - Splits

Event: US Team Trials
 

DVOA Chasing the Star Sprint/WRE - I was a little nervous about how I would do this weekend since I hadn't done any running in close to two weeks (I did however go orienteering the previous two weekends, not only to orienteer, but also to procrasitnate) due to finals. I was even more nervous since I pulled an all-nighter from Tue into Wed and I wasn't sure if that would affect my performance. Fortunately, I was fairly pleased with how I did. Of course I could have run faster, but with the exception of only a few controls I think made good route choices and executed them well too. The only two legs that gave me problems were on my way to #1 because I was nervous and took a not optimal route and on my way to #3 I misread the map and though that two buildings were actually one and ended up running around both of them rather than between them, which cost me at least a minute. On my way to #3 Pavlina caught me and by #7 she had managed to put some distance between us and Angelica caught up to me. For the rest of the course though we kept in sight of each other and even picked up Daria around #10. The four of us continued together until our way to the infamous control #14. I had started to get tired and was probably about 15 seconds behind them and was looking at my map when Pavlina split from Daria and Angelica. Pavlina took the route that I had planned to take, and revealed that there were in fact a set of stairs off the terrace (they were not obvious from a distance) just as I was beginning to second guess myself. From then on I was only able to keep her in sight from a distance, but Angelica and Daria lost a significant amount of time running around the building which meant that Angelica beat me by a much smaller margin. Overall, I was pleased, running in a pack definetly helped my time and made the already great course even more exciting!

Red Sprint - Splits