Training Log Archive: Gswede

Write-ups are coming, but I had to make the whole drive back to Scranton in one shot last night and then had to stay up finishing work until 3am.

Now I'm spending the rest of today getting even more work out of the way and will keep today to just a strength workout.

US Middle Champion!!!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tNGtGXhjcZLHzbXj8

Super interesting to look back at how this race played out.

I was fairly confident after the mistakes on 3, 6, 7, and 8 that I wasn't in the competition anymore. At 3 I didn't pick the right spot between the cliffs. I over ran 6 and then was fully stopped looking around and trying to make sense of the terrain and map. At 7 I picked the wrong pit and then slowly moved over to the correct one. I stopped early at 8 thinking the depression was the reentrant until I was able to see the dip further ahead.

So after 8 I stopped for about 10 seconds to reset and made my goal to have fun and try to win as many of the remaining splits as possible. And that's why I finally started performing as I know I can.

9 was pretty straightforward, but I recognized 10 as a really tough leg (diagonal downhill through green to a subtle feature is obviously tough), but I had also been practicing similar legs all winter in the night trainings around here: diagonal downhills in low visibilty were no surprise at this point. So I avoided the green slightly and then got back on course and stuck to a bearing. The map is 8 years old at this point and the mapped veg doesn't completely represent the veg in the terrain. So the micro route choices were all based on looking ahead and seeing what was actually runnable.

After that it was all about flowing through the course. There were a few hiccups--17, 20, and 22--when I stopped a bit earlier or misread the super thin cliffs. Why were the cliffs so thin? It made it super difficult to read them.

When I finished I gave the crew of dudes at the finish a thumbs down because I figured everyone had flown through the course in 34-35 minutes. But it was a super pleasant surprise to learn that I was the only one to have gone under 40 minutes.

It's the sign of a good technical middle when we all struggle to have a clean race. Well done, Ocin.

OCIN_FP2023_Sunday_Middle_9_Blue - Splits

US Champs Long - 2nd

https://www.ocin.org/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act...

Behind Joe by 40s approx. Not bad after 90+ minutes of racing, but also not first.

I felt super heavy, slow, and tired from the start. So it was difficult to feel confident that this would go well.

Overall quite clean, just a few spots where I lost time but I don't think it totaled more than a few minutes.

Looking back I wish I had been more aggressive on a few route choices: go straight to 11, send it on the downhill and across the creek after 15. But I still had some sense of self-preservation and wanted to try to make my energy last the entire course.

Even so going into 20 I got a very bad cramp in my hamstring and had to stop and stretch it for what felt like a minute but it was probably less. I haven't had a hamstring cramp during orienteering for a few years now and thought all the orienteering volume over this winter was going to ward off the cramp monsters. But I suppose for me it's a combination of distance and intensity in orienteering that causes these cramps. I've tried salts before and that's not the solution unfortunately. It appears these cramps are due to simple muscle fatigue. So the solution is more 90+ minute courses at a long distance race intensity?

But a fun, challenging course with interesting choices throughout. Another good day for Ocin.

OCIN_FP2023_Saturday_Long_9 Blue - Splits

Event: Flying Pig XXV - 2023 OUSA Nationals
 

Accidentally skipped #4. So that was the end of that.

Tough to say why exactly. But since we arrived about 18 minutes before my start, I imagine it was because I carried the same rushing energy into the event.

Speed was good though, except for the beginning when the Endorphin Trails were sliding all over the wet asphalt and concrete. Good carbon plated shoes, but surprisingly bad grip for a trail shoe.

OCIN_FP2023_Friday_Sprint_9 Blue - Splits

Easy spin around the lake with 4x1 minute at 5k effort.

I think I can finally say, a month later, that I've managed to catch up with my work volume. I finished my work today and still had enough time for a nap, which is a far cry from the days I was working until 1 or 2am not so long ago. I also checked off a new record today with my best month (mostest money) ever as a translator. Looking forward to keeping that momentum going!

90/90 - And that's all, folks
https://photos.app.goo.gl/L3QiZk6THKtgX6429

Switching off every other control with Danny, yelling out the plan and thought process as we went to continually have that accountability push us to make a plan.


Happy to have done the 90 days of orienteering. I feel much more comfortable in the terrain, even with the rocks and blueberry. Also really happy with how many night trainings I did since that's really helped me maintain direction better. Didn't feel as epic as I would have liked, probably because of how many days didn't go to plan because of life stuff. But I do feel more prepared for the spring and summer seasons now, both physically and technically. And that was the goal.