Training Log Archive: pi

Warm-up for the race.

O-cross, one man relay. Mass start with 2 forked loops first and then a final non-forked loop. Started out slow in the start to get a feel for the map. Could see that it was tricky and that it would pay off to be careful in the nav. Halfway through the first loop I felt like I started to pass some people making mistakes and ran together with Mike Smith on the way back to the exchange. He ran away from me out on the second loop, but I caught up to, and passed, other runners which I could see made mistakes around me. The last half of the second loop I didn't see any other male elite and at the exchange I heard I was third. Running up the road to the first control on the last loop, I could see that the first 3 km was almost all trail running and I felt like I would be caught by the chasing pack. Looked behind me all the way down to control 2, but couldn't see anyone. Got 2, 3 and 4 fine, but now I could hear the branches cracking from the runners in the forest behind me. Again, looked behind me on the long trail run back up to 5, but didn't see anyone. Almost over ran 5, but stopped myself about 50 metres past the control and got it fine. Was careful on the more technical last few controls and still didn't see anyone else and ran in alone in 3rd spot. Great little map and super fun format!

My photos from this fantastic weekend of orienteering here: http://flickr.com/photos/magjoh/sets/7215759432257...

A big thank you to Bender for inviting us to stay at the amazing Piller estate at Rocky Ridge!

Warm-up for the race.

NAOC Long. Started out well technically and tried to conserve energy, not running too fast. Had a very solid and consistant race up to, and including, control 14 at which I was in 7th position overall, 5 minutes behind the leader. Then came a big parallel error to 15. After crossing the trail, I started to read from the wrong hill and then I was lost in the green. Bailed out to the trail behind, but didn't know where I was on the trail. Lost 4 minutes on this control and then got really tired and lost focus and another 2 minutes on the next. On the long leg home I got stuck in the unmapped extremely dense bush around the stream and then got confused in the field behind. This "field" on the map, was in reality mostly patches of dense bush. Did the mapper actually visit this area? Anyway, was very careful in the trail network at the end and got those controls fine. Ended up 15th, 16 minutes behind. Kind of what I expected actually. Thought I could be top 10 with a clean race, which I would have been without the mistake at 15. Great terrain and lots of fun! Just not in physical shape to last 12 km.

Warm-up for the race.

NAOC Middle. This was my chance to place at the top this weekend. A shorter race with very technical orienteering fits my skills perfect. I started out spiking the first control and I felt I understood the map right away. Coming into control 2, I ran on the left side of the two small hills just before the flag and and turned right into the control. This unfortunately was the root cause of my mistake to the third control. The picture in my mind was that I should turn slightly right out of 2, but because I came in at a different angle to this control, I ran out of the control in the wrong direction and failed to check my compass. I lost touch with the map and lost 2 minutes on this leg. I managed to pull it back together to 4 and then found a good flow all the way to the trails at the end. I got very hesitant coming into 15 and probably lost 15 seconds there and then out of that control I ran 90 degrees in the wrong direction and that cost me another minute. I ended up 5th, which I felt very happy with, but still slightly disappointed missing the podium with some sloppy mistakes.

Event: 2006 North American Championships (Golden Leaf Orienteering Fest)
 

Warm-up and cool down for the race.

NAOC Sprint. Campus sprint with no forest running, so exactly what we train here in Vancouver every week. The course was packed with route choice all the way and it was a joy to run. I didn't make any control mistakes and was actually very happy to be only 1:09 behind the winner, given the low amount of training for me the last half year. I was surprised to end up 16th with this time, the field was very strong! Great to see, this is what North American orienteering needs! Still, I think it showed that the nav was very easy, not many mistakes were done out there and it was clearly the running speed deciding the race. If I could give any critique about the courses, it would be that the different route options were too similar in running time. There weren't really any route traps. Left or right around the building resulted in roughly the same time on every leg.

Warm-up before training.

WET at Jericho. Some nice route choice legs. Visit from Sweden, Peter Näsholm, running for NTNUI.

C • Tack før att jag fick vara med... 1

Picking up flags.