Note
(injured)
It's been 2 weeks since I hyperextended my injured leg in a fall, and since then, my knee has had the same "loose" feeling that it had after I injured it (mysteriously) on Labour Day. It hadn't given me any problems, but yesterday there was a twinge when I was snowshoeing. No big deal - I assumed it would go away. But today, after 90 minutes of slippery, hilly orienteering, it came back with a vengeance. My knee feels almost as bad as it felt in September. Horrible timing, right at the start of a 4-day orienteering training camp. I would utter a very bad word at this point, but I like to keep my training log suitable for family viewing. The only small consolation is that this time around, I have more faith that I will feel better some day than I do right now. :-(((((((
Orienteering 2:30:00 [2] ***
Putting out controls for Saturday's Thomass race. Subtracted an hour to account for the time of hanging flags and installing SportIdent stands. Any racers reading my log don't need to worry about the length of race based on how long I was out - it's just that I am totally paranoid about setting my first real orienteering course for such a large and highly qualified crowd of racers. I tried approaching each control from several directions to make sure it was properly located and visible. As mentioned above, my knee began to throb about halfway through. Rats.
Orienteering 2:00:00 [2] ***
Ancaster Creek control picking exercise. I wish I knew what proper flow feels like... I wonder if it's even possible for someone as slow as I am. OK, I admit that sounds negative, but I was feeling down by the time this exercise was done. I started off with a nice jog to the start triangle with The Piller, then enjoyed the physical challenge of the first part of the course. Then at the halfway point, all the slippery, steep, muddy hills made my knee throb again, and I had to choose the nearest escape route to the rail trail. Unfortunately, I was at the farthest point when that happened, with two steep valleys to get across. The run back on the rail trail felt not too bad - it seems that uneven ground is what really hurts.
Orienteering 35:00 [2] ***
Urban Night Orienteering - fun course designed by the Nev-Monster. Yes, I know - I should have sat this one out to give my knee a break. It was actually OK on the flat roads and park sections, but twinged painfully in the relatively small wooded sections. Yikes - don't tell me that I might be forced to become a... road runner!! Yuck!
Note
Presentation by Holger Hott Johansen tonight. Two of the most interesting points for me:
1) All of the world's top orienteers get some sort of map of a major competition venue, and use it to set a number of different possible race courses. By the time they run the race, they have thought through most of the possible route choices and race legs. They use all the info they can get from race organizers to refine their guesses about the course, e.g. course distance, location of competition centre, elevation gain, etc.
2) Holger purposely does NOT concentrate all the time, especially in longer races. He works on achieving a smooth transition from "boring" sections (e.g. road runs) to sections where detailed concentration is required.