Training Log Archive: BashIn the 7 days ending Aug 22, 2010:
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Sunday Aug 22, 2010 #
Orienteering race (Long) 1:31:58 [4] ****
shoes: Poison Ice Bugs
Canadian Orienteering Champs Long
Carp Eco-Wellness Centre
Very similar performance to Friday's Middle distance. Both maps were very technical - lots of intricate detail in relatively flat terrain. Worthy of a Canadian Championship. Hard to relocate if you mess up even a little. Not the sort of race course you can just sail in and ace without doing a lot more orienteering than I've done in 2010.
I blew 2 controls out of 15 and the rest went fine. One of the problematic controls remains a mystery since I've heard of several good orienteers who had issues with it. Given that it was only 80 m from a trail bend attackpoint and several of us finally got it by coming in from another attackpoint in a different direction, I wonder if there was something confusing about the map in that area. Anyway, it's no excuse since I should have tried an alternate attackpoint much sooner.
Compared to the racer who finished closest to me (Cathy Hayhow - both of us were midpack just a couple of minutes apart), I made an incredible 28 minutes of errors on those two controls combined. Without those errors, I would finish 2nd by a minute, well ahead of 3rd. So on one hand, I stunk out there today. On the other hand, if this were a training session instead of the Canadian Champs, I'd be thinking that for the most part, I did pretty well on a tough course with much better speed than usual. Gotta do something about those humongous errors though!
Bottom line - if I don't make time to do serious O events more often, this is the kind of result I can expect in a championship level race. And that's how it should be - competitive orienteering *should* be difficult. To be honest, I don't see myself finding that time in the near future. For now, I'm still keeping my focus on adventure racing and (soon) ultrarunning.
Carp Eco-Wellness Centre
Very similar performance to Friday's Middle distance. Both maps were very technical - lots of intricate detail in relatively flat terrain. Worthy of a Canadian Championship. Hard to relocate if you mess up even a little. Not the sort of race course you can just sail in and ace without doing a lot more orienteering than I've done in 2010.
I blew 2 controls out of 15 and the rest went fine. One of the problematic controls remains a mystery since I've heard of several good orienteers who had issues with it. Given that it was only 80 m from a trail bend attackpoint and several of us finally got it by coming in from another attackpoint in a different direction, I wonder if there was something confusing about the map in that area. Anyway, it's no excuse since I should have tried an alternate attackpoint much sooner.
Compared to the racer who finished closest to me (Cathy Hayhow - both of us were midpack just a couple of minutes apart), I made an incredible 28 minutes of errors on those two controls combined. Without those errors, I would finish 2nd by a minute, well ahead of 3rd. So on one hand, I stunk out there today. On the other hand, if this were a training session instead of the Canadian Champs, I'd be thinking that for the most part, I did pretty well on a tough course with much better speed than usual. Gotta do something about those humongous errors though!
Bottom line - if I don't make time to do serious O events more often, this is the kind of result I can expect in a championship level race. And that's how it should be - competitive orienteering *should* be difficult. To be honest, I don't see myself finding that time in the near future. For now, I'm still keeping my focus on adventure racing and (soon) ultrarunning.
11 AM
Running warm up/down 8:00 [1]
shoes: Poison Ice Bugs
Warm-up with T. Rex before COC Long race.
Saturday Aug 21, 2010 #
Orienteering race (Sprint) 15:25 [5] *** 2.0 km (7:43 / km)
spiked:14/15c shoes: Salomon XA Pro Ultra - Cherry
Canadian Orienteering Champs - Sprint
National Research Council campus, Ottawa
Phew, much improved from yesterday. In fact, this may have been the best sprint O race I've ever run in spite of a 1-minute error (according to the splits) when I ran past #6 to the wrong building entrance. The other 14 controls were tucked exactly where I expected them to be, I often read ahead to the next control as I ran, I was concentrating well, and I felt like I was running fast, which is an all-too-rare sensation! I won 3 splits, which almost never happens, but AdventureGirl! crushed me by 2 seconds in the finish chute, which is par for the course. She also got Igor (elite male silver medalist) by a second. :-)
The error was big enough by sprint standards to knock me down to the bronze medal, 6 seconds behind 2nd and 80 seconds ahead of 4th. Very happy with that. Also very happy that I felt totally knackered for the rest of the day. It's rare that I leave it all out on the race course.
Confession: I came to the COCs kinda hoping to medal in the Sprint because I thought it would be deliciously ironic to have tapered for a 15-minute sprint by doing a 3-day adventure race. Apparently, that's the secret! As Hammer says, I need to focus on races that are less than 18 minutes or more than 18 hours long. It's only the races in between that I have trouble with. ;-)
Note that AdventureGirl!'s medal is gold.
National Research Council campus, Ottawa
Phew, much improved from yesterday. In fact, this may have been the best sprint O race I've ever run in spite of a 1-minute error (according to the splits) when I ran past #6 to the wrong building entrance. The other 14 controls were tucked exactly where I expected them to be, I often read ahead to the next control as I ran, I was concentrating well, and I felt like I was running fast, which is an all-too-rare sensation! I won 3 splits, which almost never happens, but AdventureGirl! crushed me by 2 seconds in the finish chute, which is par for the course. She also got Igor (elite male silver medalist) by a second. :-)
The error was big enough by sprint standards to knock me down to the bronze medal, 6 seconds behind 2nd and 80 seconds ahead of 4th. Very happy with that. Also very happy that I felt totally knackered for the rest of the day. It's rare that I leave it all out on the race course.
Confession: I came to the COCs kinda hoping to medal in the Sprint because I thought it would be deliciously ironic to have tapered for a 15-minute sprint by doing a 3-day adventure race. Apparently, that's the secret! As Hammer says, I need to focus on races that are less than 18 minutes or more than 18 hours long. It's only the races in between that I have trouble with. ;-)
Note that AdventureGirl!'s medal is gold.
Running warm up/down 7:00 [1]
Note
Enjoyed the COC Banquet and came home with a hot pink iPod shuffle from the silent auction! Tunes played on a pink Shuffle will definitely inspire me to run faster than tunes from my plain old silver Shuffle.
Friday Aug 20, 2010 #
10 AM
Orienteering 45:00 [2]
shoes: Poison Ice Bugs
Headed out on the Kanata Beaverponds model map to remind myself how to orienteer after a few months off. Nothing like "just in time" training!
2 PM
Orienteering race (Middle) 52:00 [4] ***
shoes: Poison Ice Bugs
Canadian Orienteering Champs Middle Distance
Not good! I'd like to use Untamed as an excuse but I felt great physically so that wasn't it. I got thrown off at the start and allowed myself to get flustered. In championship orienteering meets, you get called up to different lines at 3 minutes before your start time, 2 minutes before, etc. At the final line, our start group was supposed to have a minute to be handed our map upside down, get the course number checked by a volunteer to see that it was correct, then write our names on the back of our maps with a marker. Instead, as we walked up to that line, the starter said urgently, "You're supposed to have started already!"
There was a big digital clock and the seconds were ticking away past our start time. We had done exactly what we were told to do by other volunteers, so I tried to convince her to hold us until the next full minute, then she could tell the officials to fix our times later on. But she just said, "Go, go!" The clock was already at 30 seconds past our start time and I totally lost focus - completely screwed up the first couple of controls. Then I settled in and probably had a decent race after that. Running felt good so at least I'm recovering well even though I can't orienteer!
Not good! I'd like to use Untamed as an excuse but I felt great physically so that wasn't it. I got thrown off at the start and allowed myself to get flustered. In championship orienteering meets, you get called up to different lines at 3 minutes before your start time, 2 minutes before, etc. At the final line, our start group was supposed to have a minute to be handed our map upside down, get the course number checked by a volunteer to see that it was correct, then write our names on the back of our maps with a marker. Instead, as we walked up to that line, the starter said urgently, "You're supposed to have started already!"
There was a big digital clock and the seconds were ticking away past our start time. We had done exactly what we were told to do by other volunteers, so I tried to convince her to hold us until the next full minute, then she could tell the officials to fix our times later on. But she just said, "Go, go!" The clock was already at 30 seconds past our start time and I totally lost focus - completely screwed up the first couple of controls. Then I settled in and probably had a decent race after that. Running felt good so at least I'm recovering well even though I can't orienteer!
Thursday Aug 19, 2010 #
Note
I can't believe I'm in the middle of a 6-hr drive to the Canadian Orienteering Champs, preparing to race again just 5 days after finishing Untamed NE. This has to go down as one of my sillier ideas. Meanwhile, my UNE teammates plan to sit around drinking beer and pulling pork. (Seriously - see Kirikou's log. I couldn't make this stuff up.)
Wednesday Aug 18, 2010 #
10 AM
Running (Trail) 32:00 [3] 5.0 km (6:24 / km)
shoes: Poison Ice Bugs
Time to decide whether to head to Ottawa tomorrow for the Canadian Orienteering Championships. I'd paid for this event before I knew about Untamed NE, otherwise I wouldn't have considered racing again so soon. It appears that my feet are not too uncomfortable in shoes and my energy level is surprisingly good. The only issue is my formerly "good" knee, which I smashed on a rock during the team waterfall climb while wearing slippery cycling shoes. That knee doesn't bend all the way and I can feel it with every step. I will also need to take my Active Ankle brace along in case my partial ankle twist decides to go the rest of the way. So... time to get ready to race again. Yikes!
Tuesday Aug 17, 2010 #
8 PM
Note
It feels like I've done nothing but eat for the past couple of days, yet today I lost 2 lb between morning and dinnertime. How can I get my body to behave this way all the time?!?