Training Log Archive: Bash

Nationals Long Distance

Things got off to a great start today. After three controls, I was 3rd on our course (40 people), and I didn't lose too much time with my slower running on the long leg to #4.

But then the wheels came off as they have been doing. I dropped down too low on the way to #5 and had a heck of a time relocating in the complex contours. After that, I aced #6 with the fastest time of 40 runners on my course! Confession time: it wasn't my *first* visit to #6 during this race. :)

Then on my way to #7, I got sucked down to a control on a different course and lost track of where I was. The correct control was less than 30 seconds away but it took me about 8 minutes to get there because I went exploring in the opposite direction. And when I left the trail for #8, I looked at features instead of my compass and ended up doing a quick loop back to the trail I had just left. Brilliant! I found that so unbelievable that it took about 30 seconds to convince myself to head back in.

Attackpoint estimates 17 minutes of errors, and I was 26 minutes behind the winning time so there is lots of room for improvement. As in the last two races, I totally blew up on a few controls and did a respectable job on the others. I look forward to reviewing the maps in more detail to see if I can figure out some of the things I did wrong. I probably overestimated my ability to read features right now and should have relied more on my compass and pace counting.

Regardless, it was a great course and lots of fun. It was nice to see so many friends today, including a few I hadn't seen on other days. My foot was a little more sore afterward but I wasn't limping like two weeks ago. So I got away with it! :)

Great job on this event by *so* many people - Hammer, GHOSLO, Griz, Pat-hectic, Backwoods, Dana, Etoile, Wilsmith and many more. I need to single out the spectacular talents of Valerie Meyer, who isn't a GHO member - nor even a Canadian - yet worked hard for weeks leading up to Nationals and never got out on a race course all weekend. Sandy did a great job supporting her at the event. We're so lucky to have generous people willing to work hard to make another club's event a success. Thank you.

Long Course 6 - Splits

Nationals Middle Distance

It's important to have a goal for each race, and mine was to get through this one without bumping my gashed face into anything. I'm not even supposed to get my forehead wet, let alone smash it into trees. And I'm proud to say I met my goal for the race!

It's fortunate that I didn't pick an orienteering-related goal because I managed to get myself lost enough to require *major* relocations twice on a race course that measured only 2.4 km straight line distance. I spent more than half my time on those two splits out of eleven and lost over 15 minutes there to the winner, Marianna, who made a 2-minute error there herself! On the bright side, I only lost 3 minutes to her on the other nine splits. So... I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that maybe I need to improve my consistency. :)

My biggest error occurred when I was trying to be clever by taking a longer route around to avoid elevation changes. Not so clever when you come back into the spaghetti contours and can't find the little hilltop you're headed for. I was actually close but was looking for a higher hill than I should have been so I wandered a bit, then bailed out to come at it again. So there's a second lesson to take away... Don't *try* to be clever. Just *be* clever.

Attackpoint says I had over 15 minutes of mistakes (and is probably generous) but I have no real complaints because I haven't put in the training to deserve better results. I'm thinking of this weekend as an orienteering baseline - like running one of my regular routes early in the season to determine base fitness level. I'm not surprised that my navigation needs work. Of *course* it does! But I'm pleasantly surprised that the physical side of the first two races has gone pretty well. When I don't lose my head, my splits are close to the top of my category. Unfortunately, I'm losing my head too much right now.

Speaking of heads, this event has been rough on them. Mick arrived today with his own forehead bandage - except he wins because he got stitches after his sprint ended early yesterday. And on the way to the start today, I saw a volunteer go over the handlebars of his bike, and that turned into a 25-minute first aid and ambulance call stop. Fortunately, he's doing OK now. We were lucky to have the help of a first aid instructor who happened by with a backpack full of dressings, two teenaged cyclists who shared their cell phone and directed the ambulance, and a nurse who was also heading to the race start.

One more race to go. I'm looking forward to a day with greater consistency and fewer knocks on heads. The Dundas Valley is gorgeous right now so it will be lots of fun no matter what!

Postscript: The GPS track reveals one of the problems with my massive error on #2. I came upon #3 (or so I thought) and tried to use it to navigate back to #2 but I failed miserably and finally bailed out to the farmer's field to relocate. I see now that I never got near #3 so I must have read the code incorrectly. No wonder things didn't make sense!

Middle Course 6 - Splits

Event: 2013 Nationals (Hamilton, CANADA)
 

For the first time ever, an orienteering injury has sent me to the hospital. At the start of a 4-hr volunteer shift at the Nationals registration table, I whirled around to put some liability waivers - including my own - into the box. I slammed my forehead hard into the edge of a metal shelf and sliced it open. Luckily, a physician who happened to be checking in for the event did some interim repair with the club first aid kit and said I will likely need stitches. After the shock wore off, I worked another few hours then drove to the Urgent Care Centre. Argghh. But even as I sit here waiting, I'm laughing at the irony of this injury.

Big thanks to Mr. Wonderful who brought us a dozen delicious apple cider doughnuts after seeing my AP comment to Cristina saying that I'd never tried them. Yum, a couple of those really helped me feel better.

Nationals Sprint on the McMaster University campus

The emerg doc said I could run as long as it didn't make me feel light headed or otherwise rotten. I was already planning to take it easy because of my foot so I went into the race quite calm for someone who hadn't used an orienteering map since June 1. I have also never mastered sprint-specific map symbols so there is always a lot of luck involved in urban or campus sprints. And of course, I came to the event site straight from the emerg department and raced with my hospital bracelet on. I was calm because I had zero expectations!

So given all that, I'm actually pretty happy with my running (although not my orienteering!) I made several huge errors mostly because I haven't been on an O map lately and just wasn't sharp. I started running from #2 back toward #1 instead of toward #3 in the opposite direction. I didn't check the code on a control I ran past because I had the description wrong, but that was my control. Attackpoint says I had 2:33 of errors but it missed a big error on #1 (as per the GPS track) and a few minor ones.


(Both photos by Adrian Zissos.)

I was 5 minutes out of first, which is much better than I deserved, and I finished around midpack. I had a couple of the best splits in our category and also the absolute worst split for any age group on our course at the go control. That is inexcusable since it was inside the spectator area, and I'd seen people punch it and run to the finish even before my race started. I guess once you've made a commitment to race stupid, you have to stay consistent. :) I should learn the damned sprint map symbols and go back to McMaster with the map some day to drill them into my head. (Hmm, perhaps that's a bad choice of words today...)



Regardless, it was quite fun, the course was interesting, my foot didn't hurt much, the weather was perfect, and I chatted with lots of friends.

(For anyone looking at the GPS track, it is incorrect between #9 and #10. I was clean and direct there - one of my best-ranked splits - and didn't go way off into that parking lot. The track does something funny on the way to #1 as well. The other parts of the GPS track that look like mistakes... are mistakes.)

Sprint Course 3a - Splits

I admit it. I'm a Glee fan. And that was sad. :(

How *not* to prepare for a national championship... I checked back in the trusty Attackpoint statistics and discovered that with the exception of the CNYO Rogaine, I've orienteered all of 14 hours this year. The last time I used an orienteering map was June 1. This weekend will not just be an experiment in terms of orienteering with an injury. It will also be an experiment to see how well orienteering goes when you don't remember how to do it. Should be interesting...

Another doctor-approved half hour run. OK, 35 minutes but who's counting? After running the soft, even, flat surface of the rail trail yesterday, I moved today to the hillier trails of Palgrave West with roots, rocks and holes hidden under leaf cover. It was a bit of a jump but tomorrow is Day 1 of Orienteering Nationals so I don't have time to ramp up gradually. At least tomorrow is a campus sprint so the footing should mostly be good. If I'm not limping after that (and it seems unlikely, given that it won't be as long or as technical as today's run), then I'll give the Middle distance race a try on Saturday. One day at a time.

Most of our sumacs are past their prime already. We still have a few fiery red/orange bushes but many have dropped the majority of their leaves. In spite of the fast progress of the autumn leaves, today was a summer day in October - perfect Harps weather. Not so perfect for BulletDog who was so hot that I brought her back home after 2 km.

Regulation half-hour run, as permitted by the chiropodist. I went on the rail trail to keep it flat and relatively low impact. It didn't affect my foot in any obvious way. If anything, the pain decreased as I ran, which is how it was until two weeks ago. Supposedly, it is better to maintain some level of one's regular athletic activities during the healing process, including running. I sure hope that is true because I would go stir crazy otherwise!

I will be breaking the rules this weekend at the Orienteering Nationals but I plan to be good after that. Luckily, the races go from shortest to longest over the 3 days so I can always bail from the rest of the event if things aren't going well.

Autumn Leaves Alert: We are getting close to peak in Caledon, which means it is probably past peak in places like Huntsville already. If someone wants a nice autumn leaves hike on Thanksgiving, it will be pretty nice around here or in Barrie - no need to go much further north. Having said that, I don't think it's a particularly spectacular year for leaves. Gusty winds blew some of our leaves down a few days ago too. But it is still beautiful.

Before the run, I went for my 4th laser treatment and was demoted to the lowest level of laser and advised not to return until after I've seen the doctor and picked up my new orthotics in a week or two. Why? Because I have this foolish penchant for statistics, science and honesty, thus I couldn't confirm that 3 laser treatments had reduced my pain. We've altered three other important variables by adding a heel lift, reducing running and eliminating exercises that stretch the heel. So maybe the laser has helped but it is impossible to know. So... the technician decided that I will get no more laser for now since we aren't sure it is helping. Of course, the experiment was designed in such a way that we never could have gotten that information.

Rodney Yee Power Yoga for Flexibility. First attempt at yoga modified so that left heel and calf aren't stretched too much. Downward dog and plank modifications load the right leg more, and I have to modify lunge position when the left leg is behind. Otherwise, most of it was OK. Definitely better than avoiding yoga because some of the poses don't work.

Some quick weights to get my upper body used to the idea of working out again. Better not overdo it given the big weekend coming up. It's a big weekend from the perspectives of volunteer work, driving time and family Thanksgiving. If all goes well, I'll spend less than 3 hours racing over 3 days! I'm also co-organizing a big event for my engineering class on the following weekend. It never gets boring around here.

Sigh... Guess I need to track this stuff. BulletDog and I hiked to Thinker's Hill and back. It's a rolling trail with a good surface and no steep hills - perfect rehab trail. It didn't seem to affect my Achilles at all. So that's a start.

I'm admitting defeat and dropping out of Salomon Raid The Hammer. The only other event I'm registered for in 2013 is Orienteering Nationals this weekend, where I can hike instead of running if it hurts too much. After all the computer hours I've put into Nationals and RTH as registrar, I'd like to enjoy at least a couple of hours in the forest. Blah.

Was promoted from Level 1 laser therapy for my heel to Level 3. I guess I'm bionic now.