Training Log Archive: Kat

Course A at the Dalton Barracks. The entire course was 8.9 km, mostly flat, with 25 controls, including some map memory ones. It was basically just running around an army place, so there were lots of buildings, trucks, and fences.

I had a difficult time with the first control because I couldn't get over the fence and therefore had to go back and around. Then I had a difficult time with the second control because even though I ran right past it, I didn't realize it was the control because there was no kite, just a metal stand. After that, the next bunch of controls were ok. My stomach was hurting because I had just eaten lunch (which was spicy minced meat) and I was starting to really get a blister on my right ankle because of the huge puddles and mud on some of the trails, but I kept at it.

On my way to 12, I stopped in the middle of a road to tie my shoe tighter, thinking that perhaps that would help my blister. It ended up just hurting more, but I kept going since I had done almost half of the controls already. The breaking point came when I got to 12 and realized I had left my emit card there in that muddy road close to 11. I walked back, got the card, took off my shoe to look at my blister (which was already bloody) and decided it wasn't worth it to continue.

The sad part was that control 11 was the farthest control from the start/finish on the entire map, so it was a 25-30 minute walk back, by which point I couldn't feel my fingers at all. Luke M. had to help me untie my shoes...

It is really too bad I was feeling so ill today. I could have done quite well otherwise. Instead, the men in uniform (who whistled at me every once in a while) saw exactly what they expected to see: men running, girl walking looking miserable. =(

I felt much better in the water today. Less weak from being sick, less coughing. I think I'm just about fully healthy now =)

400 choice warm-up
8x25 (1 drill, 2 swim, 1 build)

6x50 free on 60 sec
4x100 pull on 1:50
4x50 drill
8x100 free FAST on 2 minutes
2x150 easy
8x50 choice (back) FAST on 80 sec
200 easy
1x100 free broken up at each 25 with 15 seconds rest. FAST.
200 cool-down

Total: 3,500 meters

C • Perfect! 1

Running to registration, to start, back from finish, etc.

OK Nuts event at Esher Commons. I did the W21 Long. 7.1 km, 125 meters climb, 19 controls (including 5 Micr-O ones). The 5 Micr-O controls comprised 0.94 km, 25 meters climb, and took me 10 minutes, 25 seconds to run.

My legs were still quite sore from yesterday, so I decided to take it easy today. This was quite easy to do since there was only one class doing course 2 and that was my class, so there was no head-to-head competition this time and no satisfaction of picking right route choices or cursing wrong ones. I was all by myself the entire way. In fact, after the event, I commented to Ian that I had not seen another female orienteer throughout the entire course!! I saw a few elderly women at the start, but no females after that.

I did mess up a few controls, of course. I messed up number 3. It was mapped as a pit next to a strip of clearing, but in reality that strip of clearing really didn't look like clearing to me, so I wound up going a bit too far. But I immediately corrected when I realized I was next to a fence about 100 meters away from the control and went straight for it.

I didn't really mess up #4 so much as I picked a bad route choice to start with. It was a long leg and I saw clearly that I couldn't go straight, so I had to figure out the best way through a network of paths. While I was doing this, I had run up three contour lines unnecessarily. The path that I wanted was in that direction, indeed, but I really didn't have to go up the hill, I should have gone to the right of it. But even as I was climbing, I was thinking that I needed to figure out the rest of the route and I knew I wasn't heading in the wrong direction, so I'd just keep going. Once I had decided on the path I was going to take, I dropped down off the hill down a steep sandy reentrant and the rest of the way was fine. I was feeling quite tired running, even though the event was quite flat, but I managed to keep ambling along the path in the right direction. Once I got close to the control, I went considerably slower to make sure I was heading the right way because there were a lot of confusing paths all over the place, but I hit the control with no problem.

Then I messed up 6. I went a bit too far to the right (since it's impossible to go straight through the thorny bushes) and when I tried to attack the control off the path, just wound up on the path on the other side. Then I started to doubt where I was, saw some guys run toward a control on a pit a short way away, followed, found a control that wasn't mine, decided to try and relocate. I ran up a short path through some green, then saw it fork. I looked at my map, figured out almost instantly where I had to be, and headed for the control and found it. (In some ways, I have gotten better about relocating. This leg took me 6:26, which was about a 4 minute mistake, but certainly it could have taken me a lot longer considering at some point I had no idea where I was among the trails, pits, and green.)

I hit 7,8,9 with no problems. Then came the Micr-O. The scale went from 1:10,000 to 1:5,000. I immediately noticed the difference and had no major problems adjusting, since I took it very easy to the first control. As it happened, I got the first two controls correct, but got the other 3 wrong. I basically hit all five clusters right on, but then had a bit of trouble deciding which control (out of 5 at each cluster) was mine. The first two were northwest side of reentrant and east side of thicket, but the last three were all middle reentrant/spur. These were all quite technical and difficult (or so I thought) because I had to try and read the contour lines on the map and then try to relate that to reality FAST and pick the right control. I made educated guesses on all three of these by picking the middle controls, but I guess that's just no substitute for actually being able to read the fine details on the map.

I didn't make a mistake on 17, but thought it worth mentioning that I had to cross a busy road here (with cars going over 50 miles per hour and no marshalling). Therefore, I ended up running along the road over 100 meters north of where I wanted to be to try and cross the road there, and then having to go south along a trail to my control. So I figure this was about 2 minutes right there of waiting for the cars to pass and finally crossing and then backtracking along the other side.

Number 18 was the worst control for me. It was a relatively long leg and towards the middle of it, I had to cross a marshy bit (where I was knee deep in cold water). Then, I wound up too far east along the trail I was heading for. I kept trying to attack my control off the trail, and kept finding nothing (and once, a somewhat parallel trail) on the other side. After attempting to find the control 3 times through there, I finally went a bit west along the trail and tried again. This time, I found the control. Note to self: thick wavy short contour line generally means a ditch!

Then, at 19, the SI unit wasn't working for me, so I wasted about a minute fiddling with it and finally punching my map. From the looks of my results printout, it seems that it actually did work, but it never beeped nor flashed when I was actually at that control.

Today's event was the final one of my first term at Oxford. Next weekend, I will be running around in the dark in Sweden.

I think I have made a great deal of progress these past few weeks. Despite only orienteering on the weekends and not running much, I have become better at this!

(1) I am no longer surprised when I actually manage to spike a control. Now, I expect it to be there and am reasonably sure that it is in fact sitting out there waiting for me.
(2) I have gotten considerably better at trusting my own instincts/route choices/navigation and not blindly dashing after others. I still have issues with this, of course, and probably always will, but at least I have some confidence in my ability as an orienteer. And, although head-to-head competition has been rare (for example, today, I saw no one on my course before, during, or after), I have really enjoyed the times it did exist.
(3) I have lowered my orienteering time per km from about 14-15 minutes on average to about 11 minutes. And this 11 minutes includes mistakes and happens on days when I'm tired and taking it easy (such as today).

300 choice warm-up
4x50 (25 scull, 25 free)
8x25 build (4 free, 4 choice)

12x100 free on 1:35

3 x {4x50 free sprint, 200 easy back}

I can't remember if there was more after that...

total: 2,500 meters (I did 2,400)

Jogging before and after the cross country race and doing some drills with the Cambridge team (I didn't know they were Cambridge). They are actually quite nice!

Oxford versus Cambridge Cross Country Race.

I started running at the back of the pack and caught a few people throughout the race, so I wasn't last. There was a lot of mud on the ground, so I tried to stick to the grass as much as possible, and I had to be real careful on the downhills and the turns! I was keeping up with Helen and another Oxford girl, even a bit ahead after 10 minutes, but then came a steep (although not very long) hill, and my calves gave out and they got ahead again. And after that, I struggled even on level ground because my calves hurt. I don't know why they felt so sore already...from being sick (achy), from swimming last night and this morning? But I definitely felt that while my quads were just fine, my calves were hurting. Actually, the real reason is probably that while i've been running at least once/twice a week, it's been relatively flat, while this was quite hilly.

I'm not entirely sure about the distance. Everybody I talked to, including a coach, thought it was around 5 km, the OUCCC website listed it as 3 miles. So I will just average the two (4.8 km and 5km) and say it was 4.9 km.

I was 25th out of about 40 girls. That's quite good (I think) considering I'm not a cross-country person!

Despite my calves feeling really sore, the rest of my legs were fine and, perhaps most importantly, my breathing was fine the entire way. It was only after about 20 minutes, coming up the last big hill, that I was starting to have some major difficulties.

This was an all-out effort and I don't think I could have run that course any faster today, given the circumstances. It was tough, it was hilly, and I admit I walked a bit on some of the uphills, but I finished. And how! When I finally saw the finish sign across the field, I started to sprint and put some distance between me and a few girls that weren't too far behind me. There was nobody immediately ahead to catch up with, but I still had an awesome sprint to the finish and the people cheering told me so as I was racing past them =) I think my good finish was due to the OUOC enthusiasm for comparing finish splits after each orienteering event.

I wasn't sure how long the event would last or how it would feel, but I knew it would take about 20 minutes, so I kept glancing at my watch, which I had started at the start. This helped give me some idea of where I was in the course and how much time left there was. I don't think I was really pacing though. I wasn't sprinting, but I was running as hard as I could maintain on the flats and downhills, and crawling uphills. (Really have to work on that!) I know for sure that had I not done any running at all this term, I probably wouldn't have survived this course.

I stayed afterward for a bit and cheered on the men's teams. I talked to some Cambridge girls, who were quite nice, and also the Oxford coach, who encouraged me to take a look at the cross country website and come to some of their trainings. Very fun day!

C • ! 11

Crunches.

First day back after several weeks of sickness. Even though I could row and sometimes go out running while sick, swimming while sick just sucks. I had trouble breathing today since I couldn't breathe through my nose and I kept coughing every several lengths to clear my throat. But I do feel much better now that I did a week ago.

300 IM drills (I did 250)
400 SPKD (swim, pull, kick, drill) (I did 300)

400 free
4x100 back/free
400 free
4x100 IM
400 free
4x100 back/free

3x {4x50 kick} on 75 sec, 65, 60
5x50 free/back easy

total: 3,950 meters (I did 3,700)

Second day of the Christ Church Regatta.

I was the stroke today! I was a bit unsure of whether I could set a good rhythm, but I did believe I could do it better than anyone else on the boat, so I asked to be stroke and was granted my wish. As it turns out, I did just fine. No crabs, no serious breaks in the rhythm. The only problem was that occasionally the boat tipped too far to the right and I had trouble raising my blade above water, but even those times, I managed to take a stroke and keep going. Towards the end, I was really getting good at keeping pace! Despite the cold, the outing was quite fun and productive.

We did one warm-up loop around the river, then (since we didn't know who our competition was and couldn't seem to find out, since the marshalls knew nothing) we did a second one. Then it began to rain. And then it began to hail. Disaster!

We then had to wait a bit in a queue, since there were boats ahead, and then row all the way back along the river to where the boathouses were, spin around, and dock. Really, we were out on the water for about two hours, but it was about an hour's worth of rowing.

Clem - I tried to ask around and see what the boats are called, but it seems that they are indeed just called "boats" and occasionally "fours" and "eights", depending on how many people they seat. Also, I saw a sign last weekend that said, "rowing boats for hire," so I imagine calling them rowing boats wouldn't be too ridiculous here. The Brits don't seem to have an understanding of hard-core names. They don't have "crews" or even "teams" here, they have "boat clubs."

Eddie, we have no mascot (as far as I know), but we did find some pom-poms in the Merton boathouse and tried to convince our cox to cheer us on while in the boat. But then we figured that perhaps yet another distraction would not be a good thing since we have enough problems trying to stay together and concentrate as is...

Today was the first day of the Christ Church Regatta. It was certainly a new experience for me and a lot of fun (except for the cold). Since my boat has one guy in it (besides the cox), we are not allowed to race women's crews and must race men's crews instead. And we got unlucky enough to be pitted against Oriel's men A boat. That's probably one of the best boats in Oxford since Oriel is the most fit college and this is their number 1 boat.

We warmed up a bit, then waited in a queue of boats, then finally started the race. Some of the other people in my boat were distracted when we were going past the Merton boathouse because there was a lot of cheering for us, but I just kept myself focused on following stroke's rhythm and tried hard not to laugh. It's just such a funny image! A boat of novice girls racing the fastest men's boat!

I enjoyed the race very much and wish I had time to take rowing more seriously. Certainly, I could be a part of a much more organized boat (women's 1 or 2, perhaps) if I could come to the outings. But I don't have the time, and thus must try to not get sucked into it.

I was surprised by how many Merton people showed up. Not just the four crews, but also other Merton rowers who weren't participating in the regatta and just Mertonians in general. It was awesome how much cheering and enthusiasm there was from these folks. I suppose every place has its sport, and Oxford's is rowing.

C • Nice work! 6

Running to the pool after being informed at 3:45 that I had to take a swim test at 4PM in order to row in the Christ Church regatta this week.

Swimming two lengths of the pool, treading water for a minute, and diving down to the bottom of the pool with eyes closed (in order to keep my contacts in) to bring up the brick. I had to dive down three times because I kept missing it and it's hard to be underwater, head-first, trying to search for something with closed eyes.

This wasn't really rowing out on the water, this was just an "erg" (machine) session. So instead of blades we held unto metal bars.

I found it quite fun. I actually felt that I used my arms and legs doing this, so it wasn't all about trying to get the technique right.

I am still incredibly sick. Head hurts, stuffy nose, sore throat, and cough. I absolutely hate it. The only good thing about it, perhaps, is that it's forcing me to stay home and rest.

C • Get better!!!! 3

I was hyper before starting because I got a decent night's sleep last night. After spending the first half of the day freezing, I had then taken a warm shower, had some curry with the other orienteers, chatted in a bar, and finally gone to bed in my warm sleeping bag. And it was several degrees celcius today! That's such warm weather! I was absolutely ecstatic about the "warmth" after yesterday.

I did the W21 Long course. 25 controls, not including the finish, 7.8 k long. There were different sections of woods. The first part was yellow in some areas (with ferns and tall grass) and green in others (with spiky plants all over the place). In the middle of the first half, we had to cross a road near a roundabout, and then continue on the other side of the road. The woods there were incredibly runnable. There was a guy running M21 short (same course I was doing) who had been with me, more or less, for the past few controls. After crossing the road, he headed west and then north along the trail. I went diagonally through the woods and cut onto the trail about 15-20 meters ahead of him. =) I did really well with the controls on that side - I was flying and in mostly the right direction!

It was the other side that gave me problems. Especially those controls in the yellow section. Because of the tall grass and the huge number of pits and depressions all over, it is quite difficult to find your control in those things. And also, quite difficult to determine what's a trail and what is just an elephant path made by orienteers. So I lost some good minutes in there. I lost about 5 minutes on number 3 (even though I was circling so close to it!) and another 4 minutes on number 19. These were tough.

I noticed a few things while running. It's not that I don't think, it's that I don't always listen to what I think. For example, while going to a control along a trail, I was thinking in my head that I should aim a bit left or right of it and then follow the trail until I got it instead of trying to get it straight on. But since it was such a close control, I also thought, well, I'll just keeping going on this bearing and hope I see it. I lost about 30 seconds then by being a bit too far to the right.

Another thing I noticed. I am definitely using contours and features on the map more and better now. I lost time on one control towards the end of the race because a contour line was right beneath the circle on the map and therefore, I didn't realize the the control would be higher and I kept looking too low.

I did not follow people today, even if I thought they were doing the same course. I went my own way. Sometimes it was better, much better, and sometimes I screwed up. But at least I am getting better at running my own race. For example, the same guy who had been with me for controls 4-11, and who I had beat to 12, I had stayed ahead of for the next several controls and would have probably stayed ahead for the rest of the course had I not messed up 19 so badly. But point is that he and I were basically running the same course at the same time, but although we intersected often, we each ran our own way.

Overall, the course was quite enjoyable. I think I especially liked it after yesterday's featureless, freezing orienteering. What a difference!

Note: This is my fastest orienteering min/k time!
Note: Apparently, the road-crossing splits were taken out of the total time and weren't included in the 7.8 k distance. All the better.

I looked up the results and I actually did better than I thought. I was 5th (out of about 12 women doing the W21 L course. The top four results were 1:11, 1:14:07, 1:14:27, and 1:14:57. So I was really close! The best time on this course was by one of the men, 57:39.

First sprint at the Cambridge Spint Championships. It was absolutely freezing weather!!! -1 C, frost everywhere (although no snow), and after having stood outside for over half an hour, I couldn't feel my fingers or my toes.

I didn't do so well in this first sprint. There were no contours lines at all and very few features. In fact, the only thing I had to go by were a few trails and vegetation boundaries. I spent a lot of time looking around for controls 2 and 3. Then did the second half of the loop quite quickly. (By that point, I had some idea of what the vegetation looked like on the map and on the land.) Despite a miserable run, I managed to be 8th out of 18, which put me in the semifinals.

This was the second sprint at the Cambridge Spint Champs. We had to move from one start to another so by the time we started here, I was nice and cold again. Honestly, I could see the hot air going up from my feet right after I ran the first sprint. Then nothing was left but numbness.

I started off this second sprint quite well. I nailed the first few controls and by the middle (when I hit the spectator control), I thought I had a chance to make the finals. I found 5 and 6 ok, but then messed up 7 quite badly. I hadn't gone in the wrong direction either, I just got confused. The control was on a small knoll. But since these woods were so flat and there were small trees everywhere, it was really impossible to see the control unless one was right next to it. And there weren't any attackpoints to speak of. So I can't really say I made a mistake so much as I hesitated - a lot.
So I ended up being 6 out of 9 in the semis (the top 4 went on to the finals).

After the Sprint Champs finished, we had a short courses which included drinking various types of alcohol. Not everyone did this, probably about 15 people total (I think there were 3 girls including myself). I decided to do the half-Alc-O instead of the elite Alc-O because I don't drink as fast as the guys do. This meant that they drank a pint each time but I only had to drink half a pint. Since I'm small and I drank my cups fast, I highly doubt they could have been more tipsy than I was.

Sadly, the organizers of this event didn't predict the number of people who would want to do it. So there weren't enough maps for all of us and I ended up following guys for the first loop, then trying to make out tracks through the brambles and guessing where the control might be for the second loop, and missing out on the third loop (because I had no map and there was no one to follow).

Very fun! Warmed me right up.

C • mmm, alc-O 2

Walking (looking at the map) to start 1, to start 2, to the Alc-O start, and then back to the car.

After the Alc-O, we headed back to the cars through several control points. At each one, beer or cocktail drink was handed out. So by the time we got to the cars, everyone was drunk or getting there.

Today was a major day. We did eights for the first time. We also did feathering for the first time. We actually looked like a crew for the first time!!! Exciting!

I have been sick since last weekend (probably something to do with the sudden change in weather from warm to freezing.) Hence, I have not been going to swimming practice in the mornings because I have been feeling absolutely terrible. Also, because I haven't been doing work for two weekends straight, I am just managing to hand in assignments on time, so I haven't been able to go run in the afternoons and it is too dark in the evenings to go by myself, especially without a headlamp. (It is dark here by around 4:45 PM.)

Excuses, excuses. Really, what I need is a weekend by myself to regroup, get my health back, and get my work done. But since I'm going to the Cambridge Sprints on Saturday, staying there overnight, then going to another orienteering event on Sunday in a new location, it's just not happening. My only hope is that next weekend (or at least, next Saturday) I will be able to spend by myself in my room. Just me, a hot cup of tea, and my math.

C • Sorry... 3

Running around South Parks with Boris. I started off feeling slow and lazy but the second loop around the park was actually quite fast (despite being in total darkness). Fun times.

Crunches.

W21L course at a regional event on an Ash Ranges map. There was heather...everywhere. So basically I was running (no, wading) through crap the entire course. What's more, most of the controls (while not especially technically challenging) were hidden in pits beneath the heather so it made finding them rather difficult. Even when I was 5 meters away from control 2 and heading in the right direction, I hesitated and stood to try and find the control. It was impossible to see it unless one was actually standing in the pit. I made a few errors, of course, but nothing too devastating. Since I am not used to such large open terrain with bracken everywhere, I messed up a bit on #1 looking for the control. I didn't realize that the flag would be hidden. From then on, however, I anticipated this and did not assume that if I didn't see the control, it meant I wasn't in the right place.

I also messed up on 12. I was about 5 meters away from the control, but then turned around and started relocating. Why? Well, because a guy who had been racing the last several controls with me (who kept screwing up) was heading that way. So I assumed he had missed 12 and was heading for 13 by accident just because all these other men were heading that way. So I spent about 8 minutes trying to relocate, then finally went back to the area where all those orienteers were before, to find 12 right there.

Overall, I thought the course was quite challenging and certainly frustrating, but also a good experience. I learned a new map feature (dark yellow lines on the map represented nice wide cut-grass trails among the heather) and I learned that running through ferns is not the worst thing after all. Good times.

Run with Boris through University Parks and then through some meadows. It was quite an eventful run which involved crossing roads (with cars) and taking several detours to observe the wildlife (British geese are huge!!). At one point, we went on some path that had overgrowth so bad that we had to crawl under it. I was feeling really unmotivated to go fast and was sort of shuffling my feet the first twenty minutes. But then I began to warm up and started going a big faster.

Strides with Boris. Dark and getting cold fast.

Crunches.

It was very windy today and the water was high. Yet despite the weather, we actually did quite well today. We were doing sixes and managing to almost keep together!! It's exciting. The senior girls want some of us novices to participate in the Christ Church regatta several weeks from now. We will surely lose, but perhaps it will be fun. That also means we have to try doing eights at least once before then (since we've never done them before). Fun stuff.

Right as we landed the boat, it started to rain. It was almost painful actually because all of a sudden it was freezing cold, very windy, and the rain was coming down with a vengeance! I got home completely wet. I've decided rowing is fun, but only when the weather is nice. I guess that's what separates me from hard-core rowers. But I feel hard-core enough for going to swimming in the dark and early mornings, so I may as well row only when I feel like it.

For the most part, today's swim was very relaxing and relatively easy. However, there was one part in the middle was intensity 5 and FAST!

400 free (swim, pull, kick, drill) (I did 350)
8x25 build (4 free, 4 choice)
10x50 (4 free, 4 IM, 2 choice)

Maximum effort:
100 free on 2 min
2x50 free on 1 min
4x25 free on 30 sec

60 seconds rest
300 choice easy(I did 250)

Maximum effort:
100 choice on 2:15 min (I did backstroke)
2x50 choice on 1:05 min
4x25 choice on 40 sec

300 choice easy

6x200 pull (I did 900)
200 easy (I did 150)

Total: 3,700 meters (I did 3,250)

Easy run by myself through university park and then a bit on the meadows. It was lonely and my calves are sore from the weekend (and my shins hurt), so the run was shorter than I would have liked. But I wasn't feeling inspired today.

Crunches.

Biking to and from people's houses. Today was the orienteering club "roving meal." Basically, we had a ten course meal with each course at a different person's house. So we would eat and chat at one house for about 30 minutes, then bike over to the next. I had to borrow a bike from a third-year student since I don't have my own. The bike seat was too high and since it was bolted, I couldn't adjust it. So I had to basically hop on and off and be very VERY careful with hills, turns, and lights. I can't say I enjoyed the biking...after sitting in a nice warm room with good conversation and food, the last thing I wanted to do was to get up and bike in the cold, wet, dark Oxford streets on a bike that was too big for me. But I did and was happy at each meal that I came.

C • roving meal 4

It would take me a LONG time to describe and comment on each day spent training in Denmark, so I will just note a few things about my orienteering there overall.

Things I need to work on:
(1) I need to do more uphills. After running around in flatland England, my calves were quite sore from running around in hilly Denmark
(2) I really need to start having more self-confidence. During the change of pace training exercise, I followed Boris onto a trail (since I knew he was heading the same way I was), but he had actually screwed up at the intersection and taken a wrong trail, so then we both had to cut through the woods to the right one. Then, there were also several occasions when I was heading the right way, but hesitated because I saw other orienteers doing something different.
(3) I need a compass which shows north more clearly.
(4) I have to figure out some way of keeping up the level of concentration. When I am tired (such as after 45 minutes of race, or after several days of training), my concentration drops and I do stupid things.
(5) I need to work on keeping track of where I am on the map. Sometimes, when I don't keep my thumb on the spot, when I look back down at the map, it takes me a while to find it again. Even worse, if there are a lot of trail junctions or something similar, I might mistakenly think I am somewhere different than where I really am.
(6) I need to work on relocation. The reason that I usually do fine on most legs but also have a couple of disastrous legs is because when I make a mistake, I'm not always so quick at fixing it.

Things I am better at now
(1) I have a better idea of what types of things to pay attention to. Not just trails, but also vegetation boundaries, streams, and countours.
(2) I am getting better at not veering off in the wrong direction when coming to trail intersections (when not distracted by Boris). For example, I went about 3 meters down a wrong trail on Sunday before I stopped and cut through a bit of woods to the right one. Even though I knew there should be two trails there, there were leaves all over the place and it was really only compass direction that told me I wasn't going the right way. But I changed course so that became only a 15 second mistake.
(3) I am definitely better at anticipating where controls should be and going not only to the right general area but also to the right spot. In the past, I would often just get close enough to the control (within the circle) and then run around looking for it. Now I usually have at least some simple plan of how to find it and what to attack it from.
(4) My route choices are decent. And I am getting better at deciding which ones would be better for me then and there (rather than better in general). For example, after screwing up number 1 on Sunday, I took a very safe route choice to 2 and took it easy because I sensed that my concentration was low and I would probably not execute any technical plans well. Also, since I knew that my calves were really sore and I would be slow on uphills, I tried to go around hills rather than straight across when possible, even though I sensed that had I not been so tired, going straight would have been faster.

So, it was a very fun weekend and I think I learned a lot from it. Thanks to Tom for setting this up and thanks to Boris for bringing me along =)

This was the Denmark "championships" race on the last day of the training camp. On the first leg, I ran off the map so it took me 20:50 to finally get to #1. After that, however, I took it nice and easy (since my legs and brain were dead). I took safe route choices and tried to be as clean as possible. For the most part, it worked.

To start.

A route-choice exercise with Isabelle. We would choose two different routes to each control and then execute them and see whose route was better. We would wait for each other at each control, then plan the next leg. I actually only spent 55 minutes running and the rest of the time planning/waiting. This was quite a good exercise because I didn't really make any major mistakes today at all. The rest in between each control allowed me time to gather my wits together for the next one. A fun exercise!

This was called a "change of pace" exercise. The course consisted of several long legs (mostly on trails) and then short loops of 3-4 controls. Isabelle started first and I went 30 seconds after her. After she did the long leg to the "start" and the first loops of controls, she waited for me at the last one (since I hadn't managed to catch up) and then we started the next round. The point of this exercise was to practice concentrating on short technical legs while being tired. And I did indeed feel the effects of the long legs when navigating to the controls...After the first loop (when I messed up number 2), I did ok on all of the others and I caught and passed Isabelle on the last one, when she ran too far past number 14. I think we were quite close in navigating ability, so we made good partners =)

To start, from finish to car.

A line-O on a 1:15,000 map. I find small-scale maps difficult in general and since this was a line-O that went through the woods as well as on a few trails, it was quite challenging to be constantly reading the map and keeping track of where I was. After one loop, there were 5 controls to navigate to. The first two were quite good, the others were a bit more messy.

To start and to the car from the finish.

This was a "middle distance" course. On this day, I decided I simply have to get a new compass that has an orange north needle and white on the other side. I love my compass but since it has orange on both sides (and just a little white circle on the north side to indicate north) I do 180-turns way too often. I did one going to control 11 on this course, headed through the green in the opposite direction, and then continued to mess up the control very badly. All of the other controls were ok, though.

A very easy jog with Sandra and Christine on the trails close to our Silkeborg cabins.

Today's outing went more smoothly than the first one. We got the boat in and out of the water much more quickly this time. Amazing, really, what one hour of practice can do! It was fun, but I really should be getting some work done considering I'm not going to be doing any while in Denmark...

Today was rather easy since half of the team is going to the BUSA meet this weekend and need their rest.

200 choice
300 IM (50 drill,25 stroke of each)
8x25 IM order

3x50 free
12x100 IM on 2 minutes (every 4th was dril on 2:10)
6x200 pull (bleh. I definitely did 250 less than everyone else)

Total: 3,250 (I did 3,000)