Training Log Archive: KatIn the 30 days ending Jun 30, 2007:
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Saturday Jun 30, 2007 #
Running warm up/down 18:58 [2] 2.3 mi (8:15 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Jogging before the start. Felt good.
Orienteering 54:11 [4] 4.5 km (12:02 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
EVENT: Kapa 3-Days 2007, Day 2
COURSE: D21E, 4.5 km, 13 controls
MAP: Jurmalciems, 1:10,000, 2.5m contours
TERAIN: Steep sand dunes in the center, with blue/green marsh to the east and technical contour detail in light green to the west, near the sea.
MY RUN: Started off ok. The first three controls were in the green marshes and I tried to be very careful with my routes. Still didn't spike the first two, because they were tough controls, but I didn't lose all that much either. Then I was happy with the next few, anticipating features and feeling on top of the navigation. A 1+ minute mistake on #7 moved me down the results list, but did not completely discourage me, but the disaster on #11 definitely killed the race. Basically, I made a mistake on the steepest part of the sand dunes and then ended up climbing up and down through the green for 10 minutes. Argh. Very tired after all that!
THOUGHTS: Middle distance is tough for me because it requires quicker map-reading than long distance does and I have less experience with it, but I did so many things right in the first half of the course that it was quite disappointing to have such a bad finish. Just need to practice more, I guess.
RESULTS: 28th out of 31. http://www.kapaok.lv/kapa07/1st_2d.html#104
COURSE: D21E, 4.5 km, 13 controls
MAP: Jurmalciems, 1:10,000, 2.5m contours
TERAIN: Steep sand dunes in the center, with blue/green marsh to the east and technical contour detail in light green to the west, near the sea.
MY RUN: Started off ok. The first three controls were in the green marshes and I tried to be very careful with my routes. Still didn't spike the first two, because they were tough controls, but I didn't lose all that much either. Then I was happy with the next few, anticipating features and feeling on top of the navigation. A 1+ minute mistake on #7 moved me down the results list, but did not completely discourage me, but the disaster on #11 definitely killed the race. Basically, I made a mistake on the steepest part of the sand dunes and then ended up climbing up and down through the green for 10 minutes. Argh. Very tired after all that!
THOUGHTS: Middle distance is tough for me because it requires quicker map-reading than long distance does and I have less experience with it, but I did so many things right in the first half of the course that it was quite disappointing to have such a bad finish. Just need to practice more, I guess.
RESULTS: 28th out of 31. http://www.kapaok.lv/kapa07/1st_2d.html#104
Running warm up/down 8:43 [2] 0.97 mi (8:59 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Cool-down.
Running 8:30 [2] 0.94 mi (9:00 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
Warm-up running before the sprint. Legs felt pretty dead.
Orienteering 17:55 [4] 2.7 km (6:38 / km)
shoes: The Purple Ones
EVENT: Kapa 3-Days Sprint
COURSE: D21E, 2.7 km, 14 controls
MAP: Liepaja park, 1:5,000, 2.5m contour intervals
TERRAIN: Parkland to the east, flat sand dunes to the west, right next to the sea.
MY RUN: The first half of the course (the first four controls) were all park - fast running, relatively easy, just go straight. No major problems here, except for my vision at #4. The control was really easy - right behind an obvious green thicket, but when I got close and looked at the control number, I thought it read 85 instead of 35. Since we weren't given loose control descriptions, I wasted at least 20 seconds unfolding my map to check the code, then looking around to make sure there wasn't another control nearby. It didn't help that the control circle wasn't exactly centered. Finally I looked at the control code again and saw that it did indeed say 35. Grr. (My bad vision is not usually a problem, but I've definitely lost time in races before because of not spotting the flag or being able to see the code from a distance.) After this, the rest of the course was in the sand dunes. A few small hesitations, but no real mistakes other than taking a wrong route on one of the longer legs (I ran on the beach instead of going around on the road).
RESULTS: Tied for 14th place, out of 26 finishers. Results here:
http://www.kapaok.lv/kapa07/sprint.html
ANALYSIS: A decent run. I didn't feel fast (since I was quite tired from all of the hills I did in the morning), but at least I avoided big mistakes and wound up with a reasonable time.
COURSE: D21E, 2.7 km, 14 controls
MAP: Liepaja park, 1:5,000, 2.5m contour intervals
TERRAIN: Parkland to the east, flat sand dunes to the west, right next to the sea.
MY RUN: The first half of the course (the first four controls) were all park - fast running, relatively easy, just go straight. No major problems here, except for my vision at #4. The control was really easy - right behind an obvious green thicket, but when I got close and looked at the control number, I thought it read 85 instead of 35. Since we weren't given loose control descriptions, I wasted at least 20 seconds unfolding my map to check the code, then looking around to make sure there wasn't another control nearby. It didn't help that the control circle wasn't exactly centered. Finally I looked at the control code again and saw that it did indeed say 35. Grr. (My bad vision is not usually a problem, but I've definitely lost time in races before because of not spotting the flag or being able to see the code from a distance.) After this, the rest of the course was in the sand dunes. A few small hesitations, but no real mistakes other than taking a wrong route on one of the longer legs (I ran on the beach instead of going around on the road).
RESULTS: Tied for 14th place, out of 26 finishers. Results here:
http://www.kapaok.lv/kapa07/sprint.html
ANALYSIS: A decent run. I didn't feel fast (since I was quite tired from all of the hills I did in the morning), but at least I avoided big mistakes and wound up with a reasonable time.
Running 6:00 [2] 0.71 mi (8:30 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
Cool-down with Boris and Michele.
Friday Jun 29, 2007 #
Running 15:11 [2] 1.79 mi (8:30 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Warm-up running - back and forth, back and forth. Pretty boring, but I knew I needed to do it.
Orienteering 57:15 [4] 7.0 km (8:11 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
EVENT: Kapa 3-Days 2007
COURSE: D21E, 7.0 km, 19 controls
MAP: Jurmalciems, 1:10,000, 2.5m contours
TERRAIN: Beautiful open forested sand dunes with occasional (blueberry) undergrowth. The eastern part of the map had light green marshes and the western part had some dark green areas, but otherwise the woods were *fast.*
MY RUN: Solid effort. I made a few smallish mistakes, in particular picking the wrong route choice on the long leg, but I always realized what I was doing wrong almost immediately and correctly reasonably quickly. I felt good running and was doing well with reading the contours and concentrating. At control #8 some other girl running my course caught up to me and we ran together (me right behind) for the next two controls. Then I took a slightly different route choice and stayed ahead of her for the rest of the way. I don't know her name, but I think she might be one of the Latvian national team members, so it is pretty cool that I managed to stay in front of her!
RESULTS: 17th out of 31 women. Since there were Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, and a bunch of good Swedes present, I think this was quite a good result for me.
http://www.kapaok.lv/kapa07/1st_1d.html#105
ANALYSIS: I don't think any of the mistakes I made cost me more than 1.5 minutes each, but more detailed analysis will come later.
COURSE: D21E, 7.0 km, 19 controls
MAP: Jurmalciems, 1:10,000, 2.5m contours
TERRAIN: Beautiful open forested sand dunes with occasional (blueberry) undergrowth. The eastern part of the map had light green marshes and the western part had some dark green areas, but otherwise the woods were *fast.*
MY RUN: Solid effort. I made a few smallish mistakes, in particular picking the wrong route choice on the long leg, but I always realized what I was doing wrong almost immediately and correctly reasonably quickly. I felt good running and was doing well with reading the contours and concentrating. At control #8 some other girl running my course caught up to me and we ran together (me right behind) for the next two controls. Then I took a slightly different route choice and stayed ahead of her for the rest of the way. I don't know her name, but I think she might be one of the Latvian national team members, so it is pretty cool that I managed to stay in front of her!
RESULTS: 17th out of 31 women. Since there were Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, and a bunch of good Swedes present, I think this was quite a good result for me.
http://www.kapaok.lv/kapa07/1st_1d.html#105
ANALYSIS: I don't think any of the mistakes I made cost me more than 1.5 minutes each, but more detailed analysis will come later.
Running warm up/down 7:00 [2] 0.78 mi (9:00 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Thursday Jun 28, 2007 #
Running 12:33 [2] 1.5 mi (8:22 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Running to and from the training.
Orienteering 53:28 [2] 5.3 km (10:05 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
A course I designed for myself on the map surrounding our villa. I took it easy, which of course meant a few small lapses in concentration, but in general the navigation was good. It was good for me to see the differences in vegetation between this area and the Riga woods.
Wednesday Jun 27, 2007 #
Running 15:00 [2] 1.71 mi (8:46 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Running to and from the training.
Orienteering 1:00:00 [4] 7.5 km (8:00 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Morning training. Boris shadowed me around a course. There were lots of really technical legs on this course and I ran almost all of them cleanly, with good flow. So I was happy. :)
Tuesday Jun 26, 2007 #
Running 12:00 [2] 1.41 mi (8:31 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Running to the start.
Orienteering 57:00 [4] 6.7 km (8:30 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Morning training - a middle distance course with 20 controls. Very good practice with lots of different types of legs.
Orienteering 1:00:00 [5] 7.0 km (8:34 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Orienteering intervals with Becka. We did eight mini-courses, each with 4-5 controls. Tough work!
Running 15:00 [3] 1.88 mi (7:59 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Running to and from the training. Becka was going faster than I would have liked on the way back!
Note
No afternoon training today. We spent the day walking around Riga and then driving to Liepaja.
Monday Jun 25, 2007 #
Running 17:30 [2] 2.06 mi (8:30 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Jogging to/from trainings.
Orienteering 1:00:00 [3] 5.0 km (12:00 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
AM: Technical training. Really cool map - flat and right next to the sea, with lots depressions and short hills. Kept in contact the entire time.
Orienteering 1:10:00 [3] 5.5 km (12:44 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
PM: Technical training. Did half of this without the compass. Both the navigation and the running felt tough - there was more undergrowth here.
Sunday Jun 24, 2007 #
Running 17:40 [2] 2.08 mi (8:30 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
Running to and from the map.
Orienteering 1:28:18 [3] 9.0 km (9:49 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes 07
First day of the Latvia training camp! Boris and I decided to take it easy, so we ran a course together, taking turns leading. Felt great!
Saturday Jun 23, 2007 #
Note
(rest day)
Travel to Sweden.
Friday Jun 22, 2007 #
Note
(rest day)
Exams are over! Finally!!!!
Thursday Jun 21, 2007 #
Note
(rest day)
No time to train today because of the exams. :(
Wednesday Jun 20, 2007 #
Running 57:55 [3] 7.3 mi (7:56 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
An "easy" run with Vaclav. I emailed the OUOC list to ask if anyone wanted to accompany me and he responded almost immediately. Unfortunately for me, he was in high spirits and felt like going faster than either of us should. We did something like three loops around University Parks and one loop around the meadows out back. My HR was around 150 for most of the run instead of the usual 140-145. (Of course, that is, when the watch was actually showing my correct heart rate instead of 189. I've sent this thing off to get fixed twice and it hasn't done much good.)
Stretching 6:00 [1]
Tuesday Jun 19, 2007 #
Running 45:50 [2] 5.7 mi (8:02 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
A run with Helen around Port Meadow, then four strides by myself on the grassy path. Felt great!
Strength Training (core) 5:00 [1]
Stretching 6:00 [1]
Monday Jun 18, 2007 #
Cross-Training (Spinning) 30:00 [1]
Strength Training (gym) 30:00 [1]
Yep, definitely getting stronger.
Stretching 7:00 [1]
Note
Hmm. These last two weeks and this one are turning out to be sort of like an extended easy period because of all of the work I've been doing. This isn't according to plan, but on the other hand it's not a bad idea to go to Latvia well-rested and eager to train. And once I'm in New Mexico, I'll be able to train twice a day and really put down a good base. I hope it all works out!
Sunday Jun 17, 2007 #
Running 45:44 [2] 5.7 mi (8:01 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
Up and down the towpaths with Helen. It was so good to take a break from work!
Strength Training (core) 5:00 [1]
Stretching 6:00 [1]
Saturday Jun 16, 2007 #
Running 52:00 [2] 6.4 mi (8:07 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
A run with Helen up through the sports grounds to University Parks, a few loops there, then back home. Good conversation and nice weather. Raining a bit at first, but always sunny.
Strength Training (core) 5:00 [1]
Stretching 6:00 [1]
Friday Jun 15, 2007 #
Running 49:28 [2] 6.0 mi (8:15 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
A very nice run with Helen around Port Meadow. We went right after the rain stopped, so it wasn't as hot as usual. Felt *so* good. I would have liked to run for longer, but both of us had work to get back to.
Strength Training (core) 5:00 [1]
Stretching 6:00 [1]
Thursday Jun 14, 2007 #
Cross-Training (Spinning) 31:12 [1]
Strength Training (gym) 33:30 [1]
I moved up on weights today. I'm sure I still look incredibly wimpy (I really can't lift that much!) but at least I'm improving.
Stretching 6:00 [1]
Note
I've been getting little sleep recently. (Running at 2AM the weekend of the Harvester completely messed up my sleeping schedule.) But last night was *so* good. When I woke up this morning it took me a few moments to work out what day of the week it was and whether I was late for anything. That's how I know I slept soundly! :)
Wednesday Jun 13, 2007 #
Running 31:36 [2] 3.5 mi (9:02 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
Very easy run with Helen - two loops around University Parks. We had both just eaten lunch, so it was a slow shuffle. But nice to be outside and my knees/hips didn't feel as stiff as yesterday.
Tuesday Jun 12, 2007 #
Running 43:55 [2] 4.9 mi (8:58 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
Easy run by myself - the long loop around Port Meadow. At first I felt really stiff and out of it because of the heat and sun in my eyes, but after I started running back south, I was happy. There was some shade and I was running away from the sun and there were peacocks on the road! And since I happened to have my camera along (to take photos of cows for my family), I got some nice pictures. Oxford can be downright beautiful sometimes...
Stretching 6:00 [1]
My body feels really tired from Sunday's run. It's funny that I don't think of doing a 1.5 hour orienteering race as being especially tough, but on the other hand, the effort I put into it is probably akin to racing a half-marathon on the roads, which just about anyone would rate as being difficult and worthy of lots of rest afterward. Hmm.
Monday Jun 11, 2007 #
Cross-Training (Spinning) 45:00 [1]
This made my hips feel a bit better, not sure why.
Strength Training (gym) 33:30 [1]
Stretching 7:00 [1]
Sunday Jun 10, 2007 #
Running 18:30 [2] 2.1 mi (8:49 / mi)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes
Warm-up run, with a few short breaks. I twisted my left ankle twice just by running on a big flattish path! This is probably due to not having run on uneven ground in a while.
Orienteering 1:33:25 [4] 9.85 km (9:29 / km) +85m 9:06 / km
ahr:167 max:177 shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes
EVENT: BADO district event
COURSE: Brown, 9.8 km, 85 m climb, 26 controls, EMIT
MAP: Micheldever Forest, 1:15,000, 5m contours
TERRAIN: Network of paths with blocks of white woods (some very nice sections) and green woods (some very nasty sections). Flat, boring, and almost featureless (just a countable number of depressions). But not as bad as expected.
MY RUN: Before I started the course today, I thought back to last June, when BADO organized a district event at Blackwood. I did a green course there and had an awful run - I didn't like the brambles/nettles or the featureless terrain and what was worse, I didn't know what to do about it. This year I was much better prepared. I put on my gaiters, reminded myself that everyone else has to fight through the brambles as well, and forced myself to take bearings on practically every leg. And it worked. Of course, it wasn't a perfect run. The map had some very glaring inconsistencies, only some of which were shown in the start box, and these led me, Joe Mercer, Anne Edwards, and many others to spend ages searching for #22. But in general I was being much safer in my routes and previous experience had taught me to avoid the worst of the green where possible, but also to bash through it when necessary. So all in all, a good run!
RESULTS: 17th out of 26 finishers.
http://www.emituk.com/results/2007/070610_BADO/070...
COURSE: Brown, 9.8 km, 85 m climb, 26 controls, EMIT
MAP: Micheldever Forest, 1:15,000, 5m contours
TERRAIN: Network of paths with blocks of white woods (some very nice sections) and green woods (some very nasty sections). Flat, boring, and almost featureless (just a countable number of depressions). But not as bad as expected.
MY RUN: Before I started the course today, I thought back to last June, when BADO organized a district event at Blackwood. I did a green course there and had an awful run - I didn't like the brambles/nettles or the featureless terrain and what was worse, I didn't know what to do about it. This year I was much better prepared. I put on my gaiters, reminded myself that everyone else has to fight through the brambles as well, and forced myself to take bearings on practically every leg. And it worked. Of course, it wasn't a perfect run. The map had some very glaring inconsistencies, only some of which were shown in the start box, and these led me, Joe Mercer, Anne Edwards, and many others to spend ages searching for #22. But in general I was being much safer in my routes and previous experience had taught me to avoid the worst of the green where possible, but also to bash through it when necessary. So all in all, a good run!
RESULTS: 17th out of 26 finishers.
http://www.emituk.com/results/2007/070610_BADO/070...
Stretching 6:00 [1]
This was done several hours after the run, but better late than never. I was too dehydrated to do it right afterward and my hips were hurting a lot as well (long runs seem to aggravate whatever problems there are).
Saturday Jun 9, 2007 #
Running 50:30 [2] 6.2 mi (8:09 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
Abi came to visit me today! We went for an easy run around Merton and up the river to Port Meadow, then discussed maps. She noted that there's been very clear improvement in my orienteering over the past year, which was great to hear. Despite having a few disastrous runs this spring, I also had some great ones and I feel like I've learned a lot. Another year should improve my consistency and make me stronger, so hopefully when I try out for the WOC team in 2008, I'll be ready. :)
Strength Training (core) 5:00 [1]
Friday Jun 8, 2007 #
Note
(rest day)
Another one!
Thursday Jun 7, 2007 #
Cross-Training (Spinning) 45:00 [1]
My training this week is very boring. That's partly because it's an easy week and partly because I've got finals in 14 days. As soon as the exams are finished, training will become a bigger part of my life again.
Strength Training (gym) 40:00 [1]
Stretching 7:00 [1]
Wednesday Jun 6, 2007 #
Running 56:30 [3] 7.0 mi (8:04 / mi)
shoes: Nike Pegasus
Run with Scott through University Parks, up the meadows behind it, then on streets to Port Meadow, one loop around the Nature Reserve, then back home. More pavement running than I would have liked and also pushing the pace a bit for an easy run (his fault), but still a good outing.
Strength Training (core) 5:00 [1]
Stretching 7:00 [1]
Tuesday Jun 5, 2007 #
Cross-Training (Spinning) 45:00 [1]
Topology definitions today.
Strength Training (gym) 40:00 [1]
Stretching 6:00 [1]
Monday Jun 4, 2007 #
Note
(rest day)
Time for an easy week!
Sunday Jun 3, 2007 #
Orienteering 20:00 [2] 1.5 km (13:20 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes
I was hoping to re-run all three of the legs where I made mistakes this morning, but since people wanted to leave shortly after prize-giving, I didn't have enough time for everything. So I reran legs 4-5 and 5-6. Wow, this is so much easier during the day! Being able to see far off into the distance and pick off big features really helps, as does being able to see the control flags. I am convinced that although I might have possibly lost a few minutes doing this course in the daylight, I could never have made the gigantic mistakes I made at night. It's just a whole different type of orienteering...
Running 29:00 [2] 5.0 km (5:48 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes
Running on trails/roads to #4 and then back to the minibus after #6. I was feeling very tired after getting three hours of sleep on a torn thermarest and not having eaten any breakfast (because Scott left my food outside and the birds ate it).
Saturday Jun 2, 2007 #
Orienteering 25:21 [3] 3.1 km (8:11 / km) +70m 7:21 / km
shoes: The Purple Ones
After something like six hours driving in the minibus, OUOC finally arrived at Penhale Sands (Cornwall). There were two sprint courses available that afternoon (one short, one long) around the camper vans. I jogged the long one first. Some hesitation, but no disasters. It was a nice warm-up run for the short course.
Orienteering 16:47 [4] 2.5 km (6:43 / km) +60m 6:00 / km
shoes: The Purple Ones
The short sprint course. I raced this one and was having a very good run (as I should, since I'd been to all but one of the controls already!) until I somehow managed to screw up the penultimate one by over a minute. These were very fun courses and also gave me an idea of what it would be like to run on Penhale later that evening. I made a mental note to myself to *definitely* wear gaiters. The spiked grass hurts!
Running 10:00 [2] 1.15 mi (8:42 / mi)
shoes: The Purple Ones
Cool-down. I re-ran the leg where I made a mistake and figured out what I'd done before to wind up near a fence. Then I re-ran it again and everything made sense. Good!
Running 9:00 [3] 1.8 km (5:00 / km)
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes
Warm-up before my relay leg. I realized after running around a bit that it was actually not that cold and I would be hot in two layers. So I took off the lamp and then the long-sleeve thermal. By the time I was putting the lamp on again, people were getting excited because Helen (who had run the first leg for our relay team) had punched the penultimate control in first position! So now I was frantically trying to get my lamp on and head out to the changeover area. Someone kindly switched on his lamp so I could see what I was doing and I managed to make it out to the start in time just to see Helen run down the finish chute.
Orienteering race 1:28:48 [4] 5.1 km (17:25 / km) +120m 15:35 / km
shoes: Orange Adidas O-shoes
EVENT: Harvester Relay 2007
COURSE: I ran the second leg for OUOC, a 5.1 km night leg with 11 controls. I started at 1:12 AM on Sunday.
MAP: Penhale Sands, 1:10,000, 5m contours
TERRAIN: Complex sand dunes. Lots of technical contour detail with depressions and short but steep hills.
MY RUN: After Helen passed off to me, I started off quickly but carefully. I spiked the first control and then continued to keep up our lead till #4 (the radio control). Then trouble started. I knew where I was three-quarters of the way to #5 and I continued going in the right direction, but when I got to the right place, I didn't see the control! So I spent over ten minutes trying to search for it and relocate and figure out what had gone wrong, only to finally find it in the exact spot I had come to originally. I just hadn't seen the flag in the reentrant because there were no reflectors out. I was quite pissed off about this and wasn't careful enough to the next control, losing some time there as well. I spiked the next two, being very careful and reading all of the contour detail along the way. All I had to do now was find the 9th control (the last real control on the course), but I screwed it up big time. I was getting very tired of running through the tall grass and was not careful enough with my bearing. I dove off into the grass without an attackpoint, just hoping to hit the trail and follow it. But, of course, I found the wrong trail and spent ages running up and down it trying to figure out what was going on. I was not the only one to make that mistake, but I wish I hadn't! In daylight this leg would have been easy. In fact, all the controls that I spiked all look much harder to find on the map than this one. But the problem was this control was in a flattish area with many grass trails, some mapped and some not. Once I was in there, it was extremely difficult to relocate. It didn't help that my light went out (I had it on high beam for an hour) and I only had a dying low beam for the rest of my search. When I finally figured out what happened and found the control, I was beyond caring about anything other than finishing. Two more short legs and I handed over to Joe.
RESULTS: We finished 4th overall. The top three teams were all close together and we were about an hour down from them, so even if I'd had an amazing run, it was still very unlikely that we could have beaten them.
THOUGHTS: Despite the fact that I had a 20+ minute mistake on #9 and made two other big mistakes as well, I was actually quite pleased with my orienteering. This was a night leg in very complex terrain on a course without reflectors and I managed to spike most of the controls. Of course I wish I hadn't had those big slips, but I did the best I could.
COURSE: I ran the second leg for OUOC, a 5.1 km night leg with 11 controls. I started at 1:12 AM on Sunday.
MAP: Penhale Sands, 1:10,000, 5m contours
TERRAIN: Complex sand dunes. Lots of technical contour detail with depressions and short but steep hills.
MY RUN: After Helen passed off to me, I started off quickly but carefully. I spiked the first control and then continued to keep up our lead till #4 (the radio control). Then trouble started. I knew where I was three-quarters of the way to #5 and I continued going in the right direction, but when I got to the right place, I didn't see the control! So I spent over ten minutes trying to search for it and relocate and figure out what had gone wrong, only to finally find it in the exact spot I had come to originally. I just hadn't seen the flag in the reentrant because there were no reflectors out. I was quite pissed off about this and wasn't careful enough to the next control, losing some time there as well. I spiked the next two, being very careful and reading all of the contour detail along the way. All I had to do now was find the 9th control (the last real control on the course), but I screwed it up big time. I was getting very tired of running through the tall grass and was not careful enough with my bearing. I dove off into the grass without an attackpoint, just hoping to hit the trail and follow it. But, of course, I found the wrong trail and spent ages running up and down it trying to figure out what was going on. I was not the only one to make that mistake, but I wish I hadn't! In daylight this leg would have been easy. In fact, all the controls that I spiked all look much harder to find on the map than this one. But the problem was this control was in a flattish area with many grass trails, some mapped and some not. Once I was in there, it was extremely difficult to relocate. It didn't help that my light went out (I had it on high beam for an hour) and I only had a dying low beam for the rest of my search. When I finally figured out what happened and found the control, I was beyond caring about anything other than finishing. Two more short legs and I handed over to Joe.
RESULTS: We finished 4th overall. The top three teams were all close together and we were about an hour down from them, so even if I'd had an amazing run, it was still very unlikely that we could have beaten them.
THOUGHTS: Despite the fact that I had a 20+ minute mistake on #9 and made two other big mistakes as well, I was actually quite pleased with my orienteering. This was a night leg in very complex terrain on a course without reflectors and I managed to spike most of the controls. Of course I wish I hadn't had those big slips, but I did the best I could.
Friday Jun 1, 2007 #
Aquajogging 35:00 [1]
My package finally arrived today so I went to the pool to try out my new aquajogging belt. Legs were starting to feel heavy by the end.
Swimming 25:00 [3]
It felt so nice to be gliding through the water! The feeling wasn't as foreign as I thought it would be.
4x100 free/back
8x50 free on 60"
100 easy
1x50 fly/back
150 free/back
3x50 flutter kick (hard)
TOTAL: 1.25 km
4x100 free/back
8x50 free on 60"
100 easy
1x50 fly/back
150 free/back
3x50 flutter kick (hard)
TOTAL: 1.25 km