Training Log Archive: Tim C

In Scuol!!

So good to be back in the Alps <3

From Nigels place, across the new bridge, starting the route up to piz lischana, then cutting across on some jeep, a bit of terrain running down through the forest (love how clear alpine forest is!!), down to the river, then along the road back to old bridge, across+up to the church and home.

Was almost keen to go look for some snow, but thought better about it after yesterday+ the lack of sleep.


**** note: will hopefully catch up on logging tomorrow now that I have the luxuries not available in the camping life (i.e electricity :p) ****

A very cool week of racing and supporting eoc. Some pretty poor races from my side, but definitely got some good training in and I guess I kinda expected to struggle a bit given my lack of O in recent times.

Also seemed to get a bit more confident as the week went on (helped by slightly easier terrain later in the week). Body also started feeling a bit better from day 3 (last weeks flu hit me pretty hard).

In Scuol now for the next 6 weeks with some pretty cool jwoc/swiss6day race/training maps, so will hopefully be getting a lot of O (and just general mountain running) in.


Also ended up doing a helluva lot of walking around public transporting it up+supporting the eoc races (about 40km or so this past week), so a pretty solid week on the legs if you factor that in.

Jog to the start+ some wu there, then a jog back from the finish with Sofie+Simona+Nick

Day 5

Tesserete long distance (same area as eoc relay).

A mostly pretty nice and forest/open forest up on top of the hill, with some steep and quite green slopes on the sides.
For the most part, pretty simple orienteering compared with the last few days, with a lot more path running.

Race still wasn't great though. No massive mistakes, but still stuffed around and lost a minute or so at a few controls and a bunch of 30ish sec mistakes.

First mistake at the 2nd control already. Went a bit too low and was standing around just below the control.. (45secs) , then another bigger one at #7. Came off the hill just above the control too far west and ended up hitting the river near #8 and thinking I was at &. so took my time working that out.. (1:30ish)

Then 30secs at #10 searching around in the green for the rootstock. had come into it a bit far from the north.

Indecisive to #13, starting to go straight before deciding to go around instead.. (20secs)

Misread the map going to #16 and thought the path carried on through the houses (turned out to be boundary lines, not path). got there and had to cut down through the green to the road+climb. Should probably have gone the northern route anyway.. (1min)

Bad route to #17. Stayed too high and ended up being super slow across the river.. (45secs)

Should've gone up to #23.. (30secs)

Slow into the control at the end of #25's long leg. Also some small hesistations/not ideal lines in the route (30secs)

Not looking at my compass out of #25 and hit the road far too soon and somehow thought i was already at the bend and went off into the lower forest before realising that I was being an idiot.. Then also stopped too early coming into the control (45secs)

Went left of the hill to #28 and was super slow through the green+ended up too low (30secs)

Going nicely to #31, but then crossed the river into the circle and doubted myself+went up thinking I might be too low. hit the path and had to come back.. (45secs)

Complete bingo control down the hill to #32 and I really didnt want to miss it, so just super slow.

Took the middle path around on the long leg to #33, but probably should've just gone straight down to the main road as the river crossings getting to the path were super slow. Then also stuffed around near the end of the leg, trying to turn up a path too early (just a bit mentally drained+not concentrating) by this point I think. (1:30).

Stopped at the unmapped stone wall at the way to #35 and was super confused.. (25secs)

Lots of other small misses, but I'll take those as part of my current orienteering level..

Would've been okay with anything under 1:50, and definitely 1:45 would've been possible with a clean race and keeping the concentration a bit more.

Florian won in about 1:33ish

Event: 5.Nationaler Mitteldist./4.Etappe EGK Schweizer 5-Tage O / 6.Nationaler Lan
 

Jog to start/finish

Day 4

Capriasca middle.

A mix of mostly good orienteering interspersed with a few stupid+big mistakes..

Lost 1min to #1 being too low, Should've come into it from above..

Then dropped too low before #2 and had to climb again into it (30secs). Decent from there until #9 save for some hesitations about which path I wanted to be on going to #9 (maybe 20secs lost)

Decent route to #10, but then had a brain fade close to it when I thought I'd already hit the big open area when I was actually still by the small one. Messed around there for almost 2min before realising..

Some small mistakes into #11 and 12 (20ish secs), then probably should've cut between the olive on the way to #13 instead of going all the way around (20secs)

slow into #14, and then tried to contour to #15 which was super slow and then managed to drop almost to the path anyway.. (45secs..)

Stopped to help a little kid on the way to #17 and promptly lost my direction and was too high, stuffing around for 1:45..

Sub 40 would've been okay, clen race maybe closer to 36/37.

Florian took the win in 33:30

Training on the eoc long model with the Israelis+Krajech

Nice fast forest and some cool alpine like open fields with some stunning views! :)

Event: WRE
 

Before and after the sprint

Day 3 Sprint

Some really cool old town with small passages and underpasses. Exactly what I enjoy in a sprint, but also what I'm worst at :P

Not much in the way of mistakes, I just could not orienteer at any sort of speed in the buildings and was walking half the time trying to read the map. Maybe lost 30secs or so on bad routes/misses, the rest all down to orienteering speed.

Florian won in 17:10

to the start/after

Day 2. Serpiano middle (same area as eoc middle final).

a few biggish mistakes (maybe 3*2min and another 2*1min) and just generally slow..

Valleys were ridiculously steep!

Event: 1.Etappe/2.Etappe EGK Schweizer 5-Tage OL
 

Before/after

Day 1. Carona long

Some nice steep forest with not much map detail.

Some fairly good orienteering in sections (not at all fast though), but managed to throw in some monster mistakes to make sure it wasn't a decent overall race.

Main misses were at #6 (4min) and #13 (10min). Lost map contact both times and had very little to relocate off (especially at #13), which meant lots of running around like a headless chicken..

I guess it will take a while to get used to orienteering again. Especially in this sort of a forest.