Training Log Archive: Anna

For a few whole minutes I was the US Assault Course Champion, and then Andy did a second run and beat me.

After my foot was hurting last night I was really upset, but it felt better in the morning. Since the terrain was very friendly to my feet, and since I was wearing running shoes rather than O' shoes, I ended up jogging the relay. It actually seemed to be therapeutic, and all of the pain has disappeared as of 21 hours later. It's exciting that I can pinpoint the problem to the O' shoes and the rocks instead of just concluding that I shouldn't be running. I guess I'll be wearing my running shoes a lot more in the forest.

So I just logged the banquet as training and then figured out that the level 0 still shows up in the total. That made me feel stupid, so now it's a note instead. But really, I've never gotten so tired dancing before! My arms were killing me!
I really just log this, though, because I wanted to talk about a battle scar that I have from Beata Falk (first leg of the winning Swedish relay) accidentally spiking the back of my anklebone with her pink stilettos. I have some pretty hard-core puffiness.
And also, I think it's reasonable to consider this heat tolerance training. Whew!

C • Pink stilettos - from the d... 1

Ran to the showers and back several times while spectating the long, b/c I didn't know what was in-bounds. I really wanted to run today, and maybe just cut it short if it was over my allotted minutes for the day, but it made more sense not to tempt myself.

So I was planning on running the relay tomorrow, but there were some tiny twinges in my heel today. Since I've had trouble every time during my recovery that I haven't chosen the more conservative path, I'm taking the most conservative path possible during the relay tomorrow. Boris and Kat have agreed that my health is more important than running during the relay. I'm walking the course and going for clean-ness, and I'm channeling my orienteeringly mental toughness into holding myself back and not worrying about how it might look to other people.

Also, I'm planning on keeping Attackpoint updated, even though sometimes it's difficult because when I'm asked for updates on my situation, I don't always have enough information (for example, my previous racing plans). Also, it's difficult because it's hard not to feel like other people are anxious for me to be running again.

C • Take care of that foot! So... 1

Rest day.

Middle final. A bit better about not getting distracted by people today, but still some mistakes. At one point, I should've relocated sooner. But then later, I was leading a large group of girls and didn't screw up. the pressure seems to have helped. The jumping down rocks was kind of hard on my feet.
Cool fact: I compared routes with the women's sprint champ on the bus on the way back! The other teams are really friendly.

In our awesome 13-person conference room. "D" accomodations, I'm sure, but the "awesome" is not sarcastic.

The middle. I started out really well (especially the first control!) although with a lot of hesitation in some places. The map looked perfectly clear to me. The trouble came when I saw the organizers taking photographs, and I just wasn't focused on the navigation. I had one 8-minute control where I was initially in the right place and then just stopped and hesitated, and then there was another one where I wasn't checking my compass carefully while coming down a hill. Everything else was hesitation and route choice. I felt like my efforts to take safe routes saved me from the risk of really big trouble in places but took me farther out of the way than necessary and in one case added a climb up an impossible hill.

I have a lot that I can improve on tomorrow, especially by ignoring other people in the forest. Another thing I could do is consider other things besides time on trails in my evaluation of how safe a route is. And if I pick something I know is safe, I shouldn't spend forever hesitating before I get to my attack point or linear feature.

C • Sounds like you're gaining ... 5

Very technical, very steep. I learned not to use complex, rocky hilltops as attack points. Enjoyable.

Big boom on the first control cost me. I think it's b/c I declined the time trial and I haven't raced for so long. Still, good choice not to do the time trial. But it was totally just the novelty of running to the start triangle and being out of my normal routine that threw me off.

Event: JWOC 2008
 

Pre-meet with Holly. We contemplated doing the obstacle course in the middle of the field, but it's off-limits, and we decided it would be best not to end up in the Swedish military's prison.

C • massages 1

Set controls for the sprint time trial, with Boris shadowing me. He told me to keep my compass flat when I wasn't, which is what we decided was a major problem yesterday. I didn't really make any mistakes, but I was just jogging. Still, it was good to get familiar with the course, since it was actually the Swedish selection course.

with Andy, Holly, and Tori in the middle of the field. We got several strange looks from other teams, mostly when Holly and Andy were doing Spidermans.

Walked a LOT. Not very much running. But I got a better feel for the woods, even if I did make a couple big booms. A lot of the confusion resulted from having some controls hung but not others. I feel a lot better about the navigation than I did yesterday!
Also tried out my O' shoes, which will work nicely in the soft stuff and rocks.