Training Log Archive: hamlet

the map fit really well given that I was 3.5km away from it and it took me to get to the "start" and start heading to "1" to realize that it's very off all of a sudden

Cut it very short because my calves and all the little muscles around my ankles were dying and Oliver was frustrating me because he rolled in some deer shit. Plus it was just really hilly and I wasn't having a good time at all, so I figured it wasn't worth pushing through

I remember how not too long ago I'd look at this pace and be proud of my speed and think I ran solidly, but now I see anything over 11min/km and am disappointed. It's kind of nice to see how I've improved based on what I consider the norm to be for myself. So I gotta remember that even when I'm feeling shitty, I've improved.

Going back to the car from the finish and had to disappoint a little boy who wanted to pet Oliver and had to explain to him that I don't recommend petting him because he's covered in shit

attempt 1, got halfway through before the dogs barreled through my venn diagram and destroyed it so I had to stop to fix it and I lost my spot.

"course" 1

felt like dogshit today but still gotta do some orienteering so venn diagram exercise it is

"course" 2

i'm going insane in my own skinnnnnn

aka the printer was being an ass

celebratory going I-finally-got-a-job-and-it's-remote orienteering

C • Congratulations! 6

Not really MTBO, just the BO. I meant to make the course harder than it ended up being, but there were still a few legs that I had to think on. I got tired of running (literally tired), so I figured while I'm at my mom's I'll do a bike-o in the nearby neighborhoods. I made a map using just the osm data since montgomery county is dumb with lidar, so I had no contours on the map. I used a bit of my previous knowledge of where I knew some hills were to make route choices, but mostly it was just me hoping it would be flat or downhill, since I only knew the NE part of the map.

returning home

B.T.E. (Before Twisted-ankle Era)

I rolled my ankle like 20m after the first control and it hurt like hell so i sat on the ground and cursed for a few minutes waiting for it to hurt less and when I got up to continue and start my watch again I accidentally saved my activity which resulted in more cursing

C • Alternatively, BDE 4

I'm glad I didn't stop because of my ankle because after the second control the pain mostly went away, it wad just a bit sore and I had to be a bit more careful with it, but I wad having a good time and it was a really really nice course. I wasn't forcing myself to go fast or anything (ok just a little bit because I wanted to be back before it got dark), I was just going at a comfortable pace, the woods were nice, and so on.
(elapsed time was 1:00:55 but there was a lot of standing around waiting to cross roads because i didn't want Oliver to get runover)

Didn't really feel too great, but I did what I could. Average pace on the first to intervals was under 9min/km, but on the last 3 it dropped to around 11min/km. Yeah I was getting very very tired. It was hot, and tomorrow I'm taking it easy because ow

(elapsed time was 1:01:52, I'm using moving time though because majority of the standing around was either me trying to get Usynligo to actually go off or gathering my sanity for the next interval)



The GPS track looks weird because at some point between creating the ppen file and creating the jpg file the map got skewed, so the usynligo was set to where i had originally put the controls but the map was off by 50m or so. On some of the controls I just went to where I had originally placed the control (like at 15), and some of then I went to where the map said the control was. It was a bit of a mess.

core with squad + hip strength

ok ok I've been peer pressured into doing a 2022 recap (not really but reading other logs makes me feel like I should do one).

It seems like everyone has overcome so much in 2022, and I'm incredibly proud of them. I admire this orienteering group so much, I'm so honored to have been able to grow up in the OUSA community.

The year for me started out with GNC, and running the WRE at that event. It was tough, and unsurprisingly, I could tell my fitness was not where it should have been, so I was quite relieved when the snowstorm came and I got to skip the long for a very sketchy and exhausting car ride home.

In February I turned 18 and celebrated by traveling to Czech Republic. No orienteering happened there but I learned how to snowboard which was great.

In March I went to DVOA's Big Woods event and, well, it was an interesting one. Day 1 in French Creek felt brutal. I felt like I had no fitness, like I was dying in the hills, and like I couldn't run at all, and I made some not ideal routechoices. However, my result wasn't as horrible as I was afraid it'd be. Day 2 was at Coventry Woods and I had an excellent run. I was actually moving way faster than I expected, and I was having fun, but I mispunched on control 15 or 16 out of 18 I think. And I was only off by less than 50m. I learned that I can't get too cocky- always check codes. I don't mispunch often, but that one hurt enough that I will be very careful still.

April was West Point, and sprint WOC team trials. I figured why not try out, at least I'll see how I compared. The first race was a sprint at Fort Tryon, which was quite hilly and I had a bad race. I guess technically it wasn't awful but I felt like I could've done so much better, but I was holding myself back because I couldn't push myself for some reason, and I was just very unhappy with that race. But then Day 1 of actual West Point races is where I redeemed myself. Although I woke up with a slightly sore throat, I had a pretty solid middle run, and then in the afternoon I crushed the sprint, mostly because I caught up to Oriana early on because she made a navigational mistake, and having her on my tail was pushing me to give it my all. It felt good. But then the next day, for the long, I woke up with a very very sore throat, but I figured, "hey yesterday it didn't stop me so I'm sure as soon as I get out there I'll be fine". I wasn't. Most of the race I felt like lying down on the ground in the middle of the woods and taking a nap. But I finished. And I'm proud of that. Sometimes that's all you can ask for.

In May I ended high school and I went for my first solo backpacking trip with Oliver. It was relieving to finally do it because I learned that I can trust myself with this, and that I do have the skills to take care of myself.

In the summer, I was in Czech Republic, and then I went to my first JWOC. Week 1, with all the forest trainings, was a blast. The woods were incredibly technical, and I loved it. It was a very fun challenge (until I got massive blisters on my toes and had to quit a training by taking off my shoes in the middle of the woods and walking back because I couldn't think through the pain). But then the wilfires came, so there was just sprint races. God I hated them. The sprint and the sprint relay sucked, since they were really hilly and I did not have the fitness to do well there. The sprint was manageable, I don't hate my result (I'm not proud of it either), but the sprint relay was awful. I psyched myself out for the mass start and I felt like I disappointed my team. Although I did learn, that the mass starts aren't as terrifying as I always think- I'm so slow that within the first 250m, I'm alone, everyone ran off into the distance, and I can run my own race. It's just the anxiety that tired me out and I wasn't able to race well. The urban relay, however, went quite well.

In the fall, I went to UUSKPOC, which was a blast, because man I missed the maps in the Poconos. I love that terrain so so much. I also went to US Masters O champs in NEOC territory. I didn't have great races either days, but I was satisfied with the first day a bit more. At least I enjoyed it a bit more. I was mostly just very hesitant running on rocks, because around that time I was messing my right ankle up every weekend. But also the hills were killing me, who am I kidding. I also course set at Cunningham Falls. I'm quite happy with the courses, but I would like to be able to go out and fieldcheck the map more so that the courses can be even better next time.

Then in November I went to JWOC Part 2. I'm so grateful I got to go. It was so fun, I think Portuguese terrain is my favorite, and on top of that, it wasn't smoldering hot there this time. I screwed up the middle (moreso physically than navigationally) which hurt, since I tend to be best at middles. But I just took the rest of the day to hole up in my bed, let myself feel all that disappointment and anger at myself, and the next day I went into the relay with a fresh mindset and I crushed it. And then I crushed the long, too. I even enjoyed it- which is insane, since longs are often my least favorite courses. And I got to finish with Anna, which was a nice end to JWOC 2022.

In December I didn't do as much training as I wanted. But I still finished off the year with a bang with the training camp at the Riley's house. It definitely helped highlight my shortcomings in orienteering, but at least I know what to work on.

In the end, this year was a tough one for me mentally. I had huge waves of up and down, some weeks I felt unstoppable but a lot of other weeks I could barely leave my bed. It's frustrating since I'm doing what I should be doing to take care and improve my mental health, yet this year it was just going downhill no matter what I did. The year was filled with compromises with myself- like going for runs that were just a mile long because at least they were something. Or at least going to campus for the day. Or at least brushing my teeth when I couldn't bring myself to shower. Or just existing when I couldn't do anything else. I know I shouldn't complain. I'm extremely grateful for all that I have. I'm grateful for orienteering, I'm grateful for the community, I'm grateful for Oliver, and I'm grateful that my family has the means to let me be able to travel to competitions. For this year, I just want to work on having a more positive outlook and trying to stop being frustrated when things aren't going the way I hoped they would, because at least they're going.

Did a course that Peggy and Nadim set back in 2020 since I was driving my mom to the airport today and it was kind of on my way. Given how hectic the morning was I'm satisfied with how I did. Definitely wish I could've been faster, but also I'm glad I made it under an hour (barely, I was sprinting down that last hill), and I didn't make any substantial navigational mistakes, just some not ideal routechoices and a little bit of drifting.

This morning was awful though, since my mom had an early flight so we had to leave at 6 am to Reagan airport, which meant thhat I ended up getting like 4 hours of sleep since my sleep schedule is still a bit shifted from NYE. So I drove my mom to Reagan, and started driving over to Great Falls, when after like 7 minutes my mom calls me to tell me that actually her flight is from IAD (at this point she had like 1:20 until her flight left, and she had to check her bag at least 45 mins before that). So I drove back as fast as I could, picked her up, she then drove to IAD, which was about 30 minutes away. So yeah, she wasn't able to check her bag, so she just took not even a carryon but just a tiny backpack, stuffed it with a few essentials, and left me her suitcase. She still made it to Virgin Islands somehow. But yeah, at this point I was very tired, I could barely even make the 25min drive to Great Falls, so as soon as I parked at Angler's Inn I slept in the car for almost 2.5 hours. And then I did this course. Given the chaos, I felt pretty good.

core with squad then some hip strength exercises since my r hip hasn't been super happy lately

over 50km mileage this week, let's goooo

goal for January: orienteer every day

did the same training as the other day, just backwards. picked up the streamers. I felt a lot better with the bearings, I guess partially because for most of them I knew what feature they were on, but I tried to ignore that and go where my compass was pointing me. The ones I messed up were ones where I had no/barely any northlines visible in my compass bezel so I guessed the best I could and often didn't go well. Definitely felt pretty darn physically tired by the end, so I walked a good amount

C • Love this 2