Training Log Archive: oxensdIn the 7 days ending Nov 7, 2021:
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Sunday Nov 7, 2021 #
11 AM
Orienteering 2:14:10 [3] 11.55 km (11:37 / km) +323m 10:12 / km
ahr:140 max:156
After yesterday's race which felt so nice, I had high hopes for today's long. In a fit of overconfidence I registered for red (M40), 8.1km and 295m elevation, which given I have hardly trained at all for 3-4 months (due to far too much work) was, as I found out, foolish. Greg Balter had laid a very interesting course with several good route choices. I enjoyed that part, but this was just too physical for me. The entire map was basically green, significantly denser than yesterday in many places, and I just couldn't keep a pace at all. My heart rate was much lower than yesterday which shows I really struggled with running. A lot of the time I ran bent over because there was so much vegetation - my back started hurting from running like that after a while.
Perhaps because of the physicality, my navigation was sloppy, a far cry compared to yesterday's nearly flawless execution. Attackpoint only shows a few of my mistakes:
#1. Went to far, lost 1 minute looking for the re-entrant just below the flat area. I didn't expect this kind of terrain and didn't read the map carefully enough on the way.
#2. Got totally stuck in very thick thorns on top of a ridge inside the circle. Should have realized dropping down immediately to the "canyon" was the right strategy. Probably lost 1.5 minutes untangling from very unpleasant thorns.
#5. Interesting route choice. I thought about taking the paths in a wide swing to the south/east, but decided to go slightly right to hit the road. But then executed poorly, went too far to the right. Probably lost 1.5 minutes on the first half of the leg. Then coming off the road quite heavy vegetation (at this point I was already heartily sick of it) forced me to to left, I thought I had compensated and ticked off the flat hill to my left approaching the control, but for some reason veered to the left before realizing my error and went back. Lost 2 mins.
#7. Dense vegetation along the road made me go right, then I overcompensated going left, ending up on the diffuse path. Relocated and found it, 1 mins.
#10. I executed perfectly, but passed within 10 meters of the control without seeing it. Confused, I started meandering, seeing the deep gully to the N and then the path. 6 minutes.
#13. Unlike most (?) runners I went straight, chancing that the swamp traverse wouldn't be bad - it wasn't. It was slow/fighting coming up the hill post the swamp, but comparing my split time with Greg and speedy I clearly overperformed on this leg (relatively speaking) and so think it was faster than the long way on the road. I lost one minute as I took a hard fall on the path before the swamp, I lost my breath and for a little while thought I might have broken a rib by falling on my fist, it hurt that much at first but then I was fine. Both legs beaten up from the fall though.
#14. WTF? Just bad execution, at this point was I so totally sick of the dense vegetation I wasn't paying enough attention. Veered right before the circle, and then went further N for a bit, circled back and actually saw the control, but lost sight of it and did a loop again looking for the darned thing. 3 minutes.
In total lost 15-16 minutes. My time of 2 hours 14 minutes was terrible, reflecting how slowly I ran. Besides being in no shape at all, this dense vegetation just upsets me and slows me down too much.
That said, it was a nice day, really appreciate the good course setting by Greg, and it was great being outside. Had a long sauna recuperating sore limbs at home afterwards...
Perhaps because of the physicality, my navigation was sloppy, a far cry compared to yesterday's nearly flawless execution. Attackpoint only shows a few of my mistakes:
#1. Went to far, lost 1 minute looking for the re-entrant just below the flat area. I didn't expect this kind of terrain and didn't read the map carefully enough on the way.
#2. Got totally stuck in very thick thorns on top of a ridge inside the circle. Should have realized dropping down immediately to the "canyon" was the right strategy. Probably lost 1.5 minutes untangling from very unpleasant thorns.
#5. Interesting route choice. I thought about taking the paths in a wide swing to the south/east, but decided to go slightly right to hit the road. But then executed poorly, went too far to the right. Probably lost 1.5 minutes on the first half of the leg. Then coming off the road quite heavy vegetation (at this point I was already heartily sick of it) forced me to to left, I thought I had compensated and ticked off the flat hill to my left approaching the control, but for some reason veered to the left before realizing my error and went back. Lost 2 mins.
#7. Dense vegetation along the road made me go right, then I overcompensated going left, ending up on the diffuse path. Relocated and found it, 1 mins.
#10. I executed perfectly, but passed within 10 meters of the control without seeing it. Confused, I started meandering, seeing the deep gully to the N and then the path. 6 minutes.
#13. Unlike most (?) runners I went straight, chancing that the swamp traverse wouldn't be bad - it wasn't. It was slow/fighting coming up the hill post the swamp, but comparing my split time with Greg and speedy I clearly overperformed on this leg (relatively speaking) and so think it was faster than the long way on the road. I lost one minute as I took a hard fall on the path before the swamp, I lost my breath and for a little while thought I might have broken a rib by falling on my fist, it hurt that much at first but then I was fine. Both legs beaten up from the fall though.
#14. WTF? Just bad execution, at this point was I so totally sick of the dense vegetation I wasn't paying enough attention. Veered right before the circle, and then went further N for a bit, circled back and actually saw the control, but lost sight of it and did a loop again looking for the darned thing. 3 minutes.
In total lost 15-16 minutes. My time of 2 hours 14 minutes was terrible, reflecting how slowly I ran. Besides being in no shape at all, this dense vegetation just upsets me and slows me down too much.
That said, it was a nice day, really appreciate the good course setting by Greg, and it was great being outside. Had a long sauna recuperating sore limbs at home afterwards...
Saturday Nov 6, 2021 #
Event: DVOA Iron Hill Park - NRE
1 PM
Orienteering 38:39 [3] 4.38 km (8:49 / km) +93m 7:59 / km
ahr:152 max:209
DVOA NRE event. Very nice day, low 50s and mostly sunny. I had very low expectations since I basically haven't trained, and only raced a few times, in the last 3-4 months, because of work. Nevertheless ran red, "value for money", and it was a short course. Expected it to be painful. But somehow this race felt great. I kept a good pace (for me!), evidence by my heart rate which averaged 152 and peaked over 200, which shows the effort I put in. Navigated well, no major mistakes, slight wobble inside the circle on 6, and on 11 I mistook which path I was on approaching the circle. Both mistakes 30 seconds each.
Ended up winning(!) M40...but was the only one. Came 12th out of 27 on red, which given my state on un-training, is not a bad show.
Ended up winning(!) M40...but was the only one. Came 12th out of 27 on red, which given my state on un-training, is not a bad show.