Training Log Archive: lonerunner

i could barely get out of bed this morning, my legs felt so sore and fatigued that i thought i would collapse. oh well the races are over so now i can sit back and get fat the rest of the summer. lol, just kidding. "not!" (borat quote, don't ask).

Really tired. cold and overcast out. I could barely move my legs in the warm-up, however, when i got up to the line the blood started pumping. The first control took whatever energy i had left right out of me, climbing a mountain was not what i was looking forward to. after that though, i stuck to the back of the first pack until control six, where i made a 3 minute error and lost everybody. My control was between two boulders, however, there were about 40 big boulders on the top of this broad spur. After that i was just physically and mentally dead, so i coulden't pick it up to chase the other runners. i made a mistake in my route choice going to number 8, I went around the mountain to the left and up the reentrant (i should have followed the fence around the right of the mountain) (and incidentally Olav from Norway went the same way i did and that cost the Norwegians the gold). and then going to 9 i stayed up and contored along the hill, which was another bad route choice, as the valley was much quicker. After control 9 i diden't really make any big errors, but my tired legs kept me from going too fast, which was a shame because the terrain was really open.

I am going to use this day to recover, i can't bend my knee, so hopefully by tomorrow i will be able to use it again for running. we went to the Zoo today and saw tons of really cool animals, the highlights were the roaring lions, and watching the wild dogs get fed a dead kangeroo.

My plan for the long before i started was to go slow and just use it as a warmup for the middle. So, on my way to the first control i slowed down, and the guy who started behind me caught me just as i was punching. I decided that it woulden't hurt to pick it up and for the next 4 controls i was switching off leads with this guy from Belarus. then i made a mistake at control 6, i was about 15 feet above the control and just coulden't see it. At this point Olav Lundanes from Norway caught me, and for the next two controls i tried to keep up with him. Damn he is fast! i was basically running almost full speed, and i could just keep contact with the map and recognize the bigger features. Then going to control 9, he virtually sprinted up this big hill and since i had 7km left to run i decided to let him go and slow down. (incidentally, if i had kept up with him for the rest of the course i would have been in the top 3). At number 9 i made a parallel error and ended up in the wrong reentrant, which cost me some time. The next 7 controls i had good route choice, and found most of them easily, but i was still getting lost when i got in the control circle, i think for this terrain i need to read my clue card more. going to control 17 i physically died, busted my knee and went really slow. the next two controls i went off to the side and had to relocate. then control 20 (spectator control) was a long leg, and i ended up walking up the hills and slowly jogging the rest of the way to the control. i got inspired by the cheering and picked it up for the last bit of the course. bad idea. control 21 i knew i was in the right area, but i just coulden't find it, so i relocated to the nearby fence, and still i had problems finding it. Just as i was punching the control, Soren Bobach from Norway with another guy following caught me and i dogged it in with those two guys, passing them at the second to last control but they caught me at the finish tape. Overall a pretty good race, especially since the long is not my race, but i was physically wiped out, and if i decide to work on getting better on the long then i have to run more distance.