Sunday Nov 4 |
 | Running - Road / Track warm up/down (gravel road) 13:34  1.87 mi (7:14 / mi) +50m 4:10 / km | |
| ahr:151 max:164 slept:8.3 shoes: VJ Twister (US size 10.5) - 2 |
| Warm-up run before orienteering. Another good length warm-up. It helped that the start was a mile away. |
| Orienteering race (long distance) 1:19:20  11.2 km (7:05 / km) +440m 5:55 / km | |
| ahr:160 max:175 21c shoes: VJ Twister (US size 10.5) - 2 |
| U.S. Champs day 2. I felt much, much better today, mentally. It felt like my mind was twice as engaged as it was yesterday. While I had a few moments of wanting to relax or my attention drifting, I was able to catch it quickly (there's a physical feeling associated with this urgent realization of the need to refocus--sort of like the nervous flush of embarassment) and brought my attention back. I think my mental problems yesterday may have resulted from my brain being asleep, due to the time difference and the 10:01 start time. I'm rarely even awake at 7 AM Pacific time!
Anyway, today's run was quite good, although it was, in retrospect, very cautious--maybe too cautious. I never felt like I was easily mentally and physically flowing/bursting through the course, as happens on my best orienteering days, but I was just happy to improve so much from yesterday. I knew before I started that Wyatt had run 82, so I would have to run 75-76 to beat him for the weekend. In the early part of the course, I was a bit distracted by this thought, but I settled down and focussed better in the middle. As I approached the hour mark, it became clear that I would not be able to overtake Wyatt in the U.S. Champs standings, and I had to give a bit of extra effort to keep my speed up.
I had blisters on my left heel from wearing the new VJ Twisters yesterday, and they hurt during my run, especially after the bandage and tape slipped down. Otherwise, I felt good physically, and I had reserve capacity in my legs. A few minutes after finishing, the soreness in my lower back from running stooped over yesterday returned. Placed 3rd overall and U.S. today, and 4th U.S. Champs eligible overall. Winsplits |
| Running - Road / Track warm up/down 8:53  0.75 mi (11:51 / mi) +25m 6:40 / km | |
| ahr:122 max:141 shoes: VJ Twister (US size 10.5) - 2 |
| Warm-down jogging after the race. |
| Walking (road) 15:00 [1] 1.0 mi (14:59 / mi) +15m 8:54 / km | |
| shoes: Brooks Trance 5 - 1 |
| Walking while carrying my luggage back to my car from the terminal at SeaTac after flying home. |
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Day 2 Blue - Splits |
Saturday Nov 3 |
| Running - Trail / Grass warm up/down (mostly trail) 12:45  1.7 mi (7:30 / mi) +65m 4:10 / km | |
| ahr:141 max:160 slept:7.6 shoes: Brooks Trance 5 - 1 |
| Warm-up running before U.S. Classic Champs day 1. I had decided that my performance was suffering sometimes due to my warm-up runs being too short, so I'm happy that I ran for over 10 minutes before this race. |
| Orienteering race (long distance) 1:55:26  12.9 km (8:57 / km) +440m 7:39 / km | |
| ahr:156 max:169 20c shoes: VJ Twister (US size 10.5) - 3 |
| U.S. Classic Champs day 1 and World Ranking Event. The course was hard right from the start, and I picked a poor route (to the right: trail to ridge) to control #1 and tentatively stumbled into it. The next few controls went mostly okay, with some mistakes, but I wasn't feeling in my element in this terrain. I caught Wil Smith 4 minutes, and Lachezar Iliev caught me 4 minutes, and we ran through some controls loosely together, bumbles and all. Lacho missed control 11, and Wil and I got ahead and then split to #12. His straight route put him about a minute ahead, then I made a poor route choice from 12-13 and--more detrimentally--shut my brain off for a while. This resulted in a severe loss of map contact and a protracted relocation process, which set me back about 10 minutes on this leg. I tried to keep it together mentally for the rest of the run, although it was hard to motivate myself to push really hard after blowing it so badly. I mostly ran okay but leaked a bit of time due to sloppiness or slowness on each leg. I had stopped drinking at the water controls prematurely, thinking that I would be done sooner, so I was a bit dehydrated at the end, and my hamstrings seized a few minutes from the finish, going to control 19, after which I eased up to improve my odds of making it in without having to stop and stretch again. Placed 10th overall, 6th U.S. Champs eligible. Winsplits |
| Running - Trail / Grass warm up/down 16:39  1.67 mi (10:00 / mi) +25m 5:56 / km | |
| ahr:116 max:141 shoes: Brooks Trance 5 - 1 |
| Warm-down jogging after the race. |
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Day 1 Blue - Splits |
Friday Nov 2 |
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| Event: US Champs
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| Running - Road / Track warm up/down 5:10  0.63 mi (8:12 / mi) | |
| ahr:127 max:158 slept:7.0 shoes: VJ Twister (US size 10.5) - 3 |
| Jogging to the start of the U.S. Champs classic model event and back. |
| Orienteering (model event) 20:17 [2]*** 2.1 km (9:40 / km) +75m 8:12 / km | |
| ahr:139 max:158 10c shoes: VJ Twister (US size 10.5) - 3 |
| U.S. Classic Champs model event at Prince William Forest Park. The terrain was green, with lots of greenbriar, holly and laurel, which greatly reduced the visibility and runnability. I also navigated poorly, not keeping good map contact, not visualizing the terrain well, and not planning ahead. I resolved to do better a little later at the sprint model event. |
| Orienteering (model event) 16:02 [2]*** 2.07 km (7:45 / km) +25m 7:18 / km | |
| ahr:137 max:157 8c shoes: VJ Twister (US size 10.5) - 3 |
| U.S. Champs sprint model event. I orienteered better than I had in the classic model but still not well. I sprained my left ankle badly enough that I had to walk for 20-30 seconds, but I was able to resume jogging after that, and the pain went away within several minutes after that. My new O-shoes were stiff and uncomfortable, and they hurt the protuberance of my right heel significantly. |
| Running - Trail / Grass warm up/down 3:00 [2] 0.38 mi (7:59 / mi) +6m 4:44 / km | |
| ahr:137 max:148 |
| A bit of additional warm-up running before the U.S. Sprint Orienteering Champs race. I was well warmed up after having done the model event. |
| Orienteering race (sprint) 15:32 [4]*** 2.9 km (5:21 / km) +100m 4:34 / km | |
| ahr:170 max:176 spiked:14/18c shoes: VJ Twister (US size 10.5) - 3 |
| U.S. Sprint Champs. I had a good run, with one true miss (~10 sec.) and only a few other small bobbles and hesitations. It didn't have the squeaky-clean feeling of a great run while I was doing it, but my legs felt strong in the forest, and it was good enough for the win.
I forgot to clear and check my SI card at the start, so I ran back and did that, and started only 20 seconds ahead of Lachezar Iliev, who came within a second or two of catching me on the short legs early in the course (around #8 was closest, I think). From the start and for the first third of my race, I thought about how screwed up it was that this happened and how it might unfairly help me if he overtook me, and I hoped I would be able to run fast enough to keep him behind me. Fortunately, I was able to stay in front of him at all times and--with the exception of my 10 second miss on control 6, which I corrected without breaking stride--I didn't make mistakes because of the pressure. I gapped him on the long leg from 9 to 10 and wasn't aware of him behind me after that.
After the race, my right heel was quite inflamed from the new shoe. I taped my left ankle, and it neither turned again nor was painful at all during or after the race--whew! |
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| C • shoes, late start 2 |
| Running - Road / Track warm up/down (some grass, too) 13:15  1.56 mi (8:30 / mi) +12m 5:09 / km | |
| ahr:124 max:147 shoes: Brooks Trance 5 - 1 |
| Warm-down jogging after the race. |
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Sprint Blue - Splits |
Thursday Nov 1 |
| Running - Road / Track (road) 31:30 [2] 4.4 mi (7:09 / mi) +90m 4:11 / km | |
| ahr:141 max:157 slept:4.7 shoes: Brooks Trance 5 - 1 |
| Ran around the roads and regional paths near BWI airport: route. I felt pretty good, although my legs felt fatigued up the hills in the second half of the run. Midway through the run, I stepped in a hole running on some grass, and I nearly sprained my ankle. |
Wednesday Oct 31 |
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 (rest day) |
| Planned off day. I didn't wear a costume, but I ate some pumpkin seeds and Halloween candy. |
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| C • I am not surprised you ate ... 2 |
Tuesday Oct 30 |
| Orienteering 39:20  4.67 km (8:25 / km) +215m 6:51 / km | |
| ahr:136 max:168 9c slept:7.7 shoes: Brooks Trance 5 - 1 |
| At night, from the bottom of Interlaken Park, I ran the BEAST #3 orienteering course from this year, with an additional side trip or two and a few minutes out and back to the Park from the car. I also did 4 x 45 seconds hard surges during the run. I didn't do the hard runs at a regular interval, but I always had at least 1:30 jogging recovery in between. |
Monday Oct 29 |
| Running - Road / Track (road) 27:28 [2] 3.45 mi (7:57 / mi) +75m 4:38 / km | |
| ahr:140 max:159 shoes: Brooks Trance 5 - 1 |
| Ran to Meadowbrook, ran the O course from a training event I organized some time ago (logged separately), then ran back home. I felt pretty good for most of the run, aside from the usual left hamstring pains. |
| Orienteering (sprint) 14:07  2.05 km (6:53 / km) +35m 6:21 / km | |
| ahr:140 max:158 12c shoes: Brooks Trance 5 - 1 |
| Ran O course at Meadowbrook at night. I had trouble keeping up with the navigation, which reminded me that concentration is important--a good thing to keep in mind for the coming weekend.
Yesterday's soreness from the paddling is almost gone. |