orienteer 20:03 [3] *** 2.7 km (7:26 / km)
ahr:143 6c
Ran an old Yellow course at Weston Bend. The idea was to orienteer quickly. Unfortunately, the crappy woods slowed me down, as did my hesitations reading the map. I felt like I was moving really slowly, but was pleasantly surprised at my time. Teaches me that I'm not the best judge of how fast I'm moving.
It would have been cool if I was four seconds slower :)
Note
Time to set my goal for 2007, since I’m a goal-oriented type. And since this is my one year without Kissy and Peggyd in my age group, I want to win F40 at the US Champs. But that’s a pretty fine point, so instead I’ll phrase it this way: my goal is to prepare myself to be in place to win F40 at the US Champs. If I train hard, and end up losing by a couple of minutes, so be it. I just don’t want to lose by 30 minutes or so (as I did at the 2006 Champs).
Even if I phrase it this way, it’s an ambitious goal. I was able to win F35 five years ago, but I had different competition then. My current competitors are much better than I. I will need a combination of hard training, with a little bit of luck, to be in place to win F40.
The other difficulty with this goal is the timing. Our local O season begins in late October; the champs are in early November. I will need to stay in good O shape through the long hot summer, with little or no woods time just before the race.
So, how do I plan to reach this goal?
1) physical training: build on my current base, and improve
a) ability to run on trails
b) ability to jog in the woods
2) orienteering training:
a) improve map reading ability
i) get better contacts
ii) use a magnifier
iii) armchair practice
b) practice orienteering quickly
i) train on quick, short courses
ii) log 100 hours of O training for the year
c) training camps