Training Archive: wilsmithIn the 30 days ending 2006-04-30:
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| S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sunday Apr 30 | ||
| Orienteering race (Long) 2:28:14 [4] **** 18.66 km (7:57 / km) +610m 6:50 / km | |
| spiked:23/26c slept:3.0 | ||
| US Long Championships.
Here my goals were not quite so lofty. Based on my racing and training so far this spring, I figured I could reasonably expect to be able to race for 90+ minutes, maybe 100 at the outside. But I didn't think the winner for this course would be anywhere under 130 minutes, so I knew today would be just too long for me. No worries though - this is pretty much the only long orienteering race I am intending to do this year - for anything else, 100 minutes of racing should be enough.... So the goal was to keep up a full pace for as long as possible, and then do some damage control at the end. I knew I would likely crack at some point with this strategy, but realistically it seemed to better training to race it as if it was a 12-15 km (100 min) race, since if I am entered in the WOC long that's more likely to be the running time. Sadly, I didn't manage to follow my race plan - I stayed up most of the night watching Tiomila and as a result only slept 3 hours. I actually overslept, and barely made it to the start - and certainly didn't do my full pre-race routine. Things still started pretty decently, but misfortune shone on me for the infamous third leg, which for some crazy reason took us along an unmapped area at the edge of the map. All well and good for those who recognized this and chose to avoid the area. Very bad for those who went into this area - for even though it was along the direct line and was a valid route choice for an aggressive navigator, it was very terribly base-mapped with greener vegetation than advertised and a multitude of logging trails that, in such a diffuse area, made it extremely difficult to relocate once lost. All fine and dandy - although they might have told us a little more about it at the start, rather than words to the effect that we wouldn't be disqualified if we went into there. To make matters worse, my map is the one Vlad was mentioning on the discussion thread - on mine, it does not say "Area Not Field Checked" - rather, it just has a bunch of brown dots and curves, which at race pace look pretty much like contour features. Sooooooo - I managed to find myself in an unmapped area of the map, without even knowing or intending to get into such an area. And it really is pretty bad in there. I lost contact completely (even the contours were wrong), and basically opted to bail out towards the control, after spending some time trying to figure out just what had happened and why the trails and contours were not at all matching what I had on my map. Bottom line - lost six minutes on that leg, and was very nearly caught up by Eddie at the control. Luckily I sneaked out as he was coming in and made a different route choice on the next long leg and ran clear of him. After that, thinks went pretty smoothly and I was able to recover. Raced well right through 90 minutes, and only really started to get tired around 105 minutes. Patrick caught me by 4 minutes soon thereafter, and slowly pulled away. Eddie (the eventual winner) caught me as I was leaving the 20th control, about 2 hours (14km) into the race, and from that point on in it became a bit of a sufferfest, with both hamstrings starting to cramp up. Dropped a further 4 minutes to Patrick and Eddie over the last 4 km of the course, and ended up about 10 minutes back of the lead. All in all, except for the 6 minutes lost on #3, I dropped only about 30 seconds the whole rest of the course. I actually surprised myself at how long I could maintain a high intensity (maintained the winner's pace up until the 105-minute mark), and although it was a painful struggle at the end I still continued basically mistake-free. Although I only ended up in 7th, I did meet my goals for the day and I guess I should be happy about that. The incident on #3 left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth - why an unmapped area was even included on the map, let alone having courses set such that many runners would actually enter that area, is totally beyond me. I wouldn't consider that acceptable even for a regular A-meet, never mind a national championships. But it wasn't my national championships so there was no point to complain. If not for that error things might have gone on a bit differently, but hey - that's orienteering. At least now I know that I can race for 100+ minutes on hilly, tough terrain. | ||
| Running warm up/down 30:00 [2] | |
| Warm up and (painful) cool down after the above race. | ||
Blue 2 (Long-O) - Splits | ||
Saturday Apr 29 | ||
| Event: US Short and Long Championships | ||
| Orienteering race (Middle) 37:31 [5] **** 5.09 km (7:22 / km) +175m 6:17 / km | |
| spiked:11/19c | ||
| US Short Championships.
For me, this was the major goal of the weekend. Middle distance is my speciality - it's where I consistently have my best results and I enjoy the type of orienteering skills required to succeed - maximum technical concentration combined with a high running intensity over a pretty manageable distance. Now that Micro-O is off the menu at WOC 2006, I'm very much hoping to run in the middle distance there (I had previously wanted to avoid the Micro-O and put Sprint instead - though that's not where I've done my best races). Anyway, my goal was to run as high an intensity as possible and make no mistake over 20 seconds. From past experience, my best results come not when I make ZERO mistakes (usually that means I'm running a little bit too slowly), but when I make only minimal errors - a few 5-10 second mistakes here and there - usually that means I've been running fast enough to keep up a good pace but have not been quite able to make a perfect race. Not really sure if the "perfect" race exists.... The secondary goal was to at least be the top Canadian, and possibly win outright. With selection races coming up soon, and with them the discussion of who runs what at the WOC, I wanted to demonstrate that the middle distance is the one where I can truly do my best results. The race itself went very much according to plan. I started out agressively yet clean, and easily maintained a high intensity all the way through the race. I made mini-mistakes (5-15 seconds) at a few controls but did not hesitate anywhere along the way and felt secure the whole time - was never in the situation of not knowing (within 20m) where I was. Missed: #1 (5 sec), #5 (10 sec), #7 (10 sec), #8 (10 sec), #9 (5 sec), #16 (5sec), #17 (15 sec), #18 (10 sec). I'll call these "not spiked", although basically I got them all pretty cleanly. Results-wise, it was surprisingly excellent - I did manage the outright win. The more surprising element was the gap - there were only 2 of us under 41 minutes, and the next Canadian was a full 6 minutes back. Probably somewhat related to their recent training exploits (they ran intensity on Thursday while I did a 2-hour long hilly run on trails and terrain), but the gap was still surprisingly large. We'll see what happens next time around, but for the moment I will consider that this race was a complete success. | ||
| Running warm up/down 45:00 [3] | |
| A solid warmup and cool down (part of the specific race plan today) for the above race. | ||
Blue - Splits | ||
Friday Apr 28 | ||
| Running 35:00 [2] | |
| Light jog to stretch the legs out. Nothing special. | ||
Thursday Apr 27 | ||
| Running long 1:55:00 [3] +295m | |
| ahr:155 max:178 | ||
| A nice long run on trails and through terrain while waiting for the car to be serviced. Made the trip down to Sudbury (closest Subaru dealer), and really reminded myself how wonderful the terrain is there - if there was a decent map it'd probably be my favorite terrain in Canada, and among my favorite terrains worldwide.
The "moonscape" is starting to grow vegetation again, but there are still tons of exposed rocks and cliffs to keep it interesting, as well as all kinds of little and big marshes and ponds and lakes. Unfortunately, the existing map was made back in the late 1980's when the level of mapping detail was well below today's standards, and it's frustrating to use the maps now. I conveniently couldn't find my old maps anyway, so limited myself to simply enjoying the undulating terrain as it rolled by beneath my feet. No problems with the hamstring today so I'll call myself fully recovered and hope that's the end of that. | ||
| C • If Canada were to host a WOC... 3 | ||
Wednesday Apr 26 | ||
| Running 30:00 [2] | |
| And an easy run while Katta finished up what we hope are her final university exams here in Canada. Now it's to wait until the marks come back and hope that there is nothing more for her to complete before she FINALLY can convert her Swedish teaching degree into one that is valid in Ontario....
Busy day again - various errands plus finishing up taxes (and coughing up a big chunk of change to the government) in the morning, and a slightly better-attended clinic for the evacuees through the afternoon until supper. My colleagues are starting to call me the Flood Doctor now. I can't even begin to express how happy that doesn't make me.... | ||
Tuesday Apr 25 | ||
| Strength 20:00 [3] | |
| A mix of strength - mostly legs and arms with some core. I've sadly been neglecting my strength work this last couple of weeks and I could feel it a little when I ran yesterday.
Busy day today - hard to fit anything in. Pre-natal visits in Timmins with Katta plus (finally and despite 5cm of snow and freezing rain last night) switching over to the alloy wheels and all seasons. Then an urgent clinic for the evacuees.... Apparently 35 of them "had to see the doctor today" - but only 14 managed to show up after all. That's where the strength workout came in. Was still occupied until evening, then we had to rusn off to our latest pre-natal class (including a tour, of all things, of the hospital - wow!). | ||
| C • Hospital Tour 2 | ||
Monday Apr 24 | ||
| Running tempo 55:00 [4] | |
| Steady state run just below threshold. Wanted to see how the hamstring was going to behave - last week in DK I would have been in quite a lot of pain from jogging speed right on up through running/racing speeds. Much improved now - although not quite 100% just yet. Some sensation of tightness still, and I was a bit reluctant to try explosive movements or big leaps over streams, etc.... But given the amount of improvement over the past few days I expect to be in pretty good shape for the US Short & Long Champs this weekend. | ||
Sunday Apr 23 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| A second rest day - due to wanting to rest the hamstring, as well as extra work demand on call. Arrived home late last night to discover that about 1000 people have just been evacuated to Cochrane due to the extensive flooding up on the James Bay coast and its effects on the Kashechewan reserve. Definitely some extra load on our local health care system (many people evacuated so quickly that they didn't even take the time to bring their medications with them), and extra clinics scheduled for this week....
But the hamstring probably appreciates the rest anyway. No pain while walking anymore. | ||
Saturday Apr 22 | ||
| Note | |
| (rest day) | ||
| Rest day - flight home after a decent week of terrain running, so it seemed like a rasonable thing to do to treat myself to a rest day. That, plus getting up at 0600 and traveling until 2200 (plus 6 hours of time change) means it's a pretty tough sell. And anyway - rest counts as training too!
Major bonus - Lufthansa magically upgraded me to business class again - ohhhhh, so comfortable! Seems there are some tangible benefits to being loyal to Air Canada and the Star Alliance after all - I've been unexpectedly upgraded way too many times for it to be random chance. All this and not even wearing a Stonecutters ring.... | ||
| C • Stonecutters 3 | ||
Friday Apr 21 | ||
| Orienteering (Map walk) 30:00 [1] | |
| Not really sure about logging this but anyway....
Mike and I stopped at Botanisk Have in Århus on the way back to Copenhagen to have a look at the sprint training area provided there. Pretty unimpressive stuff. Just looking at the map you see that it bears quite little resemblance to the Mindeparken area - not much forested area, and no really complex buildings and "hidden" fences to set up as traps (although some ?uncrossable? hedges were there too). The mapping seemed inconsistent - although any map usually does when you go through at a walking pace staring at every little detail.... I don't know what else to say - yes, it is a 1:5000 map. Seems to largely follow ISSOM guidelines. Probably not as relevant to Mindeparken as we'd like. Unfortunately time was running short so we didn't get the chance to check out any of the other areas. I wonder about Esbjerg Universitetspark - but that's waaaaayyyy out on the west coast and didn't fit this week's plans. | ||
| C • Fingers tired? 3 | ||
| Indoor cycling 30:00 [2] | |
| Indoor stationary cycle at the hotel I'm in overnight until tomorrow's flight home. Maybe a little easier on the hamstring - but not as nice as running in terrain with a nice accurate map in my hand! | ||
Thursday Apr 20 | ||
| Orienteering race (Relay) 39:00 [4] *** | |
| spiked:12/13c slept:4.0 | ||
| AM training - relay starts with the Austrian team on Sletten. Forked mass starts x2, then the third time we went off at 5-second intervals to simulate starting in the 2nd or 3rd leg. It was fun and forced us to run at higher intensity - higher than my hamstring would have liked, but it made it through in one piece anyway. With the open forest it was still very easy to maintain a good grasp on where the controls were, despite the forking and mass starting. Saw lots of other controls but it was easy enough to disregard them and focus only on my own. Good training. Based on what Mike and I saw when we drove to Himmelbjerget though, the hills there are much steeper than what we ran today - there was only one 5-contour hill which was pretty manageable. | ||
| Running warm up/down 30:00 [2] | |
| Warmup and cool down (Z1-3 but call it Z2 overall). | ||
| Orienteering 1:11:00 [2] **** | |
| Easy map walk/jog on Velling-Snabegård. Was feeling pretty tired and my hamstring was too sore to allow itself to be tortured any further. This was a route choice exercise that some national teams had used in late March (this map is officially closed except for certain dates...). Mike was feeling strong so he ran the whole thing. I skipped some and made the exercise a bit more manageable for my body. Very nice route choice legs and overall very hilly terrain. I counted 7% actual climb during my excursion. This map is adjacent to the classic final terrain, and I would say that if the climb here is any indication.... Still, many of the very hilly legs had viable "around" options, and I think a fit and astute runner would be able to maintain a good tempo even with the hilly terrain. | ||
Wednesday Apr 19 | ||
| Orienteering 44:00 [3] *** | |
| spiked:23/24c slept:4.0 | ||
| Training on Ryekol - suggested by the WOC middle distance course planner as being relevant for its vegetation (on the east side anyway). If so, then we can expect some scrappy mixes of vegetation, including a fair bit of heather on the ground. Seemed to be much more undergrowth in general there, and not much in the line of those beautiful wide open mature plantation forest areas that seem to abound in other maps. Otherwise, the area (although small) seemed OK. Privately owned though so we couldn't put up any markers or controls without advance permission. | ||
| Orienteering race (Middle) 51:00 [4] *** 5.9 km (8:39 / km) | |
| spiked:15/18c | ||
| Ran the Austrian EM test race. They had hired the WOC middle distance course planner to set a WOC-relevant middle distance test race for them, which they ran in the morning while we were at Ryekol. The controls were left out until the afternoon though, so we got the chance to run it as well. Still nursing my R hamstring (and now calf hurts too), so not going FSA, but able to maintain a relatively steady output.
If this was a typical WOC middle distance, then my take would be that he really likes to force you to change gears. He seemed to have chosen a section of the map that contained large steep hills, as well as flatter more diffuse areas - and he switched back and forth between terrain types. Vegetation was mixed, with thicker areas both in the beginning and end, but otherwise pretty open in the middle part of the race. Control locations were not especially tricky, but he did use the detailed areas of the map to decent advantage. There were at least 3 legs with significant route choices (really every leg had a bit of a route choice and in a middle distance maybe every second gained or lost is significant). Two of them came right in a row before we'd even had much time on the map (first 3 controls were short and fast, then both 4 and 5 had longer route choices). For #4 I decided it looked equivocal and went straight. Later analysis by the Austrians showed it to be equally fast going straight or around, although probably not as physical to go around. For #5 straight looked obviously better and it was (one fast runner going around lost 40 seconds on the Austrian team). The other route was late in the race and to be honest straight looked faster to me but there was a route around that looked almost as fast and was safer - I'd have considered going around if I was really tired and fighting to maintain concentration. According to the Austrians, around was at least as quick as going straight - although both Mike and I were surprised at this. My conclusion based on this race: if a particular route looks obviously better, then take it. If they look equivocal, then I'll probably go around and save on climbing. But that's just me. | ||
| Running warm up/down 20:00 [2] | |
| Warm up and cool down for the above. | ||
Tuesday Apr 18 | ||
| Orienteering 56:00 [3] *** | |
| spiked:16/17c slept:5.0 | ||
| Re-ran one of Holger's old relay trainings on Sletten. Nice forest, good mix of vegetation as well as steeper and flatter sections. Happy to be in DK - and the contours seem (in places) quite similar to Japan, for better or for worse. Very straightforward navigation - here, route choice (in the hilly areas) and direction maintenance (in the flatter areas) are more the key, rather than actually finding the controls. Easy enough to do at even a decent cruising pace, significantly harder at flat-out race pace, for sure. A tough knife edge to balance upon. | ||
| C • Knife Edge 2 | ||
| Orienteering 1:22:00 [2] *** | |
| A longer, easier training on Silkeborg Nordskov - the map is adjacent to the hostel so quite convenient for anyone staying there during a training camp. Wanted to try out the flatter areas - definitely trickier than the relatively hard-to-get-lost-on large hills. The green areas of heavily managed forest with multiple cut lines through them are difficult - you must really pay attention and count them or at least look for unique features on them, especially if you're going to a control in that area. If you're just passing through, then I guess you can afford to be a little more relaxed, as long as your direction is correct....
The flat white areas are fun - and again, having a VERY sharp grasp of your direction is key if you want to get through quickly. If you're off-line or disoriented, it's pretty easy to start doing that creative map interpretation in your head and then watch the minutes pass by until you stumble onto a recognizable, unmistakable feature..... Changing gears (speed, focus, tactics) will certainly be key. | ||
Monday Apr 17 | ||
| Event: Elitserien Long | ||
| Running warm up/down 15:00 [2] | |
| slept:3.0 | ||
| A lighter warmup for the "race". Not really planning to race per se, so no need to be extravagant on the warmup. There will be enough energy consumption in the hills and forest to more than compensate. Again a poor night of sleep. For goodness sake, somebody make sure that I travel a good week in advance of the next time I race over here.... | ||
| Orienteering race (Classic) 1:21:00 [3] *** 11 km (7:22 / km) | |
| ahr:162 max:173 | ||
| Cruising through the NOF test race - classic. Aiming for a steady HR around 160 bpm - "easy cruise" mode. Except it wasn't all that easy. Anyway, there were a few interesting route choices in the section that I did (I stopped after control 20). #2 I went straight although perhaps R would have been flatter and not much slower. #5 I went straight again although arguably a trail option to the R was faster and less physical. #15 direct seemed best, and #18 R on the trail seemed best.
Orienteering-wise, no major pile-ups. Unfortunately, after 70 minutes or so (and luckily only a little more than 1km to the spectator passing), I pulled my R hamstring. +++ pain with running and even jogging, although it wasn't truly crippling. But will now need to be protective of it until it heals (a week or two?). | ||
| Running warm up/down 10:00 [1] | |
| Cool down after above "race". Jogging and even walking hurt, although not excruciating. Guess I can still get around OK, just not FSA. | ||
Sunday Apr 16 | ||
| Running warm up/down 35:00 [3] | |
| slept:2.0 | ||
| Warmup for the middle distance race. Terrible sleep last night (of course, day 2 of eastward jetlag always seems worse to me). All hopped up on caffeine this morning and still a bit sluggish. | ||
| Orienteering race (Middle) 36:39 [4] *** 5.5 km (6:40 / km) | |
| spiked:15/18c | ||
| NOF test race - middle distance. Again the goal was to maintain a steady pace, smoothly through the course. Fairly straightforward terrain - not too difficult to find controls unless the visibility was down (only in a few places). The main thing was route choice efficiency and I was suboptimal on a couple of these, although not by huge amounts. Also hesitated on one control - was in the right place but things just didn't look as I had imagined. Not pushing too hard, but a steady output. Decent result. | ||
| Running warm up/down 25:00 [2] | |
| My cool down, Holger's warm up. He is nice and relaxed before his race, and wouldn't you know it, he comes out with the victory too. Way to go team H-J. | ||
| Orienteering 35:00 [3] **** | |
| Again back to the coast for more of those lovely intricate dunes. I tried to maintain a steady Z3 throughout, but after about 25 minutes I semi-bonked - started to run out of gas, felt a little dizzy and nauseous, just a little hypoglycemic. Toned it down a notch and decided to cruise in along a trail in case I got too delusional. But things settled down on the way in and I managed to pick off the last couple of controls anyway. But this is the warning of overtraining knocking on the door. Tomorrow (a long distance race in hilly terrain) will need to be re-planned. | ||
Saturday Apr 15 | ||
| Event: Sprint SM | ||
| Running warm up/down 35:00 [3] | |
| Warmup for NOF test race (Sprint), racing after the Swedes had started. Ranged from Z1-4, but a fairly brisk warmup overall in the end. | ||
| Orienteering race (Sprint) 15:22 [4] *** 3.32 km (4:38 / km) | |
| spiked:19/20c | ||
| Planned to cruise through as mistake-free as possible. Knew I just didn't have the explosive speed in my legs today so the best use of my time seemed to push along at a steady clip and focus on being smooth through the race. It was a very easy course, although people did still manage to make mistakes. I was very clean except for #17 of 20, where I cut between two buildings in a route that was definitely suboptimal. Haven't really looked closely at the splits but I'd have guessed I lost in the vicinity of 20 seconds there. Not much else lost - though much speed to be gained by really fighting through the course. | ||
| Running warm up/down 10:00 [1] | |
| After the above race. | ||
| Orienteering 45:00 [3] **** | |
| Beautiful forested coastal dune terrain. Borrowed maps and went for a second training with Sandy and Mike just before dusk. Well worth the effort - the terrain is tricky and intricate, but soft and highly runnable on the ground. Like a playground. We'll be back. | ||
Friday Apr 14 | ||
| Orienteering 1:05:00 [3] *** | |
| spiked:21/24c slept:1.5 | ||
| An evening run on the Degerberga S map with Sandy and Mike and Bjorgen. They were just heading out as I arrived (driving in from Copenhagen after the overnight flight), and were kind enough to wait for me to get going. A little slow in the legs and in the brain, but really missed only 3 controls (going slowly though). Doesn't seem to take much of an uphill to make me tired - to be expected after the long trip. Very poor sleep (if any). | ||
Thursday Apr 13 | ||
| Running 30:00 [3] | |
| Last run around the block before heading across the pond. A pretty dinky week of training but maybe it's what I needed. I think I was a bit tired after the Pig - that plus trying to resist getting really bogged down with a cold meant for a relatively easy 9-10 days, but that's how the cookie crumbles I guess. Best laid plans of mice and men.... | ||
Wednesday Apr 12 | ||
| Running 45:00 [3] | |
| Commute plus a run around the block - some Z4, but I'll log it overall as a Z3. A little more zip today, though still not 100%. | ||
Tuesday Apr 11 | ||
| Running 30:00 [3] | |
| Another moderate run around the block. | ||
Monday Apr 10 | ||
| Running 28:00 [3] | |
| Easy run around the block. Starting to stabilize - not getting any sicker, but that dry cough still lingers. Oh well - just not planning on doing anything crazy this week. Next week in DK will be tiring enough as it is. | ||
Sunday Apr 9 | ||
| Running 30:00 [3] | |
| Moderate Z3 run around the block. | ||
| Other Alternative Training (Badminton) 1:50:00 [1] | |
| Badminton - nice evening, some singles (actually quite tiring) but mostly doubles. | ||
Saturday Apr 8 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:3.0 (rest day) | ||
| An actual planned rest day. Nice. | ||
Friday Apr 7 | ||
| Running 42:00 [3] | |
| Commute plus run around the block - again that lingering feeling of a cold coming on, but still no fever or anything exciting. More sleep and more rest is what the doctor ordered. | ||
Thursday Apr 6 | ||
| Running 28:00 [3] | |
| Moderate run around the block - feeling heavy still, and that cough continues to linger in the background. I can't really call myself sick - compared to the walking wounded I see every day I'm actually doing pretty well. But far from being at 100%. | ||
| Other Alternative Training (Badminton) 1:45:00 [2] | |
| Nice evening of badminton. | ||
Wednesday Apr 5 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:6.0 (rest day) | ||
| Unplanned rest day. Had thought about doinjg a little light jog in the evening but was at work early in the morning and was pretty busy right through the day until midnight, at which point sleep seemed the wiser choice. | ||
Tuesday Apr 4 | ||
| Other Alternative Training 45:00 [1] | |
| slept:4.0 | ||
| A teeny-weeny bit of training at work, just to move the legs around a bit. Still feeling like a cold is trying to take over, so better to lay low, lots of fluids, and healthy meals. Sleep would be nice too... | ||
Monday Apr 3 | ||
| Note | |
| slept:7.0 (rest day) | ||
| Rest day - I need one I think. Seems like I'm riding the razor's edge between getting sick and not.... Better to rest and build strength, methinks. Probably a very easy week coming up training-wise (makes up for being on call this week and subsequent expected lack of sleep). | ||
Sunday Apr 2 | ||
| Orienteering race 1:14:00 [5] *** 9.8 km (7:33 / km) +360m 6:23 / km | |
| spiked:14/20c slept:7.0 | ||
| Flying Pig - Classic. Again, only a so-so race. Not great but certainly not terrible either. Was not physically 100% - partly the knee, and also had a really stuffed nose the whole race - maybe I'm coming down with the same bug that Hans has. Cross my fingers. Also possibly because this comes at the end of a 14-hour training week - but that was to be expected. Anyway, I misinterpreted a vegetation boundary on the very first control which funneled me into the womens' first control instead - down 90 (? - no splits yet) seconds right off the bat. Got through the rest of the hilly terrain pretty clean, decent routes I think and certainly able to get up and down the hills OK. But the final 70% of the course was basically flat - lots of the blind compass bearings through greenish vegetation trying to keep an eye out for ruined fences, subtle veggie boundaries, and flooded trails. Certainly not my favorite type of orienteering - and potentially huge errors lurk there for all who stray much off the course. It got a bit boring there too - and I managed to lose a couple of minutes on at least two controls, plus a couple of smaller bits of time lost on uncertainty and hesitation, despite trying to be attentive and careful. Anyway, I ended up with 74 minutes - could have been worse. Wadd came through in 65 minutes, followed by Duca in 67 minutes. I don't have the full results but Griz was between Nick and me, and Jon Torrance was about 75 minutes. I didn't hear Hans' time but he was a fair bit behind, having had some difficulties in the flat subtle area. Patrick took a branch to the face and was DNF. I had to leave early to catch a flight (barely) from Columbus. Guess the rest of the results will be up soon on the OCIN site.
All in all, they did a very good job organizing the weekend, IMHO. The maps were decent, and although I would have opted for more hills and less flat green on the Classic day, the courses were quite good as well. I felt tired today, but also felt good. I ran fairly consistent races all through the weekend, generally the 3rd or 4th Canadian in every race, amongst a pretty strong field. Had the legs to be in second in every race, but there always seemed to be one guy who put together a very tough time to beat. My own navigation wasn't as crisp as I would have liked, but that's to be expected after going through a winter where the closest map is 400km away. We were in general comfortably ahead of the Americans - pretty good after coming out of a snowy winter. Hope we can repeat that performance at WOC too. Looking now towards adding in speed training (and sacrificing some of the volume I suspect) - it showed that the Hamilton crowd had done their fair share over the last little while. And the navigation will come on-line soon enough, with a nice training camp in Denmark coming up plus some well-timed races in April/May leading up to the Barebones. All seems well so far. | ||
| C • magic shoes 3 | ||
| Orienteering warm up/down 40:00 [2] | |
| Warm up and cool down for the above race. | ||
| C • Training camp in Denmark? 3 | ||
Saturday Apr 1 | ||
| Orienteering race 16:00 [5] *** 2.9 km (5:31 / km) +100m 4:42 / km | |
| spiked:8/12c slept:7.0 | ||
| Pig Sprint in the AM. Not a great race, though not truly terrible either. Just didn't seem to have the "eye of the tiger" out there - not attacking and pushing very hard. Missed on #2 (went up wrong spur - maybe 15 sec lost), then two other poor routes in which I went straight and crossed largish valleys when going around was not only faster but didn't cost as much energy. Total loss of maybe 1:30 today, without looking in too much detail. My time of 16:16 put me in 7th place - but Patrick was on fire today. He caught up Hans by 2 minutes and went on to run through him when Hans overran a control - and won in 14:22. A very good time, no doubt about it. | ||
| Orienteering warm up/down 45:00 [2] | |
| Warm up and cool down for above race. | ||
| Orienteering race 48:00 [4] *** | |
| spiked:12/17c | ||
| Pig Relay. The real saga of the day. We put in a team meant to challenge GHO for the open title - Jon Torrance, then Pia Kivisakk, Mikell Platt, then myself. Jon opened up with a 2-3 minute lead on Hans, then Pia extended the lead to about 12 minutes. Mikell, unfortunately, had been suffering significant injury problems over the weekend with mysterious leg-cramp-like pain and was unable to complete the course, so I was relegated to the mass start after pretty much everyone else was out on the course. Just didn't have the spirit to race hard, so was a bit sloppy early on. Then, about 40% of the way through, I jammed my left knee while leaping across the bottom of a ravine. It reduced me to a limp, especially going downhill, but I managed to just cruise the rest of the course without getting too much worse. it even felt pretty decent by the end of the race, but once we sat down to dinner it really got sore. No swelling though, so I'm hoping that a solid dose of vitamin I will take the edge off and let me compete tomorrow.... GHO walked away with the victory, followed by DVOA and HVO. Maybe we'll be able to field a Falcons team at some point and have a shot at the title too.... | ||
| Orienteering warm up/down 40:00 [2] | |
| Warmup and a very little cool down from the relay. Unfortunately, most of the warmup was done about one and a half hours before I actually started.... | ||
Sprint-Blue - Splits | ||