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] | |
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| 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] | |
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| 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.... |
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Sprint-Blue - Splits |
Friday Mar 31 |
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| Event: Flying Pig X (OCIN)
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| Orienteering race 35:00 [5] *** 5.4 km (6:29 / km) +220m 5:23 / km | |
| spiked:15/17c slept:4.0 |
| Flying Pig Middle. Not a great race, but a decent result all things considered. Getting up at 3 AM, packing frantically, and then traveling for the next 14 hours is just not ideal for race prep. Arrived late for the start so warmup consisted of rapid Superman-street-clothes-to-lycra change in the parking lot and a quick run to the start, where they were already dismantling things. Coaxed them to take the start/clear/check controls back out of the trunk of the car, they gave me enough time to tie my shoes, and then I was off. Not a really smooth start, but things went fine. Overall not too technically taxing a course - mainly a running race I guess. Will post splits and leg comments later. Hans won in 33-mid or so, followed by Mark Adams (34-mid), and then me in 34:57. Wadd and Patrick very close behind. Generally feeling a little tired at the end, not pushing as hard as I should have been. Will be interesting to look at the splits and see where I dropped my time. |
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| C • ... 2 |
| Orienteering warm up/down 1:30:00 [2] *** | |
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| This was the combined warmup and cool down for the above race (mostly cool down obviously). Because I delayed their takedown of the race apparatus, I had offfered to pick up controls so spent an hour out in the bush again hauling down flags and ribbons and packing up a couple of water stops. Probably not exactly the ideal way to recover from a race, but it seemed to go smoothly. Will see how the legs feel throughout the rest of the weekend. My overall plan was to carry a heavy week of training into this weekend of racing, and carry on some volume for the next little while as well (i.e. no taper). Hopefully the body will hold together - so far so good anyway. |
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Blue - middle - Splits |
Thursday Mar 30 |
| Other Alternative Training (Badminton) 1:40:00 [1] | |
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| Fun night, non-stop playing time. Probably should have been home packing instead, but hey - gotta have fun some days too. Guess I'll sleep on the plane.... |
Wednesday Mar 29 |
| Running (Commute) 7:00 [3] | |
| slept:8.0 |
| Morning commute in - one of these days I'll actually get rolling early enough so that I can extend my journey into something a little more respectable. It's only a mile in to work from home, so I really should be doing an extra loop or two when time permits.... |
| Other Alternative Training (Stepper) 2:01:00 [1] | |
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| A good long day of Z1 stepping before coming home. |
| Running intervals 41:00 [4] | |
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| Natural intervals, mainly on dirt roads. Some time in Z5, a tiny bit in Z3 during "recovery", but the vast majority was in Z4.
Tried out my new VJ Twisters. Have been having a rough time with my (previously faithful) OLWAY Tigers, which gave me major heel blister problems during the winter camp with Team Hott Johansen, as well as the recent mini camp in Hamilton, so Katta agreed to pick up a pair of Twisters for me. I've previously used VJ (dis)Integrators between 1998 and 2004, with pretty good success - only switched to the Tigers because Katta's VJ sponsorship ended, and we could get great deals on Jalas and OLWAY products through Colin Kirk. Decided to try Twisters to see if the narrower last would feel as if it was giving more support. I can say the 2006 Twisters feel different and more snug then the 2004 Integrators, but it's too early to tell if one is really better than the other. I mainly hope the quality and durability has improved - I used to go through 2-3 pairs of Integrators a year, even with only running 40-50 days/year of races and little training in the shoes otherwise. |
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| C • shoes 8 |
Tuesday Mar 28 |
| Running (Commute) 7:00 [3] | |
| slept:6.0 |
| Moderate run into work - feeling good today after "resting" yesterday (a.k.a. "too busy on call to train"). |
| Other Alternative Training 1:43:00 [1] | |
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| On the stepper - knocked off some time without even really trying.... Nice! Good to feel the quads burn too. |
| Strength 10:00 [3] | |
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| Quads and calves at work. |
| Running (Commute) 7:00 [3] | |
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| And a brief commute home. |
Monday Mar 27 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| Semi-unplanned rest day - just too much work and not enough time (or motivation) to log the hour it would have taken to put me over 18 hours. Oh well - there's always tomorrow. |
Sunday Mar 26 |
| XC Skiing 53:00 [3] | |
| slept:7.0 |
| Great morning ski - especially on the golf course. Beautiful, sunny conditions with a solid crust, great for playing around and exploring all those off-piste areas that you never get to when it's all powder.... |
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| C • Nice. 1 |
| Running 36:00 [2] | |
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| Relatively easy run outside with Katta (on the bike) - taking advantage of the +5 C and sunny weather. Slowly the snow is disappearing - though not soon enough for my tastes! |
| Other Alternative Training (Badminton) 2:05:00 [1] | |
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| Big crowd but played a lot of doubles - mostly losing but it was still quite fun. |