Training Archive: simonIn the 31 days ending 2008-08-31:
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| F | 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 Aug 31 | ||
| Running 43:00 | |
| shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| Jarry Park, heavy legs, kept turning around the park until I had 30 min of running. | ||
Wednesday Aug 27 | ||
| Running hills (Trail) 1:05:00 | |
| shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| Last training in Gesvres, finally a summer weather for this last full day in France. Did the loop around Gesvres with a few changes, easy pace, except for the hills where I went as fast as I could for short bursts of 30s to 1 minute. Gave me the illusion to do real training while enjoying the run.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do... | ||
Tuesday Aug 26 | ||
| Cycling (MTB) 1:15:00 [3] 18 km (4:10 / km) +200m 3:57 / km | |
| Short trip around Erdre and Gesvres, same as 3 weeks ago, except I went into the more technical stuff of Gesvres valley. Good basic shape but definitely rusted with this technical stuff. | ||
Monday Aug 25 | ||
| Note | |
| The return trip got delayed when I arrive at Rennes train station and couldn't find a single train to Nantes at 8pm o'clock on sunday! Train schedule between Rennes and Nantes looks like an ancient sign of the old grudge between the two capitals. Fortunately there is lots of family in Rennes and lots of place to crash (the only problem is deciding which one to call).
Anyway, end of a wonderful week, no big problem (except a strange behaviour of OS at the beginning of the relay), we finally got to "play" with the radio controls. First gossips are positive, especially on the organization (our part) and the terrains. The critics mainly target the maps, which were done by a professional in a very short time and without time to get some corrections. That's sad because those wonderful terrains deserve more decent maps. | ||
Sunday Aug 17 | ||
| Note | |
| Ongoing champ'
Lots of work (including repairing the hacked website), but no big problem for the time being. | ||
Saturday Aug 16 | ||
| Event: French Orienteering Championships | ||
Friday Aug 15 | ||
| Note | |
| Finally finished my compte-rendu of those 6 days, including the full traces on matrace. It is amazing to compare my trace from memory with the trace recorded by the GPS, especially on such a hard terrain where it is difficult to follow and remember all the micro-choices (including the little mistakes like 'I thought I ran there but apparently no'), including the very dumb one you didn't notive during the race. It also reveals that my weakest point (compass) is stronger than ever and accounts for most of my mistakes of the week. Actually I feel quite shameful when I see some of my zigzaging but nobody had a perfect race there (and if more people had ran with a GPS, they would have their content of surprise too).
As a final note: a selection of pictures from the week and full album with raw pictures. | ||
Monday Aug 11 | ||
| Running tempo 47:58 | |
| shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| Two days after the Aveyron, my legs felt nice as the day was, so I resolve to try my infamous Gesvres loop and beat a new PR.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do... Well once again I got a hard lesson from the single tracks around the Gesvres, with its unceasing change in climg/descent/pace. I tried to push hard on the easy parts and as a result got a stitch after only 15 minutes of running. I could not make it go away so after 20 minutes I slowed down and started walking for 2 minutes, then running again at an easy pace. I could accelerate again after a while, but this time I focused on keeping a good pace, in the flow, instead of pushing myself. So the Gesvres lesson is always the same: dont try to run hard, just let it happen. | ||
| Running warm up/down 10:00 [2] 2 km (5:00 / km) | |
| shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
Saturday Aug 9 | ||
| Orienteering race (chase start) 41:27 [4] ***** 4.64 km (8:56 / km) +110m 7:59 / km | |
| 20c shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| Plo de las Conquas (Le Clapier E6)
Last stage, chase start, 28min 28s down to the leader in 7th position. Wouhou! So my "competitive" objective was done (get into the chase) with a good result (less than half an hour after 5 races) and I tried to focus on running this last race without stress, just for fun, without thinking about chasing. Of course it is much more simple to say than to do, especially when you start 8s after the 6th and 1:49 down to the 5th (they were the closer runners, other were more than 5 minutes away in front or behind me). In this situation it largely depends with whom you are running, whether there is a good cooperation (to chase the 5th) or if this is more wild. In any case I resolve to try to run my own race, at least at the beginning, and see how things evolve. Obviously a good resolution because it was a bad day for the 6th runner right in front of me. Late for his start, I saw him leaning too far to the right when leaving the start flag for the first (close) control. I resisted the urge to follow blindly and instead tried to keep to my intuition of going straight through the green: bingo! Of course it is a huge surge in confidence when you perform like that (and the exact opposite feeling for the rival), so I kept running fast, with full map reading, for the next 4 controls - nice. Full confidence but still vey aware that a big mistake was possible if I didn't resolve the map carefully - unfortunately I didn't for the 6th control, when I veered too far to the left and ended up in the wild zone, high cliffs with green vegetation, before I could realize. The problem, apart from the fact that I couldn't relocate, that it is much more harder to leave this zone than to enter it: as I tried to go full south to relocate on a fence, I kept banging against uncrossable cliffs (well I was up the cliffs but couldn't jump them). Finally exiting the zone I stumbled right on my control - well time loss minimized with a bit of luck but still 4min lost. The next controls were a bit fuzzy, and I wasn't sure anymore if I was in front or not (there was plenty of room for errors from other people). Alternating the full speed fuzziness and the slow map reading, I made my way to the spectactor control. Must say I wasn't 100% focused on the map and mainly thought of running quickly through the lane to get back into the terrain (with, happily, a long leg to read the map). The rest of the race was without mistakes, just some fuzziness (esp. approaching th vague 17th control). I kept running fast whenever I could just to see if I could catch someone (or to avoid being catched, works both way), and ended up sprinting for the fun, but without seeing someone from my category. All in all, a good race given that I didn't perform in this kind of contact course for more than a year. Despite the stress, I feel like I performed at my level, perhaps a bit too high but with luck, it was ok. It was still a very different race from the previous chase 3 years ago, where I had been almost always in contact with my chaser/chasee, always changing the lead - here I was all alone during the whole race. Ah, as for the result: very bad day for the 6th, as it appears he bailed out at the spectator control. So gained one place. And the 2nd runner skipped a control, so another place gained: 5th at general, like in 2005! End of a very good week of running and orienteering. GPS: 6.06km at 6:49 +63m Not everyday that I can put a nice pic of myself running. So, here it is, by Stéphane Ruffio. 
| ||
| C • Nice GPS pace 1 | ||
Friday Aug 8 | ||
| Orienteering race 50:55 [4] ***** 4.85 km (10:30 / km) +145m 9:08 / km | |
| 17c shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| Les Bouzigasses (Le Clapier E5)
Stage 5. New terrain, new map. Last occasion to (not) lose time for the chase start. And of course I got caught by the change. After a good start for the first 4 controls, I failed to get a good feeling of the 5th control and kept turning in the area for a good 5 minutes and more - first very big mistake of the week with lack of relocation. I got sufficiently stumped and stressed by this mistake so that the following controls were a mess: error approaching the 6th control (with failure to relocate quickly), almost too fast for 7th and 8th where I was lucky, and 9th control around the green canyons where I stupidly tried to push through some tough green only to be repelled, finally taking a wrong direction and ending up relocating more than 250m from my control. After that the controls were easier and I could regain some confidence (with one more deviation on 13th). The 5th and 9th controls were the worst from the week.Regardless, I still manage to do them in less than 10 minutes. Not a single lap above 10 this week! The scale change at 1/5000 also provides its own difficulty: everything move so fast that if you dont follow precisely your way, you end up in a totally different area of the map - and you have to take a large look at the map to relocate. Failure to adapt is without a doubt a good source for big mistakes in orienteering. In this case the terrain was different, diffuse, vague with low green vegetation. But above all the rocks were hidden in canyon and green, instead of protruding out in the field (you could pass along a cliff without seeing it behind the green curtain). This makes orienteering on this map even more difficult, as you cant rely on big, clear features. Result: 8th .... except you have to prepend a 1 in front: 18th - and losing 2 places at general. This race is a total remake of the same one 3 years ago: disturbed by the change of terrain, worst race of the week, losing time and 2 places at general from 5th to 7th before the chase start. But with a 8s difference to the 6th, and 1minute to the 5th, the challenge was high for the chase! GPS: 7.37km at 6:54 +115m | ||
Thursday Aug 7 | ||
| Running 20:00 [1] 3.6 km (5:33 / km) | |
| (rest day) shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| I planned to do some mountain biking but we got late by the time we finish a tour of Grotte de la Clamouse. Replaced with 11 minutes up a trail around the mountain, 9 minutes down to make a 20 minutes warm up before stretching. | ||
| Stretch/Core Strength 10:00 [1] | |
Wednesday Aug 6 | ||
| Orienteering race 44:04 [4] ***** 5.03 km (8:46 / km) +150m 7:37 / km | |
| 17c shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| Le Patus (Cornus E4)
Final day at Cornus Le Viala, with high expectations about the third part of the map. It turned out to cover most of the previous day map with a few new detailed vegetation. With a start time after 10:00, I started to feel the heat on the open terrain. Nothing more to say, except it was my most flawless race of the week (just ahead of stage 3) on a slightly easier course. As usual the long legs were more dangerous, as you could easily get lost on your way with so many details. I got stumped on the long 7th control and had a bad approach toward the 13th. Result: 8th (you see the pattern, right?), 5th at general. The ranking was still very tight at the time, with less than 5 minutes between the lead and the 6th place (also to note that Thomas Leclerc won almost everyday except for a mp on the first day - without this mp, the gap would have grown much quicker). By this time it was also very clear that the competition was much higher in my category than 3 years ago (where I was 7th, 40 minutes down the lead after the 4th stage) GPS: 6.4km at 6:53 +98m | ||
| Orienteering race (orientshow) 20:22 [3] ***** 1.5 km (13:35 / km) | |
| 27c shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| This day was also special because of the elite orientshow. After a mass start at 7:15 (and a race which was in fact a "follow Thierry in cross country" because there was no variation), some elites had the chance to run an orientshow, and I got the chance to shoot some of the action with a video camera. Very fun even if it was difficult to find good place to shoot among the many rocks.
Of course the race was followed by an open orientshow, which I ran for the pleasure, a few big mistakes and uncertainties but - reward - no penalties at the end! | ||
Tuesday Aug 5 | ||
| Orienteering race 44:49 [4] ***** 5.25 km (8:32 / km) +140m 7:32 / km | |
| 19c shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| Les Rocs de Louradou (Cornus E3)
The general feeling shared by myself was that it was going to be more and more technical. I was right with the appearance of the famous rock maze of Larzac, where you have to navigate around and between big cliffs. Well I must say that after taking the map, it felt like a new challenge and I was a bit worried by some of the longer legs with no evident features along them. But the trap was well hidden and right before we got into the cliff area, we had the 3rd control in a rocky area with lots of cairns and hidden walls and flags everywhere, making it almost impossible to find your right control without looking at all the stone piles in the area. On my way to the 6th (the very first in between the cliffs), I got in the wrong reentrant because of a small deviation with my compass - so small! But not so much consequence. 9th and 10th were perfectly planned and went well, whereas the green stumped me at 11th. And then... the "longish" way to the 12th control, where I miserably fail to follow my plan and went zigzaging in the midst of frail paths and stone piles. From there until the end, it was full speed and no mistake (except for the 17th, where I stopped at the feature not sure about myself) in some technically easier terrain. Result: 8th!!!! And 5th at general! GPS: 6.8km at 6:35 +92m | ||
Monday Aug 4 | ||
| Orienteering race 45:35 [4] ***** 5.1 km (8:56 / km) +145m 7:50 / km | |
| 18c shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| La Tour des Aiguillons (Cornus E2)
Second stage, new map and terrain, it was a bit of judgment day. And a very short first control which trapped a lot of runners on such a short scale (around 250m from the start flag in a technical area). But, same as the previous day, my mistake didn't bother me that much as I was quick to correct it. And, as usual, catching the right features in precise reading was the way to the control, while failing to do that most often led to overlook the control, as on the 1st and 11th control (and a bit of 15th). I was also a bit burned out after the sequence of 7-8-9-10-11, failing to look at the precise control location of 12th, for which I didn't see the "easy" way by the right and went through many green bushes on the left. Lesson of the day: fast descent are technically dangerous (as on 2 and 17) because you dont read all the details and easily get out of line. The terrain felt more open and physical than the previous day: many route choices around the green rocky area in the yellow fields. Overall, I spent a nice race, feeling confident with only 2 big mistakes and one wrong approach. Result: 8th once again, and 6th at general (steadiness pays off in those events) GPS: 6.86km at 6:38 +191m | ||
Sunday Aug 3 | ||
| Orienteering race 49:35 [4] ***** 5.59 km (8:52 / km) +150m 7:49 / km | |
| 15c shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| La Salvetat (La Couvertoirade E1)
Early start, got dumped 300m from the start line to be just in time. The first control was a medium-long one, perfect to get into the map. Unfortunately the second one was not so good for me, when I tried during many minutes to cross some hard vegetation, just to realize it was the wrong depression. Somehow this didn't affect my confidence and the third went fluently. Then again a big mistake on the 4th, which didn't have a lot of distinguishing features - then again realizing my mistake was sufficient to get into the good mood. The rest of the race was good to very good, except for the last control where I stupidly didn't read the map, zigzaging toward the finish chute while looking for the control. This gave the tone for a good week of fine technical races. That means, no perfect race (because I believe it is impossible to do a perfect race on such a terrain, except for Thierry) but good behavior in reading the map, navigating, and a few short mistakes of x minutes where it is easy to realize what went wrong and to relocate. Result: 8th, a good start! GPS: 7.49km at 6:37 +124m | ||
Saturday Aug 2 | ||
| Event: 6 Days of Aveyron, France | ||
| Orienteering 50:03 [2] ***** 4.39 km (11:24 / km) +140m 9:50 / km | |
| 10c shoes: MT800 New Balance | ||
| La Couvertoirade (training)
GPS: 4.39km at 11:24 +140m This was not in my plan, but since my host bought some maps to do the training, I took my shoes to get the controls. It was a nice contact with the map and terrain of 2005. I immediately found my old tips and reflexes, which was good enough to find the very well hidden controls (fortunately they weren't hidden for the subsequent races). All in all a very good training for the confidence. Travel: by train on Friday from Nantes to Poitiers via Tours, visited a bit of Poitiers, then to the Auberge de Jeunesse where I got an almost sleepless night thanks to an unbearable heat and a weird snoring guy - thankfully saved by a nice trip with Isa from Poitiers, down to the Aveyron. Accomodation: a nice shelter itself well hidden in a valley where we didn't have any cell coverage nor tv! Perfect for a week of detachment. | ||