Training Log Archive: cporter

Core Workout Class - about half traditional ab work/ half pilates exercises. I think I like this mix the most because I am very tired at the end of the class, but I am able to sustain about the same intensity for the duration of the class. What I am really hoping for though is that the instructor, Chloe gets certified to teach an actual "pilates" class, which can then get added to the schedule which means one extra workout a week. Apparently she can incorporate pilates moves into a class, but cannot teach an actual pilates class. Odd.

Jogged around the UMD campus with the Omap of the campus to mark off areas of construction for Greg Lennon to verify that the courses for the QOC meet this weekend won't encounter any unexpected surprises. Just an easy jog because I'm pretty tired from the weekend and because I had to get up at 4am to drive from my parents house down to DC. Really the biggest thing that held me back to day was my shins. They HATE ME right now...I'm really starting to worry about how it the next month is going to play out for MCM. Hopefully purchasing a new pair of running shoes will help a lot. Until then, I'm going to have to stick to soft surfaces - not quite sure when I'm going to get the chance to get over to Chevy Chase Running Co. but probably not till Fri. or Sat morning before I leave for the Highlander.

Jog to start

NAOC Long - so after Saturday's race I made the goal for myself that I would go for a repeat orienteering performance. I wanted to be clean above all, even at the sacrifice of speed, but I still hoped to keep the same steady pace of Saturday too. One thing I have been working on quite a lot in the past few months is dealing with something that used to give me a lot of trouble...pressure. So far I have been really pleased with how I have been handling it and today's race was no exception. I went out a bit nervous, but managed to get most of my nerves under control once I was on my way to #2. I had a good start to my race and didn't run into any trouble until #4 when I was a bit too far north of the control and hit another control, wasn't quite sure whether the control I found was in a depression or reentrant (both features were nearby my control), but I was pretty sure I was high so I just dropped down found it pretty quickly. I was a bit hesitant to #5 then too. I was on the right line, but I stopped short and a tree was exactly obscuring my view of the control so wasted a couple seconds there just staring at my map. No problems until my route to #11,, was the longest leg of the course so was slow going through the woods and then tried to make time up on the trail which resulted in me almost turning down the wrong trail and the having to stop and scratch my head for about half min to figure out where exactly I was, but found the control fine once I left the trail at the right point. I got a bit off my bearing on my way to #12, but found the control fine and then bobbled #13 when I was a bit too far right and the woods were really junky there so it was tough to get to the control. On my way to #14 I couldn't help myself from checking a control code I passed on a control that was hung on the same feature as my control (even though I knew I hadn't quite gone far enough). #16 was my biggest mistake at 2 min of error, I'm not entirely sure of where exactly I went, but I think I got sucked into the wrong reentrant and the mistook the swamp I was in for the one the was right before my control (in my own opinion the last little bit of woods before the finish was some of the trickiest terrain of the whole weekend.) Overall, another great race with another respectable finish (4th for the US women and 8th overall.) A number of minor errors, but the terrain was tricky to navigate at points. I was able to keep up a steady pace as well as keep my head together for the whole race too - so I'm making progress.

Overall, a fantastic weekend filled with great friends and great orienteering! Its weekends like these that make going back to work on Mondays so difficult...

Jog to the start...shins were bothering me quite a bit so I had to stop half way to stretch them,

NAOC Middle Distance - after almost missing my start I didn't have great expectations going into this race, which in hind sight probably helped quite a lot since I wasn't putting extra pressure on myself. Fortunately I had a few seconds at the start to take a deep breath and pull my head together. I continued to calm myself down and get my head into the race on the way to #1 and managed only a slight bobble...OK, no problem, just do it better on your second control, which I did. To say the least the map was a bit overwhelming with the amount of contor detail, but in retrospect I actually did a really good job of map simplification on this race. Hilltops were my best friend because they pretty much what I navigated by for much of the course. Overall, I wasn't going very fast, the woods didn't really allow you to move too quickly so I took trails whenever I could (which did actually backfire on me). I bobbled #'s 1 and 5 with less than a min lost between the two. My major time losses were en route to #7 (I took the trail, but got so focused in just running that I ran right past the trail junction I was supposed to turn off at and got about another 50m down the trail before I realized something wasn't right, still took a while for me to figure out what I did and then of course I had to run back) and then I over shot #10 - probably about 2-2:30 lost for those two errors, but otherwise I had a pretty clean race. I felt quite slow out in the woods, but I did keep a steady pace even if it wasn't terribly fast. Again, I can't really complain about my race, I had absolutely no idea that I had such a good run (and probably the best thing for me too.) Since the printer was down when I finished and couldn't get splits or see results, I really had no idea how well I did until Eric told me that I had finished 1st for the US women and 3rd overall for NAOC's!!! Thanks to everyone for your congratulations!

C • NAOC Medal? 3

Event: North American Championships
 

NAOC Sprint #1 - This was by far my worst race of the weekend. I had several pretty significant errors totalling close to 3 min of lost time. My two biggest mistakes were on the way to #5 (I stopped short and then ran all the way around a large patch of green before I found the control) and then on may way to one of the last few controls, like #10 or 11 (I've misplaced my map for the moment) I ran to 2 wrong controls before finding my own. When I exited the woods from the previous control I saw a flag straight ahead of me and I just went into tunnle vision and didn't even check what feature my control was supposed to be hung on because I was sure that it was it. Fortunately, I had the sense to check my control code and realized it wasn't right, then kind of paniced and ran to another control right next to it before I stopped myself and forced myself to relocate. Thankfully, I was only about 20m off from my flag. Even with all that nonsense I still qualified for the Sprint Finals, which I wasn't expecting so I guess I can't complain too much.

Psych-out warm-up since I didn't realize that our starts had been delayed yet again...

US Team warm-up before the Final. Quite fun, wish we could all warm-up together all the time...

NAOC Sprint Finals, Sprint #2 - OK, so not only was I not expecting to make it into the Sprint Series Final this weekend, I didn't even know that the Final was this weekend! Once again, no complaints, but it just goes to show how flaky I can be sometimes. As unprepared as I felt for the race I had a good run and it was a really fun race. I was a bit nervous with Christina starting only 30 sec. after me (and with everyone watching of course) but managed to keep a pretty cool head and concentrate on my race once I started. I had problems with #3 on the first loop (not surprisingly in practically the same spot as my #5 control from the earlier sprint) where once again I stopped short and then wandered about for about 30 sec. The second loop went fairly smoothly with no real errors, just slower than I wanted to be. I almost lost my focus on the third loop on the way to #18 when I took a bad route choice through the woods and go tangled up in some green, but fortunately I found the control OK and only got slowed down a bit. The rest of the race went well navigationally, but it was a real test of endurance. Fortunately, I held on well enough with a 6th place finish overall, 5th for NAOC's which means as the 3rd US woman I actually scored points for the US!!! And we beat Canada!!! (for that day at least...)

Kickboxing