Training Log Archive: W

Looks like the tomorrow the cold might finally eventually go away. At least briefly. Should be 6 by Wednesday! Nutty. Then it'll melt, go back to -30, and then freeze again. The whole world will be an ice rink. That'll be nice....

12 days of gifts that, if you want your orienteering friend to seem less nerdy, you should get (actually... this one is still a little nerdy, but provides the nerdiness with at least with a certain amount of presentation)

Day 11: Plastic Sheet Covers


100 for $10! Its a steal!

I notice too many people that store their old maps in a box. Then shove that box under a bookshelf somewhere for them to collect dust.

If nothing else, your maps should be your very own photo album. When someone asks about it, you can show off that super cool map of downtown london, or that one with 100 controls. And you can show it off because they're all neatly organized in binders which are filled with these plastic sheets that keep the maps in good condition.

I have mine organized chronologically organized by year, so 2010 is a big one stuff with tons of UK, and 2013 has lots of variety with maps from Southern China, New Zealand, and Finland.

It also provides storage for all of my old WOC numbers and various knick-knacks.

This sounds alarmingly like scrap booking. Let's just mumble when we speak of day 11.

C • "Scrap booking"... 2

Well, its still cold. It was nice for day, then decided to be cold again. Its right on that cusp of being unsafe to do anything too brisk, but I decided to roll with it and at least get out for a bit of a brisk run. Felt pretty good for not having done specifically that since before the study. Love being out in the dark in Whitemud because its almost always completely deserted.

Just me and the coyotes.

Another really, really nice ski in the cold with Paul. Conditions were immaculate (well, mostly) really firm, quite fast. The snow is ridiculously aggressive right now, as was evidenced by the fact that I literally had no wax left at the end.

You know how sometimes you say you had no wax left, which is just an expression to mean your wax wasn't working? No, I literally had zero wax left on my skis. Smooth as a baby's bottom. Now that's abrasive snow. Yowza.

12 days of gifts that, if you want your orienteering friend to seem less nerdy, you should get (or, buy them the most expensive tights you can find, then cut them off at the knees, then duct tape them back together, they'll fit right in!)

Day 10: A gift certificate to a Tailor




For the love of all that is holy, stop using duct tape to fix stuff.

When I first learned that I had to sew my OC patch on to my jersey, and that people should bring needle and thread on their trip, I though "I'm going to go to a World Championships wearing something that I sewed together? AW HELL NAW".

So, I ventured out and found Carol's Tailors. And you know how much it cost me to get her to sew the patch on?

Three dollars

From then on she has done all of my repair work. Oh, you didn't know that I had a fist sized hole in my favorite jersey? That I tore an entire knee off my 3/4 tights? That's because she's a professional, and does a way better job than you.

The repairs have cost me in total probably $50. A $100 gift certificate could probably last the average orienteer for life. If nothing else, this is a gift so that you'll be less embarrassed to stand next them.

First ski back for probably quite some time. Conditions were actually, wait for it, really, really good. It appears as though they probably groomed this morning, and thanks to the cold, almost no one had come out. It was wonderful. A little cold, toes a little frozen, but really fast, Ski-Go Universal, as usual, worked perfect. I had a ball.

12 days of gifts that, if you want your orienteering friend to seem less nerdy, you should get (or, take any random activity, add an -O to the end, and you've just gifted them a new sport! Racketball-O, anyone?)

Day #9: Instability Ball


It has a lot of different names

Throw out your active ankles, folks, toss out your tape, and for the love of all that is holy, stop buying those ridiculous shoes with the ankle braces build in. You know the ones I'm talking about.

An ounce of prevention, as they say, and this is that ounce. I don't profess to have the greatest stability in the world, but I have most certainly turned my ankle in all sorts of weird direction, but had the flexibility, range of motion, and strength to over come it and keep on running without any pain.

I would chalk this up, at least in part, to the fact that after just about every workout, I head down, watch some TV, and stand on my instability ball. One footed, two footed, lunges, squats, eyes closed, leg extenstions, thera-banded, its a really good tool to strengthen every single stabilizing muscle that extends from the tips of your toes to your neck. Yes, they all contribute in some way to stability.

Its not exactly the most glamorous gift in the world, but a clever one that says "I know what you need better than you do". They may either love you or think you're implying their out of shape. Hopefully the former.

I wanted to be careful today, with soccer back in the mix for the first time in a while. I thought about skiing afterwards but wanted to get a sense of what my feet feel like afterwards. My theories of the cause of my PF has been jumping all around lately, and I'm starting to conclude that all sports I've been doing are contributors. There were even brief twinges while riding the bike. I just think that everything I do is quite hard on my feet, and I have super tight calves. There's no doubt that dropping the "low-drop" shoe concept is a good idea and I should continue with that to avoid further calf tightness, but all in all I think I'm just going to have to be an "everything in moderation" kind of trainer to keep the foot pain away.

12 days of gifts that, if you want your orienteering friend to seem less nerdy, you should get (or, to save money, just volunteer them for pleasure of sitting on a club executive! They'll never ask for another gift again.)

Day #8: A Garmin GPS Velcro Strap



Your average orienteer probably has a Garmin GPS watch. But, the strap that comes with it, holy criminy, it sucks. The plastic strap breaks, it never fits right, the pins come out, all manner of bad. My watch strap completely fell apart at #15 of the long at Nationals, and I spent my time running to 16 running with one hand trying to stuff the remains of my GPS down the tiny pocket on the back of my tights. That is not something you leave behind.

But the velcro strap, its comfortable, the velcro lasts forever, the band is reflective, and its a much more secure connection to the watch itself.

And its baffling, Garmin actually makes a velcro strap for most of their watches, but it doesn't come stock, and they are bloody difficult to get a hold of! I asked the Canadian distributor of Garmin, and they'd never even heard of it. You can, however get it off of amazon, or for slightly cheaper from Chain Reaction Cycles.

This is the kind of gift that would truly surprise any Garmin owner.

"You can get a velcro strap for this thing? I didn't even know that existed!"

Instant brownie points.

C • colour 3

Managed to sneak in a nice run with Nevin in the later evening. Legs felt good for a first run back in a while. Although my foot always has little twinges, I generally like to think I'm over the PF. I don't think I can ever let off the streching, tape during soccer, or the compression sleeve ever now and then, its definitely back to being under control.

12 days of gifts that, if you want your orienteering friend to seem less nerdy, you should get (or, quite frankly, chess is a way more popular and lucrative sport).

Day 7: Compression Calf Sleeves


2XU Calf Sleeves

Although the jury is still somewhat out on the efficacy of compression during competition, I still enjoy wearing calf sleeves for long distance.

Orienteering, more than straight running, requires more explosive efforts. Whether its running through a marsh, short leaps over rocks, or the most explosive of all, stabilizing your foot plant on rough terrain, your muscles do some fair huge contractions. I personally find near the end of the race, my calves are one bad step away from a monster cramp.

However, anecdotally, calf sleeves feel like they do a good job at preventing that. They keep everything nice and, well, "compress-y", and I have yet to cramp since starting to wear them about three years ago.

Some are more compressive than others, though that will often make them progressively thicker, as well. I find 2XU and Compressport find a nice balance between the two.

Honestly, this is one of those gifts that the receiver will say, "WOW, I would have never thought of this. Awesome."

WARNING - Do not continue wearing your dirty calf sleeves after the race, and for goodness sake don't walk into the grocery store with them.

C • Calf Sleeves 7