Training Log Archive: W

Westerns Long. I would have really kind of liked to race like this last week, but I was much calmer now so I generally executed everything fairly well. Certainly, I was less enchanted with my route choice to two, as the obviously good one was totally not noticed by me. On the other hand, the route I took was more difficult and I generally executed it perfectly, so let's call it a great value. I think that in general, my plans were better, I was more focused, and the map was a little on the easy side. There was one control where I simply could not come with a plan and it showed, since I got lost. I imagine this requires just a bit more skill to be confident in seeing smaller features as big features.

Quickroute here:
http://orienteering.ca/doma/show_map.php?user=will...

I had a great plan for this race: "Don't be stupid".

And HEY, it worked!

Although I think the map and course were relatively easy, I'm most pleased that once I caught my two and four minute man (both very good in their own right), I didn't completely implode in worrying more about them than me. Sure, I did a little, and hurried a bit more than necessary, but there were two long-ish legs where I was able to run through them, and then I nailed the next 4-5 to put myself solidly in the lead. Unfortunately one of them caught me again when I decided to go over some cliffs rather than around. Turns out the other side of cliffs are really steep. Almost cliff like.

So, good race. I think I could and should have run faster in certain spots, but I was being very deliberate and very careful, especially with leaving a control with a solid plan (welcome to two years ago).

Event: Western Canadian Championships
 

Wait, I'm supposed to log on this site? OH RIGHT!

Western's sprint. I raced at varying levels of embarassingly bad. I think I've done so many urban sprints that I forgot that sometimes, you actually have to navigate in a sprint. In reality I should have approached with the attitude of it being a very short and fast middle, but I did all the lazy things you can kind of get away with in an urban sprint (like basically using your compass only as thumb-bling) that totally screw you over in a forest sprint. But, I got maximal bang for my buck as I went from 7 to 9 to 8 to wrong way to 8 to 9 to 11 to 10 to 11 again. Bonus controls!

I didn't take a day off, per se, I played tennis. If I had to trade a long run for tennis, I would take the long run since I'll be far less sore. So, this run had to suffer through some soreness in my hamstrings, and particularly my left shoulder. Still, it felt good to get off the trails and on to the road and run [relatively] fast. Sure it may have been a highway with psychotic truck drivers. But, it was a refreshing change. I'm convinced I'm getting sick so I felt I had to scale it back a little.

Then again, I've been convinced I've been getting sick for a month now, and it still hasn't happened. Fingers crossed!

Relay day! Alas, I did not have a team, so I figured I'd do the first leg by myself in the mass start and then see what happens. We had a bit of a group going until number 4 where I managed to nail the control and Thomas did not, so I was free and clear until the end. I made some dumb mistakes in the latter half which was actually quite tricky, and wasted some time at the control that *cough*, wasn't quite put out yet, but if anyone was to get stuck at that first, the guy with no official team was probably the best one to have that happen to! I took a detour to the finish to point it out, and all was sorted out.

Because of the mistakes in the latter half, unfortunately I finished the first leg within sight of the real leaders, so as I ran to two I decided it would be unfair to lead the front team into the controls, so I packed it in to let the race decide itself independently. Kinda wish I hadn't botched those controls because then I would probably been free and clear to do the whole thing, but, oh well. I could feel a cold coming on, so best to play it safe.

Well, I probably cared too much, and that was my undoing. I put a lot of pressure on myself for this race, because it would have meant sweeping the nationals, and also three-peating the nationals long. And I really think it was mine to win, and I lost it with big mistakes on 2 and 13, 13 being the most egrigious.

Even now I'm not entirely clear where I went. The problem was I left 12 and was unclear on which of the two possible re-entrants I was going down, but I had an arrogant attitude that I'd either see the flagging to 14 if I was in the second one, or I'd cross the spur and be in the right re-entrant. Neither of those things happened, I crossed over the spur and saw neither the control nor any flagging, at which point I decided to go down to the creek, and try to relocate from there, but I got to the creek and didn't know where I was along it. That was pretty dumb. Eventually though I think I determined where I was and came back up to find the control.

I suspect I passed over top of the rock I was looking for, but with it being on the underside I blew right past it. At that point I really started to chase the race and lost more time on 15, 18, and took poor routes to 22 and 23.

Quite disappointed, no doubt. A physical long is my kind of long, but I stopped focusing for a lengthy amount of time and I screwed myself. I need to find a way to re-direct my passion for competing well in a particular race into productive thoughts and actions. The less I care, the better I seem to do sometimes.

Long M21E - Splits