Training Log Archive: Charlie

Reflection on the week's orienteering. For the most part better than I expected, and I felt physically stronger each day through Thursday. It all came apart on the last day, though. No permanent damage, just sorer and stiffer than I have generally been lately.

The Estonian forests we were in are far different than anyplace else I've been. Yesterday I saw something I hadn't seen before in the long distance races here, a boulder. Instead the features here are mainly depressions of various sizes, and the footing is soft. I learned that straight across the marshes was often the best route, although my compass work was faulty. While the marshes were wetter and spongier than the white woods, they were less impeded by deadfall, and mostly not deeper than shoe tops. Certainly no wading involved. Nice place. Challenging navigation, but very doable if one keeps focus.

Event: RMOC Wild Goat at Florissant Fossil Beds
 

Long Final, M-65D. Drizzly. Had a very hard time with some of the controls. I had thought following trails might be helpful, but there were many more trails on the ground than on the map, largely I suppose from all the runners in the damp woods. After not too long my back was acting up and I could only jog and walk. After #4, not much problem with navigation, just slow. Dennis came by before #8, looking comfortable and fast, having made up 36 minutes by then. I was definitely near the back of the pack.

Walking around Rhonda's sprint course, plus some extra.

Visit to Kadriorg Park, with Rhonda, including a stroll around the so-called Japanese garden, and walking around my sprint course with a few improved micro-routes.

LQ 2, same map. First half was a lot of the same terrain as yesterday, and I did very well. The second half was a lot of marsh crossing, and I struggled quite a bit. Still a better result, 47th on the day, 55th for the two days, so in the D final. Tough crowd.

Long qualifying 1 at WMOC, Apuparra map. Nice place, interesting course. More deadfall than yesterday. Some pretty bad errors left me well back, 62nd in my heat. The last k or so I was struggling, tired and sore. A little long for me at this point. Tomorrow at the same place. Feel like I learned a lot, so perhaps better tomorrow.

Walked around old town for an hour with Rhonda, revisiting some control sites from yesterday, trying the path into the park on the north side of the wall.

Walking around the long model map at Kodasoo, with Rhonda. Western part was difficult, with subtle features and lesser visibility. Later, the upland part was bigger features and quite open. A really nice area, and I mentioned to George that it was the nicest model event I've ever been at. He countered by saying it was the best orienteering terrain he had been in. Very soft footing, made my feet and legs feel great.

C • Traveling companions 1

Not home for long and we went out to see the beach east of town. Took the tram to Kadriorg park and across the street, then walked E for a mile or so along the shore, some in the sand, some on the bike path. Then we cut across into parts of Kadriorg we hadn't an before, finally ending up in the vicinity of controls from Sunday at the beautiful gardens behind the museum. Then home again.

Sprint Final, M-65 B, in the Tallinn Old Town. I was almost the first starter, out at 10:02. Not a good start to things, not reading the walls well in the western part of the map and putting in a lot of extra distance. I missed seeing an opening on my way to 1, and went a long way around losing a minute, then overran 2 and climbed an extra set of stairs before coming back for it. 3 was ok, but then 4 was the worst. There was a long stretch of street marked OOB, with two possible crossings. Once across I had to go into a garden inside a castle wall. I saw a phantom opening on the left and went that way, only to realize that it was my imagination and I had to turn back right. 2 minute loss there, and 4 controls in I was already down 3:30. After that I calmed down, spent more time planning complex legs, and didn't lose much more to the leaders. Better than my Scottish friend Douglas Henderson, who was leading the B final until he lost contact and needed 7 minutes for a leg that took me 1:30. Fun area, no complaints. 54th out of 79 in the B final.

C • Tallinn Old Town 1