Training Archive: Cristina

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31 Day Challenge Summary

I did it! Yay!

What a cool month. According to my records, I ran (or skied) 37 distinct orienteering sessions for a total of over 27 hours of orienteering. I found approximately 365 controls, either real or map only, and used 21 different maps.

Five of the sessions were in Massachusetts and involved snow, and two of those involved skiing. Two maps were actually aerials from Google Maps and one was a street map with a line drawn on it. One was a ski trails map and one was the map of my front yard in Sudbury. The rest were real O maps, 10 in Tucson, 3 in MA, 2 in California, and 1 in Phoenix. I wore a headlamp for two sessions. I was attacked by a dog once.

I learned a few things. For one, getting on a map every day was easier than I thought it would be. Not easy, but I didn't have to go crazy. Of course, it helped tremendously that for two weeks I had orienteering guests in my house and I took leave from work... But the rest of the time I was generally able to get in some productive sessions around town despite work. I also feel that getting in map time each day gave me better "map feel", as Spike says. I believe that a little bit of O frequently is better than a lot every once in a while.

I learned a little more about the O maps in Tucson, as some of them I'd only been to once or twice, and for a few of those it's been years. I don't anticipate trying to run with a map every single day in February, but I do anticipate doing more than I had been. I also learned that a month is a good period of time for motivating myself. A year is too long and a week is too short.

So, what about a 28 day challenge of some sort for February? My initial thought, and I will try this out, is to change gears and go all of February without drinking any diet drinks (eg, ddp, crystal light, etc). Since I rarely drink calories in liquid form this means basically just drinking water. I don't think this will be all that hard (I like water), and certainly a lot easier than the 31 Day Challenge. Therefore, I need to add an additional task, something more difficult and O related: I will complete at least one course per day on Catching Features. I know, playing a video game every day sounds pretty rough, but hopefully I can handle it. Actually, I think it will be challenging, but that's part of the fun!

C • Easier 1

Running warm up/down (trail) 10:00 [1]
shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

On the AZ trail before tackling the course.

Orienteering 1:33:45 **** 8.33 km (11:15 / km)
ahr:161 max:181 8c shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

31 Day Challenge - Day 31!

A group of us went to Chimney Rock to run this training course that Max set for the training camp.

I felt fairly peppy and alert before I started, though of course my legs were a bit tired from yesterday. After about 4 controls I had a mental meltdown and it was really just a disaster. Not that the first 4 were great, but after that I really just couldn't concentrate on the map. I'd stare at it and then look up and realize that I hadn't actually read anything. I bungled and hacked my way through the 8th controls, then bailed in the vicinity of 9 to run the road back to the car.

I'm clearly not strong enough yet to do a workout like yesterday's and then expect to be able to orienteer well the next day. That's something I specifically want to work on this year, having the capacity to orienteer/race well on consecutive days. I will purge the weakness.

The last 17 minutes are for the "run" back towards the car. My shuffling was probably comical to those who passed. I was so very relieved to run into Melissa, who was walking back along the road, because that meant that I could walk and have good company.

This is my first use of the special garmin upload thing, which I think is great. It means, however, that I need to use Firefox instead of Chrome when I log things. :-(

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C • Congratulations 5

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La nana (1)

Orienteering long 1:46:00 [2] *** 13.2 km (8:02 / km) +565m 6:37 / km
shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

31 Day Challenge - Day 30

Drew a hilly line to run at Box Canyon. Map. Very good energy today, felt strong all the way through to the end. Of course, I took it easy, and was often very slow going up, as I seem to have a fondness for drawing lines on steep hills. Also sometimes slow going down, because of the rocky ground. But it was a nice terrain run and not boring since I had a line to worry about.

Melissa and I followed this with a visit to the Velvet Elvis Pizza Company in Patagonia, which I've been meaning to do for a long time. It was very tasty. There was an 18:1 Guadalupe:Elvis ratio in the decor.

Stretching/Yoga 15:00 [1]

Orienteering 30:50 [3] *** 3.6 km (8:34 / km)
ahr:160 max:183 shoes: DJ (Asics 2130)

31 Day Challenge - Day 29

At work much longer than planned, so I almost ran out of daylight. Hopped over to U of A to run the course Boris drew last week, only backwards and with enough light that I could read the map without having my cheap headlamp bouncing off of my head. :-)

I parked in the first place I saw, which happened to be a 20 minute "loading only" spot with a serious tow threat. I started from the closest control and ran backwards (running forwards), finally running out of usable light at about the same time as I began to worry about my car. I've always wanted to run through a building in a sprint, so I did. Saved a bit of time. Teehee. Car not towed.

My thigh wound hurts when I run, but whatever. It's just a flesh wound.

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Note

Three days left on the 31 Day Challenge. I didn't really think I could do it, but now that I'm so close I feel like I do when all you have left on a course is a trivial Go control and the run-in. Smooth sailing. Three more maps sessions, with Sat and Sun already planned:

Sat: long hilly map run on a Rt 83 map, probably Box Canyon. Anyone want to design a vicious hill route for me?

Sun: a bunch of us are going up to Chimney Rock to run the training camp course from last Friday that was more or less stormed-out.

All that leaves is to plan something for tomorrow. Has to be after work, but I'm not sure what I'll do yet. It'll probably be something quite boring, like picking up the streamers from the track-o... but I'll take suggestions for something more interesting. :-)

C • Vicious hill course 3

Running warm up/down (trail) 22:30 [1]
shoes: Paul (Inov8 Mudclaw 270)

~13 min warmup, ~9:30 warm down.

Orienteering tempo 27:30 [3] *** 3.6 km (7:38 / km)
17c slept:5.0 weight:143.5lbs shoes: Paul (Inov8 Mudclaw 270)

31 Day Challenge - Day 28

Poor sleep last night after flying. The rain (yes, it's raining again! one of the wettest Januaries ever!) woke me up early. I ran after work at Greasewood Park on a course I drew for myself using the permanent markers. Ran hard. No compass. A few goofs resulting from leaving the control at too rough a direction.

More energy today. In fact, feeling pretty good. But I had a few booboos. I hurt my thumb (pushed it back further than it's meant to, heard a pop, hurt like heck) at work while setting up a giant tent. Then, while orienteering, I tripped on a rock while running quite hard and face planted. Opened a gash in my other hand, landed funny on the thumb I'd already hurt, and did something unknown to my left thigh (I can feel the swelling but haven't taken off my pants yet to investigate...). And I kicked a cactus and got needles stuck in my toes, but that's just normal for out here. I'm glad I am feeling more peppy, otherwise this would probably make me grumpy.

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C • Arthur Pack 1

Running warm up/down (trail) 17:00 [1] *
ahr:153 max:173 shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

Orienteering 43:00 [2] ***
ahr:165 max:184 shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

31 Day Challenge - Day 27

More energy than yesterday, but not enough. I had a good plan to do some uphill runs/downhill O intervals at Catalina, but I am not as clever as I thought. Also, lots of water flowing put kinks in my plan. This place is a bit scruffy for intervals, and I didn't pick features that were as obvious as I thought I had...

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C • woohoo! 9

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slept:8.0

Time to take it a bit easier for a few days.
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Aha! I realized a potential explanation for my perplexing level of fatigue: I got the H1N1 flu shot yesterday. That might not be it, but it's something.

Orienteering 26:00 [1] **
8c shoes: Needs a name (2140)

31 Day Challenge - Day 26

I set a simple course for myself at Lincoln Park for a pre-work outing. Very easy run, mostly on trails. Could hardly have trotted more slowly, but neither did I feel that I could move much faster. Legs are a bit dead.

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Strength/Core 10:00 [2]
shoes: Needs a name (2140)

Squadron PT calisthenics/strength.

Running warm up/down (road) 15:00 [1] 1.55 mi (9:40 / mi)
shoes: Needs a name (2140)

A lap around the twisty track to warm up for the running drills and plyos.

Strength/Core 15:00 [3]
shoes: Needs a name (2140)

Running drills followed by what I hope was a moderate amount of jumping.

Stretching/Yoga 15:00 [1]

Orienteering 50:00 [1] * 4.0 mi (12:30 / mi)
shoes: Needs a name (2140)

31 Day Challenge - Day 25

Like several other of my Mon/Fri sessions, this one is really Psued-O. Melissa and I went to the Meet Me at Maynards run downtown, and I ran with the map, ignoring the street names and keeping us on course. They've changed the route since the last time we ran, so I did actually have to do some navigating. I'd call this an urban line-o.