Training Log Archive: PaulT

Local loop , z2

warm up and cool down for Us Middle Champs.

US Middle Champs.
Testing and physically brutal middle course - scratchy and steep! Early start, zero celsius.

Bimbled to #1 - all three races have had no runout to the start kite at all - somehow upsets my routine. Anyway, slow, deliberate and then missed!
Ran well through 3 and 4
#5 - too high for lone pit on bland spur, then turned higher . . . v poor plan.
#6 somehow lost time on a short stream crossing - must have been a track which I didn;t spot.
8 - chose a white, longer route.
9,13,15 hesitant
Good to 16
18 - somehow right and high - control seemed way lower than drawn.

Around 2+ minutes lost for mistakes and loads more just for lack of confidence and aggression.
Lovely woods in parts though - good atmosphere

US Champs Weekend:
Really enjoyed the events - good maps, friendly and efficient setup and a good excuse to tick off two more states.

In times past when I was orienteering more, training physically and preparing technically for specific events, this weekend's performances would have been terribly disappointing.
Sprint - clunky. Now having seen my map again, I plead not guilty for my big time loss - the line should have been cut. Great fun to run on a sprint map even if not fast. .
Long: some poor route choices in hindsight, but a couple of good ones.
Middle: more than enough legs with process/technical fails - compass or picture - and just confident enough to be aggressive into the circle. And the US version of Bilbo admitted his age and showed what is possible.

But in the context of training for a 250km bike event, this was a fun weekend with Linda during an easy bike week and I really enjoyed it. I'm really not sure how US orienteers can pick up sufficient experience to become and remain fluent, at least unless they travel to places where there are many many more events in more varied terrain. And with (perhaps?) a shorter history and depth of orienteering, the older age groups seem less competitive than I'm used to in the UK.
All this might sound persnickety in view of the medals and all, but confirms what I already knew - a hard-worked-for-strong-performance is the best medal.

BACK TO THE BIKE now though I hope to find at least one more good O event here before we leave (but will run up !)

Middle - 8 Green M - Splits

Warm up and cool down

US Long champs, Bat Cave map, KY. Really looked forward to this.
Nothing surprising on warmup map - open, white, steep, well mapped rock. In hindsight, there was little to prepare us for the grotty parts to follow.

Steady to 1 and 2.
3 - light green began to become very slow, and missed the depression by about a minute. Drifted in. Looking back, the lower left route was faster but at the stage, did not have the info to judge that properly.
4,5 were awfully green and thorny with no obvious route choice - really no fun at all .
Spiked 6 but then the aversion to green dragged me off on the poor right route to 7, compounded by again missing a depression at the end by perhaps 2 minutes. Contoured in from solid AP but flag seemed 2 contours higher. Anyway, Looking back, the left route is both faster and safer but needed an immediate commitment to some green!
Amazing route choice to 8 - really slow - when it should be obvious that a flatter route to the far right was far better.
Ok through short legs at the end, and hoping for similar in the middle race tomorrow.
So probably 7 minutes off a clean run, and a couple more off a fast one. Looking holistically at the map, I have a lot of sympathy with the planner - difficult to thread a great course through it, but thought he did a good job.

Didn't stop to chat so not sure what ailed everyone else. Quads and shins cut to bits.
Well staged event , great weather, friendly, and parts were great underfoot.

Long - 8 Green M - Splits

Warm up and cool down at us sprint champs, morehead KY

Great to be on a sprint map after almost two years! Really clunky navigation and not moving fluently, but flowed well enough for the most part.
One big goof on leg 10, and I'd like to think it was a planning / mapping frailty not mine - anyway will see when i get the map back. Looked like a right/left choice - right is better but wait - there's a straighter wiggle through some uncrossables via some yellow. Big stone wall appears , turns out to be completely obscured by the zero-transparency overprint of the connecting line of a later leg. Lots of faffing - back out, in again, am I really here ? etc etc - somehow 2 mins binned. Lots of others lost time there.
Nice map and well presented event, though think planning could Have found more navigational challenge in 60% of distance in the rump of the map. Really enjoyed it though and interesting to visit backwoodsville KY - there must be THOUSANDS of equally good sprint areas in this country!

Sprint - 8 Green M - Splits

Z2 easy - deliberate easy week.

Very easy leg spin - zone 0.9673

Short route to Henricus - across the appomatox, back via Pocahontas.
Legs feeling great, and shoulders no worse than shorter distance last week.

Errands - cool morning.

Cvoc local event at Albright scouting area.
Got in a boo after hacking to 4 controls and then had a pleasant run around all the paths in the rest of the map.

That's me done with orienteering in Virginia, unless an event comes with amazing credentials. It's a real shame that the sport is so small and has so few mappers and maps. The forests don't have much detail but have many tracts of really nice running. Problem is that they are enclosed by very spiky, brashed parts. That combination means no one can ever spend sufficient time to map the vegetation in the detail that allows you to thread through the whiter parts.

Anyway really looking forward to the U.S. champs in Kentucky next weekend. I will have to rely on autopilot and some mental games to recall my technique - it will be fun whatever happens.

Nominal

Easy spin, tt position.

Ten tiny golf course hills, alternating sitting and standing.
3/4 gas but unusually tired at the end.

Steady itac loops in TT position

Yorktown

Deluge again, kept me inside as not feeling very bright.
5 times 8 min thresh off10 mins. 53 x 12 at about 85rpm. Legs feeling chipper.,

First evening daylight spin, just because I can.
Nip in the air. Z3 steady ITAC loop @31kph
Legs fine, shoulder not noticeable.

Deluge outside so canned the first evening ride of "spring".
2 x 20min FT intervals on 53x12. Saddle position still not exactly right on TT, Legs feeling fine but not other parts of me!

Steady loop around 'Bend.
Plus some SC

Back from route 5 via chickahominy. Tough westerly wind, roads still sandy/salty so a stern day out solo.
Legs felt lithe enough but shoulders tightened up late on - need to find some strength or flex exercises for that.

Easy run to site gym, 3 laps, , run home.

Local roads, mainly feeling bike after rebuild.
Multiple times up the local ramps - golf course x 5, all the Ruffin banks.
Feeling free, and a relief to be out on the road even if only just above freezing again.

Light gear at average 103rpm - surprised myself and legs felt smooth.

45 mins tempo on 53x13

100rpm spin

Freezing rain turning to ice outside - really hope this is the last that trick up the long sleeve of the polar vortex .
Six 8 min tempo efforts off 10 mins alternating 75 and 95 rpm.
Time to step it up now. Feeling pretty good about LBL were it not for the lack of long rides. Have plans to alter that just as soon as weather allows.