Training Log Archive: AndreM

Trying out the new shoes for the rogaine. They seem to be fine, although I'm not sure if I will run without the superfeet insoles as I got a little L knee inside-lateral pain towards the end.

Event: John XXIII College, WA Sprint Orienteering Championships
 

Happy with the race today as my plan to run hard and keep good contact with the map mainly worked. And no injuries for next weekend. yay.

Only just starting to appreciate the sprint style now, maybe b/c I'm feeling more comfortable running hard without injury and my overall fitness is improving.

Warmed up ok, had a look at the map, but failed to figure out where the start triangle was - took ages to find it on the map as I ran out.

Found 1 and 2 ok, and gained almost 20 seconds on Simon in these two alone. Realised that I had to run around the wall on 3 as I saw a few others run this way prior to starting. Ran hard to 4 and then to my surprise found Simon just exiting 4 - my main competition who started 1 min ahead of me - a terrible draw for him. I saw him leave 5 and then by 6 I assumed I had passed him as I didn't see him at all for a while. Hit 7 fine, but then must have slowed down a lot and spent ages looking at the map for a really simple leg to 8 as here I got beaten by a bunch of people including Kiersten. To 9 was fine, and then I picked the inside straightish line to 10 and happy with that as the gate opened out to the road fairly early. 11 was fine, but then I ran almost 90 degree off but caught it as the map wasn't making sense, but a bit slow to 12 overall. Then probably too much hesitation trying to figure out if I could run back in through the school grounds to 13 which I did. A fast run to 14 and then slow to 15 as I got caught trying to get to the right level. Then lost time to 16 - probably a combination of not running fast enough, and also not taking the straight line. Took the direct and fast line to 17, and then happy with my speed to 18, 19, 20. Got the win by about 1:30.

Thinking where I lost time, I compared my splits to Craig's (the gold standard :) who got 17:53, 77 seconds faster overall. For a lot of it we ran similar times, me just a few seconds behind. But then for 3 controls I lost 53 seconds - these were to 8 (lost 19 sec), to 15 (lost 16 sec), to 16 (lost 18 sec), and then the next biggest was to 12 (lost 10 sec). It's interesting as these are mostly short-medium length legs, aside from to 16. It was where I hesitated and spent too much time looking at the map. I'm guessing the time spent was relocating after running too hard and hitting a question mark and then having to look at the map again. It would be better if I continued looking at the map throughout and continue predicting what's coming up.

M45A - Splits