Training Log Archive: AliS

Stretching with Pascal. Mostly legs. Rolled my IT band out. Even though the left leg is the one that hurts, the right was waaay tighter.

Pascal and I did a glute endurance test - 1 leg bridge, longest up wins. I won... both times. Score!

C • Have fun 7

Why Just Run at Watershed Park. Also the junior orienteering Festival. Great course by Meghan. Didn't have my orienteering head on, and just couldn't concentrate. Had a couple of good legs here and there.

IT band gave out at #9, but I kept running and finished the course. I think it was the ice bugs on the hard trails that contributed, but there are some steep, slippy sections where they are wonderful...

T - 4 days to Thailand. Thank goodness I have Thursday off!

30 minutes around the neighbourhood, mostly on pavement, with no pain! Yay!

C • :-) 1

Squats, sit ups, scissors, etc...

To work, from work to meeting, back to work, to Oak Park, put out controls, to Pho, then home.

WET went well, I think. Feedback was good, but then I've never had bad feedback from my shitty courses in the past...

C • It was fun! 2

Cycled to Oak Park to check control locations for tomorrow, then back via the Oram's to pick up pin flags... so organized!

At the pool with Louise. Sauna after. I pretty much lay on the floor in the sauna. Thailand and the hot weather is going to kill me! T - 10 days...

Meghan, Kate and I were excellent Sun Run cheerleaders. Got to see most of the crew at Beach and Thurlow. By the time we got to BC Place everyone we were cheering for had finished.

After lunch we did o-tervals at Capilano River. It was very wet and my glasses steamed up. Did Ok. Meg and I skipped one set so as not to be too far behind. Great fun! Then when we finished the sun came out. Gorgeous now!

Orienteering at Robert Burnaby. I was one of the first out, so I got to meet about 6 crazy off leash dogs. My concentration was shot, and coupled with the green pin flags in green undergrowth, overgrown paths, and interesting control locations, I ended up shortening the course. Fun to be out running in the forest, and my leg didn't hurt at all!

60 squats, 15 push ups

To work. Another beautiful day!

From work to work (women's hospital to Pender and Glen). Google thought it would take me 39 minutes. I guess it forgot to factor in the downhills!

From work to work (women's hospital to Pender and Glen). Google thought it would take me 39 minutes. I guess it forgot to factor in the downhills!

From Pender to the Naam for delicious food. Om nom nom!

Skiing at Whistler. Used my last pass of the year :( Beautiful blue skies and nice conditions in the alpine. Down to mid-mountain got better as the snow melted from the ice-fest it was first thing.

My legs and I had some disagreements about which way we were supposed to go, how legs were supposed to be positioned, etc... I think I have some more work to do on stabilization. Back to the physio, me thinks.

"ran" the short course at WET since I'm still coughing a lot. It wasn't too bad actually, except for the coughing. Going slowly meant I could work on my control taking and route choice planning. Fun course by the Rennies.

Control taking at Royal Roads. Coach Louise ran with us from control 1-7, talking us through her control taking system. It was really interesting to listen to her talk as she ran. Then went on by myself. Found all of the controls with little problem, but couldn't focus so much on control taking as the undergrowth was pretty thick and I was trying to stay upright! Great area!

Control taking on the Royal Roads Sprint Map. Flipped over the map and did the control taking on the sprint map. Much smoother underfoot, so I could really concentrate on control taking. Nice flow! We had a group train going at this point, but that was OK because you could pretty much see each control from the previous one anyway!

Simplification at Royal Roads. Now this was interesting... Louise had highlighted the features on the map that she'd use when running this race... it was really interesting to see what details she uses when running, and what we should be focussing on. I ran until #5, then walked most of the rest with Kate. Walking was good, partly because it was "West Coast White", and partly because I had only eaten a bagel and nothing else.... I'm not sure I could have followed along so cleanly while running. Was pretty hungry by the end!

Final race at Francis King. Final race to put all that practice together! I didn't have much food, so by control #3 my brain had pretty much turned off. I was also tired from being sick and having done so much exercise/thinking. I walked straight to #4, bouncing off features rather than anticipating them. Bobbled 6, but the rest of the course was clean.

Great weekend. Learned a lot. Glad I went, but maybe I'll try not to get sick next time! Thanks Salal, TNip, Atropos, and Ted for their coaching expertise!

Orienteering training camp in Victoria! Fun packed weekend of orienteering training. Managed to get a cold the day before the camp started... had my handy box of tissues and dayquil to get my through the weekend! My leg held up fine, but that's because I didn't run too much....

First exercise was relocation at Francis King. Coach Thomas got us lost, then we had to find where we were on the map. The first 2 I relocated pretty quickly, but the others I had a little more trouble. We did a little map walk at the end of the session and looked at contours, which really helped clarify a few things for me!

Attackpoint training at Francis King. Coach Thomas and the group discussed attackpoints for each control on the course and we marked them in yellow highlighter. We then ran the course individually. Most of the controls were fine and having preplanned attackpoints worked really well. I got pulled too far down the spur going to 5 and missed it, but relocated quickly (thanks to the relocation training!) The map was a little iffy going to 8, which caused us all some problems! Fun exercise!

Control description training at Highrock Park. Coach Meghan took us through the control descriptions, then we went off individually and met at #3. The control circles were oval, and at each location there were 1-3 controls. You had to decide which was yours, based on the control description. This one was hard, mainly because I use the centre of the circle as well as the control description to confirm the location, but since the control wasn't necessarily in the centre of the circle I was confused! Great map though, and it was a fun exercise!

Bearings training at Juan de Fuca. Coach Meghan talked us through taking good bearings and following them closely. Then we went off individually. Went a little high following some elephant tracks to 2, but caught myself quickly. My next BIG mistake was going to 5 on the second map. I went way too far right and ended up at 3... some major relocating later I got sorted and went from 5-6. There was a lady looking super confused, asking if this was #5 on the first map (not really that close...), so we relocated, then walked to 5, 6, then 1, 2, 3 on the first map... so that was the end of my training :)

Ran all except the uphills... it's steep here!

Puky night. Not sure if it was from something I ate, or the vaccine I had for Thailand on Thursday.... not feeling great during the day. Full blown cold by Saturday. Tissues and dayquil were my friend over the weekend...

Caught a cold... hacking cough. It was so much fun I passed it on to Louise and Meghan. They can thank me later :)

To the airport and back to give Karen and John the COC postcards to give out in Italy. Went down Heather to the Skytrain bridge, and had to gun it to make it in time. Back via Arthur Laing and Cypress. Beautiful day for a long ride.

C • How far... 2

To work and back. Went back via 28th, Cypress... Quicker than other way. Possible 3rd option way to work? Huge hill in the way though...

Also, seriously, who came up with the bike network signs... I'm still trying to figure out where Midtown is in Vancouver...

Core!