Orienteering race 1:49:00 [4] **** 15.0 km (7:16 / km) +500m6:14 / km ahr:160 max:173 shoes: O-VJ Integrator Spikes
The amount of concentration required to get through this forest cleanly was extremely high. Losing contact was immediately costly in terms of hesitation, and often greener routes as contact was recovered - you had to hit the whiter gaps to be fast... And for many, and myself once, losing contact completely often resulted in a very hard to recover from situation. Relocation was very challenging w/o very strictly listening to your compass, and reading ditches and many contours carefully.
About 12 minutes lost - really poor w.r.t. goal cleanliness, plus vs. Will H. & Mike Smith. But vs. the rest of the US competition I got a reprieve as we all did poorly. We, as a whole team, need to help each other get better at doing this terrain right the first time, something that many of us did much better on the 2nd day.
Decent warm up & down. Down thanks to Will who got both me and Eddie to do a bit of a cooldown loop with him.
Orienteering14:00 2.0 km (7:00 / km) +50m6:13 / km shoes: O-VJ Integrator Spikes
Part of AJ's Day 1 White shadow. He did good, but walked by a control off the trail in the forest, then didn't quite come back enough during 20 minutes of more through searching near the trail. He was really, really sad to DNF. "I give up!" he said and sat down to cry in the middle of the trail. It took a lot of talking to him about how amazing it is he's even trying this course AND that he's trying do an effectively Yellow (M13-14) level course at age 6. That 13-14 year old course which he could do some of at least cheered him up, and by the end, he'd decided to get 6 and 9, and follow a yellow line back. Plus we could count how many meters high hills were by guessing, and by counting contours (which he hasn't learned yet.)
Orienteering race 17:02 [4] *** 2.9 km (5:52 / km) +100m5:01 / km shoes: O-VJ Integrator Spikes
US Sprint O' Champs, 7th(?) US. Not a really bad run, but did lose 20 sec. each on two controls and apparently didn't run quite fast enough.
Fun course, just aim and run like crazy...
Orienteering10:00 [1] 1.0 km (10:00 / km) +10m9:31 / km shoes: O-VJ Integrator Spikes
Running along w/AJ on his 2nd place M10 run at the US Sprint Champs. Very hard course, and he's not afraid to aim straight through the woods sometimes, especially after double-checking. His navigation and confidence improved noticably a few times during the course.
Running warm up/down 18:00 [2] 3.0 km (6:00 / km) shoes: O-VJ Integrator Spikes
Perhaps not enough warm up/down for the race. Did most of the Sprint model at a walk with AJ early. Time includes some running later in the day on the Classic model.
Running19:00 2.46 km (7:43 / km) +50m7:01 / km ahr:121 max:136 shoes: R-NB 531's
Really close to a day off before the US Champs. Mapped a few more Mill Grove trails.
Lower front of left shin muscle is quite sore today - starting getting sore last night. I imagine it's from pounding downhill on the trail & paved road passing Clem last Sunday, but I'm surprised it's sore now, not, say Tue/Wed. Hopefully it will feel better by tomorrow. DTing a bit (by hand, too small for pineapple.
Orienteering race 51:50 [4] 7.7 km (6:44 / km) +250m5:47 / km shoes: O-VJ Integrator Spikes
After yesterday's significant defeat to Clem, I decided I needed to run a lot harder today. Clem & I were ready about the same time, so I gave him a 5 minute gap, not expecting to see him, but hoping to make up some of the gap. I ran hard, trying to pretend it was the Sprint Series Finals. At # 10 I saw his back. By # 13 I passed him and pulled away slightly, but then it got tricky and we traded bobbles. I finished 9 second behind him, which was good for a nearly 5 minute win. Much better than yesterday. Can I find that fire next weekend? 3 days in a row?