Sunday May 28 |
 | Orienteering Forest race (long) 1:01:35 [3] 5.8 km (10:37 / km) | |
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| The second day at Newcastle Island. Pretty much a perfect race for this area! Spiked everything and I had as good a flow as you could ever have on this map. Again the course was set so that there was almost no trail running and I almost made 10 min/km :)
Had a little bit more energy today. Maybe I can start training next week? Sick and no training for almost a month... too bad. I had been looking forward to being in great shape for Barebones and just go for broke, but now I'll focus on being clean instead. Still, that can go a long way in very technical terrain. |
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| C • Salal, salal, everywhere!!! 2 |
Saturday May 27 |
| Orienteering Forest race (long) 1:14:25 [2] 5.8 km (12:50 / km) | |
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| After the weekend of running in St Louis, I though I was healthy from the virus and ready to start training. That turned out to be wrong... On Tuesday the sore throat returned and it was another week of no activity, trying to recover. Towards the end of the week, I was starting to feel a bit better again and there is no way I would miss the yearly 2-day Newcastle Island meet!
This place is a small island just outside of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. It's more of a social meet with nice camping and a pub on the water. Orienteering is not the highest priority. The terrain is extremely slow with areas of salal up over your head and also the map is not the best quality either. If the course is set so that you can't run around on the trails, then faster than 10 minutes per kilometer is almost impossible to acheive. But the event is still a lot of fun as everyone comes back, all bruised up by the vegetation, to tell stories of their adventures on the course!
On the first day, the course was particularly evil, sending us through the worst stuff several times. I did pretty well and didn't make much mistakes, but at several controls I lost time because I couldn't spot the flag in the jungle, even though I knew I was in the right area. |
Sunday May 21 |
| Running Smooth 10:00 [2] | |
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| Warm-up for the race. |
| Orienteering Forest race (middle) 37:30 [3] 5.8 km (6:28 / km) | |
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| Didn't want to put my body through the stress of a 13,5 km course, as I just seem to have defeated this two week cold, so I decided to run green today at level 3 pace again. Had a very clean run, even better than the middle. Very enjoyable terrain again, but a little bit steeper and thicker. I think my time was somewhere between 37 and 38, but no results posted before I left. |
| Running Smooth 15:00 [2] | |
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| Cool-down after the race. |
Saturday May 20 |
| Running Smooth 10:00 [2] | |
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| Warm-up before the middle. |
| Orienteering Forest race (middle) 35:26 [3] 5.67 km (6:15 / km) | |
| (sick) |
| Last evening after the sprint I felt terrible, throat was more sore again and I felt like I had a fever. Didn't think I would run the middle at all at this point. But I went to bed early and slept in late, and I felt better in the morning and decided to go.
Decided to try to run at level 3 cruising speed and be accurate. Lost some time at control 1 and 2, because of a bizarre first control on a power pole 100 metres from the start. I thought it was the start triangle, but it was actually the first control and you had to punch it. I have never seen that before... After that I settled in and enjoyed the excellent terrain and just had fun and an almost clean run.
Felt almost ok after the race. Maybe I have finally managed to shake this virus? |
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| C • sick 2 |
Friday May 19 |
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| Event: US Team Trials
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| Running Smooth 10:00 [2] | |
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| Warm-up before the sprint. |
| Orienteering City/Park race (sprint) 15:01 [4] 2.62 km (5:44 / km) | |
| (sick) |
| The sprint at UMSL campus. Didn't feel good before the race. Still sore throat and very tired. But once the race started it was hard to hold back. Ran at level 4, even though I probably should not have, but I was never running flat out, as I would if I had been healthy. I think I could have been between 30 and 60 seconds faster if the race was 2 weeks ago before I caught this virus. Lots of fun! I love these kind of sprints. Lost maybe 10 seconds on the short leg between 4 and 5 and possibly didn't take the best route on two legs, but I think the difference would have been marginal. |
Thursday May 18 |
| Note | |
| (sick) |
| I still have a sore throat and don't seem to be able to shake this virus easily. I did the training yesterday to see how my body would react to it. I felt reasonably comfortable at level 3 intensity, but after the run I felt it in my "pipes". I don't feel worse this morning, but not much better either.
If I don't improve alot the next day, I will run the sprint in St Louis at level 3 intensity and probably jog the middle distance on Saturday, but skip the long on Sunday. That should be a safe approach, I hope?
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Wednesday May 17 |
| Running Smooth 15:00 [2] | |
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| Warm-up for training. |
| Orienteering City/Park 20:17 [3] 2.9 km (7:00 / km) | |
| (sick) |
| Sprint training at Iona Island organized by Louise. |
Sunday May 14 |
| Note | |
| (sick) |
| In Whistler mapping all weekend. Almost done with Brandywine now. Many sections are just incredibly detailed. Lots of dramatic features and beautiful views of the Black Tusk. Orienteering on this map, the strategy is to slow down to almost a jog and just try to keep up with the map reading.
Still have sore throat after 7 days and not feeling geat. Very unusual and rather troubling. Clearly my racing in St Louis will be affected and if it doesn't get better quickly now, I might not be able to run at all... |
Wednesday May 10 |
| Orienteering City/Park 30:00 [1] | |
| (sick) |
| Placed controls for a training at Lighthouse Park. I was not feeling well, with a sore throat for several days, so I took it very easy.
After the training we had a picnic and took some interesting photos!
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Sunday May 7 |
| Running Smooth 15:00 [2] | |
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| Warm-up before the race. |
| Orienteering City/Park 18:41 [4] 4.2 km (4:27 / km) | |
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| The GVOC National Team Fundraiser at Vanier Park. This was on the same day as the Vancouver Marathon and their course went right through the area we were in. It was kind of unusual to come sprinting along the marathon runners with a map in the hand... I pushed hard and had a good race, but again an area I know by heart. There was one long leg route choice, though, where I didn't take the best route. Map and routes on RouteGadget here. |
| Running Smooth 30:00 [2] | |
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| Cool-down and picking up controls. |
Saturday May 6 |
| Running Rough 1:50:00 [2] | |
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| Run along Lynn Creek from Mountain Highway with Andrea. I was running ahead in some sections to go a bit faster and then run back to join up with Andrea again. The way back home was on the higher trail, which is rather technical with some steep sections. |
Thursday May 4 |
| Running Smooth 1:05:00 [3] | |
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| Run with Matthias, Meghan and Louise in Pacific Spirit Park. Intensity was somewhere between 2 and 3 for me, so I'll log it as 3 because I don't have much 3 in my log so far... :) |
| Core & Strength 5:00 [1] | |
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| Some crunches and stuff. Haven't done core in ages... |
Wednesday May 3 |
| Running Smooth 20:00 [2] | |
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| Warm-up. |
| Orienteering City/Park (wet) 30:00 [4] | |
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| Last WET for the spring season at Stanley Park. It was a mass start and Thomas and I had a fun race the first half of the course. We took turn leading and then making small mistakes. But then Thomas saw a washroom and got really excited to explore it, so I was alone on the last bit... |
| Running Smooth 20:00 [2] | |
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| Cool-down along the famous sea wall. |
Tuesday May 2 |
| Running Smooth 30:00 [2] | |
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| Warm-up before intervals. Run from the apartment to the parking lot at Jericho, where we met, and then some more running on the trails in the park. |
| Intervals Flat 18:00 [5] | |
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| Trail intervals at Jericho park. The loop is about 630 metres and one section is really narrow and bendy. Did 9 repeats and all of them took around 2 minutes. Felt pretty strong actually! |
| Running Smooth 15:00 [2] | |
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| Cool-down. |