Sunday Aug 31 |
 | Orienteering Forest (race) 58:24 [4] 6.4 km (9:07 / km) | |
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| Woke up in the morning to snow outside the window! I have never been in a snowfall in August before in my life! By the time the race started at Mount Laurie it was just a few degrees over freezing and slush was falling from the gray sky. I ran in long underwear, a jacket and a cap. Almost the entire course was set in the very intricate area of the map close to hwy 1A. It was fun to run in the snow, but it made the terrain even harder to interpret somehow. I had trouble adjusting and made a bobble to 2, losing over a minute. As I came in to the control from the wrong direction, I started out running to 3 in the wrong direction. I quickly adjusted after looking at the compass, but the damage was already done and I was running on the wrong ridge, compared to where I thought I was and I ended up in a big parallel error that cost me 4 minutes to solve. After that, I did really well until control 11 and just had a few smaller problem the last km in. Was very surprised to win this race, but the others had even more trouble in the snow than I... |
| Orienteering Forest (race) 26:30 [5] 4.4 km (6:01 / km) | |
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| Barebones Night-O. This year was a mass start, un-forked course. We were all pretty inspired after a relay talk by Patrick and Mike W just before the race. We sprinted off at the start and the pace never slowed down during the whole race. After the 4th control the lead pack had pulled away and it was mostly headed by Patrick, running faster than everyone, but not quite able to pull ahead, as we could always close the gap when he had to slow down to get the controls. The others in the pack were Eric B, Erik S, Brian M and Damian K. We were all right together at the tricky 6th control, up on the hill with green forest, but then the pack stretched out a bit in the fast running in the semi-open fields back to the camp area. The course finished with control picking around the houses and tee-pees of the camp. On the way to 18, I felt that the pack was too much to the left, I stopped a bit and turned right and got the reflector! I punched 18 first, but the rest saw me and quickly caught up to 19. Here I made a critical mistake, staying in the forest to 20, instead of running on the road. Patrick and Erik S passed me on the road and Erik B beat me in the finish. Brian and Damian were right behind me. Everyone finished within a minute. This was a super intense and fun race. |
| Running Smooth 15:00 [2] | |
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| Warm-up. |
Saturday Aug 30 |
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| Event: Barebones 2008
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| Orienteering Forest (race) 11:58 [5] | |
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| Setup sprint at Canmore Nordic Centre. An intense map, packed with ski trails so dense that the map is mostly black (it is not a sprint standard map, just a zoomed in 1:10000 map). I ran a pretty solid race in terms of navigation, but my body felt very slow and unresponsive. Nevertheless, was only 30 seconds behind the winner Eric Bone. Compared to him, I lost 15 seconds to 4 and 15 seconds to 9. This was not due to any mistakes, just not aggressive enough. |
| Orienteering Forest (race) 24:30 [4] | |
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| Chase at the nordic centre. Did not feel well in the stomach after the lunch break. Had painful gas and could not run fully normal. Started third behind Eric and Erik. Because I could see them running out of the start, I could catch up the 25 seconds Erik S had on me to the first control. On the way to 2, we followed a trail too far and missed the control to the right. Had to come back and Eric B was now out of sight. Did the next few controls cleanly and when we came up the hill to 6, Eric B was very close again. 7 and 8 were a bit longer easy trail running legs and I could not keep up in the running. Climbing up the steep hill to 11, I could see Erik S up above me, but Patrick was suddenly right behind me. 12 was the key route choice. I had looked at this and knew that the best was to stay high and go around to the right. Patrick went left and I did not see him until he finished behind me. Going in to the circle at 12, I again caught up to Erik S, who was a bit confused there, but he beat me in the finish chute. |
| Running Smooth 10:00 [2] | |
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| Warm-up. |
Wednesday Aug 27 |
| Running Rough 50:00 [2] | |
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| Placing and picking up flags for the WET at Cypress Falls. |
Tuesday Aug 26 |
| Running Smooth 45:00 [3] | |
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| Short run in the pouring rain with Markez. My calves felt really stiff and after the run I had actual pain in them. Don't know what's up with that. |
Wednesday Aug 20 |
| Orienteering City/Park (wet) 21:02 [4] | |
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| WET at Trout Lake. Some control picking in the beginning of the course, which was fun. Then, as usual, up to and around the school and then back down to the lake for some controls. A few good route choices, but really just a 50/50 choice. Mostly just a run. My legs and lungs felt a bit weird after being sick for a week. |
| Running Smooth 25:00 [2] | |
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| Warm-up/cool down. Picking up flags. |
Friday Aug 15 |
| Note | |
| (sick) |
| Have been rather sick this week, sore throat, runny nose, tired. It was especially bad yesterday. Hopefully that was the peak. |
Saturday Aug 9 |
| Orienteering Forest (race) 1:02:57 [4] 7.2 km (8:45 / km) | |
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| Day 6. Chase start. Started 1 minute behind the leader and with 6 minutes down to third. Started well to the first control, which was easy, but then was shaky to the second as I got a bit nervous. Then settled in and did ok until 8. Here I saw the leader looking confused and I took a chance to get ahead, but it turned out I had also misread the map. Never saw him again and I was terribly unable to relocate in the crazy detailed terrain. Lost 8 minutes here and dropped to 3rd spot, even though I never saw the guy pass me. After that ran pretty uninspired the rest of the way as I knew there was another 7 minutes down to 4th. Won another bottle of wine! ;)
Overall an amazing week in outstanding terrain. |
Friday Aug 8 |
| Orienteering Forest (race) 55:17 [4] 7.3 km (7:34 / km) | |
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| Day 5. Shifted to an even more detailed map at 1:5000! Knew that this was a chance to gain some time on the field as it was likely that people would make mistakes again. Had a very good run in the extreme navigation. Lost only a minute at 7. The best race of the week. |
Wednesday Aug 6 |
| Orienteering Forest (race) 56:38 [4] 8 km (7:05 / km) | |
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| Day 4. A bit easier again, but still some controls in the rock pillars. Wanted to have a good race after yesterday's mess. Ran more carefully and did well the first half. Then lost touch with the map to 11 and lost 30 seconds running around too much to the left. Then another 30 seconds on a mistake to 12. Similar half minute mistakes also on 16 and 19. Could have been 3 minutes faster, but still felt ok. |
Tuesday Aug 5 |
| Orienteering Forest (race) 1:10:53 [4] 7.9 km (8:58 / km) | |
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| Day 3. Very difficult terrain. More crazy labyrinth rock and bush detail. Had a bad race with lots of mistakes. 2 minutes at 6, 1 at 16, 2 on the long leg as I lost touch with the map completely and got stuck in bush. Then to top it off lost 3 minutes on the last control! Misread the map and was running around like a chicken looking for the wrong thing. |
Monday Aug 4 |
| Orienteering Forest (race) 1:00:37 [4] 7.9 km (7:40 / km) | |
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| Day 2. A little bit easier terrain with less rock pillars. Had a good race, maybe a minute of mistakes total. Fantastic fun again. |
Sunday Aug 3 |
| Orienteering Forest (race) 1:09:34 [4] 8 km (8:42 / km) | |
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| First day at the 6 days of Aveyron. Fabulous terrain with fast running in grasslands with cities of rock pillars and intricate bush detail and some forest. Wow, amazing orienteering. Made one bigger mistake, where I lost around 3 minutes, but otherwise mostly good. Very surprised to win H21A Long, but everyone made even bigger mistakes. |
Saturday Aug 2 |
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| Event: 6 Days of Aveyron, France
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Friday Aug 1 |
| Orienteering Forest (race) 1:46:59 [4] 8 km (13:22 / km) | |
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| Extended middle distance, as the organizers called it, at Lake Aydat. Super detailed and great terrain in terms of contours, but absolutely horrible vegetation. Old clear cuts and storm damage made the woods worse than Victoria terrain. There was nicer terrain in the north end of the map. Organizers should have put normal middle distance course there. 3 to 4 km would have been enough and people would have had fun. As it was now it was miserable... |