Training Log Archive: pi

Day 6. Early start again and the courses went through the nicest woods of the week in the same area as the WOC Middle Final. Again I blew one control badly and this time it was control 2 where I failed to check my compass half way through and drifted into a parallel error which took 3 min to recover from. Pretty good from there all the way home.

Ended up 3rd overall. It was a week packed with great technical orienteering and I enjoyed most of it a lot, but it was frustrating to always have one or two bad controls all week long.

Day 5. Middle distance with early start and cool temps. First part was really fun and fast as it was possible to string together open clearing and trails for most of it. Had a decent flow until control 7, which was a longer leg across very crappy woods. Lost touch with the map and when I came out on a trail I was standing in a depression, but the tagline on the map was hidden under the trail symbol so I misunderstood my location and lost almost 4 min. Rest of the race was good again. Frustrating.

Day 4. Long distance in the best area of the WOC Long Final map. Horribleness for me... Did a 180 out of the start triangle, don't know if I have ever done that. The course planning was a bit odd as the first control was almost straight backwards. Several other people had similar problems so I take some consolation in that. Lost about 4 min to the first control, but did well on the climbing leg up to 2. However, lost touch with the map on the side hill leg to 3 and lost another 3 min. After that decided to be slow and careful the rest of the way in the extremely hot weather. Nice open forests!

Day 3. Middle distance. Had a 50 minute deadline to complete my course, so that I could intercept Carol's car to the quarantine! Started well, and in the first part of the course it was faster running through some long narrow meadows. I liked that! A minor hook to 3, but pretty clean until control 8 where I couldn't understand the map when I attacked the control. Think I stopped a little bit too soon and then decided to go out towards the road to relocate, then I still hooked the control from the other side. Must have lost over 2 min. Then had trouble leaving 8, getting stuck in tons of green. Must have been possible to find a better way here. Beat RG by 45 seconds ;)

Day 2. A bit better today, but was not smooth in the first part. Hesitated a bit too much, missed a good trail route, made a hook attacking 6 and left 6 in the wrong direction. TG's brother, Remi Gueorgiou caught up to me just before the long legs across the meadows and we saw each other on and off the rest of the way back, running similar speed. Remi won today and I was second.