Training Log Archive: expresso

Western States Day 2 Red - Splits

Event: Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival
 

Western States Day 1 Red - Splits

Carmel lap just before dark.
Temps not as bad as I thought.
Felt fine.

200s, 100p, 300s, 200pwp, 400s, 300pwp
interlaced with 50k.
Felt better than last week.

Carmel lap.
Super humid afternoon... was just dripping.
Felt ok though.

Few Adler laps in my new ORocs. We have an upcoming heel-war with these shoes. Either my heels or the shoes' are going to lose. Kinda too bad but Inov8s do have this reputation. Other than how they feel, I like the look of the tread.

to/from Adler.

Morning TdF ride like everyone else. All so serious and hurrying to finish so they could get home to watch their TiVod race.
Had lots of time to just think and remembered attending the OUSA AGM out in Spokane. I felt bad for Glen having to endure a bunch of pompous "know-it-alls" and obstructionists for almost 2 hours before he finally got the floor. By this point, I had all but written-off the meeting as useless and a harbinger of the future of US orienteering. Glen reinstilled some confidence but it looks pretty grim.
Nevertheless, we have a club to continue to run and I spent some time trying to figure out what our main thrust should be. I have heard many suggestions from folks, some good. I tried to come up with an idea that no one had yet suggested. I thought of one, it's a bit novel (and maybe unreasonable) but we'll see what the board thinks.

Carmel lap in the morning.

Shoulder been bother me so I decided to see if swimming strength helps it recover. If not, it'll be dumbbells.
Pretty awful stroke & swim fitness:
200s, 50k, 100p, 50k, 300s, 50k, 200pwp, 50s, 200s

Just enough light to get in a Carmel lap after returning from airport. Just felt sedentary from the day's travel.

NAOC Sprint
College of the Rockies, Cranbrook, BC

Even though I don't generally like sprints, I was feeling good this morning and looking forward to the race. After a good warmup and intel gathering, I set off from the start.
My line must have wavered up the first hill because I drifted left and checked two controls before finding mine. Ugh. 2 & 3 were fine and I was flying along to 4, determined to recoup my lost time when WHAM!! I hit the ground after my ankle buckled on some uneven ground. No, I was foolishly not wearing my braces, going for minimal weight & bulk, in hopes of gaining some extra speed. As I lay on the ground looking up through the trees, a few considerate runners ran by asking if I was ok. "Yes, thanks." was my answer but I knew my ankle was done. I hobbled through the parking lot to check-in with DNF at the finish but reconsidered since the race was so short and this the last day of competition. I resolved to walk the course but my adrenaline was still flowing so I figured I could jog the course, which I did.

Sprint - Course 6 - Splits

NAOC Long - M45+
Double Duck Flats, Cranbrook, BC

QuickRoute...


This is the race from which I can learn the most.

1- Straight. Knew I was on when I hit the long open area.
2- Thick & a bit slow. Found rocky knoll so I looked for black on the map, nope but the control was behind it. Reremembered to calibrate my rock translation from Chicago levels (where mapped boulders can be knee height).
3- Easy & fast but could have avoided a few contours going right around hill.
4- Stayed high but then inexplicably drifted right running downhill. Caught myself in time but was not decisive as I didn't see the hill until close to it.
5- Easy but walked some uphill parts (already tiring a bit).
6- Good plan, well executed.
7- Saw just a jumble of black between 6 & 7 but still went straight & got caught on top of sizable cliff. Flag not hard to find once I climbed down.
8- Got caught in some green heading there. Should have been more careful because I alomst missed left.
9- So the wheels come off my race at this point as I drop from ~5th to ~20th. My key o-skills either misfired or stopped functioning. I have replayed these next three legs over and over in my mind and am glad to finally put them to rest in writing. So what happened? Reading ahead, I saw that 9 was a key route choice leg and wanted to form a good plan. I saw left but really thought I could do better so I looked at right for a while, even stopping after punching 8. At one point I thought I had a good route along the fence so I started moving SE but the many deep reentrants finally changed my mind so I headed back left. As I ran along, I allowed myself to get annoyed by all the time I'd already squandered instead of focusing on visualizing the control area. When I left the trail and climbed up to the clear area, I was distracted by another runner stopped there. The confluence of being tired, annoyed & distracted had me thinking that I was higher up the ridge so I started to look for the cliff (in the wrong place). Finally took a long, deliberate look at the map and my error was clear but the time was gone and my concentration further shaken.
10- Moved too quickly along a bearing and fell left of the saddle I planned to go through. Where I normally would quickly recognize & recover from this parallel error, I was fuzzy on what happened and still not thinking clearly so I stumbled around until someone led me in. More anger & shaken confidence contributed to...
11- Contour inversion!! The 5 contours to the NE of 11 looked like a climb up to it so I chose a route that didn't take me across a bunch of fantasy reentrants from that direction. Thus I missed the optimal route choice to the right and instead climbed to the left. I would be ok except I was still expecting the small second trail to be through a valley so, when it kept going down, I stopped in complete confusion (see red dot). But I didn't stop long enough to really figure out where I was and instead plunged on in frustration. Of course I paid for my hastiness by having to unravel which similar reentrant was which.
12- I wonder if straight was better; contouring was pretty fast.
13- Wheeee!!

So after all that I have simply reaffirmed that this is a mental sport. How many times must I learn that and to keep myself calm & focussed?? Also though, I do remember from last fall that being fit helps in many direct and indirect ways. I need to break away from my work focus and get my training restarted in earnest.

Long - Course 7 - Splits

Event: North American Orienteering Championships
 

NAOC Middle - M45+
Double Duck Flats, Cranbrook, BC

QuickRoute...


After seeing the map samples & walking the model, I was really looking forward to the terrain and race. Was all warmed-up and ready, about 10 minutes from my start, when I realized I did not have my control sheet holder. Grrrrr. Quick jog to the arena, back to the start, and was still in quite a lather for call-up.
Race started fine. Was able to read ahead & plan routes in advance but a bit shakey reading the rock detail (as usual). Missed 2 slightly and was fine until I just couldn't match up the rocks along the ridge to 5. The hills & knolls were rocky but mapped as contours so I checked behind a lot of unmapped boulders. I've seen this generalized mapping technique enough to know it's legit but not often enough to be comfortable with it.
Had a good route planned to 6 (staying high) but then inexplicably ran down the hill too early and spent a bit of time getting myself straight and back up to the control location. The rest were easy and fine but I'd already given up 3+ minutes. Not a great result but know that I need more rocky terrain work (as always).
Relaxed in the arena after my race watching the elite WRE race. Was extremely well run and very exciting to watch. Great effort and much appreciated.

Middle - Course 7 - Splits

Thomass Event
Kimberly Alpine Center, BC

What a zoo. Super-sized mass start had us in the "box" immediately and everyone found the optimal route so there was always a train of people in front and behind. I now like mass start events even less. I decided to just slow down and enjoy the beautiful area.

Long sprint - Splits