Training Log Archive: expresso

Sunday dawned cool and cloudy and looked like absolutely perfect o-weather. No such luck, it cleared and warmed but certainly could have been a lot worse. We packed up the campsite and headed over to the Horseshoe ski resort for the Sunday long race. Yes, SKI (as in downhill) and was a harbinger of a day of brutal climbs on a long and gruelling course. I was not disappointed.

Although I knew that the open division was the Canadian team trials, I entered it to get the most orienteering out of this weekend as possible. The prior three races were fulfilling and my o-quota ALMOST overflowed on this race (a wonderful feeling). As in the middle race yesterday, I was calm at the start and throughout the race. I guess I had nothing to prove to anyone except myself and I knew that I would do fine if I just executed the race of which I was capable. It would not be perfect but generally smart and smooth. I started this plan right away by flipping over the map and immediately picking a route different from the elites whom I'd seen take off a few minutes ago. I went right up a black diamond run on the ski hill and as I studied my map on the climb up my confidence grew that this was the right route. But then I got knocked back to earth by control 2 (literally by heading down the mountain) and figuratively by overrunning it and then becoming distracted by an elite runner hunting in a different area. I resolved then and there not to become distracted by others. I was pleased with my next few routes up, down & around the back side of the ski hill as well as my long route to 8. I popped an eCap, Gu & three cups of water at this control and sloshed my way to the next one. My stomach processed this just fine and I was energized for the long route to 10 and a fast split to 11. The butterfly controls 12, 13 & leaving to 18 gave me a little difficulty because I had trouble resolving up from down in the tight contours. I managed fine and took off fast across the flats to 19 - 21. 22 sent us way up again and (after being out for 100 minutes already) my body did not have the giddy-up for the hills. But I made it up and used that time to plan good, safe routes to the next few controls. I executed these (as well as the last few) in a conservative fashion to reduce the risk of a late-race boom from my cloudy brain. I ended fine and was again pleased because I achieved my goals (and had a good result to boot).

Long drive back tried our patience in traffic again. It was easy overcome by drifting back to a full weekend of pleasant memories at a great event. I had that dull, full-body ache that comes after a long race or weekend. It's not an injury but just fully taxed soft tissue that gave you everything it had and wants to rest for a few days (and maybe get a massage =).

I am always the first awake when camping and this was no different. I got the espresso pot cooking and the aroma woke Charlie. After a breakfast of oatmeal, bagels and bananas, we headed off to the middle race.

Another beautiful day in Canada but I sensed that it would heat up later. I got warmed, stretched and hydrated before the race and my head was in a good calm place for the start. I spiked 1 and 2 but strayed a bit west to 3 and lost some time. (... more control details later ...) Other than a few small and one medium error, I was pleased with my race, especially considering that the more technical middle distance is often difficult for me.
Good Stuff:
- calm mindset
- moved fast and fluid through the woods
- active orienteering (looking ahead for expected features)
- map contact
Bad Stuff:
- one poor route choice
- some cloudy thinking (& detailed map reading) when brain low on O2
- aggressiveness (wasn't a goal but should be someday)

Warmup/down around various races.

Sprint around the Bass Lake Rec. Area. These are probably good practice for O2-starved thinking but I'm rarely thrilled by a sprint race. This was well set (despite the massive hill) but it just didn't do it for me. My result was poor so maybe this tainted my opinion of the race. I started fine and ran hard but by the time I had to climb the same hill the third time and find a boulder on a bearing, I was tired, stupid & lost a lot of time. I also lost some time due to a brain-dead parallel error.
Good Stuff:
- ran hard for most of it
- read the map and planned pretty well
Bad Stuff:
- cloudy (low O2) thinking
- morale cracked on the last hill and I walked all of it

Charlie and I headed back to the campsite for a fine dinner of pasta with broccolli florettes. Mmmmm. We then returned to the shelter where the sprint took place and had a little more food at the pot-luck. It was now time for the main events of the weekend - the 3-legged string-o and the o-shoes tossing competition. Charlie and I made a reasonable attempt at the 3-leg-string-o but were quickly eliminated in the knockout format. I had better luck in the o-shoes competition (where you throw your o-shoes instead of horseshoes) by making it to the finals and received GHO shirts for my kids. They will love them. Nick did a fine job as organizer/commentator and a great time was had by all. I again wound down the evening reading Inanna's book in the tent and got a decent night sleep.

Event: Nav-Stock
 

I'd been looking forward to this full weekend of orienteering in Canada as I'd not been seriously orienteering for over a month. I knew I would have a good time and this prediction was surpassed. Charlie picked me up at 5:30 a.m. so we would get around Chicago before the traffic built. After this accomplishment, we frittered away a lot of time getting across Michigan and Ontario by stopping for breakfast at the Waffle House, Gander Mountain outdoor store to get me a headlamp, extended border crossing, lunch at an oasis Wendy's, etc. Before we knew it was 5 p.m. and we were just West of Toronto. We hit traffic on par with Chicago rush hour all the way to Barrie. I understand now that everyone from Toronto has a cottage "up north" so we were all going the same way. We finally made it to the campsite and piched our tent. We had just enough time to kick back briefly and then head out to the night-score-o race. A long day but perfect timing...

Nav-Stock Night Score-O
With my meager little 1w LED headlamp I headed out to my first control in the score-o. I'd had a few minutes to plan my route and was confident that mine would appropriately minimize climb in favor of a slightly longer distance. I also expected others to find the same route. Nope, they all headed to closest control while I left that one for my way back to the finish. The terrain was very steep and I got a little mixed-up on the trails but finally stumbled across my first control and then got rolling through the next few. At this point the ambient light reflecting from the setting sun on the clouds faded to darkness and I had only my dinky light to get me through the rest of the controls. I slowed down and took conservative routes through the rest of the course. I was also aided by the fact that (in leiu of reflectors) each control had a blinking light on it. I learned to sweep my headlamp away from where I expected the control and wait for a light to blink. It reminded me of sailing into a harbor late at night by bouys. So I worked my way through controls to the north leaving me with a long, fast trail run all the way south to the original control that I'd originally skipped. I finished well and felt so good to get out on a map after completing the long drive there.

Back to the campsite to enjoy a nice cool night of sleep in a tent. I read Jill's sister's first novel due to be published next month. It's an exciting and very unique story about modern day vampires. I think that everything is well done (premise, plot, characters, etc.) and I am very proud of her for completing this after hearing about her publishing plans for about 10 years. It was very exciting/spooky to read this by headlamp while camping.

Jog home from the car rental place. Took it easy but legs still a little stiff from Sunday.

Adler Lap. Quads the same as yesterday, it was hot, felt very sluggish.

Easy jaunt along the EW. Quads feeling pretty sore.

to/from gym.

Feeling a little beat from yesterday but a good effort.