Training Log Archive: RosstopherIn the 1 days ending Nov 5, 2011:
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Saturday Nov 5, 2011 #
5 PM
orienteering 1:06:58 [5] 8.92 km (7:30 / km) +72m 7:13 / km
Rodhenloppet. A pairs night race, with different categories for different pairings. I teamed up with Rasa Ptasekaite (Lithuanian National team runner, Linné clubmate, and Alex will remember her as the woman that offered to drive her back down to Aix-les-Bains this summer) and we ran the Mixed Long category.
Our strategy was to have fun, and to each work together for the orienteering. She didn't want to just be running to keep up. She needn't have worried, as I was hard pressed to hang on to her as we booked in out of the start and across a large clear-cut area with hordes of other teams. The first 4 controls were just me following along as she spiked each flag, and my main contribution was shouting out the control numbers as we neared the flags.
I got to have my moment of navigation on the 5th when Rasa was pulled too far left leaving the 4th and was momentarily confused, I had been following along and trying to delicately suggest that we needed to go farther right, but was not sure enough to really override her instincts that had been doing so well. After we realized that we were not where we'd like to be, I took over and got us to the flag with only a minute lost. The next problem came on the long leg, when we got into one marsh thinking we were in another. I kept saying that we needed to go more east, and Rasa finally responded sharply that east means nothing to her and that I should tell her right or left :) I guess it's just Sam and I that talk outloud using cardinal directions.
Once we emerged from our marsh, and broke into the big clear cut area again, we could easily see our mistake and get back on our line, but we lost another several minutes doing that, and Rasa was getting a bit tired I think.
The last few controls had two places where the road was a viable option and we took them both. On the road, and at this point in the race, I was much faster and my job was to distract Rasa from how hard the running felt.
One more serious bobble ( got too tired to think, running on the road) and then into the finish. We were 8th place for mixed teams. A good result, only 8 minutes back on the winners. We were aiming for 60 minutes, just based on the course length, and with a clean run I think we would have been there. Importantly we beat Johan and Elisa, who I was gunning for since they are our friends from across the street.
I would totally run on a team with Rasa again, and I think we'd know better how to work with each other to avoid mistakes.
Our strategy was to have fun, and to each work together for the orienteering. She didn't want to just be running to keep up. She needn't have worried, as I was hard pressed to hang on to her as we booked in out of the start and across a large clear-cut area with hordes of other teams. The first 4 controls were just me following along as she spiked each flag, and my main contribution was shouting out the control numbers as we neared the flags.
I got to have my moment of navigation on the 5th when Rasa was pulled too far left leaving the 4th and was momentarily confused, I had been following along and trying to delicately suggest that we needed to go farther right, but was not sure enough to really override her instincts that had been doing so well. After we realized that we were not where we'd like to be, I took over and got us to the flag with only a minute lost. The next problem came on the long leg, when we got into one marsh thinking we were in another. I kept saying that we needed to go more east, and Rasa finally responded sharply that east means nothing to her and that I should tell her right or left :) I guess it's just Sam and I that talk outloud using cardinal directions.
Once we emerged from our marsh, and broke into the big clear cut area again, we could easily see our mistake and get back on our line, but we lost another several minutes doing that, and Rasa was getting a bit tired I think.
The last few controls had two places where the road was a viable option and we took them both. On the road, and at this point in the race, I was much faster and my job was to distract Rasa from how hard the running felt.
One more serious bobble ( got too tired to think, running on the road) and then into the finish. We were 8th place for mixed teams. A good result, only 8 minutes back on the winners. We were aiming for 60 minutes, just based on the course length, and with a clean run I think we would have been there. Importantly we beat Johan and Elisa, who I was gunning for since they are our friends from across the street.
I would totally run on a team with Rasa again, and I think we'd know better how to work with each other to avoid mistakes.