Training Log Archive: Kat

Running with Boris in Stadsskogen, exploring numerous small trails.

Walked a lot around Stockholm with Boris today.

Running to King Bjorn's Hill and back home.

The Jan Svanlund Open. It was a very fun race with 29 controls, all hidden away at the bases of cliffs or in the grass. The map was 1:1500 so it was quite hard to find these controls and absolutely ridiculous to see even the best orienteers run around in circles. You can read more about it on Boris's training log.

Biking around Uppsala with Boris.

Did a night-O with Boris. We did all but 2 controls and took extra safe route choices so we ended up not getting too lost. I decided that night orienteering isn't as difficult as I thought it would be (or not much more difficult than day orienteering is, anyway).

Running to the Linne club house and back home with Boris.

Circuit training with Boris and other Linne people.

Running/Walking an old night sprint course with Boris.

Flight to Sweden.

Wall climbing with Adam. Reminder to self: this place is on 59th, west of 10th avenue. Fun!

C • 3

I wanted to go for a long run today, but didn't like the thought of just going out by myself and doing the usual Hudson run - that's boring. So instead I went online and found a family adventure map of Central Park. The actual map cost money, but the site had a pdf brochure for this adventure hunt which included a mini version of the map, with the word "promotional" stamped in huge letters all across. I printed out the lower half and was able to read the trail, lake, and building features (which are the only things that matter in Central Park anyway). The adventure hunt had 15 "controls", which were all statues, posts, or inscriptions of some sort. At each one, I had to stop to read and look at the object and answer some question about it. If I actually shelled out $10 for the adventure hunt package, I could then use my answers to claim a treasure.

The controls were not in order direction-wise, so I ended up running across the lower half of Central Park many times over. I think I probably ran somewhere between 9 and 10 miles, with breaks at each control to write down answers, but I really can't be sure. I wish I knew how many minutes per mile my easy pace is...

Went running by myself along the Hudson River. No breaks this time to stretch or fix my shoes - I didn't feel like stopping. Absolutely no energy today. This is probably a combination of running in the morning without any breakfast or any company.

Crunches - felt so good!

Second run of the day with Aleksey. As I was walking up the stairs coming home, he was walking down about to go for a run. So he waited several minutes while I changed and we went out together. We did one long loop and one short loop around Fort Tryon Park.

6 strides (about 30 seconds each) on the grass, with 8 push-ups in between each.

Crunches after the run.

Green course at Ansonia Nature Center (Connecticut). Half a year ago (sometime in spring 2005), it took me three hours to do an orange course (about 4 Km) at Ansonia, so this time I took it easy and tried to keep careful track of where I was. I stopped a lot and walked a lot to control 1, then spent a considerable amount of time looking for control 2, which was on a rock in the middle of nowhere. The problem with control 2 was that there was an unmapped trail in the nearby area and also (according to Greg) the control was on the wrong rock. Regardless, it was difficult to find. The rest of the controls were also technically difficult for me, but at least they were better than number 2...except perhaps for number 10. I ran up and down a pair of hills several times each before I finally figured out where that control was.

Despite making sizable errors, I still felt quite happy with my orienteering overall. There was progress in that I no longer ran around in circles if I couldn't find the control once I was in the area. I looked at the map and tried to orient myself first. At times, this cost me several minutes because sometimes the control would be several meters away and I just wouldn't see it, but would stop to make sure I was in the right area. So sometimes, running in circles would lead me to the control faster than stopping to check the map. In general, however, I think it is better to hesitate than to miss the control.

Sprint at Ansonia, which I did as a cool-down.

C • Strenght training 2

I felt really low on energy and sluggish, even though my time indicates i was moving at my usual pace. I didn't feel sore or tired, I just felt absolutely drained of all energy. I ended up stopping 3 times throughout the run (every 10 minutes) to fix my shoes as well. I had a problem with the last pair of sneakers I owned - they were too narrow in the middle and as a result I got cramps on the bottoms of my feet. So I got a pair of new sneakers with a wider mid-section, and after running in them twice now, I am still getting cramps. Is this because my feet are adjusting to having space once again?

C • Ansonia - Saturday 1

Ran along Hudson, to the end of the field and back to the hill near the lighthouse. Then i walked home. I just wanted to get out to stretch my legs a bit and try out the new sneakers (which I bought last week). It felt really hot here after NH.

I did a lot of walking over downtown Manhattan today and then finished the evening by going to a concert. My legs were killing me afterward...

This was my first time doing a canoe-O. I discovered that it is relatively easy to spot controls, but not so easy to actually get to them. Several times I had to climb through bushes to get unto small islands and punch the controls. At one point, Boris dropped the map into the water and we had to make three circles around it before we could get our hands on it. At least we didn't tip the canoe over...

C • Sorry!! 3

I did parts of the Mega O, about 70 controls in total. After control #3, I realized i could not concentrate at all, so I began to walk. I focused on trying to know the control number and description before actually running up to it. I also tried to read ahead a bit and know which direction I would leave each control from. I definitely felt that my brain was tired from looking at maps. This was more orienteering than I've ever done in a single weekend before. First three sprints on Sunday, followed by a Vampire-O event that evening, then a Canoe-O this morning, followed by the Mega-O.

First sprint of the day. 9 controls.

Second sprint of the day. 10 controls.

Going to control 1, I caught sight of Katarina Smith (about 20 meters ahead of me) and started racing after her. I could only catch glimpses of her in between trees, so I had to be careful, but I ran onward, found controls 1 and 2, and then got stumped at control 3. I had by this time closed the distance between us so near control 3 I was pretty close to her, but I saw that she was already going over the hill and towards control 4, so I knew that control 3 was nearby and i stopped to look my map. About a minute later, Pavlina came by and punched control #3, which was apparently about about three feet away from me, hidden by a tree. I spent the next several controls following her, then tried to go towards #8 on my own, but veered off a bit too much to the right so she punched the control right before me. Then she raced towards 9 and 10 and although I was going at full-out speed (or at least as much as was possible, considering we were running through branches and over uneven ground) I couldn't outsprint her in the forest. She can move fast when she wants to. So in that sprint heat, i was third behind Katarina and Pavlina.

Third sprint of the day. 16 controls.

By this sprint, I was definitely tired and not really motivated. After making a mistake early on and after getting several bad hits from branches while trying to read my map, I spent most of the course just jogging from control to control.

Little sleep. Must go to work. No time to run today.

I went wall climbing with a few friends in the evening. It was really fun and (perhaps surprisingly so) quite difficult. My calves and especially my forearms were sore afterward.

Running in Central Park with Adam. We started out at 59th street Columbus Circle, then zipped around a lot all over the lower half of the park, finally ran up along the east side (north past 90th street, not sure how far) and then came back along the horse trail all the way back to Columbus Circle again. We were going at a pretty good pace and I estimate we did 6-7 miles.

Run with Aleksey along the Hudson. I thought I'd be sore since I spent 2 hours in the woods on Saturday and did an hour run on trails on Sunday, but I actually felt quite strong the entire way today.

Did 6 x 20-second strides, with 10 pushups after each. Watching Aleksey do pushups was amusing.

C • push - ups 2

Run home after strides.

Crunches.

I decided to go on a long run on some trails close to the camping area my family was staying at. I couldn't convince Aleksey to go with me, so i went by myself. About15-20 minutes of this running was running to the the start of the trail along the road. The first trail I took was wide and grassy. Then I veered off on a smaller path, which took me through some very woods and across marsh (where I was careful to watch out for snakes). The next trail I turned unto was completely the opposite. It was mostly rocks and in some areas, the branches from the green hung on the path so I had to fight my way through. Judging by all of the cobwebs I swept out my face, I was the first person to come through there for a while. Some areas of the trail led across boulder fields and I had to stop running, stop my watch, and take a minute or so just to find the trail again because the blue markers on the trees weren't clear in those areas. The final trail I took was another nice one and i was able to enjoy the scenery instead of looking under my feet all of the time. I stopped running once I got unto the main road again.

On the way back to the campsite from the trails, I did 5 strides with several minutes of walking in between, just to make the way back a bit more interesting.

DVOA Long Champs Green Course.

This was the first time i had gone orienteering in a month, so it took a few controls before I remembered what navigating was like. I felt good physically, however, since I had taken off two days from running before. Having learned from past mistakes, I started out nice and easy and found control 1 without major issues. I checked the map perhaps more times than i needed to, but this was better than not checking it enough. Going to control 2, I ran into some problems. Mainly, since I am not yet a good judge of distance, especially when running through and over dead branches, I thought I had gone far enough when in fact I hadn't. Also, I veered off a little too far to the left. So I basically spent fifteen minutes circling around an area which I believed was close to control 2 and in fact wasn't. That control took me 30:34 to get to!!! After that, is the next bad control was #4. I had major difficulty trying to attack this control and it seems I wasn't the only one. This control was on a clump of rocks in a region that had rocks all over the place and dense tree growth, with low visibility. I probably spent another 15 minutes circling around there trying to find it, a total leg split of 24:36. Other than that, the only other long split I had was from #4 to #5, which was 23:56. This was a very long leg, however, and I was not pushing at all. Actually, now that I look at other people's splits, it seems that the fastest split for that leg on green was 21:52, so I suppose I wasn't as slow as I thought.

All in all, I'm happy with the way my first green course went. With the exception of control 2, I managed to pick pretty decent route choices and head in the right directions. What I really need to work on it find the controls once I'm within a hundred feet of them.

Stretching out on the grass at our campsite. Very relaxing.

Running with Aleksey in Fort Tryon Park. I tried to take it easy, especially on the downhills, because we were running on gravel or pavement most of the time.

Fast hill repetitions with Aleksey on the same grassy hill where I did hills with Jamal. But this time, the 8 reps we did went by a whole lot faster because Aleksey is faster than I am. We would run up the hill (took about 28 seconds), run back down (another 27 seconds or so), rest for about 30 seconds, then do it all over again. No math problems this time - Aleksey's brain hurt. But we did these 8 reps (including rest) in 12 minutes, as opposed to the 28 it took me to do them with Jamal. True, we weren't doing math this time, but nonetheless, this makes me realize again how much of a difference it makes to run with faster people...

6 Strides with Aleksey (40-45 seconds each) on the grass in Fort Tryon Park.

C • Speed vs. endurance and conditioning 2