Training Log Archive: Kat

Nice gympa session. Felt good.

Jogging on snowy trails near the start to warm up before the night-O.

The Grymnatta 2006 night-O event! This was the first night-O course that I actually completed (mostly because this was the first time that I was given enough time to do so). The 3-4 training night-Os that I did in winter were always limited by the fact that the other orienteers would be back in about an hour or so and I didn't want to keep them waiting. This time, however, the men had long courses to do (8 km for H21 and 12 km for H21L) and a warm place to hang out in afterward, so I had time to finish my course.

I was basically jogging most of the time and occasionally walking while reading the map, but moving through the snow was slow and really tough, so I put this down as intensity 3. I also did a lot more than 5 kilometers since I didn't stand still during the times I was lost, but kept trying to relocate and attack the control again.

For comparison (and amusement) here are my splits and those of Albin Ridefelt, who had the same course I did (and won it).

1 - 27:27 6:15
2 - 7:12 3:57
3 - 4:57 3:09
4 - 10:02 4:12
5 - 5:09 2:53
6 - 17:51 11:23
7 - 6:09 4:19
8 - 9:05 3:33
9 - 18:43 5:04
10 - 2:15 1:24
11 - 2:31 1:55
Finish - 0:25 0:21

Total time: 1:51:46 48:25

First OK Linne technical training session of the season. It was a bit chilly today so I jogged to the start to warm up a bit and then kept alternating between slow running and walking throughout the course. I found the first control and thought that perhaps I can now finally figure stuff out in Swedish terrain. But then I spent over 20 minutes locating the second control. I kept attacking it and was reasonably sure of where I was and that I was going straight on my compass bearing, but the problem was I kept doubting myself because things on the map didn't seem to match up with reality. The biggest source of confusion was a pair of giant rocks (maybe even cliffs) on the side of the hill the control was on. There were two small rocks on the map, but in reality there were two huge ones as well as many other decent sized ones nearby. Plus, with snow everywhere and several unmapped rides, it was tough to use other features to relocate. I did finally come back to number 1, then walk on a bearing and finally climb that hill despite my doubt to find the control. Then I found a few more with no major mistakes and headed back.

I am definitely getting more confident in my ability to navigate and I'm getting better at it as well, but experience with different types of terrain and mapping styles is something that I do not have much of yet. On the upside, I feel that I learn something new each time I go out...

C • experience counts 2

OK Linne training. I walked the short course (still not allowed to run). The course wasn't very technical and I went mostly on trails because of the snow. However, I did take a few scenic route choices a few times because I didn't feel like walking along a road for several hundred meters, even if that would have been faster. For example, instead of going around and taking a trail on one leg, I went relatively straight and climbed up the steep part of the hillside I had to get across. It was only about 35 meters climb, but since it was covered in snow, it felt quite risky going up!

Intense spinning session at the Ekeby gym. I really like this instructor (her name is Asa) and I really like these sessions. Good music, good company, and an awesome workout.

Stretching after the session.

Some core strength before going to bed. I love crunches.

Gympa at the Ekeby gym, same instructor as last time (Magnus). I liked today's session more than that previous one. First, I felt stronger after an easy day yesterday. Second, since I'd done his routine before, I was better coordinated.

Unfortunately, the ab stuff we do in gympa is not enough for me, so I did three more minutes of crunches when I got home. Still not as good as doing abs right after a good running workout though. Perhaps I'll do crunches tomorrow right after spinning...

Swimming at the Uppsala central pool. I needed to do something easy today because I felt tired after doing spinning and gympa three days in a row. So I went to the pool and did a few fast things (some 25s, some 50s with fly going out and backstroke coming back) interlaced with a lot of easy swimming.

In the middle of the swim, I switched to aquajogging. It was tough to do at first because I've only done it once before and therefore am not sure about technique. It took a while for my body to get the coordination right as well. Towards the end though, I was actually getting across the length of the pool (took about 1:15 one way) and if I moved my legs fast, it almost felt like I was working. I wish there were mirrors so I could see what I look like when I do this and work on getting the posture right...

A one-hour spinning session at the Ekeby gym. This one was supposed to be "medium", whereas the last one I did was "intense." I felt overall tired (from the last two days), but happy I did it.

Stretching after the spinning.

Gympa with Boris at the local gym. I couldn't do certain exercises because of my knee and ankle, but did most of them and got a good workout.

I was planning to go skiing with Boris, but my ankle hurt way too much in the ski boots and since I'm not yet skilled at skiing, I was afraid of falling and hurting the ankle more. So instead I put on my sneakers and got out a map and did a slow map-hike in the nearby woods (Nasten) while Boris skiied in the fields. I did a loop from Tuesday's night-O which had confused me a bit in the dark. It made sense this time.

This was the first time I've ever been to a spinning session. I went to one at the local gym which another OK Linne girl was going to. It was really tough and I was definitely looking at my watch often counting down the minutes. The only reason I did not put it down as a 5 is because my heart rate didn't go up by that much. I was sweating and defnitely tired, but the breathing was fine all the way through.

I am surprised I liked this so much given that I hate biking. In fact, I liked it enough that I wouldn't mind doing this in Oxford once a week or so if they have sessions like that there. Good stuff.

About 15 minutes after the spinning session, as soon as I got home.

Every athlete experiences setbacks every now and then. But this doesn't make it any easier to accept! I have two weird injuries right now. My right knee flares up quite easily, especially when I run on hard surfaces or do slow runs, and strangely feels better when I do intervals (perhaps because it warms up?). My left ankle is mostly fine when I'm barefoot. I only feel twinges of pain if I rotate it a certain way. But if I apply any pressure to the round protruding bone (such as wearing close-fitting ski boots), then it begins to hurt and the pain is excruciating. Running in the snow is not good for the ankle either, even in sneakers or O-shoes, because the uneven ground forces the top of the shoe to nudge against that bone, and this becomes increasingly painful. So I can't really run or ski (or at least, I shouldn't, even if I tried to ignore the pain). What makes this worse is that I seem to be getting sick with the cold Boris has had the last few days. So now I'm injured and sick. It sucks. But at the very least, I do not have to debate with myself over what I should do. I know I should rest, stay inside, and do only cross-training that doesn't affect my injuries. I'm not missing out on much good running or orienteering anyway. There's too much snow in the woods and ice on the paths. So instead I'm spending some time each day looking at route choices with Boris. Yesterday we did Spain. Today was Japan.

I decided to not do the Linne night-O today because of my knee pain. It was feeling better after two days of not running, but flared up a bit after yesterday's outing. Also, my left ankle has been hurting significantly the last few days. I think this is probably due to all of the running I've been doing recently on uneven ground. Argh. I wish these annoying injuries would just go away. I want to run!

C • sensible choice :) 5

Last OK Linne line-O of the winter season. There was some light remaining when we started, but about 15 minutes in people started turning on their headlamps.

This run was really tough to do because of the snow in the woods - knee-deep for me - but I actually did run for most of it. There were no slow people running with the main pack, so after about twenty minutes of running through snow at a decent pace (in fact, especially when going uphill, at intensity 4), I slowed down and went at my own pace. I could probably have kept with them for some more time, but my left ankle started hurting again and with all of the slippery snow, I decided not to push it. The snow has been lying around for days so the top of it has sort of frosted over. Thus, I was either breaking through this top layer (and bruising my shins) or trying to step in other people's footsteps. This was tough also because the powdery snow beneath the surface layer was tough to run in - felt like sand.

I did some navigation on my own once I let the pack get ahead and slowed down, but in general this was more of a run than an orienteering training session. Tough day!

Cross-country skiing for the first time ever! I borrowed Allison's skis and Boris took me out to Stadsskogen to teach me the basics. I double-poled and attempted to do some striding, although doing it uphill was tough. It was really fun and I can see why so many orienteers prefer to do this in the winter rather than run in a foot of snow. Plus, it didn't hurt my knees :)

Various types of strength exercises and a few stretches.

My right knee started to hurt after the first day of training (March 13th) and has not gotten better since. I will try to take a few days off of running and give it time to recover. Also, I will get it checked out next month when I'm back in Oxford.

C • Knee 6

I spent some time looking at maps today, mostly Swedish ones. I am feeling more confident now about my ability to orienteer in technical terrain, despite not having done much of it since last time I was in Sweden. This is good.

Running to and from the start of the sprint from the clubhouse.

Sprint around part of the Uppsala University buildings and the surrounding hill and woods. Not especially technical, but not trivial either. I walked up the hilly legs through the snow and did the entire thing at an easy pace. I made a few mistakes, but they were at the beginning of the course where I was adjusting to the scale (which wasn't printed on the map). After that, I was doing well. Slow, but accurate.

Afternoon training session after some lunch and Tiomila talk at the clubhouse. Since my right knee was bothering me previously, I decided to walk the course. I actually stuck to my guns and did walk the majority of it, but ran the last 1.5 km or so because I was driving back with some other OK Linne guys and didn't want them to have to wait for me.

The course was mostly trails and roads because the snow was really tough to wade through, but there were still some technical parts near controls (inside the circle), especially the last few. There was also some possibility for route choice, and even while walking, I do not think I picked the optimal route choice on the really long leg to #2.

Running with Boris in Stadsskogen, looking at a map of the place and trying to make out the snowy trails - it's tough!

Doing strength exercises and some stretching with Boris after the run.

Travel day to Sweden and also a rest day to give my right knee a chance to recover, at least somewhat.

There was too much snow today to do the planned training exercises, so OUOC waded through the snow up a hill to a lake where we proceeded to throw snowballs at each other and sled down a hill on our map cases. Afterward, I ran down the hill to the minibus, very slowly to avoid slipping and falling. Sadly, my right knee was hurting even at that gentle pace.

Second day of OUOC training, this time at Docharn & Deishar. The terrain here was very hilly, but more woods and less heather. We did one long session here consisting of four different exercises.

First was a map-memory exercise, which I did with Helen. I would go to a control using compass only (and memory of the map), then she would do the next control while I followed along reading the map and studying the next leg. This was very nice since we are well-matched in speed and since I didn't make any mistakes to speak of.

The second exercise was a talk-O, which I did with Kat Asker. Basically we did a course while talking about routes, stuff we were expecting to see, what we actually saw, etc.

Then, after several minutes of walking uphill to the start, we did a downhill course. It wasn't entirely downhill, but most of the legs did include going downhill diagonally across a slope. I tried to use bearings on some of the longer legs and besides a few slips and a bad route choice to the finish, it was fine.

The last exercise was a sprint (less than 1.5 km probably) with controls being highly concentrated close to where our minibus was parked. This was unfortunate since this particular area was thinned, with cut trees and branches everywhere. Nonetheless, the sprint was fun and challenging. The controls circles were really close together and on a 1:15,000 map, this made the details rather difficult to see even while walking. With most of the controls, I would stop for a few seconds to look at the map closely, then take off. Very fun course!

First half of first day of OUOC training up in Scotland at Loch Vaa. We did a line-O (which took me about 32 minutes) through hills of heather, then split up into pairs to hang controls for the control-picking course. It took me about a third of the line-O to adjust to the map, but afterward I felt that I could understand all of the contour lines just fine. The control-pick was fun. I had some difficulties when the controls were hung too low (or ended up being blown by the wind into the heather) but in general I found everything right on. Fun day.

The second half of the training day. The first exercise was a long-legs one, which I did with Helen. She taught me how to do proper bearings and I kept practicing with this throughout the rest of the day. It is definitely a useful skill to have since this allows me to run fast through the woods on a bearing till I hit some big feature, then relocate, rather than worry about smaller features on the way that I do not necessarily have to even notice.

The last exercise of the day was an emit course which I should have done in about 30 minutes (since it was a bit over 3 km) but which I actually did in 50 minutes. I was still trying to practice taking bearings, and unfortunately, when going to #3, I only took a bearing and didn't look at the features at all, which I knew was a mistake but I kept hoping I'd spot the control anyway. But we weren't using control flags, just the emit stakes, which are rather hard to notice unless you are looking out for them. So I wound up spending almost 20 minutes looking for #3. But besides this disaster, and two other smaller mistakes, I found the rest of the controls cleanly.

EVENT: BUSA Relay
WOODS: Lots of snow on the ground, about knee-deep in places for me. The woods were not too technical but the relay course was tough because there were controls everywhere and people running all over the place.
RESULTS: Our Oxford women's team of Kat (me), Kat Asker, and Helen Gardner ended up being the third women's team, which is cool. I personally did not have a good run, however. Messed up control #2 badly and lost the pack then and there. Then had problems with some other controls despite trying to be careful. It was my first relay, though, so there's room for improvement. And it was fun running in the snow.

Event: BUSA 2006
 

Warm-up run.

EVENT: BUSA 2006 at South Achray
COURSE: Women's A, 6.3 km, 340 m climb, 23 controls, double-sided map
WOODS: Very hilly, lots of soft ground that resembled marshes in areas, some thinned areas with lots of chopped down trees. Overall, a very physical area.
RESULTS: I was the first woman sent out so I was alone for the entire course with no one to race with.
The first loop was really tough but satisfying to do. It included one leg that had us going about 145 meters straight up the side of a big hill and another leg that had me heading downhill through solid green (which in this case consisted of really dense coniferous trees). Then, after the spectator control, came the second loop, which was almost like a lengthy technical sprint. I had difficulty getting adjusted to the 1:5000 scale after having done the first loop on 1:10,000. I also was not in the mood for doing short technical legs after having done long, physical legs. So I messed up countless times in this second loop after having done decently well on the first part. Then, while going to #22, I tried to cross a small wooden bridge across a stream and since it was so slippery, I wound up falling on my side on that bridge. So I limped to the next two controls, then raced the finish leg. I ended up being right in the middle, 21st out of about 47 entered.

Two Christ Church loops while looking at a map of the area I'll be orienteering in this Saturday at BUSA. Lots of hills and cliffs, but at least the map looks pretty straightforward.

I didn't time the first loop, second was 9:48.

It felt so good to be outside! I went to South Park since I haven't been there for a while, but felt really weak going up the hill, so after doing one loop there I decided to go run around the Christ Church meadow. I saw people running (probably doing Teddy Hall relays) and couldn't help but speed up a little in enthusiasm. So I ran fast for about a minute (just to see how I would feel), then did one CC meadow loop slowly. The weather was great for running. Really light rain, more like a spray. Although I felt weak the entire time I was out, I was really happy to be up and about.

I've been doing two hours of dancing (latin and ballroom) most Mondays this term, but have never recorded it as a workout before. However, due to recent sickness, even dancing tires me out and therefore I've decided to make a note of it.

C • Dancing, etc. 2

Event: DFOK Regional Westerham Chart
 

The start was 1 km away from the parking lot and the way there started with a steep uphill. I didn't see anybody else heading to the start, so I missed the point where the taped route turned and continued on running down the trail. Kept doubting whether or not I was going the right way, eventually turned around and managed to get to the start right when my name was being called.

EVENT: DFOK Regional Event
COURSE: W21L, 7.46 km, 145 m climb, 20 controls
WOODS: Westerham Chart. Lots of trails surrounding impenetratable green, lots of fields, a few small lakes. My favorite areas were the white woods marked off by vegetation boundaries - the coniferous areas. There were lots of things catching at my legs today. At one point some rusty metal piece of fence got really tangled in my shoelaces and it took me about 30 seconds to undo it. Then, there were masses of bramble branches which tugged at my legs and tripped me. Not fun to run through those, but luckily most of the running I did today was on trails.

RESULTS: This is the cleanest course I've ever run. But since this was a lengthy orange course glorified by "W21L", that doesn't come as a surprise.

Since I've been out sick the entire week, I felt really weak and tired. Not only did I walk up the hills, I would also stop sometimes to walk on flat ground. But at least I finished the course and managed to jog for most of it. Towards the middle of the course, there were a couple of other females who looked like they might be doing the same course I was. One of them was neither fast nor accurate, so she wasn't that interesting, but the other one I instantly liked. She was short, young, and speedy. I saw her at #9 and then we went to #10 together, she in front (since I wasn't trying to run fast) and taking a slightly different route choice. We saw the control at the same time, I allowed her to punch it first. Then she took off for #11. I went straighter than she did by about 20 meters and hit it first. Then I nailed #12 and didn't see her again until the route to #14. This control was in the tricky bit. I saw the control first after some searching. I'm sure she must have been keeping an eye out for what I was doing so she probably punched it soon after. But I didn't see her again on the rest of the course, which was too bad. I like head to head racing. It makes me concentrate more and run faster.

It felt nice, actually, to not feel *fast* today, but rather to feel accurate and to get controls before other people did. Now I know how all those old British men feel about me...

I made a few small mistakes, but they are so small compared to the usual disasters that happen to me that I won't even bother mentioning them. Suffice to say my time could have been 2-3 minutes faster.

If I had been totally healthy today, I figure I probably could have done about 53 minutes for this course, which is what Emma did. It was just so technically easy that I couldn't possibly screw it up, even when running fast. I was getting bored out there!

A summary of my races this term:

NWO District Event, West Woods, 6.97 km, 165 m climb, 15 controls, 8:08/km

Army Event, Greenham Woods, 6.0 km, 14 controls, 9:11/km

BKO National Event at Cold Ash, 9.04km, 200 m climb, 23 controls, 12:28/km

WIM Regional Event, New Forest, 7.0 km, 135 m climb, 16 controls, 9:32/km

HH Regional Event, Egypt Woods and Burnham Beeches, 8.6 km, 170 m climb, 19 controls, 8:30/km

Varsity Match, Leith Hill, 5.63 km, 175 m climb, 20 controls, 12:11/km

DFOK Regional Event, Westerham, 7.46 km, 145 m climb, 20 controls, 8:39/km

I am definitely recovering. The various pains and aches are going away and I have my voice back. I am feeling really weak though, after several days of not eating much. I spent about an hour walking around town today because I wanted to buy clementines. The nice sunny weather cheered me up, but I felt absolutely exhausted when I got home.

I definitely have some type of flu rather than a simple cold. I've been doing my best to fight it, but the last three days have been hell. Hopefully I should be well enough by next week to go out for some easy runs.

C • Hope you get well soon! 1