Training Log Archive: KatIn the 7 days ending Oct 30, 2005:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | |||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su | ||||||||||||
Sunday Oct 30, 2005 #
Note
I am very tired and sleep-deprived. At 2 AM today morning I did indeed walk backwards for a whole hour around Fellows Quad drinking port and wearing my black and white sub fusc. And not only did I walk backwards, I walked backwards linking arms with other people (so we formed a chain of anywhere from 3 to 7 people) and at each corner of Fellows quad (since we were basically walking around a square of grass) we would do an elegant turn of sorts. (Well, at least it looks elegant when two people do it. Our chain of 6 people wasn't so elegant when we tried to do a 360 at the corner.) By the end of the Ceremony, we were doing many many turns all over the place, for no apparent reason. I was surprised I still knew which way was up and which way was right after that. Also, I was surprised that I only had a bit of port on my scarf and hands, but not on my white shirt. Most people, I think, ended up with at least some amount of port on their clothes because walking backwards while holding cups of port is definitely not good for coordination. It didn't help that we occasionally had traffic jams, caused by some people walking slower than others. And there were times I felt like I would fall backward if not for the people holding my arms on both sides...
So basically, I had about 2.5 hours sleep last night. And now I am going to go orienteering. We will see how the walking backwards has affected my orientation skills. (Or more likely, how port and lack of sleep has affected them.)
So basically, I had about 2.5 hours sleep last night. And now I am going to go orienteering. We will see how the walking backwards has affected my orientation skills. (Or more likely, how port and lack of sleep has affected them.)
Orienteering 1:17:39 [2] 6.52 km (11:55 / km) +180m 10:28 / km
shoes: VJ Twisters!
A blue course at Longleat Cannimore Woods. I decided to take it easy today, for various reasons. First, I'm sore, second I'm sick, third, I have blisters and my right ankle still hurts, and fourth, Boris wants me to rest. So I decided to not do the brown course (which was 8 km) and settled for this 6.5 km blue course.
It was raining quite hard before we even started orienteering, so there was mud and puddles everywhere. It was the type of day where people didn't even bother trying to run alongside the paths and avoid the mud - they just splashed right through it.
This course involved quite a lot of thinking and picking route choices. Just like the course at Leith Hill last week, this one had us going uphill, downhill, through the woods, through thorns, over logged trees, and so on. (Basically, this qualified as orienteering.)
There were 16 controls on my course total, not including the finish, and I only really messed up 5 of them. This is progress for me. The first problem control was #5. The leg from 4 to 5 went straight across the map and was quite long. I aimed to follow a small trail, cut through the woods to another trail, run to an intersection with a big trail, and then continuing on that till I got to my attackpoint (the place where the big trail split off in two directions). I got on the big trail with no problem (although perhaps half a minute of hesitation in total) and now it was just a matter of running up the hilly trail and keeping a look-out for my attackpoint. But, of course, after running on this for about a minute or two, I saw a guy in the woods and I thought I might have run far enough, so instead of going up and double-checking to see if the trail junction was actually there, I ran into the woods and found a control...which wasn't mine. So then I went back onto the road and continued till I did actually reach my attackpoint. From there, I found the control with no problems. So basically, this was a nice reminder to myself to ignore the other people in the woods and carry out my own plans. I think I lost at least 3 minutes on this little sidetrip.
The next control I didn't do so well on was number 9. In this case, however, it was just a matter of me not quite knowing which approach was best. This was another control which had several possible route choices. I decided to take some combination of trails to the right of the control and then head alongside the vegetation boundary till I hit the control. Of course, in reality, when I tried to get off the trail into the woods, I was stopped by nettles taller than I was. So I thought for a moment, decided not to be stupid, and turned back onto the trail. I ran along it a bit more and this time saw that the woods were more runnable now. (This was perhaps the most clear-cut vegetation boundary I have ever seen. While running through the woods, the pines were so dense that I continuously had to keep ducking underneath and it was really dark too!) After crossing several streams, I headed right towards the edge of these pines and then followed the thorns north till I found the control. I didn't get lost on this control or do anything too stupid, but there was a lot of hesitation and uncertainty, which I probably lost about 2 minutes on (at least).
Ahh. Number 11. By this point I suppose I was getting rather tired and the concentration was waning. There were two trails on the map right above number 10, sort of parallel. So I thought I was running on the top trail and headed east on it, then went south, then went into the woods, and then stood there confused. Finally, I figured out that I had been on the lower of the two trails and I had just gone downhill for no good reason!! So now I had to climb back uphill and keep running east towards the control. I definitely lost 5-6 minutes on this one. At least once I figured out my mistake, I knew how to correct it immediately.
Number 13 was an easy control that should not have taken me 4 minutes to find. It was quite close to 13, same elevation, and technically simple. But I came out of the woods thinking I was more south than I actually was. So I wound up hopping over dead branches for a minute or so instead of jogging easily down a parallel trail. I realized my mistake soon enough, found the silly control, and moved on.
The last bad control was #14. I came to the right place and was within 10 feet of the blasted thing. And it wasn't even hidden!!! It was simply to the north of some green and I had come around the green and therefore didn't see it (since I was looking forward). If only I had turned around! Instead, I wound up walking around there for a while trying to sort out which clumps of green were what on the map. Finally, I figured it must have been there behind me somewhere and sure enough I found it. I think I lost about 5 minutes on that one.
So in total, I had about 16 minutes of big mistakes on those five bad controls. Besides these five controls, I actually did the others quite nicely. And I really did take it easy today. I didn't sprint on the trails, but took the time to fold my map and even look ahead a bit. And when approaching controls, if I saw other orienteers (which happened a few times) I looked at my map to try to figure out exactly where the control was. It felt sweet to find the control first and definitely gave me some much-needed confidence about my navigation. =)
It was raining quite hard before we even started orienteering, so there was mud and puddles everywhere. It was the type of day where people didn't even bother trying to run alongside the paths and avoid the mud - they just splashed right through it.
This course involved quite a lot of thinking and picking route choices. Just like the course at Leith Hill last week, this one had us going uphill, downhill, through the woods, through thorns, over logged trees, and so on. (Basically, this qualified as orienteering.)
There were 16 controls on my course total, not including the finish, and I only really messed up 5 of them. This is progress for me. The first problem control was #5. The leg from 4 to 5 went straight across the map and was quite long. I aimed to follow a small trail, cut through the woods to another trail, run to an intersection with a big trail, and then continuing on that till I got to my attackpoint (the place where the big trail split off in two directions). I got on the big trail with no problem (although perhaps half a minute of hesitation in total) and now it was just a matter of running up the hilly trail and keeping a look-out for my attackpoint. But, of course, after running on this for about a minute or two, I saw a guy in the woods and I thought I might have run far enough, so instead of going up and double-checking to see if the trail junction was actually there, I ran into the woods and found a control...which wasn't mine. So then I went back onto the road and continued till I did actually reach my attackpoint. From there, I found the control with no problems. So basically, this was a nice reminder to myself to ignore the other people in the woods and carry out my own plans. I think I lost at least 3 minutes on this little sidetrip.
The next control I didn't do so well on was number 9. In this case, however, it was just a matter of me not quite knowing which approach was best. This was another control which had several possible route choices. I decided to take some combination of trails to the right of the control and then head alongside the vegetation boundary till I hit the control. Of course, in reality, when I tried to get off the trail into the woods, I was stopped by nettles taller than I was. So I thought for a moment, decided not to be stupid, and turned back onto the trail. I ran along it a bit more and this time saw that the woods were more runnable now. (This was perhaps the most clear-cut vegetation boundary I have ever seen. While running through the woods, the pines were so dense that I continuously had to keep ducking underneath and it was really dark too!) After crossing several streams, I headed right towards the edge of these pines and then followed the thorns north till I found the control. I didn't get lost on this control or do anything too stupid, but there was a lot of hesitation and uncertainty, which I probably lost about 2 minutes on (at least).
Ahh. Number 11. By this point I suppose I was getting rather tired and the concentration was waning. There were two trails on the map right above number 10, sort of parallel. So I thought I was running on the top trail and headed east on it, then went south, then went into the woods, and then stood there confused. Finally, I figured out that I had been on the lower of the two trails and I had just gone downhill for no good reason!! So now I had to climb back uphill and keep running east towards the control. I definitely lost 5-6 minutes on this one. At least once I figured out my mistake, I knew how to correct it immediately.
Number 13 was an easy control that should not have taken me 4 minutes to find. It was quite close to 13, same elevation, and technically simple. But I came out of the woods thinking I was more south than I actually was. So I wound up hopping over dead branches for a minute or so instead of jogging easily down a parallel trail. I realized my mistake soon enough, found the silly control, and moved on.
The last bad control was #14. I came to the right place and was within 10 feet of the blasted thing. And it wasn't even hidden!!! It was simply to the north of some green and I had come around the green and therefore didn't see it (since I was looking forward). If only I had turned around! Instead, I wound up walking around there for a while trying to sort out which clumps of green were what on the map. Finally, I figured it must have been there behind me somewhere and sure enough I found it. I think I lost about 5 minutes on that one.
So in total, I had about 16 minutes of big mistakes on those five bad controls. Besides these five controls, I actually did the others quite nicely. And I really did take it easy today. I didn't sprint on the trails, but took the time to fold my map and even look ahead a bit. And when approaching controls, if I saw other orienteers (which happened a few times) I looked at my map to try to figure out exactly where the control was. It felt sweet to find the control first and definitely gave me some much-needed confidence about my navigation. =)
Saturday Oct 29, 2005 #
Orienteering 1:20:00 [2]
Today was the OUOC training day. There were seven of us in total and we went to a nearby map called Youlbury Scout Camp. It was a very small map, the scale was 1:5000 and there were paths, tents, and even a pool.
We did three loops. The first loop was working on attackpoints, the second loop was working on memory, and the third was working on flow with a lot of controls short distances away from each other.
I found the memory loop quite difficult, even on such a small and technically easy map as this. The way it worked was at the start, there was a tiny bit of map (1 inch by 2 inches, maybe) which showed the start and control 1. We had to memorize the leg and get to the first control using only this memory and compass. I have never really taken compass bearings before without using a map, so it was hard to stay on the line. On the second control, although I headed in almost the right direction, I was not sure if I was a bit too far to the right or to the left and since I had no map to check, I wound up going left instead of going right. The sixth control was really difficult for me. I kept coming back to #5 about 4 times before I finally hit it. The last little sprint seemed easy after that...
We did three loops. The first loop was working on attackpoints, the second loop was working on memory, and the third was working on flow with a lot of controls short distances away from each other.
I found the memory loop quite difficult, even on such a small and technically easy map as this. The way it worked was at the start, there was a tiny bit of map (1 inch by 2 inches, maybe) which showed the start and control 1. We had to memorize the leg and get to the first control using only this memory and compass. I have never really taken compass bearings before without using a map, so it was hard to stay on the line. On the second control, although I headed in almost the right direction, I was not sure if I was a bit too far to the right or to the left and since I had no map to check, I wound up going left instead of going right. The sixth control was really difficult for me. I kept coming back to #5 about 4 times before I finally hit it. The last little sprint seemed easy after that...
Swimming race 15:00 [3]
Today was a "friendly gala" swim meet. There were four teams total and each had 2 lanes. I believe the two Oxford teams came in 2nd and 3rd place out of the 8. Over halfway through the match, we had 1st and 3rd places, but then some London team overtook us for 1st.
It was actually quite a fun meet. This one wasn't as serious as I feared it would be. Instead, I got to do 50 free in a relay, 50 fly (just the event), and 25 free in a relay. These were all quite fun and pain-free.
I warmed up for about 10 minutes and then swam my three events throughout the course of an hour. The best part was the last event, which was an 8x25 free relay, including 4 men and 4 women. I was the first person in my relay team (a rarity, since in the past I would usually be in the middle of relays). My relay team had a time of 1:45, I believe, for the total 200 meters. We came in third right behind the other Oxford relay team and one of the London teams. Very fun and very fast relay!
It was actually quite a fun meet. This one wasn't as serious as I feared it would be. Instead, I got to do 50 free in a relay, 50 fly (just the event), and 25 free in a relay. These were all quite fun and pain-free.
I warmed up for about 10 minutes and then swam my three events throughout the course of an hour. The best part was the last event, which was an 8x25 free relay, including 4 men and 4 women. I was the first person in my relay team (a rarity, since in the past I would usually be in the middle of relays). My relay team had a time of 1:45, I believe, for the total 200 meters. We came in third right behind the other Oxford relay team and one of the London teams. Very fun and very fast relay!
Friday Oct 28, 2005 #
Running 59:36 [2]
Running with SGB (Stephen Granger B) at South Park. Technically, we were doing a hill workout. 5 sets of 1 long uphill, 1 short uphill. But in reality, he was tall and fast and ran up very quickly, and I was tired, feeling full from lunch, and completely not in the mood to sprint so I crawled up the hill. To be fair, I did do a few of the last short uphills relatively quickly, but nothing compared to the speed his long legs produced. Afterward, we ran around the park for a bit and talked about college traditions and the awesome sunset. Since South Park is basically nothing more than a grassy hill with a few trees and a fence all the way around it, there is a great unobstructed view of the sunset. While jogging downhill before the last uphill, I noted that the sunset was about halfway behind the horizon. When jogging down again (maybe 1-2 minutes later at most), it was already almost all the way down!!! The sun sets so quickly!
Sunday at 2 AM is the Merton Time Ceremony. This is when all Mertonians wear sub fusc (black and white formal wear and gowns) and walk backwards for an hour around Fellows Quad drinking port. I wonder if I should log this as training...
Sunday at 2 AM is the Merton Time Ceremony. This is when all Mertonians wear sub fusc (black and white formal wear and gowns) and walk backwards for an hour around Fellows Quad drinking port. I wonder if I should log this as training...
Thursday Oct 27, 2005 #
Swimming 45:00 [2]
Today there were only 5 of us at morning practice so Roger (the coach) worked with us on our technique. So even though I was in the pool for an 1 hour, 15 minutes, I think only about 45 minutes of that was doing sets and the rest practicing technique. It was a fun morning.
Running 46:45 [2]
A nice easy run with three other OUOC members. I mostly ran with Chris and kept a nice easy pace. This run went on a lot of pavement, unfortunately, but there was a nice path run along the river as well.
Strength Training 5:00 [3]
Crunches.
Wednesday Oct 26, 2005 #
Running 1:03:26 [3]
I was going to take today off, but then was feeling a bit out of sorts and decided I needed to get out and clear my head. I opened my window and yelled to Grant, who lives in the house across from me and we agreed to go for a run. Although he had to stop a few times to catch his breath, overall he kept up with me and the run was enjoyable. I almost got us back to University Parks, but took a left turn instead of a right and wound up in Oxford suburbia. So I asked for directions and Grant and I managed to make our way back to college. (We ran for about 43 minutes, took a short break to get oriented again, then ran for another 20 minutes back home.) I have a lot of mud all over my legs now and I got stung by some nettles, but I feel much better now.
Strength Training 5:00 [3]
Crunches.
Monday Oct 24, 2005 #
Swimming 1:30:00 [4]
Today's workout:
200 choice
100 swim
100 kick (I did 50 because my feet/ankles were hurting)
100 pull (I hate pull)
6x50 (3 free, 3 choice)
THE BIG SET 18x100 free
- first three were descending: 1st was supposed to be season's best time + 16 seconds, 2nd was SB + 14 sec, 3rd was SB + 12 sec. (In my case, since I had done 1:14:53 for my 100 free on Saturday at time trials, I was supposed to go about 1:31 for the first 100, 1:29 for the second, and 1:27 for the third.)
- the other 15 100s were supposed to be consistently SB + 12 seconds. I usually did 1:25, 1:26, but did 1:27 and 1:28 a couple of times. On the last one, I did 1:23.
- in general, I got about 15-20 seconds rest in between.
This set was really hard and in the beginning I really didn't so great about it, but about half-way through it, I began to kick harder and feel more like I was gliding through the water than just barely moving. And the last few definitely felt fast. It was a hard set, but it was also the type that makes you feel good about yourself afterward.
150 easy
8x50 easy
Total: 3,150 meters (I did 3,100)
200 choice
100 swim
100 kick (I did 50 because my feet/ankles were hurting)
100 pull (I hate pull)
6x50 (3 free, 3 choice)
THE BIG SET 18x100 free
- first three were descending: 1st was supposed to be season's best time + 16 seconds, 2nd was SB + 14 sec, 3rd was SB + 12 sec. (In my case, since I had done 1:14:53 for my 100 free on Saturday at time trials, I was supposed to go about 1:31 for the first 100, 1:29 for the second, and 1:27 for the third.)
- the other 15 100s were supposed to be consistently SB + 12 seconds. I usually did 1:25, 1:26, but did 1:27 and 1:28 a couple of times. On the last one, I did 1:23.
- in general, I got about 15-20 seconds rest in between.
This set was really hard and in the beginning I really didn't so great about it, but about half-way through it, I began to kick harder and feel more like I was gliding through the water than just barely moving. And the last few definitely felt fast. It was a hard set, but it was also the type that makes you feel good about yourself afterward.
150 easy
8x50 easy
Total: 3,150 meters (I did 3,100)
Strength Training 5:00 [3]
Crunches.