Training Log Archive: Kat

Running to and from the minibus, which we had to park about a kilometer away because the parking lot at the event was full.

EVENT: CHIG District Event at Epping Forest North
COURSE: Brown, 8.3 km, 105 meters climb, 23 controls
TERRAIN: The white parts were very white, with just fallen leaves covering soft muddy ground and almost no undergrowth. The green was very dense, being somewhat passable when it was holly and absolutely impenetrable when it was other vegetation (thin trees, thick bushes, etc.). The technical eastern bit of the map with lots of pits in the bracken was quite difficult, but more so because of the low visibility than intricate detail.
MY RUN: Everything hurt from yesterday, especially my calves (which felt really tight) and my heels (from running on uneven ground). And yet, I would have had an awesome run had I not made a 9-minute mistake on #17. I did make some other smaller mistakes as well and also had to make a pit-stop once, but I would have had a very respectable time had it not been for this one big mishap. Basically, there were two ways of getting to #17 - on a trail to the north of it or on a trail to the south of it. I chose the southern route. So I went along the trail, found the wet pit right by the side of it and cut into the woods, heading north and looking for the the white passage through the green. After going ahead, I bumped into the northern trail and turned back, thinking I must have just not seen the control. A few minutes later, after fighting through some green, I made it back to the southern trail. I found the wet pit again and cut into the woods a second time, and again drifted a bit too far west (trying to stay in the white and not hack into the green) and hit the northern trail. This time I followed it west, tried to relocate, and wound up at #18. Finally I knew where I was and headed to #17 on the northern trail, spiking the control. So it looks like had I taken the northern trail to begin with, I would have found the control just fine, but trying to attack it from the south was much more difficult, even though the two options looked about even on the map. To be honest, this is the type of mistake I can see myself making again, because there was nothing wrong with the way I planned on attacking the control. However, what I can fix is the fact that I hadn't even seen the northern trail option to begin with because of the way I'd folded my map. I should be careful in the future to not obscure route choices in this way!
RESULTS: 21st out of 55 people doing Brown. Helen and I were the only girls doing the course and she beat me by 3+ minutes. Winner was Ollie O'Brien, who had a fantastic run!
MISTAKE ANALYSIS:
#2 - 1 minute, parallel error with the streams
#10 - 15 seconds, slight hesitation near control
#13 - 1:45, bad route choice through the green + pit stop
#14 - 15 seconds, got tangled in the green again
#17 - 9:30, bad route choice
#19 - 15 seconds, couldn't see anything above the bracken
#22 - 15 seconds, couldn't see anything above the bracken
#23 - 1:30, went to the finish instead of the last control!
TOTAL: 14:45 minutes of mistakes.

Brown - Splits

EVENT: CUOC Sprint-O. This is an annual race organized by Cambridge each year meant for students to come out and have fun. Five universities showed up this year: Oxford, Cambridge, Sheffield, Manchester, and Nottingham.
FORMAT: Everybody runs the first sprint, which is forked with a mass start. Then the top half runs the A-semifinal and the bottom half runs the B-semifinal (again forked with mass starts for each half). Then the top four in the A group move on to the final. The final has a mass start but every person has a different forking, so it is an individual race. Winner of the final is the winner of the day.
TERRAIN: Typical Cambridge terrain - flat with more green on the map than white. The white was tall bracken, green slashes were bracken with brambles, and the green was really, REALLY green. Not many features either, so unfortunately some controls had to be placed on vegetation boundaries, not all of which were distinct.
RACE #1: We lined up in a circle and were given our maps face-down. When the organizer told us to start, I turned over my map and spent what seemed like ages figuring out where #1 was! Ruth, who had the same loop I did, was halfway across the field before I started running. So as soon as I figured things out, I took off. I ran almost full speed around the course, keeping an eye on the other girls. Ruth went to the wrong control after the first loop, but Becka and I stayed on track, sort of taking turns with the lead. She was right ahead of me as we finished, coming in 1st and 2nd. I was really surprised, but definitely in a good way!

RACE #2: THE SEMIFINAL
None of the faster girls had the same first loop as I did and I had the most technical bit of the course in the beginning. I made a pretty big mistake on the first control (which was in a tricky area with many paths) and was a bit shaky to the second control as well, but afterward I legged it to the rest of the controls and took a good route choice through the green once, which may have earned me back some time. After I'd finished the first loop and punched the spectator control, I caught sight of Becka starting the second loop, about 200 meters ahead. This gave me hope and I ran even faster to catch up to her. I did eventually catch up at one control and we stayed together for the last few. I knew I could stay with her, but I'd pushed my body so hard after making that big mistake at the beginning, there was no way I could pass her. I almost tripped over my own feet a few times. I was moving fast, but exhausted. We ran to the finish and I was again surprised to find that we had come in 1st and 2nd, same as last time.

RACE #3: THE FINAL
The top four girls were Becka, me, Helen, and a Norwegian girl. I was having some serious stomach pains after the semifinal race and told the organizer I was thinking about not running. The pain hadn't completely cleared by the time we were called up for the final, but it was a bit better and I knew that if I didn't run, I would always wonder what could have happened. So I started. The first control was a distinct tree in the green and took me a while to find, because it actually wasn't very distinct at all. After that, I ran fast, but was not as fast or as sharp as I could have been. It was very hard to concentrate after having run two fast races already and after my bad start I figured I'd come in fourth anyway. I pushed my tired body around the course, through the bracken, green, nettles, and brambles with only the thought of finishing and not having to run anymore that day. And when I got to the finish, I was amazingly second yet again, but this time behind Helen. Somehow if Becka had won (as she'd done the first two times), I wouldn't have been too bothered, but having Helen beat me put me off a bit. I'd beaten her twice already today and I could have done it again. I could have pushed myself more, could have concentrated just the slightest bit better. I ran the final at a hard pace, but I didn't kill myself on it like I could have. Helen is about the same speed as I am and definitely a better technical orienteer, but I am capable of beating her, and if I had more confidence in myself and started the race aiming to win it rather than to finish it, perhaps I would have. When you run for fourth place, chances are you're not going to get first...
The slight upset of being beaten by Helen put aside, it was a glorious day for Oxford. Helen and I took first and second place on the women's side and Ian won the 1/2 Alc-O!

C • Great racing! Those head to h... 1

Short Friday session.
warm-up: 5x100 free warm-up
main:
8x25 free on 30 sec
6x{50 free on 55 sec, 50 back on 60 sec}
4x50 free (count strokes, focus on good technique)
4x50 fly/back on 65 sec
cool-down: 3x100 free/back
TOTAL: 2,000 meters

25 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes spinning (standing up the entire time), 3 minutes on the treadmill (just to test it out).

An excellent swim session with Wylie. This is the greatest distance I've done in a single session since last year, yet instead of feeling tired at the end, I felt energized!
warm-up:5x100 free
main:
6x50 free on 55 sec
4x{75 free (breathe 3,5,7 by 25s) on 1:20, 50 back on 65 sec}
3x50 free on 55 sec
50 back easy
6x100 free on 1:45 (first and last ones were 1:30, others were 1:32)
3x50 free on 55 sec
100 back easy
4x{50 fly/back on 60, 50 kick on 70}
6x{50 free on 55, 50 back on 60}
(free 50s were ~44 sec, back 50s were ~51 sec}
cool-down: 350 easy (back, free, with a few short breaks)
TOTAL: 3,700 meters

Another long run with Wylie - the usual Port Meadow and Nature Reserve loop. On the way back, the tow path was blocked by some construction guys, so we had to make a detour on pavement, which made my knees hurt. Then we had to climb a fence to get back onto the path. There were metal studs above the locked gate, but only widely-spaced metal sticks along the fence, so it was no problem to get over. And this brief pause meant I felt refreshed when we started running again. :)

Just core and quads today.

OUAC circuits. It was definitely easier to do some of the exercises last week when my legs weren't so tired!