Training Log Archive: El Chucko

warmup

COC sprint, 23rd place well back of what I might have hoped for. Ran a pretty composed race, except for a couple 10-15s errors where I overshot a control and took a poor route. 2 problems today. The first problem was that I simply didn't have the jets to compete with the speedsters after poor training the last 3 years and hardly any running the last couple of months. The second problem that I had was that I was racing far too conservatively on what effectively became a runners course. It was pretty motivating seeing my former peers (Robbie, Stephen, Eric, Darius) all have good races and makes we want to start training seriously again.

Sprint Course 5. - Splits

warmup

COC middle. Started out following my race plan of being slow and cautious, but after catching the competitor ahead of me and hitting a trail running leg I ran too fast and lost focus. Really had a rough time of controls 5 to 9 out of 20, making a number of 1-3 minute mistakes adding up to about 8 minutes or so total. Was then running with Darius and Stephen for the second half of the race and made pretty decent time. Finished 19th place, about 13 minutes behind the winner, fairly disappointed at the result and the fact that I lost focus so badly. If I had managed to maintain concentration I would have finished within the top 10 within 5 minutes of the leaders.

Middle distance, M21E - Splits

Relay race at Nakkertok. Was running the 1st leg on my team and was excited to be in the mass start but didn't get a chance to properly warm up and almost blew my ankle. Powered through the 1st 4 controls but realized I probably couldn't sustain that pace and slowed down but that was just as well as I entered the technical area. Was not running terribly fast (could have pushed it much more) but was focused on navigating crisply and managed to do that with the exception of a couple 10 to 15s bobbles and hesitations. Finished 3rd out of 40 1st leg runners, a great improvement on yesterday's showing, well behind Graeme R and slightly behind Jeff T but ahead of Igor P, Graeme E and Darius K who I was jockeying with the whole time.

Carleton setup sprint, first time doing orienteering in 3 months and it showed. Had problems with the scale and vegetation and made 2 minutes of mistakes in the first 4 controls, and was losing about 5 seconds per control in running speed/hesitations in the urban part of the sprint. Finished 3 minutes back, well behind the cluster of people finishing a minute apart

Chase sprint. Started out flying through the first couple controls but my head wasn't into it (maybe the heat got to me or wasn't used to such detailed map reading or something). Made a big screw up on #3, a tricky area with 2 different levels and impassible fences and had to run around for about 2 minutes before I could get the control. Wasn't reading ahead well enough and blew another minute on 7 on a poor route choice. Was too far back at this point so just gave up and jogged it in casually to the finish, saving my energy for another day. Really wasn't satisfied with my performances, knowing I must be much much better when the championship events come around. Finished about 21/25 in both sprints

Event: Canadian Orienteering Championships