Training Log Archive: cporter

Cardio Kickboxing - 25 min
Sparring - 25 min
Abs - 10 min

Long Run - I wanted to maintain a good speed for the run and work each hill. I was able to keep it up for the first 30 min, but then dehydration kicked in and I slowed down significantly (I had already spent an hour kickboxing and it was a crazy day at work which meant I wasn't able to keep up with drinking water so I was feeling pretty sick in the 80 degree heat). My left knee also really started to bother me in the last 15 min of the run.

5 hill reps (of a fairly substantial hill) running each successive rep at at least the same speed or faster

3 reps 10 push-ups, 3 reps 30 regular crunches, 3 reps lower ab crunches/leg lifts, 1 rep 30 bicycles, 2 reps of 20 crunches to each knee

DVOA's Chasing the Star Long/WRE - I know some people weren't a fan of the terrain today, but I thought that the courses were designed well considering that all we were doing was running around one big mountain. I especially enjoyed the latter 2/3rds of the course where it was a little less steep so contouring wasn't so tough on the ankles and knees and the woods were more open(would have been spectacular if I were faster). Long courses always prove to be difficult for me since one of my weakest areas in orienteering is route choice. Today was definetly a good boost of confidence in that area. With the exception of one long leg I was able to make a decision fairly at the control (or at least found my way to a major road/trail that I knew I needed to take and made the rest of the route choice en route) and executed all but three of my legs well. The legs that gave me trouble were 3, 7, and 9 and consequently were the three legs that I believe I lost the most time on. I also lost some time on my way to 13, just because I know I wasn't running nearly as fast as the other women running the WRE. I also bobbled 14 and 18 a bit too. Otherwise I felt pretty good out there. I maintained a fairly consistent pace throughout the course and managed to keep my head pretty clear throughout the race (another problem of mine on long races) and maintained my focus.

This weekend for me was a fantastic experience for several reasons. First of all it served as a great way to mark the end of what can only be described as a harrowing first year of grad school. It also served as the kick-off to the excellent summer of orienteering that is ahead of me and finally it has given me a solid understanding of where is stand in the field of orienteering. I have a lot of goals for the next couple of years, but before this weekend I had been sort of running blindly through the woods without a map and compass and hoping that I was going in the right direction with my training. I had no expectations going into this weekend, but I can say that any unspoken hopes that I had were fulfilled. I am very pleased with where I am right now and I am very much looking forward to where I may be going in the future. I greatly appreciate that Peter gave me a mention as the 3rd alternate for the women's US team (Thank you Peter if you happen to read this!) not because I had any hope for WOC this year (because all the women are going to be healthy and run great races this summer!!!), but because I do have high hopes for making the WOC team in the future. Now I know that what I have been doing (although not enough) has been helping - all I have to do now is do more of that, plus some, and do it better.

Red Y Long - Splits

DVOA's Chasing the Star Middle Distance - I feared that my other competitors would feel that I had an advantage over them since I have run at Hickory Run before, but to anyone that knows the map that is nothing to worry about. My race alone should be proof enough. Overall, my race was fairly clean (besides being slow, of course), but I managed one major error and a couple minor ones that significantly added to my time in the woods. First of all I botched my route to #1 - I definetly was not focused and I hesitated and second guessed myself just out side of the control circle which added about a minute of error. I ran pretty cleanly until my leg to #6. I had a solid route choice, I just failed to execute it. Upon reviewing what I did and where I ended up, I think I actually took my compas bearing to #7 which was about 30 degress and just a little farther from #6. I didn't even question that I was going the right way because I found another spur to run down (which was my plan for my way to #6) and I even hit a swamp that I thought was the one that I planned to use as a collecting feature along the way. Since I was running on a rough bearing and had a pretty solid linear feature to catch me I didn't look too hard at my map. When I hit a marsh, rather than the stream I knew something was wrong. Fortunately there were three good features (marsh, rocky ground, and distinct veg boundary) to relocate off and I was able to use the vegetation boundary to lead me thorugh some otherwise bland terrain to the control. It was a nice recovery, but I'd say it still cost me at least 5 min. From there on out I didn't have too much trouble. On my way to #8 I found a bit of fence that had the line connecting the controls drawn exactly over it and completly covering it that would have made me less hesitant in my route choice and on my way to #8. I also bobbled #8 a bit as well as #13 and then had another hesitant route to #14, but other than that every thing else was pretty clean. Again, minus the whole being too slow thing. Another thing that also slowed me down were my shoes. I desperately needed a new pair and wore them for the first time today - even though they fit pretty spectacularly when I first tried them on they still rubbed a bit which made the last km or so pretty painful.

RedY Middle - Splits

Event: US Team Trials
 

DVOA Chasing the Star Sprint/WRE - I was a little nervous about how I would do this weekend since I hadn't done any running in close to two weeks (I did however go orienteering the previous two weekends, not only to orienteer, but also to procrasitnate) due to finals. I was even more nervous since I pulled an all-nighter from Tue into Wed and I wasn't sure if that would affect my performance. Fortunately, I was fairly pleased with how I did. Of course I could have run faster, but with the exception of only a few controls I think made good route choices and executed them well too. The only two legs that gave me problems were on my way to #1 because I was nervous and took a not optimal route and on my way to #3 I misread the map and though that two buildings were actually one and ended up running around both of them rather than between them, which cost me at least a minute. On my way to #3 Pavlina caught me and by #7 she had managed to put some distance between us and Angelica caught up to me. For the rest of the course though we kept in sight of each other and even picked up Daria around #10. The four of us continued together until our way to the infamous control #14. I had started to get tired and was probably about 15 seconds behind them and was looking at my map when Pavlina split from Daria and Angelica. Pavlina took the route that I had planned to take, and revealed that there were in fact a set of stairs off the terrace (they were not obvious from a distance) just as I was beginning to second guess myself. From then on I was only able to keep her in sight from a distance, but Angelica and Daria lost a significant amount of time running around the building which meant that Angelica beat me by a much smaller margin. Overall, I was pleased, running in a pack definetly helped my time and made the already great course even more exciting!

Red Sprint - Splits

I have not abandoned AP, but its the end of the semester and work has been crazy so my training has been sporadic and I really don't have time to post. My last final is due at noon on Wed, May 21 so I'll be back soon!

Event: SVO/QOC Mont Alto
 

Event: QOC Balls Bluff
 

QOC meet at Balls Bluff - Blue course. More details will come tomorrow when I'm not so tired.

Kickboxing Class. Let's just say that the class kicked me more that I kicked it. Really fun though - exactly what I needed today.

Since I have class on Wed. I decided to try to combine my hill workout with a middle distance run. I had hoped to do only 45 min of running, but took a wrong turn when I tried to cut down my route so my 30 min warm-up turned into a 45 min warm-up. What is worse is that I could not find the hill that I had had in mind for my hill reps. I cut across the park to the other side of the loop that I normally run and I was pretty sure that the hill that I wanted to run was after that point, but before I knew it I was nearly finished the loop and had not come to the hill that I wanted. I just made do with another hill, but it was much shorter and not as steep as I wanted.

Like I said in my warm-up I was unable to find the right hill, but after 45 min of running I just wanted to get the workout over with. I found a hill that was about 75m from start to finish (about 25 of that was a flat section at the top, but I also like to train for running off the top of hills). I was running out of time so I only did 4 reps, but I ran each as hard as I could with the goal to run each one faster (or at least not any slower.) My first 3 hills were only tenths of a second different at 29sec, but the last hill was faster at 27 sec. It wasn't much of a workout, but at least now I know to plan better for the next one.

Both the temperature in the morning and the price of gas are high enough - its bike to work time!

Core work out. Chloe taught the class today=ouch.

Just signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon! (October 26, 2008) I've got my work a head of me.

Bike Commute home

Also just realized that today marks 2 months until I take off for Sweden! Can't wait!

West Point A-Meet - Classic Disance. Well, I had had hopes of redeeming myself today for Saturday's sloppy races, but I am unhappy to report that this race was my worst performance of the weekend. Training wise, I seemed to either nail everything I intended to do on a leg, or I completly blew it all. Overall, I had more clean legs than poor ones, but when I did make a mistake, it was a big one. Again, I planned to work on the same skills as Saturday. My first control was OK, I hesistated, especially at the start, but managed to run a fairly clean leg. Control #2 was by far my best leg of the race, and then we get to #3. I did just about every thing you are not supposed to do on my way to control number three. I picked a weak attack point, but changed my mind half way through my leg and used a cliff as my attack point which may or may not have been the cliff that I thought it was on the map. It didn't take long before I started to lose confidence and realized that I definetly was not where I thought I was. I found several other controls out in the woods that were not mine and tried to relocate off of them, but had no success. Fortunately I eventually was able to relocate off of the 3rd control I found out there that was not mine, but by my estimation, I lost at least 15 min on that leg. Controls 4,5, and 6 went well, but I really slowed down so that I didn't repeat 3 and because the fog was actually getting worse so my visibility was greatly diminishing. Since control 7 was mostly a trail run clear across the map, I was able to collect my head and only bobbled slightly within the control circle. However, on my way to number 9, I started to get intense pain in my right knee with shooting pains down the outside of my calf - I literally could not run the pain was so bad. Walking was fine since I didn't need to bend my knees past 90 degrees, but running was definetly out. It was so frustrating too because the woods finally opened up and were less rocky, but I just could not run. My guess is that all of the running that I did through the low bushed from 6-9 aggrivated my IT band which caused the pain, hopefully that is it :(

Overall, I was really unhappy with my finishing time. Had I not made such a huge error at number 3 and been able to run the entire second half of the course I probably could have shaved a good 30 min off my time.

C • Bummer.. 3

Event: West Point A-Meet
 

West Point A-Meet - Middle Distance. After speaking with Bob Turbyfil numerous times, he has thoroughly ingrained into my orienteering philosophy that any race that is not "the race" (i.e. the race in which I am specifically training for) is just training. This is not necessarily a new concept to me - in the past I have told others (and myself for that matter) that I was running a race as a training, but it was more of an ego-saving that I made when I expected to run poorly, I would attempt to run the cleanest run I could, but if I didn't then it was no big deal because it was "just training". The real problem with this defense mechanism is that I really gained nothing out of my previous "trainings" - if I ran poorly, I hardly ever asked myself "Why?" But when Bob Turbyfil asks you "Why?" you better have answer and I've come to realize that I want the answer too. There is a lot that I want to accomplish in the next 18 months, but I will never get there physically or mentally if I do not know what I need to improve or how to do it. At this point I do not know how to correct all of the orienteering mistakes that I make, but we'll worry about that when I more fully realize what those mistakes precisely are...

So, back to the middle distance. Since this race was a training here is what I hoped to work on at the start of my race: clean first control, using the C.A.R. method when making a route choice on each control (especially haveing a clearly defined attack point, before I leave the previous control), and to practice map simplification as much as possible. I should also say that all of these techniques are things that I want to become automatic habits, eventually. So how did I do? Well I was hesitant on chosing a route choice to #1 and I did bobble the control once I was in the control circle, but I did manage to take my time, choose a good attack point and not completely blow the control - we'll call it a partial success. As for practicing the CAR method and simplifying the map, I'd say I successfully planned for and executed these two skills on 50% of the course. Controls that I ran particularly well were numbers 2,3,8,11,and 13. Controls number 5 and 10 were almost huge mistakes if I hadn't correctly estimated my distance. Interestingly, numbers 9 and 12,the two shortest legs (and by short I mean practically on top of the previous control) were the two that I really blew. Perhaps I did so because they were such short legs there I did not pick an attack point?

Overall, the course was slow, but it was slow for everyone. The fog also created problems for successfully implementing my training goals. On #10 I literally ran right by the huge crop of bare rock that I had chosen as an attack point because the fog obscured it - in general it was difficult to see even large features unless you were right on top of them. Despite all of that (and the rain) I enjoyed the course and felt like I got some decent training in.

West Point A-Meet - Sprint. Again, ran this sprint as a training focusing on the same techniques as the middle as well as making a quick exit from each control (i.e. have my route planned before I entered the control). Unfortunately, I did not do so well with my goals. I bobbled at least 50% of the controls and hence did not have my subsequent route planned because I had to search for the controls. I also made some pretty poor route choices and grew hesitant as the course ran on. I did nail the first control which pleases me, but it hardly makes up for the other 19 that didn't go so well. Oddly my finishing place was better for this race (there were fewer competitors though), but overall I wasn't very pleased with my sloppy performance.

After a very long, but pleasant car ride up to West Point, I just needed to get out, stretch my legs, and move - took an easy jog around Camp Buckner. Once again thank you so much to the Ferguson's for the ride to and from West Point.