Tuesday 29 May 2012

Team Trials/Barebones

This past weekend was the second set of races in order to qualify for the WOC team. Barebones was held in Canmore with the sprint and long distance races on the intricate ski trails at the Canmore Nordic Centre and the middle distance on the Mt. Laurie map that has some very complex areas. Simply was not a good weekend for me. The first race was the sprint on Saturday which was going very well but blew a control and was out of the race. Unfortunately I ran into a tree on a trail, I glanced down at the map and the trail turned and I hit the tree at full speed, scrapped up my leg, hand and shoulder. The long was the same day in the afternoon, I decided to run in despite being pretty sore from the sprint and my foot contusion was acting up again which made running painful. Didn't have a great race, too many small mistakes throughout the course and a lot of climb on a sore body didn't help my situation either. The middle on Sunday was tricky and I made a few bad mistakes early, combined with being injured was not fun so I decided to take a DNF which made the end to the weekend even more frustrating.  This spring I have done the most orienteering ever prior to the major spring races and have had some of my worst races ever which is very frustrating. Being injured and not feeling 100% probably has affected my results but regardless it is very annoying and I know I can't do anything about it. The WOC team will be announced June 3rd.

Getting some ice on my shoulder after the sprint.


Train on,
Damian

Thursday 24 May 2012

Sage Stomp/ Team Trials #1

Sage Stomp was last weekend and was the first series of races that I chose to do to qualify for the World Champs in Switzerland this July. The races were definitely tough as too was the competition. I did not have my best races and have a foot contusion injury which did not help my situation. I had some very good splits but could not hold it together for a complete race which was disappointing to say the least. I hope to improve my performances at this weekend’s Barebones races and make the podium in all three races. The competition looks to have more depth than last weekend so it will be tough to finish in the top three and secure a solid spot on the team.


M21 E Middle Distance


Train on,
Damian

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Great Training But Fighting To Stay Injury Free

Nice session with Patrick out at Bow Valley today in the 28C heat! The leader had the map that was blank except for around the control circle and the follower had the whole map just in case. Really good exercise for distance judgement, bearings, and not worrying about reading every little detail. This was the 2009 Barebones M21E middle course. Injured mysely about a week ago which ended up to be a forefoot contusion, bad timing with trials coming up on the next two weekends. Hope i'm good to go by then even though my foot was sore after this today!


 Time: 36:09 going fairly easy


Train on,
Damian