Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Monday, May 20, 2002 Short Champs at Mount PennI have mixed feelings about this year's short champs. I'm really happy about the good races from OKers. Mary won F35. Peggy won F40. Dan won M40. I really disappointed in my race.3 of 4 OKers Won US Championships! Mary had a great run and won F35 by about 30 seconds. I was really psyched (though Mary seemed calm and collected). It was one of her best races ever. Dan and Peggy would be considered favorites in their categories. I wasn't surprised they won. But, I was happy they won. My own race was a drag. Scared of the Forest I struggled with running. My legs felt fine, but I was scared. I never felt comfortable running in the rocky (and wet) forest. Instead of paying attention to the map, I was looking at the ground and worrying about hurting myself. I moved slowly and boomed. I was annoyed because the terrain and course suited me (except that I was afraid of the woods). The course had a lot of controls -- 17 over 4.6 km. That usually is good for me. I'm slow and steady. Having a lot of controls suits a slow steady run as long as you don't boom much. Being afraid of running in the forest was not nice. I never relaxed. I never felt comfortable. I never paid enough attention to navigating. I'm fairly sure I'll recover from my knee/leg problems phsyically. But, I'll be in real trouble if I don't feel good running in the forest again. After thinking about it a bit, I decided on a plan for feeling better about running in the woods: How to Get Over the Fear I need to keep strengthening my left leg -- mostly running, biking and walking the stairs at work. As my stength returns, there shouldn't be any reason to worry about a re-injury. I also need to try to forget about it -- try to run without thinking about getting hurt. Trying to avoid thinking about something can be difficult (think about how hard it can be to fall asleep when you are worried about something). Logically, I recognize there isn't any reason to be afraid of running inthe woods. My injury was a freak accident. No reason to think I'll have another freak accident. I also need to just keep my head up -- look ahead at features in the terrain instead of looking down at the footing. If I'm looking ahead I'll orienteer better (as long as I know what to be looking for) and I won't be looking at (and worrying about) the footing. Downhill running has always been a waekness and is the scariest situation for me these days (especially if it is rocky). As I get a little bit stronger, I'll need to start working on running downhills. On the second day at Mount Penn, I did much better. Most of the race I felt good -- I wasn't scared. My plan (mostly keeping my head up) seemed to help. posted by Michael | 1:18 PM 
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