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Occassional thoughts about orienteering


Saturday, October 15, 2005

Not what I'd hoped for

 


When I went orienteering today I didn't expect to end up running just ten minutes. But that is what happened. I turned an ankle and didn't finish the course. As soon as possible, I wrapped the ankle tightly and iced it. We'll see how it feels tomorrow. It is enough of an injury that I'm not going to Columbia tomorrow.

Here is the part of the course that I ran.



The forest at Jacomo is thick and thorny. The main challenge for route choice is to minimize time in the forest. The course setter used big, distinct features (at least for the first three controls). So the navigation wasn't tricky.

I saw two options to the first control. You could go just left of the line, pick up the fence and follow it to the control. Or, you could go right of the line, touch the trail, then follow the narrow gap between the green areas to the control. Dick Luckerman, the mapper, does a good job of drawing the differences in green. I was confident I'd be able to find the narrow gap and confident that it would be passable. So, I took the route to the right of the straight line.

I saw two options to the second control. The course setter thought straight was fastest. I'm not sure about that. I went back through the gap in the green that I'd used to approach control 1, then ran on the trail until I could see the pond.

To three -- once again two routes. You could go a bit lef and use the trail. You could go a bit right and use the open area. I went through the open area and used the white forest to approach the control. About 50 meters before the marker I turned my ankle and fell, landing on my left shoulder hard enough that the shoulder is sore.

That was the end of the race for me.

Ankle injuries

I've had very little ankle trouble over the years. I can recall two times when I turned an ankle badly enough that I stopped the course (today was the third). I hoping that a couple of days off and then easing back into running will be all that it takes. I'll probably run in an Active Ankle for the next couple of O' races.

My plan is to wait until tomorrow and then see how it feels. Depending on how it feels, I'll make a training plan (or maybe a rest, recovery plan) for the next week or so.

Since I don't have much experience with ankle injuries, I'm a bit unsure about how long it is likely to take to recover (obviously it depends on the level of injury) or how best to get back to training. If anyone has thoughts or suggestions, leave them as comments.

posted by Michael | 6:41 PM

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