Training Log Archive: Mark3In the 1 days ending Jun 18, 2017:
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Sunday Jun 18, 2017 #
Orienteering - Forest race (Jukola 2017) 2:02:28 [5] 19.0 km (6:27 / km) +410m 5:49 / km
ahr:139 max:162 shoes: X-Talon 212 (May 17)
http://routegadget.jukola.com/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?a...#
Stayed up to watch the start at 11pm and watched the big screen as they all went through the first TV control, expecting to see the UBOC top of Matt Whipple come through for our first team. Phil and I could not believe it when Owain came through in the top 300 and ahead of Matt. I don't often get excited on other people's behalf, but it was pretty amazing. Went back to the tent and to bed but kept checking the splits every so often and Owain just kept gaining places. Must've got to sleep for a bit since Owain woke me up when he came back and I blearily congratulated him. Then it seemed like no time at all before Clare (leg 4) woke me.
Checked the splits again and saw that everyone had had pretty solid runs. Made the decision at this point to take very careful choices - the training events hadn't filled me with confidence in my navigational skills and I now wasn't expecting to be in a pack and didn't want to let the team down.
Waited in the start box for slightly longer than expected as Phil made a small mistake near the end of his leg - but he still set me off in 292nd place after reaching the team's highest position of 271st at one point.
A very different experience this year, setting off totally on my own. There were a lot of people around nearer the start, but none of them on my leg, and this thinned out to barely anyone at all at some points.
Safe path route to #1, but was still trying to go too fast and not paying enough attention to where I needed to leave the path and found another control before mine. Learnt from this and did better on #2. Then #3 was a big mistake - at least 2 mins - mistook the first path for the one near the control (not sure how since they are a long way apart!) and started looking in the wrong set of rocks a good 300m away from where I thought I was - it didn't help that there were lots of controls in this area. Did the right thing though and relocated rather than wandering around, realised what had happened and then found the control easily. But I was very worried about making mistakes by this point and so chose a very long path route to #4 - I wouldn't normally go quite that far from the straight line and I doubt anyone else did, but it gave me chance to plan a lot of the rest of the course and also relax a bit and get over the mistake, so it was probably the right choice.
Lost a bit more time on #5 by not going to the control I could see because I was sure it wasn't mine (wrong!) as it looked to be on the top the hill whereas I wanted an outcrop lower down. Looking at it now, not for the first time, I had been fooled by the excessive Finnish use of form lines which makes hills look twice as big as they actually are! And also I guess I just couldn't see the rest of the hill through the trees.
Some good tracks had formed to 6 and 7 so just needed to ensure I was on the right ones.
I had planned this leg already and I think I made a good choice, although struggling through the green near the start of the leg was very slow as no track had formed yet (or I failed to find it). But the control was easy. Similarly I had planned to go round the path to 9 and happy with that choice too; found another control before mine as AP wasn't very good but didn't lost a lot of time. 10-13 all fairly straightforward. 14 I cursed myself halfway through for not having a good enough plan, but relocated really well on the knoll in the open and navigated perfectly from there. Small miss on 15 as I found another control as I was contouring round the hill and went to it, luckily I checked the code!
16-18 all good legs including another long one around the paths. 19 is near where Phil got lost so I'm glad I took a very safe route here - I was thrown by the ride which didn't seem to be on the map and just went on compass and feel and it worked - looking at it now the ride is a very narrow strip of rough open with no distinct boundary; didn't see this on the map at the time. It looked no different on the ground to the ride mapped as a ride!
20 was my other big mistake, planned to take the path to the E but was running so fast, missed the turning and ended up on the path going round to the W. Decided to go with it rather than turning around or cutting across - but the AP wasn't as good from the W and I was far too low down. Learning point - this time and on other occasions I have tried to contour first and then ascend/descend, and this has worked out badly. On this instance it would have been much better to ascend first to the obvious contour feature and then contour from there. Anyway I came out on the path and didn't know where I was along it, went back in still without knowing, and was lucky to see some other people coming out and use them. Lucky not to lose more time here; maybe 3 mins.
Pretty good on the easier controls to the finish although lost a few seconds on the last control since the control (which I could see) was on the opposite side of the path to the feature (which I could not see) and therefore I panicked a bit thinking I was in the wrong place. This lost me the chance of out sprinting someone on the run in!
Overall a pretty solid run I think, not sparkling by any means but I didn't lose as many places as I was worried I had; in fact actually gained 7 to finish in 285th.
My leg position of 501st is better than it sounds I think; anyone in the mass start will have had a massive advantage, and that would be most of the field.
The Jukola analysis file reckons I made 27(!) mins of mistakes. I dispute this.
http://www.suunnistus.info/sf/anal/vertailu.viesti...
3 of these minutes were for instance on #8 - I'm sure I lost time here vs people in the pack, once a track had formed, but I couldn't really have avoided it being slow through the green at the time when I was doing it!
The rain started 5 minutes after I finished :)
Waited in the tent until it stopped then quick outdoor shower (very hot! The Finnish know what they're doing with showers) before the walk back to the car. Really happy with the way the whole team performed and with our finish position, there were some great runs in the other teams too and everyone got on well, etc; there was good team spirit. An excellent trip basically; looking forward to the next one (although not sure if I'd make the A team if Owain is going to be there again!).
Stayed up to watch the start at 11pm and watched the big screen as they all went through the first TV control, expecting to see the UBOC top of Matt Whipple come through for our first team. Phil and I could not believe it when Owain came through in the top 300 and ahead of Matt. I don't often get excited on other people's behalf, but it was pretty amazing. Went back to the tent and to bed but kept checking the splits every so often and Owain just kept gaining places. Must've got to sleep for a bit since Owain woke me up when he came back and I blearily congratulated him. Then it seemed like no time at all before Clare (leg 4) woke me.
Checked the splits again and saw that everyone had had pretty solid runs. Made the decision at this point to take very careful choices - the training events hadn't filled me with confidence in my navigational skills and I now wasn't expecting to be in a pack and didn't want to let the team down.
Waited in the start box for slightly longer than expected as Phil made a small mistake near the end of his leg - but he still set me off in 292nd place after reaching the team's highest position of 271st at one point.
A very different experience this year, setting off totally on my own. There were a lot of people around nearer the start, but none of them on my leg, and this thinned out to barely anyone at all at some points.
Safe path route to #1, but was still trying to go too fast and not paying enough attention to where I needed to leave the path and found another control before mine. Learnt from this and did better on #2. Then #3 was a big mistake - at least 2 mins - mistook the first path for the one near the control (not sure how since they are a long way apart!) and started looking in the wrong set of rocks a good 300m away from where I thought I was - it didn't help that there were lots of controls in this area. Did the right thing though and relocated rather than wandering around, realised what had happened and then found the control easily. But I was very worried about making mistakes by this point and so chose a very long path route to #4 - I wouldn't normally go quite that far from the straight line and I doubt anyone else did, but it gave me chance to plan a lot of the rest of the course and also relax a bit and get over the mistake, so it was probably the right choice.
Lost a bit more time on #5 by not going to the control I could see because I was sure it wasn't mine (wrong!) as it looked to be on the top the hill whereas I wanted an outcrop lower down. Looking at it now, not for the first time, I had been fooled by the excessive Finnish use of form lines which makes hills look twice as big as they actually are! And also I guess I just couldn't see the rest of the hill through the trees.
Some good tracks had formed to 6 and 7 so just needed to ensure I was on the right ones.
I had planned this leg already and I think I made a good choice, although struggling through the green near the start of the leg was very slow as no track had formed yet (or I failed to find it). But the control was easy. Similarly I had planned to go round the path to 9 and happy with that choice too; found another control before mine as AP wasn't very good but didn't lost a lot of time. 10-13 all fairly straightforward. 14 I cursed myself halfway through for not having a good enough plan, but relocated really well on the knoll in the open and navigated perfectly from there. Small miss on 15 as I found another control as I was contouring round the hill and went to it, luckily I checked the code!
16-18 all good legs including another long one around the paths. 19 is near where Phil got lost so I'm glad I took a very safe route here - I was thrown by the ride which didn't seem to be on the map and just went on compass and feel and it worked - looking at it now the ride is a very narrow strip of rough open with no distinct boundary; didn't see this on the map at the time. It looked no different on the ground to the ride mapped as a ride!
20 was my other big mistake, planned to take the path to the E but was running so fast, missed the turning and ended up on the path going round to the W. Decided to go with it rather than turning around or cutting across - but the AP wasn't as good from the W and I was far too low down. Learning point - this time and on other occasions I have tried to contour first and then ascend/descend, and this has worked out badly. On this instance it would have been much better to ascend first to the obvious contour feature and then contour from there. Anyway I came out on the path and didn't know where I was along it, went back in still without knowing, and was lucky to see some other people coming out and use them. Lucky not to lose more time here; maybe 3 mins.
Pretty good on the easier controls to the finish although lost a few seconds on the last control since the control (which I could see) was on the opposite side of the path to the feature (which I could not see) and therefore I panicked a bit thinking I was in the wrong place. This lost me the chance of out sprinting someone on the run in!
Overall a pretty solid run I think, not sparkling by any means but I didn't lose as many places as I was worried I had; in fact actually gained 7 to finish in 285th.
My leg position of 501st is better than it sounds I think; anyone in the mass start will have had a massive advantage, and that would be most of the field.
The Jukola analysis file reckons I made 27(!) mins of mistakes. I dispute this.
http://www.suunnistus.info/sf/anal/vertailu.viesti...
3 of these minutes were for instance on #8 - I'm sure I lost time here vs people in the pack, once a track had formed, but I couldn't really have avoided it being slow through the green at the time when I was doing it!
The rain started 5 minutes after I finished :)
Waited in the tent until it stopped then quick outdoor shower (very hot! The Finnish know what they're doing with showers) before the walk back to the car. Really happy with the way the whole team performed and with our finish position, there were some great runs in the other teams too and everyone got on well, etc; there was good team spirit. An excellent trip basically; looking forward to the next one (although not sure if I'd make the A team if Owain is going to be there again!).