Training Log Archive: Psuba

Wessex training, summer short hills (Talbot Heath).

4-3-2-2-2-3-4 of a pyramid hills (increase/decrease), with run up - jog down.

Good turnout (Kay/Frida/Becca/Becca/Ian/Roger/Dale/Tim/Gavin), got there late so working hard to catch the "back of the queue" which I just about managed by the finish.

Event: WMOA Urban League 1
 

Tamworth Urban, Mens Vets / Women Open (Course 2).

5th/58, decent performance.
Two mistakes, a few more wobbles, probably a minute or so lost through navigation. More however lost on my form, physically not in top form, probably my cold has inhibited my running now.

Interesting course, though with a few dog legs (3,6,8,11,14,25), and very surprised about the setup of the start: I mean everyone could basically see the first 2 controls of my course! I (and anyone) could pretty much run those two from memory, so I was planning ahead instead. Seems like an oversight on behalf of the organisers (or a compromise at the last minute?).

There were, however, quite a few good route choice legs (3,15,23,27).

A good finish for the long weekend, gradually improving in results, shame it wasn't the other way around.

British Championships Relay, Mens Short, 2nd runner.

Jason brought the relay in at 14th place, handed off to me with the comment "bloody dummy controls" :) I had a fairly clean run, with a few wobbles, but in the rain, caught up a few people and handed off to Rob in 8th place (3rd best of the 2nd leg runners), he then had a nightmare run and we finished 22nd.

Fairly happy with mine, probably accumulated about 1 min of mistakes from small route choice errors, directional errors etc. Fairly sure that control #11 was too low down, there was an unmapped path above it which threw me as well as many others. But, corrected myself easily and had none of the issues form the day above. Probably could have pushed a little bit more as well but tried to make sure I was in control instead.

Forgot to start my Garmin so distance is an estimate (course was officially 4.4km with 150m climb).

Ran this with the new iRock, correct size and had no issues whatsoever even though this was way shorter and only a few legs with contouring.

Event: British Orienteering Championships 2016 Long Distance
 

British Long Distance Champs, M40L/W21E (Course 4)

Rubbish.

After all the prep work, I though my cold would be my biggest enemy eating into my stamina/speed. Well that turned out to be the least of my worries - as the HR zones clearly show. I wasn't even feeling that tired afterwards.

Small notes first - I finally concluded that my iRocks were indeed a half size too large, I knew that for a while but on the steep contours in Brown Clee today they really were rolling all over the place. They will go being sold second hand (Size 9 iRock, anyone?) and I went on to buy an 8.5 next day.

I was also stupidly late after the long drive there, so got a start slot as the penultimate M40 to start, a minute ahead of hot favourite Geoff, thank you. Rushing to the start I forgot my control description holder, and just jogged around without proper warm-up. Geoff promptly thanked me the next day for providing "a nice back to aim for in the early part of the course", ah great, that just puts me in my place. Not that it wasn't a fair summary of my race and capabilities...

So then into the main bit. I have dropped waaaay too much, in the range of at least 20+ minutes on stupid navigation. This was another 15000 map and although it was, as expected, with simplifications, I just could not get the mapping style or mapping decisions in certain areas. I definitely would argue that the first bit of woods with our control #1 wasn't a white forest as mapped. Geoff's argument was "the spacing of the trees were consistent with white forest", but I would counter that the level of green should be consistent with runability (as per ISOM), hence I thought that area was about middle green. The older map of that area had in fact middle green in it. The other highly suspect area was the mountain top, specifically the marshy area which held 6 of our controls and we ran through 3 times. I have yet to talk to anyone (including those who won their courses) who managed that part without mistakes. I was talking to people to try and figure out what would have been the right technique to navigate there as I was sure about my position one minute, then 1 minute later I would not know where I am: there would be a big feature next to me and I could not find it on the map. The vegetation there would be extremely difficult to relate to reality, as well as difficult to read on the map: white, yellow, marsh, undergrowth, all mixed together... I have thought long and hard how it could have been mapped well, and I am not sure I would have a solution at 1:15000 with that complexity. In that case however, why have so many controls in that area? The best suggestions of handling this area (again, from those who finished ahead of the field, my class and others):
- "I just bounced back from the lake/fence/etc and relocated from there"
- "I remembered the location of the controls from visiting this area the first time then next time I came back I navigated through them"
Neither being very reassuring. In any case, I have to take the blame for
- being too sloppy withe compass bearing
- forgetting that this was a 1:15000 map and kept pace counting as if this was 1:10000
- not slowing down enough for the complexity of the area (except I did when I was there the 3rd time, yet still got lost... ah yeah, and none of the advice as above included slowing down, in fact bouncing back from catching features requires a faster speed to lose less time)

... Not that I haven't lost time in other areas, where the map was perfectly fine, mind...

OK, so I have to take the blame for the poor result - after all the map was the same for everyone in any case, and a good orienteer should be able to handle this vagueness anyway. Which I clearly am not... yet, anyway.

Now, having said that, and putting the result aside, I just don't think the course was a good fit for the British Long Distance Champs. It felt all the way as if this was a long Middle Distance course. Mind you: I actually love Middle Distance - but this was supposed to be a Long Distance race, and however I want to, I can't really see a single leg out of the 26 which had real route choice or would have been that long. The longest leg was probably 13, and even there, although there was plenty of micro-route choice, but no real big choices.

I know there is a regulation about using 1:15000, but it is a bit ridiculous when I think even in 1:10000 the whole course could have fit an A4 map (rotated 90 degrees from what it was now)... That was probably the limitation of the terrain, having used half the hill for the Relays. I am not sure in hindsight that it was a good choice... I mean, this is the British Championships, after all, and limiting the courses to that single hill clearly compromised the courses.

Leg-by-leg analysis later...

Short shakeout session before the BOC in Kings Park with strides.

Bloody cold has stricken again, it is very annoying to have chosen this specific time (I can not pinpoint what I may have done to catch it, other than maybe catching it from a few colleagues), after the long preparation. Taking paracetamol, it is not catastrophic at the moment but I am well below my peak level now.

On the other hand, nice to see a group of scouts out running on our POC in Kings Park. Stopped to chat a short while with the scout leaders who were very happy with this and our other POCs, so feels good to contribute.

On to the BOC tomorrow, beware I will pass my germs on, sadly that will not produce a level playing field as the effect can only be felt a few days after...?

Kings Cross Runners Club - to Hampstead Heath and back

Hampstead Heath POC, introducing the Kings Cross Runners to Orienteering.

Took 5 of them out to teach them some basics, run as a group and alternating who leads. Thy had fun, although it took longer than I thought it would!