Training Log Archive: TheInvisibleLog

Waking up controls on mt Alexander. Official duties concluded.

The day started with a box wake-up circuit. Then a trip to the other side of the map to replace a stolen control. Then a visit to five widely spaced controls to check on a reported but non-existent issue. By the end of 18 kilometres I was pretty tired. Event seemed to the ouitsider to pass without a hitch. On the inside it was pretty edgy at times. The highlight must have been a map issue that managed to overshadow a printing problem discovered on Wednesday. No Course 15 maps could be found, though they were counted yesterday. One advantage of having an event close to Bendigo was that Jim could go home and print them. But his printer refused to cooperate for a while. So others set off to Office Works, but the Jim option came good just in time. What fun. Somehow out of the chaos behind the scenes a reasonable event emerged. But I suspect tomorrow may push the carnival yet closer to the edge.

C • Great day 13

Like a miracle, the flow of Easter emails has ceased!

Final control site check. Nice area still, but I am getting a bit bored. One more visit to some of these controls to wake up the SI boxes. Another silly task made necessary by our sporting fetish for speed and 'fairness'. If we set the boxes to return to sleep after 1 second, it would slow the response time a little (still measured in milliseconds) but you wouldn't need to wake up boxes. They would be just that little bit slower for everyone. The batteries would last longer as well. Yet another process where we choose complexity over simplicity.

Another map with nary a contour...
http://omaps.worldofo.com/?id=79373

An hour of running while the tagine was slowly cooking.

The Easter flurry seemed to have slowed for me. Its either sorted or stuffed at this stage. Decided it was time I made a bit more of a commitment to the running.

Beach run at gerroa. Good to loosen up about ten hours of driving yesterday. The surf was very insignificant but the water was pleasant anyway. Good way to finish a run.

No training today. Driving to wedding 9 hours away in NSW.
Spent last night playing in a musical session with the London Klezmer Quartet. Heaps of fun and a good break from orienteering. I am not surprised to read that I am not the only one interested in a rules review....

Indigo - further thoughts
Condes can only output CMYK files in a couple of formats.
OCAD canout put CMYK and spot PMS files in a wider selection of formats.
What we will need is the ability to output files giving mixes for the indigo 7 ink process. That will allow much better simulation of PMS colours during smaller print runs. Wonder if it is going to happen?

Indigo test print:
Have just examined my first Indigo print under a magnifying glass... comparing a test print of Kooyoora 15k against an offset print of the same area. Impressed! I think offset printing for orienteering maps will rapidly become an anachronism, and given our small print runs, not before time. It might make sense for massive European events but is ridiculous in Australia.

There is a reason why orienteering map files use the OCD file extension.

Actually, it applies to the whole sport. Way too many rules, way too high standards for the available skills. I am fearful that with a bit more than a week till Easter we are now at the stage where relationships are starting to fracture.
If there is one outcome from the carnival I would like to see, its a regulation review of all our rules, with a clear test for all as to whether the regulatory burden each applies is justified and is outweighed by the benefits of the rule.

C • Worth a look 10

Tonight gets worse and worse.

What a map.... not a single contour...
http://asosillery.fr/doma/show_map.php?user=jean-g...

C • the green tracks 6

Final control sites checks on Alexander. The time is GPS moving time. Finished just before the sun set. The last kilometer was downhill on bitumen which bumped up the average speed quite considerably.

Notes for Leepback:
It is slippery due to the covering of dessicated leaves.
Accept it will mostly be walking and don't fret because you won't be the only one.

Notes for owners of map.
I think there is moss bed habitat outside the areas where Parks thinks it is confined.

Rest day because there are not enough hours.
Two visits to local printery. Saga.
An hour with Parks Victoria finally getting two long promised permits. Saga.
Two hours with Jim exporting spot colour eps files. Minor saga for a short period.
I think my employer was short changed.

Interesting day because of a number of interesting discoveries:

First, the IOF offset print requirements for WRE events are rapidly become obsolete driven by a combination of cost and new technology. Basically no-one will give offset spot quotes because they think our print runs are ridiculously small. The future is in machines like the HP Indigo
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/au/en/ga/WF02a/1897...
Seven colour process printing and extremely high quality digital... claimed to be offset style quality and far better process simulations of Pantone colours. Some of the extra inks must be flourescent. We will see test prints tomorrow. (No comments about timelines.. I know.. not my department). The Espress business will replace its current offset with one of these when its time for the economic changeover. The only offset machines left in a few years will be designed for massive volume jobs. Our small print runs won't be economically feasible (correction - already are not financially feasible but will be even less so in the future). But it may mean financially feasible high quality maps for more normal events using very high quality digital. Excellent!!!!

Next lesson - OCAD 11 seems to have a bug in its export of spot colours into pdf. Spent some time finding a work around. Just another unexpected glitch.

Finally, discovered that Parks staff have discovered a way to subvert user fee charges in our favour for local events. That was welcome news.

Finally finally one other lesson. The CMYK mixes given in the OA swatch are out of date. Pantone has an updated list of recommended mixes to simulate Pantone colours. Some of them are significantly changed. I haven't compared the ISOM specification, but I suspect the same differences will exist. Also, the standard swatch we use is now faded from age. I compared a swatch I had held out of light with a Pantone colour chart. The swatch colours are noticeably less vibrant.

C • HP Indigo 11

Part of Two Ressy run with Ilka. Both of us were lethargic, although maybe Ilka won by a nose on that score. Didn't talk much because if we did, it would have been about how much we are looking forward to 2 April. Thats a little boring so just listened to the sounds around, even if there weren't many.

And again.. back maintenance.
Might try orienteering today. The Bendigo event seems to be the main meeting place re Easter for today.

C • Orienteering 5

6.7k straight line. 7.20 min/k straight line.
I surprisingly had a good run. By now I know how to run this country. Don't deviate, except maybe a little rounding of hill sides. Spike all controls and pretty much kept to the red line except for a silly deviation between 4 and 5 where I tried to avoid a climb of... 10 metres. Tried to run hard from the start and was close to my maximum speed when passed by Toph between 5 and 6. Tried to keep in sight and, of course, went over my maximum. The rest of the race was slower as a result. The slow down was aided by half the race climb being in the last three controls. Happy with 7.19 a kilometres. Its been a while since I managed that on a local map.

More of the above. Back repair.

Very slow run taken to repair back pain issues.

I read with a little disappointment the posts on OA about late entries for Easter. For years the manual entry system made late entry a grey area. The envelopes kept arriving after the cut off date, so unofficial date shifting occurred, which in turn encouraged the development of a culture of later entry. My own best example was one Phil Cicero who turned up at the registration desk during the running of the Victorian Championship in... 1998 and asked to enter but without cash? I relented on the promise of an entry fee being mailed the following week. (BTW, I am still waiting for the promised entry fee).
Now we have the hard deadlines of an on line system. But the hard deadlines are not always going to be obvious. Many events still also cater for EOD. But if an organiser chooses to have a firm cut-off, then Eventor will enforce it. It may be a bit of a cultural challenge for a few years. Easter is probably the worst event to choose to ask for a late entry. Our rules ensure that. We could probably do away with many of the start draw constraints outside the elite groups. But we won't.

C • Pre entry cut off 27

Sore back. Maybe swimming isn't such a good idea.

C • swimming 3

Just sent off two finalised maps.
All up they have taken 201 hours of work. Thats a little over five weeks full time work.'Time to get a life now.

Open water swim on Crusoe Reservoir. Time a guess, probably an over estimate. Its many years since i have swum this far. Will gradually shift up to a kilometre by end of warm water. That should be a while yet. The water was almost too warm to be refreshing this evening.

Double reservoir circuit.. twice. Put more effort into second loop, but was still slower than first. Not much endurance.

Saw the sun rise then started the task. Early start meant I finished before the real heat. Some running in this, but much walking because of steepness, rough ground, bracken in one spot and technical difficulty in quite a few spots.
Control checking for Easter Day 2.

C • Thank You 7

Map checking on Crusoe. At least with map checking you get to run between the points of discussion between setter, adviser and mapper. Running time is a guess. Spent three hours in the field.

C • Prologue absence 5

Short time on La Trobe finishing the checking. Not as worried now as I realise I won't be at the event on the day. I'll be control checking for the Saturday event.

Field checking after work. 2.5 hours.
Map updating 2.5 hours.
Bugger its tomorrow already.
Sleep. Not enough.

And why is it that I can have an email exchange involving three other orienteers after midnight? Maybe because two are event advisers...

C • Midnight emails 3

Post work session on La Trobe map for almost three hours. Ran out of light so have to get back and finish off.

Exploring Lightning Ridge (Lima East, not NSW). Lots of granite. Lots of contours. Limited visibility, but surprisingly not to hard to travel through the undergrowth. Would be a suitable area for a Long style event. Tough.
Will upload a few photos when I can work out how to create links from Google plus which seems now to have totally superceded picasaweb. I think I prefer picasaweb.

https://plus.google.com/photos/1145738656678306721...

Checking controls on Mt Alexander for day 2 Easter. Lovely scenic open orienteering which is fun unless you are travelling uphill. The latter made it a good substitute for the Mt Beckwortyh event tomorrow which I will miss, as well as Creswick Digings today. The latter is more a loss, but if orienteering isn't going to devour my life, then something had to go. As it is, the list is
Putting out controls for the Newcombers event last night
Checking controls on Mt Alex today in the available time.
Next week evenings for map correction University, map corrections Crusoe, more control checking Alexander.
But its a concert tonight in Wahgunyah with Neil Finn and Paul Kelly, followed by a run in the Lima area tomorrow.

C • time to pull your finger out! 1

C • Lima 2

C • Jealous 2

Epsom Creek

Putting out controls for the newcomers event. Jools had budgeted two hours from 7 till 9 tomorrow morning. The two of us did it tonight in 90 minutes. I think tomorrow morning would have been very pressured.