Training Log Archive: TheInvisibleLog

Bush event 57
Jim's unique approach to a score event. The difference between each successive pair of controls makes the score.
I nursed my injury through this, walking and jogging with trecking poles. Pain eased as the event progressed, but I paid for it the following morning.

Knee problems. Have to nurse it along till after event 57 tomorrow.

Run that took in Sparrowhawk Ridge. Discovered massive changes in vegetation as a result of Parks Vic regrowth munching machines. Dark green now yellow. Significant remapping required before future use of the Royal George Company map/

Hard to get to sleep last night with ideas flowing round in my head. Solved a conundrum in the billy goat design. Also decided that the sunday bush sprint event next year will be three or four maps, all in one course. Dead driving legs between. Pre-entry only to avoid printing lots of extra maps (3 or 4 per competitor). Also a maximum number of entrants because of cramped parking in some venues. And control boxes on some stands and not others so you have to go to all but I don't have to transfer too many boxes between the Birds Reef event on the Saturday and the Sunday event. Starting on St Justs Point, then travelling to Prince of Wales (assuming I remap it), the Perfumed Garden and White Hill No 4. A semi circular tour of northern Bendigo urban mining terrain.

C • Bush Sprint Format 2

Bush event Number 56.
I organised and set the Bendigo One Person relay. For longer than I have been in the club there has been a relay trophy. Trouble is, not many like all the waiting associated with the traditional relay. So for the last decade it has been a mass start for everyone (no teams) and then a random draw of teams after the event to create a relay winner. Pretty pointless really. So this year I set a One Person Relay, otherwise known as a hagaby. The winners of each class will have their name on the trophy, and the trophy might mean something again.
Observations.
1. Its a good area for a relay. Lots of tracks. Low visibility off the tracks. Gold mining features. Set the event to concentrate on lots of track based route choice with off track work generally only within the circle. I think the approach met with general approval.
2. Again, very little interchange between Melbourne and Bendigo with competing SiS and Bendigo Shorts. 33 for Bendigo and mid 100s for SiS. It shows the value of proximity, as I doubt there is much comparison between the two venues if bush orienteering is your thing. In one way the small local turnout was a bonus. 16 variations on courses 1 and 2, and 15 and 16 entrants respectively. Everyone did indeed have their own unique course.
3. Couldn't get O-Lynx course allocation to work. Don't know why. Will definitely be pre-entry for next years Heathcote Hagaby.
4. I am re-evaluating the Bendigo Shorts idea. Next years draft fixture scales the shorts back considerably. But I can see they are easier to organise. I put out the controls for this event in 2 hr 40 minutes door to door. The events have also been highly enjoyable and social. The temperatures are warm, the weather conducive to hanging round and mass starts or finishes create a social feel. Finally, we have so many quality bush sprint maps and small areas within the urban boundary- South Star, Virginia Hill, New St Mungo, Prince of Wales, Ironstone Hill, Perfumed Garden, White Hill No 4. Birds Reef, St Justs Point, Royal George, Golden Gully and Specimen Hill. Add the small spur gully areas like Rocky Rises, Myers Flat and its clear we should make use of such riches.
5. Mass starts are very social and they free the organiser. I had time to take photographs! Lots in this album if you button through. Might even be you in one of them.

C • Bush event count 4

Nice day to put out controls for a one person relay.

Mt Majura. A tough run. Qualifies as my long run for the week.

Bush event number 55. A loop event on Ironstone Hill. Really enjoyable and social event. Only 33 runners, but everyone seemed to have a good time. Some observations-

Again, no runners from Melbourne. SiS seems to be better at keeping Melbourne orienteers local this year. I think about 160 today which is somewhat remarkable. About seven went south from Bendigo, and six distant members who would generally come to Bendigo. So maybe 12-15 down on normal attendees up here. Interestingly, the usual melbourne sprint averse who have come here in previous years stayed away from both events. The enthusiasts at todays event were not all that interested in a drive south. One even asked if we could request that next year SiS could be on Sunday. When it was explained that a request had once been made that Bendigo not run Saturday events in competition with SiS, the look was one of astonishment. I think the obvious conclusion is that local trumps almost everything else in Melbourne. Perhaps the seven locals going south shows that Bendigo is a travelling club? Personally, a short drive to a gold mining map for an event is hard to beat. Next week attendances will be interesting. The SiS terrain looks pretty simple. Its on the eastern end of Melbourne, a fair bit further from Bendigo. [Personally, a golf park next door looks interesting for tuning my swing, but I am organising the hagaby on New St Mungo).

SI issues. I was judged dnf by the software. Turns out that a second pivot control and the seconds start control had been reprogrammed from their usual numbers. Trouble is, the computer used had adjusted itself to daylight saving time, while all the other controls were on standard time. No-one synced the controls. If you used the reprogrammed pivot control first, the software got confused. All runners on course 5 used the reprogrammed start and were given a zero time. I have to sit down and manually repair the damagee before publishing results. And I have to reprogram and sync controls.
Update. No sign of my punch of 81 the first time. The gps shows I went there. I remember punching. I even interrogated the SI box, but found no sign of my first punch. No idea what happened here. Kept myself as dnf. Everyone else with legitimate results now has a result and sensible splits.

Map. Comments made that it was much more legible than the previous map. Printing at 7,500 probably helped as well as the mapping. One year post field work and already some vegetation needs remapping. And subdivisions are going in so we can expect the tracks to proliferate.

C • daylight saving time 11

C • Lack of Melburnians 7

Crusoe circuit.

Will get under 17 soon enough

Back on the skraplands run

Roof day.

Roof day

Checking sites for the one person relay two weeks hence.

C • One person relay! 9

Bush Event #54 (Running out of opportunities)
Mahers Barr (Mars Barr) Cup on Birds Reef.
Missed out on one control (83) by overlooking the need to visit it. Disappointing as I ran within 30 seconds of the control and finished the 1 hr score event with almost 5 minutes to spare. Almost skipped the control to the east of 83 on the way out as well. Mind not on the job of control choice, though navigation was pretty good otherwise. One minor miss on the control in the scrubby watercourse.
Some mapping observations. The map was mapped at 1:5,000 but was presented at 1:7,500. This made it hard to read. It really is a 5k map. Running this at 7.5k also makes it clear that mapping at 5k was the sensible choice. It would be a much less detailed map at 15k, and given the small area, probably would not be nearly as popular as the current version.

Excellent walk, not at all ruined. With a potential Stableford of 45, its time to maybe enter a tournament.

Seems I didn't mispunch at the first control of the bunch start sprint at the Western Plains Zoo all those years ago. I saw the flash, heard the beep. The total faith in SI technology at the finish tent meant I was told I forgot to punch. Hard to do that in a bunch of six on a fist leg of 200 metres. So then I must have punched too quick. It wasn't an event of any importance so I sucked it up. But someone in Sweden didn't. He analysed a series of mispunches over a number of years. He downloaded controls, deeply interrogated sticks. The number of big names caught out grew. A fast New Zealander was caught by the bug in the firmware. Then a fast Brit. But when the fastest Swede was caught, the jig was up. Now SI admits there is a problem. Total rewrite of firmware is now promised. Can I have my result back?

C • Computer says no 1

95

New temp route for next season. Close to home so no excuses.

93

95

I think I once was able to hit a ball straight before the Oz Carnival.

94

Bush event #53
Australian relay M45
Really enjoyable event and terrain. Two errors, 40 seconds on the 9th and 20 seconds on 13th. Reasonably satisfied with that loss of time. Arrived at my last control immediately behind Julie and Alison. It was a long final leg to the finish that required navigation. I saw this as my only chance of besting Julie in the finish chute for the carnival. Took off at speed. No sign of her behind me as I punched the finish. Thought I finally had a win, but she had an extra control after my last one. So she won all the finish sprints.
Its not just me. In the long her finish chute time was equal to that of Ted who won the M60A. Only one other W60 came within 10 seconds of her time.

C • 2 - 3 1

C • 2 - 3 2

C • pink legs 2