Training Log Archive: oxensd

Middle distance US championships at Dutch Lake, just a mile north of yesterday's Long race. Short distance, just 2.9km, but more technical, and at least as much deadwood unfortunately.

I hugely enjoyed the contour line navigation. Technically more challenging than yesterday, luckily or unluckily all the deadwood made it difficult to run too fast so focusing on navigation was pretty easy. Attackpoint reports no mistakes, I think that's a little generous but I pretty much spiked all controls. Not many route choices.

#1 took aim for the big hill immediately NE of the control, was hard to miss. My legs felt very heavy and pace was very slow. Felt more affected by the altitude(?) and deadwood effect on legs than yesterday.

#2 fun contour line following, spiked.

#3 easy up the reentrant and down to the control.

#4 only real routechoice, I went south of the two ponds which got me into deadwood, may have been faster to go north, I am guessing I lost 30s.

#5 navigated from clearing to clearing, spiked.

#6 followed the hill ENE from #5 as imagined it had less deadwood, then continued a little too much N. Ended up on top of the reentrant 75m NW of the control, guessed at where I was and came right to the control. May have lost 30s.

#7 straight through, saw the pond but went slight to the right, but caught myself in time and doubled back, lost just 10s or so. Some people tried to avoid deadwood and ended up missing the pond and pushed too much E as a result.

#8 easy contours down hill and then kept the larged reentrant to my left.

#9 stuggled running up the hill but came right to the pretty depression with the clearing 75m before the control, spiked.

#10 went just N of the pond half way through, then found the clearing just before the control.

#11 easy following the steep part of the big hill. Heard someone behind me and thought "hope it is not Ted Good who started 7 minutes before me". Of course it was Ted! Spiked the control.

#12 tried to keep pace with Ted but failed miserably, impressed with how fast he moved to 12. I went slightly N up the hill after the flat, saw a depression just to my right and decided to check it just in case, had to double back. Lost 20s probably.

#13 slow going, was really tired of all the deadwood at this stage.

Overall good run navigationally, but felt more sluggish running through the deadwood even than yesterday. Came in 10 out of about 50 in green, fairly happy but really have to work on my stamina.

To my great delight Alexandra won gold again in F-14 (3 for 3!), and came in 4th in Yellow. She also took the combined gold for the weekend. Thrilled for her, her navigation skills and confidence are steadily improving. Ready for Sweden and 2-dagars and 3-dagars on Gotland in July!

Green Middle - Splits

Long distance US championships at Trap Creek, Stanley, ID. After a glorious drive from Boise up ID-21 around the Sawtooth Mountains, Alexandra and I arrived in Stanley. We are staying at the Mountain Village Lodge, which is nice enough. Stanley is on the plain, surrounded by gorgeously undulating hills, the Salmon River (very full with snowmelt water), and with the snowclad Sawtooths in the background. What a treat!

The long distance championships were at Trap Creek, about 12 miles north of Stanley on ID-21. The terrain is beautiful with Ponderosa and other pines, sandy/gravelly hills, and dry terrain generally (except for marshy areas which were quite wet due to the huge amount of snow this past winter). In some ways the terrain reminded me of Gotland, minus the hills, and (unfortunately) plus a huge number of fallen logs just about everywhere, which seriously slowed down running. It was very difficult to get into a good running pace most of the time, unfortunately.

As this is a real wilderness area, there are virtually no roads, paths, or other man-made objects. Just lots of complex contour lines, which made it a fun and somewhat challenging race. The lack of paths etc meant there were almost no route choices to be made; just careful navigation to almost every control. Second time I am using my new thumb compass in terrain, and the results from last weekend repeated. It is really remarkable how much better I am staying on course using it, compared to a traditional compass. I would never have guessed it.

Few mistakes, on pretty much every control I went straight. The long #3 leg (about 1km) was too easy, if I were the course setter I would have swapped #3 with #4 which would have made it more challenging. #3 involved simply aiming for Trap Creek, whose roaring waters could be heard in the distance, and following it along with detailed navigation necessary only for the last 100 meters.

On #4 I made the only mistake, somehow lost track of distance and ended up in the ditch 100m past the control, I even passed the ditch before I realized where I was and climbed back up the hill. Cost probably 2 minutes.

#5 involved fun contour navigation for about 800m, but low risk as there was a path immediately behind it. Again too easy in my opinion.

#6 I ended up slightly W of the control, just sloppy, attackpoint reports about 30s lost.

#7 was also about 1km, again too easy as a lake was right in the way only 200m before the control. But here I am thankful for the course setter, as when I crested the hill about half way, the Sawtooths appeared right in front in their full glory. Beautiful!

#8 and #9 presented no issues. #10 was long, almost 1.5km, but again far too easy since Trap Creek provided a huge handle from half way and until 100m before the control, just like #3. #10 and #11 could have been swapped which would have made it much more interesting.

#12 presented probably the most challenging navigation, I came right on the big hill half way through, then ended up in a mess of fallen logs which was slow to get through (lost 30s there) but well marked on the map, then used the small clearing just E of the control as an attack point, probably lost 30s by going a little too far east.

#13 was fun contour line navigation, spiked it. Same with #14.

#15 presented pretty much the only route choice on the whole course; go down the very steep hill immediately after #14, or stay at the top of the hill, take the path down, and then skirt the bottom of the hill to #15. I choose the latter which was almost certainly faster; several other orienteers (two ladies from BAOC, and someone else) whom I had more or less been neck and neck with since #7 went down the hill, and I gained about a minute on them through route choice.

#16 was just a very fast sprint across mostly open ground.

Great fun course, I loved the terrain and the contour navigation. However the course could have been more challenging. Running was slow and pretty frustrating because of the huge number of fallen trees in many places. But regardless, very fun. Came in #7 in green (out of about 56), and #4 in M50.

Alexandra won gold in F-14, and came in second in Yellow/White. The winner followed her for a full 75% of the course, which she reported to the organizers, but they couldn't do anything.

Green long - Splits

Event: 2017 Gold Rush Meet and USA SML Championships
 

My first sprint race ever, at Boise State University campus. Novel experience! Legs felt heavy and clearly my running wasn't very fast. Minor mistakes on 1 (almost missed it on the map and was almost due south of it before I realized and came back); and 11 (started going to the left of the building instead of right where the control was). Lost about 30s in total, so another 2-3 minutes was down to running speed. Could have pushed myself a little harder but held back in the first half of the course. Fun event, beautiful weather.

To my delight Alexandra won gold in F-14.

Green-Orange sprint - Splits