Training Archive: kupackmanIn the 7 days ending 2007-01-21:
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Saturday Jan 20 | ||
| Orienteering race 48:01 [4]*** 4.7 km (10:13 / km) | |
| spiked:12/15c shoes: Vasque Lightspeed | ||
| This was my first race at Seward Park, and this is, in my opinion, the best orienteering park in Seattle, bar none. We actually got to go significantly off trail here!
My pre-race focus has been getting better and better, and I blitzed the first control with a top-3 time. I was making quick decisions and my map contact was flawless through the first 6 controls (5th place after 6). I lost about a minute on #7, about 30 seconds leaving the control because I thought cutting the corner would be quicker. It wasn't. I also hesitated about 30 seconds at the attack point because there were two reentrants there and there was another guy attacking at the other one. I knew which one I needed to go to, but I felt like I had to double-check. #8 went off into the woods, and I jumped into the woods about 50 meters too early. This cost me over a minute. #9 was a long slog, but I navigated right to it. #10 was my big mistake, though it only cost me about 90 seconds. I got tricked into going the shorter way... only to find the flag at the top of the cliff. I had to grasp roots up a steep, muddy hillside to make it up. I lost about 30 seconds when the root I was holding (just 4 feet from the top!) broke, and I slid about 25 down the hill. The easier way was to go the long way around. #11 was long and super easy #12 required going back into the woods, which was more of a slog than I expected. It might have been just as fast to go down and around, and then attack from the bottom. But, I got there without too much trouble. #13 was a big uphill... man, that was rough... had to catch my breath right before the control. #14 short and fast #15 I headed right of the line, and just about everyone else headed left... something I never even saw as a possibility. I compared the routes in Google Maps, and my route was 80 meters shorter. This was the sneakiest GO control I've seen, neatly tucked under a big pine tree. You don't see it until you're underneath the canopy. A good race, I finished 8th. I was 26 seconds away from 6th place. If only that root wouldn't have broken... | ||
Friday Jan 19 | ||
| Note | |
| Five weeks from tomorrow, there's the Washington State Orienteering Relay Champs, and I'm fielding a team.
At the last Relay Champs (11/2005), I stumbled into a team at the last minute (which, surprisingly enough, finished in 1st place). And since, I haven't seen those two teammates (one is in the Army, the other goes to college in central WA). This year, I'm forming my team of my friends. (I suppose I could probably get on a team of more experienced orienteers, but what's the fun in that?) Each team requires three, and Nick is an obvious teammate. He'll bring in a sub-10 pace, perhaps as low as a sub-9. (Hopefully, I can pull in a sub-8.) But choosing the third teammate will be interesting, because I've got three options: Mike, Gina, or Scott. And, what makes this more interesting is that all three of them, for the first time, are running the same course tomorrow. ---- I originally thought that Mike would be the third, since he has the most experience (5 races to date, 3 of them at advanced intermediate level). However, when I looked at his results a little closer, he's got a really slow pace (22 m/k on his 3 toughest courses). But, on the other hand, he's also improving. Take a look at his improvement on those 3 courses. Race #1: 8 mistakes, worth 63 total minutes, largest mistake of 28 minutes Race #2: 6 mistakes, 46 total minutes, largest 21 Race #3: 5 mistakes, 16 total minutes, largest 5 Also, looking at his last 26 legs (2 complete races against about 25 competitors each), he's logged 10 legs with a top-4 time, 3 of those legs with the fastest time. In fact, in one of those races, his time over the final 4 legs was 3rd fastest overall, even faster than Nick). Without mistakes, hes running 11.3 m/k. The relay course will be short, and I think Mike has the potential to break sub-10, perhaps better if his orienteering continues to improve during the 3 events before the relay. ---- Gina has less experience (3 races to date, all at the advanced beginner level). Her results seem more consistent than Mikes: 2 mistakes per race, worth about 4.5 minutes total. About half of her legs are in the top 15% of everyones times. Shes currently averaging about 15 m/k with mistakes. Removing them, shes running at 10 m/k. However, these results are on shorter, easier, courses. Shes moving up to a longer tougher course tomorrow, and shell have another two more similar courses before the relay. I think the relay will be less technically challenging than her next three races, so it's also possible for Gina to clock a sub-10 time for a short race. ---- Scott is the wild card. Hes definitely the fastest, but hes only done one race (head-to-head with Gina on an advanced beginner). And, hes super inconsistent. In his one race, he had either the fastest or second fastest time on 9 of 12 legs. And he finished either dead last or next to last on the other 3, with his biggest mistake being 9 minutes. With mistakes, hes at 15 m/k, without, hes close to 8 m/k. But, this is just one result, on an easy course. Another thing to consider is the format of the relay. Its a mass start, with all runners running the same loop. Were going to put our least experienced runner first, so there will be a pack for a while. Scott has the best chance of staying with the pack, which, for the opening leg, will be a sub-8 pace. I think he's got the best chance to pull that off, but if he falls behind, who knows what will happen. ---- So& Whos the fastest? Scott. Whos got the most experience? Mike. Whos the most consistent? Gina. Whos improving the most? Mike. Whos got the most long-term potential? Scott. Whos going to run the fastest tomorrow? I dont know. But I think itll be fun to see how it turns out. | ||
| C • Results 2 | ||
Tuesday Jan 16 | ||
| Note | |
| I've volunteered to set another Cascade event... for NOD in September. For the last two years, it's been held at Woodland Park, which is 3 blocks (short ones, too!) from my house.
It's not official yet, but things are pointing to having NOD at the park again. I volunteered early because I want to try some new things, which is pretty much necessary at a park that has been orienteered at least once a year for 27 years. I've run two NOD events here (and a Vampire Night-O) and both were freestyle events with 25-30 controls. NOD '05 featured a map without topo lines or trails. NOD featured a map without vegetation or trails. Removing map information makes for some unique orienteering situations, for sure, but for NOD '07, I'd like to mix it up some more. First, I'd like to add some micro-O. This park is so familiar to people that I think they run on auto-pilot. Throwing several decoy controls out there will force people to focus a bit. This park isn't really ideal for micro-O, but I think I can swing it in a certain section of confusing trails/hillside/vegetation. Second, I'd like to expand the map to neighboring parks. Green Lake Park borders Woodland Park to the northeast, and is about 4.5 km in circumference. There's not a whole lot of square area in the park (approx. 85 acres surrounding the lake), but I think there's enough there to make it worthwhile (Eric organized a night sprint race on the north side a year ago). Many of the orienteers here are in running clubs, so I know they would appreciate a longer course that is runner-friendly. And everyone would appreciate a new map, even if the terrain is pretty easy. Also, on the west side of Woodland Park, across Highway 99, is the Woodland Park Zoo. There are three pedestrian bridges that connect Woodland Park to a trail on the zoo side, and there's also a nice 8-acre square of park that's open to use there on the corner. I'd like to see about mapping these two additional areas to the existing map. It'd make for a fun, and convenient summer project. For the NOD event, I'm thinking butterfly loops, which will make it easy to set multiple courses. One loop within Woodland Park + small zoo area, another loop around the lake, and another loop with micro-o. This gets me an intermediate course (Woodland Park loop only), and an advanced short (Woodland Park + micro-o), and an advanced long (all three). I'd also set a beginner course, too. | ||
| Volleyball 1:45:00 [2] | |
| BENVA Spring League, Week #1
1 win, 1 tie, 4 losses Finally, after two months off, we're back to competitive play. We had 5 last night: Matt, Carlos, Gina, Sandra, and I. Sandra is actually in the process of forming another team, so she likely won't play with us again this season. Jeff was absent last night. We had 1 loss, 1 tie in our first pair against a new team... a team that we should have handled easily. We were all pretty rusty. We were down 24-17 in the first game, and we came all the way back to have a game point at 25-24, but then we ended up losing. Then we played the best team in the league... and we actually beat them once. I'm not really sure how it happened. We were down 15-17 when I started serve, and by the time Carlos finished serving, we were 23-20, and won shortly thereafter. We played the "caveman" team last, and as usual, they beat us both games. | ||
Monday Jan 15 | ||
| Basketball 30:00 [4] | |
| BEEBA Spring League, Game #1
Man, after a month off, we're all really out of shape. Nobody made shots (I was especially notorious), and it was just generally ugly. We lost to a team that wasn't very good. Our three oldest guys from last season bolted to a new team, and we replaced them with three younger guys, one of whom is a 6'5" stud. I think we'll be fine by mid-season. | ||
| C • Basketball 4 | ||