Training Log Archive: maprunner

Laramie RMOF day 2, Pelican Bay

A bad day.

At 2, I messed up and stopped too soon, then ran to another control that was not mine. I was just telling myself to stop, think about where I was and not wander. Then Mike came running by (he started ahead of me). I get flustered when I see Mike usually, so I stopped watching him and tried to focus again. Then a minute later, Fritz came by. He started 2 minutes after me! Now I was really flustered. So I deliberately turned my back on him and looked at my map. If I had actually watched either of them, I would have seen them punch the control. Doh!

Instead, I convinced myself I was on the wrong hill, wandered down, wandered some more, saw the road was too close, and decided to finally go back up through the reentrant. From this angle, it was easy to see the marker. As I was on my way to 3, I passed a woman who asked if she was heading back to the start. She was looking for 2 but was bailing. I reassured her that she was close to 2. This made me feel a little bit better that I was not the only one who had messed up this control.

After this mistake, I made sure I took a very safe route to 3, which turned out to be a very good route (the reentrant to the north that led right to the marker).

The rest of the course was a slog, and I had a hard time keeping focus. Also, it was sometimes hard to find the marker even if you got into the circle. I wonder if the course setter picked locations they wanted to use, rather than designing the legs to be navigated?

The most frustrating was 9, where there were lots of rocks and cliffs on the hillside. I checked out one or two possible locations before I decided that the best strategy would be to go down and look up to see the marker.

The most frustrating, personally, was 11 to 12. I very carefully checked off minor features along the straight line and thought I was concentrating well. But I still missed it!

We had a nice dinner with Peggy, Paul and Reta at Sweet Melissa tonight. This made me feel better. After all, tomorrow is another day....

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

Western States Day 1 Green - Splits

Laramie Day 1 RMOF Granite Planite Middle course: Green

So nice to be back in Laramie. Since it was my first day at altitude, and I hadn't been on a Laramie map in three years, I knew I had to walk this course. I did jog a few times down hill, and from the Go control, but that was all.

I worked hard on my concentration, and I often talked to myself out loud (describing features I would see, which control number I was looking for, etc). And that worked very well. Small bobble on 8 and 17, and some hesitation as I approached 2 and saw two women talking/looking at their map as if they were not at the control.

Lots of fun on the course, and lots of fun talking with all my friends who I haven't seen in way too long.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

Nice dinner with Lisa, Tom and Gene at Prairie Rose.

Middle Green - Splits

Event: 2018 Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival
 

I wanted to take it easy on my legs before this weekend's races, so we only did arms tonight.

last Pound class

Gene set a course on a map in progress of Sesquicentennial Park. I had not run on portions of this map in more than 20 years, I think. It was a good warm up for Laramie. I was running in unfamiliar areas and I practiced how to react when I made mistakes or got tired.

A lot of compass legs, which I screwed up. The vegetation is much thicker around 2 and 7. I chose to skip 5 because I know the area well and going up the hill just to turn around again did not appeal to me. Disappointed with the miss at 9 and picking the wrong feature (at first) when going to 13.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...