Training Log Archive: RLShadowIn the 7 days ending Apr 26, 2010:
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Sunday Apr 25, 2010 #
Walking 1:32:00 [1] 3.73 mi (24:40 / mi)
shoes: Hiking boots
Setting out controls on the west side of Webster Park for the meet. Sergey, who designed the courses, did the ones on the east side.
No problem at all with the two of us getting the controls out in a reasonably short amount of time. Using the method of attaching the e-punch units to the flags (just running the string that is used to hang the flags through the e-punch) very substantially decreases the task of carrying what is needed into the field, and putting the control in place. Definitely doesn't look at neat and professional as control stands, but far less work, much less far less equipment to pull together for the meet.
No problem at all with the two of us getting the controls out in a reasonably short amount of time. Using the method of attaching the e-punch units to the flags (just running the string that is used to hang the flags through the e-punch) very substantially decreases the task of carrying what is needed into the field, and putting the control in place. Definitely doesn't look at neat and professional as control stands, but far less work, much less far less equipment to pull together for the meet.
Saturday Apr 24, 2010 #
Orienteering (Sprint) 16:47 [4] 1.39 mi (12:04 / mi)
weight:173lbs shoes: Montrail Mountain Masochist
BFLO Sprint.
Felt pretty good; no major mistakes.
No issues at all with 1 and 2. Overshot #3 by 20 meters or so, because I headed a little too far south before crossing the gorge. No need at all to have done that, but I think I was a bit distracted by Brian Thomas, who was right in front of me, and he crossed early (as was the correct move) -- I think subconsciously I just didn't want to be following him. Might have lost 20 seconds.
No real problems going to #4, although I went somewhat slowly and picked a cautious (but reasonably straight-line) route.
Going to #5, I got out to the open land on the left as soon as practical, because I was a bit worried about the light green and medium green on the more straight line route. Seemed to work OK, although I covered more distance.
No real issues with any of the rest.
Finished third behind Zach and Sergey. Not sure how many competed in the sprint.
QuickRoute:
http://www.picfront.org/d/7A3D
Felt pretty good; no major mistakes.
No issues at all with 1 and 2. Overshot #3 by 20 meters or so, because I headed a little too far south before crossing the gorge. No need at all to have done that, but I think I was a bit distracted by Brian Thomas, who was right in front of me, and he crossed early (as was the correct move) -- I think subconsciously I just didn't want to be following him. Might have lost 20 seconds.
No real problems going to #4, although I went somewhat slowly and picked a cautious (but reasonably straight-line) route.
Going to #5, I got out to the open land on the left as soon as practical, because I was a bit worried about the light green and medium green on the more straight line route. Seemed to work OK, although I covered more distance.
No real issues with any of the rest.
Finished third behind Zach and Sergey. Not sure how many competed in the sprint.
QuickRoute:
http://www.picfront.org/d/7A3D
Orienteering (Score-O) 1:29:06 [5] 6.13 mi (14:32 / mi)
max:170 shoes: Montrail Mountain Masochist
BFLO Score-O at Chestnut Ridge.
After Steve T's session on Score-O planning, I felt a bit more prepared mentally than normal. Turned out that quick planning wasn't needed at all in this event, though -- since they ran out of pre-printed maps, and didn't discover that until they handed out all of the pre-printed maps (of which I was fortunate enough to get a copy), the mass start wasn't until about 30 minutes after the initial maps were handed out, to give others time to copy the controls from master maps. So no excuse not to have a good plan ...
I think I did have a pretty good plan. However, it is also important to execute the plan well, and that I didn't do, on two major controls.
Started by going to #1, along with many other people -- got there 4th, and didn't have to wait for the punch. Then #21, another very easy control. Then my plan was to head west along the wide trail, to just past where the private land ended (which was not at all distinct in the terrain), then head south through about 250 m of white woods to #22 at a stream junction. Hit it perfectly!
The next two I had worried about, and with good reason. I totally blew them. From 22 to 23, there was a lot of light green and medium green, with what looked like a potentially confusing collection of trails. Sure enough, I got all botched up, not really knowing where I was. I spent at least 10 minutes after getting to the area looking for #23, since it was a 25-point control (controls ranged from 5 to 25 points). No luck -- finally bailed, decided I was along the stream a bit upstream from #16 (a 20-pt control), and I just had to head down to a junction, and there the control would be. Got to the junction, it looked right, but no control. By then I was very frustrated, and time was rapidly passing. So I didn't spend any time looking for it. Dave Levine told me later that he saw me, and I was at a very similar stream junction about 100-150 m ESE of the control.
From that point, I did OK, but the damage was definitely done. 45 points worth of controls, not found, and probably 25 minutes of time since I punched in at 22.
From there I did: 12, 25, 15, 24, 14, 13 (a very poor excuse for a reentrant), 19, 18, 17. By then I was running very low on time, and I knew it would be a challenge to get back in time. So unfortunately, I had to pass up #9 (almost right on my way), #8 (very short detour), and #2 (right on my way, I passed within 10 m of it, but I decided I couldn't even spend the 15 seconds or so it might have to punch in). I wound up finishing with around 40 seconds left (after a very hard run in, all the way from 17), so I could have gotten #2, but nothing else.
I think I finished with 225 points, out of a possible 375. Not very good at all. Pavel managed to get them all.
One thing that would help, I realized later, would be if I were more willing to try crossing the many steep gorges in the park. Dave Levine said he always finds a way across, and it can sure save a lot of running.
As embarrassing as it is to reveal my blundering run, here is the QuickRoute account of it:
http://www.picfront.org/d/7A3F
Depressing how many controls I was so close to, but didn't get because I was either lost or running out of time ...
After Steve T's session on Score-O planning, I felt a bit more prepared mentally than normal. Turned out that quick planning wasn't needed at all in this event, though -- since they ran out of pre-printed maps, and didn't discover that until they handed out all of the pre-printed maps (of which I was fortunate enough to get a copy), the mass start wasn't until about 30 minutes after the initial maps were handed out, to give others time to copy the controls from master maps. So no excuse not to have a good plan ...
I think I did have a pretty good plan. However, it is also important to execute the plan well, and that I didn't do, on two major controls.
Started by going to #1, along with many other people -- got there 4th, and didn't have to wait for the punch. Then #21, another very easy control. Then my plan was to head west along the wide trail, to just past where the private land ended (which was not at all distinct in the terrain), then head south through about 250 m of white woods to #22 at a stream junction. Hit it perfectly!
The next two I had worried about, and with good reason. I totally blew them. From 22 to 23, there was a lot of light green and medium green, with what looked like a potentially confusing collection of trails. Sure enough, I got all botched up, not really knowing where I was. I spent at least 10 minutes after getting to the area looking for #23, since it was a 25-point control (controls ranged from 5 to 25 points). No luck -- finally bailed, decided I was along the stream a bit upstream from #16 (a 20-pt control), and I just had to head down to a junction, and there the control would be. Got to the junction, it looked right, but no control. By then I was very frustrated, and time was rapidly passing. So I didn't spend any time looking for it. Dave Levine told me later that he saw me, and I was at a very similar stream junction about 100-150 m ESE of the control.
From that point, I did OK, but the damage was definitely done. 45 points worth of controls, not found, and probably 25 minutes of time since I punched in at 22.
From there I did: 12, 25, 15, 24, 14, 13 (a very poor excuse for a reentrant), 19, 18, 17. By then I was running very low on time, and I knew it would be a challenge to get back in time. So unfortunately, I had to pass up #9 (almost right on my way), #8 (very short detour), and #2 (right on my way, I passed within 10 m of it, but I decided I couldn't even spend the 15 seconds or so it might have to punch in). I wound up finishing with around 40 seconds left (after a very hard run in, all the way from 17), so I could have gotten #2, but nothing else.
I think I finished with 225 points, out of a possible 375. Not very good at all. Pavel managed to get them all.
One thing that would help, I realized later, would be if I were more willing to try crossing the many steep gorges in the park. Dave Levine said he always finds a way across, and it can sure save a lot of running.
As embarrassing as it is to reveal my blundering run, here is the QuickRoute account of it:
http://www.picfront.org/d/7A3F
Depressing how many controls I was so close to, but didn't get because I was either lost or running out of time ...
Friday Apr 23, 2010 #
Walking 56:00 [1] 2.33 mi (24:02 / mi)
shoes: Hiking boots
Vetting controls on the east portion of Webster Park.
Running 1:18:28 [1] 8.76 mi (8:57 / mi) +492ft 8:30 / mi
max:140 shoes: Asics Gel Nimbus 11
Picked up control flags from Lavines, then did a run in the Highland Park / Mt. Hope Cemetary / U of R / South Ave. area.
Thursday Apr 22, 2010 #
Walking 1:30:00 [1] ** 3.75 mi (24:00 / mi)
shoes: Hiking boots
Walking Homer at Webster Park, while vetting some controls that Sergey streamered.
Walking (Dog walking) 40:00 [1] 1.85 mi (21:37 / mi)
shoes: Hiking boots
At Whiting Road trail system.
Wednesday Apr 21, 2010 #
Walking (Dog walking) 55:00 [1] 3.0 mi (18:20 / mi)
shoes: Merrell Overdrive
Dog walk with Homer, to Finn Park and back, with a stop for a swim in the creek (for Homer, not for me).
Running warm up/down 9:14 [1] 0.96 mi (9:37 / mi)
shoes: Montrail Mountain Masochist
Running race (Trail race) 43:02 [5] 4.6 mi (9:21 / mi) +984ft 7:47 / mi
max:170 shoes: Merrell Overdrive
Fleet Feet Dirt Cheap Trail Run Series, Race #1 at Mendon.
Climb is an estimate from looking at the Forerunner elevation trace, as inaccurate as it is -- tried to estimate which of the "climbs" on the elevation trace were real and which ones weren't. A much better way would be to overlay the route onto an O map of Mendon and count contour lines, which I may do if I'm curious enough.
Addendum: I had no idea whether my time was decent compared to other attempts, so I looked up the result from when I last did this race, which was April 2008 (was slightly injured last year in April, and worked a water stop instead of racing). Unfortunately, the course was obviously not quite the same, even though it seemed similar. Here was my race summary from 2008:
Running race 40:11 [5] 4.08 mi (9:51 / mi)
So my pace per mile was faster this year -- but no telling whether the 2008 course was tougher per mile (due to hills) than the 2010 course. Thus, it really didn't help to look up my previous time ...
Climb is an estimate from looking at the Forerunner elevation trace, as inaccurate as it is -- tried to estimate which of the "climbs" on the elevation trace were real and which ones weren't. A much better way would be to overlay the route onto an O map of Mendon and count contour lines, which I may do if I'm curious enough.
Addendum: I had no idea whether my time was decent compared to other attempts, so I looked up the result from when I last did this race, which was April 2008 (was slightly injured last year in April, and worked a water stop instead of racing). Unfortunately, the course was obviously not quite the same, even though it seemed similar. Here was my race summary from 2008:
Running race 40:11 [5] 4.08 mi (9:51 / mi)
So my pace per mile was faster this year -- but no telling whether the 2008 course was tougher per mile (due to hills) than the 2010 course. Thus, it really didn't help to look up my previous time ...
Note
Results from the Mendon trail race:
Overall: 71st out of 206 (34th percentile) -- I was very pleased with that, I'll have to check but I think I'm more typically around the 45th percentile. (Looked up the Mendon April 2008 race -- I was 44th percentile then.)
Age group: 4th out of 5! :( (And the only person I beat was William Murphy, the amazing guy who enters just about every trail race there is, walks every step, and nearly always comes in dead last! Although in this race, he was 2nd to last.) The three people ahead of me were Tom Dutton, Rick Erb, and Tom Lamme -- all of them very good, so it's not that I mind losing to them at all. Just would have been nice if there had been some more non-ringers in my age group!
In the April 2008 race, I was 1st out of 5 in M55-59. (No runners in M60-64.)
If I had been two years younger and in the M55-59 age group, I would have been 3rd out of 10.
Overall: 71st out of 206 (34th percentile) -- I was very pleased with that, I'll have to check but I think I'm more typically around the 45th percentile. (Looked up the Mendon April 2008 race -- I was 44th percentile then.)
Age group: 4th out of 5! :( (And the only person I beat was William Murphy, the amazing guy who enters just about every trail race there is, walks every step, and nearly always comes in dead last! Although in this race, he was 2nd to last.) The three people ahead of me were Tom Dutton, Rick Erb, and Tom Lamme -- all of them very good, so it's not that I mind losing to them at all. Just would have been nice if there had been some more non-ringers in my age group!
In the April 2008 race, I was 1st out of 5 in M55-59. (No runners in M60-64.)
If I had been two years younger and in the M55-59 age group, I would have been 3rd out of 10.
Tuesday Apr 20, 2010 #
Mapping 2:50:00 [1] 5.6 mi (30:21 / mi)
shoes: Hiking boots
Webster Park mapping.
Had thought I was done ... but mapping is never really "done" it seems, it can always be improved!
Had thought I was done ... but mapping is never really "done" it seems, it can always be improved!