Training Log Archive: smittyo

Presidential duties called today as I attended the IOF Congress meeting. What a cordial group, none of the argument and discussion fun typical of American meetings. Many of the proposals were referred to working groups including the future WOC timing and program, and putting AR under that IOF.

Today was the in field portion of the Trail-O clinic. Some walking, but too slow and intermittent to bother logging. We revisited some controls from Day 1. The event adviser discussed his planning process and we discussed appropriate solution methods. At control number 2, some time was spent trying to determine why so many people missed it. It turns out that there was a large mapped tree which was obscured by another unmapped trunk from potential viewing sites. Most competitors took this trunk for the mapped tree, thereby incorrectly reading the relative elevation of the controls to the contours (I probably made this mistake). We also learned that you could see and gain information on control number 15 from near control number 13 (if you just turned around). I hadnt noticed this on my course, but still managed to get to a spot where I could see the same alignment.

I was mega tired today. After the clinic, I took a three hour nap.

Well, so much for my stellar Trail-O debut. I did very poorly today, scoring 10 out of 19. I believe that I overthought a number of controls, deciding they were trickier than they were and selecting a trickier answer than the one that seemed obvious to me, when the obvious one was actually right. I estimate there were about four controls where this sort of approach affected me. The map was difficult today, because it was clear that bearings did not always line up right, so you had to be careful in what decision method you used and read the terrain as well.

In general scores seemed a little bit lower overall today than yesterday. The winner, Anne Straube of Germany, had a perfect score on Day 1 and missed two today. David, Sharon, and Richard all scored 12 today. Sharon actually did 13 controls correctly but lost a point for being overtime.

My final score for two days: 25 out of 38, 263 seconds (including 60sec penalty for missing one timed control), 30th place out of 58.

Results arent yet on the web, but you should be able to find them when available using the link I posted on Monday.

C • stellar 1

Model for WTOC Day 2. This was very different than the first day. The Day 2 competition will be on a golf course and todays model was on a piece of that same map. There were no actual trails. Instead they simply roped off the areas we were allowed to travel in from those we could not. There were far fewer trees but much more terrain differentiation, so the controls were more about reading the contours and less about lining things up with bearings and sight lines. I think this will play more to my strengths. The only control I missed today was one which the controller agreed was a bad control and should be voided. Richard Ebright had a similar score, missing only the thrown out control. Tomorrow will be especially tough on our Paralympic team - David and Cathy. This terrain is more physically demanding and they both will have trouble pacing themselves to stay in the time limit.

Im amazed at how quickly some of these guys get around in their wheelchairs!

Day 1 of WTOC. The model had been an excellent example for this course. Gentle parkland with mapped trees. In this case, almost every tree was mapped, so that was nicer. The controls were again very close together and tricky. I think that I was very confident in about half of my answers. The other half, I had reduced my choices to two candidates and then taken what I thought was the best. There was one control that I knew after I punched it, I had done incorrectly. I was an early starter and was quarantined after finishing. When I first got a chance to see results I was in 3rd place with a score of 15 correct out of 19. As more results came in I slipped down the board and ended in 13th place for the day (of about 50 competitors). The open competition is two-day total.

There is a time limit for the course and many people had difficulty with the last few controls because they were running out of time and had to rush. I seemed to budget my time pretty well.

Day 1 Official Results: http://www.wtoc2008.cz/day1.aspx

C • Trail-O results 4

WTOC model event in a local park. 8 controls plus one timed control. I totally blew the timed control by stupidly switching clearings and thickets in my mind. Missed one other on the course. It was very tricky controls. Subtle features and controls very close to one another. Lots of mapped trees to use for lining up the controls to choose the right one, but also unmapped trees, so you had to be careful of which trees were which.

Travel day to Olomouc. We picked up Cathy Yekenevicz in Prague and then drove. Highlight of the day was lunch at Restaurant Valerio in Brno. We were just looking for something close to our road and Karen found this on the GPS. It was very hidden in a residential area at a dead end, but was excellent food. A four-star restaurant for sure. The waiters wore white gloves and the food was served elegantly. Undoubtedly, the highest class dining experience Ive ever had. We were hopelessly underdressed, mostly wearing orienteering related T-shirts. Its a good thing the place was virtually empty at the time we were there.

More touring in Prague. First went with David and Karen to find a few more caches in the Old Town. Then I climbed the clock tower, walked across the Charles Bridge, and did some additional touring at the castle. Ended the day with a Black Light Theater show and a long walk down the Vltava river to the Vysehrad area. Lots of walking today, but I dont really know how much to log it as.

Event: WOC 2008
 

Spent the day touring at Prague Castle and surrounding area with Karen and David. Also did a little geocaching with David leading.

Travel day to Prague. Nice loooong flight from LAX to Frankfurt, than a short hop to Prague. Lastly, a fun airport shuttle ride through the city. I was the last one in my shuttle to get dropped off and had fun following where I was on the map as the driver used all the back roads to get where he was going.