Training Log Archive: smittyo

I totally sucked this weekend. Sucked, sucked, sucked the big time. This was my third sucky day and was definitely the least sucky, but not by any means a great run. The first problem was partly of my own making. Since I was trying to make it back to LA in time for dinner at my father's 80th birthday party I requested a pre-run time. Unfortunately, risks come with pre-running. My control number 2 had been mis-set with the wrong control number. I punched when I got there, but then spent some time trying to determine whether I'd made an error and finally decided to just keep going and possibly have an MP. I lost about 4 minutes on my attempts to find a "correct" control. This probably also slowed me a little through the rest of the race. Since I figured I might already be MP, I didn't push as hard as I might otherwise. Also messed up #4. I was in the right general area, but didn't trust myself. Saw Matthias K head into the control, but after the previous day's experience didn't want to trust that so I went all the way to a nearby trail to relocate and attack. By then MK was long gone.
At least I had a few nice spikes this day later in the course, but also had to do some minor relocating at number 9. This primarily due to a lack of distance estimation. I stopped short due to lack of confidence and went off my line to find something I could be sure of. If I'd been measuring well I probably would have saved a few minutes.
Total time estimated lost on course: at least 10 minutes.
Made it back for dinner and birthday cake though!

C • But, was the cake moist? 2

Advertised as Middle, but actually just a shorter classic format. The second sucky race of the weekend. I lost about 5 minutes at number 1, where I let Joe Scarborough's presence affect my judgement and pull me away from a solid attack after overrunning the control. Also lost about 10 minutes at number 3. What looked like a pretty reasonable plan to use a string of boulders to attack fell apart when I never found any of the boulders. The nature of the map made it very difficult to relocate and I did so three times before actually being correct and finding the control.
I've run on this map (Burton Creek) a number of times and I believe this was my worst showing yet. I think part of that is that the map is showing it's age. The vegetation was once much more reliable as a feature to navigate off of and now it's a little less consistent. I also learned just how poorly I do with distance estimation. I do possess the skill, but I am very inconsistent in actually using it, often making a plan based on map-reading, not measuring or counting and then being screwed when my plan doesn't work out and I'm not really sure how far I went. This affected me a lot this weekend, even just slowing me down when I became less confident of what I was doing.

Mini-Show Game put on by Jay Hann back at the campground. There were two courses each taking about 1:30 to 2:00 to complete. The course was made up of very small man-made temporary fences plus a few natural features (trees and rocks). There were lots of controls. Each course had two variations that started with butterfly loops, so you could race head to head with someone else. No control descriptions, the challenge was punching the proper controls. There was a time penalty for a mispunch. Jay was trying this as an experiment in types of orienteering that schools could potentially use to host meets on their own school grounds. I might try it this year at school.

Event: Tahoe 3 Day
 

The first of my sucky races over the Tahoe weekend. I really enjoyed this sprint. It was a lot of fun with a nice combination of woods and urban features. And then there was number 5. This 55m leg took me over 7 minutes. There is some consolation in the fact that I was not the only person who lost time here, although I lost quite a bit more than most. The flag was on the ground and the boulder in question looked smaller from below than indicated. Nevertheless, I made a great string of bad decisions leading to a horrendous split.

Jogged to the gym. Walked home.

Weights at the gym.

Pushed paces around the bunny field. 5 x 1; 3 x 2; 2 x 3.

Walking to and from the gym.

Weights at the gym. Just got used to the machines. Nothing very difficult.