Training Log Archive: smittyo

Event: Canal Cities Challenge
 

Middle Green-Y at Sprague Brook Park BFLO A-meet. Technically felt pretty good today with not too many mistakes. Biggest problem for me was fatigue, especially near the end of the course. I think it was too long for a middle course. Although based on Jeff Saeger's time it might not be as far off as I originally thought. At any rate, I was really pooping out toward the end.
#1 - Planned to take major trail and had gone a little ways before I realized I hadn't done that. Re-planned and attacked from the small trail/stream junction. Hills were quite what I expected, so a few seconds of wandering.
# 2 - Small piece of trail, then left of marsh and into the control.
# 3 - Down spur to stream junction as attack point
# 4 - Up spur to trail, ran trail to the right, then in to the marsh
# 5 - took the trail a little then down the spur to stream junction. Up and past the marsh to ride with trail. Took this to the streams and missed the trail. Went up the second stream to the marsh, which was rather yellow and I thought the control should be there. Saw other people off to the right and went that way to find control. Lost about 1:30
# 6 - A bad habit I noticed today. I have a tendency to ignore excessively straight lines on the map. Like that ride. It was a perfect handrail for this leg and when I made my plan, it was like I didn't even see it on the map. Luckily, when I hit it, I said "duh" and had a nice clean leg. But I know this is a common problem for me. It happens a lot with fences out west.
# 7 - I didn't like the undefined out-of-bounds boundary, so to be extra safe, I took the ride and trail and then meant to attack along the vegetation. This was not distinct to me, however, and I drifted toward the lake. Slow approach from there. I was having difficulty seeing due to foggy glasses. Another fellow in the area found it first.
# 8 - Straight across to catching trail and then down the reentrant
# 9 - Straight across. A little hesitation trying to figure out the detail near the circle. What is that squiggly brown thing?
# 10 - Trail along top of slope to the bend, down to marsh and control
# 11 - Aimed off but hit much farther left than expected. followed marsh to control. Didn't really notice the trail approach until too late. Lost a few seconds here.
# 12 - Again didn't like the out-of-bounds boundary. Stayed below it, then up to playground equipment down into the control. Lots of other orienteers around at this point.
# 13 - Nice easy handrail of the road.
# 14 - Went too low - then through crap vegetation to lower tree, past upper tree and to control. Very inefficient line. Possibly lost a full minute.

Total estimated time lost: 2:30

C • It's like a control line... 1

Sprint 2 course at Sprague Brook Park. Although this was a sanctioned course, I decided to keep it easy to save myself for tomorrow, so I just enjoyed a nice barefoot jog. The rocky trails were a little tough though. My ranking for this year is likely to suck because of stuff like this :-)

Middle Green-Y - Splits

Sprint - Course 2 - Splits

Canoe O at convention. Harvey and I did this together. Didn't do very many controls because we had to get back for Trail-O. This was a long course and included having to paddle 2K back to the start after finishing.

Trail-O champs at Highland Park. I really liked this park for Trail-O. A lot of different types of problems set by Joe Brautigam. Made some stupid mistakes. Also missed a few that I think were a little sketchy. It seems they were not fully vetted from all possible viewpoints or sight lines. Got both the timed controls, so that was nice. A lot of people missed them. Note to self: wheelchairs can't go down stairs.

C • note to self 2

Mass Start Training Course at Webster Park. We all started together on forked courses to practice not being distracted by other runners.

First control practice course at Webster Park. There were five legs and each was set up to practice it as though it was the first control. I really liked this activity. I messed up #3, so went back and did it again. I also found that I had to concentrate on measuring things, since that is a weakness of mine.

sprint course as part of training activities at Webster Park

Webster TDS #4 Sprint B - Splits

Exercises as part of coaching clinic with Bob Turbyfill.

Dusk to Dark Score-O at Mendon Ponds. Walked with Harvey. Ended up running toward the end to catch up with him after going in for an off-trail control and to finish before overtime. Also buried lots of treasure!

Event: 2011 OUSA Convention
 

Day 2 US Champs Green. Well, I actually did better yesterday than today in general, but I feel better about today. That's because yesterday I did things right but still ended up slow. Today I kept up a good pace, but had some notable errors. So I understand why my time is what it is. I really enjoyed today's course. It was very nicely technical with a good mix of legs.

#1 - Trail to wall at edge of yellow and in to control

#2 - I knew I had to be careful as soon as I saw this leg. Not any really good attackpoint so it required concentration throughout the leg. Down to the stream and then when I hit the slope I spent time making sure of where I was. Once I determined I was on the small knoll south of the rocky ground I followed the spur and then the reentrant into the control - Spike!

#3 - Took a pretty straight line, but ended up a little too far north and found control 232, then corrected back to the control. Time lost - about 2 minutes.

#4 - SE to trail/road junction, then south on road to the trail that goes in on the hilltop through the yellow. Across the tip of the marsh, over the hill, and then somehow got pulled off course in this area. More small marshes and knolls that confused me. Eventually saw the control and it was mine. Yay! Never did identify the knolls that it is supposedly between. Time lost - about 2 minutes.

#5 - slightly right of the straight line using ridge as a handrail. Spike!

#6 - Oopsies! East to the wall and then to the end of the wall. Took a bearing, but off of the wrong wall! I used the corner further east to take my bearing. Ended up down at the marsh and was quite confused as I knew I hadn't gone far enough. Tried attacking from there and found nothing. Went back to the marsh, found the knolls below the control and reattacked. Estimated time lost - 7 minutes.

#7 - Fairly straight to the road, through the south end of the marsh, used the stone walls for a clean attack - Spike!

#8 - Straight and short!

#9 - NE to the road, then took the ride down to the stream, across and up the hill to the reentrant. Also in the middle of this leg, I brushed aside a tree that took my estick off my finger. Spent about half a minute looking before I found it. Whew!

#10 - SLOW through the ferns. Hit the ride a little lower than expected and adjusted my direction. Hit the road right at the marsh. When I saw the vegetation decided to run around.

#11 - Mistook the finish circle for the last control and started running for the south end of the track until I saw the finish tent and realized my mistake. Then up the east edge of track to the control.

Total lost time today -11:30

Day 2 - Green X - Splits

Event: 2011 US Classic Championships
 

Green X Day 1 US Classic Champs. I'm frustrated by my performance. I felt like I was making decent route choices and executing them well, but my time doesn't really match up well with my competitors. I think I probably had at most five minutes of error. And a few places where I was moving hesitantly to be sure I wasn't getting off course, but I think the real problem is just that I don't get enough chances to practice running through thicker forest. I'm not used to a lot of obstacles and I'm timid with my speed as a result.

#1 - took the road all the waypast seven and then in on the little trail on the spur. This was great, as it got me moving right away and gave me a chance to get a sense of the mapping while running the trail.

#2 - SW to the stone walls, then follow the stone wall to the corner to attack. Hesitated here when I ran into some rubble before the stone walls - until I hit the actual wall and became sure of my location.

#3 - Stayed on the spur north of the stream - nice handrail, decent running

#4 - Off a little to the left, but saw the control

#5 - NNW to follow the marsh into the control. Slow here when I felt like the marshes were too far apart and I might have crossed the marsh I meant to follow. So I went carefully considering the possibility of a parallel error and looking in both directions until I determined I was on course.

#6 - NW to the yellow, follow the yellow, then N to the control

#7 - SW then trail to road to trail above the control and then SW to control

#8 - Back to the road and in on the indistinct trail

#9 - tried a pretty straight attack. Felt that I was drifting right so corrected left when I left the green, but that was wrong. I recorrected when I saw the stone wall. (Turns out this was mismapped and was actually further to the right, so that explains my problems here and on approach to 10. Course was voided)

#10 - aimed off a little bit right, but surprised to see how close to the building I ended up

Total estimated time lost today - 3 minutes, most of it at #9. Hard to estimate how much faster I might have been with less timidity.

Day 1 Green X (Course voided) - Splits