Training Log Archive: AliC

First leg of WOC relay.

Fun times!! So much fun to be out there racing against other women in the forest!! Really had a blast. Not sure I did everything totally right, will have to think more about it and look at GPS, but it was just so encouraging to being around others and fighting for it! Came in 10th in the thick of a pack of ~6, only ~3.5 min back from leaders.

Also: look at that pink!!! I have been orienteering every day in the past week! Life is awesome! =)

C • Good run! 10

Jogging down a trail noting vegetation colors and rides. Dark green appeared and is definitely not worth trying to get through.

Slow meander through some of the relay/long model controls at Ratnieki.

trail junction -> 41: tried to skirt hill top on the way there as opposed to up and over, but that meant a less solid point to take a bearing from. Came across a little footpath that wasn't on the map (from so many orienteers training?) thought about it being a ride, but definitely wasn't. Kept going on the bearing, finally cross ed the real ride and into control. But slowed way down to try to read contours when I felt not-confident. In race, I would probably have gone up and over hill to be secure.
41 -> 35: form line nose right before the control was hard to make out on the map because covered by the circle, so I slowed to take that in on the way there
35 -> 40: easy, compass over the next hilltop
40 -> 39: Down hill, along stream, cross bigger stream, then up from a little trail clearing. Just missed by a bit because I was too low. Should have read description that it was at the top of reentrant. Or at least looked up to check.
39 -> 38: not too pleased by this, I was very hesitant. Should have come in with full confidence from stream bend. Especially on an uphill leg, don't want to lose energy wandering around. But stream bend to marsh with clearing should have been a solid approach.
38 -> 32: not sure about this one. I meant to go through the light green opening to cross the stream. And I think I did. But then the control was far too early. Reports of an extra control in this area make me think I found the extra.
32 -> 33: Charcoal burning area was easy to run through if not clear exactly what was what on the map. but easy to duck left when the real hill was there and then contour to second real reentrant with the marsh.
33 -> 31: bent right to avoid some vegetation marked and a little reentrant, worked well.

From this model, the relay will be much more ridge-and-valley like than the middle. In this area, certain parts felt very Scandinavian - pretty open pine forest with mossy bouncy ground cover. But Greg says the actual relay area is more deciduous forest, so we'll see what it looks like tomorrow!

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Plan:
It will be fun to start the relay tomorrow and to run around others. But I haven't done that in a long while. So, I'll need to keep my head in my navigation, but hopefully use others to my advantage. Always a bit of a trick to do that right. But it's easier to do that from behind than to be leading, so I'm not going to rush from the start, but I'll also work hard enough to not be completely left behind, because then that's no advantage at all. It will be an interesting challenge and fun, so here goes!

C • Good luck 2

Warmup: curtailed. Wanted to tape because we don't have a relay backup, so figured it was a good idea to be ankle-safe. Tuli helped and did an awesome job, but was actually too tight for me to feel comfy running, so had to undo. Ate into warmup time, so that was about 5 min of jogging around the field and then jogging to start.

WOC Middle - 40th place

Definitely happy with this! Pretty much went according to plan. I used my compass and pace counting well and I never ran off without having a plan for the next control. My flow wasn't where it should be, but think you need to practice orienteering more to have that happen. I got through the light green pretty well, especially as I was making the first (ok, maybe 3rd or 4th after prerunners) tracks everywhere. And I only saw one other athlete out there, the Chinese woman who started two minutes up at both 1 and 2.

A bit more analysis later, now for a shower after a long day in the arena!
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My guesses about controls I lost the most time on: 12, 1, 11
Controls I lost the most time on: 12 (40s), 6 (12s), 7 and 2 (8s)
Controls I was worst place-wise: 12 (63rd), 17 (55th), 10 (53rd)
Controls I was best place-wise: finish (tie for 13th), 8 (20th), 14 (28th)
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Looking at splits, my biggest takeaway was that I had a very steady race. 12 might be the only control I'd characterize as a mistake and it was really a route choice error (should have gone around). So I'm super-psyched I could so consistently execute out there. I think the two things holding me back most are not being in top physical shape and not having practiced enough orienteering in say, the past 2 years...
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1 - Used little indistinct trail just a smidge to get beyond green, dumped into reentrant and back up to spur. Saw Chinese woman not finding the control, made me nervous for a sec, then I realized I knew where it was, so stopped worrying and went to spur where I found the pit.
2 - On a bearing, got nervous up near the top, but realized the contours were really quite helpful, so kept going below where it got flat looking for contour bend and found boulder.
3 - On a bearing out to trail, edge of clearing, road, trail and then carefully in, noting dot knoll on my way.
4 - Pace count 35 paces E, pretty much got to ignore anything else, which was fast.
5 - Dump downhill, became nervous when no control at top end of marsh, second map look, needed stream, kept going and control.
6 - On a bearing, over nose. I think I had some hesitation here, but now can't remember why.
7 - Longer leg. Very initially started climbing wrong stream, but a compass glance made me realize and corrected. Up in the white, then trail run for a while, used indistinct trail then stayed along top until nose above control then descended. Seeing a pit along the way gave me a precise feature and clean into control from there.
8 - Pace counted from next stream - gave me good confidence, boulder was right where expected.
9 - Ran across the bridge, grabbed some sportsdrink and then into the reedy river flatland. Again, bearing and pace count made this leg fast.
10 - Bearing and pace count, but even still hesitated here with a second good map look that I don't think told me anything helpful.
11 - Wow, hard to ninja through all of this. But kept it going and let myself get pushed left if anything, because trail there to save me and then easy to control from trail.
12 - Bah, should have gone around on this one at the end, instead of up and over the spur. Route choice probably 30s error and 10s hesitation in the circle as I tried to put things together before realizing I could see control.
13 - Ran around the the left, was proud of using features (clearing) instead of trails to get to the control more quickly.
14 - Arena passage! It is fun to be the first runner through, wake everyone up! =) Dumped down the hill at the end and to the pit on the edge of yellow.
15 - Just should have gone faster, no need to have stayed on trail as long as I did, up into the white woods would have worked.
16 - Mostly a trail run, just a small issue could have come off trail earlier at the end.
17 - Up hill run.

C • Great! 16

Jogging a trail noting veg boundaries to 38, then 38 -> 37, which I should have executed better - stay on flat to the reentrant then descend the bank on a bearing.

C • Middle! 5

38 -> 33: was actually nice running up along stream bed. No zones of dense hashing means stream bed is ok, no zones of hard-to-pass downed trees.
33-> 44: up, up the bank, then one bearing for ~35 paces, then E for 50ish, then noted hill top and took a bearing to the control
44 -> 45: executed better than yesterday, got a bit caught up in light green actually, but wasn't bringing full fight to today's model
45 -> dot marsh in white: hah! some other team had hung a control on this spot. In on a bearing from a trail.
dot marsh -> reentrant: playing with a slightly longer route involving some green, executed pretty well. Really the worst thing about the light green and med green is how low visibility they are. You can move pretty quick still through light green, but you just can't see where you are as well... And med green is a bit slower, but you *really* can't see where you are.
reentrant -> 40: slightly off at the end: think I judged that a sign was at a trail junction and therefore corrected, but it must not have been.
40 -> 44: pushed left by green, should have been better on bearing. Pace count ensured I looked at right time, even though off course and so not bad.
44 -> stream bend: Spot on! Used bearing + pacing and first hit end of intermittent stream.
stream bend -> N end of clearing: also pretty spot on, two different bearings + pace counts
N end of clearing -> form line hill: wow, that's nearly an invisible hill... but got to it just fine
form line hill -> 46: almost spiked, got a bit fearful it was the hill NE when I was close, but nope, right one - right distance from linear marsh, no med green right before
46 -> home: trotted/walked - need legs to be as fresh as possible for tomorrow

Sooooo. What is the plan for tomorrow?

This is the world champs, they will throw hard challenges at us. I'm expecting one of the hardest things will be to find controls on small features (dot marshes, small depressions, small clearings) in either light or medium green, so in low visibility. In these cases, I plan to have a very solid attackpoint and to take a good bearing + pace count from there.

Another challenge could be similar small features in the super-flat zones along the river. There may be no useable features for 200-300m and I'll just have to be good on a bearing. There might also be zones worth avoiding - med green, dense green slash and those I might work around using multiple bearings + pace count.

I shouldn't be afraid to use trails, but if I do, I should really hoof it.

And in general, I'm going to be a fierce get-through-light-and-med-green ninja! Sure, it takes energy, but ya just gotta get through that stuff quickly here. No timid prancing around stuff.

I start 4th due to not having enough WRE races to have decent points. So no tracks going the wrong way yet... If things go well, might be the first finisher...

C • Sounds like some good think... 14

Middle Model @ Taleni

Time to switch to forest! Headed out to the middle model with Greg and Tori. Was great to be out in the woods finding controls! Legs are sore from yesterday, but not destroyed. I'm skipping the library multi-level spring that Greg, Tori and Anton are doing because it sounds like too many staircases for my quads right now...

start -> 31: turned off trail late because the pits marked right off the side of the trail were higher up - I saw them, but worried weren't the right ones, but need to think more 1:10,000 "right off" doesn't have to be first few meters.
31 -> 39: good on a bearing, noted the spur-reentrant combo on the way there, this one was mostly in beautiful white woods
39 -> 35: downhill, trying to be a bit speedy, on a bearing, but deflected too far right into wrong marshy reentrant. Think I misidentified some light green which led to hte initial heading too far right. I didn't see the ride indicated on the edge of the wrong reentrant, so perhaps rides aren't very visible. Didn't correct as early as I should have, should have noticed direction of stream wasn't right earlier.
35 -> 39: wanted a redo, so back to 35. Did ok uphill on a bearing (not going too fast now), pretty much spot on, just didn't see because not a big control. Saw the broken ground along the way.
39 -> 35: better on my bearing this time, didn't get pushed
35 -> 36: down to field, I didn't see the small hogsweed markings until now... eep! But I guess I'm ok... anyways, rough yellow was ok to get through, but is some nettles and such, so not too fast. On the way down the slope, was right of the line, corrected using reentrant, then could follow (but barely) form line reentrant to control. Wide green slash wasn't tough to get through at all - small river reeds.
36 -> 37: not far apart, but nailed it! pretty small knoll.
37 -> 35: wanted to set up next leg, 35 wasn't hard to find from downhill side (corner of field very close)
35 -> 33: pretty much spiked, but there wasn't a control out - eventually did spot the numbered stake. Could pick out distinct veg boundaries on the way. And dense green slash was particularly nasty zones of downed trees - good to know!
33 -> 32: a bit hard to get through the downed trees following the stream up, but ya just gotta ninja it through! Cliff above the dot knoll was definitely a cliff
32 -> 46, out of ravine in a nice reentrant that let me take a bearing to 46 pretty easily - would be harder if coming out of ravine at a less distinct location
46 -> 44: drifted off a bit left, probably pushed by light green intermittent marsh. Noticed the contour in front of me and corrected. Seemed then to be on a hill so took a bearing from there and worked. These fairly featurless flat zones will be tough in the race.
44 -> 45: Not good! In the race, would have used the trail more, but was attempting not too and just go on a bearing. But dumped into stream reentrant to early and then mistook a bend about 150m too far south for the right one, but then didn't add up. Bah, big correction needed! In race, would have come out to trail, pace counted about 15 paces from junction, then diagnoled in to correct stream bend.
45 -> 44: This time did use the trail, nailed from trail junction.
44 -> 40: On a bearing, did correctly pick out the med green veg amongst the light green, depression was right behind.
40 -> 44: Went the other way around the dark green, bearing still worked.
44 -> 46: Wanted to thread the greenish zones, so pacecounted 80 on one bearing, then corrected and finished with another ~80 straight W. Worked pretty well, but on the approach saw the hill right beforehand and that helped me in anyways.
46 -> 32: Coming at the dot knoll from the top: is some dense green slash indicating downed trees, but it is all of 2 mm long, so real hard to see...
32 -> 31: mostly back on the trail. Kept track of distinct veg boundaries to dive off trail in the right spot to nab 31 again.

A good set of 19 control visits. Learned about the mapping. The green slashes: dense = slow-you-down downed trees, sparse = not-a-problem low veg, also the open dot marsh had some distinct marsh grass and some marsh bushes. Pits were deep and noticeable. Distinct veg boundaries do appear distinct. Even little streams are still wet (rained yesterday) and have quite clay-y soil, so can suck your feet under!

Event: WOC 2018 - Latvia
 

Women's Sprint Qual Heat A

Woo! Very happy to have made it to the final, tying with Galina Vinogradova (RUS) for 9th in my heat, 52s back from Karolin Ohlsson (SWE).

It was fast. I was hurting at the end for sure - pretty much felt like a running race at that point.

One small error (15-20s?) trying to go through a way that had a blocked passage. Just a normal fence, not an artificial one, so actually less obvious on the map. Hope to avoid that on the final.

Was reading ahead pretty well, but there weren't so many descisions per leg this race. Occasionally timid with rock walls, but all encountered and that I thoguht might be crossable were.

C • Well done 12

WOC sprint final, Riga city center

A pretty good race considering where I'm at, but I *really* would have liked to have more oomph out there!!! I orienteered decently - one mistake getting ahead of myself on the map, but caught pretty quickly (#9) and then a small one right after with #10, just being a bit flustered. Perhaps a few not-optimal routes, but sometimes you just gotta do *something* and none were that bad. A few times that it mattered I did see the right route, so that's something!

I think it would have been good to do a few 5ks or at least a track 3k time trial and gotten more used to the level of hurt necessary to sprint well. While familiar, I think I would have been able to push even where my fitness is a bit more with better mental game.

Also, it was fun! Super-cool city, made trickier by well-placed artificial fences. They definitely used the trickiest tiny passage zone that I'd scoped out on the map beforehand. They did mess up the too-close placement of GO control to start control. Got me, and nearly all the women. (Because #17 was otherwise super easy, so you're just running at that point. And the start control wasn't on our map because of a map flip. So you're expecting a control right at that spot, see one, go punch. But when it doesn't beep, you realize there's another control and go and get it... )

Also, dodging pedestrians is an art. Maybe I should have yelled more and gotten more to move out of my lines.

Running around the model map. Good to see what the artificial fences will look like both on the map and in the terrain. Legs feel well rested and brain was pretty with it despite time change and all. But racing will put both of those to more of a test tomorrow!

There was a very narrow passage between a building and olive green with the olive green taped as OOB. Missed the passage on my first pass of that control - gotta see those ahead of time tomorrow!

My plan is to run as fast as I can while the orienteering is simple, but respect when any thing looks tricky. In that case: 1) find the way(s) into control 2) find a not-terrible route that connects to a way in. I don't have to always pick the *best* route - often when the choices are hard in a sprint it's because the two ways are very equivalent. Without any contours on this map to make one route hilly versus not, there shouldn't be too many things that will make a route be bad that won't be easy to see.

I also did a 1cm pace-count, in case it is helpful for going full speed until there should be a narrow passage opening. (Otherwise easy to slow down looking for it.) At a good clip on flat, it seems like I have 11 paces to 1cm = 40m.

Here's hoping I have enough speed and brains to make it through the qual!

C • Run well! 9