Training Log Archive: W

Hoo boy, World Cup Middle in dune terrain. I really did not have any solutions for what was about to come.

The first 6 controls weren't much problem, they were all in white forest and fairly straightfoward, though it was rather difficult to know what white was going to be more passable than others, it kinda varied.

After that, we headed into the dunes. 7 was the really, really tough control, and I really didn't know what to plan. I was making a point of leaving the control with a plan, but I couldn't see any viable plan at all. I thought that maybe if I left the control and got out into the dunes I'd have a better understanding of what they looked like and that would help. It didn't. Instead, eventually Simon Upill caught me and he assisted me into that control, the next, then we sort of traded back and forth for a while until around 16. At that point I followed him into a dumb mistake, even though I personally didn't think it was a good idea. That mean that he ran away from me and I was back to being on my own.

Hot, quite tired, and really not certain with my navigation, I fully overshot 17 and totally over shot 18. 18 was the crossroads because it was the control I allegedly mis-punched. I've gone over it countless times in my head, and although that section is a tad blurry, I'm quite confident I was there. How am I sure, because I remember the mistake i made on the way to 18, and the direction I came into 19, and there's no way I could have gone from where I made the mistake to the way I can into 19 without visiting 18. Maybe the SI didn't work? Maybe I got there and just didn't punch? I'm really not certain. But I'm fairly confident I went there, and something happened. I've read about people punching and it not working properly, so maybe it finally happened to me once.

Nevertheless, my performance was on a steady decline from there. My initial race strategy of having a plan really really went out the window, as I'd leave controls way too out of control to have an semblance of knowing what I was doing. I think I would have been most effective to just slow to a complete walk and get it together. Regardless of the MP, it would have been an absolutely terrible result.

All in all, epic disappointment for my first World Cup.

That afternoon, we headed down to the park in Palmerston North that was the "model" for the sprint. I jogged down from the university and met the ladyfolk. We just did a quick jaunt around part of the map to think about moving fast and smooth.

World Cup 1 - Middle Men - Splits

Model for tomorrow's World Cup in the dunes. The white forest is generally quite delightful, still really open. The dunes are far, far more difficult. Like, really difficult. Not quite sure how I'm going to play this, since I'm 100% unfamiliar to this kind of terrain. I had a lot of trouble figuring out what is up and down.

Another weird aspect was that it was very difficult to get into the white forest. It wasn't identified as such, but it was very thick in the transition from dune to white. Its almost a little bit of a crapshoot as to where you try to enter the forest and whether you can make it through at all. That's not so cool.

Oceania Day 1! This race was really not representative of anything aside from classic NZ forest. It wasn't the least bit relevant for any of the World Cups.

Nevertheless, it was delightful. Really, really nice forest. Its a little sad knowing that its all sort of a false forest, but for orienteering, it was so nice. Wide open white with great runnability and visibility.

My focus for this was having a strong plan leaving every control, and having a good bearing. The plan side of things seemed to work pretty well for the most part, though my concentration still seems leave quite often after 1/2 through the course. Still, when a Swede caught me near the end, he made a mistake and I nailed the control, so that felt good!

This is also the start of my using a magnifier on my compass more regularly, as in, I actually stuck it to my compass.

Event 1 C 1 - Splits

Dwaine took Carol and I with Hayley for a jog around the Auckland Domain (NZ speak for "Park"), which also includes the Auckland museum. We first did a really nice little trail along the outskirts of the park, and then back to the parking lot where Carol and I did a bit of a sprint from an old meet. Tried to go a little bit faster and run smoothly with no changes of pace. Took a bad exit from number two which forced me to double back a bit, which was sub-optimal, but I also caught the "inside corner" on one of the buildings so did a good route there. Still a lovely day, 2 out of 2 on weather so far!

Now on to New Zealand! People have told me that Kiwis are super friendly, so on a lark I decided to make a post on Maptalk.co.nz to see if any Aucklanders would be willing to put up Carol and I for a few days while we waited for Helen. I got 7 e-mails! Wow!

So, we met up with Dwaine at the Auckland airport, and that evening he took me over to One Tree Hill with an old map so I could give a course a go. First thing I notice: They don't like to put fences on their maps. Which is fair, for casual events, fences make everything way, way to easy. But, I was also reminded that this means I really needed to work on my fence jumping technique!

Anyway, did a fairly good job on most of the navigating, I think I hit all my spots pretty smoothly, save for a couple which I really did not interpret the contours very well at all. Like really not at all. A little concerning. Still, a lovely day, great to be in shorts and a t-shirt!!

Very sad to have my time in Hong Kong come to an end. Such an amazing part of the trip. My racing was terrible, but everything else was great. I think there's a lot to do in the area I haven't done yet, and just hanging out with such pleasant and friendly people was a huge highlight. Going out to dinner and trying new foods, exploring new places, it was all amazing. And there are so many races in HK throughout the year, it'd be hard to ever get bored with all the great opportunities.

If I give up on orienteering really seriously and had an opportunity to move there, I'd have no hesitations. For realsies.