Training Archive: Cristina

Note
(injured)

:( Walking is painful and awkward, at least early this morning. I was hoping to at least be able to walk a shorter course today, but I'm not that much of a masochist. And I want to recover. Bummer.

C • always feels worse the next... 7

Note

Spent the morning at the finish, which was pleasant enough except for hearing the reports from several early runners that they arrived at some of their control locations before the controls did.

So, there were problems this weekend. I think COC is aware of them and I hope they go along with the After Action Report idea. And I hope people remembered to mention the things that they did like so that COC is aware of that, too.

This all makes me wonder if it isn't worth trying (and I mean really trying) to establish a USOF event controller program. Not just course consulting, but event controlling, like the IOF has for WREs and like what many other countries seem to have. We can't be sure that it would have made a difference this weekend, but maybe just having someone from the outside ask the questions would have prevented some of the issues.

C • Event Controller 17

Orienteering race 1:12:00 [2] ***** 4 km (18:00 / km) +250m 13:43 / km
17c (injured) shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

Today was special. The terrain is special for being very technical and interesting, and the course was great. But what really makes it special was that 'pop' sound I heard when my ankle turned on the way to the 6th control. I heard the pop (which is a rather sickening sound, I now know), fell over, and screamed words that cannot be repeated here. After a little rest and testing of the foot I realized that I could continue, so I hobbled and whimpered my way around the rest of the course.

The good news is that moving so slowly meant for pretty good navigation. And the footing is so rough that the difference between hobbling and running isn't that huge, though there were definitely a few times when I would have liked to have been able to run. And the extra good news is that I really do feel like I'm making progress at being able to navigate this technical glacial terrain, and I am very eager to tackle it again and again and again until I can run through it with good speed. Bring it!

Note

Today's fun problem was the delay of the WRE starts for lack of control description sheets. A 25 minutes delay in starting isn't disastrous, but when you add that to yesterday's map shortage it starts to make the organizing crew seem a little out of it.

U.S. Middle Champs Red - Splits

Orienteering 30:00 [1] ***
7c shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

Trotting around the model map. This is going to be interesting.

Orienteering race 28:01 [3] **** 2.8 km (10:00 / km) +90m 8:37 / km
ahr:182 16c shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

The "sprint" at Salmon La Sac.

Based on the location of the sprint and the description in the meet notes I figured this wasn't going to be a typical sprint. And it wasn't - it was longer, slower, and had a lot of middle distance type legs. That said, I thought it was mostly a fun and interesting course. I'm just not sure it was right for today as an A meet sprint.

It didn't have a ton of energy at the start for the two trail legs, but it didn't matter too much because I wasn't moving that fast afterward. I had a few hesitations and two poor route choices but it was an adequate run overall. I just couldn't move any faster on some of the legs, not just because of the greenishness, but also because some of the controls were just tricky on the "map interpretations" scale.

My one possible fairness beef is about one of the route choices that was on a very short leg. There was a patch of medium green between the controls and clearly the course setter wanted to present a choice of through the junk or way, way around. I punched with 2 other people who headed into the green. I thought I'd try to go around, because it looked nasty, but almost right away it seemed like I'd be able to get through. I ended up crawling across branches, tore up my pants and map, and by the time I popped out the other two were already gone from sight on the way to the next control. I guess it could be argued that it is not a bingo leg since it was medium green and had I gone around the green I would have been fine. I'm not really sure how I feel about it, but it stinks to make the same route choice as other people and lose almost a minute on a one minute leg.

Looking at splits with Carol and Andrea and I imagine some of us could have run ~24 or so without calling it spectacular (Carol ran just under 26, Andrea just over 29). So, about 4 minutes total on route choice, execution, hesitations, and just plain mistakes. Seems like a lot for a sprint, but I'd argue that this was much more difficult than your average sprint.

Note

Another note about the course, separate from issues about the map, the course length, or the course setting style. At the end of the evening they brought the maps down for us to collect, only some of the maps (like the one that said "Cristina" on the back with a big hole in the bag) weren't there. Turns out they had to reuse some of them because they didn't print enough. They will print more and I am told that I will get *a* map later. I am fairly tweaked that I do not have any map at all while somebody else is able to draw their route on my map. But, even more tweaky is the fact that a bunch of people had to run their A meet course on a used map. That's a pretty big foul in my book.

C • quality control 21

Salmon Run Sprint 3 - Splits

Orienteering race 34:00 [3] *** 3.2 km (10:37 / km) +130m 8:50 / km
ahr:174 spiked:3/11c shoes: Paul (Inov8 Mudclaw 270)

Lick Creek Relay, Leg 1 for team "Somewhat OK", with Patrick Nuss, John Harbuck and Clem.

Pretty sloppy, especially in the beginning as I struggled to get in to the map while trying not to care about all of the other people. First control okay, then I was a little too "independent" on the second. Finally got it together and slowly pulled away from the main crowd (the very fast boys were way way ahead) but then blew the seventh control, climbing too high, lured by some rock features farther up the hill. That allowed a crowd to catch me again around 8 and I hilariously led them on a wee bit of an overrun on the spectator control. I added to the entertainment by face-planting about 10m shy of the spectator control, tripping on nothing but my own feet. It was awesome. Finished up and passed off to Patrick in ~6th or so.

Patrick caught one or two, then John maybe another, and finally Clem passed a Canadian and kept off Matej for a second place finish. Yay.

C • tripping on nothing but my own feet 4

Orienteering 1:17:00 [3] *** 8.2 km (9:23 / km)
ahr:182 10c shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

The "Kid" at Fishtrap Lake.

This was the shorter goat course offered today, with actual Goat at 19km and thus deemed too long (in km and in sun exposure time) to be the sensible choice for me given the rest of the week's schedule.

The Fishtrap Lake map is more like Laramie terrain than anything else, though much slower running (I thought). Lots of open land with pockets of cliffs and water features and occasional trees. So, for the most part, fast and straightforward orienteering.

My orienteering today was fine, not perfect, but good enough. Biggest goof was actually just getting to the finish from the last control, which I didn't do very well.

Funniest moment was watching a big horde follow Kelsey (?) from the start and go off into completely the wrong area, ~500m short of the first control. I just ran by them, pleased to see that Tom was ahead of me and going the same way and that I wasn't just crazy for thinking that the horde was totally off.

Saw Tom again on the way to 6 (he goofed the third control), with Matej and Rick B. close behind. Tom kept me company for a couple of controls ( we skipped 8), never getting too far ahead, and then on the last control we parted ways because - and this is the next funniest moment - he did not want to get his feet wet. I'm not kidding: Tom took an ~800m detour to keep his feet dry. So, I beat him. Serves him right.

Turns out Matej (who'd been ahead of us) goofed the last one, so he wasn't in either. Unfortunately my meander to the finish meant that Rick beat me in, after he had cajoled me into crossing the stream where it was waist deep (for me). Not that it mattered much, there was plenty of wading after that, too. In other words, a fun day on a neat map.

Running warm up/down (road/trail) 15:00 [1] 1.67 mi (9:00 / mi)
shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

Warming up before the start of the first Jackrabbit sprint.

Orienteering race 20:25 [3] *** 2.37 km (8:37 / km) +50m 7:48 / km
12c shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

Sprint 1 at Riverside State Park.

This was a very nice course in enjoyable terrain. The map is a bit out of date, especially with respect to vegetation, but that didn't pose too much of an issue, except for maybe one control.

Bobbled the first one, mostly because I confused rocky knolls with big boulder things, and I'd like to partially blame the two faceplants for getting a little disoriented. Recovered well enough for 2 and 3, which were pretty painless. The leg from 3 to 4 seems to have been the major problem leg for people, including me. There was a safe trail route that took you quite a bit left of the line, and those of who tried to cut the corner ended up pushing right of the line by the rising terrain. So, it's totally my fault that I ended up seeing 5 before 4, and I think it was actually a brilliant leg. That was my major time loss for the course, though I'm not sure how much.

The next three went smoothly, followed by a very slow/careful approach to 8, since I once again found the knolls/boulders/rock piles confusing. Learned my lesson earlier about the trail/safety and used them for the next three.

Actually a fairly good result (first woman, maybe 10th overall?) but certainly not satisfying with the goof up on 4.

Running (road) 15:00 [1] 1.5 mi (10:00 / mi)
shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

Finish-download-finish.

Orienteering 20:00 [1] ***
10c shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

Retrieving controls from the morning sprints.

Orienteering race 20:10 [3] *** 2.09 km (9:39 / km) +65m 8:21 / km
9c shoes: Rory (Inov8 X-Talon 212)

Afternoon sprint.

First two were fine, though I wasn't exactly feeling in the zone. Lost about three minutes on the third control because I was on a parallel trail and blasting along past where I needed to go without realizing it. Ugh. Terrible. Four and five were straightforward, and then there was a control in the middle of the forest. I was looking for the feature (thicket) but really, knowing that I did by now that the vegetation on the map has very little to do with the vegetation on the ground, I should have just been locking for a bag. Went by it and turned around to see it.

Had the same pushed off the line by a hill problem on the 8th control, so clearly this is something I need to pay attention to and be aware of.

This course wasn't as interesting or as much fun as the first one, mostly because the vegetation was so sketchy and a few of the controls were placed on veg features or close to them.

However, my terrible, horrible, disgusting orienteering on this course has little to do with the above mentioned map problems and I'm very glad to get this stuff out of my system on a fun day like today.

Note

Travel day, Boise to Spokane by way of Hell's Canyon (very briefly); a very creative, gps navigator inspired route through the Wallowa Mountains; Lake Wallowa; and Palouse Falls.

Lunch in Halfway, Oregon, which I suppose is halfway to nowhere, more or less.

Weird moment of the day was meeting the male Air Force athlete of the year (one level higher than what I won) (the AF part, not the male part) at the gate of Fairchild AFB. He was asking us what our USA jackets were for and expressed interest in trying orienteering. We (well, Clem especially) have been getting quite a few inquiries about orienteering while wearing these new jackets. Not sure what it is about them that makes people so inquisitive, but we should keep them.