Training Log Archive: Keith AndersenIn the 1 days ending Feb 20, 2010:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||
| |||||||
| Sa |
Saturday Feb 20, 2010 #
Event: Sycamore Scramble
9 AM
Orienteering race (Middle) 34:24 [3] *** 4.4 km (7:49 / km) +105m 6:59 / km
shoes: VJ Falcons
While I somehow managed to keep from screwing up every single point epically; I was not able to get this course under control. An analogy: I felt like I was driving on an icy road and my tires were spinning. Instead of getting the car back on track, I kept my tires spinning and kept driving on. Not a perfect analogy, but I felt sloppy and lucky.
Middle Map
Going to point 1 I was slow to find the start triangle, but I was running slow on purpose and figured out that I would follow the re-entrant up to the top of the hill and then hit another re-entrant that would lead me to the point. I ran without looking at my map or my compass for about 150 meters, and then realized what I had just done was dangerous; and got lucky to see the ditch which then let me spot the point, but i wasnt sure where on the ditch I was so i got lucky that the point was mine.
No time error; but there were plenty of errors in my strategy.
Point 2- tried to catch the road along its bend, but my asmuth was terrible and I ended up closer to the intersection. I think if I would have taken a better asmuth then i could have shaved off 5 seconds, and from my attackpoint which was the bend in the road, I didnt see what i thought I should have; my pace count was late to start and I just compensated by adding 10 paces and found out that I was just a bit short and a bit west of the point. had to stop and got lucky to find this one quick too.
Error: 10 seconds but could have been alot worse
Point 3: Threw my compass down and started running south. Drifted terribly. hit the road and thought I might be able to see point 10 if I headed for the trail, but I was a bit too far west. I was able to keep track of the reentrants I ran over headed to point 3 and found it no problem, but wasnt happy with my run from 2 to the road because I wasnt smart about it. No error.
Point 4: tripped over a vine and rolled on the ground a bit, got up and kept running. I followed the contours because I knew they would get me to where i needed to go. I was a bit north on the road than I expected but I hit the trail and made sense of it right away to attack from it. I did find on that attack but the control was visible from a distance. No error.
Point 5. Wanted to go south to the cairnes. Threw the compass out and ran but drifted west and then saw the rock which i thought was the cairne and didnt conciously fix myself. knew that I didnt want to be down by the river and started contouring, hopped the cut and then when my pace count got too big I panicked and was ready to run back, but then realized that I just needed to cut northeast.
Error: 30 seconds
Point 6: pacecount to the east and head for the reentrant. No error.
Point 7: The epic fail. saw point 7 was off the river that ran north. I wanted to run NNE. I thought i did that. I wasnt even close. I was running NE and then turned straight E when i climbed down the hill. hopped the river and hit my head. Fell down. Got up and kept running. not only did I totally miss the re-entrant that I could have used to get to the road, but i ran straight to the steep re-entrant that was taking me in an even worse direction. I didnt have a clue what happened at the time. then when i didnt see the road I figured I should bend my route a bit until I did. I suprised myself when i saw another seasonal ditch and figured I was farther south than I really was, so when i hit the road i "relocated" and hopped off the wrong bend. Then I cut and ran to what looked like a series of ditches only to get more confused then I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off and then ran back along the river till I found it.
Error: 4 minutes
Points 8-finish were not exciting, and i got back to navigating well after sobering up at point 7. problem is that i also got a stitch / side-ache / cramp while running to point 9 and I slowed down my running. Bad timing for it since i could have been a few seconds faster. Also could have taken better bearings away from 10 and 11.
Error: 90 seconds combined
Total Error about 6 minutes which would have put me right near brendan's time. Would have been a decent course if not for my failure on point 7.
What I need to work on:
Compass (rough & precision)
Focus when runability is high.
Route-choosing
Attackpoint picking.
Middle Map
Going to point 1 I was slow to find the start triangle, but I was running slow on purpose and figured out that I would follow the re-entrant up to the top of the hill and then hit another re-entrant that would lead me to the point. I ran without looking at my map or my compass for about 150 meters, and then realized what I had just done was dangerous; and got lucky to see the ditch which then let me spot the point, but i wasnt sure where on the ditch I was so i got lucky that the point was mine.
No time error; but there were plenty of errors in my strategy.
Point 2- tried to catch the road along its bend, but my asmuth was terrible and I ended up closer to the intersection. I think if I would have taken a better asmuth then i could have shaved off 5 seconds, and from my attackpoint which was the bend in the road, I didnt see what i thought I should have; my pace count was late to start and I just compensated by adding 10 paces and found out that I was just a bit short and a bit west of the point. had to stop and got lucky to find this one quick too.
Error: 10 seconds but could have been alot worse
Point 3: Threw my compass down and started running south. Drifted terribly. hit the road and thought I might be able to see point 10 if I headed for the trail, but I was a bit too far west. I was able to keep track of the reentrants I ran over headed to point 3 and found it no problem, but wasnt happy with my run from 2 to the road because I wasnt smart about it. No error.
Point 4: tripped over a vine and rolled on the ground a bit, got up and kept running. I followed the contours because I knew they would get me to where i needed to go. I was a bit north on the road than I expected but I hit the trail and made sense of it right away to attack from it. I did find on that attack but the control was visible from a distance. No error.
Point 5. Wanted to go south to the cairnes. Threw the compass out and ran but drifted west and then saw the rock which i thought was the cairne and didnt conciously fix myself. knew that I didnt want to be down by the river and started contouring, hopped the cut and then when my pace count got too big I panicked and was ready to run back, but then realized that I just needed to cut northeast.
Error: 30 seconds
Point 6: pacecount to the east and head for the reentrant. No error.
Point 7: The epic fail. saw point 7 was off the river that ran north. I wanted to run NNE. I thought i did that. I wasnt even close. I was running NE and then turned straight E when i climbed down the hill. hopped the river and hit my head. Fell down. Got up and kept running. not only did I totally miss the re-entrant that I could have used to get to the road, but i ran straight to the steep re-entrant that was taking me in an even worse direction. I didnt have a clue what happened at the time. then when i didnt see the road I figured I should bend my route a bit until I did. I suprised myself when i saw another seasonal ditch and figured I was farther south than I really was, so when i hit the road i "relocated" and hopped off the wrong bend. Then I cut and ran to what looked like a series of ditches only to get more confused then I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off and then ran back along the river till I found it.
Error: 4 minutes
Points 8-finish were not exciting, and i got back to navigating well after sobering up at point 7. problem is that i also got a stitch / side-ache / cramp while running to point 9 and I slowed down my running. Bad timing for it since i could have been a few seconds faster. Also could have taken better bearings away from 10 and 11.
Error: 90 seconds combined
Total Error about 6 minutes which would have put me right near brendan's time. Would have been a decent course if not for my failure on point 7.
What I need to work on:
Compass (rough & precision)
Focus when runability is high.
Route-choosing
Attackpoint picking.
2 PM
Orienteering race (Sprint) 15:57 [5] *** 2.4 km (6:39 / km) +60m 5:54 / km
shoes: VJ Falcons
Did not warm up at all; unless you count the String-O.
Knew I made a bad choice when I realized what time it was after chugging a gatorade. Got into a conversation with another Orienteer about GPS's and then I realized that my time was being called.
So Errors prior to the start:
Did not go to the bathroom before run
Did not hydrate properly at a slow but deliberate pace after the middle which led to a sloshing feeling in my gut.
Did not mentally prepare to see a 1:5000 map.
Did not warm up.
Did not stretch well enough.
Sprint Map
Control 1- started and then ran up the hill which was the obvious route since everyone had been crawling up through the woods toward the campground. Flipped the map and spent more time trying to find the start triangle than I should have. Knew that the point was at one of the buildings so I ran to the closest one; and then panicking when the control code was wrong. At this point I was still not mentally where I needed to be; then I saw that my point was northwest of the fire ring and jogged over there still in a daze.
Error: 05
Control 2- Decided that I was in a hurry and needed to push myself. made sense of the trail and was running it till I planned on taking an asmuth off. I did, and I think by the time I hit 5 paces off the bend in the trail I was worried about dodging trees and other clutter than reading my map. Didnt look at it again until I saw a re-entrant which when i looked at my clue I thought it made sense and got suckered down toward the green abyss. Four things went wrong here:
I was worried about fast and not clean
I didnt spend enough time picking my route.
I didnt concentrate well enough on the map
I didnt concentrate well enough on my asmuth/bearing
Error: 1.22ish
Control 3 was refocus time, and I was able to dive into the correct reentrant clean.
Control 4- I started off on an awful bearing out of 3 almost directly north and had to compensate. after the 1st quarter of the leg though I was fine.
Error: .05
Control 6- Not sure why I didnt get closer to the river to read the details, but for some reason i wanted to curve around it and by the time I realized how dumb it was I was already at the top of the stream. hit the dry ditch, slowed down and read a bit and bent back to where I knew I should have headed, read some more, and then could see it (lucky me; could have been alot worse).
Error: 20 sec
Control 9- Took a good route towards the point, got caught up in some vines along the way but was running in the right direction until I hit a trail, and started following until I had to force myself off, crossed the river fine, then hit the three way intersection of the river and slowed way down because I saw a point and it threw me off, realized that my point was in a re-entrant to the SE a bit and I figured it out. Not sure why I let myself hesitate like that.
Error: 15 seconds
10- Just tired; ran toward obvious building then bounced to the correct one.
Go- Tired.
Error: 2.5 seconds
Total error: 2 min 10 sec
I would have been satisfied with it if I didnt goof up #2 so badly, and I think I could have cut 30 seconds if I would have prepped better for the run. I was tired out there. I am no track star and there were people that were just plain faster than I was. I got my heartrate to spike and my mind went bonkers on #2; so my goal to fix this is to ensure a proper warm up for each race, start off at a jog, and to work on my speed. By that I mean work on increasing the speed at which I can tolerate both thinking about what I am doing and reading a map since I hit the "numb" stage right away into my run and didnt get into the right rhythm till point 3.
Knew I made a bad choice when I realized what time it was after chugging a gatorade. Got into a conversation with another Orienteer about GPS's and then I realized that my time was being called.
So Errors prior to the start:
Did not go to the bathroom before run
Did not hydrate properly at a slow but deliberate pace after the middle which led to a sloshing feeling in my gut.
Did not mentally prepare to see a 1:5000 map.
Did not warm up.
Did not stretch well enough.
Sprint Map
Control 1- started and then ran up the hill which was the obvious route since everyone had been crawling up through the woods toward the campground. Flipped the map and spent more time trying to find the start triangle than I should have. Knew that the point was at one of the buildings so I ran to the closest one; and then panicking when the control code was wrong. At this point I was still not mentally where I needed to be; then I saw that my point was northwest of the fire ring and jogged over there still in a daze.
Error: 05
Control 2- Decided that I was in a hurry and needed to push myself. made sense of the trail and was running it till I planned on taking an asmuth off. I did, and I think by the time I hit 5 paces off the bend in the trail I was worried about dodging trees and other clutter than reading my map. Didnt look at it again until I saw a re-entrant which when i looked at my clue I thought it made sense and got suckered down toward the green abyss. Four things went wrong here:
I was worried about fast and not clean
I didnt spend enough time picking my route.
I didnt concentrate well enough on the map
I didnt concentrate well enough on my asmuth/bearing
Error: 1.22ish
Control 3 was refocus time, and I was able to dive into the correct reentrant clean.
Control 4- I started off on an awful bearing out of 3 almost directly north and had to compensate. after the 1st quarter of the leg though I was fine.
Error: .05
Control 6- Not sure why I didnt get closer to the river to read the details, but for some reason i wanted to curve around it and by the time I realized how dumb it was I was already at the top of the stream. hit the dry ditch, slowed down and read a bit and bent back to where I knew I should have headed, read some more, and then could see it (lucky me; could have been alot worse).
Error: 20 sec
Control 9- Took a good route towards the point, got caught up in some vines along the way but was running in the right direction until I hit a trail, and started following until I had to force myself off, crossed the river fine, then hit the three way intersection of the river and slowed way down because I saw a point and it threw me off, realized that my point was in a re-entrant to the SE a bit and I figured it out. Not sure why I let myself hesitate like that.
Error: 15 seconds
10- Just tired; ran toward obvious building then bounced to the correct one.
Go- Tired.
Error: 2.5 seconds
Total error: 2 min 10 sec
I would have been satisfied with it if I didnt goof up #2 so badly, and I think I could have cut 30 seconds if I would have prepped better for the run. I was tired out there. I am no track star and there were people that were just plain faster than I was. I got my heartrate to spike and my mind went bonkers on #2; so my goal to fix this is to ensure a proper warm up for each race, start off at a jog, and to work on my speed. By that I mean work on increasing the speed at which I can tolerate both thinking about what I am doing and reading a map since I hit the "numb" stage right away into my run and didnt get into the right rhythm till point 3.