Training Log Archive: PG

Relaxed last day in France, just as good as I felt real tired and the temperature hit 99F in mid afternoon.

Took a nice drive through the Chartreuse National Park with several stops -- a country market (local food plus arts and crafts), then the monastery of the Carthusian monks, best known for producing Chartreause liquer, and then a nice stop for lunch, and then a visit to an old fort overlooking Grenoble, and then back to Chambery and a stop as high above town as we could get on the NE side, just under the big cross on the SW part of the O map. The reason for going as high as possible was to get a little cooler air in which to enjoy the melon we got at the market -- and the temperature was only 88, so success. And then a final dinner overlooking the lake at Bouget-du-Lac.

Been a real nice trip. Back to reality tomorrow.

So I find out at dinner tonight that I was up on the big screen at the WOC relay yesterday for a little while. I'd wandered off, and Gail had no idea where I was, but they I was chatting with a guy for a bit.

Well, I'd wandered out as far as we were allowed, upon top of the hill, and I was just standing there when this guy asked who I was, and after I told him, he said something like that's what he thought. Turns out he was Swiss, also in H65 (though he looked 10 years younger), good orienteer, was in th top few in our class and usually in the top few in Switzerland.

And he was wearing a shirt with the logos of WOC 2012 in Lausanne.

So I asked what his job was with WOC 2012. Chief of Competition, he said. That sounded like a position of some responsibility but he professed to be under no stress. First, only responsible for the WOC courses, nit the public races. Second, lots of talented and experienced course setters working for him. Third, most everything is done, as the courses had to be ready this summer to be test under summertime conditions. So now it was just a matter of fine tuning things, and hoping ongoing forestry, or wind storms, or fires, or whatever, don't mess with the terrain.

A nice chat, good to meet someone new in my class, and a pleasant surprise that he was not freaking out about their turn at WOC.

As far as inside info, sorry, nothing that isn't common knowledge. But that includes the fact that the terrain will be quite different next year, especially for the long and the relay, which will take place in the Swiss Middleland, and should not be as difficult as this year. The middle in Jura terrain, still in limestone country, will not be easy.

C • Chat 7

And yet anther bad run. One control mainly, just lost contact less than 100 meters from the control and couldn't figure it out, and then took a long time to correct. I seem to keep getting stupider.

Mainly I'm just not at one with this terrain, don't have a sense of confidence, and my eye isn't making what are usually easy translations from map to terrain and back again. Don't know what the deal is, but I have done more bad orienteering over here than I usually do in a year. And several other times my navigation was shaky, just seemed to be out of sorts. Don't know why.

6th today, 4 minutes behind, lost 6 minutes on the bad control. They count the best 5 days for the overall and I seem to have ended up in first, but other than the last seven splits on Day 4, which had nothing to do with orienteering but at least I was putting out a good effort, there's not much to take pleasure in.

And not long ago, first week of August, I was doing some decent orienteering in upstate NY. Got to get back to that.

Need to restart the Western Mass renegade O' weekly training.

C • +1 Renegade Training... 6

C • Similar experience 5

Decided I should do something other than O' and spectating, and there was time before the relay, so I went up to the big cross at the SW corner of the Long final map, at the top of the huge limestone escarpment. Pretty nice, even though with the hot weather we've been having it was very hazy and the views weren't nearly as good as they might have been.

Mostly walking, a little running on the way back down, but my legs felt quite bad -- sore, tired, and uncoordinated. Just as glad there is no O' tomorrow and we can catch up on sleep before heading home.

Along the way visited controls 1 and 2 from the women's Long final. Managed to find them, but still having navigation issues. Would have been handy to have had a compass, plus I took the 1:15K map so that was a little hard to read, but I still kept having times when I suddenly was losing contact with the map. I'd get it back after a bit, but it's not a good feeling. Maybe it's time to get out of France?

Although France has been quite wonderful.

Another bad run. One real bad control (4-5 minutes?) and a couple more at a minute or two each, more or less. Getting stupider every day, I guess. Think I finished 5th today, but given the general fitness and skill level in my class, that's not much to take pleasure from. One more day (we'll be on the map used today for the WOC Middle final) to see if I can get my act together.

Another long day at the event site, as we had starts just after 8 am and the WOC spectating lasted until late afternoon. Had several hours to kill in between, so Gail and I settled in at a cafe with Sandy, Clem, and Eddie, and the time passed very pleasantly. (In a similar way, dinner in Aix-les-Bains yesterday evening with Boris, Cristina, and Patrick was very enjoyable.)

Last night the discussion subjects included Patrick's adventure running program for kids in Hamilton, what can be done to get better results at WOC, the problems of getting an apartment in Sweden, how to orienteer in Norway, and why I owed them all some beer. The latter because I orienteer too slow, it seems.

Today the subjects included Eddie's lidar mapping operation (which is very cool), plans for the North Americans next fall, new scoring systems for the BK Cup (including one for juniors), and various aspects of our federation that I will not elaborate on.... :-)

Plus ran into Tom Hollowell again, president of the Swedish federation, had a nice long chat (about things I will not report), he is such a solid individual, of course you could tell that way back when he was still in college. They are lucky to have him.

And watched Ali have another run that I'm sure was not what she hoped, even though I'm pretty sure she had a lot of good parts. It's all a learning experience, and she is a fast learner. Let's hope it goes well for all of them in the relay tomorrow.

C • TyrTom 4

Day 4, 5.0 km. Used the south part of the long distance map, followed by about a 2 km finish chute back through town. Well, there were actually about 6 controls along it but all trivial.

Not that that didn't keep me from blowing one of them. I seemed to get stupider the easier it got.

First 3 km was real nice orienteering, better woods for sure. Still felt like my orienteering wasn't real sharp, just not processing info well enough, but no misses. Haven't seen any final results yet. I did beat the good Finn by 12 seconds, busted my ass the last 8 minutes to do it. Whether any late starter got me remains to be seen. But still leaves something to be desired, best H60s were 43 and 44. I can account for about 3 minutes, part blowing an easy route, the rest at a simple control. The rest may just be speed (mental and physical)?

And then off to spectate the Long final. A long afternoon, especially when the person you're rooting for has a tough day, but it was especially nice to see TG win on his own turf. I've always thought there was a pretty significant home-field advantage in this sport.

Terrible run. a couple of missed controls, couple of minutes each, plus got caught in an unmapped jungle of downed trees. According to my GPS it took 4:30 to go 100 meters, not knowing if I would ever get out, and doing a good bit of damage to myself in the process.

This stuff is not so bad if you have a good run, but it decidedly less fun if you don't.... :-)

On the other hard, chatted up (with difficulty) a Tasmanian M60, his one word answer to my question as to what he thought of the place was, "Crap." So, bad as you're doing, it's probably not hard to find someone else doing worse.

It also occurred to me that he would look a lot better, and perhaps a lot younger, if he shaved off his mostly white beard. But I kept my mouth shut on that subject.

C • Small world 5

Some stories from today --

1. We took the shuttle bus to the meet site to avoid the parking trauma suffered by some yesterday (uphill walks of up to 3 km from one's car). Chatted up the guy sitting next to me, a Swede, about 50. Had crutches with him, broke his fibula 6 weeks ago, was here with family but not orienteering himself.

A lengthy discussion about the risk of injury, and death, in O' training, often out by yourself, and in Sweden at least, often at night and in the winter. You get hurt, no one is near you, you freeze pretty fast. I carry a phone often, but even that might not help. You try not to be stupid, but you can't just not go out because there is some risk, just have to find the right balance and hope you're not the unlucky one.

And then he said he'd been in Canada, time of the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, lots of Swedes there, he ran in the Quebec 5 Day, was 15 at the time and in H15-16. He says his class had the distinction/shame of being the only one not won by a Scandinavia, winner was a Canadian named Mark Adams. Did I know him? For sure....

2. And then waiting for my start, 30 minutes to kill, sitting under a big spruce for protection from the steady rain, another guy there too, not a word spoken.

Came back after my run to change, he showed up too, a little conversation started the usual way -- Do you speak English? -- I'd heard him speaking a little German to his non-orienteering wife, so that was going to come next, but English is obviously easier.

Yup, he did. And in less than a minute it turned out that he'd done so-so, and then that he was in H65 like me, though he looked about 50, and that he was Austrian. And then he asked what my name was. And his response was "You're Peter Gagarin?"' -- with a sould of both disbelief and amazement, perhaps he remembered the beard? -- because the next thing he said was, "We've met before in the USA, in 1998, at your championships."

Well, anyone who knows me knows that I'd have no recollection of who I met 13 years ago, but they'd also know that my question back to him was, "Where were our championships in 1998?" I mean, seriously, am I supposed to remember these things?

Turns out they were in Washington state, Cle Elum, ah, that rang a bell with him. And we'd met there. And he was amazed by the fact that our national champs drew a crowd of at most 150 people, and that I had flown 4,000 km to get to them. That doesn't happen in Austria.

And we had a real nice chat, we'd first run in the same event at the Austrian 5-Day in 1996, fun to meet others of the same age because it isn't easy, and often there are language barriers. But it makes the O' scene much more fun.

3. And, doing what I know "feet" would not have done, I went and picked up my award for winning yesterday. Part 1 was a calculator, possibly a solar calculator, though it doesn't seem to work. Part 2 was a tube of, well, the French word sounds like crayons, actually a set of colored drawing pencils.

I don't remember many of the awards over the years over here, but they are usually not medals or cups, rather something they've gotten from a sponsor or local merchant. High on the list, and perhaps feet would have kept them, was 4 bottles of good French champagne one year, and a couple of bottles of nice red wine another, or the container of a dozen separate baskets of fresh berries for winning a day in Italy (they were really good). Though I think the best was the free dinner for 2 after the aforementioned Austrian 5 Day, at a very nice restaurant up in the mountains, absolutely anything we wanted, drinks included.

On the low end was a jar of anchovies one day in France, and an axe at a meet in northern Sweden. The anchovies we offered to a stray cat, but it wasn't interested. The axe quickly found a willing Swede to take it off my hands.

Anyway, the lady passing out the awards was delighted to see me, both my behavior and my French were as good as they get, and I was happy to pose for a photo. There are worse things in life than getting an award.

Ha, seems like I got first again. Cool. Gail was 12th today, Boris 2nd, Beatrice 7th, Sandy 11th, all just fine.

I realize as I sit here that I am missing the WOC opening ceremony over in Aix-les-Bains. But there is only so much spectating I can do, and you have to have priorities.... :-)

C • priorities 1

Since you save a few bucks if you do it no later then today, entered us in the SML Champs.

Day 2. Today was another long distance, 3.7 km. I think this is the slowest time I've ever run in a regular O' event, right about 15:00. And when I left (it was starting to rain and there were no WOC events, so we didn't hang around), I was in first by a couple of minutes over one of the Peltola's from Finland (he didn't run yesterday). In H60 on the same course, the good Swiss guy was also 54, Svein Jacobsen from Norway (he won the bronze at WOC1976 in Scotland, I was 46th) was 2 or 3 minutes faster, and the best guy from yesterday wasn't in.

So I guess 15:00/km is OK and I assume I was in the top few, but who knows where.

As far as my walk (I was certainly walking more than running), spiked all the controls but one, on that one I was getting a little nervous, stopped, looked at the map, figured I'd gone far enough in the jumble of contours, rocks, and tree slash, had a feeling it was a little to my left, went left about 20 meters and there it was another 20 meters away in a little reentrant. From there it took at least 30 seconds to get to it....

Same terrain and map as yesterday's middle qualifier, and how they move so fast in the crap I don't know, but they do. I sure don't.

Today my disparaging comment will be that if the normal USA crowd was orienteering here, the DNF/DQ/OT rate would be approaching 50%. Well, maybe that's a little high, unless I add a fourth category -- finished but bitching.... :-)

On the other hand, they sure haven't Swissed us old folks (given us a baby course). Though it might appear they were trying to kill off the old ladies -- Gail's course (D60) and the D65 one were both a hair longer than mine, and it looked like any time under 2 hours would end up placing quite well.

A long day out at the meet site, but a lot of fun to stay around for the WOC Middle qualification. A bunch of good runs from our team. Such a pleasure to see. And a whole lot of really fast young men and women around.

Have also run into a few old friends. One is our course setter for tomorrow, but he wasn't going to tell me much other than that it would be thicker than today. Can hardly wait.

On the other hand, with all its rough stuff today, I have to admit it was both fun, and also really fine and demanding orienteering. Not that I would want to run in this stuff every day.

Day 1 of the spectator races at WOC, H65, "long distance", 2.8 km beeline!

Well, I tried to make it a long distance, or at least a long time. One bad control, 3 or 4 minutes gone, plus a lot of little stuff. But also moments of OK. And the end result, almost ashamed to admit it, was first in my class. But then bear in mind that everyone in H65, myself included, is half dead anyway. But I suppose first of the old and frail is better than last of the old and frail.

I can't seem to upload maps or photos right now, so no maps until I get it fixed. Won't happen today.

C • Looking forward to seeing s... 2

C • Yes, Photos! 1

C • 1

C • half dead anyway... 2

Event: WOC 2011 + O'Festival Savoie Grand Revard
 

Midday and afternoon spent hanging around at the WOC long qualifying. Very pleasant. A modest crowd, sufficient for a sense of excitement but not so many as too feel too crowded.

And a good support group for the USA team.

C • Keep it up! 6

Walking around a corner of a training map with Gail, went to six controls. No problems, though obviously going very slowly, except when heading back on a trail and not paying attention and then a bit perplexed.

If this terrain was in the USA, we wouldn't map it, unless perhaps it was in Kansas or California or the Seattle area.... :-)

Saw virtually nobody running. Granted it is ust for training, but usually on cuck an occasion there a lots of folks dashing here and there. Not today. Too rocky, thick, steep....

I'll see if I can put up some sort of map.

C • Why? 2

Nothing even remotely training today, but managed to make it to first JFK, and then Geneva, and then Chambery, and find our place to stay (not at all fancy but the WiFi works), and find the event center, where we ran into Sandra. She showed us a map of where the team is staying in Aix, so with excellent map memory found their hotel (also not fancy, and the WiFi is temperamental), and had a nice chat with the women. And then a little look around the center of Aix, and now it's about dinner time and despite a day of no training, I am just about ready for bed....

We do a little modeling tomorrow morning (spectator races start Sunday), then will spectate at the long qualifying in the afternoon, keeping the fingers crossed.