Training Log Archive: PG

Made it to Klosters, Switzerland, without any undue difficulty, have an apartment here for 6 days. Lots of hills to explore, can see a few of the smaller ones from our balcony....



The scale at the Copenhagen airport, after applying various adjustments for clothing, time of day, latitude and longitude, etc., indicated that the G is up a pound or two so far on the trip. Did nothing to reverse that trend at dinner tonight. Will need to up the activity level....

C • Activity level 1

C • Klosters 2

Before we left the O'Ringen, took a walk out to a little bit of the terrain, especially from day 4 when I'd had a very early start. I wanted to see how it looked afterwards.



Went in the vicinity of #1. First, the view from the road looking north towards the control area. This small section had no tracks, as it was early that day....



Just to one side, not much of a track, but it would definitely help (have to look carefully, right in the middle of the photo)...



And then upon top there was a more obvious track....



And then a really good one....



But of course there were still some virgin areas....



After that it was time to fika before leaving town....



And fika again on the way south through Skåne....



Where there was even some nice forest.... :-)

With George and Lyn in Malmö, early evening. Really nice tour of parts of the city, including parks, harbor, a big skateboarding tournament, strange buildings and sculpture, and a feeble excuse for a castle. With regard to the last item, we were told by a young women where we are staying that Sweden just doesn't have much in the way of castles.

A few more thoughts on the O'Ringen --

1. It is cool that Tom Hollowell is the O'Ringen boss. And also cool that he is having a real positive impact. This one seemed to run really smoothly -- great technology, no lines, very interesting terrain, good vibes all around. We enjoyed the whole week, hope to be back.

2. With the help of Tom, we rented an apartment very close to the central camping area. Very nice, not expensive. Didn't have internet access, so Tom got us a gizmo that pulled a connection out of the cell phone system. Actually worked.

3. Despite all the stuff in English, it really does help knowing some Swedish, and it certainly is more fun. I started learning after the first trip there, when very little was in English. I can read it pretty well, understand so-so, and speak quite dreadfully, but even the latter is useful when chatting up some of the old guys in my class.

4. Real good results from Mary Jo Childs in F55, 13 of about 60. And by Nate Lyons, Andrew Childs, and John Hensley Williams, all in H18. I'm sure all of them will be back.

C • Welcome back! 2

O'Ringen day 5.

Excellent.

Started in 6th place in the chase start. The first 4 were out of reach, about 10 minutes ahead after 4 days. The fifth guy was a minute ahead of me. Seventh and eighth were a little over two minutes behind.

Never saw any of them. Had a good run, figured it was likely my place didn't change, but you don't know. Finished, 33:40 for 4.1 km, came out of the finish tent to see the first four talking, at least one still sweating a bit. Found out they had all done in the 32-34 range. Cool, I was competitive. And then even cooler was a minute later out comes the guy who started 5th. And then another minute the guy who started seventh. So I ended up 5th overall, and 4th on the day, just 1:35 behind.

Totally delighted.

Talked with all of them for a bit. One I've known for a long time. Most were members of the Swedish national team about 40 years ago; one of them (Sture Björk) won the silver medal in the individual race at WOC in 1968 and a gold in the relay, plus a silver in the relay in 1970. Not bad.

Changed, had a massage (second one for this week), this one because I think I kicked myself coming down the last hill, have a good knot in my left calf (meanwhile the hamstring has just about cleared up). The massage guy was about to start when he said he had a political question for me, What did I think of the new president. Wonderful, I said. Big smile on his face. It's OK again to say you're from the States.

Watched the others come in, all very pleasant.

So nice to finish well.

C • outstanding! 13

C • Oringen maps 19

The usual notes. So nice to have the splits up by mid-afternoon.

1. A good start. Went to the trail bend to make it easier, and there was even a good track from there. Generally good tracks today, as we were starting around 10:15, plus the terrain at the beginning and end had been used on earlier days somewhat.
4th, 9 seconds back.

2. No problem navigating, but didn't find a good line for the first 100 meters and was very slow.
35th, 25 seconds back.

3. Slow on the approach, plus slipped and did a face-plant just before the clearing.
52nd, 27 seconds back.



4. Decided on left, good out to the trails, then got a nice line in along the right foot of the knolls and across the bit of marsh.
6th, 14 seconds back.



5. OK across the marsh, got a faint track and it helped, but then a little trouble reading the slopes, so slowed, then spiked a control just before mine and that cost a bit more (check the code, nope not mine, see what happened, keep going). If I had read the terrain better, no problem.
26th, 40 seconds back.

6. Stayed high, in control.
9th, 9 seconds back.

7. Went left, big-time. Just figured I could do as well on a longer trail/road route than straight through the terrain. I expect most everyone went straight. I think it was the best route for me.
13th, 44 seconds back.



8. Didn't forget there was a control at the bridge.
10th, 5 seconds back.

9. And another easy one, time to figure out what to do on the next one.
10th, 12 seconds back.



10. Stayed up on the hillside, just below the steep part. Expected a good track and there was. Climbed up just at the right spot, the junction was right in front of me. Down to the left bend and in to the control, young pines, low visibility. Pulled up just on the west side of the knoll, pace and map said I'd gone far enough. Quite thick. Was about to check the east side, heard the control beep there, so nice.
Tied first! Turns out it was here the guy who started fifth missed and I got ahead of him without knowing it.



11. Down the hill, rough going, across the trail. We'd been here on day 1 and I remember what things looked like, went right to the knoll just west of the control and then spiked it.
3rd, 8 seconds back.

12. Just go where everyone was converging.
7th, 6 seconds back.

And to the finish.
6th, 6 seconds back.

All done, and no would'ves, should'ves, or could'ves.... :-)

First, a few shots of the gang at today's finish.

Gail in full sprint (you do what you can)....



And afterwards....



Plus George and Lyn with about 100 meters to go....

C • A great looking sample of WCOC's finest! 19

Oringen, day 4. About what I expected. 9th on the day, now 6th overall.

Much easier terrain. Decent run, some good, some less good. Very early start time, 3rd one out on our course (and first one in), got to see untracked woods, which may be pretty but sure aren't as fast. Figured the best time would be about 3 minutes faster, and that was about right. A late start was worth maybe 1-2 minutes, though that may vary by the person, some run a lot better in the terrain than me.



Before the start, checked out the fellow starting ahead of me (Kennet), I was maybe 5 minutes up on him after 3 days. Wondered if I'd see him.

Plan for the day was use the roads/trails as much as possible, try to stay out of any junk.

So to #1 it was an immediate decision to run around. Finally turned up the hill, it was a mix of young pine and scattered ferns, yuk, you knew it would be a lot nicer in an hour. Up past the boulder, over the shallow knoll, spiked the control just behind Kennet coming from the west. That was nice, wondered what he had done.
7th, 22 seconds behind (amazing it was so good, I'd bet all the Swedes went straight).

#2. Easy, wide-open forest, could see the feature from 50+ meters away, what the Swedes call very good runnability, meaning sort of lumpy and some ground vegetation but no bushes, for me still a struggle. 20 meters behind Kennet most of the way.
14th, 10 seconds behind.

#3. Along the north side of the logged area (Kennet went straight through), still "very good" running. I got ahead of him by the time we reached the road, but the rest of the way was ferns and some deadfall and I wilted, he was there 20 meters ahead. Still easy O.
37th, 54 seconds behind. The last 100 meters probably cost me 20-30 seconds compared to later runners.

To be continued, off to a party.... :-)

Back, still sober but stuffed.



#4. I went left, Kennet straightish, got there the same time. Weak going up the hill at the end.
8th, 24 seconds back.

#5. Out to the road together. I kept going, he stopped for a moment, never saw him again. Ran the leg well, but lots of ferns made for slow going.
17th, 39 seconds back.

#6. More ferns on the way out to the trail, I wilted again. Plus slow at the end, the control was tucked in a thicket and I didn't see it immediately.
24th, 55 seconds back.



#7. Not good at all energy-wise. Slow to get going, not moving well, more ferns. OK at the end.
58th, 1:01 back.

#8. Back to the road. Read the slope to the right correctly, spiked the control.
5th, 7 seconds back.

#9. Straightforward.
9th, 11 seconds back.

#10. Straightforward, though a little thick leaving the control.
27th, 15 seconds back.

And to the finish.
4th, 11 seconds back.

Overall. a couple of sloppy moments and a lack of sufficient willpower in the ferns, but OK. Not a hard course, but certainly could have done worse. Like Kennet, who came in about 10 minutes after me.

Stopped by to see Erik Nyström, the Swede who spent the last year on Ratlum Mountain with Charlie and Rhonda. Last day of his club's mini-5-day, a couple of weeks ago, chase start, he's in the lead in M21, goes out first, halfway around jumps off a cliff, lands wrong, breaks two bones in his foot, needed surgery, a couple of screws, out of action for maybe three months. What a shame.

But real nice to see him. He loved his time in the USA. And also thinks his orienteering got better, he was definitely stronger/faster from all the training he did.

Oh, and the race he was running when he broke the two bones. He didn't stop, 20 minutes still to go, he won, then off to the doctors and surgery a day later. Don't think we need to tell him to HTFU.

C • Erik 2

A picture is worth a thousand words. So I don't need to provide any details on the golf, other than a beautiful day and a beautiful course and some fine company -- Gord Hunter, plus a very good local golfer (not an orienteer), plus an M69, Bo, who many many years ago was on the winning team at Tiomila (ran the 4th leg, rain and wind and cold) and nowadays is a very enthusiastic reader of Spike's blog. When I told him I had known Spike for 25 years or so, he was very impressed.



So Bo (the M69) wasn't kidding about Tiomila. I looked it up. 1967, went out 45 minutes behind in a pack of about 50, went like a train, his website says, closed 15 minutes on the leaders. Legs 5 and 6 closed another 15 minutes, and by the time it was over they had won.

Here's the map. Quite something, imagine being out there at night. 1:25,000?

When he started orienteering, age 13 in 1963, they used 1:100,000 maps. And 13 was considered an early age to start.

C • Very impressed! 3

O'Ringen, day 3.

This sport is just damn hard.

5th, 5th overall. Delighted to have made it around again, same medicine as yesterday, hamstring feels the same, no better, but mainly no worse.

But a very very frustrating run, just felt like I was constantly losing time. I think part of the explanation is that this was the day I had a late start, therefore lots of tracks, therefore possibilities for a good place if you can put together a good run.

But, as I said, it is just hard. Mud, rocks, deadfall, thick forest. Just the continual feeling I haven't found the best line through the crap.

More later, plus the map. And, to be clear, I'm not pissed, the result was fine even if there was hope for better, and frustration was gone within moments of finishing. And still running, and still on track for goal (top ten).

But it is just so damn hard.

Splits are posted. One first (on the easiest leg, to the last control), one second. I can do this right, sometimes....

So the thinking for today was to try to simplify the orienteering so that less stopping would be needed. The expectation was that the orienteering would again be difficult. And the goal, this being the day with the late start, was to win. Which I considered possible but not at all likely (maybe 5 or 10% chance). But you have to try.

With the hope that maybe I'll learn something by writing it down, here's a bit of a blow by blow with the frustrations and little time losses.... :-)



1. Up to the start triangle, back down, tripped, flat on my face within 100 meters....
Along the marsh, up the reentrant, picked up the trail, across the open marsh, got caught up in some deadfall when leaving, had to retreat a bit...
Up the hill, ended up one reentrant too far left...
But at least recognized it, adjusted, spiked control at decent speed. But already muttering to myself, not a good start. :-)
9th, 39 seconds behind.

(To be continued, but the Childs clan just arrived to party.)

OK, I'm back, reasonably sober.



2. Just heading SSW, first deadfall issues, then sinking-into-the-marsh issues....
Hit the trail/ride, right at the corner but still paused to be sure....
Continued, off line a little, too far right, confused, stopped a couple of times, hit the marsh too far right....
Had in mind my control was a boulder, took a bit to realize that was #1....
And more deadfall issues just before the control....
30th, 1:01 behind. Very frustrated. And so far the legs had felt dead too.

3. About to drop down the reentrant and do a left turn to the road, but figured it would be a little quicker going down to the east and take a right turn. Except the right turn was blocked by some fallen spruce trees....
So I went farther east, it was like there was a solid wall of spruce deadfall....
So I went further east, eventually slowly down a steep rocky slope....
And finally saw the lake in front of me, took a right, OK, left on the road, up the hill, annoyingly thick, but at least spiked the control....
19th, 27 seconds behind.



4. Good down to the road, along to the field, good tracks across the field and marsh and field, but then pulled into the control area at what seemed to be a cliff, no control....
Went left maybe 30-40 meters, still no control....
Knew it was the other way, and it was, maybe 30-40 seconds gone.
16th, 35 seconds behind. Still really frustrated, but at least the legs were feeling better.



5. Out to the trail and across the road OK. Heading east, whoops right to the top of the cliff, a quick detour to skirt the left edge (all these little things add up)....
Up the left side of the semi-open, much of it a foot-deep in water (was the right side as bad?)....
Then terrible thick young spruce, trying to pick up tracks, over one knoll, then the next, then the control, OK, just frustrating it was so thick and not finding a good line.
16th, 59 seconds behind.

6. More crap....
Fighting conflicting impulses, one to keep moving, the other to know where I was going. Not enough of either....
Got to the semi-open, then compass across, totally vague terrain, still thick, no sign of a cliff, veered a little right, nothing....
And then, just a gut feeling, veered a little left, got it, lucky, first good feeling of the day, but I had still missed the control.
16th, 40 seconds behind. Yet at this point I was still only 6th, but over 3 minutes behind.

Dinner time....

Back again. I fear the G is on an upward course, another excellent dinner produced by Gail and Lyn.

7. Another too quick glance at the map, heading north, terrible thick stuff, following tracks and even they were slow and meandering, visibility averaging about 5 meters, more frustration....
Hoping to end up at the bridge, finally there was the "stream," quite crossable, so across I went as the forest was much better on the other side. Up the reentrant, heading north, moving well, and then uncertainty, how far had I gone? Yet another stop....
Kept going, spiked it at a good rate of speed.
After all that, 2nd, 17 seconds back.

8. Left of the marsh, to the trail, to the bend, I looked out just right of west and couldn't see either hill. Stop again, just to be sure....
Take off, hit the bigger hill dead center, whoops....
Circle around it, spike the control.
5th, 19 seconds back. And 32 minutes already, clearly 33 was not going to happen (I'd known that for a while), now just a matter of limiting the damage.



9. Along the marsh, on the road to the bend, over the small hill, angle down, hit the trail, along it, all at a very good rate of speed....
Run right by the control, still at a good rate of speed....
Put on the brakes when the trail starts to bend and I see a junction ahead of me. Look at the map. WTF. Back I go, highly pissed....
30th, 41 seconds behind.

10. As I said, highly pissed.
1st, 6 seconds up.

Finish. And then in, holding back a bit, not wanting to risk the hamstring any more.
9th, 8 seconds back.

And just really pissed. But not for more than about a minute. It passed. What can you do. You try, it doesn't work, you go out the next day and try again. :-)

C • The Childs Clan 4

C • Vegetation 2

C • Night O symptoms 5

O'Ringen day 2. Better than I expected.

Hamstring was hurting, but I took enough medicine (6x200 ibupfrofin, 2x325 tylenol) to keep it to a dull ache. Ran gingerly, but was able to run. And afterwards, maybe no worse, can't be sure until the drugs wear off. And maybe can do the same tomorrow. Which is a lot better than sitting on the sidelines.

Harder orienteering today. I had a good run, really no mistakes, just a lot of stopping on a couple of very detailed legs and not running as fast. Finished 9th (and now 5th overall), a little farther back. But given that the overnight expectation was that I wouldn't finish, a very nice surprise.

Splits from yesterday are here. Had one fastest split. :-)

For the long leg, had the 3rd best split. I was running fast to the start of the climb, then climbed pretty fast, but was quite slow descending, very uncertain. Descending a little more confidently would have saved 30-45 seconds (assuming I still navigated right), put me about the best. So I don't think going around to the north was much better, if at all.

Also clear that I was slow at the beginning and end, fast in the middle. Over here you have to be fast all the time....

Today's map. Also, here's a larger version of legs 3-7.

And today's splits.

A few comments --

#1. OK, a little cautious.
#2. Don't if a straighter route or more to the right was better. Thought I was moving OK.
#3. Just very cautious.
#4. Really slow. Should have just tried up the reentrant (assuming finding the correct one), then up the spur. As it was, I stopped lots of times, confused/uncertain, finally saw the knoll in front of me with the little reentrant of the south face, turned left and there was the control. But double the best time for the leg.
#5. Maybe not the best route?
#6. Really cautious again, but only 18 seconds behind.
#7. Easier, and the time shows it, only 10 seconds behind.
#8. Route? Though can't have been too bad, 7th.
#9. OK.
#10. Easiest running leg on the course, 2nd, just 13 seconds back, and I didn't feel like I was moving that well. Plus was in the marsh up to my knees at the end. Interesting. (The leg I won yesterday I had the feeling I was really moving.)
#11. Felt really slow and cautious, but at least spiked the control.
#12. OK.

Just obviously much slower the harder the O' gets. Some of that is the rougher running, but a lot is just mental, not simplifying enough, not having enough experience in this stuff to handle it quickly. And also maybe not having the right instincts about route choice.

Still though, totally delighted just to have finished. And the hamstring, late in the afternoon, seems to be no worse. :-)

C • out of bounds 5

Late afternoon special training with Gord Hunter in preparation for the O'Ringen golf tournament on Wednesday morning (the rest day).

Over to the golf course, walked around for an hour hoping to amass a supply of little round white things to last us through 18 holes. And I was in the company of a master. It was truly impressive the show he put on. By the time we were done, my collection of 6 was totally dwarfed by his 19.

I did try to make the argument that our respective numbers were based not on any particular ball hawking skill but on the expected need on Wednesday. My assumption was that we were just borrowing the balls, in a couple of days we would be returning them (perhaps not willingly) to the long grass we'd found them in. I will have to make each ball last 2 holes (I packed 3 just in case), Gord just has to get a single hole out of each ball. That should be doable....

Good mellow training for the hamstring.

Event: O-Ringen
 

Day 1 of the O'Ringen. Totally bummed.

Run was pretty good, place better than expected, 4th of about 130 in H65. But did something to my right hamstring. No memory of anything, it just started hurting a little in the last couple hundred meters, and hurting more as the day goes on. Don't know what tomorrow will bring but I am not optimistic.

Trying to keep a positive attitude....

The map.

The course wasn't particularly difficult, just 7 was a little tricky, in an area of young pines, bad visibility, and then 9 and 10 were in rougher forest. Felt tired most of the time.

#2. Was hoping to find a beaten path across the marsh but didn't. I think I should have gone up to the next fence corner. Vegetation was mid-thigh all the way across.
#3. Stood for maybe 15 seconds on the spur just outside the circle, confused by the trail below me. Turned out it was just about perfectly covered by the circle.
9. A nasty scramble up the slope, very rocky, then very rocky going down too. Feeling very insecure, lots of stopping. Going around to the north might well have been better.
10. Insecure again, also inefficient, stopping several times including on the knoll just before our dot knoll. Ours was virtually invisible.

Overall felt like I could have been a couple minutes faster, but not the 3.5 I was behind.

I'd expect the orienteering to get more difficult.

Results, you can select class or country.

We are staying in a house, side-by-side apartments on the first floor, very nice, but no internet access. Normally. But Tom Hollowell took care of us, he'd gotten us some sort of gizmo that connects via cell phone signals, or something. A little thing that plugs into the USB port of my laptop, and then it just sort of starts itself.

Maybe for normal people.

We'd found Tom at the campground, a little stressed because the just completed full test of all computer systems had uncovered a few problems, but he was still pretty cool. Also wife Tone and son William. Also Per Nyström (Erik's dad, delivered Erik's shoes to him). And we chat for a bit and then head back to our house. And we try really hard (including reading the instructions!) but no go, we can't get connected.

Back to the campground, this time with the laptop and gizmo, find the main man for such things (son William), and he thinks a little and then uninstalls everything I've done, starts from scratch, and in a minute everything works. And then he also does a few more things so that I'm now broadcasting a wifi signal so George can use his iTouch.

We are now apparently connected anyplace in Scandinavia. Very cool. Switzerland will be another question.

C • Touch 2

Off to another training area. This time a very slow walk with George, just looking, looking, looking, training the eyes. Useful. Even if the map was a little old.

Had one case, 30 meters (at most) from a large boulder, white woods, couldn't see it. It was just perfectly blocked by a spruce. From any other angle it was obvious. Got to keep looking.

And then back to yesterday evening's map to take another look, plus take the camera along....

Tone Hollowell....



Even when the forest was ok, the trails are still a lot faster....



Control #10 from yesterday (between the knolls)....



Just east of #10 was a nice big cliff, if viewed from the SW....



But could hardly see it from the NW....



And some places you just want to avoid (under the power line south of #11)....