Training Log Archive: Sergey

Event: North American Orienteering Championships
 

Warmup for middle champs at NAOC.

Middle Red Course at NAOC. Double Duck Flats near Cranbrook, BC. Started with the right mindset and strategy to work slow and cleanly in complex areas and switch full speed in more realxing ones. Almost flowless execution loosing may be 1 minute overall on small hesitations and wobbles.

What a starking difference in comparison to USA Champs a week ago. Proper map cases, paper quality, and championship worsy courses! In addition spectator friendly event arena with finish right in front to cheer up. That is how it should be done!

First on the course beating second by more than 2 minutes Joe. Small wobble going from 2 to 3 in the beginning taking too much around the hill, and small wobble/hesitation to #6.

Middle - Course 7 - Splits

Model event for NAOC. Very nice I went because it helped a lot with mapping style later during NAOC. Went through all controls and than jogged more with map observing features and mapping. I love these woods - remind me our best areas near McCall and Idaho City.

Trail Champs n Riverside State Park. My first attempt at trail-O :) Completely missed all 4 Z controls - I thought you have to guess the closest correct :( But we learn on our mistakes :) May be next time I will be a contender with Eric, Joe, and other more experienced ones.

Wedding-O in Gonzaga University campus Spokane. Score type to select 3 controls with most prized wedding presents. You have to visit all controls first, assess prices for wedding gifts, and than run to 3 with most expensive ones to punch. Selected 2 correctly (Google stock and knive set) but completely missed 78 pcs silverware set (silver plated and gold accent). And I knew that this is expensive stuff :) No first prize - piece of cake :( But we liked the format :)

Warmup for Sprint Champs including run up the hill to the start and some speed intervals.

Sprint Champs at Camp Sekani in Spokane. Wow, another "championship" event. I just don't understand people who selected this venue for "sprint". If winners wpeed is 10min/k - it is not sprint! Thank fully I removed map from dumb zip-bag and it helped somewhat with map reading, however, mapping quality and, especially, course design made it "who is the lakiest and most cautios" race. Even with my magnifying glass I couldn't see clearly ##7, 8, 9, and 10 in those boulder fields. Using fading ink should not be permited! Plus starting from #7 and to #17 - these were not sprint controls, more like middle distance comples orienteering.

Ok, back to my mistakes. Lost 3 minutes going drom 2 to 3 due to poorly mapped trail crossing, just ran out of map, overrun #5 for 1:30 mistake, mao there is not in par, on each 7, 8, 9, 10 lost on average 30 seconds each on poorly mapped bolders, after that it was ok excluding the fact that controls were not sprint type.

I re-run this course later with 15:30 time vs. 24:04 which clearly shows how far behind myself I was :(

And the last rambble is about latest trend in USA to have "forest" sprints. This is noncence! The main purpose of sprint is speed and quick decision making. Additionally the aim of sprint is to bring O to population and create spectacular friendly races. Urban areas such as campuses and city parks are more suited to these purposes. I just don't get mindset of organizers.

Running to start to re-run the course.

Re-running of the course. Of course, knowing all the hidden obstakles helpes a lot but 16 minutes should be achievable to the race in the first attempt.

Red Sprint - Splits

Red Sprint - Splits

Brief warmup for Long Champs. Mainly on the trail to the start.

Long Champs at Fishtrap Lake. Once again usage of zip-bag as a map case is perplexing as well as map paper quality. Additionally map was printed 1:15000 and I had real troubles seeing details even with my magnifying glass. I again opted to use cap and sun glasses but that was dictated by merciful sun and open terrain. Map was okey in terms of mapping quality.

Lost 30 sec on #1, about 2 minutes on #4 due to the fact that I was first on the course and there were no elephant trails among those knolls (passed right knoll on the first attempt but didn't see control hidden more behind), about 1 minute on #9 hesitating how to interpret what was shown, how I missed #13 and lost about 5 minutes there is still mistery to me, then there was #16 which I didn't see on the map due to much cutting of the circle, loss of ~4minutes on #17.

My age shows as I make mistakes if I don't see map details enough :( Physically I was fine finishing with some energy in my legs. Good time for me would be something around 1:30. Joe finished in 1:34 or so.

Red Long - Splits

Event: US Sprint/Middle/Long Championships
 

Model event area at Moses Lakes. Didn't have problems with control locations and map though mapping could be better. Including re-run at competition speed @~ 6min/k.

Middle Champs at Moses Lake Sand Dunes. Wow, that was complete disaster starting right off the bat with 4:30 mistake on first control. Thin shiny wrinkling zip-bag used instead of real map case was really bad desision by organizers. I don't understand any reasoning behind such a decision. Additionally all maps during these USa champs were printed on unappropriately thin and easily tearable paper.

Red course layout just raised my eyebrows right from the start. I just don't understand why course designer wanted to confuse competitors more with crisscrossing so many times. Completely lost contact with map right from the start. Had to return to start triangle and start the course again. It was uneventful and moving with good speed until #13 where I made about 30 second wobble to the right due to wrong interpretation of vegeation boundary and one more disastrous decision to cross thin strip of swamp going to #15. When water reached my waist I just re-treated back and had to run around lakes using unfavorable route for the loss of ~1:30. Decision was based on map showing clearing path where I wanted to cross but in reality it was all green swamp. Without these mistakes my time would be more like 38:30 which would be fine for 2nd behind Mikkel.

One additional mistake was to use cap and sun glasses. With damn zip-bag I had real troubles comprehending map behind. And I couldn't remove map from it in the fear of swamps!

Red Middle - Splits