Training Log Archive: RJM

This hould have been a good day. Bobbled 1 and 2, then was about as good as I have ever been for 3456. 7 I drifted right a bit, recovered, found an alternate and easier route off the road, but bobbled by 3m the last 200m. So, the run was decent, until half way through the route to control 8. After crossing the first road I apparently started one of my 30degree offsets, and wound up on the 2nd road unsure where I was (around 200m south of where I intended, it turns out). Though through the map there shows only a minor S bend, in person it looked like a something that would be major on the map, and I feared I was almost off the map to the south. So, I trucked up the road 500m and realized I was coming to the junction, turned around, and muddled my way through to 8 very slowly. lost perhaps 10 minutes there. Then proceeded to foul up 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and part of 14, each by around 3-5 minutes, each through being unsure of the compass (I think, in retrospect). It would be nice if all this was due to compass problems, but I'm not confident of that.

Day 2 Red Y - Splits

model event - mostly walking

Ugh. The mistakes I made! I could put a lot less effort into my training and still do this poorly. Not the course's fault, but mine, though the thick woods tore a lot of holes in my hide. I was tryihng to be extra careful to keep map contact, but had spotty success. After today I figured out that my compass seems to have come off its bearings, and doesn't always swing freely. I knew it was a bit sticky, but not that bad. I thought I had corrected for that (noticed it stickiness in the last couple of local meets), but often found myself 30degrees off of the heading I wanted (though this terrain probably contributed). I wish that was the real culprit, but it had a lot more to do with my not reading the map well. I could blame that on 1:15,000 with lots of detail, but I should be able to do that.
Nonetheless, some good points. My best leg was 12 - I was able to recover quickly when things weren't right, and the flag showed up just where it should be. Often I did most of a leg well (e.g., 3, 5, 9, 12). Unfortunately on several of those I screwed up in the circle (especially 5, where I paused within 10m of the control, but was looking for the wrong feature). Worst leg was 2, which I ran off by about 30degrees to the right, and if I hadn't seen the out of bounds flags, after 15 minutes of trying to recover, I'd still be there. Winsplits tells me I had about half an hour of mistakes total, which isn't too far off.
I benefitted a lot when I was running with people, was even faster than them moving through the terrain, but they could navigate/mapread while moving, and I can only do general spotchecks on the run. Still, I got all of the controls, and I had quite a lot of fun solving the puzzles (slowly, but solved)., so I have mixed feelings

Day 1 Red Y - Splits

Event: US Champs
 

warmup at model event

When will I learn how to sprint well? Still, pretty good run except for a 3+ minute error on 4 (didn't see the trail I planned to follow, and let that fluster me), and about a minute by drifting too far left on the long leg to 8, going up the wrong spur and not responding quickly to that. Yet correcting those errors would still leave me far behind others in my class. There is a lot more learning to do.

Sprint Red - Splits

left knee hurts (just below patella), but only when biking, not walking or running.

no deer - street route

Deer: 3+3 (royal (!), and furnace).