Training Log Archive: bishop22

North American Middle Champs at Salmon River Hatchery.

What a disaster.

Despite losing over a minute on C2, I made it thru C5 in reasonable shape, sitting 6th in M45. I lost about 4 minutes on C6, when I missed the trail junction, went faster than my pace count was calibrated, and didn't stop until I hit the property line, and then I missed the control as I headed north, until I saw the field that was quickly approaching. That was still OK - not good, but by C9 I had worked back up to 10th place.

Then came the 16-minute error. I headed towards C10 and thought I was on track. I saw a flag that I knew couldn't be mine, I still had a little farther to go, but I had to check it out. From there on, I kept thinking I had things (e.g. contours and marshes) lined up with something on the map, but kept coming up empty (except for the other non-RedY control that I kept seeing). I finally realized that I had been spending my time on the wrong side of the bumpy spur that headed out into the swamp. Once that was sorted out, it was easy to find the flag. What a waste.

I tried to rally, and put together two good legs, setting up the easiest control out there, C14. I lined up a bearing and took off flying and pace counting, telling myself to keep drifting left, so that I would hit the trail before the flag. Well, I guess myself didn't listen and I ran too fast, because 1) I found a flag on a hill next to the trail (I hadn't bothered to look at the clue which was the opposite of a hill!) at about the right count, and was shocked to see the wrong code. 2) It turned out the flag was a ways past mine, but not knowing that, I popped out on the trail, looked for the nearest bend (since the control was just a few meters from the trail bend), and scoured the area looking for depressions. Finally, I gave up, noticed there was an open area not too far away, and that I was well past the flag.

I ran blindly to C15, missed it way right and had to come back for it, and cruised in, 3 seconds ahead of David, who said he had his worst race in years.

Some jogging around the parking area, then jog/walk with Luke to the start and jogged back from the finish, so Zach and I could hit the road.

The McQuaid invitational went much better than today's orienteering. The kids ran great, in tougher conditions (heat and humidity) than last year - while it rained fairly constantly in Syracuse, not a drop seemed to have fallen in Rochester.

The Varsity Boys had a huge race, placing third behind Union-Endicott and a pretty strong Williamsville North team (ranked tied for 3rd among large schools in Section VI) and ahead of Lancaster (5th in Section VI).

I jogged to and from the car, and got in a serious workout while running around to 7 different spots on the course for each of 3 races.

The girls were not last! And the JV boys were 11th of 30 teams, which were mostly teams from the seeded race (and we finished ahead of Webster Thomas).

Event: North American Championships
 

North American Orienteering Sprint Championship (Prelim Race) at Green Lakes State Park.

Well, I decided that my season was on the line today. I've been trying to improve my orienteering, but my skills are still lacking, and I've been trying to improve my fitness, but coaching duties seemed to have hindered that a bit this year, instead of helped. In any case, my best hope for a NAOC medal would certainly be in today's Sprint. And the event was at Green Lakes State Park, the site of my first NYS XC Championship meet (as a competitor - my state meet attendance dates back to about 1968) in 1979.

I started out fairly quick, and had trouble finding the start triangle, so I had to pause briefly at the first Y/W control before continuing on. I calmed down a bit going to C2 and was ready for the trail route left to C3. The field was too thick around C3 to consider the left route, so I went right and had trouble fighting thru the brush between clearings. I had a cleaner path coming back out and then I made great time to C6. I should have gone back to the trail to get to C7, but I tried the shortcut around the fence.

C8 was my first real problem. I should have taken the trail route to the right, but the woods looked so tempting that I tried for a shortcut. I ended up getting hung up a bit and bailed to the trail to the right and cut back in. Jon T came in from the other direction and punched shortly before me and opened up a gap as he got out of the brush more cleanly than I did. The next two legs were wide open and I busted my butt, and the splits show that - just 1 second behind Sergey on C9 and 4 seconds ahead of him on C10.

C11 was my next issue. I tried to find the clearing that was on my map, but it wasn't there in real life. I had forgotten about the warning off the map error. So, I was stuck in some brush that cost me some time before I bailed to the path. I ended up losing about 15 seconds and my sense of direction, as I had trouble finding the direction to C12 at first, but recovered quickly when I realized the reentrant pointed straight at my flag. I was able to get in quite quickly from there.

Since Greg Balter had some trouble during the sprint, I wound up 2nd in M45+, just 31 seconds ahead of 3rd and 41 seconds ahead of Greg, who was likely to catch me later.

North American Orienteering Sprint Championships (Finals) at Green Lakes State Park

OK, so the goal was to run hard and take safe routes where necessary to avoid any big blunders. Being a late starter, I could see that people disappeared around the curve of the road to the left at the start and punched behind the building to the right after the first loop, and entered the woods across the field after the map exchange, and the finish was flagged, so the transitions were set.

I got off to a decent start, as the first 2 controls were just running and the third had a patch of open land pointing at it, but I got stuck behind an "old" course runner going into C3 and lost a few seconds. I made up for that by flying to C4 and most of the way to C5, but I lost time when I wasn't sure whether C5 was in the brush.

Here disaster struck (actually it had already struck, I was just now made aware of it): I looked down, lining up my thumb compass to decide on the next leg, and the compass capsule was gone. &#%$@*&!!!! I lined my map up with the parking lot and took off along it, and knew I was in trouble. As it turns out, I was ahead of Andrew Cornett from Ottawa by 8 seconds at C5 (39 seconds overall).

I needed the compass on C8 as I had trouble keeping a line along the jagged edge of the field and lost about 10 seconds. No problem getting in and out of the finish area and the shelter was an easy target for C11. I was worried about C12 w/o a compass, but part way there I realized I could see the reentrant and stayed above it. I was off line on C13, but that just meant running a little too far and hitting the road a bit early which almost balanced out.

I lost over 20 seconds going to C15. With no bearing, I tried to just stay in the most open area and turn left near the end. Mary Jo Childs was nearby, so I caught her along some elephant tracks. I blasted out where I saw daylight (to the N) and was able to pick up a decent line to C16. I got in and out of the finish area in good shape (punching 7 seconds ahead of Andrew).

I don't have the last map handy, but I missed the trail into C18 and lost a bit of time trying to line up the map for C19. I think C20 was down below C7 and I lost time trying to navigate there by features, and was now behind Andrew for the course. I don't remember C21-22, but I lost time on them and I zig-zagged to C23 back in the main field, losing yet more time. I got in and out of C24 fairly well, and was down 26 seconds (so, still in 3rd by 5 seconds overall).

C25 cost me the medal. I ran off the corner of the parking lot, but thought I was looking for a reentrant. I was off line and got to the empty reentrant, read the clue, saw the far corner of the parking lot and ran back, losing nearly 40 seconds and the medal. Of course, I didn't know that, so after coming out of the woods off line, I hustled in pretty well, winning the last 2 splits for M45+, but missing the medal by 17 seconds.

All I can do is have this make my hungrier (but no NA champs for me in 2010; where will 2012 be?).

C • 2010? 2

Plenty of w/up and w/dn. Second w/dn includes a lot of walking around looking, futilely, for my compass capsule - not included in the time/distance.

Luckily, the capsule was found and left on a refreshment table, but I have to figure out how to repair it.

Ran around in the dark at Mendon, to find a few controls, then picked up 3 controls.

Made it in time for the second match of our doubleheader. I was expecting to just cruise thru the games to save energy for tomorrow, but the other team was pretty good and had one serious player, so now my calfs are just a bit sore.

Ran the perimeter of Webster Park during XC practice. It included some terrain running near the southeast corner and to get to the new Whiting Road trail, which is now streamered from the usual park trail out to where they've put down some gravelish-like substance.

Running around during the meet at Parma Park. We were the host school, running against Hilton at their home course, what the heck?

Anyway, the girls made a nice effort, but only finished 1-3, losing two close ones. The boys ran great and came away 4-0 for the first time since 2004. We were losing to Hilton early on, but, following Kenny-Nate-Nico going 2-3-4 (and 2-3-5 overall, to all make the D&C on Wednesday), Chris finished just behind Hilton's 3rd man and AB went past their 4th, 5th and 6th guys in the last 400m or so, and we came away with a 24-31 win.

This also includes a few minutes of running around after the later run.

After everyone went home, I felt like I still needed to get in some running to recover from the hard running during the race, so I ran the course. I started just after 7pm, so it got pretty dark in the woods as I went on, so the increased effort was offset somewhat. Miles: 8:12, 7:55, 7:45, 47

VOA Golf tournament at Irondequoit CC. I ended up being the go-to guy on my team (Howie, Vinny and Leo), which means we weren't very good. GTA I (included Scott, Carl G, Stevie V and Jason) won at 11-under, we were 1-over, the other GTA team (Erik, Steve, Frank and Mark B) was about even.

BFLO Meet at Hunter's Creek (new map)

I was pretty slow to C2, as I was having trouble adjusting to the 1:5 scale with lots of undulations in sight. I was pretty good after that, until leaving C9 in the right direction, I looked down at the compass on top of the map, and turned around 180 - I must have thought the 9 was a 6. I lost about 5 minutes being totally confused - even seeing a big rough open field didn't help me relocate (it was on the edge of the map and didn't catch my attention).

So, Nate jogged the course and beat me by 35 seconds. I suck. At least the Bills didn't today! 3-0 (first time since Nate was 3 months old) and alone atop the AFC lEast! And the Rams next.