Training Log Archive: ndobbsIn the 7 days ending May 4, 2014:
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Sunday May 4, 2014 #
Note
Well that was fantastically epic! With a map bag I might even have had a chance of winning. Still on a bit of a high now. HS did fine without me, so I'm happy I chose exhilerating.
Edit: woooooooooooo
Edit:
Edit: woooooooooooo
Edit:
orienteering race 2:08:30 [4] 12.7 km (10:07 / km) +530m 8:22 / km
30c
IOC Classic M21E
On the one hand, it was just orienteering.
http://www.orienteering.ie/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.c...
Summary.
This feels like one of my best orienteering performances. Conditions were as difficult as they get, 15-20m visibility for essentially the whole course. The map printing was poor, so it was hard to read the map from the get go. I chose features reasonably well and usually knew what would work. I ran well, mostly in control, for the first 11 controls, had a five and a half minute lead over everyone at that point, and then fell in a hole. Legs, arms, clothes and the map were covered in mud and it was impossible to get the map clean. Consequently, I had even less information to go with and finding controls became even more of an art. I still managed to keep mistakes controlled, none bigger than 4 minutes, and mostly safe mistakes. A bit of luck and the title could have been mine (ColmM could say the same), but overall I'm very happy with how I ran and, given the conditions, couldn't expect to do much better. I was on a big high all day following. Finding thirty controls in those conditions meant thirty moments of elation.
This is a race that will go down in history.
The blow by blow.
A couple of bowls of weetabix with muesli for breakfast, a good way to start the day. Driving up, between Laragh and the Wicklow Gap, I passed a cyclist walking down pushing his bike. Why? Ten seconds later, I was in thick fog, with still ways to the junction. I crawled up towards the reservoir, the hairpin bend still managing to appear unexpectedly, and passing a few hillwalkers, some in combat fatigues. The parking official up top told me to continue on and turn right by the white van. I never saw a white van, but did get directed in by another yellow jacket. I didn't really know where I was when I parked, but it turned out to be all of 15 metres from the big tent.
Apologised to SET for yesterday's complaint.
I was bouncy and happy getting ready, excited by the challenge. Cagoules were mandatory, a reasonable decision give the conditions. I think I might have just gone with a thermal or a sleeveless vest given the choice.
Entering the start box, I passed the incredible controller Ruth who'd been out checking the controls since dawn. No objection to my incomplete leg cover (I forgot my long socks, and would pay for this later), and my not really waterproof HS jacket didn't raise eyebrows, phew.
#1 Followed the tape to the start triangle. Strange, the map seemed to be saying turn almost 180°, and maybe back down the start chute would have been better. Got a little ruffled by peat hags taking the almost straight line, crossed the edge of the flat area, dropped down, boulders, oh look, flag, woo!
#2 Down the stream, just needing to relocate when I hit the rock. I went somewhat carefully, looking at the map to find useful stopping points. Eventually I vaguely saw a spur to my right which I double-checked (without was not yesterday's #2, so I had to be not far. Down to the rocks and safely into the control, woo.
#3 I'm not sure why I wasn't expecting this to be easy, maybe because of yesterday's evil #5. Ran past the index spur, then along the edge of the flat, over the nice prominent spur and in, woo.
#4 Up, up up, not exactly sure where, not even whether I went left or right of the big line of cliffs. I drew left, because I never saw the fence. Anyway, not too worried, crossed the stream, thought I was a bit higher up, but wasn't. After going for a bit I switched to running more uphill to hit the flatter area with all the detail. Thought I recognised the v-hag, then was sure I hit the dot knoll, contoured around and in. Not too sure which re-entrant it would be, as I was unable to count, but distance was right and it appeared 3m to my left, woo.
#5 Starting to look more interesting. I'm surprised Marcus ran for the lake, as that seems just as hard to find. Knew where I was crossing the stream SSW of 19, and went up the marsh. Was heading a bit far left, may possibly have gone up as far as the index contour, before correcting. Found the seasonal stream complex near 5, and was fairly confident that was what it was. After a few shaky moments, control popped up where expected, as did Niamh. Decided a hello would be inappropriate. Anyway, control found, woo.
#6 This initally looked hard, how many indistinct streams would I have to count? But then I saw it was easy, just run up the ridge, found the broad triangly spur, maybe even follow the streamy bit I used en route to 10, then there would only be a shortish distance to control. But I went a little left and got caught up in a bunch of peat hags so had to correct right, then only crossed the triangly spur near the top, and wasn't sure of it. Anyway, ran along the start of the slope straight into the cliffs and the control, woo.
Not as smooth as it ought to have been, but no disaster.
#7 Easy enough, it seemed. Controlled direction with compass, went past the stony hill, then the broad hill was quite gentle, but figured it had to be it. Stopped a few seconds short of the control as I just knew I was looking for peat hag, not which one. Then advanced a couple of metres, control, woo.
#8 Left 7 slightly left for a couple of metres, corrected, around the right of the first hag, held direction into the stony ground, dropped between the cliffs right where they ought to be, there was tape between the cliffs but control was where it should be, on the northern one, woo.
#9 Slightly right of the line, flat area was again a little scary, looked for and saw the hill with stone, then the big peat hag, ran around the edge of it, down the 'stream', turned left, one hag, two hags, control, woo.
#10 This time I found my linear stream, ran fast along it, turned left, fast (relatively) down the re-entrant, read my contours, found big cliff, lower cliff, control, woo.
Fastest time by a minute on this leg.
#11 Well, there was a ridge of sorts leading to the control, downhill to left and right. I stayed on the left side for the first lot, didn't understand much of anything, so veered right to the other side, went down a little and got a fright as the lake appeared 5m in front of me, water lapping against the shore under a shroud of fog. Followed the contour somewhat hesitantly down to the control, woo.
Big lead at this point.
#12 And halfway along I fall into one of the marshes. Wipe the map on my pants, makes it worse, on my top, slightly better but still very grimy. Fingers, no better. Spit, no good. Argh. Compass manky too. Polish a little corner of the map enough to sort of see where I should be going. Eventually hit the trail after a little meander, trail helped a lot. Hesitant, but went in below the boulder and found control, woo.
At this stage, there was next to no race sensation left.
#13 First half I was possibly a little north of what I drew, as I saw some rock ahead, but I couldn't see it on my map, so I veered a little right, hit the linear marsh, decided I was there, ran down to the control, phew and woo.
#14 Ran in the right general direction, found the pond. Stopped and found a bit more map to read, ran in the right general direction, control, woo.
Don't remember more details on that leg.
#15 Ran up over the ridge, slightly off line, corrected easily with the detail, must have had a clearer patch of map, left of one hag, right of the second, over the third and onto the control, easy, woo.
#16 Left of the big peat hag, past the boulders, past the pool (stopping to verify its location) into the control, easy, woo.
#17 A bit silly, got within twenty metres, didn't know which of the rock piles to run to, went to the left one, nope, okay, must be the other one, yes, control in the re-entrant the other side, woo.
I think the left rockpile may have just had the big boulder in it mapped, I'll blame that.
#18 Ugh, meant to be higher up, got pushed down contouring and appeared below the giant crag. It wasn't all that clear what was going on between there and the control, but after a bunch of hesitation and struggling up the hill, I found it, woo.
#19 Aimed for the uncrossable marsh but went a bit right, ended up crossing and landing into peat hags, no worries, I'll go a bit further then up onto the stony ground and read myself in. Map was too hard to read, got close but no cigar, went up to the lake (was I really S of lake, better at least make sure of that). Practically had to touch lake, but on the plus side the knoll with rock was very helpful. Easy from there to control, woo.
#20 Ran to stony area, then could read the streamy stuff, got into the right channel and ran up into control. Looked harder than it was, woo.
#21 Straight (almost) up to the top of the ridge, hopefully pass identifiable feature at end of ridge, drop two contours into flatter area, find peat hags and control, that was plan. It had the benefit of not needing much detail. But I was, as I suspected, a little left of where I wanted at the end of the ridge, so I missed the hill/stone combo, got very scared, decided I had to be where I thought I was even if I couldn't see much on the map, went around to the right a little, hit the stony ground, sweet, 20m on found the knoll and the control, woo.
#22 Straight, then left of straight, over the ridge, put me a little left of the line, didn't know exactly where but didn't need to either, crossed the streams, hit the rocky stuff, drop into the control, not as scary as it was, woo.
#23 Ugh. Again a little lower than I thought, hit the slightly stony ground, thought I might have passed the marsh (but was too low to have hit the marsh proper, didn't think this though). Went downhill looking for the gully leading to control, but all was (relatively) smooth. Huh. Meandered a little, then went back up to the stones to try to relocate. Stood beside them and tried to distinguish black from brown on the map. This was tough. Decided to go across to the next stone, no clearer. Then up a bit, hey, cliff control, mine, woo!
This was my worst control, was it the only one where I came upon the control unexpectedly?
#24 Stayed high to first re-entrant, ticked off two boulders on the next spur, then down to the control, safe, woo.
#25 Down the 'stream' to the open marsh, then left of the spur, down, past the w21"E" posse, tried to ignore their chatter. Down the re-entrant and around to the big cliff from below, smooth, woo.
#26 Could have been faster, but didn't understand the contour the control was on at all. Anyway, visibility was better here (took me a while to realise), and I could see the big boulders the other side of the marsh, and where the control had to be, even if the contours didn't make sense. Control was there, woo.
#27 Dropping down out of 26 I went slowly, then ran up the marsh/stream/line of crags all the way to the cliff, which turned out to be two boulders, control, easy, woo.
Foot went in a hole, gashing leg, somewhere towards 27. No pain, so no big deal.
#28 And back up the mountain. There wasn't much of my map left near 28, and enough mud that relocation was going to be hard, as was navigating directly. Oh well, aim for the ridge. I had hoped to see a big cliff not too far from the ridge, but that turned out to be mud -- I wasn't even sure of this, as I thought it might have been ink rubbing off. Got to the ridge, saw vaguely a big cliff to left, went to check it out, and ridge-line, trail and rock with control (not mine) were there too. Pretty sure I knew where I was, so was able to navigate down. Paused to check the rocks 10m before the control too, for good measure, before hopping down (and sinking a foot) to punch, woo.
#29 back up to the cliffs (slightly left of my relocation cliff), hesitated at the next big line of cliffs, decided they were the ones I wanted them to be, around and dropped into the control, woo.
#30 Contour, rocks, contour, fence, woah fence, where did that come from, people too. Okay, fence, control should be in re-entrant just ahead. Slope goes down, no re-entrant, no control, uh-oh. No, there's the control, just 12m away... punch, woo.
Run-in. Taped route, tape ends, did I run past finish control? No, tape starts again, follow tape, punch, whoop!
I got all the controls! !!
Colm was there to greet me, damn, he had time to change already!? Oh, he didn't make it very far...
Bounced around for a bit, still all excited. Changed top, dry thermal, down jacket, then to first aid.
Paul and Susan did a great job washing out my wound. They advise going to clinic.
Back to car for dry pants and socks and shoes, brr.
Bounced around some more.
Marcus bounced in, leading Colm by 3s. Oh well, there goes my lead. Still, wonderful experience, who needs to win.
No-one else seems to be finishing. Others eventually finish. Not as bouncy.
Ask the wonderful Catherine about clinics. She hums and haws and offers to check out the wound. Paul and Susan's work is admired, steristrips and a bandage applied, instructed not to run tomorrow, told stitches probably unnecessary.
Bounced around some more.
On the one hand, it was just orienteering.
http://www.orienteering.ie/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.c...
Summary.
This feels like one of my best orienteering performances. Conditions were as difficult as they get, 15-20m visibility for essentially the whole course. The map printing was poor, so it was hard to read the map from the get go. I chose features reasonably well and usually knew what would work. I ran well, mostly in control, for the first 11 controls, had a five and a half minute lead over everyone at that point, and then fell in a hole. Legs, arms, clothes and the map were covered in mud and it was impossible to get the map clean. Consequently, I had even less information to go with and finding controls became even more of an art. I still managed to keep mistakes controlled, none bigger than 4 minutes, and mostly safe mistakes. A bit of luck and the title could have been mine (ColmM could say the same), but overall I'm very happy with how I ran and, given the conditions, couldn't expect to do much better. I was on a big high all day following. Finding thirty controls in those conditions meant thirty moments of elation.
This is a race that will go down in history.
The blow by blow.
A couple of bowls of weetabix with muesli for breakfast, a good way to start the day. Driving up, between Laragh and the Wicklow Gap, I passed a cyclist walking down pushing his bike. Why? Ten seconds later, I was in thick fog, with still ways to the junction. I crawled up towards the reservoir, the hairpin bend still managing to appear unexpectedly, and passing a few hillwalkers, some in combat fatigues. The parking official up top told me to continue on and turn right by the white van. I never saw a white van, but did get directed in by another yellow jacket. I didn't really know where I was when I parked, but it turned out to be all of 15 metres from the big tent.
Apologised to SET for yesterday's complaint.
I was bouncy and happy getting ready, excited by the challenge. Cagoules were mandatory, a reasonable decision give the conditions. I think I might have just gone with a thermal or a sleeveless vest given the choice.
Entering the start box, I passed the incredible controller Ruth who'd been out checking the controls since dawn. No objection to my incomplete leg cover (I forgot my long socks, and would pay for this later), and my not really waterproof HS jacket didn't raise eyebrows, phew.
#1 Followed the tape to the start triangle. Strange, the map seemed to be saying turn almost 180°, and maybe back down the start chute would have been better. Got a little ruffled by peat hags taking the almost straight line, crossed the edge of the flat area, dropped down, boulders, oh look, flag, woo!
#2 Down the stream, just needing to relocate when I hit the rock. I went somewhat carefully, looking at the map to find useful stopping points. Eventually I vaguely saw a spur to my right which I double-checked (without was not yesterday's #2, so I had to be not far. Down to the rocks and safely into the control, woo.
#3 I'm not sure why I wasn't expecting this to be easy, maybe because of yesterday's evil #5. Ran past the index spur, then along the edge of the flat, over the nice prominent spur and in, woo.
#4 Up, up up, not exactly sure where, not even whether I went left or right of the big line of cliffs. I drew left, because I never saw the fence. Anyway, not too worried, crossed the stream, thought I was a bit higher up, but wasn't. After going for a bit I switched to running more uphill to hit the flatter area with all the detail. Thought I recognised the v-hag, then was sure I hit the dot knoll, contoured around and in. Not too sure which re-entrant it would be, as I was unable to count, but distance was right and it appeared 3m to my left, woo.
#5 Starting to look more interesting. I'm surprised Marcus ran for the lake, as that seems just as hard to find. Knew where I was crossing the stream SSW of 19, and went up the marsh. Was heading a bit far left, may possibly have gone up as far as the index contour, before correcting. Found the seasonal stream complex near 5, and was fairly confident that was what it was. After a few shaky moments, control popped up where expected, as did Niamh. Decided a hello would be inappropriate. Anyway, control found, woo.
#6 This initally looked hard, how many indistinct streams would I have to count? But then I saw it was easy, just run up the ridge, found the broad triangly spur, maybe even follow the streamy bit I used en route to 10, then there would only be a shortish distance to control. But I went a little left and got caught up in a bunch of peat hags so had to correct right, then only crossed the triangly spur near the top, and wasn't sure of it. Anyway, ran along the start of the slope straight into the cliffs and the control, woo.
Not as smooth as it ought to have been, but no disaster.
#7 Easy enough, it seemed. Controlled direction with compass, went past the stony hill, then the broad hill was quite gentle, but figured it had to be it. Stopped a few seconds short of the control as I just knew I was looking for peat hag, not which one. Then advanced a couple of metres, control, woo.
#8 Left 7 slightly left for a couple of metres, corrected, around the right of the first hag, held direction into the stony ground, dropped between the cliffs right where they ought to be, there was tape between the cliffs but control was where it should be, on the northern one, woo.
#9 Slightly right of the line, flat area was again a little scary, looked for and saw the hill with stone, then the big peat hag, ran around the edge of it, down the 'stream', turned left, one hag, two hags, control, woo.
#10 This time I found my linear stream, ran fast along it, turned left, fast (relatively) down the re-entrant, read my contours, found big cliff, lower cliff, control, woo.
Fastest time by a minute on this leg.
#11 Well, there was a ridge of sorts leading to the control, downhill to left and right. I stayed on the left side for the first lot, didn't understand much of anything, so veered right to the other side, went down a little and got a fright as the lake appeared 5m in front of me, water lapping against the shore under a shroud of fog. Followed the contour somewhat hesitantly down to the control, woo.
Big lead at this point.
#12 And halfway along I fall into one of the marshes. Wipe the map on my pants, makes it worse, on my top, slightly better but still very grimy. Fingers, no better. Spit, no good. Argh. Compass manky too. Polish a little corner of the map enough to sort of see where I should be going. Eventually hit the trail after a little meander, trail helped a lot. Hesitant, but went in below the boulder and found control, woo.
At this stage, there was next to no race sensation left.
#13 First half I was possibly a little north of what I drew, as I saw some rock ahead, but I couldn't see it on my map, so I veered a little right, hit the linear marsh, decided I was there, ran down to the control, phew and woo.
#14 Ran in the right general direction, found the pond. Stopped and found a bit more map to read, ran in the right general direction, control, woo.
Don't remember more details on that leg.
#15 Ran up over the ridge, slightly off line, corrected easily with the detail, must have had a clearer patch of map, left of one hag, right of the second, over the third and onto the control, easy, woo.
#16 Left of the big peat hag, past the boulders, past the pool (stopping to verify its location) into the control, easy, woo.
#17 A bit silly, got within twenty metres, didn't know which of the rock piles to run to, went to the left one, nope, okay, must be the other one, yes, control in the re-entrant the other side, woo.
I think the left rockpile may have just had the big boulder in it mapped, I'll blame that.
#18 Ugh, meant to be higher up, got pushed down contouring and appeared below the giant crag. It wasn't all that clear what was going on between there and the control, but after a bunch of hesitation and struggling up the hill, I found it, woo.
#19 Aimed for the uncrossable marsh but went a bit right, ended up crossing and landing into peat hags, no worries, I'll go a bit further then up onto the stony ground and read myself in. Map was too hard to read, got close but no cigar, went up to the lake (was I really S of lake, better at least make sure of that). Practically had to touch lake, but on the plus side the knoll with rock was very helpful. Easy from there to control, woo.
#20 Ran to stony area, then could read the streamy stuff, got into the right channel and ran up into control. Looked harder than it was, woo.
#21 Straight (almost) up to the top of the ridge, hopefully pass identifiable feature at end of ridge, drop two contours into flatter area, find peat hags and control, that was plan. It had the benefit of not needing much detail. But I was, as I suspected, a little left of where I wanted at the end of the ridge, so I missed the hill/stone combo, got very scared, decided I had to be where I thought I was even if I couldn't see much on the map, went around to the right a little, hit the stony ground, sweet, 20m on found the knoll and the control, woo.
#22 Straight, then left of straight, over the ridge, put me a little left of the line, didn't know exactly where but didn't need to either, crossed the streams, hit the rocky stuff, drop into the control, not as scary as it was, woo.
#23 Ugh. Again a little lower than I thought, hit the slightly stony ground, thought I might have passed the marsh (but was too low to have hit the marsh proper, didn't think this though). Went downhill looking for the gully leading to control, but all was (relatively) smooth. Huh. Meandered a little, then went back up to the stones to try to relocate. Stood beside them and tried to distinguish black from brown on the map. This was tough. Decided to go across to the next stone, no clearer. Then up a bit, hey, cliff control, mine, woo!
This was my worst control, was it the only one where I came upon the control unexpectedly?
#24 Stayed high to first re-entrant, ticked off two boulders on the next spur, then down to the control, safe, woo.
#25 Down the 'stream' to the open marsh, then left of the spur, down, past the w21"E" posse, tried to ignore their chatter. Down the re-entrant and around to the big cliff from below, smooth, woo.
#26 Could have been faster, but didn't understand the contour the control was on at all. Anyway, visibility was better here (took me a while to realise), and I could see the big boulders the other side of the marsh, and where the control had to be, even if the contours didn't make sense. Control was there, woo.
#27 Dropping down out of 26 I went slowly, then ran up the marsh/stream/line of crags all the way to the cliff, which turned out to be two boulders, control, easy, woo.
Foot went in a hole, gashing leg, somewhere towards 27. No pain, so no big deal.
#28 And back up the mountain. There wasn't much of my map left near 28, and enough mud that relocation was going to be hard, as was navigating directly. Oh well, aim for the ridge. I had hoped to see a big cliff not too far from the ridge, but that turned out to be mud -- I wasn't even sure of this, as I thought it might have been ink rubbing off. Got to the ridge, saw vaguely a big cliff to left, went to check it out, and ridge-line, trail and rock with control (not mine) were there too. Pretty sure I knew where I was, so was able to navigate down. Paused to check the rocks 10m before the control too, for good measure, before hopping down (and sinking a foot) to punch, woo.
#29 back up to the cliffs (slightly left of my relocation cliff), hesitated at the next big line of cliffs, decided they were the ones I wanted them to be, around and dropped into the control, woo.
#30 Contour, rocks, contour, fence, woah fence, where did that come from, people too. Okay, fence, control should be in re-entrant just ahead. Slope goes down, no re-entrant, no control, uh-oh. No, there's the control, just 12m away... punch, woo.
Run-in. Taped route, tape ends, did I run past finish control? No, tape starts again, follow tape, punch, whoop!
I got all the controls! !!
Colm was there to greet me, damn, he had time to change already!? Oh, he didn't make it very far...
Bounced around for a bit, still all excited. Changed top, dry thermal, down jacket, then to first aid.
Paul and Susan did a great job washing out my wound. They advise going to clinic.
Back to car for dry pants and socks and shoes, brr.
Bounced around some more.
Marcus bounced in, leading Colm by 3s. Oh well, there goes my lead. Still, wonderful experience, who needs to win.
No-one else seems to be finishing. Others eventually finish. Not as bouncy.
Ask the wonderful Catherine about clinics. She hums and haws and offers to check out the wound. Paul and Susan's work is admired, steristrips and a bandage applied, instructed not to run tomorrow, told stitches probably unnecessary.
Bounced around some more.
Saturday May 3, 2014 #
Note
Well, let's just say that normally I'd be happy beating Marcus by 15 minutes.
1 PM
orienteering race 58:25 [4] 6.67 km (8:45 / km)
16c
Umm. Marcus and I provided some entertainment. I presume others will soon enough. http://www.orienteering.ie/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.c...
IOC Middle.
Nerves affected me a bit from the start, not very smooth or good to 1/2/3, though no disasters. 4 was easy, along the edge of the steep then drop in. Short leg down to 5, go slightly left, hitting the big rock cluster, foot in hole, fall forwards, arms in holes too, oops. Take a moment to get up, doesn't feel very racy.
Go to where I think 5 might be, no control, no real understanding of where I should go. Look below and all around, trying to place big isolated rocks I can see far off, but they don't make too much sense, and the local stuff doesn't make much sense either. Do a little spin around a bit more of the rocky stuff, no control. Hmm. Better do a firm relocate. Run to stream, except I'm at the point where there's no stream, pass it and come back, sure where I am. Run towards control, don't really understand anything much, pass where I previously pondered, try a bit further on, nope, go up the hill a bit, not much makes sense there either, look down, see someone and Catherine pop in under a rock and out again, maybe they are punching something? Drop down, control.
Strange, I was sure there should have been more rock to the right, but grass... maybe it's not in the right place. Stop and try to make sense of it for a few seconds, nope. Back to, umm, racing, 8 minutes lost. EIGHT MINUTES.
6 easy enough, boulders on the stream and across the stream were huge and clear, and then could see the cliff above the control. 7, went up to about the right level, then contoured across, not exactly sure where I was, and not making much sense of the re-entrants --- difficult to interpret, difficult to map --- but the control appeared not unexpectedly.
8 was poor, ran across to the rock, but went to the big cliff below the control because I couldn't see it on the map. Another 40s lost.
9, ran to above the stream, pretty obvious where the slope was curving, then to the boulder beyond, having decided where on the map it was not. Met Hugh coming down ("don't mind me, I'm heading in"). Up to past 9, thought I was at the 'stream' bend, but apparently not. Back to control, yay.
Since I came in to 9 at not the angle I thought, I went out at a funny angle too, or maybe I just didn't pay enough attention to compass. Hit a bunch of big peat hags, thought I might be near 10, but doesn't make sense, hmm. Worked out where I was eventually, a long way down from 10, oops. And were they unmapped, the hags? Even in the circle at 10 I messed up, didn't really understand that stuff. 4 minutes.
Better from here on, not sure if I just worked out better what I could use or what...
11, went right of line, past cut-out with marsh and peat hag, passed Ger(!), hit linear bank, then down to control, no prob. 12, aimed between boulder and control, watched out for boulder, saw boulder to my left, nice. Easy in. 13... one boulder, two boulders. 14, ran to re-entrant, saw knoll lower in re-entrant, guessed where it might be, ran to where 14 might be relative, stopped to read map, saw control 3 metres away, ha. 15 I didn't quite understand what was going on, so went slightly above and past. 16. finish.
Printing on grainy waterproof paper is unacceptable (in detailed terrain at IOC). And while waterproof, it is not bloodproof, skinned a fingertip today.
Annoyed with #5. Annoyed with printing. Happy the end of the course went well, feeling good about Classic.
Results were not at all what I expected. At all.
IOC Middle.
Nerves affected me a bit from the start, not very smooth or good to 1/2/3, though no disasters. 4 was easy, along the edge of the steep then drop in. Short leg down to 5, go slightly left, hitting the big rock cluster, foot in hole, fall forwards, arms in holes too, oops. Take a moment to get up, doesn't feel very racy.
Go to where I think 5 might be, no control, no real understanding of where I should go. Look below and all around, trying to place big isolated rocks I can see far off, but they don't make too much sense, and the local stuff doesn't make much sense either. Do a little spin around a bit more of the rocky stuff, no control. Hmm. Better do a firm relocate. Run to stream, except I'm at the point where there's no stream, pass it and come back, sure where I am. Run towards control, don't really understand anything much, pass where I previously pondered, try a bit further on, nope, go up the hill a bit, not much makes sense there either, look down, see someone and Catherine pop in under a rock and out again, maybe they are punching something? Drop down, control.
Strange, I was sure there should have been more rock to the right, but grass... maybe it's not in the right place. Stop and try to make sense of it for a few seconds, nope. Back to, umm, racing, 8 minutes lost. EIGHT MINUTES.
6 easy enough, boulders on the stream and across the stream were huge and clear, and then could see the cliff above the control. 7, went up to about the right level, then contoured across, not exactly sure where I was, and not making much sense of the re-entrants --- difficult to interpret, difficult to map --- but the control appeared not unexpectedly.
8 was poor, ran across to the rock, but went to the big cliff below the control because I couldn't see it on the map. Another 40s lost.
9, ran to above the stream, pretty obvious where the slope was curving, then to the boulder beyond, having decided where on the map it was not. Met Hugh coming down ("don't mind me, I'm heading in"). Up to past 9, thought I was at the 'stream' bend, but apparently not. Back to control, yay.
Since I came in to 9 at not the angle I thought, I went out at a funny angle too, or maybe I just didn't pay enough attention to compass. Hit a bunch of big peat hags, thought I might be near 10, but doesn't make sense, hmm. Worked out where I was eventually, a long way down from 10, oops. And were they unmapped, the hags? Even in the circle at 10 I messed up, didn't really understand that stuff. 4 minutes.
Better from here on, not sure if I just worked out better what I could use or what...
11, went right of line, past cut-out with marsh and peat hag, passed Ger(!), hit linear bank, then down to control, no prob. 12, aimed between boulder and control, watched out for boulder, saw boulder to my left, nice. Easy in. 13... one boulder, two boulders. 14, ran to re-entrant, saw knoll lower in re-entrant, guessed where it might be, ran to where 14 might be relative, stopped to read map, saw control 3 metres away, ha. 15 I didn't quite understand what was going on, so went slightly above and past. 16. finish.
Printing on grainy waterproof paper is unacceptable (in detailed terrain at IOC). And while waterproof, it is not bloodproof, skinned a fingertip today.
Annoyed with #5. Annoyed with printing. Happy the end of the course went well, feeling good about Classic.
Results were not at all what I expected. At all.
C • Done 3
trail run warm up/down 15:00 [3]
Friday May 2, 2014 #
7 PM
orienteering race 12:50 [4] ***
22c
IOC Sprint, NUI Maynooth.
Solid run, lost a few seconds a couple of times, just nowhere near the speed of Darren.
Course and map were good, hats off to Mr Quinn.
I could see where I was going.
https://www.facebook.com/Irish.Orienteering/photos...
Solid run, lost a few seconds a couple of times, just nowhere near the speed of Darren.
Course and map were good, hats off to Mr Quinn.
I could see where I was going.
https://www.facebook.com/Irish.Orienteering/photos...
running warm up/down 30:00 [3]
Thursday May 1, 2014 #
running 20:00 [3]
Stretching the legs before lunch.
Note
Another reasonably solid month of training, 24h, of which 15h orienteering, and that with a bit of rest thrown in this week and last.
Only skipped two days of oranssivalkoinen huhtikuu, so reasonably good there too.
Yay.
Only skipped two days of oranssivalkoinen huhtikuu, so reasonably good there too.
Yay.
Wednesday Apr 30, 2014 #
Note
WotD is hitting the bigtime (1h19 or so into Tuesday's episode).
Ovh: a tiomila course plus http://www.yokuppi.net/tracker/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?...
Ovh: a tiomila course plus http://www.yokuppi.net/tracker/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?...
Tuesday Apr 29, 2014 #
Note
So I think I got bitten on Sunday by something that was neither mosquito nor deerfly, nor horsefly, nor midge, nor hornet, nor moosefly. But I don't know what it was. I didn't see it bite, just saw blood (thus not mosquito...) and it didn't hurt. There's a swelling still. Any ideas what it could have been?
C • Bite 7
Note
Oops, flying to Ireland without a raincoat. That's asking for trouble.
Note
On the Jokeri (550 bus) this morning, an old, old man got on, flashed something to the driver and said words including ilman and sotaveteraani, or some such. Impressive.
Note
Päivänsana: raskaasti ... I don't know what it means, but apparently I should.
running 23:00 [3]
To the library to print something, then valintatalo, then home. Included 4 minutes fast. Haven't done that for a while.
Monday Apr 28, 2014 #
Note
RG from Saturday - http://www.resultfellows.com/reittiharveli/gadget/...
Ovh: this, and Pasi's routes on the elite course.
Ovh: this, and Pasi's routes on the elite course.
Note
Is NUIM embargoed for the sprint? http://www.nuim.ie/node/322650
I won't ask how the start list in the sprint was seeded.
I won't ask how the start list in the sprint was seeded.
C • NUIM 1
Note
One wouldn't want to run off the map at the Finnish Champs in a month's time... https://goo.gl/maps/Ip0Vr