Training Log Archive: Daviding

Event: COC Winter 'O / WIOL Championship: Lincoln Tree Farm
 

I had several small mistakes but nothing run-killing. In the end everyone else made mistakes too and my time was good enough to win! Far from the perfect run but I'll take it :)

0-1: Lost a lot of time. I had a good attack point from the power pole on the trail, went into the forest and just didn't see the control. From there literally everything looked like a knoll, so I wandered back and forth for a little while in the forest. Finally stumbled on the control by seeing the punch stand (!). The flag had gotten pushed into a little hole and wasn't visible, but the punch stand was sticking out and I could see it. I'm guessing I was really close on my initial approach but just didn't see the flag since it was tucked away. Down 3 minutes.

1-2: Was planning on cutting across the field but it looked pretty marshy with bad footing and I didn't want to get wet shoes or tweak an ankle so early in the race.

7-8: I tunnel-visioned on sticking to the trails, but in retrospect just cutting across the field would've been much faster, the trail is a good collecting feature so the bearing doesn't really matter. I had intended to use the bend in the trail as my attack point but it ended up being less distinct than I thought so I overran it and ended up at the trail junction. Not a big deal, definitely important to know exactly where you are before heading off trail in that area.

8-9: I went all the way around on trails, I'm sure cutting through the forest is faster since it's very runnable. I didn't have a good attack point at all, I just headed down the trail for what felt like the right distance before turning into the forest. I was actually really close to the control, but I thought I was too far east when I was actually too far west, so I went all the way to the trail before realizing my mistake and turning around. Definitely should've pace counted that one.

10-11 I took the north set of trails which is better since you don't have to go up the steep hill. Followed the indistinct trail until it ended and just followed the spur the rest of the way down and spiked the control. I'm surprised so many people messed this leg up, I felt like the spur funneled me right into the control but maybe I just got lucky.

11-12: I went back up the spur and took the trail down to the powerlines, it might be faster to cut through the green but I'm not sure how thick it was and I was being conservative at that point. I took the smaller trail off the powerlines since it gives a better approach to the control even though it's a little out of the way. I used the bend in the trail south of the junction as my attack point, my bearing was pretty bad but I was going pretty slowly and looking around so I saw the boulder in the distance.

plus some 3x5 pullups at the park