Training Log Archive: Matej

Middle distance at the North American Orienteering Championships. My strategy was to make the individual legs as simple as possible by relying on clear linear/point features (vehicle tracks, thick patches of forest, small knolls with clearings on top). I guess it worked...

Some of my route choices looked pretty silly in retrospect, but I managed to keep an eye on my compass at all times while staying in close contact with the map. My running speed through the thick, deadfall-strewn forest was atrocious, but taking straight compass headings when there wasn't a trail paid off a lot of the time (rounabout routes were usually slower and increased the chance of making a mistake). My only mistake came at the end of the course, on the last control, when I saw a taped chute and mindlessly ran through it; it turned out to be the chute leading to the spectator control, not the GO control.

I was quite surprised when I learned that I had won, mostly because I have very little experience orienteering on anything that looks remotely like this. Tomorrow is another day, and again, I'm not used to Longs with less than 300 meters of climb... (-;

C • Congratulations!! 4

Middle - Course 9 - Splits

Event: NAOC2014 (North American Champs/Ottawa O-Fest)
 

NAOC model event in some truly complex terrain. After experiencing firsthand the various challenges that I knew were coming (thick woods, low radius of sight, invisible paths, vague contours), I think I figured out a navigational strategy that might work... We'll see tomorrow. Game on!

Set out on this run at 5:55 PM, fully realizing that sunset was at 6:45 and that this was a ~90 minute loop. Around 7:00, the woods were basically dark except for a few rays of moonlight cutting through the tangled oak branches. It was creepy, but I think that the combination of cool air (it had been a hot day) and the feeling of being chased by who-knows-what made me run faster at the end. Maybe I should make Lake Chabot night runs a regular thing...