Training Log Archive: Shep

At Hedley Dunes. Started 2 mins before Muukkonen and new it would be a tough ask to stay ahead. I got the first (kinda scary) control ok but missed the second - completely misreading things thinking the hill was a depression and the Muuk caught me there. We went ok through 3 and 4 but then completely screwed 5 which was a form-line knoll in some low vis cutty grass, the stuff of nightmares. Somehow Barrable (last starter) didn't catch us there and we got going ok again. By 12 I was starting to think I wouldn't be able to hold the pace for the rest of the race so I let the Muuk go, we'd caught Nick Harris by then and he seemed happy to also ease off the throttle and stick with me.

Nick missed 18 so I was on my own, but then missed on 20 and then a big mistake on 21, I was just feeling so tired. Barrable caught me (4 mins) there and I just tried to sit on him until the end, but couldn't handle the pace again so I let him go after 24. Lucky for me I did as Barrable missed 25, I got the rest fairly cleanly but without any real speed. Stayed ahead of Barrable at least (he still got me by almost 2 mins) and held onto 3rd overall.

Disappointing to make somany mistakes (lost 4-5mins all up) but it was difficult orienteering. Actually just happy to be running, so to be in the mix is even better, couldn't ask for much more really given the preparation I had.

Here's the mistake at 5, turns out we were on the "bigger" knoll to the north west.



Training Load 1d 23h

C • Your #5 5

Long - Final - Men 40 Final A - Splits

At Temu Road. Decided I'd just cruise today and try to keep it clean. I wanted to save the legs for the final - but had final start positions in the back of my mind... I ran pretty good i reckon, no real mistakes until 21 where i stupidly missed about 1m20s - super annoying cause that meant i qualified just behind Muukkonen which means he'll be chasing me on Saturday. I think I just made a parallel error after misreading the map, still the rest of the run was good enough to get 2nd fastest on the day and be 3rd last out into the forest in the final.

Very tricky area, hard to tell up from down on the map. Good fun.

Long - Qualification 2 - Men 40 Heat 1 - Splits

At Woodhill. Started terribly, missed the 1st and the 3rd and got caught 1 min by Neil there. Then couldn't even follow Neil without getting lost and missed a couple of minutes on 4. Another miss of 30 secs or so on 7 and then i was on the road on the long one, didn't even notice there were 2 drinks points so when i got to the first one i started navigating as though i was at the second one. just ridiculous... had a laugh with pak'nsaverat (who i'd caught 3 mins) about me being a clown and him being old at that point.

decided to settle down and just run smooth and steady and try not to miss any more. so i didn't push hard for the rest of it and kept it reasonably clean -somehow passed Neil again without knowing it. I finished up in 3rd (3 mins down) so happy with how i recovered after a shocking start. The important thing is i didn't throw away a spot in the a final...

Long - Qualification 1 - Men 40 Heat 1 - Splits

So most people know I hate sprint: the thing is i love forest sprints, and want to like urban sprints but it seems that every single race i do has something dodgy about it. Rather than just get angry I wanna see if there's anything that could make urban sprints better.

So for a control such as this one, number 15 in the M40 A final...



noting that this was a route choice leg where you could come in from the east or the west (note that i didn't hear of anyone coming in from the east and getting into the deadend, i just thought this was a good example of what's wrong with sprint orienteering descriptions). the description for number 15 was this



which does not in any way help the runners to know which side of that UNCROSSABLE wall the control is on. Sure, the position of the circle helps, but if the centre of the circle was considered to be perfect then we'd have no need for descriptions at all... when you have the luxury of a computer screen, you can zoom in, and with open orienteering mapper i can see the centre of the circle is on the west side of that wall



maybe the course planner could/should have pushed that circle across a bit to make it clearer, or the controller could have been a bit more clever about this description, ie the solution might be to just get the circles and descriptions correct and fair - but this just doesn't seem to happen. could we not have some kind of simplified (or simply enlarged) description to help? something like this?



alternatively, i reckon a smaller control circle would make things clearer (and possibly even remove the need for descriptions altogether! if the circle was small enough, but of course that introduces its own problems). here's a 50% size circle



the smaller the circle gets, the less ambiguity (reduce it to a dot and you're bang on).

the IOF like trying new things, and change, and updating things as technology advances, and generally improving the sport right?

C • Circle and a dot 8

F#*k sprint.

Didn't hear of too many people who didn't have some sort of complaint about the map etc. 'ken typical. When will planners and controllers realise that what's clear zoomed in on their computer screen isn't necessarily clear on the race map?

Note: I don't bring to that group above - I can only really blame myself. But still, f#*k sprint.

C • Bra att du slog Sörensen 2

Sprint Final - Men 40 Final A - Splits

Made my debut in M40 (managed to skip M35, although only due to injury stopping me racing in Gothenburg 2 years ago) at the Uni of Auckland Epsom Campus.

Real tricky sprint, easyish start but then things got real hard. I felt like i spent a lot of time standing still looking for how to get from one control to the next, and a few controls needed some really wide routes which always makes you think you've missed something. i can see a few routes where i could have save a few seconds but the most time lost was getting stuck behind oldies on some narrow passageways - there was heaps of them (both oldies and narrow passageways). I lost 20 secs on 15, not actually sure what i did wrong there besides traffic, need to see routegadget. Managed to get the win, hopefully the other old guys i'm racing struggle as much as i do to race 2 days in a row!

Training Load 4h

Sprint Qualification - Men 40 Heat 1 - Splits

Event: World Masters Orienteering Championships 2017