Training Log Archive: j-man

Picked up 3 night-O controls.

Orienteering at HR is surprisingly rewarding when done at a walking pace.

Warmup before the course.

Hickory Run Red.

Another disappointing run at Hickory Run. What is going on?

Well, it may not have been terrible. It just seems like it on a relative basis. Formerly, my runs at Hickory Run were good on a relative basis. Now, z-man is my daddy. And Ross is, too, should he run.

I took this race seriously, and I ran aggressively--from a physical perspective. But, I didn't orienteer great and lacked confidence. #1 was a little bogus, but #2 was a leg which I should have owned. Not only were we training in that area yesterday, I think I had seen that control, and saw some remaining contour streamers on the way into it. And yet I screw it up the same way everyone screwed up the contour warmup.

#3 I find, but I just kind of stumbled into it. I had lost contact and just pushing on on a whim and found it. The next couple controls were executed as I had planned.

My shoes come untied twice on the way to #7. That never happens, but it shows a lack of preparation. I did maintain my line and concentration on that control. But, #8 was a big problem. I had intended to go out to the road (which would have been stupid anyway) because I didn't have a good plan to go straight. But, I didn't take a good bearing out that way, so I found myself going more straight and decided to stay in the woods. But, I obviously didn't have a plan, and paid the price. This was essentially the same leg I messed up (in the opposite direction) at the last event.

9-11 were a bit raggedly as I was getting rattled by WPs. On #15 I decide to cut and do it as planned. But, I think it was poor decision.

As an aside. I think that HR mapping conventions are a little odd. I think medium green (typically laurel) is ofter less passable than dark green (rhododendron) which you can often stoop or crawl under. But, the rhododendron is visually distinct in the terrain, while the laurel is amorphous.

Anyway, like I said, z-man ate my lunch. Is he so very good and I am so very bad? A margin is defined by two points, so it is not clear.

As another aside... I don't know what I feel about this course. I feel like it was very tough. I think some control placements (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) were especially challenging. I think they are at the edge of the distribution of fair, legitimate HR controls. Which goes to show why HR is such a great place and it reaffirms its status as one of my favorite maps.

HR revealed the deficiencies in my technique. I could not execute certain legs at the speed I was attempting to take them at. This is not getting any better.

[Note]: So, the splits are up, and they confirm my expectations. Simply, z-man was better. But, I had a decent race.

The thing that surprises me is that I lost a lot of time on 4 and 5 which I executed as intended, if carefully. How do you take those controls harder? They are so subtle, and high penalty. I was basically 1:30 back of the best times on those two legs. And another :35 on 3, the end of which, as noted elsewhere, I started majorly hesitating on.

Also, 1 minute back on 6, which was pretty clean.

How do I orienteer faster here is this subtle stuff?

A very weird thing happened on this run. At the finish I notice that my right insole is just _barely_ tucked into my shoe. It was .5 inches from being gone. The left was sticking out sufficiently that I could easily pull it out.

I had almost lost both insoles of virtually new shoes, while they were tightly laced. I thought this may be some sort of violation of ambient isotopy. Maybe I should ask Neil. Needless to say, had the insole wholly worked itself out, and there was not hint of what had happened, I would have been quite bewildered.

I attribute this strange phenomenon to a combination of Trimtex socks, and new and wet Integrators.

Apparently I schlepped 56 pounds of crap from the garage home after the HR weekend.