Training Log Archive: j-man

Event: NEOC 2009 Club Championship
 

Went to the NEOC club Champs today. Not a good idea. More later, probably as a rant.

Promised discursive rant.

I set off for the NEOC club champs at Wrentham. It was raining fairly hard, and cold. I don't know why I went. Probably, the main reason was that my car had to be moved to the garage, and that meant that I had to go outside anyway.

My car is falling apart. Aside from the admonition to go visit Hans at the workshop to attend to the battery, it also informed me that the left license plate lamp is out. I do have to say, the level of feedback about the state of the vehicle is pretty obsessive. Nice, though.

Anyway, the GPS takes me by Gillette Stadium, despite my desire to avoid it. But, still early, so no big deal.

(minor, minor rant--perhaps don't schedule a meet at Wrentham on a Patriot's home day?)

Get to the parking and drive into the muddy, rutty field. Anticipate getting stuck later.

Register. Pay $20 because I am not a club member and because I am running two courses--one of which is a sprint. While the $4 WCOC/DVOA member fee (which incidentally is extended to all contiguous clubs) fee might be kind of ridiculously low, it is even more so when you consider the disparity in quality. And, I'm getting to that.

Anyway, decide to do the sprint first so I can get it out of the way and so I can start. (It would be a little after 1 when I finish the sprint.)

Surprisingly, it was not a bad course. In fact, I kind of liked it. I wonder if MLC was the designer? I might have varied leg length and direction a bit, but whatever. A little annoying it wasn't epunch. I was carrying the paper card.

Anyway, I had both maps with me, and upon finishing the sprint, went immediately into the red.

Here is the rant:
I am not sure what sport they do in NEOC, but it is not orienteering. It is crap. Terrain is one thing (not great, but whatever) but the map is god-awful, the course setting, kind of OK on paper, marred by control placements (with descriptions) not supported by the map. And, then good luck trying to navigate between controls. It was an Easter egg hunt, in pouring rain at 40 degrees.

My main complaint is the map. It is bad in all respects. Actually, it reminds me of a NEOC map from the 1980s. I used to think that NEOC maps from the 1980s were just a reflection of the time, but now I realize they were bad then, too. And that makes them really bad today.

Geometry is wrong, drafting is suspect, and of course, trails don't make any sense. If you are going to use maps like this, you need to dumb down the control placements, not go crazy with them. This is antithetical to the way I've been taught to produce an event.

Anyway, time to end on a positive note. Things I liked:
• Big props to their volunteers for putting on an event in such crappy conditions and being of good cheer. That is awesome.
• Epunching and controls on stands
• All controls were in the correct locations.
• The sprint course was good, even conditional on the state of the map. The regular course could have been good if it was overlayed on a real map.

NEOC Club Champs Sprint.

No warmup. Not taking it too seriously.

Good run until 12 where I really came apart.



I had a decent time on this course. The map (while very bad) was readable and the control locations were appropriate.

NEOC Club Champs Red. Not much more to say.

I'm not bothering to draw in my routes as I don't know where to put the line on the "map."

Event: WCOC Paugussett
 

Directing WCOC local at Paugussett, Newtown, CT. (Brooksvale probably fell through.)

Ooh--this is sweet terrain!

Today's red course.



Ross is the Mack Daddy Playa.

Left the DeWitt's at 7, but a stop to pick up water and snacks meant that I didn't get into the woods until 8AM.

(As an aside, some of the area around Paugussett is remarkably rural/bucolic. There are numerous narrow dirt roads that my GPS thought were good ideas.)

First shlepped the water to 37, and then did 53, 35, 34, 33, and 36. That finished off the south section. I realized, however, that I was out of cross sections for the control stands. I hoped to find Rick's car open and find some there.

Arriving at the northern parking at a little after 9 I discover Rick getting ready to go out. Apparently, a road was closed and he was delayed.

Still, he offered to put out 63, 64, 65, 40, 41, 42, and 43, but that meant I picked up 44, 45, 60, 61, 62, 58, 59, and start and finish. That was a little more than I bargained for, and I was hard pressed to get it done. In fact, I only got back to the parking lot, extracted the maps, and was ready to go at 10:03. And, at that point, I hadn't streamered the way to the start. But, I was able to do that before the second starter got there, and all in all, assuming no misplaced controls, setup was successful, if harried.

2 hours in the woods this AM, but I will take credit for 1. The orienteering was easier than last night in the dark.

At a little after 2, I set out for control pickup. Unfortunately, it seemed like a pretty daunting task. Rick had kindly offered to rush out to get S, F, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 57, 44, and 45. Definitely a help, but still leaving a lot.

My route involved picking up the streamers, then 49, 46, 50, 31, 66, 32, 52, 47, 51, 67, 48, 43, 42, 40, and 41, before back to the car.

Did fairly well, although got off my compass a little out of 48. Still, good training.

Anyway, then I had to go do the south. Started with 38, 55, 39, 56, 53, 35, 34, 33, 36, 54, and then 37.

Got back to the car a little after 6, allowing for 30 minutes to move between locations and pack stuff up, still left 3:30 of orienteering/schlepping. 26 controls. I'll take credit for 2 hours.

I think my first WCOC event directing job was a success.

I think people enjoyed the courses and the weather, aside from a few sprinkles, held up. That made a huge difference.

I do have a few thoughts:
• Participants are very skewed. 23 on red, vs. 1 on white and 2 on yellow. I had the right number of maps for orange and above, but way to many for the beginners.
• It is pretty easy to run a WCOC meet. At the beginning, Susie and the Walkers were very helpful getting people registered, but once they went out, I was pretty much running the show solo. After a while, most of my attention shifted to processing results vs. registering people.
• If you had to, you could do this meet with two people.
• I spent a ridiculous amount of time on this event. I left home at noon on Friday, and was out of the woods at 7:30. On Saturday, left DeWitt's at 7AM and got home after 9PM. I was doing nothing besides orienteering or driving.

I reflected that I was doing this for several reasons:
1) I enjoy course setting. 2) I like WCOC and the people. 3) WCOC has been very kind to the US Team and this was a small way to give back.

At the same time, it occurred to me that the opportunity cost of my time really is 0, so that there is nothing else better I have to do. Which is kind of sad, I suppose. It would have been surprising to me as a precocious Turk roaming the halls of Steinberg-Dietrich that I would one day be in this state. Or, stated differently, that the biggest sacrifice/contribution I can make to orienteering is in the form of largely manual labor rather than pecuniary.

• I am used to more people for control pickup at DVOA meets. Paugussett has a layout that really makes control setup/pickup difficult for one person. 8.5 hours for setup/pickup is not fun.
• My beginners courses were too long/tough with respect to distance. I could have spent more time on them, but it is really hard to come up with a good option there. If anything, the trail network is deteriorating.

I was pleased with the performances. I only had sort of calibrated the red course, and was expecting a winning time of 60-65 minutes. And, I expected the winner was going to be Ross or feet, should either of them show up. And show up he did. Ross laid down a 62:20 or something, and pleased me on several levels. Just another in a long succession of smack downs. But, I think the most relevant one for next weekend is this one: http://www.dvoa.org/events/results/ev_show.php?eve...

The approach to running well there will serve him well in a few days.

I was surprised that no one else was in the 60s, however. Given the field, I expected at least one or two other people to be in the mid to high 60s. I think they underperformed, on a relative basis, for whatever reason.

Started control hanging at Paugussett. Unfortunately, didn't get into the woods until 5PM. As I would discover, good light only existed until 6PM, and vestigial light until 6:30. After that, it was pretty dark in the woods!

I decided to carry all the gear with me (or all the epunches, controls, and at least 24 stands.) It would turn out that cut down on my mobility, but did increase the workload, allowing me to claim a little more training credit.

I also had a rudimentary headlamp, which I hadn't planned on using. I was underdressed for slow movement, with O pants and an old US Team top.

I placed 38, 55, 39, 56, 57, 67, 51, 48, 49, and 46 in some sort of light. I had some problems with 48, and twisted my ankle in the process.

Then, it was pretty much dark. I got 31, 50, 47, 52, 32, and 66 Eric Bone style. It was not easy and 66 gave me some trouble.

I then attempted 34. I slid down a cliff on the way, finding that Paugussett can be a physically difficult venue at night. I think I got pretty close, but could not find the control. At that point, worried about park people finding my abandoned car and perhaps the DeWitts wondering where I was, I decided to bail. On the way back I did place 54 and 37.

Back to the car at 7:30, having placed 18 controls. Unfortunately, because I had to bail, 5 controls in the southern section remained, which would complicated the next morning's efforts.

Brendan and I mercifully agreed not to go out to the Fells today. So, I was able to treat myself to a mentally salubrious excursion along the Charles. I got to take in the final Head of the Charles preparations, hearing power 10s, the sweep of the oars--all the good stuff I miss.

Went out easy, but started feeling good on the way back, and especially good at about 1:45 when some guy came up alongside. I didn't want that, and took it up for a while.

Return trip was 4 minutes faster.

It was raw, but the rain didn't start until the last 30 minutes.

A little stretching when done.

I've got to find something to do with my life. Lack of money is a small problem, but the boredom and brain atrophy is much more bothersome. This is sort of ridiculous.

Very easy. Level 8 hills. Mostly 6mph.

Normal circuits. Right IT band feeling a little fatigued.

Should I do my intervals today? I am still rather tired from the past few days and it is crappy conditions. But, I am inclined to give it a go.

To the track. Windy and cold. My iPod was not cooperating. This has happened before. But, I got it working after about 30 minutes.

Was wearing the Trimtex jacket and UA tights. A good combination, and necessary given conditions.

Left mid hamstring ever so slightly tight. (Last week the right hamstring was more acute.)

Still, felt OK during the warmup, and very nice the last 2 minutes or so.

Normal warmups, but conducted on the high jump runway, which was good as we weren't in the wet grass.

SGB actually joined in, but otherwise, it was just Terry, Tom, and Yvonne.

Normal strides. Felt like I was getting good turnover and had good form, despite the wind.

800 x 2 @ 5K pace
1200 x 2 @ 5-8K pace
800 x 2 @ 3-5K pace

200 rest after all.

(Ditched the jacket; ran in short sleeves and tights. Temperatures in mid to upper 40s and windy.)

It was just SGB, Tom, and Terry. I was last. But, Tom wasn't doing his ridiculous surges and only was a few seconds ahead. SGB and Terry much further away. The good news is that I had a fairly consistent performance.

248
208

245
208

418
212

415
216

247
214

245

Average laps:
84.0
82.5
86.0
85.0
83.5
82.5
and overall average of 83.9.

Not good, but it was very windy on the homestretch. And, I was tired.

Back home. Started to feel quite nice. Light and felt very oxygenated (probably because the wind was force-feeding me air.)

Level 8 hills. 6.5 mph. Tired. Not helped by starting at 11:30.

Felt better by 35 minutes in.