Training Log Archive: Vector

Event: SMOC Fall Night O - The Badlands of Island Lake
 

Event: DVOA Fall Orienteering Festival
 

Challenging course & didn't always meet the challenge, but some good moments and some bad moments. Very rocky footing almost the whole way, very not used to that, tiring! Biggest news is the #4 control that I biffed so badly, 17 min's worth...I actually came within 50 feet of the flag heading dead towards it before I veered off thinking I already flew by it off my left...AAAARRRGGGHHH!!! The GPS track shows I was heading dead towards it from my #7 control AP and I was ALMOST THERE so close I might have seen it with just a few more steps!!... AAAARGGHHHH!!!! So then I flailed around a bit doing lots of extra-curricular running and walking. Had some drift problems and fitness issues. But have to be happy finishing this one, definitely a challenge, but didn't execute as well as I have been the past couple weeks. Here's the leg comments:

1- spike
2- spike, hilltop AP
3- spike, trail corner AP
4- story above...I was heading right to it and was almost there dead on - AAARRRGGHHH!!
5- spike but slow
6- got drawn into wrong control but found real one not long after
7- so-so
8- Drifted way right over to 10 unintentionally...was surprised- that shouldn't happen! Had to backtrack west to #8 - slow- rocks, green, bleh, corner of parking lot as AP
9- paved road to hill as AP, spike
10- sloppy, drifted too far right into mess but got back on track
11- Trail, then cut contouring SW around hill to next trail, slow up hill, terrain intersect with trail as AP, spike
12- beeline, spike
13- should have been easy but wound up past it
14- river/trail AP, spike but had to re-tie shoe on the way there
15- followed river and saw it where expected
16- slog but got it, slow spike
17- ugly find but a find
18- ugly find but a find, slow up hill
19- spike
20- spike
21- spike
F- spike

French Creek - Day 1 Blue - Splits

Ran Jen's excellent streamer course at Peach Mountain. Ran out of time and started running out of light so cut it off after reaching #15. Really enjoyed the pine tree forest parts and also some of the really wide open forest parts. Thinking this is the first time I've ever orienteered here without dropping into that big open bowl! :)

No time for QR but here are my leg comments:
1- Road, then cut over up reentrant hillside / power line, spike
2- Used corner of astronomy complex as AP, then looked for reentrant and hill, spike
3- Ran to road, used trail junction as AP to get me to reentrant tip, but flew past the streamer without seeing it, relocated once I saw the boulder south of it, went back to it.
4- Beeline, spike
5- Used trail passing by radar facil, then trail junction to spur...except I took one spur too early, so had to drop down and back up to get to top of hillttop/spur just north of me, a bit of a waste but had the right idea.
6- Used the depression north of 5 as my reference, then saw the beat up car (pretty cool, wonder how it got there), but lots of hesitation on this leg, grrrr
7- up and over hill, spike
8- just like 7, spike
9- Opted to trail run it using trail south of 8, then contoured along the steep hill drop, turned a bit too early but quickly corrected
10- Hesitated coming off of 9 and a bit sloppy, but finally decided on a great route choice that took me through the pine forest avoiding a big climb, running along hte south side of the big hill dumping me onto the trail south of 9, then cut the trail corner , then contoured the hillside approaching 10 until big reentrant caught me, then used smaller rentrant past the big one as my AP, spike
11- Ran towards trail to my east, then up trail, up hill and over, spike
12- Used boulder by trail on north of big bowl as AP, spike
13- Got real sloppy here, wound up way far west over at the T trail junction, so then ran back east on the trail to pick up #13
14- Good plan, hesitation, but for the good cause of not blowing past it, which I didn't, was a bit farther down the hill than I though I was so that threw me but keeping my scan going helped as I saw it just up the reentrant to my left
15- So-so. Wasn't great but wasn't bad either, ran to trail, trail corned as AP, spike, but a slower than necessary spike.
F- went straight through all the nasty green, very slow and snaggy! But afterburner when hit the trail.

Very nice course, very nice day for it, and very nice to have a thumb compass again, what else can you ask for? Thank you Jens!!

C • did you find the compass? 6

C • Leg comments 1

New thumb compass arrived just in time for another race! But I miss my old Jet Spectra 6, wherever it is, may it RIP...or better yet reappear. this one is similar but no colors, but it will do for now.

Starting thinking seriously about doing the Dec Chill, until I saw the outrageous prices for both registration and canoe, $110 total. Really!!??

C • solo or team? 3

Night-O field checking (sorta) for Badlands course.

Didn't realize the park closes at 10pm, so my arrival at 8:45 pm didn't give me much time. But picked out a few of the more intricate controls and tried those out. That's ok because I had already ran the area when we were checking in the summer and still remembered it.

Wow- I could tell its been a very long time since I've orienteered at night as I was really struggling to stay on top of it. Even made a 180 error too! Doesn't help that I'm using old school orienteering compass temporarily since I lost my thumb compass, but the main thing is I better spend some more time doing orienteering at night because I'm totally not proficient at all.

It was so awesome out there at night and must say Badlands will be a perfect night-O venue! It should be very enjoyable... and some challenges too.

C • re: some challenges 2

Quads

Trying to figure out a way to be able to still make it to the Relays in Dec. But imagine the SMOC team is already full by now.

C • They were looking at Park Lyndon 3

Sprint across campus to make it to class on time.