Training Log Archive: jjcote

US Long Champs, M40, Thacher State Park. Generally better than yesterday. The two biggest time losses were attributable to peculiarities of the map, particularly the fact that colors were such that I couldn't distinguish medium green from rough open (the former looked like the latter). The rest was just a few insignificant bobbles close to the control that didn't add up to much lost time. Wound up as 7th American (plus two Canadians) - a worse placing due in part to the fact that several of the better M40s were on Blue yesterday.

RedX - Splits

Event: US Short and Long Championships
 

warm-up -- jogging form the finish to the start

US Short Champs, M40, Thacher State Park. Pretty undistinguished way to return from my hiatus, with several pretty boneheaded errors. Still somehow came away with a silver medal, only 14 seconds out of gold, which doesn't say much for the rest of the field.

Red - Splits

Today is, I believe, the 145th consecutive day on which I have not orienteered. The last dry spell like this was the 160 days from Dec '87 to May '88, when I was in Greece working on the Daedalus Project. My comeback from that was the Donau Pokal in Yugoslavia, where I turned in a pair of abysmal performances and finished dead last on M19-34 (but still managed to take home a trophy for 3rd place club). I don't think it was so much a matter of being rusty as it was the simple fact that I didn't really yet know what I was doing.

I'm signed up for the EMPO A-meet this weekend, so unless something goes wrong, the drought should end tomorrow. But then, you never know what kind of unexpected things might happen. For example, I did kind of get fired today,

C • I'm so sorry... 4

Across from the house, Lane-Horse-Seaver loop, with slight variations on some of the off-trail parts. In The Dim -- didn't bring a light, and wasn't sure whether I'd regret that, starting a little after 7PM, but it was fine, just a couple of stretches under the hemlocks at the base of the last climb where it was hard to see, but once I got back into the hardwoods, it was plenty bright.

John Fredrickson mentioned that he can use gmap-pedometer to measure the length of his trail runs. I'm not so fortunate, because I can't figure out exactly where I've been going. The USGS map is pretty bad, and the satellite photos on Google don't show me enough ground detail to see where I've been. I made a rough guess for the Lane-Horse-Seaver loop, but it could well be way off. It definitely doesn't capture the wiggly stuff in the laurel jungle, and I just don't know whether it's even close in a lot of places, be they on trail or off. I should borrow Mark's GPS and figure out where I've actually been going.

I will say that I was surprised to see the location of the house near the two-mile mark on this route. I've been running within sight of it all this time, assuming I was pretty close to Tyler Rd., but in fact I've been deep in the woods. Those people have a long driveway! I assume the house in is Townsend, but it must be awfully close to the town line.

The more I look at this, the more convinced I am that my line is way off. Pretty sure the start/finish is i the right place, but that's about it. :-)