Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

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Morgan Territory. COW Stage 2. Start at 11:14. Cold (in the 30's).
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Brown Middle. 3.2 km, 120m climb, 20 c. 3rd overall on Brown out of 34 in 40:53, 2nd in M70 out of 6.

1. Geraint Edmunds ----------- 3629
2. Glen Tryson (M65) --------- 4040
3. DW ----------------------------- 4053
4. Steve Tarry (M65) ----------- 4108
5. Greg Yarkie ------------------- 4212
6. John Harbuck ---------------- 4656
7. Penny DeMoss (F65) ------ 4820
8. Chuck Spalding ------------ 4850
9. Sari Jetsonen (F55) -------- 4909
10. Amalie Ertmann (F14) --- 5418

3 km to get to start bothered some people. Got me sufficiently warmed up that I changed out of the long sleeved top I had under my O-shirt.

Turned out to be my highest ranking points for the week, though it wasn't a great run. It was the toughest course physically and probably navigationally as well, and 20% of the competitors were over 1:52, which led to the high ranking. Also, though overall my split rankings were much worse than yesterday, stayed out of any large errors.

1:20 error on #3, following another Brown runner (Russell Green) instead of reading the terrain. Lost time on #14, maybe 20 seconds, and was lucky to find it, but it doesn't look that way in the splits because so many others did worse. Small errors in the circle at 4, 10, 19. Hesitations on 2, 5, 8. Suboptimal route on 15 cost 30-35 seconds. Somehow lost :12 on #20 (:18 to Glen), dropping from 5 seconds ahead of him to third place. (This despite being only 1 sec behind the fastest time from #21 to F.)

1. Rough compass to the road, aiming off to the right a little, just looking for good places to run. Hit the road a little too far to the right, but no trouble getting to the control. 4th fastest split, 11 seconds behind Geraint, the leader.

2. Took the little trail a bit up the hill to get around the rocks. Didn't recognize the thicket until I was closer to the right side, just went around that way, a bit longer than optimal. 8th fastest, 27 behind Chuck, 21 behind Glen.

3. Didn't look at the map carefully enough. Saw Russell Green ahead, in the direction of my bearing, so went that way, down the spine of the spur. Thought I'd gone too far, but then saw Russ ahead moving like he'd seen a bag, so I went there - but it wasn't ours. Knowing we'd gone too far, looked bag, realized the control was off the spur, ran in that general direction, figuring I'd see the bag since it was now on my side of the rock, and I soon did. Lost 1:20.

4. Contour a bit, then up to the road. (Recognized I'd taken a similar route 2 year ago.) As I was running along the road, Vladimir G came up, so I guess the green was more passable than mapped. Foolishly stayed on the road all the way to the junction with the trail, then went into the stream of rocks. No control, checked the map, realized it must be higher, looked up and there was Vladimir punching in. 4th, 28 behind Geraint, 13 behind Glen.

5. Contour and pace, stop to examine the hillside below, figured out what was what, and went straight down and found the bag. 4th, 6 behind Steve T.

6. Read the vegetation very well, went straight to the bag, spotting Leslie punching in as the bag came into view. 3rd, 7 behind Amalie, 2 behind Geraint.

7. Climbed at an angle, aiming for the thicket, which I recognized. Went around the high side, under the fence, contoured, noting the one line reentrant just below, and kept running for the nose of the spur. Thought I'd picked out the correct tree, and there was someone walking to it, but I didn't see the bag. Quickly realized she was blocking my view and that bag was indeed there. Fastest, 1 sec ahead of Geraint and Glen.

8. Down to the bottom of the reentrant, spotted the fallen tree to my left and realized I was a little too close to it. Took a bearing, looked up, saw a fallen tree, climbed to it, but no bag. Checked the map, saw that I hadn't noticed that there was one fallen tree before the one I wanted, so continued on and soon saw the bag. 4th, 23 behind Glen, but only 5 behind Harbuck in second.

9. Hill was tiring, but pushed myself up, aiming to get to the edge of the spur right at the correct contour. Recognized the two trees and the fallen tree when I got there, so knew I was good. Contoured, soon saw the correct fallen tree and knew the bag would be behind it. 2nd, 1 behind Amalie, 1 ahead of Glen, 2 ahead of Geraint (a victory for me on an uphill leg).

10. Ran strongly to the boulder on the side of the spur, then up and contoured on a bearing to rocky ground - but no bag. Took a quick look around, and saw the bag on a different patch of rocky ground, up and a little behind me. 5th, 15 behind Glen and 14 behind Geraint, so I lost maybe 8 to 10 seconds.

11. For some reason, what I was seeing ahead of me didn't make sense, so went a little left to get to the road. Down the road to the junction, then continued down to the trail. Along the trail, careful to take the downhill fork. About the time my pace count ran out, looked down the hill and saw the tree, the bag, and the Gookins. It was further downhill than I expected, but the map was correct. 6th, 33 behind Glen; probably lost 15 - 20, mostly leaving 10, partly being cautious on the little trail.

12. Angled back up to the trail, hitting it right at the lone tree. Contoured and could see the lip of the ditch coming up. A little disappointed when I mounted the lip and the bag was a contour higher. 4th, 22 behind Glen; he was the only one of the leaders faster than me on this leg.

13. While headed to 12, examined the ridge in the distance I'd need to go over to get to 13, so when I left 12, there was no hesitation. Ran the most efficient route I could to the top of the wedge of clearing pointing to the control, kept going down in the same direction, nailed it. 2nd, 1 behind Geraint.

14. Navigationally toughest leg of the day. Tempted by the unmapped trail leading down the reentrant, but then how would you get around the green? So, climbed a little and contoured, but really could not identify features and soon really didn't know where I was. Kept contouring, figuring at the worst I'd get to the nose of the spur and see the open area where 12 was. Way down below, beyond a big patch of green, saw Evan. Knew I had to get down there somehow, and finally saw an opening to go down. Stopped, not really knowing what to do next. Looked to my right, and there was a control. Please be mine! Amazingly, it was. Very lucky. 4th, 19 behind Geraint, 7 behind Rick McBee. Glen lost nearly 4 minutes here.

15. The low route looked like too much down and up (that was a misjudgment, it was significantly shorter and thus better overall), so I contoured around the spur, climbed to the plateau, angled over to the trail and then a little down to the control. Executed what I did very well, but the route choice cost me about 30 seconds. 12th, 42 seconds behind Glen.

16. Down the trail, keep going straight at the t-junction, over the little spur, whoa, a fence? Checked the map, yeah, there is a fence, but I hadn't noticed it on the map (which is what just about everyone said). Now, is it behind the big rock in front of me? Just then Jeff Lanam was coming up (not sure why), so figured might as well go down and look, and there it was. 8th, 14 secs behind Harbuck.

17. Contoured, then climbed a little when I saw the boulder, coming out on the trail by the fallen tree. The hillside ahead was very steep, so didn't want to go down too far and then have to climb. So, contoured until I could see the rock and the control below, and then slalomed down. 3rd, 6 ahead of Glen, but a surprising 30 behind Geraint.

18. Could see the big boulder below in the reentrant, and could see on the map that I wanted to contour on the next spur about a contour above that boulder, so angled down, contoured, did a great job of not slowing down to check the control on the lone tree I passed, nailed it. 4th, 13 behind Geraint (he must've been flying at this point), 9 behind Steve.

19. Running hard on a bearing, but didn't understand the clue, because I couldn't see any tip of open land on the map (too narrow for my eyes) and didn't look for it in the terrain. As I approached the woods, saw Penny heading down, looking like maybe she was still looking for the control, so perhaps that made me lean left a little, but then I realized she must've already punched, so I looked a bit to the right and saw it (and a fast young woman [I forget who] approaching it [properly, through the sliver of open land). Had to climb a little, costing me several seconds. 11th, 14 behind (that's 50%) Sue K, but only 8 behind Glen in 2nd.

20. Was actually 5 secs ahead of Glen at this point, but he gained 18 on me on this simple leg! Perhaps having seen Penny going down through the woods influenced me: I was sure the control I could see down there couldn't be mine, but I slowed to check the map anyway, and my angle down the road was too far to the right. 12th, 18 behind Glen.

F. Surprisingly, 2nd, tied with Glen, only one sec behind Amalie and 1 ahead of Sue.

WinSplits
RouteGadget

[Orienteering race]

Warm up to the distant remote start, jogging almost all of it.

Cool down, mostly downhill, along dirt road to the shuttle pick up point on Morgan Terr Rd. With a 30-ish orienteer I hadn't met before.

Middle - Brown - Splits

Event: BAOC: California Orienteering Week (COW), Part 1
 

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Morgan Territory. California Orienteering Week, Stage 1.
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Start: 11:20. Sunny, cool.

Brown Middle, 3.3 km, 110 m climb, 18 controls. 3rd overall of 38 on Brown, 2nd of 9 in M70.

1. Glen Tryson (M65) 3339
2. Geraint Edmunds 3555
3. DW 3738
4. Chuck Spalding 3957
5. John Harbuck 4157
6. Penny DeMoss (F65) 4213
7. Steve Tarry (M65) 4339
8. Gary Carpenter 4410
9. Greg Yarkie 4643

Bad error on #1, over 2 mins, followed by nearly a minute error on #2; clearly wasn't ready to start (too involved in organizing). For the split ranks on the next 16 legs, I had 5 1's, 7 2's, 2 4's and a 5; only error was for almost :30 on #6, mostly hesitation. There only three legs where the leader was under 59 secs, and I was the leader for all three. Glen was 31 secs faster than me from 2 -> Finish. Did particularly well on 7, 12, 16 and 18.

Not focussed at the start at least in part because I was trying to get the start workers to be more in line with how we had said the start procedure would go. Furthermore, found the map hard to read for the first two legs (and a few places later) and only later realized that we had used 1:7,500 two years ago here at the US Champs but 1:10,000 this year (and I'm the one who filed the sanctioning application!); details we're clear on the 1:7500 map. My later hesitation error on #6 and hesitation on #15 might also have been avoided with the larger scale.

#1. I knew that the area we were heading into is very tricky, but I took off anyway without a good plan and on a rough compass bearing. Soon found myself next to the road. Angled left until I saw the rocks and then worked my way over to the control. Lost about 2:20 (turned out to be my worst error of the entire COW).

#2. Route I drew on RouteGadget is not correct. Actually went down the center of the reentrant, as I did not perceive that the control was not in the bottom of the reentrant. Went along the edge of the green patch, but instead of realizing I was in the wrong place, wondered why the patch was there. Came to a control at the far edge of the green patch (it was on a boulder) but it wasn't mine. Stood there for several seconds before figuring things out. But instead of cutting up, continue down the reentrant (N) to the bottom of the side reentrant and then cut up. Yeesh. Lost close to a minute.

#3. Finally settled down and started orienteering. Compass bearing up to the right edge of the green, curled around it and saw the control. 2nd best split, 3 secs behind Glen.

#4. Up to the saddle, then contour through the edge of the forest, knowing I had to go until I came out of the woods, and the control was right there. 4th best split, probably lost a little climbing to the saddle. Confidence restored.

#5. Hurried down the hill past the left end of the big gully and then across the road, where I figured I'd stop and figure out the last part. Saw two trees dead ahead, identified them on the map, headed a little to the right of them and soon saw the control. 2nd best split, 1 sec behind Geraint, 7 ahead of Chuck.

#6. Felt tired going up the hill, and then wasn't exactly sure of my place. Thought the control was going to be in a reentrant, as the control circle and and rock detail obscured the southern half of the contour line that actually indicated it was on a hilltop. So, I was puzzled when there was a hilltop dead ahead, and the only reentrant was well to the left. After some hesitation, decided to trust the compass and pace count, and soon saw the ruined tree. (It was only after the event that I saw the rest of the contour line indicating the hilltop). Lost about :30.

#7. Had worked this out in advance. Proceeded quickly to the right edge of the rock cluster, curled around to the road, looked for the reentrant, knowing the boulder would be on the near side. From the road, saw the boulder that I thought was the correct one, but couldn't see the flag, so stopped to double check the map before heading down. Despite that hesitation, had the fastest split by 5 seconds on only a 52 second leg.

#8. Didn't even notice the route choice around to the S on the road, which would have been better. Rough compass towards the big hill behind the control. Had to go left to avoid rocks at the beginning, and it was more up and down than I expected (contour line obscured by rocks) and rocky, so somewhat slow going. Once over the hill, could see that hill beyond the control, so proceeded at a good pace. Had to veer a bit to the right at the end. Executed what I did well, but lost about :15 due to route choice.

#9. Swung around to the right, executed very well. 2nd fastest, 14 secs behind Glen.

#10. As I approached #9, thought I was going to have to go back across the ditch to get to #10, but George and a few others punched ahead of me and they weren't crossing the ditch, so I checked the map once I punched 9 and they were right. Hurried up the hill and passed George just before I got to 10. 2nd fastest, 3 secs behind Glen.

#11. Pushed myself up the hill, swinging a bit to the left to save some climb. On the road until just before the saddle (didn't quite draw that correctly on RouteGadget), then cut to the right into the field. There were several people ahead of me, including Peter Goodwin, so it was easy to spot where the control would be as I came down. 2nd fastest again, 8 secs behind Glen (proportionately about the same as the previous leg).

#12. Had seen in advance that all I had to do for the first part of the leg was follow the ditch down and cross the road, so did that quickly, passing all the people who were right in front of me immediately. Once across the road, stopped briefly to determine what to do next, spotted the reentrant I wanted, down there, curled around the rocks, nailed it. Fastest split, by 7 secs over Greg Yarkie; picked up 24 on Glen.

#13. Started to go straight, but then figured I'd have extra climb to get around the green, so instead went past the little outhouse to the road. (Glen went straight and went right through the green.) Pushed myself up the hill on the road, passing Karen Didisse. Cut the corner getting to the side path and took that all the way to the road and then up to the saddle. (Would've been a little more direct to turn before the road, but thought it would be faster to use the road.) Cut up and headed for the edge of the forest and rocks. Thought it might be hard to pick out the correct rock, but then saw on the clue sheet that the control was on my side of the rock, so continued with confidence and spotted it easily. 2nd fastest split, though 30 behind Glen; 4 ahead of Penny, 15 ahead of Geraint.

#14. Planned this one in advance, so bolted down to the intersection of the road with the little trail heading to the Finish, and then headed up. Like everyone else I spoke with, was headed towards the big tree I could see. But that turned out to be mapped as part of the forest, with the "distinct tree" being a smaller one to the left. Fortunately, I spotted the bag before I'd climbed much. Fastest split by a sec over Glen and 7 over Penny.

#15. Thought very seriously about going back down to the road and running around and coming up behind the control - and wish I had, just to know if that would've been faster. But, even though I knew that going straight would be tricky and potentially disasterous, it felt wrong to go that far out of the way, and when Siargey Pisarchyk, the eventual Blue winner, left the control just ahead of me and headed in the direction of #15, decided to go through the woods, even though I had no reason to believe he was going where I was. (Turned out he was, and he did the leg 40 secs faster than me, though I lost sight of him almost immediately.) Decided to go to 17 first, so I'd know where I was. Clamboring over large rocks, it was very slow going, but got to 17 and then started on a bearing towards 15. Stopped half way there to make doubly sure, decided to go around the right side of the boulder field and down the reentrant, keeping my eyes left, and soon spotted the control, a bit further up the side reentrant than I had imagined it would be. 2nd fastest, 12 behind Glen, 1 behind Penny.

#16. Realized that this was practically the same leg on which I had made a 4 minute error at the US Middle Champs in March, 2016, so proceeded carefully, making sure to get over into the field on the right. Nailed it. Fastest split, by 8 secs over Anna Campbell (!) and 16 over the nearest top runner, Geraint, who was 6th. Glen headed too far to the left and lost over a minute. Penny was actually 15 secs ahead of me overall going into this leg, but made a 4+ minute error.

#17. Had already been to this one, so it figured to be easy, but it wasn't. Should have stayed high, but went past the tree and into the big reentrant, figuring I'd turn up when I saw the boulder. But somehow didn't see the boulder, so proceeded cautiously, keeping my eyes up the hill until I recognized the place I'd been earlier (so, guess it was good I didn't go around on the road to 15). 5th, 3 behind Glen in 3rd and 5 behind Geraint in 2nd. Gemma Fa-Kaji was 1st, and amazing 16 secs ahead of me.

18. Bolted down the hill (passing Scott Aster), just trying to get out in the field, knowing I'd see the control as soon as I got to the road. Fastest by 5 secs over Chuck (and 8 over Glen).

F. Glen beat me by 5 on the short run in.

Route
WinSplits

[Orienteering race]

Warm up. Jog to start, a little faster than I might have because I felt a little late (but got there in plenty of time).

After finishing, just walked back to the assembly area.

Middle - Brown - Splits

Usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises. Tapered off on the strength exercises as the week wore on.

Easy walk on the jeep trail on a rainy day.

Jeep trail next door. Got out before 7:30. Raw and chilly. Took it easy, but got up my speed quicikly. Felt like I could have run a race today. Afterwards, though, one knee was sore for about 10 minutes, then it was fine.

Splits are for one lap at a time (0.2 mi): 222, 209, 158

[Easy distance]

Kevin's. Almost entirely massage and stretching.

Easy walk on the jeep trail.

Jeep trail next door. Break in heavy rain, got mostly drizzle. Felt surprisingly good, given how I've been wearing myself to the bone over COW. Legs felt good, only two days after a meet, so it's seems my strategy of not pushing it up hill or on trails at JGrant this past Sunday worked.

Purposely held back the last few laps.

Splits are for two laps at a time, 0.4 miles:
450, 436, 425

[Easy distance]

Cool down

Legs don't feel bad.