Training Log Archive: PG

US Classic (or Individual?) Champs at Greenbush, Wisconsin.

Our traditional original championships, except this year it was only one day. (It's been one day a couple of times in the past, but that was because the other day got tossed out.) I've always been a big fan of the 2-day event -- if you're leading after the first day you have to sleep on it and then go do it again the next day. If you're behind, you still have hopes. In either case, the event lasts for 24+ hours instead of being over in just an hour or two.

Hopefully next year it will go back to two days. And I think one other benefit of that will be to draw a bigger field. The field today was good, a lot of the best folks here, but not deep.

I had low expectations. Partly because my body has been complaining a bunch since I did the 50-miler, and partly because my focus for the year in orienteering was this summer in Europe, so any orienteering I might do this fall has seemed not so important. Seems silly to say that about our national championship, but it is what it is.

But low expectations didn't mean not trying. The pre-race plan was just two items -- simplify the orienteering, and go to all the controls. The latter seems to be a necessary concern these days. The former was just an extension of what I was doing in Europe -- simplify, simplify, simplify -- so that you can go both more safely and also faster.

And there was also the concern that my left calf would crap out....

But it turned out to be a good day. The leg felt OK all the way to the end. My orienteering was so-so. Actually, I seemed to start out quite tentatively, and it wasn't until halfway through the course that I felt like I got moving a little. The motivation was that I had just screwed up #6, and just as I got back in touch with reality Ethan Childs and Tim Parson came by, both moving faster than I had been moving.

We punched 6 together, and then took slightly different routes to 7, and I never saw either again. And was quite pleased to get in before them, though Ethan still got me by three minutes on the day.

But the rest of the way I felt that I was moving better, and also more in touch with the map, and reading it better on the run. Just a little bit of the feeling like I used have much more often. Terrain like this is so sweet, and I used to feel totally comfortable in it while running as fast as I could (such as WMOC up at Camp Ripley in 1997), but now it seems that my ability has deteriorated significantly. Can't run so well, can't read the map when running very well, can't remember what I've seen on the map, and therefore just generally much less sure of myself.

So it was a lot of fun today to have at least a few legs where it felt a little bit like old times.

I think I ended up 3rd on the Green X, Ethan was 47, Ernst 49. I think I was first M60, Walter Siegenthaler next in 58, Jeff Saeger next at 60, roughly.

And as far as the pre-race plan, most of the time I simplified pretty well. And I did go to all the controls. :-)

Course is here. I'll post my routes later.

C • Nice job 8

C • calf stuff 7

Decent warm-up, also well timed, got to the start just as I was being called up.

Elevatoring with Sandy and Valerie.

Green X Day 1 US Champs - Splits

Event: US Individual Champs 2009
 

To Milwaukee. Bouncy, but survived. Did get to see Air Force One at Logan.

One last day to taper. Not wanting to risk not tapering enough, I blew off the model event. It was raining....

Feel totally unprepared to orienteer tomorrow.

Continuing my taper for this weekend.... :-)

Back from Maine this evening after two different stops for more walking. Very fine.

Seems like a lot of venom around AP. I've heard it said that most relationships that founder do so around the issues of money and sex. So far just the former seems to be sufficient.

AOWN moment -- So it was about 5:45, starting to get a little dark, I had one more hole to go. I'd just played a hole with a couple of ponds and a nice flock of geese feeding and pooping on the fairway, maybe 30 or 40 of them. I noticed a guy heading my way in a golf cart.

Are you chasing me off? (Maybe he wanted to close the gate to the parking and there were only a couple of cars left.)

Nope, going after them, he said, pointing towards the geese.

They seem to be enjoying themselves, I said, for lack of anything else to say.

Well, he said, don't be surprised if you hear a shotgun go off. Just giving you a warning.

And he drove off in the direction of the geese. And a minute later I hear a Boom, and then two more, Boom, Boom. And a minute later, one more Boom.

Another guy was in the parking lot, looked like he might work there.

Is he trying to scare them or hit them, I asked.

Hit them, I hope.

================

Aren't there laws about this? Though he may just have been trying to scare them. I was too far from the scene by then to get a body count, if there was one.

C • laws 1

C • Money and sex 5

Time for a road trip.

Drove to Belgrade Lakes, Maine, for a round of golf. Of course it's silly. But it was nevertheless a totally fine way to spend the day, as long as one excuses the waste of some gasoline.

Got a note from Mike Fritz a couple of days ago, he was heading there with a friend, with a friend of the friend coming up from Portland to join them. Was I interested?

Of course. We were going here, Mike had been before and said it was his all-time favorite place. And the late-season half-price rates were in effect.

Had a wonderful time. Fabulous course. Good company, the friend, and the friend of the friend, both very friendly. Regular ventures into the woods to look for balls, mostly theirs. The usual mix of shots from all of us, some appalling, many undistinguished, a few brilliant. Mike and I had a battle as to who could behave better (you got extra points the more challenges your golf game threw at you), I'm not sure what the final tally was but we both scored pretty high. Had an 86, better than expected, included a 9, but there is always a bad hole or two, or more. Totally satisfied. And then a stop a local tavern for a little food and drink and more good company before going our separate ways.

Didn't think about orienteering, or training, all day.... :-)

Gary has sent out the following. Note in particular items 1 and 3. I think these are good ideas. First, remember that money is tight. Second, the Junior team is in tougher shape financially right now, therefore the 2K direct to them. Third, the deal on the sanctioning fees gives the possibility of a reasonable amount of team support. Fourth, given that money is tight, this may not be that much, won't know for a year, but it feels a lot better than the goose eggs that were in the first pass at the budget.

I am sure some will think it insufficient (and others maybe too much?). I think it's a good step in the right direction.

The latest budget proposal is here.

Things are changing. It will be interesting to see what develops. And also a challenge to keep adapting....

===================================

Here is version 3 of the 2010 USOF proposed budgets. This will be the final version before the Board meeting. Any changes to the budget proposal will need to be made at the Board meeting.

Some substantive changes:
1. $2000 is being transferred to the Junior Team Fund from the Operating
Fund
2. The starting balance of the Sponsorship & Marketing Fund has been
reduced by $3400, to reflect 2009 planned spending for the fund, and USOF Rebranding has also been reduced by $3400.
3. An agreement with the U.S. Teams has been reached, to transfer any 2010 A meet sanctioning fees in excess of $33,000 directly to the Junior Team Fund (50%) and the Team Fund (50%). This is in lieu of direct support from the Operating Fund. It is hoped that many USOF clubs will choose to host A meets and many people will choose to participate in A meets, thereby directly helping our teams.

Gary Kraght
Chair - USOF Finance Committee

Still minimal training. Stopped at Northfield after the usual (at least in the last week or so) walk. Calf start to act up a little after a few minutes. Thought I would end up walking back to the car, but managed to jog back easily without it getting worse.

This is all so trivial, meaning the amount of exercise. Except I have had calf problems before, and they are not fun, and they can stop me dead, and it can easily mean a month or more off from running. So I am trying to be very careful.

At least I am doing a lot of walking.

C • Have you thought about using skins? 7

A new proposal to get a little funding for the teams next year is under consideration, depending on the level of sanctioning fees generated by A meets next year. Don't know yet if it will come to pass, or how the numbers will work out, but good to see some new thinking. Inspiration seems to have come from Gary, Glen, and Cristina. Progress!

Event: NEOC 2009 Club Championship
 

Back to the treadmill again. Maybe ok, hard to tell. But probably good enough. The goal is just to get back to running by next weekend. And I think that is doable.

The more I think about it, the more it seems like one of the things USOF ought to look at in its current budget crunch is what to do with ONA.

In all honesty, I hardly look at it. Most anything in there has been on the web a couple of months earlier. In this web era there are still a lot of good print publications, and even they are struggling. And ONA, well, it's pretty lame.

The budget situation is such that it's not just a one year but probably a several year crunch. At some point we are going to shut down ONA as a print publication. If that is the case, we should do it sooner rather than later. And we should start planning it right now.

The flip side of this is that our web presence needs to be seriously upgraded. And the planning for this ought to start right now too.

C • web presence 12

C • ONA 15