Training Log Archive: PG

Event: 2010 US Team Trials for WOC
 

At the Team Trials, running the Red (women's course) middle distance. Better than the 40-45 minutes I expected. Nominal distance was 3.5k, 140m climb.

Today's middle course.

And my route.

Women's sprint course. Decent effort physically, a little feeble mentally. Such is. Still, considering I haven't run for a month.... And is that why my heart rate is high?

Nominal distance was 2.1k, 45m climb.

Today's sprint course.

And my my route.

Red Middle - Splits

Red Sprint - Splits

I wrote something a few days back about O' fundamentals, and I suppose one fundamental ought to be that you have your shit together at the start.

I had plenty of time last weekend to observe folks. And one thing was quite amazing -- how they dealt with getting their clues two minutes before their start.

A few didn't take them at all (the clues were also on the map), but these were generally less competitive folks.

Of those that took them, maybe 1/4 applied tape to them, either to protect the clues or to fasten them onto their body somehow, or both. I didn't see a single version of this process that I liked. Yes, I know some folks are probably quite attached to what they do, but the tape operation looked stressed, rushed, and if you do it a few times, liable to be screwed up. None of which is what you want as the clock is ticking down.

The rest had some sort of carrier -- slip the clues in it, attach it to your forearm (usually), and you're good to go. Seems fine.

Except here the variety of carrying devices was also amazing, and certainly seemed to me in a lot of cases to be proof of the well-known frugality among orienteers. I'd guess half of the carriers ought to be trashed -- things are frayed, things are torn, the plastic is shot. The struggles I saw as people tried to insert the clues and then fasten the devices to their arms, well, here too it look stressed, rushed, and liable to be screwed up.

You ought to be able to do the whole thing in 20 seconds, absolute max 30. Under any conditions. Cold, or rain, or wind, or hot and sweaty, or any combination thereof. With a thumb compass on one hand and a dibbler on the other.

You do practice this, right?

Yes, it's simple and it's trivial, but if you can't get this right....

C • 20 seconds? 36

Feet still hurting. Not particularly motivated, I've sort of given up on this season and this summer. But getting lots of rogaine practice, 7 hours on my feet today.

Second day at the A meet, sunny but cold and windy, actually probably just about perfect for running.

Start operation went well, dealt with any problems smoothly. Nothing like having a good crew. And best as I could tell, the whole meet went really well. One thing I'm sure of, WCOC is a great club.

I had just started the last of the workers and Ross and several team members arrived to clean up everything, and they did a first-class job, and all with a smile. Such a pleasure to have folks like that.

And meanwhile, an old orienteering friend had ambled out to the start, he wasn't competing, could he ask me a question or two.

It seems he is where I was about 2 years ago, having to deal with prostate cancer. Lots of questions in fact. We took a long slow walk back, a very frank discussion including stuff that guys don't normally talk about. He is pretty stressed, as expected. He too has a journey ahead that will not be pleasant. But I think this helped a little.

Driving home, I realized I forgot to tell him one thing, that there has been one unexpectedly positive result of my journey, that I now appreciate the good things in life and don't sweat the bad stuff as much. And that is not trivial.