Training Log Archive: PG

Decided this morning I should go to the NEOC meet at Wrenthem, even though I was pretty sure the woods are quite unfriendly and the map is suspect. But I've been doing very little O' this year, and wanted another run under my belt before the champs next weekend.

Overall, glad I went, even though my run still left a lot to be desired, a number of mistakes. But I put out a decent effort, ran more than I expected, and tried to remember how to orienteering. So moderately successful, and at least my attitude was improved over its low state after the Highlander.

Oh, the woods were rather crappy, best to stay on the trails as much as possible. And the map was a little suspect, and also hard to read, especially the black. I'm not sure what it is but really hard to read. On the other hand, only one control misplaced and only a couple others where the map in the circle was a little screwy.

Course was advertised as 6.2 km, 330 meters climb.

I'd thought of trying to hook up with Phil, if he was going (the event wasn't listed on AP), but I had in mind that I might manage a round of golf on the way home at someplace I hadn't played before. And in fact that transpired, just snuck in 18 at a decent course near Sturbridge before it got dark. Very enjoyable.

Only down part of the day, and fortunately it wasn't serious, was that I missed my exit to get off I-91, just not paying attention for a moment. It was dark, and there was steady traffic coming south, so trying to do an illegal u-turn seemed foolish, so I headed up to the rotary in Greenfield. Which is where, in the course of about 20 seconds, I almost got nailed by the same car twice. I kid you not. First it made not the slightest effort to yield (as required) when entering the rotary. I hit my brakes, immediately abandoned my plan to exit the rotary and started another loop around. And then, the same car, now in the outside lane of the rotary that gives you no option other than to exit, suddenly tried to take a left turn from the right lane. Would have had me again, but I saw it just in time. Used the horn more than I have in years.

A New Hampshire car, Live Free or Die, they say....

One other thing about the O' meet. It was one of the most unsocial meets I have ever been too. I don't mean unfriendly, the organizers I dealt with were uniformly friendly and competent. It was just that I saw just a couple other orienteers before I started (despite maybe 30-40 cars in the parking area), and just one afterwards (Pia with her kids). I finished, downloaded, looked at the ma a bit, no one around so I walked bak to the car. No one around there, so I changed. Chatted with Pia a little, no one else around, so I left. Quite strange.

Here's the course (the Red course).

And here's my route.

#1. Just didn't feel like running down the road. Nor like going through the woods.
#7. Took a while to find, forest quite thick, map not too useful.
#8. Control was on no feature in particular. Just happened upon it.
#9. Thought I'd gone far enough south to pick up the trail, apparently not. Control was on the SE edge of the circle.
#10. Thick, both on the way and at the control.
#11. Took a while to find the trail on the first hill. An extra hill and wall near the control (reminded me of mapping a long time ago).
#12. Thought I'd skirt the edge of the marsh through the nice forest. Except it was full of greenbrier and pretty much impassable. Beat a retreat, not soon enough.
#14. Feeble.

Thought for a long while I'd be about 70-75 minutes, but then things deteriorated in the second half of the run.

C • unsocial 8

What qualifies for an over-distance run these days. But a lot better than nothing.

Signed up for the NEOC/CSU meet, last day before the late fee kicks in.

Checked out the maze. There are about 25 permanent controls, not sure if I will use those or not. I have to go back because I couldn't find my friend, someone said he was in the maze. It will be quite cool.

So I need to get my act together to organize the sprint at Mike's Maze --



The thinking is either Wednesday or Thursday, very late afternoon, of the week between the US Champs and the CSU/NEOC A meet weekend.

Cristina/Biggins, any idea what your schedule is and what day might work best? I can't remember whether either day is better or worse for Ali/Alex (I think Wednesday?). Phil, I'm assuming as a philosophy prof that either day is fine....

Any others interested? Charlie, George, Ken Sr. (and spouses)?

Of course, it will be followed by a party just up the street chez PG and Gail.

C • when 20

Nice ride on what seems to becoming a standard route -- just over an hour, no hills I can't manage as long as I pay attention, and a nice variety. Beautiful late afternoon, though it's getting dark earlier and earlier, glad I didn't start 15 minutes later.

Leftover item from yesterday evening -- talked to Laura Lane some, found out she is the curator for the New England Quilt Musuem. I'm not a quilt fan, but I know a bunch of quilting orienteers (or is it orienteering quilters?). It's in Lowell, MA.

C • NEQM 1

Dinner at Phil and Margi's, even more gorgeous young women than usual (usual = Alex and Ali and Gail and Margi), as we were joined by NEOC president Pete Lane and his wife Laura and daughter Amy, the latter living out here, an excellent runner and skier and occasional orienteer, whom Alex is now working on to recruit to the ski-O team, plus Phil's friend Betsy, who got mangled in a bike-car encounter recently, absolutely no fault of hers, but she is on the mend.

Great food, great vibes.

Not sure if there will be a party next week, short week with holiday on Monday and Sprint Finals on Friday, but certainly the following week, maybe even more than one, with Cristina and Biggins and who knows who else is in town.

And looking down the road a bit, seems the CSU adventure weekend will be here the first weekend in December. Excellent.

For those who still haven't figured out the secret to a successful orienteering program, just think great food and pretty women. Everything else will follow.

C • Adventure Time 5

Running around the little trails over by Cranberry Pond. Tolerated another day of running, progress.

Would be a nice little area for orienteering, were there a map....

So the proposed OUSA budget for 2011 has been released, plus a memo regarding it.

I wish I wasn't disappointed.

1. There is no information about how we are doing in the current year. That seems to be in line with OUSA's financial reporting in general -- figures are released monthly, but there is no explanation, no highlighting of good news or bad news, no nothing.

I was hoping for something about progress that we are making with Glen on board, or problems we are encountering, or just something about how we are doing. But nothing.

2. There is a budget for 2011, with comparison to 2010. The 2011 budget proposed has a deficit of $41,800, which the Finance folks think is acceptable. It would be nice to know some of their reasoning.

3. There is what seems to me a quite convoluted statement about financing for the teams. Right now, there is a team fund for each team, money raised by each team goes into its fund, money spent comes out. And to the extent possible, money also comes in from OUSA's general fund. In 2010, this was limited to 2K for the Junior Team.

For 2011, the proposed budget has no support for the teams. (Interestingly, the proposed budget also lists a number of requests that it is not funding, and there is nothing there listed for the teams. So maybe they requested nothing?)

The budget also moves in the direction of having one unified team for financial purposes, but it is not clear to me what is actually being proposed. Perhaps someone else can read the wording in the memo and tell me what it really means. In particular I'd like to know, if I give X dollars to a particular team, or put on an event to raise X dollars for a particular team, does that team get it, or does it get doled out by the Board, or the Finance Committee, or some unified team ESC? It would be nice to know.

4. The budget for ONA drops from 24K to 18K. It would be nice to know what is being planned.

5. It is requested that the official channel of discussion about this (prior to the Board meeting nest weekend) is the BoardNet. I'm curious to see if that happens. It's been pretty much a dead discussion board in the past. I'd expect a more lively, and probably more annoying/obnoxious discussion on AP. :-)

C • Donations to teams 7

Out the back trail up to Gunn Mt. road and back.

I was planning on walking up the first hill, got out a couple minutes and realized I'd forgotten my 305, no point in running without it. Came back, picked it up, got the ipod too. And then managed to run all the way up and back, accompanied by some country music guy. Not my favorite but better than nothing.

And the fact that I ran up is quite spectacular.

Also, having hit the automatic time-to-start-eating-a-little-less point a week ago, when the G touched 145, maybe a little slimming will help too. Got to do something.

Light to moderate rain. Legs/heels not too bad.

Looking back to the Highlanders I've done (which unfortunately didn't start until I was 51), I think I missed 4 of them, injured in one way or another --

1995, 4:06:23, 6th
1996, 3:36:02, 2nd
1997, 4:14:26, 7th
1998, 4:03:48, 5th
1999, 4:49:15, ?
2000, 3:59:54, 10th
2003, 5:22:31, 16th
2006, 4:00:30, 14th
2007, 4:32:17, ?
2008, 4:27:17, 13th
2010, 5:37:02, 43rd

So this year was the longest I've even spent on an O' course (rogaines not included, you have a partner). Not really an accomplishment to be proud of. Though looking back, I'm surprised to see my time in 2003, almost as bad, but I think the course was a good bit harder. My placing this time was the worst by far.

And all this reminds me of a long O' race I ran in 1983, longer than the Highlander, definitely more climb, definitely more map changes. I would doubt that anyone else on AP has heard of it -- it was a one-time deal -- let alone was there (except for Gail). But it is now only third place as far as the longest I've been out on an O' course, just under 5 hours.

65 controls.

I'll see if I can dig out the maps.

C • places 7

My route on the Pole Brook map (segment 1).

Question -- am I missing something with using the QR crop tool? Wanted to crop off the post-Pole Brook part, thought I did it right, but nothing happened. Suggestions?

I'll do the Sebago segments, but it would be nice to separate out the two parts of my route (actually three parts counting the trail run), otherwise it's a bit of a mess.

OK, scratch that request. It seems, on my computer at least, if I try to crop a route by selecting the crop point with the cursor on the actual route, nothing happens. If I do it with the cursor on the graph along the bottom, it works fine. Have no idea why, but it works....

So now to get the other routes up.

Well, that optimism was short-lived. Can't get the cropping to work at all (either it crops nothing, or everything).

So here is my route on the second orienteering segment. I just sent the before and after parts off into space....

And here is O' segment 3.

C • before parts 3

So I was wondering about the best routes on a few legs. Most of Pole Brook was pretty straightforward, stay out of the laurel. But I'm thinking of the following legs on Sebago --

12-13. Did anyone not take the trail back to the top of the hill for the first half of the leg, going left of the line all the way? Better? Worse?
14-15. First part, I went left, Phil right, no difference. We both went around to the left at the end, avoiding the laurel. Was a straighter approach better?
16-17. I went ENE out of 16, gambling on getting through the green between the marshes without too much difficulty. OK for the first part, terrible the second, felt like I'd wasted 2 or 3 minutes. But the rest of the leg was fine, no laurel. Was going north out of 16 (and then what?) better?
17-18. I went NW out of 17, then up the big reentrant, but dropped 2 or 3 lines to get over there. How was the green above 17 on the direct route? I lost time on this leg to Phil and Peggy/Nadim, but I was also moving really slowly.
20-21. I assume out to the road was better?
24-25. Got to the main trail, then cut across to the main road by crossing the stream right under the power line. Quite awful there, bad laurel (not mapped). And then approached the control from the NW. Any other (better) routes?
26-27. Approach was pretty much on the line, seemed to work fine. Was this common? Was running around more on the road and approaching from the SE better. (I was just walking, so it seemed like the shorter route was better.)
28-29. I went by the right tip of the first marsh and then left of the second one. Seemed OK. Anything any better?

Just curious, wondering if all the fast folks had this stuff figured out by the time I came in. And perhaps there were some routes I didn't see that would have saved me an hour or two.... :-)

C • Routes 4