Training Log Archive: cmorse

Second sprint of the day.

Things went ok except:

3 - not sure how but hit trail to N and missed completely. ???

5 - took trail around, hit it just fine, but a lot of unnecessary climbing involved then a drop back to flag.

9 - leaving #8, set out at a hard downhill trail run for #11, totally missed seeing #9 & #10 on the straight line in the green. Hit the open field before realizing my mistake and had to climb back up the hill, this time thrashing through thick dog-strangling vine to #9.

rest was fine, but a lot of time wasted on that map reading error...

clean and fast all the way around. Took some risky straight routes through the green, but was able to find fast runnable ground in all cases so no loss of time on those.

Very satisfying to run a hard, technically clean race... even if it was only a mile in length.

Night-O with the kids, steamy evening, took a nice pedestrian route to 5 controls, back with plenty of time to spare as we did not have a watch with us and it was a 60 minute score-O. Bailed on one control up a steep hillside when we got into some stinging nettles and decided to drop back down and stick to trailside controls...

Mendon TDS #1 Sprint A - Splits

Mendon TDS #1 Sprint B - Splits

Plan for the day - more careful reading of map, try to run a bit harder in the soft terrain.

1 - overran my control and hit rootstock to the N and turned back to group of rootstocks. Sweat already rendering the glasses ineffective.

2 - a little low on the hill, had to climb back to control feature which seemed a bit higher on hill than mapped

3 - really tough reading detail in this area, checked numerous hills before finding the correct one

4 - missed to R, hit stonewall and came back in.

5 - woot - actually hit one directly, but at a very slow pace.

6 - ran pretty well through the green enroute to marsh crossing, up to trail and clearing and took a very careful bearing into what looked to be a very tricky area. Relocated a number of times to different features but never found it. Gave up after probably 20 minutes off looking and moved on to #7, thoroughly disgusted with myself. But there were a lot of others searching the area when I left.

7 - out to dirt road and then back in from solid attackpoint. Area felt right, wandered around for probably 15 minutes before just giving up.

8 - only real logical route back to finish appeared to be along the course route so started the long walk back with an occasional jog when the mood struck, which wasn't often. Picked up 8, 9 & 10 on the way since I was going by them.

11 - overshot a bit, realized it pretty quickly, but just didn't bother to go back for it. Headed for finish.

12 - by now a herd path to this through the poison ivy, but flag was not hung in the center of the circle. Fed up with the day and hoping the kids had better experiences than I did.

After finishing I found out that someone had inadvertantly removed controls #6 & #7 from the woods after Saturday's courses - which explains the absence of flags, vetting streamers or solid indication I was actually in the correct location. I could see how this might happen in a two-day local meet, but this was a US Championship course, someone should have verified that all controls were indeed in the woods on Sunday AM. Sunday's course was voided so the weekends results hinged on Saturday's results, and I didn't have a stellar day there either. Would have been extremely pissed if I had come out just for the weekend, but was here for the full festival, so set my sights on Monday rather than dwell on this one...

Event: 2011 US Classic Championships
 

Event: Canal Cities Orienteering Festival
 

Running trails has made me soft. The soft and often wet ground underfoot was really tough to run for me. Also I haven't run on a 1:15,000 scale map in a long while and my old eyes have a real tough time reading the fine detail. Generally had to come to a complete stop numerous times during a leg to remove glasses and consult map.

Never found trail headed towards #2 but got there without too much time lost. Was a bit low on #3, but hit trail and bounced back pretty quickly. Got off to the R on #4 and wandered down the spur to the N before figuring out that it went on too long- still struggling with scale issues. #6 was pretty straightforward but a slow jog up the hill. Missed #7 a tad low and wound up searching a reentrant a bit further W. #8 was a long, slow leg, couldn't match up stone walls at all (same area Anna failed to find orange #4) and was uncertain of my position once out on dirt road. Even at a complete stop studying the map I wasn't 100% confident. Struck off into the woods at a cautious pace and eventually hit the control without searching, but was a very hesitant, uncertain approach. Straightline but slow to #9, then bailed to road to go around to the last control. No major booms, but terrain speed and ability to read a 15k map contributed to a very slow overall pace and finished well down the list.

Day 1 Red - Splits

in lieu of warmup run

decided not to race it hard tonight with a week of O on tap. Even still, managed to stay in top 10 through the turnaround, then let some folks go by on the way back up. Kind of nice to just cruise at a hard pace without feeling the need to catch anyone or hold anyone off. Will get official time/place later when results post. (16:21, 16th place, 1 pt)

An article & photos from last weeks race came out in the Reminder this week:

Got a late start, so just a short session - 170w avg