Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

Green-X course at Hay Creek (DVOA), set by Ed Scott. A really nice course. Not as scary as Saturday---much more in my comfort zone, but with so many point features, still quite difficult. I can't make full sense of rock features even when I'm walking. I felt most of the legs that weren't control picking had significant route choice problems, and that was *really fun*. The one disappointment was the long leg, which didn't seem to me to have much route choice. It did, maybe, for very fit people who can run uphill well. I feel that the longer a leg is, the better it has to be.

Mistakes. On my 2-3, I took a left trail route because of the large 2nd green on the line. Later I realized 2nd green wasn't that bad. I also missed 3 and had to turn around and come back, losing maybe 90 seconds. Several times, I caught myself drifting badly on the medium legs (say 200 or 250m). On cross slopes, and other times, I miss badly because I'm not giving the leg adequate focus. On the last control-picking control, a 100m leg maybe, I really hesitated. Most of the legs were just really clever like that. Solvable, but tricky, with a lot going on. I lost maybe 2 minutes on the trails between 10 and 11. Again, I lost focus and failed to keep track of exactly what trail junctions I should be seeing. It turned out I hadn't gone far enough.

I really liked the control flag placements today. They were usually not visible from far off. One leg that really looked difficult was my 8 (?) which was a charcoal platform near the bottom of a very large, moderately rocky slope. I planned to attack from a lonely rock cluster, but then changed my mind to take a trail down the slope to avoid going straight downhill. But then George Walker crossed the trail in front of me, pointed his toes downhill and just pushed over the edge. I checked the map, took a breath, verified I was directly above the control, and committed to straight down. I was checking for a couple boulders to my right, and I think I picked them up okay because when I looked toward the spot I expected to see the terrace, there was a flag. This was one of a very few cases I was really relieved to see the flag from far off. Usually though, it was tucked away perfectly.

(I'm still thinking about the flag placements on Saturday. They were usually visible from far off. I usually don't like that, but I think it would have increased the difficulty drastically if the flags weren't so visible. I overheard Sandy say it was an extremely well-vetted course because she tasked a lot of people to doublecheck things. It's hard to argue with their choices.)

Here's how brain dead I was after I finished. I was walking out to the bus behind a woman wearing a jacket that said "Vermont". I thought, "Oh wow. Vermont. I wonder if she cross-county skis?" And I thought about that for probably 30 seconds and decided not to ask. Then I noticed, above the word "Vermont", an image of a cross-country skier. That was so funny I had to mention it. Her name was Melanie (I think!), and she totally understood being brain dead.

C • good seeing the OCIN mini-van on the turnpike 3

C • Great Showing on the Trail Orienteering Course 3

Hay Creek - Day 2 Green X - Splits

Event: DVOA Fall Orienteering Festival
 

Green-X at French Creek, set by Sandy Fillebrown. My first time at French Creek. Very different from what I'm used to---basically navigation between point features with generally very subtle linear features. No big mistakes. Foot still bugging me, so I was walking about 95% of the course.

I got a little left on 7, a very short leg, and on 9. I didn't see the right-side options for 11 until I was halfway along the left trail route.. Probably a little shorter going right. Saw PG running in (he passed me). So fun.

French Creek - Day 1 GreenX - Splits