Training Log Archive: O Joy

Shake-out jog in Kiskunhalas, Hungary

D50A Pursuit at Sarkanpera As I was almost at the bottom of the class but for the mispunches, I started last. I was slow but got C1 fairly easy, the rides east of C1 were confusing but I finally got to C2 but as this took over an hour and I wanted to be back for the beginning of the JWOC relays, I bailed to return by trails to C8 (easy), C9 and finish. Still, embarrassingly long for 4 controls.

walk to start

D50A at Vaha Valkeajarvi. A rough start with a lot of runners in the woods. C1 was off the end of a bland shallow hill but I was drawn to the west by other people before getting back on track. Got within a few feet of C2 but went off to the east, again distracted by someone else and elephant tracks. C3 was great as I ignored the elephant tracks and navigated on my own, C4 was pretty good, over shot C5 a bit, elephant track to C6, C7 was trivial but screwed up C8, again following elephant tracks into the green, finding a bare rock hill but mistook it for one to the N and compassed into nowhere land where I ended up relocating with some buildings. Elephant tracks to C9. Now I'm over 6 hours behind the leader in the class over the 4 days.

All week, I found that I was able to help the Finns who asked for help but was so much slower than those in my age class. I'm going to take some consolation in the fact the the 5th in the class was the mother of the Queen of JWOC (3 gold and 1 silver medal).

Sprint in Tampere Redeemed myself a bit (5 or 6 off the bottom) with my foot speed. Avoided getting caught in any traps but went into the wrong courtyard on C2, didn't read the map properly at C5 and turned the wrong way off the street for C10. Neat to run over the beach to C14 on the small point.

walk to start

D50A at Viitapohja. More rocks on this map and a harder course. C2 shouldn't have been that hard but the mapped open forest ended up being a huge swath of logged "open with scattered trees" which in Finnish, means, avoid this area!. Didn't learn that elephant tracks on mossy, rocky ground look different than established trails soon enough. I spent way too long getting to C2 and ended up finding it when just "checking out" the number of that control over there. C3 was fine with good handrails. C4 and C5 were hard because of compass problems, too many boulders and "bare" rock (lichen covered rock), and a mapped stream that was tiny. C6 was fine and C7 was lucky (again elephant tracks aren't trails), took the safe route to C8 down the very steep hill to the road and then back in and up the hill directly to the control, and had to rescue myself to C9 because the trail I was following that didn't really make sense was an elephant trail. Over to and down the small trail to C10 while being over run by JWOC Middle B and C runners (we shouldn't have been out there at the same time). Much slower than Monday and dropping off the bottom :-(

walk to start

D50A at Makikyla near Tampere. I was pleased to turn the map over and find the scale at 1:7500 but a few of the legs, especially 2, seemed to take way too long for the scale. C1 should have been easy but there were a lot more (smaller) boulders out there than on the map. Finally got to 2, 3 to 7 weren't too bad, 8 should have been much easier but there were lots of elephant tracks and confusing rides, which are logging roads in Finland, overshot 9 and then easy to the finish. More than 2 hours is way too long for the 3 k course and put me at the bottom of the field along with most of the other English names. The A classes are the longest in the age group, AL are shorter for each age class and then then there were a series of easier A, B, and C open classes.

Event: Fin5 and JWOC
 

Shake-out run with Rob in Tampere, Finland