Training Log Archive: ccsteve

US Relay Championships, first leg, green - Started as a train, led into a train wreck, worked into training...

Might as well start this one in the beginning - a train. I left with the pack and the adrenalin got me up the 35m hill. I settled in 1/2 way back or so across the top of the hill towards 2, but stumbled over one of the stone walls. Caught myself on hands and forearms on the other side - ground thankfully, but hit hard. Gashed my thumb on the edge of the compass and bled a bit, but stayed close to the group. Apparently the train missed 2 slightly and was coming back - I punched in right in the middle of the lead group and headed back up hill with them. This hill started to separate me.

I gradually lost the train on the way to 3, and that's when things derailed. I'm experienced enough to know that I wasn't keeping as close an eye on the map as I needed to and slowed down - checked features and found myself. Looking over the map now, I'm pretty sure the first time though I was on the ridge between 3 and 4, but balked, it didn't match up right.

I then proceeded to spend an hour and twenty five minutes re-orienting myself, moving, and repeating - up and down the ridge, along the walls, down the paths, even with the pond. I believe I got close to 4, but never checked it. I did check a control that wasn't on my clue sheet (may have been the second green's 3) I reached 8 and swore. After that, I headed back through the eucalyptus and towards the point of the ridge thinking that maybe I had never gone South far enough.

Standing on the ridge, I saw road - said hey that's nice, I know the road is right there. Checking my map and compass I couldn't understand it - the road was running NE and not SW - the only road on the map running NE was on the other side of the green / valley and I KNEW I couldn't be there.

So I decided to get down to the road and check. I followed it around the slight bend and stood at the intersection of Hawthorne and Cedric. Held my map up and checked my compass.

And then I saw it - my compass had north about 60 degrees off, aimed right at the big clot of blood stuck to my compass with more on my thumb...

At least I knew I wasn't completely daft.

It explained almost everything - I realized that every time I reached a "known" point it may or may not have been - the possibility of identifying a location based on the direction of the wall, ridge, path might or might not have been accurate - and even if I was getting to something clear like parallel to the pond - once I headed back down the ridge and needed to re-orient myself for the fine tune portion to the control, I was headed off 30 meters the wrong way!

I'm laughing as I write this now - but the lesson is clear - don't bleed on your compass, and if you do - scrape it off!-)

The rest of the course - well, I had to get to 3, and it was easily up the stone fence from the road. Coming out of it, I'm sure I recall seeing the hillside above, but never ventured this far. (It would have been interesting to have found 3 with the error in the compass, and then been "off" the entire rest of the course...)

I was just going to walk back to the start, essentially considering the event over, knowing that the rest of the team was headed out on the catchup start.

I had to pass 4 and thought I might was well punch it - and then decided that I get to A caliber meets rarely enough, I ought to finish the course even if I called it training. And so I did. The trip to 5 was solid - I later heard others had issues there. Except for fatigue (I had been out 1:40 by then), I felt good about the rest.

I haven't seen splits posted, but if I were to have found control 3 in just 7 minutes, I'd have a time of an hour - not terrific, but certainly reasonable.

Ah well - time to heal the scratches, bumps and bruises and get ready for the next one...

steve
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http://www.timelyinsights.net

C • questions 8

4pt Leg 1 Green - Splits

Event: Sprint Series Final & US Relay Champs
 

Sprint Series Final A - misses two controls (6 & 7) right in the middle. HAd started off well, and allowed myself to go in "about the right direction" to 6 instead of having a good plan. Final approach to the control suffered as the well and cairn feature were well within a cluster of bushes and not visible from the other side. Left unhappily and allowed that to affect my approach to 7, heading off - believe I misread a stone wall as a path and then failed to recognize the error. Got things back under control on way to 8. Splits will probably show reasonableness except for the 7 minutes of error there.

Sprint Series Final B - better relative performance on the second course. Started badly by failing to hold to a good line. Wandered off to the left and followed Mike into 9 - which wasn't a bad thing at that point because I definitely knew where I was and could follow the rockbed down to 1. Probably 2+ minutes of error.

Another slight issue at 3 in that I didn't look cleanly at the map to pick out what was there and what I was going for. Some traffic in the area and I was swayed...

Did well otherwise, and caught a bit of a train through the later parts. Motivated to pass a couple people on the run to the finish.

Sprint Series Final C - variation 2 - Most "fun" of the weekend, and my best performance. Mass start with 6 variations on 3 loops plus a final loop. Wanted to see how I could hang with the group and did so. Sprinted to the electronic timers to get in an early punch and left right in the front to the left set of controls.

First couple controls blurred by and the group thinned a bit at the root cellar and race back to the start. Second leg also quick - I saw enough of the map coming out of the thicket control to say "follow the wall, find it at the end" to do well. Think some others went wide there. Last of the split legs (center) I noticed I was running with JJ Cote and stayed with him through it. Looks like he forgot to account for the last control before heading back to the start and had to come back for it a small amount, and I came up the field behind him still.

Last (common) loop I saw him head into the thicket at 17, but he was gone when I came out after getting the control. I didn't keep enough of an eye on my heading and drifted a little left on the way to 18 - ended up too far down the hill and away from the road. Needed to follow the stone wall back to the road, and know several people passed me on that leg. Trip to 19 was north along the path and then diagonally across the woods. I was fatigued at this point and backed off a tiny bit. After 19 I realized the couple people in front of me were more fatigued and thought I had a chance to catch at least one, but was 3 meters short at the finish.

It showed I could hang for a while and what I need to do to compete at that level. I'm not sure if it's an eyesight thing or an experience thing - I'm not sure when one has time to look at the map without a photographic memory;-)

Sprint A Course 3 (R/B) - Splits

Sprint B Course 3 (R/B) - Splits

Sprint C - Splits

Light run - 7:00 / 1:10 / 6:46 - 8:10 / 7:49

Light Run. 7:11 / 1:06 / 7:42 - 8:17, 8:48.