Training Log Archive: ccsteve

Left the car off for service and walked home...

I needed, but did not have body armor for this one... On the plus side, I didn't change my navigation to avoid climb, but I did to avoid the prickly undergrowth...

Ok - looking at the map and splits and comparing splits it's worse than I thought - wow - I can't even remember how I found several of those controls two days later...

First 4 controls - great. Except of course that I didn't read the bit about the road crossing getting subtracted out (up to a minute), so instead of punching, crossing slowly, drinking, and punching again, I punched, crossed, punched, drank and hurried off... [twice]

So that false sense of success had me going by the seat of my pants to the fifth control and blowing it completely.

Only a couple good controls after that and many to be unhappy with.

Lessons:

In a calm state, and with my reading glasses on, I can barely read the red control circles on the map. I'm expecting that with sunlight and my compass magnifier I felt better.

But - I think the lack of contrast and a slight slip of the map made me plan a course to 10, then think that the control circle of 15 was where I was headed, and send me off on a wild chase.

Next - I need to get some more experience on these hills covered with rock, boulders and cliffs - I muffed several of these and know that it has been a weakness in the past. We just don't have terrain like that here to practice on.

Last - Before I used to fail physically and then make errors. I don't see that happening, I think I moved faster than my skills in this terrain could support. It would have been better to plan more, control movement more, and recover less.

Sunday Red (raw) - Splits

Sunday Red - Splits

Event: CSU Pine Hill A-meet
 

The bettor of the two days...

I held a good spot (6) through 4 controls;-) On the fifth I thoughtfully climbed out from 4 and was poised for the "right" path, but didn't see it under the red line to 5 and went back down and around adding a bit of length.

But still not in a bad place through 9.On the way out from 9 I had my first very-painful incident - I went through some brush that didn't give and wrapped up through my leg - and had thorns... So when I made my way around a pond and hit a path I decided to use the trail a little extra and avoid more growth. I think I must have been 20 meters from the control but turned - and then reached the path I had started from - ugh. I set a bearing and paced the 100 meters back to the control.

Ok again till 13 - missed by a small amount and again wandered around for a couple extra minutes on the control. 14 was not a great control, but I don't know that anything other than fatigue was the problem there.

The go control caught me for another minute and a half. The notes had talked about the finish sharing the path with the start and someone had indicated before I left that the control was right next to the start. I finished running down the hill, saw the start, but not the go. Got all the way back to the "non-start get your map location" (which was not mapped) and still no go control... ugh.

Anecdotaly I heard that others found the control because another competitor was punching in ahead of them, I was not so lucky. [And it looks like more than a quarter of the red open had an issue giving them a rather long time on that control]

21 out of 35 on the course in AP. 9th of 14 M45+.

Saturday Red Open - Splits

Out with Melissa to Ellison to refresh on some old score-O locations before the weekend. She'll be competing Sunday.