Training Log Archive: evancuster

Sunday event at US Champs. Not a championship event, but an A meet.

Flubbed the 2nd and 3rd controls, but then got into the map, and did pretty well for me until I lost my concentration on the penultimate control. Ended up 6th out of 10 who started.

Lots of fun, but very challenging. Had a hard time reading the map when the contrours were very subtle.

Brown Day 2 - Splits

Us Champs--Brown course.
The terrain was more what I was expecting. The depressions and hills were not as large, and thus navigation was much more difficult. Had trouble with the long leg, #2. Went too far north, and ended up in the complex green area with lots of smaller depressions. Fortunately I saw a hunter's blind, and then I knew where I was. Probably 5 min. error. My big error was the shortes leg, 4 to 5. My bearing was off, and there were no big features to check off. Wandered around for a while, then decided to relocate on the trail, and was surprised to see I was so close to it. Still didn't find it, but again saw another hunter's blind, and finally knew where I was. Bobbled 7 to 8. Somehow turned south, couldn't figure out where I was, decided to bail to the trail, and came across my control on my way there. Very discouraged at this point. Just pointed my compass in the general direction. Didn't seem right, but eventually the terrain looked like it should, and found the penultimate control.

I left before the results were in but Francis did it in 42 minutes, which probably is the winning time.

Brown Day 1 US Champs - Splits

Event: US Individual Champs 2009
 

Practice course for US Champs near Plymouth Wisconsin. Kettle morraine terraine. Lots of depressions and small hills. Very different from Bay Area. However, the depressions were much bigger than I expected. I thought that the terrain would be more subtle with smaller depressions like near Uppsala Sweden.

In general, I felt pretty good about my navigation. I first thought I would cut off the far 4 controls, but things were going well so decided to do the whole course. I found all the controls without difficulty except for 8, where I stopped about 50 m too soon, and then of course, the one control, the total disaster. Control 11. I lost contact with the map, but when I hit the big trail, I thought I knew where I was, and probably did, but somehow I went too far east, and then I really got lost. Went out to the clearing, saw the road, and thought I knew where I was, but then had second thoughts and thought I might be at a different clearing. Wandered around again, and during the course of the search, realized I had begun looking for 12 instead of 11. Found a trail, thought it was a different trail, nothing matched, then realized it was the big trail i had crossed previously. This time I went out to the road, where I should have gone the first relocation. Found where I was and went fairly directly to the control. If I eliminate the 30 minute error, and the slow walk back to the finish from the last control, I would have done 15 min/k, or about 1:15. If I do that tomorrow, I will be happy.

Hopefully I won't make a huge brain fart like this tomorrow.

Goal for tomorrow: Clean run, don't worry about the time. I'm not going to run fast, unless I am on a trail and know exactly where I am. Try to stay on the ridges between the big reentrants. Don't lose contact with the map.

Got up at 3:30 to catch my 6:00 am flight to Milwaukee for the US Champs.

Legs tired from yesterday.