Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Event: BAOC: California Orienteering Week (COW), Part 1
 

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Morgan Territory. California Orienteering Week, Stage 1.
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Start: 11:20. Sunny, cool.

Brown Middle, 3.3 km, 110 m climb, 18 controls. 3rd overall of 38 on Brown, 2nd of 9 in M70.

1. Glen Tryson (M65) 3339
2. Geraint Edmunds 3555
3. DW 3738
4. Chuck Spalding 3957
5. John Harbuck 4157
6. Penny DeMoss (F65) 4213
7. Steve Tarry (M65) 4339
8. Gary Carpenter 4410
9. Greg Yarkie 4643

Bad error on #1, over 2 mins, followed by nearly a minute error on #2; clearly wasn't ready to start (too involved in organizing). For the split ranks on the next 16 legs, I had 5 1's, 7 2's, 2 4's and a 5; only error was for almost :30 on #6, mostly hesitation. There only three legs where the leader was under 59 secs, and I was the leader for all three. Glen was 31 secs faster than me from 2 -> Finish. Did particularly well on 7, 12, 16 and 18.

Not focussed at the start at least in part because I was trying to get the start workers to be more in line with how we had said the start procedure would go. Furthermore, found the map hard to read for the first two legs (and a few places later) and only later realized that we had used 1:7,500 two years ago here at the US Champs but 1:10,000 this year (and I'm the one who filed the sanctioning application!); details we're clear on the 1:7500 map. My later hesitation error on #6 and hesitation on #15 might also have been avoided with the larger scale.

#1. I knew that the area we were heading into is very tricky, but I took off anyway without a good plan and on a rough compass bearing. Soon found myself next to the road. Angled left until I saw the rocks and then worked my way over to the control. Lost about 2:20 (turned out to be my worst error of the entire COW).

#2. Route I drew on RouteGadget is not correct. Actually went down the center of the reentrant, as I did not perceive that the control was not in the bottom of the reentrant. Went along the edge of the green patch, but instead of realizing I was in the wrong place, wondered why the patch was there. Came to a control at the far edge of the green patch (it was on a boulder) but it wasn't mine. Stood there for several seconds before figuring things out. But instead of cutting up, continue down the reentrant (N) to the bottom of the side reentrant and then cut up. Yeesh. Lost close to a minute.

#3. Finally settled down and started orienteering. Compass bearing up to the right edge of the green, curled around it and saw the control. 2nd best split, 3 secs behind Glen.

#4. Up to the saddle, then contour through the edge of the forest, knowing I had to go until I came out of the woods, and the control was right there. 4th best split, probably lost a little climbing to the saddle. Confidence restored.

#5. Hurried down the hill past the left end of the big gully and then across the road, where I figured I'd stop and figure out the last part. Saw two trees dead ahead, identified them on the map, headed a little to the right of them and soon saw the control. 2nd best split, 1 sec behind Geraint, 7 ahead of Chuck.

#6. Felt tired going up the hill, and then wasn't exactly sure of my place. Thought the control was going to be in a reentrant, as the control circle and and rock detail obscured the southern half of the contour line that actually indicated it was on a hilltop. So, I was puzzled when there was a hilltop dead ahead, and the only reentrant was well to the left. After some hesitation, decided to trust the compass and pace count, and soon saw the ruined tree. (It was only after the event that I saw the rest of the contour line indicating the hilltop). Lost about :30.

#7. Had worked this out in advance. Proceeded quickly to the right edge of the rock cluster, curled around to the road, looked for the reentrant, knowing the boulder would be on the near side. From the road, saw the boulder that I thought was the correct one, but couldn't see the flag, so stopped to double check the map before heading down. Despite that hesitation, had the fastest split by 5 seconds on only a 52 second leg.

#8. Didn't even notice the route choice around to the S on the road, which would have been better. Rough compass towards the big hill behind the control. Had to go left to avoid rocks at the beginning, and it was more up and down than I expected (contour line obscured by rocks) and rocky, so somewhat slow going. Once over the hill, could see that hill beyond the control, so proceeded at a good pace. Had to veer a bit to the right at the end. Executed what I did well, but lost about :15 due to route choice.

#9. Swung around to the right, executed very well. 2nd fastest, 14 secs behind Glen.

#10. As I approached #9, thought I was going to have to go back across the ditch to get to #10, but George and a few others punched ahead of me and they weren't crossing the ditch, so I checked the map once I punched 9 and they were right. Hurried up the hill and passed George just before I got to 10. 2nd fastest, 3 secs behind Glen.

#11. Pushed myself up the hill, swinging a bit to the left to save some climb. On the road until just before the saddle (didn't quite draw that correctly on RouteGadget), then cut to the right into the field. There were several people ahead of me, including Peter Goodwin, so it was easy to spot where the control would be as I came down. 2nd fastest again, 8 secs behind Glen (proportionately about the same as the previous leg).

#12. Had seen in advance that all I had to do for the first part of the leg was follow the ditch down and cross the road, so did that quickly, passing all the people who were right in front of me immediately. Once across the road, stopped briefly to determine what to do next, spotted the reentrant I wanted, down there, curled around the rocks, nailed it. Fastest split, by 7 secs over Greg Yarkie; picked up 24 on Glen.

#13. Started to go straight, but then figured I'd have extra climb to get around the green, so instead went past the little outhouse to the road. (Glen went straight and went right through the green.) Pushed myself up the hill on the road, passing Karen Didisse. Cut the corner getting to the side path and took that all the way to the road and then up to the saddle. (Would've been a little more direct to turn before the road, but thought it would be faster to use the road.) Cut up and headed for the edge of the forest and rocks. Thought it might be hard to pick out the correct rock, but then saw on the clue sheet that the control was on my side of the rock, so continued with confidence and spotted it easily. 2nd fastest split, though 30 behind Glen; 4 ahead of Penny, 15 ahead of Geraint.

#14. Planned this one in advance, so bolted down to the intersection of the road with the little trail heading to the Finish, and then headed up. Like everyone else I spoke with, was headed towards the big tree I could see. But that turned out to be mapped as part of the forest, with the "distinct tree" being a smaller one to the left. Fortunately, I spotted the bag before I'd climbed much. Fastest split by a sec over Glen and 7 over Penny.

#15. Thought very seriously about going back down to the road and running around and coming up behind the control - and wish I had, just to know if that would've been faster. But, even though I knew that going straight would be tricky and potentially disasterous, it felt wrong to go that far out of the way, and when Siargey Pisarchyk, the eventual Blue winner, left the control just ahead of me and headed in the direction of #15, decided to go through the woods, even though I had no reason to believe he was going where I was. (Turned out he was, and he did the leg 40 secs faster than me, though I lost sight of him almost immediately.) Decided to go to 17 first, so I'd know where I was. Clamboring over large rocks, it was very slow going, but got to 17 and then started on a bearing towards 15. Stopped half way there to make doubly sure, decided to go around the right side of the boulder field and down the reentrant, keeping my eyes left, and soon spotted the control, a bit further up the side reentrant than I had imagined it would be. 2nd fastest, 12 behind Glen, 1 behind Penny.

#16. Realized that this was practically the same leg on which I had made a 4 minute error at the US Middle Champs in March, 2016, so proceeded carefully, making sure to get over into the field on the right. Nailed it. Fastest split, by 8 secs over Anna Campbell (!) and 16 over the nearest top runner, Geraint, who was 6th. Glen headed too far to the left and lost over a minute. Penny was actually 15 secs ahead of me overall going into this leg, but made a 4+ minute error.

#17. Had already been to this one, so it figured to be easy, but it wasn't. Should have stayed high, but went past the tree and into the big reentrant, figuring I'd turn up when I saw the boulder. But somehow didn't see the boulder, so proceeded cautiously, keeping my eyes up the hill until I recognized the place I'd been earlier (so, guess it was good I didn't go around on the road to 15). 5th, 3 behind Glen in 3rd and 5 behind Geraint in 2nd. Gemma Fa-Kaji was 1st, and amazing 16 secs ahead of me.

18. Bolted down the hill (passing Scott Aster), just trying to get out in the field, knowing I'd see the control as soon as I got to the road. Fastest by 5 secs over Chuck (and 8 over Glen).

F. Glen beat me by 5 on the short run in.

Route
WinSplits

[Orienteering race]

Warm up. Jog to start, a little faster than I might have because I felt a little late (but got there in plenty of time).

After finishing, just walked back to the assembly area.

Middle - Brown - Splits

Usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises. Tapered off on the strength exercises as the week wore on.

Easy walk on the jeep trail on a rainy day.

Jeep trail next door. Got out before 7:30. Raw and chilly. Took it easy, but got up my speed quicikly. Felt like I could have run a race today. Afterwards, though, one knee was sore for about 10 minutes, then it was fine.

Splits are for one lap at a time (0.2 mi): 222, 209, 158

[Easy distance]

Kevin's. Almost entirely massage and stretching.

Easy walk on the jeep trail.

Jeep trail next door. Break in heavy rain, got mostly drizzle. Felt surprisingly good, given how I've been wearing myself to the bone over COW. Legs felt good, only two days after a meet, so it's seems my strategy of not pushing it up hill or on trails at JGrant this past Sunday worked.

Purposely held back the last few laps.

Splits are for two laps at a time, 0.4 miles:
450, 436, 425

[Easy distance]

Cool down

Legs don't feel bad.

Event: BAOC: Joe Grant
 

Joe Grant South, BAOC B-meet. Brown, 4.4 km, 215 m climb (advertised as 190). 2nd to Amalie Ertmann (F14), 2:40 behind.

Tried to take it easy on the uphills and when running on trails so as not to get overly sore (with COW starting in 6 days), and then worked well.

#1. Ran right by the thicket, expecting something larger, and then wandered for 3+ minutes. (Also not very focused at the start, talking about COW and then about Rachel's career to Derek.)

#2. Headed right for it, then drawn off by a different control on the ridge. Lost :30

#4. Initially planned to cross at the bottom edge of the gully, where it turns into ditch. I suspect that would have been much better.

Settled down after that, and did quite well, especially on the flatter legs (6,7,8,10,11,14) where I tried to push it. The route around from 12 to 13 was a business decision (didn't want to get trashed).

Route
Splits

[Orienteering race]