Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Cabrillo College. First ever orienteering meet here. US Nationals Sprint Champs. Brown (Course 3) 1.8km, 55m climb, 16 controls

Start at 9:08. Felt pretty ready, legs only a little tired. Nice, cool weather. Trail shoes are essential as there are some sandy hillsides to traverse.

Quite a disappointing race for me. Never got the hang of the purple dashed lines; never saw the tunnel going to #4 (lost :13), didn't realize I could go on the lower level walkway to get to #5 (lost :30), and yet by #9, was in 4th, only :16 behind the course leader, Glen T, :04 behind Walter in 2nd, and :03 behind eventual course winner Steve Tarry, having rung up 3 #1's and a #2 in the first 9 controls. But then made a turn too early going to #10 (lost :35), didn't read the vegetation well on #11 (lost :20), couldn't find #12 on the map (lost :10), and stayed on the upper level going to #13 (lost :30). Despite all that, was still in a position to finish ahead of Chuck, who wound up first in M70, but then did not see that the wall E of #14 was mapped as passable (neither did others, like Walter and Glen; I think the mapping could have been clearer), so went all the way around, and then all the way around again leaving to go to #15. Wound up 1:01 behind Chuck; I'd been 2 seconds behind him after #13. On the other hand, Walter was 1:34 ahead of me at #13, and he lost even more than I did (1:40 to 1:06, compared to Chuck) on 14-15, so it's not really fair to say I was still in a position to win M70 at #13.

Definitely a venue we should use again for a major event. Parking, cafeteria for hanging out, arena, weather - all very good. Venue is quite complex, worthy of a challenging sprint. Just gotta fix a few things on the map and print it at a higher scale (or blow it up to a higher scale).

[Orienteering Sprint race]

Sprint Relay at Cabrillo College. Run leadoff for WildRayBerg (with Marie-Josee and Riley Culberg. Mass start at 12:30, though due to threat of a delay, didn't get a warm up in. Legs pretty dead from this mornings' Sprint Champs, and emotions pretty low due to snafus there.

Did reasonably well for first 8 or so controls, seeing a lot of Tom Nolan and Sverre Froyen. But when I got to #70, which was the hub of a three-winged butterfly loop, misread the tiny numbers on the clue sheet on the map as 79, and then lost two minutes looking around for a different control. For the rest of the race back and forth with Steve Haas. #19 had a hole in the fence next to it, and many people went through. I went around (didn't see the gate on the other side) and stumbled through some nasty bushes, then had to go up a steep embankment, and that really finished me off. Overall, not a fun experience, when it could have been as this venue is quite interesting.

[Orienteering Sprint race]

Sprint 3 - Splits

Big Basin. US Nationals Long Champs. First in M70 by a wide margin. Always pleasing to win a race I don't expect to win ;-) Big Basin is tough, and I had my share of troubles, but mostly stayed on track and didn't have to do any wandering. The one really bad segment was leaving 3, trying to get down to the road. With Tom N in front of me and pulling away, foolishly abandoned my plan to get straight down to the road and instead tried to get cute by cutting diagonally to save some distance. But the plan I was executing didn't require fine navigation (just get down to the road!), so I didn't notice that the spur I cut across was not the one I thought it was, and I got my self tangled up in fight that I had a real hard time getting out of. I would have guessed that I was stuck for ten minutes, but it appears that I only lost 2.5 to 3 minutes. Still, a very foolish thing to have done.

Started at 10:30. Nice cool and foggy morning, which helped me a great deal. Ran quite a bit today (albeit some of it slowly), certainly a lot more than I had yesterday. Scramble up the hill to #3 was very unpleasant; had planned to swing wider to the left to avoid some of that nastiness, but changed my mind once I found myself a bit right of where I intend to be after the first 200m. Swinging wide left was a better idea; on the other hand, I nailed the control the way I went, and had I gone a different way, might have had trouble finding the control (as so many others did).

Tom made an entirely different error after I parted ways from him, and to my surprise, he showed up behind me as I started off to #5. We jockeyed back and forth a bit to #5, and then he maintained a few second lead all the way to the Finish. It was nice to run fast from #4 to the end as this part of the terrain was quite runnable. Still, knew I should have gone left leaving #6, but didn't want to take the time to look at the map carefully, so just ran that part the way I'd run it yesterday (had seen #6 on my route to the next to last control yesterday, and today realized that the same route as yesterday was a reasonable - though slightly suboptimal - choice.

Speaking of seeing controls from yesterday: Yesterday, during my one substantial error, I found a control in a clearing that helped me relocate. Today, as I was approaching #3, saw that same control, and, though it was where I thought I was going, I foolishly thought "can't be the one I'm looking for because that was out here yesterday." Then wasted about 10 seconds trying to figure out where I was since I wasn't where I thought I was, before realizing I WAS where I was supposed to be and that control I saw yesterday was indeed my #3 today. Ugh.

On the positive side, did a very nice job on the last hill up to #1, recognize the contour features and a little clearing, and so totally nailed it. Also, I'd recognized while going to #1 that #3 was going to make or break the race, and I was very careful on that one (after a shaky first 200m), recognized the terrace near the control, and so ran right to it.

That first 200m or so of #2 - #3 was the reverse of yesterday's #4 - #5. Yesterday, I was aiming for the little ditch and found myself on the rocky ground further east (and didn't accept that I was in fact all the way over there); today, I aimed for that rocky ground, and instead hit the ditch I was intending to hit yesterday. Go figure.

Had this been a two-day total time competition at Big Basin, I would have been 2nd American on Brown, behind only Steve T (and Paul Pacque of Australia):

1. 12030 Pacque (Australia)
2. 12120 Tarry (M65)
3. 13220 Wildfogel
4. 13452 Nolan (M65)
5. 13710 Siegenthaler
6. 13753 Tryson (M65)
7. 14112 Froyen (M65)
8. 14807 Enger (M65)
9. 15150 Hunter
10. 15839 Shahbazian (M65)
11. 15924 K.Walker

[Orienteering race]

Brown Long - Splits

Event: BAOC: U.S. Nationals
 

Big Basin. US Nationals, Middle Championships. Start 214. Uncomfortably warm.

Cautious in the beginning, nailed the first four, especially tickled that I read the vegetation so perfectly on the spur up to #4. And then, too full of myself, didn't know where I was 20 seconds after leaving #4. Came to some rocky ground, saw some rocky ground on the map too far to the right, nah, I couldn't be that far off (I was). Lucky to relocate in a clearing not too far from the one I was looking for. 2 - 3 minute error, my only substantial error of the day. Ran a fair amount in the second half of the course.

Second in M70, 1:34 behind Walter and nearly 4 minutes ahead of David Hunter in 3rd. More than 20 mins ahead of Ken Walker and Charlie D; Chuck and Steve Haas were way back. Had no #1 splits (even amongst only the M70s - Bob Huebner, Charlie and Steve H had one each, David three, and Walter all the others) but 7 2's, 3 3's, 1 4 (7 secs from 3), and only one worse than that, the error on #5 ranking 8th.

Steve Tarry, in M65, whomped everyone (8:19 ahead of me), but he was the only other US runner on Brown to finish ahead of me (so, I would've won the Silver in M65, too, ahead of Dave Enger, Tom Nolan, Glen Tryson, Sverre Froyen, Bruce Wolfe, and Charlie Shahbazian; Paul Pacque of Australia was :37 behind Steve T).

M70 WinSplits
M65 WinSplits

[Orienteering race]

Brown X Middle - Splits

Jeep trail next door. Out at 7:30. Nice cool weather (low 60's).

After missing my run yesterday, wanted to do a little, but less than I would have yesterday, to give my joints and bones more rest. Ran the first lap very easily and was pleased that it was roughly the time of a normal first lap. Had a couple of easy pickups on the second lap, legs felt good, and the time of 209 was quick - and I figured that was enough for today, I'm ready to race tomorrow. (Sure could use a good night's sleep, though.)

[Easy distance]

Ordinarily, I'd do a warm up two days before a race, but knees both felt creaky and time was short, so just walked a little.

By evening, leg muscles were feeling like they needed some activities (though joints were still a bit achey), so went for a half mile walk on Skyline at dusk (and an hour later, got a text from a neighbor showing a video of a mountain lion at his gate).

Busy day, meet with realtors, dial-in to staff meeting.