Training Log Archive: iansmith

The preceding three days have been unintended rest days; I have been far more preoccupied with the organization of the A-meet than I intended. In particular, my three primary responsibilities - arranging the volunteer schedule, devising the start lists, and figuring out the results system with Catherine and Ross - have had simultaneous, significant demands this week. Unfortunately, I have made some mistakes, and my turnaround on all three tasks was excessively long.

Because of the damage control I have had to do, I will be extremely averse to any self-extolling by a particular individual.

C • A-meet 3

Event: CSU Pine Banks Park-O
 

Since the following video was produced by the Canadian government, I assume all Canadians decorate their homes like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDeDQpIQFD0

Setting and retrieving controls for my CSU Park-O at Pine Banks park. Conditions were spectacular - the sky was overcast, the air was cool, and visibility was excellent. It is clear I should set harder courses in the future. Turnout was good - about 25 runners came out, including some people who were new to orienteering (courtesy of Alex Jospe). It just started to drizzle when I returned with the last controls.

A big thank-you to Audun Botterud who helped pickup controls, and to the Bermans for being clutch in every possible sense.

C • Harder? 4

Running to Kinko's to print maps for the park-O, then running to rendezvous with the Bermans.

Warmup for the long. I took a GU about twenty minutes before my start.

West Point Classic Course. Of the three courses at this year's meet, this was my best, both measured by my assessment of my performance and my time relative to the field. In my judgment, the terrain and configuration of this park was easier than that of last year; relocation would not have been overly difficult on most controls, and features were generally prominent.

Overall, my approach was slow but conservative - I stayed in solid contact with the map, though my zone of uncertainty did become sufficiently large at times that I had to pause to ascertain my precise location from local features. I moved somewhat slowly at times; I need to practice retaining rigid contact, planning and executing routes, and observing features while still moving quickly. I never had to relocate; my biggest mistakes were on the order of 1-2 minutes.

On the first control, among three route choice considerations, I chose what was probably the worst, but it was an acceptable route, and I executed it well. I have done that exact process - enumerating three routes and choosing the worst, usually a compromise of the other two - several times in the past year, including on control 14 on the Ran-It Granite Classic in March. Controls 2 - 4 were fine; on control 5, while aiming for a prominent cliff on the edge of the map, I drifted slightly off and climbed too high. It was a common mistake.

I was especially pleased with my long leg execution - control 7. While I was far from the fastest on that leg, I chose between the two obvious routes - a long road detour or over the top of a large hill - and chose the hill. I then executed the route cleanly, effectively, and conservatively. I could probably have run faster, but I wanted to make sure I stayed in rigorous contact; I arrived at my attack (a saddle), found my simplified visible feature (a knoll), and found the control easily. I estimate I could have executed my route in about 15 minutes had I run more aggressively.

I was sluggish (and conservative) moving through vegetation down a spur to control 8 and traversing some cliffs to control 9. On control 10, I planned to visually locate via some large cliffs on the eastern side of a hill, but a smaller set of cliffs obscured them and confused me momentarily. I paused for about twenty seconds, guessed what had happened, and found the control for a total loss of about a minute.

I felt fantastic navigating from controls 11 through 17, which were of moderate technical difficulty. Everything was making sense, and though my pace was not the fastest, I was moving well. I made a thirty second error at 16 drifting down while contouring.

I started slowing down after control 18 because of fatigue, but I was aware that I was set to run in under 2 hours, and pushed near the end to keep that limit. I took a Gu twenty minutes before my run, and took one at controls 3 and 11.

Clearly, I need to work on my wood speed; also, armchair orienteering exercises and extensive catching features practice are in order.

Classic: Blue - Splits

Event: West Point A-Meet
 

The West Point Red/Blue Sprint. Conditions were sunny, clear, and warm. My run was not especially clean; the winning time, for reference, was Erik Nystrom in 15:27. I made about two minutes of mistakes, and generally should have moved faster.

My most spectacular error was the Go control - Ross punched control 18 four seconds behind me, and I had seen him closing on control 16. I had the fastest split to control 19, but I misread my map running to control 20 and overshot high, costing at least 25 seconds. There were two features that were monumentesque that I confused while running. This is especially troubling because the Go control is visible from the start, and I had watched runners come in. Also, if I had enough stamina left to push it so hard on 19, I should have been running faster throughout the course (particularly on trivial legs). I was also looking forward to challenging Ross in the finish chute.

I'm relatively unimpressed with my run because sprint courses are my relative strength, and I could have run sub 18 minutes. The first ten controls were relatively gnarly in rocky, thorny woods on a steep hillside; the latter ten were urban.

Warmup for the sprint.

The Middle Distance course at the West Point A meet. I am thoroughly disgusted with my performance on this race.

The Middle Distance is a race I regard with some trepidation because of the technical nature; given what I know about the West Point terrain - that it is particularly rugged, and that this particular venue was going to be difficult for relocation - I planned to run a more conservative race to maximize accuracy.

My Middle start was 2.5 hours after my sprint start; I would have benefited from more rest and more food. Conditions were also warmer and sunnier than I would have preferred.

I ran a very conservative route and pace to control #1 (Jon Torrance caught up to me though he started five minutes after I did), but navigated cleanly. The basic routes from the start to control 2 all involved lots of side-hilling on very rocky ground. I was again quite slow to 2, but I navigated cleanly. Controls 1 and 2 were tricky; Emily and Eric Kemp each made a ten minute error on one of the two. However, I was moving so slowly that I only gained a minute or two on them. In retrospect, I should have moved faster, particularly given how long the legs were.

I had a two minute error on control five where I kept missing the knoll on which it was hidden; I relocated on some cliffs and reattacked without difficulty. I spectacularly failed on control 6 - a short, 250 meter leg. I attacked from a known location, but didn't pay enough attention to my compass and drifted north to a parallel feature (hill) on which I was looking for the control. Nothing made sense, so I relocated with difficulty and attacked again more gingerly off of a marsh. I doubted the bag location (I assert it was not on the correct feature, but I'm unsure). I ended up losing ten minutes. I think I was reluctant to admit I had missed because my two minute error on five was entirely within the control circle.

At this point, Dylan Thies - whom I am comfortably faster than, and whom I just recently passed in the USOF rankings - had caught me, and we moved essentially together to 7. I tried to make a move and pass him at 8, but though we took different routes, we arrived about simultaneously. Control 9 was uphill, and I put on a burst of speed to get ahead of him. I pushed to 10 and lost Dylan, though he apparently saw me make a thirty second mistake at control 11. I was feeling sluggish on the remaining controls, but I navigated them successfully.

The lessons from this race:
- While it is a worthy goal to have a solid, conservative first control, on long legs with conservative routes, it's important to move fast, too.
- Pay very close attention to compass on tricky legs, especially short ones.
- When things don't make sense, quickly admit you've erred and relocate.
- Hydrate and fuel before the race
- Don't race with less than a 3-4 hour interval between races

Warmup and run to the start for the Middle Distance event.

Sprint: Red Blue - Splits

Middle: Blue - Splits