Day 2 of the 2009 US ARDF Championships: the 80 meter band race. While I did well - I found all five controls, in theory without much difficulty, I did much less well relative to the field. The 80 meter race is much more of a strict race; it does not require the tactical skill required for the 2 meter race. Overall, on day 1, I was 5/11 (second in the US, first in CSU); on day 2, I was 4/11 (second in the US, second in CSU).
I finished fourth overall (to the Ukranian Nick, the Russian Igor, and Brendan), so I was 2nd in the US. This isn't that impressive given that there were only 11 competitors in the M21 class. CSU did well in general; Brendan won the US Champs in 95 minutes (!), I was second, and Ross finished 3rd in the US (6th overall) in 2:30. Ross in particular did very well given the difficulties he has had in the past - he found all five controls without significant difficulty.
The most useful tactic that the CSUers did not have at the start of the race was that given a bearing taken to a control on cycle, the correct approach is to travel as far as possible in that direction before the next cycle. If you overshoot, you have a bound on the location, but if you undershoot, you must incrementally converge on the control (think the Newton's approximation to a differential equation) with each increment taking 5 minutes.
ARDF race 2:05:15 5.72 km (21:54 / km) shoes: 200811 NB MT800
The 2-meter ARDF US Championships event in the Blue Hills. It should be noted that since ARDF has only five controls, and you don't actually know where they are a priori, the benchmarks for typical pace on an o-course are entirely unrealistic. The fastest time on the course was 85 minutes by the M50 world champion, Nick, and he took a slightly more efficient route than I did. I spent the bulk of my time on trails, and I was only running about 60% of the time; the rest was spent waiting and trying to interpret bearings.
This was my second course on the 2-meter band, and the time I spent on the course doubled the total time I have spent using the 2-meter antenna. I successfully found all five controls within the three hour limit (somewhat to my surprise), so I am quite pleased with my performance today. I believe I placed fifth for the day, behind Nick, Igor (another Russian, I think), some German guy, and Jay - an American 24 year old. I lost to Jay by 47 seconds. Notably, I was the only one among the top six to take the controls in the order 1, 2, 4, 5, 3; I measured the direct routes, and the route the others took (1, 2, 5, 3, 4) is about 300 meters shorter. My decision was reasonable, though; going to 4 both checked it off (as it was quite strong when I took bearings at 2) and gave me more information to 3 and 5.
I had significant difficulty at the beginning; in the start chute, my receiver was saturated with a fantastically annoying high-pitched squelching sound that was frequency invariant. I was unable to hear any of the control signals for the first ten minutes; I ran back through the start to ask Vadim if my receiver (which he set up) was malfunctioning. After playing around a bit, he conjectured the interference was from another runner's receiver. I posit that it actually was from a TV transmitter on the far western edge of the Blue Hills, but once I ran a few hundred meters from the start (and out of line of sight with the TV transmitter), I was able to detect signals with moderate success. I estimate I lost 10-15 minutes due to this problem.
After a one-cycle scan to take bearings on all the controls (most of which were unsuccessful), I realized that geometrically, control 1 had to be the most logical to hit first. I traveled in its general direction and stumbled upon about 8 other orienteers in its vicinity; I followed their path to hit it off cycle. My split to the first control was 33:37.
I then took a bearing on two, figured it was on a hill, and reasoned that getting to the top of the hill would both help me find 2 and give me a better bearing on the other three controls. My guess and bearing were correct; 2 was at the top of the hill, and I found it in 12:51. Leaving two, I realized 3 and 4 were approximately colinear, with 4 closer and near the finish, and 5 to the north. I decided to go to the hill on which I supposed control 4 was to give me a better reading on 3 and 5 and check off 4; I found 4 after an arduous climb and 16:59.
I had a lot of difficulty approaching five because of its placement on the more northwestern of two hills; it was on the side of the hill, and I picked up lots of signals reflecting off the rocky northwestern face of the taller hill. I spent 26:02 looking for 5, and did discover it after some systematic process of elimination and reasoning. I felt really good at this point - despite my previous difficulties with 2m, I had found 4 of 5 controls in just under 90 minutes.
Three gave me quite a bit of trouble; at first, I traveled toward what must have been a reflection, realized my error, and started closing on the correct location. Unlike the others, 3 was not near the top of a hill, so I didn't quite understand the features. After several cycles of zeroing in on its position, I stumbled upon it off cycle. My split was 25:51. I then ran to the finish (about 1.4 km directly) in 9:40, and passed the eventual M21 winner - Nick - in the finish chute with a 0:15 split to his 0:23.
An amusing strategy Brendan, Ross, Lori and I concocted was to wait outside of the start until Nick's start, and follow him through the course. I briefly entertained this strategy when I was having difficulty with the squelching; as it turns out, that strategy would probably have been better than my performance, because I think I could have beaten him coming from the last control (getting to the finish could be done with pure orienteering) rather than just in the chute.
Nonetheless, I am quite pleased. I was the best prepared among Ross, Brendan, and myself with my 2m training. Ross and Brendan did very well; Ross had never used the 2m band, but managed to find the two most difficult controls (3 and 5); Brendan hadn't used it in over two years, but managed to find all but control 3. I plan to crush my nemesis Jay on the 80m band tomorrow. The 80m band involves less strategy and planning and is less difficult to interpret - it is more of a runner's race. My assessment is that Jay is somewhat less of a runner and orienteer than I, and hopefully that advantage will overcome his radio experience to win the day.
Twenty minute warm up and cool down before and after the 2 meter ARDF race.
Running33:20 [1] 6.0 km (5:33 / km) shoes: 200809 NB Absorb EX 12
While it was my intent to run last night after I got home, the epiphany that I had exhausted my supply of clean clothes and had to do my laundry for today changed my plan - I did not want to stay up late enough for the drying cycle to finish. Given that I was exhausted (probably affected in some way by my blood loss), I retired and postponed both laundry and running until this morning.
So, I went for a short, easy run using a loop in the vicinity of my apartment that's almost exactly 6k, and which I have run before in 30 minutes flat. I felt generally strong muscularly, but I lacked energy (again, possibly complicated by the change in blood and body fluids). I started with 4/4 breathing, then switched to 3/3. That I was running in the morning - which I seldom do for training - may have also affected my state and lethargy.
I ran through a migrating herd of Harvard grads, which involved some maneuvering and route choice. I need to hydrate more, and I definitely should consider running more in the morning to prepare my body for that sort of shock - since most of my races are in the late morning. In general, I greatly prefer running at night (or perhaps the early morning) because of the low temperature, the absence of crowds and significant traffic, and the mood of romantic contemplation motivated by the solitude.
I gave blood today, for the first time since February. I decided not to give blood during competition season (beginning with two weeks in advance of the QOC meet and concluding after the last major race of the season, the Billygoat) to try to maintain my fitness level without compromising my ability to synthesize oxygen. I am hopeful that periodically giving blood this summer (probably only once again in August) may have a slight positive effect on my training - stressing my body's red cell production and forcing me to work with artificially constrained oxygen, much like altitude training. I may go for a light run tonight, but nothing serious.
Running1:00:55 [2] 11.0 km (5:32 / km) shoes: 200809 NB Absorb EX 12
A midnight run not previously in my route repertoire. Conditions were a balmy 16 C with clear skies and a light breeze. The run was longer than I planned (target was 45 minutes), but it certainly fit the "easy run" category according to Daniel's, which I'm reading now. I held my breathing to a steady 4/4 throughout the entire run, and I was relaxed and comfortable throughout. I clocked my heart rate in the 150-155 range, which is consistent with 65-70% HR assuming 60 resting, 200 max. I finished with 6x30 sec strides with 30 second slow running between.
Route was Inman via Beacon to Kendall via Hampshire, then along the river to Kennedy and home.
Consider that abiding by illogical conventions can be logical given the collective expectation of those conventions; alternatively, accept those conventions axiomatically.