Training Log Archive: iansmith

Warmup.

Middle Distance course. To me, this race was more important than the Night because it was a relevant ranking race, of which there are no more before Team Trials next year. The map was open and sprintesque (1:7500) and was exposed to wind to exacerbate the cold.

While I was descending to a stream crossing to 4, my right glove was ripped off by a tree on the bank, ejecting my SI stick into the stream despite the wrist strap. It disappeared beneath the opaque water by the bank, and it took considerable fortune and a moment of fishing around in freezing cold water to recover it. I abandoned my soaked glove at 4.

I was generally clean, but I felt slow through most of the open running. Nailing routes through the green was a big challenge: my hands were occupied pushing vegetation out of the way, so I didn't look at my compass as much as was advisable. I had a 15s mistake at 10 and a 30s mistake with poor microroute to 11. 12-14 were good, but I attacked the wrong hill at 15 and lost 30s correcting. Most tragically, I decided to run around in the fields to 17 rather than going straight through some reentrants for a 20s route choice error. At the end, seeing Izzy ahead of me motivated some extra speed on the last 2-3 controls, and I caught up to her in the chute.

The course was much more like a long sprint than a middle distance, which probably explains the tight finishing times. I'm satisfied with my performance relative to the field, though no one had a clean run and put the hammer down. I need to get faster.

C • "I need to get faster" 5

C • Happy to help 2

OCIN_Armco_Middle_Dec_2013_Blue - Splits

On Saturday, December 14, CSU Bowling hosted the first North American Bowling Orienteering Club Championships at Ringo Lanes in Cincinnati. Turnout was quite good given the impromptu nature of the BCCs - Chicago showed up with two teams, SMOC brought most of a team, and CSU and DVOA each had a team. MNOC showed bold enthusiasm mustering two teams, but the organizer failed to update them when the location changed, and they were robbed of their placement. Congratulations to the first North American Bowling Orienteering Club Champions, Chicago Orienteering Club!

Results:
1) CAOC A: 412 - Charlie Shahbazian, Chris Svoboda, Matthias Eriksson
2) CAOC B: 382 - Michael Collins, Maricel Olaru, Bruce Metz, Ivan Petrov
3) CSU: 346 - Greg Walker, Ken Walker, Ian Smith
4) DVOA: 291 - Wyatt Riley, Clem McGrath, Vadim Masalkov
5) SMOC: 256.5 - Ali Crocker, Tom Allen

The rules were simple: teams consist of up to 4 people, and the sum of the top three scores for a single game determines the team score. I imagine there will be variants, but the CSU Bowling board met and quickly settled on this configuration. As this was the inaugural year, SMOC was given special dispensation by the rules committee to multiply their score by 1.5, as they only had two bowlers in attendance. To be eligible for the NABOCCs, a team had to meet eligibility requirements for the US Relay Champs, with the allowance that they could be a club from any country (e.g. Canada). All the teams in attendance were American, but we expect international attendance when the advance notice of the champs is more than 5 hours.

Ringo Lanes turned out to be an almost ideal location - cheap beer, a good atmosphere, and nostalgic manual scoring with no electronic tomfoolery. Chicago quickly showed their prowess, with a dominating performance. Great fun was had by all. We look forward to adding this event to next year's Relay Champs program with the event to follow on the same day as the Relay Champs. We also hope to add a Junior class. CSU Bowling is considering adding the requirement that every Bowling Club team have at least 2 M21s, but the rules committee has yet to meet to discuss the issue.

Warmup before my relay leg.

US Relay Champs, CSU Leg 3. Conditions were again pretty grim with an intermittent freezing rain. There was about 5-8 cm of snow on the ground from previous days that had melted and refrozen, and the trails were a little treacherous. Speedy and Zac had pulled away from Greg and Izzy, so I started a few minutes behind Clem. My goal was to pick up as much time on Clem as possible to put Ken within striking distance.

I navigated adequately, with no huge errors, but my microroutes were unspectacular - losing some time on the first controls. I couldn't get my legs moving quickly; I felt sluggish - possible because I wasn't warm enough. I decided to go right around the lake to 10 - which I think was a good route choice, but I lost the trail at one point, ended up in a small clearing, and had to scramble up and over a spur to recover it. I saw Clem twice - going to 3 and going to 10 - which forebode that I was not closing.

It was disappointing to not make any progress, but CSU put forth a great effort in difficult conditions. We were competitive, but the Four Horsemen proved to be too much for us. Fortunately, I ran Green, so I wasn't Aligatored like those poor souls on Red. :)

OCIN_US_Relay_2013_Green - Splits

Event: OCIN - US Night and Relay Championships
 

Warmup.

OCIN Night-O Champs, Hueston Woods. Conditions were pretty grim - temperature below freezing, 2-3 inches of icy snow on the ground, and intermittent flurries late in my course. I previously visited this map for the ARDF champs in 2010 and found it muddy with very steep reentrants. A brutal climb out of a 10m reentrant en route to 2 reinforced that perception.

I found that even during the winter, the inadequately mapped vegetation was thick and impassable in many places. I changed routes after a little over a minute on the way to 9, and my road route turned out to be slow. I planned to go straight to 11, but when I tried to cross the power lines, I found an impenetrable wall of thistles, thorns, and green briar that forced me to back out and go around on a trail. I had a meltdown on 14 when I counted reentrants inaccurately and the trail proved too numerous to help.

While running on a trail to 17, I discovered the ground below me splintering as though I were running on an icy stream. I broke through a few times and discovered that under 1-2 inches of crumbly ice was a thick layer of liquid mud. I guess it doesn't go away, even in the winter.

I was happy to survive the course, but I did little else. Given how important the relay champs were, I wasn't attacking the course with my maximum effort, but I was outclassed today and defeated by the map and elements.

OCIN_US_Night_2013_Blue - Splits

I have been feeling inexplicably under the weather this week despite no overt symptoms. I am compensating with extra fluids and rest. I would consider trying to train through it if not for the A-meet this weekend.

I look forward to the challenge of facing AliC (and others, e.g. ken, biggins) on the M21 courses in Ohioland this weekend. It is regrettable that the DVOA folks will not be at the Night-O.

C • DVOA skipping the night-o 2