Training Log Archive: iansmith

I can't seem to kick this cold; I've been ineffective for two weeks now. Headache and malaise reared their ugly heads again tonight. My plan for the next week is to sleep at least eight hours each night and run 30 minutes easy each day to get the legs moving.

Event: NEOC: Nobscot O-Event, Annual Meeting & Picnic
 

At the NEOC AGM today, I gave a summary of the work of the mapping and A-meet groups that I chair. I'll put this on the NEOC website soon.

A-meets are the highest form of orienteering competition in the US, are the pinnacle of orienteering experience in the US, and are vehicles for funding new maps which can then be used for years. After a long hiatus from about 2006-2012, NEOC resumed funding major mapping projects directed by the leadership. There are and always have been - enterprising members who have made maps; in particular, Earl's Trails, Estabrook Woods, and Beaver Brook by PG, mgb, and Jim Crawford.

Starting in 2013, under the impetus of new A-meets, NEOC has made new maps of Townsend State Forest, High Rock (F. Gilbert Hills State Forest), Noon Hill Reservation, and Upton State Forest. These projects have cost around $30-35k and will be used for three A-meets, the first of which was in 2014. They are professionally made and use LIDAR basemaps.

Planned National Events in the next three years:
April 16-18, 2016: A-meet at High Rock. (Patriots' Day in MA)
May 2016: Billygoat at Townsend, organized by Alex and Ed
Spring 2017: A-meet at Mt. Tom, Phil Bricker
Spring 2018: US SML Champs in Northern MA

Revenues from A-meets necessarily lag behind mapping expenses by a few years, and it is our hope that if we organize the A-meets well, the majority of the mapping costs will be recouped directly from A-meet revenues. The cycle of generating exceptional maps and holding A-meets on them, in principal, can approach revenue neutral and leave the club with huge improvements in map quality.

Easy jaunt after the NEOC AGM to pick up eleven controls. It was pleasant to get into the woods, though I was not moving all that fast. At the meet, I was considering running a course, but before the event, I stopped at Boston Common to drop off US team uniforms with the sprint camp folks in attendance. This took forever because, to paraphrase TSwift: "I am never ever ever gonna find some parking." I still felt crappy with upper respiratory infection symptoms, so racing was probably ill-advised.

We found that one control was left out, so I scampered off at tempo effort to retrieve it. Didn't start das Garmin.

I had planned to go for something longer - say 60 minutes easy, but I had very little energy today. So, instead, I went for a typical easy run with some difficulty breathing.

I thought this was a 5k little loop, but I accidentally extended it a bit. I still felt shaky and weak after the summer cold from hell, but I'm sufficiently on the mend to do a little easy running. Saucony uppers are failing, presumably adversely impacted by the snow. My Asics uppers were annihilated by scrambling in Canada, so it's time for some new running shoes. I coughed a bit during the run.

My next training target is Canadians in August, so hopefully I can get back into shape by then.

Perhaps orienteering clubs could consider goatscaping some of the more heinous pokey/stabby dark green areas on our maps:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/06/09/boston...

C • A couple of the maps down i... 4