Training Log Archive: MJChilds

Fabulous blunder today. Again. Doing very well until #4, then a short leg of about 300 m to #5. Took trail route to trail junction, then got confused. 38 minutes total on the leg. How badly can I possibly orienteer? I was within 100 m of the control and lost it. It's George's fault. :)

Won the finish sprint again though. Glad I can do something. Got great support from Natalya Deconescou. Glad to get to know her a little.

Long - Course 5 - Splits

Middle Distance at Double Duck Flats. Pretty good race for a change. Had trouble on #5, crossing an unmapped trail early on, finding another control in a reentrant before mine, finding a ruin and not being able to get to my control from it (hummm), and then getting a little lucky and spotting the water jugs with the control. Lost about 2 min. Slow to #6, making sure where I was, then veered off a bit to #7, correcting thanks to seeing PG running to my left on a direct line. Almost skipped #10, seeing trail line from 9-11 as direction line at first. Hesitated on #11, expecting to see another control before the finish chute. Brain dead. Had fastest split to finish though! Just out of the money on the course, though. finally, no blunders!!!

Middle - Course 5 - Splits

Great race, but screwed up again! Another stupid, stupid mistake. This is the year of blunders for me. My handicap for the Thomass Event was 8, meaning I could skip 8 of the16 controls. I knew I had to do half of them, but somehow, at the start, I got it in my head that I had to go to 6 controls. Turned over map, quickly assessed which 6 I'd go to. Went to them on a moderately hard run. Got to map exchange early, it seemed, but thought it was because I was doing so well and had a big handicap. Picked up the pace for the sprint since it was a white course (the "short" course). Had good route choices, and was exhausted when I finished. Thought I might have been in the top 10 to finish--only little kids ahead of me and one guy.

Only when Natalia D. asked me about me control selections did I realize that I had gone to 6 and not 8.. Horror! Exasperation! What the hell, oh well. . .

My brain just doesn't work well anymore. :( At least it didn't count for anything.

Found some new glasses and a cloth strap to keep them from bouncing. At least that problem is fixed. Still have my blisters from the sand dunes running the first few days.

British Columbia is gorgeous.

Took two juniors around on the Model Map at the Sass Peepre Training Camp in Cranbrook, BC. Map: Cranbrook Town Forest. Worked with Jen and Kendra from Yukon O Club. Really nice girls, good orienteers. Great area with thin forest, grasslands, modest climb, moderate amount of rock features. Fun to orienteer in. Map made by Alar Ruutopold.

Uphill! May as well log it!

Sprint Championships at Camp S-------. Long walk uphill to start, raced all downhill. White course, essentially. But still fun. thought I was going to take first this time, but Patty came in about 20 seconds faster. Fun place. Loving Washington orienteering.

Long Distance Championships at Fishtrap Lake. Very cool place. Loved terrain--rolling prairie broken up with rocky plateaus, steep reentrants, shallow reentrants, lots of volcanic rock underfoot, a few patches of white woods, and amazing patches of wildflowers: lupine, vetch, blanket flower, pearly everlasting relative, yellow mustard?, silene?, small phlox, alliums!, and many others. Took lots of photos on the way to the start.

Orienteering: screwed up #1. Couldn't get my mental compass to orient to north. Walk to start felt like south (was east), every compass reading felt off. Tried to correct with compass but couldn't get into it. Wierd. Even the long leg, though I knew I was running west, felt like north. Lucky I didn't screw up any more than I did. Otherwise, my orienteering was reasonable good. Had a few really good legs. Looking forward to seeing winsplits.

Orange/Brown Sprint - Splits

Brown Long - Splits