Training Log Archive: MJChildsIn the 7 days ending Oct 24, 2010:
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Sunday Oct 24, 2010 #
Orienteering race 1:23:42 [4] 4.7 km (17:49 / km)
Baldwin Hill in Ashburnham, MA. NEOC event. Great map, nice terrain, but lots of deadfall and branches partially down making for slow movement through terrain. Lots to jump, climb over, lots to avoid, lots to keep from sticking in the eyes!
#3 was a bit sloppy, and #4 was a mess. Thought I was to the right following the curved reentrant and finally decided to bail out to the stone wall beyond the control. Got lucky and ran into it while on the way.
#5 should have been excellent. Moved well across the bottomlands and up the hillside. Was just a little to the right and corrected, coming upon the spur with all the rocks about 200m from the control. Got excited by seeing a knoll with rock on it about 100 m south of the rocky spur (now I realize that the 100 m distance should have been a warning) and sprinted to it. No control. Looked around a bit. Saw Ken Walker, Sr. heading toward the correct location (unbeknownst to me at the time) but I couldn't make the map make sense, so I headed back to the rocky spur looking for hte small marsh. Check. Then I noticed that my map was not oriented correctly. Duhhhhh! Headed "roughly" in the right direction, but missed it again. Decided to go back to the rocky spur a third time and take a bearing. Hummmm, that worked, surprise, surprise. When will I ever learn! Rushing again got me into trouble.
On #6 I screwed up again. Took a bearing from #5 to get myself marching along, but it didn't feel right and that stone wall was oh-so-tempting, so I did not stay on the bearing. Came upon another control with water first. Punched. Drank. Then checked. Damn! Wrong control. At least I checked this time. :) Floundered around trying to figure out where I was and eventually stumbled upon it. Terrible navigation. No navigatilon, really.
Next 2 were OK. #9 was sloppy. I used compass too roughly (again. . .) and hit trail before wall. Planned to follow trail to the break in the wall, but short cut when I saw the wall. Mistake. Floundered. Eventually,used the N-S wall to relocate (using the wall junction). Stupid leg. Did not have much drive to finish hard.
Would like to go back and do it again. Accurately,this time.
#3 was a bit sloppy, and #4 was a mess. Thought I was to the right following the curved reentrant and finally decided to bail out to the stone wall beyond the control. Got lucky and ran into it while on the way.
#5 should have been excellent. Moved well across the bottomlands and up the hillside. Was just a little to the right and corrected, coming upon the spur with all the rocks about 200m from the control. Got excited by seeing a knoll with rock on it about 100 m south of the rocky spur (now I realize that the 100 m distance should have been a warning) and sprinted to it. No control. Looked around a bit. Saw Ken Walker, Sr. heading toward the correct location (unbeknownst to me at the time) but I couldn't make the map make sense, so I headed back to the rocky spur looking for hte small marsh. Check. Then I noticed that my map was not oriented correctly. Duhhhhh! Headed "roughly" in the right direction, but missed it again. Decided to go back to the rocky spur a third time and take a bearing. Hummmm, that worked, surprise, surprise. When will I ever learn! Rushing again got me into trouble.
On #6 I screwed up again. Took a bearing from #5 to get myself marching along, but it didn't feel right and that stone wall was oh-so-tempting, so I did not stay on the bearing. Came upon another control with water first. Punched. Drank. Then checked. Damn! Wrong control. At least I checked this time. :) Floundered around trying to figure out where I was and eventually stumbled upon it. Terrible navigation. No navigatilon, really.
Next 2 were OK. #9 was sloppy. I used compass too roughly (again. . .) and hit trail before wall. Planned to follow trail to the break in the wall, but short cut when I saw the wall. Mistake. Floundered. Eventually,used the N-S wall to relocate (using the wall junction). Stupid leg. Did not have much drive to finish hard.
Would like to go back and do it again. Accurately,this time.
Saturday Oct 23, 2010 #
Event: Fall Foliage Festival
9 AM
Orienteering race 32:23 [4] 2.6 km (12:27 / km)
Qualifier at Pine Hill. Trouble with #1, from not correctly orienting my map at the start! Got on the wrong trail and had to relocate. Bad beginning. #2 also a problem. Minpunched! Plan was to run down trail to reentrant with trail, follow trail down but not all the way (just past lg. boulder), then contour around to the other side of the spur and locate the control. I did just that and encountered the control on the boulder sooner than I expected, but that happens some times. Never checked the code--there was no question in my mind that this was the right control--it fit nicely with my plan. Turns out, MYcontrol was actually 50 m further along, more on the flat. I did not recheck my map after contouring around because I had found the control, but it turns out the spur boulder was on Green-X. Must have run right by my control on the way to #3 since I took the route to the right.
Donna Fluegel helped me to figure out what happened. I was upset because I had indeed mispunched, but the wrong control was right along my route and within 100 m on a similar feature (boulder). I thought that was against the rules. I querried Larry Berman (MD) who found Alexi (CS) who went over the maps with me. Alexi explained that the IOF rules are now 20 (30?) meters for similar control features (what are they thinking!!!). He was sorry but felt I had broken the rules and should be DQ'd.
Later, talking with Janet T, she referred me to Glen T for an update on the rules. Glen said the IOF was now 30 m but the USOF rules are still 100 m and the event was under USOF jurisdiction. So, I protested to be reinstated and that was granted, allowing me to run in the A final.
Happy again, and chastized enough to remember to check control codes every time, in the future.
On Sunday, Alexi apologized for being stuck on the IOF rules. I did not feel his apology was necessary, but he went on to say that he did not agree that I was reinstated. I see his point. I just feel differently.
When I first began to orienteer and set courses, I was advised by Gudrun Hjorth, Swedish OF ambassador that courses should be set not to make competitors fail, but to provide a challenge and which encourages success with effort. This has always guided my course setting and I feel that all course setters should consider whether they're setting competitors up for failure and if so, make the changes necessary to avoid it. With the new IOF rule of 30 meters, there is terrific potential to promote failure. Is this what we want? Granted, the code should be checked at every control, but let's remember that it's the entire route navigation that is important.
Perhaps we should train for this new scenario by having several controls within the control circle, all on similar features, and seeing how quiclky we can find the correct one. Are we to the point of splitting hairs in our competitions?
Donna Fluegel helped me to figure out what happened. I was upset because I had indeed mispunched, but the wrong control was right along my route and within 100 m on a similar feature (boulder). I thought that was against the rules. I querried Larry Berman (MD) who found Alexi (CS) who went over the maps with me. Alexi explained that the IOF rules are now 20 (30?) meters for similar control features (what are they thinking!!!). He was sorry but felt I had broken the rules and should be DQ'd.
Later, talking with Janet T, she referred me to Glen T for an update on the rules. Glen said the IOF was now 30 m but the USOF rules are still 100 m and the event was under USOF jurisdiction. So, I protested to be reinstated and that was granted, allowing me to run in the A final.
Happy again, and chastized enough to remember to check control codes every time, in the future.
On Sunday, Alexi apologized for being stuck on the IOF rules. I did not feel his apology was necessary, but he went on to say that he did not agree that I was reinstated. I see his point. I just feel differently.
When I first began to orienteer and set courses, I was advised by Gudrun Hjorth, Swedish OF ambassador that courses should be set not to make competitors fail, but to provide a challenge and which encourages success with effort. This has always guided my course setting and I feel that all course setters should consider whether they're setting competitors up for failure and if so, make the changes necessary to avoid it. With the new IOF rule of 30 meters, there is terrific potential to promote failure. Is this what we want? Granted, the code should be checked at every control, but let's remember that it's the entire route navigation that is important.
Perhaps we should train for this new scenario by having several controls within the control circle, all on similar features, and seeing how quiclky we can find the correct one. Are we to the point of splitting hairs in our competitions?
2 PM
Orienteering race 38:32 [4] 3.1 km (12:26 / km)
Pine Hill Final. Blew the first one again. Should have taken the western trail most of the way. Instead, went on the trail right out of the start, picked up the small trail that short-cut through the woods, then lost it at the marsh, fumbling around and coming out at the western trail and having to relocate. Arghhhh! Later, screwed up #5. I think I was looking at the spur on the edge of the circle, because I thought it was going to be down near the stream. What's up with that? I did the same thing the weekend before. Why did I not focus on the CENTER of the circle? Rushing gets me into trouble, again and again. Lost lots of time on that one, too. Others were a little fumbly, but not all that bad. Wish I'd had a cleaner run. Feeling strong, though. :)
Wednesday Oct 20, 2010 #
Trail running 20:00 [3]
Ran at Shelburne Farms from Farm Barn to Coach Barn via Windmill Hill. Picked up 2 controls enroute, then visited with art show hanging crew, Rita and Linda at show. Beautiful day. Quite chilly--chilled my trachea and lungs in first few minutes. Spent past couple of days driving Andrew home for school break (8 hrs driving) and yesterday, landscape installation work. Don't log this, but it's work!