Training Log Archive: Cristina

Trotting around the model map. This is going to be interesting.

The "sprint" at Salmon La Sac.

Based on the location of the sprint and the description in the meet notes I figured this wasn't going to be a typical sprint. And it wasn't - it was longer, slower, and had a lot of middle distance type legs. That said, I thought it was mostly a fun and interesting course. I'm just not sure it was right for today as an A meet sprint.

It didn't have a ton of energy at the start for the two trail legs, but it didn't matter too much because I wasn't moving that fast afterward. I had a few hesitations and two poor route choices but it was an adequate run overall. I just couldn't move any faster on some of the legs, not just because of the greenishness, but also because some of the controls were just tricky on the "map interpretations" scale.

My one possible fairness beef is about one of the route choices that was on a very short leg. There was a patch of medium green between the controls and clearly the course setter wanted to present a choice of through the junk or way, way around. I punched with 2 other people who headed into the green. I thought I'd try to go around, because it looked nasty, but almost right away it seemed like I'd be able to get through. I ended up crawling across branches, tore up my pants and map, and by the time I popped out the other two were already gone from sight on the way to the next control. I guess it could be argued that it is not a bingo leg since it was medium green and had I gone around the green I would have been fine. I'm not really sure how I feel about it, but it stinks to make the same route choice as other people and lose almost a minute on a one minute leg.

Looking at splits with Carol and Andrea and I imagine some of us could have run ~24 or so without calling it spectacular (Carol ran just under 26, Andrea just over 29). So, about 4 minutes total on route choice, execution, hesitations, and just plain mistakes. Seems like a lot for a sprint, but I'd argue that this was much more difficult than your average sprint.

Another note about the course, separate from issues about the map, the course length, or the course setting style. At the end of the evening they brought the maps down for us to collect, only some of the maps (like the one that said "Cristina" on the back with a big hole in the bag) weren't there. Turns out they had to reuse some of them because they didn't print enough. They will print more and I am told that I will get *a* map later. I am fairly tweaked that I do not have any map at all while somebody else is able to draw their route on my map. But, even more tweaky is the fact that a bunch of people had to run their A meet course on a used map. That's a pretty big foul in my book.

C • quality control 21

Salmon Run Sprint 3 - Splits

Lick Creek Relay, Leg 1 for team "Somewhat OK", with Patrick Nuss, John Harbuck and Clem.

Pretty sloppy, especially in the beginning as I struggled to get in to the map while trying not to care about all of the other people. First control okay, then I was a little too "independent" on the second. Finally got it together and slowly pulled away from the main crowd (the very fast boys were way way ahead) but then blew the seventh control, climbing too high, lured by some rock features farther up the hill. That allowed a crowd to catch me again around 8 and I hilariously led them on a wee bit of an overrun on the spectator control. I added to the entertainment by face-planting about 10m shy of the spectator control, tripping on nothing but my own feet. It was awesome. Finished up and passed off to Patrick in ~6th or so.

Patrick caught one or two, then John maybe another, and finally Clem passed a Canadian and kept off Matej for a second place finish. Yay.

C • tripping on nothing but my own feet 4

The "Kid" at Fishtrap Lake.

This was the shorter goat course offered today, with actual Goat at 19km and thus deemed too long (in km and in sun exposure time) to be the sensible choice for me given the rest of the week's schedule.

The Fishtrap Lake map is more like Laramie terrain than anything else, though much slower running (I thought). Lots of open land with pockets of cliffs and water features and occasional trees. So, for the most part, fast and straightforward orienteering.

My orienteering today was fine, not perfect, but good enough. Biggest goof was actually just getting to the finish from the last control, which I didn't do very well.

Funniest moment was watching a big horde follow Kelsey (?) from the start and go off into completely the wrong area, ~500m short of the first control. I just ran by them, pleased to see that Tom was ahead of me and going the same way and that I wasn't just crazy for thinking that the horde was totally off.

Saw Tom again on the way to 6 (he goofed the third control), with Matej and Rick B. close behind. Tom kept me company for a couple of controls ( we skipped 8), never getting too far ahead, and then on the last control we parted ways because - and this is the next funniest moment - he did not want to get his feet wet. I'm not kidding: Tom took an ~800m detour to keep his feet dry. So, I beat him. Serves him right.

Turns out Matej (who'd been ahead of us) goofed the last one, so he wasn't in either. Unfortunately my meander to the finish meant that Rick beat me in, after he had cajoled me into crossing the stream where it was waist deep (for me). Not that it mattered much, there was plenty of wading after that, too. In other words, a fun day on a neat map.

Warming up before the start of the first Jackrabbit sprint.

Sprint 1 at Riverside State Park.

This was a very nice course in enjoyable terrain. The map is a bit out of date, especially with respect to vegetation, but that didn't pose too much of an issue, except for maybe one control.

Bobbled the first one, mostly because I confused rocky knolls with big boulder things, and I'd like to partially blame the two faceplants for getting a little disoriented. Recovered well enough for 2 and 3, which were pretty painless. The leg from 3 to 4 seems to have been the major problem leg for people, including me. There was a safe trail route that took you quite a bit left of the line, and those of who tried to cut the corner ended up pushing right of the line by the rising terrain. So, it's totally my fault that I ended up seeing 5 before 4, and I think it was actually a brilliant leg. That was my major time loss for the course, though I'm not sure how much.

The next three went smoothly, followed by a very slow/careful approach to 8, since I once again found the knolls/boulders/rock piles confusing. Learned my lesson earlier about the trail/safety and used them for the next three.

Actually a fairly good result (first woman, maybe 10th overall?) but certainly not satisfying with the goof up on 4.

Finish-download-finish.

Retrieving controls from the morning sprints.

Afternoon sprint.

First two were fine, though I wasn't exactly feeling in the zone. Lost about three minutes on the third control because I was on a parallel trail and blasting along past where I needed to go without realizing it. Ugh. Terrible. Four and five were straightforward, and then there was a control in the middle of the forest. I was looking for the feature (thicket) but really, knowing that I did by now that the vegetation on the map has very little to do with the vegetation on the ground, I should have just been locking for a bag. Went by it and turned around to see it.

Had the same pushed off the line by a hill problem on the 8th control, so clearly this is something I need to pay attention to and be aware of.

This course wasn't as interesting or as much fun as the first one, mostly because the vegetation was so sketchy and a few of the controls were placed on veg features or close to them.

However, my terrible, horrible, disgusting orienteering on this course has little to do with the above mentioned map problems and I'm very glad to get this stuff out of my system on a fun day like today.

Travel day, Boise to Spokane by way of Hell's Canyon (very briefly); a very creative, gps navigator inspired route through the Wallowa Mountains; Lake Wallowa; and Palouse Falls.

Lunch in Halfway, Oregon, which I suppose is halfway to nowhere, more or less.

Weird moment of the day was meeting the male Air Force athlete of the year (one level higher than what I won) (the AF part, not the male part) at the gate of Fairchild AFB. He was asking us what our USA jackets were for and expressed interest in trying orienteering. We (well, Clem especially) have been getting quite a few inquiries about orienteering while wearing these new jackets. Not sure what it is about them that makes people so inquisitive, but we should keep them.

Long at Gold Rush Hills. Another very nice course and map from CTOC, and a better day for me, though still not stellar.

I was briefly confused at the start because I anticipated that the first control would be more or less in the same direction as we had to run from the last call up line out to the start triangle. This was true for all the courses except red, and would be quite natural. But we actually had to run the other way, and the options were to run through the finish or back down to the call-up line out to a road. A point to critique, I think. Only a few seconds of confusion for me as I forced myself to reorient my map. First control was fine, and it felt great to be able run and move so much faster than yesterday.

So great did it feel that I ran gleefully past the second control. Realized I had gone too far, looked behind me, and saw what I thought was my control. Ran back. Wasn't mine. Over again until I hit a trail (whoops), got over the shock of being so far off, and ran directly to my control, finally. Those shenanigans cost me about 4 min. Yuck.

The rest of the course was much better, though I certainly feel entirely incapable running uphill. Also a few absolutely preventable goof-ups towards the end, nothing that just a little more discipline wouldn't prevent.

Second today (I think), Carol in ~78 and Tori ~35s behind me.

Short warmup before the middle. Legs felt surprisingly good, so I didn't feel the need to run much. Plus, I figured I wouldn't actually be running very hard on the course today.

First PNWOF race (for me), middle distance at Gold Rush Hills.

I knew this was going to be tricky based on the description - complex hydromined terrain, so much detail they printed it at 1:7500, plus a silly amount of climb. And it was very tricky. Very cool terrain, very intense. I think Lisa has a good description on her log. My plan: forget about speed (really) and be very careful.

Unfortunately, I wasn't quite as careful as I should have been on the first control and blew ~3 minutes trying to figure out where I was. A little miss on the second one, too. The next few were much easier and the rest of the course went much better, but I never felt like I was able to orienteer with any kind of speed. For one thing, we had to almost constantly go up or down. And when we weren't doing that, I had to go slower just to read *something* on the map. It did not feel like I was running "through" the map, like I think good orienteering should. Instead, it felt like how I orienteered the first few years - in fits and starts, only with a lot less mistakes than back then, thank goodness.

So, an okay run if only because I don't think that right now I am capable of handling this stuff any faster. Even just a few days on this type of terrain would probably help, as I was able to move better and better as the course went on.

I think 3rd in F-21+, Tori in ~46, Carol in ~49, and maybe top red runner just under 40 (?).