Training Log Archive: PG

Event: WMOC 2012
 

Today's course (M65, heat 1). Not the best photo, maybe better later.

C • sprint symbols? 4

Sprint qualifying at WMOC. Very nervous, felt like I was orienteering a bit like a chicken with its head cut off, but accomplished the goal of making the A final. Needed to be in the top 14 out of about 70, think I was third. Felt like I left some time out there (30-60 seconds?), but part of that was just being extra careful to not get trapped, nor skip any controls, nor go out of bounds, nor mispunch. Successful on all counts.

Tomorrow will have to be a little quicker, but I think the focus still should be on being clean and letting the running take care of itself. At least that's been the plan for several months now, and no reason to change.

Not sure who else made A finals -- almost certainly Sergey V, Pavlina, Sharon. Quite possibly Jeff, Dennis. Not sure about others. Joe mispunched, totally bummed.

Not sure if I've even done a model course for a sprint before. In this case, it seem the best way to do it was half walking and half driving.

And then a nice party late afternoon with much of the USA gang here. Here's the official list --

Managed to make it to Bad Harzburg with any disasters -- Got to JFK reasonably OK, flight reasonably OK, met up with Sandy at Frankfurt, drove here, lots of traffic but not really awful. Now just feeling sleepy.

Renting a small house with Sandy. Hosts have furnished us with fresh strawberries, fresh pineapple, a bottle of bubbly. Only problem so far is Wi-Fi seems to work on my MacBook Air, but not on Gail's iPad nor Sandy's Toshiba netbook. Where is our tech support crew when we really need it?

Sprint course from yesterday, and my route.

More sprint training. From the car over to the start.

Long course from day 3 of the 5-day. Didn't have a copy of the map, but found a copy of the course online and copied it onto a short map, doing my best in the process not to look at any of the routes.

OK run. Lost time two places, one on the way to two, the wind blew my hat off and it took a few seconds to track it down, the other on the way to 5, started following a line on the short course, but discovered it before too much damage was done. A good reminder that in sprints, besides avoiding traps and choosing good routes, you also have to go to all the controls and in the right order.

Felt a little tired. Was certainly working hard. Temp in the upper 70s.

Off to WMOC tomorrow, where the forecast is 60s and rain. Excellent.

And back to the car, getting lost in the process.

Event 3 - UMass Long - Splits

Maps from recent orienteering --

Day 3 at the 5-day, short course, and my route.

Ratlum Mt. and the WCOC summer picnic -- Sprint B and Sprint A (that's the order I did them in).

Went for my annual physical today, OK except for one thing I knew was a problem that I hope I haven't put off dealing with too long, a hernia issue. No pain, but it's only going to get worse, appointment with a surgeon in a couple of weeks, then in for repairs I expect.... :-(

C • Laparoscopic 5

C • Worse 1

Maybe the best O' photo I have ever seen (from the Swiss O' magazine), click on image for a larger version --

C • Caption? 7

On North Sugarloaf, mostly on the bike trails. Aren't many of them, but enough to make the running more interesting, as there used to be just a couple of trails that steep enough that running them wasn't a lot of fun.

Mellow pace, but some effort because it's not flat.

I've been meaning to go run the sprints from Day 3 of the 5-day, finally got around to it, at least the short (I have a bunch of those maps, but not a one of the long course). According to the radar, I had enough time to be done before the approaching thunderstorms arrived.

A little warm-up over from the parking to the start. The sky was getting darker. Legs felt crappy, as usual when starting up.

UMass short sprint. Pretty good effort. One bad route, didn't see that 4 to 5 was a good bit shorter weaving between the buildings. And not really reading the detail around 6 and 7 as well as I would want, but I had my glasses on so my up-close vision was not as good.

Started to rain on the way to 5. Started to pour on the way to 8. Plus a few booms of thunder, but nothing closer. Soaking wet by the time I finished. But it was all quite good fun, out in the elements, it's the difference competing makes, you really just ignore what's going on around you.

Time was decent. Legs actually felt like they had a little life once I got going.

So, added splits. And despite the fact that e-boxes were synched by a certified expert (i.e. not me) on Thursday evening, there is something wrong, both at the last control or finish, where everyone's splits are too fast, and also at #3, where splits from 2 to 3 seem slow, and splits from 3 to 4 and definitely fast. Not that it really matters. Except when you have more than one start box and/or more than one finish box, and if they aren't exactly the same, it does matter. So why were things so wrong?

C • Splits 6

Back to the car, splash-splash, ka-boom, no worries....

Event 3 - UMass Short - Splits