Training Log Archive: David_Waller

Slow jog at Mounds

Event: ICO Camp Ransburg
 

Great day to be out orienteering, on a good map, in a great venue, on a very nicely set course. I made a couple of really dumb and somewhat time-consuming errors within the circle. Approaching 5, I was sure that I would be able to see the reentrant and the bag from the opposite side of the ditch. So I paused for a moment, must have looked right at it -- or maybe just below it -- and decided that it wasn't there and that I was in the wrong place. I proceeded left 50 meters before I realized that I was in the wrong place and had to backtrack.

I made another dumb mistake as I approached 6, when I mis-interpreted the control description and thought that the bag would be in the western ditch. I went three-quarters of the way down the western ditch, passing the control, before I realized my mistake and had to come back up the eastern one. I was heading roughly north when I looked at the control description, so this was just a stupid mistake. But it makes me wonder whether the "which of several features" column C arrows would be more interpretable if they were depicted from an egocentric reference frame (based on the direction of approach) rather than an allocentric reference frame (i.e., north/south). Thus, for example, if you were heading south, a right-facing arrow in column C would mean "the one to the right" rather than "eastern". Given that our descriptions of our route choices are always given with respect to egocentric reference frames (e.g., "I went right there"), I think that such a system could be arguably more readily interpretable. (At least until you overshoot the control and have to approach it from another direction.)

I was sure that my route from 8 to 9 (kicking way right to the road) was inefficient, but analyzing it afterwards, and discussing it with other runners, I'm not sure that there was a better route. Nicely designed leg.

I was dog-tired by the time I got to the southern controls, and just crawled my way through them. Despite the fatigue, I did not forget to pay my respects at Addison's Addlement (aka, Addison's crack). I got quite frustrated at the long detour around the unmapped swamp, but in the end it really wasn't that big of a deal, especially because all runners faced the same problem.

So, Flying Pig coursetters have now set a total of 38.9 (Mike) and 24.9 (Rob) kilometers worth of courses since the Pig. I feel so lazy.

nice run at Hueston Woods

More hill repeats at Hueston Woods

pretty difficult run at Hueston Woods. I added several additional hill-climbs along the way, which pretty much wiped me out by the end.