Training Log Archive: edwarddesIn the 7 days ending May 12, 2012:
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Thursday May 10, 2012 #
Park-O race 24:00 [3]
Peters Hill Park-O
When the right people don't show up, even I can be second.
Felt fast running, but it was like intervals. Run really fast, and then try and make sense of the map and find the control. The north side of the road really needs some help.
When the right people don't show up, even I can be second.
Felt fast running, but it was like intervals. Run really fast, and then try and make sense of the map and find the control. The north side of the road really needs some help.
Sunday May 6, 2012 #
Orienteering race 2:52:19 [3]
West Point Long
This really didn't go very well, so I put off logging it for a while.
After the billygoat and WP middle, I was thinking I could actually orienteer in this terrain. Turkey Mountain just hammered on me for a few hours.
1 went left of the cliffs, skirting the swamp, which made for a nice catching feature. The approach in from the end of the swamp was much easier than I was expecting.
2 straight along the line, cliffs/water along the way. The notes about cliffs as bare rock really started to make sense here.
3 went right around the hilltop, which made for a poor approach to the control. Spent a while searching around in thick vegetation for the boulder, only to eventually find it 10ft behind where I had been standing.
4 Downhill from 3 to hit the indistinct trail, then along that until I could see the gravel road. Stayed higher than the road and through the swamps and under the dark green open area. Up between the cliffs and along into the control site. Nailed the other water stop, and knew it was the wrong one, but the control code was so close! Went uphill and identified the big boulders and green area, back downhill to the water stop. I knew exactly where I was, but still couldn't find the correct boulder. Back up and down a few times. Then Ali shows up also a bit confused, but eventually runs off, so she must have found it. I finally found it hidden very well behind a boulder, but was so frustrated I forgot to drink. I could find every other boulder in the area and make sense of the map except for the one I needed!
5 Now that I had been up and down the hill a few times this was easy.
6 Straight along the line and up the little hill. Very buried in the blueberries.
7 Over to the boundary line to run down the yellow to the corner. The boundary was a mess of briars and thick vegetation in places. Definitely not yellow or fast.
8 Not the best route choice. I went left of the swamp instead of right, and there was a lot of fight to push through.
9 Contour around along the line. Met Eddie and Ali at the control.
10 Eddie and I both run out of the 9 to head straight to 10 and nearly run off the edge of what was a much bigger cliff than I expected. Had to back up and find a way down. Ali ran around and beat both of us to 10. Note that I had also run into Ali at 4, so her day wasn't doing much better than mine.
11 Super long leg, no immediately obvious route choice. The trail run to the right seemed to add a lot of distance, and I didn't see the route up the stream to the left, so I just decided to head straight along the line. I think I didn't fully process that there was a trail along the power lines instead of just the yellow/green. My bad experience with the yellow boundary path earlier made me skeptical of the runnability of that route. I ran mostly straight until I veered to the right to avoid the swamp at the end before coming out onto the trail. Most of the way was super thick blueberries, so you couldn't even see contour detail of where you were. I came out onto the trail a bit further east than I wanted, but was happy to be out of the green. Ran up to the water stop and then into more green slash.
12 Nice to have a quick easy leg after the killer long one.
13 Running with a canadian for most of this leg. Stayed a bit right of the line going through the open patch
14 downhill to the trail and across the bridge. On the other side as I was trying to find a hole through the green, Alex and Will were cooling down. Alex yells at me "your killing it", to which Will replies "Its killing you". Its not fair to make me laugh as I'm trying to run uphill.
15 Managed to run right through a swamp for this one and get my feet all wet.
16 Out to the trail and then crossed into the other side right after the solid green patch. Ran uphill on a bearing but hit the white at the top and couldn't find the control. Spent a long time roaming around in green looking for a reentrant. Made it all the way to the wall and came back in to eventually find it.
17 Tired, slow. Easy control.
18 Along the walls. Thorny stuff up here though.
19 More stone walls
20 Down to the trail and then cut the corner to take the trail through the green.
I felt like the last loop was just extra running. I would have much preferred another couple controls out in the technical areas of the map. I was really frustrated all day with my inconsistency. I could manage to navigate the whole way through thick vegetation (slowly) from 10 to 11 and always know where I was, but then could screw up a simple approach to 16. The map vegetation was super crappy, you never knew if the white was going to be real white, or solid blueberries waist high. There was always the thought that the other route option would have been nicer woods.
I did make it in under 3 hours though, 20 minutes faster than last year, and never majorly lost. Lots of lost time, but I always knew where I was.
This really didn't go very well, so I put off logging it for a while.
After the billygoat and WP middle, I was thinking I could actually orienteer in this terrain. Turkey Mountain just hammered on me for a few hours.
1 went left of the cliffs, skirting the swamp, which made for a nice catching feature. The approach in from the end of the swamp was much easier than I was expecting.
2 straight along the line, cliffs/water along the way. The notes about cliffs as bare rock really started to make sense here.
3 went right around the hilltop, which made for a poor approach to the control. Spent a while searching around in thick vegetation for the boulder, only to eventually find it 10ft behind where I had been standing.
4 Downhill from 3 to hit the indistinct trail, then along that until I could see the gravel road. Stayed higher than the road and through the swamps and under the dark green open area. Up between the cliffs and along into the control site. Nailed the other water stop, and knew it was the wrong one, but the control code was so close! Went uphill and identified the big boulders and green area, back downhill to the water stop. I knew exactly where I was, but still couldn't find the correct boulder. Back up and down a few times. Then Ali shows up also a bit confused, but eventually runs off, so she must have found it. I finally found it hidden very well behind a boulder, but was so frustrated I forgot to drink. I could find every other boulder in the area and make sense of the map except for the one I needed!
5 Now that I had been up and down the hill a few times this was easy.
6 Straight along the line and up the little hill. Very buried in the blueberries.
7 Over to the boundary line to run down the yellow to the corner. The boundary was a mess of briars and thick vegetation in places. Definitely not yellow or fast.
8 Not the best route choice. I went left of the swamp instead of right, and there was a lot of fight to push through.
9 Contour around along the line. Met Eddie and Ali at the control.
10 Eddie and I both run out of the 9 to head straight to 10 and nearly run off the edge of what was a much bigger cliff than I expected. Had to back up and find a way down. Ali ran around and beat both of us to 10. Note that I had also run into Ali at 4, so her day wasn't doing much better than mine.
11 Super long leg, no immediately obvious route choice. The trail run to the right seemed to add a lot of distance, and I didn't see the route up the stream to the left, so I just decided to head straight along the line. I think I didn't fully process that there was a trail along the power lines instead of just the yellow/green. My bad experience with the yellow boundary path earlier made me skeptical of the runnability of that route. I ran mostly straight until I veered to the right to avoid the swamp at the end before coming out onto the trail. Most of the way was super thick blueberries, so you couldn't even see contour detail of where you were. I came out onto the trail a bit further east than I wanted, but was happy to be out of the green. Ran up to the water stop and then into more green slash.
12 Nice to have a quick easy leg after the killer long one.
13 Running with a canadian for most of this leg. Stayed a bit right of the line going through the open patch
14 downhill to the trail and across the bridge. On the other side as I was trying to find a hole through the green, Alex and Will were cooling down. Alex yells at me "your killing it", to which Will replies "Its killing you". Its not fair to make me laugh as I'm trying to run uphill.
15 Managed to run right through a swamp for this one and get my feet all wet.
16 Out to the trail and then crossed into the other side right after the solid green patch. Ran uphill on a bearing but hit the white at the top and couldn't find the control. Spent a long time roaming around in green looking for a reentrant. Made it all the way to the wall and came back in to eventually find it.
17 Tired, slow. Easy control.
18 Along the walls. Thorny stuff up here though.
19 More stone walls
20 Down to the trail and then cut the corner to take the trail through the green.
I felt like the last loop was just extra running. I would have much preferred another couple controls out in the technical areas of the map. I was really frustrated all day with my inconsistency. I could manage to navigate the whole way through thick vegetation (slowly) from 10 to 11 and always know where I was, but then could screw up a simple approach to 16. The map vegetation was super crappy, you never knew if the white was going to be real white, or solid blueberries waist high. There was always the thought that the other route option would have been nicer woods.
I did make it in under 3 hours though, 20 minutes faster than last year, and never majorly lost. Lots of lost time, but I always knew where I was.