Discussion: Video from the Gateway Grunt weekend

I brought a Hero HD camera to the Gateway Grunt last weekend and took video of all my courses. The Forest Park sprint is up, and I'm working to shorten the others so they fit online.

It's much more interesting to watch with the map up in a separate window.

cool...I just ran faster than ever before....it was "neat to be Pete"...

i liked the fearless 'over/under' moves on the deadwood!

(armchair orienteer yelling at computer screen)

"It's behind that tree! Go back.... GO BACK!!!"

The interesting part of this as the course designer was seeing where the map reading and decisions were taking place. You get a sense of how that will go, but it's fascinating to see it in practice. In particular, the big slowdown when hitting the open section to 12 was completely unanticipated because I know that it used to be a road and my mind's eye still sees it that way. To someone not familiar with the park, a corridor of open woods like that might be much more difficult to reconcile.

Pete,

Watching, there are more stops (action freezes for as long as 10 secs) on my iMac than I would imagine you made. In fact, at first, I thought the Mac software just quit on what it was doing. But then, I saw that it stopped & started & stopped & started etc in a fashion not consistent with the need to stop/read the map. Any thoughts as to why? What is the "clunking"? Interesting way to share a venue - someday I'd imagine such opportunities will be at the big meets in Europe for armchair/home viewing.

Freezes like that might happen if your internet connection is not quite fast enough to download this big video at the rate it needs to play. it will pause until the downloading catches up. Or it could be something else entirely...

I've had the same issue on a Mac. On a PC it works fine. Don't know the cause of the Mac problems.

By the way, great video!

Really nice video; it is a future of Orienteering for sure.
1st time I saw video like this during Oringen 2003 in SWE.
I will be 1st in a line to rent this camera if it is posiable ;)

Comments on the course:
from Cp 7 to Cp8- i would run same way as i came from CP6
to Cp 11- i would go left on the road- it is much faster then through green.
to Cp 14- i would stay on main road till injunction of smaller road and cut to CP.

It is really good thing to see your mistake ;)
I wish I have camera like this ;)

FWIW, the empirically optimal routes from my course testing are here. Note that the route to 4 is before the city cut the high grass (the day before the meet!) which made the route taken by Pete (and just about everybody else) just as good. When the grass was chest high, going around on the bike path was considerably faster.

@bl - When the video stutters, that's usually 'net speed, CPU power, or a combination of both. Try clicking on the "HD on" button in the right center, that will turn HD off so the quality will be lower, but it should stream more smoothly. (FWIW, I've tried it on a PC at work and my Macbook Pro at home, and they both work well.) Also, you can visit the Vimeo page and download it for local viewing.

@Orion4ik - I agree. RouteGadget is nice, but if we combine this kind of camera with GPS and a map overlay... well, I for one would be drooling. And there are plenty of ways to refine the results. The technology exists, so let's start using it!

I think that being able to watch your mistakes objectively, and let others see and comment on them, is an excellent way to improve. It can, however, be a little humbling at times.

Don't forget to watch the legs you ran well, also! Best way to avoid doing something wrong is to concentrate on what to do right.

Ebuckley, 100% agree on focus in good this too.
Kent Ollson- 7 times WOC top 3, one of the best SWE runners of all times. He told me the same thing: just to focus on positive things and do not care about wrong parts. I still do care about negative parts, but trying to find more positive ;)

Pfc is it posiable to rent your camera? ;) It should be good thing to have on Juniors training camps or after event trainings.

Yes, turning off HD did the trick.

But it doesn't explain the "clunking". How about a small piece of duct tape?:-).

And a future iteration is a finely-tuned, running commentary....

@bl - I know the clunking issue. I wear glasses with metal frames and it's the bottom part of the housing hitting them with each footfall. It doesn't happen when I wear a hat, but it's undeniably annoying otherwise. Duct tape may help. Commentary will have to be voiceover, though; Erin kept suggesting I should the narrate the Hawn sprint (for didactic purposes, no doubt), but I couldn't spare any breath for it ;) - a sprint, really?

@Orion - I'm going to want to hang on to the camera. Now that spring has broken here in Minnesota there are a lot of other sports I want to record: mountain biking, paddling, etc. If you are working with junior training, though, it might be worthwhile to order a "group" camera that the whole team can share, and use it to record, discuss, and analyze as we have been doing. I got the camera (HD Helmet Hero), waterproof case and a couple of different mounts for US$300 from goprocamera.com.

thx for the camera link, I might buy as well!
Which type of helmet will you advise to buy? which one did you use for running?

Dick N from PTOC posted a snapshot of pfc with headcam mounted.

thx a lot,
I will be checking your blog for more updates ;)