Training Log Archive: Mark3In the 7 days ending Jun 1, 2014:
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Sunday Jun 1, 2014 #
Orienteering race (British Relay Champs) 37:21 [5] 6.2 km (6:01 / km) +210m 5:09 / km
2nd leg for BOK A team with Adam and Geoff.
Adam rather cruelly came back in 3rd place which put a bit of pressure on - it's not often I'm being chased by so many people so much quicker than me!
Managed to stay with EUOC Chris Galloway who started 14 secs after me for 6 controls, we were then caught by Rich Robinson who had been 1.5 mins down. Stayed with them both to 9 and then their 10 was a shorter gaffle and never saw them again. Running really well up until this point, not following, checking all codes and knowing where I was all the time. LOC passed me to 11 and I stayed with him to 12; lost a bit of time as I assumed he was too low but actually I was too high. Struggled running up the hill. Please with going round to 13 rather than up and over but my gaffle was probably better for this than others. Bit lucky with 14; very cautious.
15/16/17 with some guy, probably MAROC, who led me into the controls but they were easy anyway. He went up and over to 18, whereas I went round and was stymied by the marsh which had to go round, so lost a bit of time there, and a bit more when I saw him go to a control, thought "I definitely won't follow him into that" and it turns out I should have.
Then 19 easy, 20 should have gone across field but was just running not navigating at that point, knew there was going to be another control somewhere but was just in "run in" mode.
Overall BOK 11th out of 18 - aiming for top 10 so a bit disappointing, but happy with my only 1 min down on Geoff and 4 on Adam, and overall relay time was 50secs down on 10th, 1 min down on 9th, 1 min 30 down on 8th; so pretty close. Didn't let team down which was what I was worried about!
Enjoyed this much more than yesterday. Especially good to see Phil get M50 first place and Paul to get a surprise M40 podium.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/511505331
Adam rather cruelly came back in 3rd place which put a bit of pressure on - it's not often I'm being chased by so many people so much quicker than me!
Managed to stay with EUOC Chris Galloway who started 14 secs after me for 6 controls, we were then caught by Rich Robinson who had been 1.5 mins down. Stayed with them both to 9 and then their 10 was a shorter gaffle and never saw them again. Running really well up until this point, not following, checking all codes and knowing where I was all the time. LOC passed me to 11 and I stayed with him to 12; lost a bit of time as I assumed he was too low but actually I was too high. Struggled running up the hill. Please with going round to 13 rather than up and over but my gaffle was probably better for this than others. Bit lucky with 14; very cautious.
15/16/17 with some guy, probably MAROC, who led me into the controls but they were easy anyway. He went up and over to 18, whereas I went round and was stymied by the marsh which had to go round, so lost a bit of time there, and a bit more when I saw him go to a control, thought "I definitely won't follow him into that" and it turns out I should have.
Then 19 easy, 20 should have gone across field but was just running not navigating at that point, knew there was going to be another control somewhere but was just in "run in" mode.
Overall BOK 11th out of 18 - aiming for top 10 so a bit disappointing, but happy with my only 1 min down on Geoff and 4 on Adam, and overall relay time was 50secs down on 10th, 1 min down on 9th, 1 min 30 down on 8th; so pretty close. Didn't let team down which was what I was worried about!
Enjoyed this much more than yesterday. Especially good to see Phil get M50 first place and Paul to get a surprise M40 podium.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/511505331
Saturday May 31, 2014 #
Orienteering race (British Championships) 2:40:00 [5] 14.0 km (11:26 / km) +530m 9:37 / km
Fairly low expectations entering Elite; terrain definitely not suited to me but aimed to be very careful on everything.
1 and 2 fine, fairly straight, definitely needed magnifier to see any detail on 1:15k map.
3 first instance of pretty poor ride mapping (I don't often complain about maps, but these rides were mapped with a distinct veg boundary at either side. It should be impossible to cross one without noticing!).I was pretty sure I was on one 2-3, but retrospectively garmin tells me I definitely wasn't. If I'd known this I'd have made a better decision later in the course [#25]. So came out not where expected but relocated pretty well and found 3,4,5 ok. Caught a glimpse of Scott who started 6 mins before me on 6, but then lost a bit of time being on the crag slightly W; again relocated pretty well and 7 fine.
Not a great route to 8 going round; straight seems to have been better. 9,10 ok. 11 slow because missed path option!
re-Caught Tim Beale at 10 who started 6 mins after me and must have passed me on dodgy route to 8. Different routes to 12 but arrived at the same time; he was slightly faster but think my route was better. Together to 15 where we caught Scott and then the three of us together on the long leg to 17 where I led them in. Clearly full of misplaced confidence in my ability they followed to to 18 which I missed and they both got ahead - ignored the map at this point and sprinted to get back to them. Dropped Scott to 19 and got to 20 at the same time as Tim, although different route again.
Ate an energy gel walking up the ludicrously steep hill.
Got away from Tim to 21; went above the crags and he went below. Then didn't see them 22,23,24 so feeling really good about dropping them and about the course in general thus far; knew it was going to be nowhere near the leaders but in the very physical terrain and the massively long distance, happy I was coping.
Then disaster...
2km leg to 25, had 1.5km to pick attack point, chose ride to the N since it was slightly shorter. Very bad choice given ride experience earlier! Unsurprising I'd forgotten since that was probably about an hour and a half ago at that point. Totally missed ride, decided to go into forest anyway since I'd gone pretty far and assumed I'd missed it, saw some rocks and stuff and assumed they weren't mapped [should have tried harder to match these up since they are clearly on the map and would've helped a lot!] then came out on obvious path to E but assumed it was ride to W. I can only assume this was due to exhaustion since it would have been scandalous for this massive obvious thing to be mapped as a ride and the one earlier to not have been - but anyway. Messed about for ages and eventually worked out what I'd done.
Then very annoyed at this point and messed up 26 as well - mainly because AGAIN didn't notice crossing one of these mythical rides! So ended up going via 2. 27 easy on obvious veg boundary. 28 bit of a bingo control on a tiny crag not close to anything, so a bit of miss there too.
29 on a veg boundary that was impossible to follow, but they did have the grace to map it as indistinct this time.
Finished 16th/24 - with 8 retirements, so effectively last finisher, although I was beating each of them when they retired so totally counting them. The fact that one-third of the entrants retired says quite a lot about the terrain and nature of the course - I ran 18.5km and much of that was through heather/bilberry/brashings.
Given others have complained about the rides as well, not too upset with orienteering ability on this occasion. Hope for an area better suited to me next year!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/511503782
1 and 2 fine, fairly straight, definitely needed magnifier to see any detail on 1:15k map.
3 first instance of pretty poor ride mapping (I don't often complain about maps, but these rides were mapped with a distinct veg boundary at either side. It should be impossible to cross one without noticing!).I was pretty sure I was on one 2-3, but retrospectively garmin tells me I definitely wasn't. If I'd known this I'd have made a better decision later in the course [#25]. So came out not where expected but relocated pretty well and found 3,4,5 ok. Caught a glimpse of Scott who started 6 mins before me on 6, but then lost a bit of time being on the crag slightly W; again relocated pretty well and 7 fine.
Not a great route to 8 going round; straight seems to have been better. 9,10 ok. 11 slow because missed path option!
re-Caught Tim Beale at 10 who started 6 mins after me and must have passed me on dodgy route to 8. Different routes to 12 but arrived at the same time; he was slightly faster but think my route was better. Together to 15 where we caught Scott and then the three of us together on the long leg to 17 where I led them in. Clearly full of misplaced confidence in my ability they followed to to 18 which I missed and they both got ahead - ignored the map at this point and sprinted to get back to them. Dropped Scott to 19 and got to 20 at the same time as Tim, although different route again.
Ate an energy gel walking up the ludicrously steep hill.
Got away from Tim to 21; went above the crags and he went below. Then didn't see them 22,23,24 so feeling really good about dropping them and about the course in general thus far; knew it was going to be nowhere near the leaders but in the very physical terrain and the massively long distance, happy I was coping.
Then disaster...
2km leg to 25, had 1.5km to pick attack point, chose ride to the N since it was slightly shorter. Very bad choice given ride experience earlier! Unsurprising I'd forgotten since that was probably about an hour and a half ago at that point. Totally missed ride, decided to go into forest anyway since I'd gone pretty far and assumed I'd missed it, saw some rocks and stuff and assumed they weren't mapped [should have tried harder to match these up since they are clearly on the map and would've helped a lot!] then came out on obvious path to E but assumed it was ride to W. I can only assume this was due to exhaustion since it would have been scandalous for this massive obvious thing to be mapped as a ride and the one earlier to not have been - but anyway. Messed about for ages and eventually worked out what I'd done.
Then very annoyed at this point and messed up 26 as well - mainly because AGAIN didn't notice crossing one of these mythical rides! So ended up going via 2. 27 easy on obvious veg boundary. 28 bit of a bingo control on a tiny crag not close to anything, so a bit of miss there too.
29 on a veg boundary that was impossible to follow, but they did have the grace to map it as indistinct this time.
Finished 16th/24 - with 8 retirements, so effectively last finisher, although I was beating each of them when they retired so totally counting them. The fact that one-third of the entrants retired says quite a lot about the terrain and nature of the course - I ran 18.5km and much of that was through heather/bilberry/brashings.
Given others have complained about the rides as well, not too upset with orienteering ability on this occasion. Hope for an area better suited to me next year!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/511503782
Thursday May 29, 2014 #
Orienteering race (NGOC Challenge Barnwood) 34:38 [5] 8.0 km (4:20 / km)
Torrential rain throughout.
Entirely stationary halfway to #1 which was a bit depressing; didn't realise till then North lines didn't align with paper edge. Arrgh! Apparently can't cope with that; it's confusing because control numbers are still printed to align with the page. If the software allows it I'd urge future planners to align the control numbers with the North lines.
With hindsight it probably was the best route to #1, but its not the route I meant to take.
Bad route choice 6-7 meant Richard overtook me after I passed him at 5. I blame the lines again! Rest ok.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/509596799
Entirely stationary halfway to #1 which was a bit depressing; didn't realise till then North lines didn't align with paper edge. Arrgh! Apparently can't cope with that; it's confusing because control numbers are still printed to align with the page. If the software allows it I'd urge future planners to align the control numbers with the North lines.
With hindsight it probably was the best route to #1, but its not the route I meant to take.
Bad route choice 6-7 meant Richard overtook me after I passed him at 5. I blame the lines again! Rest ok.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/509596799
C • Rain 1
Wednesday May 28, 2014 #
Orienteering race (BOK Urban - Cheddar) 34:45 [5] 5.9 km (5:53 / km)
Enjoyed sprint-style controls at the start; could have done with some line/circle breaking but no real mistakes.
Bit of time lost on 14 (the planner's garden! - definite circle breaking required here) but didn't take long to notice the "Orienteer's Welcome" sign :)
A minute lost on 16 due to inadequate visualisation - was expecting a low fence and was actually a high fence/hedge combo - didn't imagine a path on the other side so assumed was in some kind of unmapped alley. Should definitely have worked it out faster than I did! And with hindsight it would have been easier to go to the south as much more difficult to mess up from that direction.
Managed to not run off the map from 17-18 and thus secured a rare victory over Adam* :) although he was faster than me on most other legs
North route to 18 slightly faster than South, so bad decision there. Little miss on 25 looking too early - 15 secs or so.
Hopefully will be back in time from actuarial qualification presentation in london in order to do the ngoc urban, but this is slightly questionable.
*I make that three times in about 5 years...
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/508995904
Bit of time lost on 14 (the planner's garden! - definite circle breaking required here) but didn't take long to notice the "Orienteer's Welcome" sign :)
A minute lost on 16 due to inadequate visualisation - was expecting a low fence and was actually a high fence/hedge combo - didn't imagine a path on the other side so assumed was in some kind of unmapped alley. Should definitely have worked it out faster than I did! And with hindsight it would have been easier to go to the south as much more difficult to mess up from that direction.
Managed to not run off the map from 17-18 and thus secured a rare victory over Adam* :) although he was faster than me on most other legs
North route to 18 slightly faster than South, so bad decision there. Little miss on 25 looking too early - 15 secs or so.
Hopefully will be back in time from actuarial qualification presentation in london in order to do the ngoc urban, but this is slightly questionable.
*I make that three times in about 5 years...
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/508995904
Monday May 26, 2014 #
Orienteering race (Cookworthy) 1:15:46 [5] 8.1 km (9:21 / km) +150m 8:34 / km
(sick)
Bit of a disaster to end the weekend - lots of small misses, dwarfed by one massive error...
1-10 reasonable. Bit difficult to get out of #2 (0.8V here). At #10 (maybe one third of the course) I was in third; 1.5 mins behind Adam, 6 secs behind Pete Ward, 2 secs ahead of Ben Chesters. A good place to be.
Then disaster. Long leg c.1.5km; no path option. Went broadly straight; stayed in contact; knew exact position for about 1km. Then something happened with earthbanks and fences...I went to pieces for some reason; everything seemed to be a marsh, the high fence was just one strand of 7ft high wire which sometimes wasn't there...looking at my route now I have no idea what I was doing? I think I was convinced that the fence I'd found 200m W of the control was actually the one 20m SW of the control (this explains why I went N) to the fence by the edge of the open...eventually even following the fence/marsh didn't convince me of where I was; the open/land/earthbank combinations didn't help me to relocate and it was only the shape of the light green veg boundary to the SW which told me where I was...eventually. Lost 9 mins here.
Lesson - I don't even know. Leg was going well up until that point. Should have been concentrating on the expected distances between features rather than just features; eg "there will be an earthbank in 50m, then a fence in another 100m", rather than "there will be an earthbank, then a fence". I think this would have corrected my error as then would've known hadn't gone far enough.
After that, made a lot of minor errors probably as a result of being frustrated and trying to go too fast. Bad route to 13 as too many ditches to jump. 14; major veg boundary unmapped although this is no excuse for being on the wrong side of the earthbank! 17, ventured OOB since failed to make out the earthbank right on the edge of the OOB since the purple overprint goes right to the edge. Overkill to have both green settlement colour AND purple overprint? No more notable mistakes.
Fingers crossed for clean runs in the British champs next week; especially in the relay!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/507646379
1-10 reasonable. Bit difficult to get out of #2 (0.8V here). At #10 (maybe one third of the course) I was in third; 1.5 mins behind Adam, 6 secs behind Pete Ward, 2 secs ahead of Ben Chesters. A good place to be.
Then disaster. Long leg c.1.5km; no path option. Went broadly straight; stayed in contact; knew exact position for about 1km. Then something happened with earthbanks and fences...I went to pieces for some reason; everything seemed to be a marsh, the high fence was just one strand of 7ft high wire which sometimes wasn't there...looking at my route now I have no idea what I was doing? I think I was convinced that the fence I'd found 200m W of the control was actually the one 20m SW of the control (this explains why I went N) to the fence by the edge of the open...eventually even following the fence/marsh didn't convince me of where I was; the open/land/earthbank combinations didn't help me to relocate and it was only the shape of the light green veg boundary to the SW which told me where I was...eventually. Lost 9 mins here.
Lesson - I don't even know. Leg was going well up until that point. Should have been concentrating on the expected distances between features rather than just features; eg "there will be an earthbank in 50m, then a fence in another 100m", rather than "there will be an earthbank, then a fence". I think this would have corrected my error as then would've known hadn't gone far enough.
After that, made a lot of minor errors probably as a result of being frustrated and trying to go too fast. Bad route to 13 as too many ditches to jump. 14; major veg boundary unmapped although this is no excuse for being on the wrong side of the earthbank! 17, ventured OOB since failed to make out the earthbank right on the edge of the OOB since the purple overprint goes right to the edge. Overkill to have both green settlement colour AND purple overprint? No more notable mistakes.
Fingers crossed for clean runs in the British champs next week; especially in the relay!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/507646379