Training Log Archive: dbakker

Don't have much homework yet, so looking at possible orienteering locations in Kelowna. I need to update the UBC-O map (do a bit of fieldwork on it), but there is so much construction right now I'm not entirely sure that it is worth it until at least part of the project is finished.

Also, fresh off SART, I'm thinking about the possibility of a OART (Okanagan Adventure Running Tournament) that is in different towns each year in the Okanagan, and would be run by juniors (Me, Rachel, Alexander, ???) as a fundraiser for JWOC/NAOC/COC etc. In Seattle, they sold out with 80 people, but only needed less than 10 volunteers (a number of whom could compete in the events) to run the entire event.

As for event timing, maybe end of April type thing after exams are finished? Other suggestions?

SATURDAY:

Time Trial: City Park (waterfront by the bridge) or Cottonwoods Care Home/S Matheson Elementary. Both would be new maps, not sure on permitting for either. City Park is a little bland, but very touristy, while Cottonwoods is smaller but more interesting.

Round 1: Okanagan College Kelowna Campus. New Map, permitting likely given Alumni status and Brian May's connections?

Round 2: Mission Creek Park. Existing ISOM map, which would be interesting enough if blown up to 1:5000, or converted to ISOM. Permitting entirely through City of Kelowna. Could possibly run two events here in a pinch.

Round 3: Parkinson Park (fairly boring and really flat), Knox Mountain Park (boring and very Hilly), or a night-o on one of the many, many golf courses that are everywhere in this city. Permitting ???

SUNDAY:

Round 4: Academy Hill (where I live). A mixture of large, awkwardly shaped apartment buildings, and steep hillsides (with an interesting enough bench that I found today) owned by City of Kelowna and then whatever company manages all the buildings (I know it is all one company, just can't remember the name at the moment). Permitting ??? If this falls through, you could probably do 2 at UBC-O (Round 4 being mostly on the trails to the north of the University and maybe upper residences) considering the size of the map.

Round 5: UBC-O. Orienteering in interior BC doesn't get better than this. Permitting: probable since we are all students here, and Alexander has connections with a lot of important people here.

Am I completely crazy? Thoughts?

Alternatively, you could do 1 day in Kelowna and the other in Vernon if permitting or map making is a significant issue.

C • Tournaments 2

Going over what I did at SART with Rachel.

Easy run exploring some trails and stretching out the legs. Met up with Rachel for the last little bit.

This race was rather disapointing. I took all of the right routes, only made one error which cost me about 3 seconds coming out of #12 to the south of the olive green instead of turning around. I was still well back in my heat, so apparently running intevals are actually a good idea if you want to be able to run fast.

Basically, this race was 95% about running speed, and had almost no navigational or route-choice challenge. It was still run, but I wish this had happened yesterday when the field was more separate, since with how it worked out only running speed mattered to get into the final.

I ended up 6 seconds outside the final, in 8th/10 for the round.

The Forked Final! And it was awesome(ly painful)!

The forking meant you actually had to navigate, which was great. Awesome area, nice and technical, especially all the pathways in the forked loops around 15-22. I honestly wish that the Sunday morning event was forked as well.

I made a few mistakes on this race, which cost me a fair bit.

First mistake was coming out of #8, I ran south around the garden, then went north of the building, then back south to #9 (I took the S route) instead of going north or south. Indecision hurts.

Also made a minor mistake on #13, running south of the building rather than north, losing around 10 steps to Siri on this leg. At 13 the entire heat of 5 punched within 3 seconds of each other! This was so awesome!

I made a mistake on 16, thinking I could get out the north end of the pool, so ended up running all the way around the impassable water in a clockwise direction....

Mistake on 20, following Graeme out of 19. The rest was perfect, spiked everything, but just didn't have the running speed on the legs from 24 onwards. If the course had gone from 24 back to the tennis courts I think it would have been better. It would have been within sprint specification (less than 15 minute winning time) and avoided the tacked on running legs of 25-29.

Still tons of fun, and a big thank you to Patrick and everyone who helped out for an amazing weekend!

Event: 2017 SART (9/9/17 & 9/10/17)
 

This ended up far longer than initially intended, as I got to the start and really had to use the bathroom, so ran back to the parking and back.

Note: Forgot my garmin this entire weekend, so all distances are either race distances, or for warmups/cool downs, are approximate.

Took me a while to remember how to orienteer.... haven't really done that since JWOC (with the exception of a single training session and a bit of mapping). Also had to remember how to run fast, haven't done that since Finland either.

Little mistake on number 1 (veered slightly left of the control), then a major error on 2, where I came south of the first fence to the road, up the road, and completely missed the fence by the control circle. Nearly ran into, had to turn around and run around the outside of it.

3 and 4 - clean

hesitated on 5, hadn't read ahead - about 5 seconds lost.

6,7,8,9,10,11 - pretty clean no major problems.

Round 1 of SART a Lynndale park where I first encounter the west coast wonder called blackberries! I happily took the wrong routechoice, made a mistake on it and went through a (in my defense very thin chunk of dark green) which were thick, prickly blackberries that promptly had me at a complete standstill. I fought my way out, and made it to #1 around the same time as the other people in my heat.

#2 - took the silly southern route, instead of running around and up from the bottom.

#3 - ignored the trails, used the contours, spiked it.

#4 - used the larger trail to the south, avoided any possibility of blackberries, spiked it.

#5 - easy

#6 - took the first half of the road, then through the fields to the north of the school.

#7,8 easy

#9, ran to the north of all three diamonds, cutting through the middle might have been faster. This control was totally not on a legal feature in my honest opinion. Between 2 light green "thickets" that didn't seem any thicker than the forest around it.

#10, 11, 12 spiked

#13, south side of tennis courts

#14, bearing ish thing into the mess of trails hoping for the best, got it pretty well.

#15 - spiked

Overall - a fun race in a forested park. Awesome to be on a sprint map that I didn't make. Head to head experience all but non-existent, I didn't see anybody from my heat after control #1, despite running fairly slowly.

Pia dragged me out for a cool down.

Racing against Mark Prior, we were neck and neck until #12, when he skipped it and went straight to 13, me yelling furiously at him to turn back. Realized his mistake, lost at least 30 seconds, and I was able to cruise to victory in the heat. Really fun complex section around 2,3,8,9 and a couple of other fun legs as well. From 14 onwards felt slightly tacked on.

Mistake on #3, where I thought it was accessible from the parking lot, so ran east down the steps, when I should have continued across the top and down the ramp.

Little mistake on 7, where I ran outside the vegetation, rather than next to the building.

Mistake on 16, going north of thick vegetation into the parking lot and north of the building, instead of staying on the trail for longer and going south of the building.

Warm-Up

Cool-Down

Getting serious, so longer warm-up time.

This was a total blast, and would love to do something like this in Salmon Arm/Kelowna on a golf course for a local event if we could find a willing golf course. We are kind of running out of mappable areas in Salmon Arm, so golf courses might be a good option to avoid over-using maps.

I ran with Will for most of the race (I was almost always slightly behind and following), but he was running faster than me and when I hooked #15 he was gone (less than 10 seconds lost). Also made a mistake on #2, which while not quite as serious as Will's still lost me about 15 seconds, while he lost around 20 I'd guess. Tiny bobble on #8 as well.

Felt like I should actually do some training despite the smoke considering my "dark horse" status this coming weekend. Little do they know that my training log has been pretty blank (which is something that definitely needs to change!)

A few other people's predictions:
https://attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_11907/per...

https://attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/messa...

https://attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/messa...

Easy Running in the smoke. Tried to keep it really easy, could feel it in the back of throat and lungs on the way back up Academy Hill.

Doing a few accelerations in the underground parking of U3 to get a bit of intensity in while avoiding the smoke. Turns out that the parking garage is good for something even if you don't have a car!

Up the stairs twice (and down of course) pretty easy, then as fast as possible (without using railings to yank myself around corners) up and back down. 42 seconds.

Strength after running out on the deck. Too cheap for a gym membership (and don't really like going there anyways). Mostly just need this smoke to go away so I can actually go running and biking.

It's really smokey in Kelowna. Had time for a run this evening (didn't get into the Justin Trudeau thing, but got to see him outside the event from around 35 metres away and his hair is as good as it is in the photos!), but with the air quality just didn't want to do it.

We have WiFi now which is great!

So the fire alarm went off at 1 o clock in the morning last night. I had earplugs in, so was blissfully sleeping through it until my roomates woke me up. False alarm, the entire building is still there.