Training Log Archive: TheInvisibleLog

Around lake Neangar a few times. Even an attempt at a desultory sprint. Coming up to the end of the sprint I was approaching two young ladies out exercising. The cardigan and trendy sneaker brigade. Just as I approached, they started running, and left me. I gave up at that stage. When the fashion flunkies leave you in their wake, time to retire before further loss of face.

C • Coming up to the end of the sprint 7

Longest training run in a while.. sort of half my long, slow run... The slow part anyway.

No running, but quite a few hours with Jymbo wandering terrain for 2009 Champs. Click on the photos to go to the full album. The terrain is good. Fast, at times restricted visibility. Bands of runnable light green across parts of the map mean you can't read much of the contour detail ahead. Good rock detail, some areas quite complex, others quite scattered and more difficult. Limited contour detail though. Should be at times technically more challenging than Sappa Bulga, if easier running. More of a Kooyoora style challenge.
Assembly and parking is a challenge also.
Click on the photo to get the full album.

C • Looks great 5

A very different day of orienteering.
New map created by Ian Johnson and OCADed by myself.
In the light of a current thread elsewhere on this site.
1. The map had some errors. We didn't have the time to get it perfect.
2. The mapper is in his late 70s and did the field work for fun.
3. I made some errors in drawing the map because I didn't understand the field work notes.
4. The map was not to ISSOM or ISOM standard. It was 1:2000 scale, with rudimentary contour information, but lots of gold mining detail.

In other words, this was a very unprofessional event. But...

5. The 'competitors' had a lot of fun. Particularly some of the novices. The experienced orienteers learnt that this is a great sprint area that deserves good mapping. It has a good assembly area with all weather access. But it needs some work to control gorse. That might be another volunteer activity. It would cost way beyond our budget to involve professionals.



Here is Ian!



And some more.

Welsford. A nondescript struggle of a run.

Can't really help myself. Response to Tundra's comment, but don't want to clog up the thread.

We all would like to run perfect courses. When we organise we all aim to set perfect courses. I don't know anyone who plans for errors. But they happen sometimes despite best intentions and many many hours of work. It is how we competitors react to these errors that is my concern.

This is the scenario I see forming a coming major event in Australia. Think National Championships.

The national organisation has a schedule of events.
It falls to a certain state to take its turn organising. It takes many months to convince a club to take on the role of organising the event. Perhaps this club is exhausted by a good load of major events over the past 5 years. The club then has to find a 'volunteer' organiser. This may require a degree of encouragement and possibly subtle coercion. The agreement to organise will be grudging out of duty. There is no potential for financial enrichment.

At this stage it seems to me a delusion to suggest there is a 'customer' relationship between the annointed organiser and future competitors. The organiser is taking on a duty to a common community. Financial incentives play no part in influencing the behaviour of the organiser. There is a financial disincentive. There is no market. Allowing fellow orienteers to view themselves as 'customers' of this volunteer organiser sends the wrong message about relationships. The desirable message is something like this.
"I understand this event is organised by a volunteer. If things go wrong, I should treat that person as I would expect to be treated when I volunteer next year. My expectations are that the volunteer will do the best they can, but I will not belive perfection is inevitable".
The expectation of being a "customer" who is "king" or "always right" ha sthe potential to create conflict that will reduce the community spirit that is called on to find volunteers. It may become harder to find a volunteer next year. Relationships nurture the volunteer workforce. We should treasure those relationships and build our policy around maintaining them.

So from my perspective:

1. The volunteer is king

2. See #1.

All the time available for a run around Nagambie at dusk. I think this town wins an award for doing the least with the greatest potential for building a great walking and running track.

Spent the morning in Wangaratta for work. On the way home I drove across a neaby range and went for a short exploratory run. Learnt a fair bit more about the area. Its not all like this. Waterfalls are generally scenic. And steep.

Drove out into the Welsford forest for a lunchtime run. Deiscovered I had left running shoes at home. Played a couple of fiddle tunes then back to the desk. Looks like a run in the dark tonight.

No run tonight. Played fiddle in a fiddle-banjo-guitar combo for a few hours. For the first time in a long time, fiddle felt good. The number of bum notes decreasing.

Spinal care 'run'.

6.2 straight line course measurement.
6.82 could have been improved to 6.74. ie less than 100 metres of error.
Another wonderful day at a Bendigo event. Blue skies, still air, fast open terrain on Lyell Forest. Decided I had to learn to run faster after the lesson of the Aus Champs. Took most of the race beyond my normal race pace, thus proving I have been running conservatively. On this terrain i can get away with the speed. Not so sure how I will go in something more complex.
Felt a little euphoric after the run. Two races in a row with little or no error. Joy at the speed. Reversion to wonderful gentle winter weather.

C • 6.82 4

Muse about Bendigo gully spur terrain.
We picked up a Canadian JWOC team member and took him out to the event. He had read a thread on Attack point where Bendigo was discussed as a contender as the best city in Australia for orienteering. So he made his way down here by train, and then asked for a lift on Attackpoint. The web is useful! Turns out he had never run in spur gully terrain. Sounds strange to us who run on it every day. I think we in Bendigo may underestimate the quality of our lower relief spur gully. Unlike the spur gully turned on by other states for national events, ours has a high gully to contour ratio. This means the experience has more navigation work per grunt. Perhaps we should think about this terrain as suitable for national events.

C • spur / gully 1

Picking up controls for Ian Johnson after the event. One day we won't need to do this on this terrain. Everyone will have an orienteering GPS. The course setter will program a course and everyone will upload it to your GPS as waypoints. You will run to the control, and when you pass through the control location, the orienteering GPS will beep. It won't let you do them out of order.. You won't see a flag from a distance. The GPS will have an option to show you how to navigate back to the finish, but if this is activated, you are disqualified. Otherwise, the screen will rpovide no navigational help in competition mode. You will have to navigate to the spot. IN spur gully the course setter might define a tolerance of 10 metres as being acceptable navigation. No controls to pick up afterwards... or to set out beforehand! No one will be able to stay out after course closure. The course setter will set a closure time in his course definition, and after this time the GPS will go into return to start mode, and you will be unable to continue the course and record control visits. No lost beginners to search for.

I think this will massively reduce the work for local events in spur gully. Not sure it will work in granite where navigation tolerance is currently finer than available cheap GPS accuracy. But high end GPSs with real time correction already give sub metre accuracy! But these are still unreliable under forest cover.

C • accuracy 2

Bugger the running. Time to train the ear and fingers. Fiddle practice. The break from fiddle over the Oz carnival has seen a deterioration in my intonation on the e string. Intonation on the G,D and A strings were surprisingly little damaged by the break.

Dodder track extended. Apt name really. Muscles and joints feeling very creaky and sore.

Racecourse circuit. Sprint and jump to get over the flowing water.
Running more for spinal management than training effect. My back reacts to long haul driving, such as Dubbo to Bendigo in one shift.
I'd whinge about the cold like everyone else, except i was running at lunchtime and not slipping on ice like Jools at 6.00 am this morning. Most unusual conditions for Bendigo. I was out at a speaking engagement at Kyneton last night and came out of the RSL hall at 10.00 pm to be greeted by falling snow.

Australian Relay Champs. Ran with the Chemical symbol for lead on my back. As it turned out, I wasn't the slowest in the team. Much easier navigation, but complacency and running hard meant I made a couple of errors. Maybe lost 90 seconds. That was about the difference between 4th and 5th place. maybe the Pb symbol was appropriate. It was tough running with two large climbs midway through the course. I couldn't see that the alternative route choices would be faster, so gritted my teeth and grunted up. I seem to do comparatively well when courses require strength rather than just speed.

C • Chemical Symbol for Lead? 2

Sappa Bulga. Australian Championships. Despite the extremely rocky terrain, the navigation didn't seem all that difficult. Spur gully navigation with rock feature back up till you got in the circle. Ran under the hour, and made a single 10 second error. I just stopped 20 metres early on the wrong piece of bare rock. Hardly an error really. Still only came in 8th amongst the Australians. That matches my best previous results at national events. I know that only fitness and luck will get me further.

Back management

Western Plains Middle. 4.5k straight line
More great terrain. Quite messy. Messed 4 or the first 6. But then started to settle into the map and the terrain. Surprised by the reasonable result.

Western Plains Challenge 1
Introduction to the Sappa Bulga map. Great area. Excellent course setting. Great long leg that hid the best route choice option from me till after I had finished. Hid it from most others as well. I could have avoided 8 or 9 contours.

Run to control back pain due to the long drive on Friday.

Event: JWOC 2007
 

NSW Champs. Spur gully with some escarpment rock. I still made quite a few errors, and then was slowed by rain and the perennial problem of fogged up glasses. Not too happy with final position.

About to leave for Dubbo. A week sharing digs with 5 or 6 others. Fiddle undesirable. I'm gunna miss it.

Who'd want to run today?

Jools had her annual blood test yesterday, so now the household is under the thumb of the SFP (Saturated Fat Police). As a token of affection, and because I know what's good for me, I am part of the household chocolate de-tox program. I have learnt two facts already. First, Lindt Milk chocolate is one third saturated fat. Now I know why it tastes so soo soooooo soooooo good. I also know why I am fantasising about it more than usual.

Dodder track extended. Took it easy with a few surges. Can snails surge?

Now where did that come from. Started the run with no expectations. After about 100 metres I realised there wasn't as much pain as usual. made a spontaneous decision to run a single Welsford Hill circuit fast. Exceeded expectations by slipping under 20 minutes. Good time for me. I think that is my Dubbo peak.

Extended Dodder circuit.

Celebrated the new financial year by not running. Spent three and a half hours working on the new map until the rain came.
Latest tune.. Pols from Acton. Swedish. Vaguely appropriate for this web site. I was the loner at last year's O-Ringen. I stayed to listen to the Swedish folk group after the spectators had dispersed following the opening ceremony. Likewise I went to the elite sprint early to listen to the local nikelharp player. Very weird instrument that produces an ethereal tone. Halfway between hurdy gurdy and cello.