Training Log Archive: oxensdIn the 7 days ending Nov 25, 2017:
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Saturday Nov 25, 2017 #
Orienteering race (8.52, 10.64 min/km) 1:30:37 [3] 5.8 km (15:37 / km) +367m 11:52 / km
HVO event on a map slightly updated from the 1980s, in Wanaque NJ. I ran red, 5.8km and 225m climb...this turned out to be a much tougher run than expected. Physically I found the terrain gruelling, the hills and the contours seemed far steeper than expected. My GPS watch reported 367m climb, which is what it felt like and is quite a lot for a 5.8km course. At times (such as uphill from 11) the terrain was so steep I had to practically climb on all fours, and several times I actually got nervous going downhill.
My navigation performance was the worst all year, ranging from the truly ridiculous (first control), to really poor directional control. Only spiked or navigated satisfactorily to about half the controls. No idea why, perhaps it was the old map but that seems like a poor excuse. Just sloppy I guess.
I was the first runner to start as I had to make it back home by 1pm, and the start punch was not in place yet. No big deal since it's just a club race. I then managed the most magnificently poor navigational performance all year going to the first control. First a parallel error led me to run on the wrong path, how it took me almost 300m to discover that should give me pause. Then I underestimated how far I'd run, and looked for the control for a good 5 minutes some 200m to the SW, also mistaking a swamp for one closer to the control. Eventually relocate using the large path and former power line open area, realizing to my astonishment I was 350m to the SW of the control. Wow!
1-2 was fine. 2-3 I veered to the right on the final approach, got pulled downhill and clearly didn't check direction properly. Stood for a while 75m W of the control until I figured out where I was. 2 minutes.
3-4 was fine. 4-5 I got confused by a path that was clearly not on the map. But instead of making a fair assumption that there would be new paths on a map barely updated since the 80s, I ignored my compass and somehow imagined I had ended up at the large path to the SE of the control, which more or less fit with what I was seeing. Several minutes lost meandering around the hills.
5-6 was OK, except on the final approach I should have headed straight for the control instead of going downhill into the reentrant. 30s.
6-7 looks OK based on my GPS track, but actually it was pathetic. I made it down to the path / former power line, but then I was really hesitant about where I was on the path and almost headed into the woods searching for the control some 150m too early. At least I kept my head on but strange how even this could confuse me today. Probably lost 1 min just hesitating.
7-8 was OK, I guess I took the faster route using the path.
8-9 was another example of poor concentration. I was fine coming out on the path / former power line, knew precisely where I was, then just veered to the right for no good reason at all. 1 min lost.
9-10 was fine and pretty quick.
10-11, oh dear. This was supposed to be easy, head straight for the northern tip of the large passable swamp, with the path as a great handle right behind it. I thought I was doing just fine, then found a nice little forest path that I followed. Very pleased with myself, got quickly to the final approach. Then things just didn't fit very well, I started hesitating, then fairly quickly realized where I was and found the control. Probably not much time lost, perhaps a minute owing also to the fast running on the path. But I actually ran off the map! My direction coming out of 10 was around 20 degrees off. How could that happen?!
11-12 involved an incredibly steep climb from 11 up to the path. The map doesn't really do justice to how steep it was, I was on all fours part of the way. The map shows only about 20 meters climb, it felt like twice that.
12-13 was very easy, a quick run along the path albeit very rocky. Decided to stay on the path until the sharp bend, as opposed to following the ridge, and was again rewarded with a very steep climb up and then down again. Felt much steeper and higher than what is shown on the map. Greg Ahlswede caught up to me right by the control.
13-14 was positively hazardous climbing down the steep hill, I was holding onto trees for dear life...Greg somehow gained 15 seconds on me over less than 100 meters.
14-15 saw Greg take off in the distance...tried to follow but no chance. Then made the silly mistake of climbing up just a few meters to the path, which seemed a good idea at the time except the climb down to the control was steep and hazardous through the rock field. Probably cost me almost 1 min due to the time just to climb down from the path.
15-16 was fine.
16-17 at first I planned to run along the river but it was too thick and narrow. Very very steep climb up to the path, practically on all fours again. Then got confused by the various paths and did a detour up the first dried-up creek, lost 1 min.
17 to Finish, managed to screw up even this as I ran to the start triangle not noticing that the finish came before it. 1 min.
All in all lost some 20 minutes. Lesson is to 1) focus on that first control...; 2) running on an old map is different; 3) directional control (not the first time this year). I kept veering to the right. I used to have that problem last year, thought I fixed it early this year, but today it all came back with a vengeance. I have to focus much better and not be sloppy on direction, especially in steep terrain like this.
All that said, beautiful weather and very much appreciate the efforts of the HVO team and Bob in particular for bringing an old map back to life!
Map and GPS track here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxensnas/Archive/Archive/...
My navigation performance was the worst all year, ranging from the truly ridiculous (first control), to really poor directional control. Only spiked or navigated satisfactorily to about half the controls. No idea why, perhaps it was the old map but that seems like a poor excuse. Just sloppy I guess.
I was the first runner to start as I had to make it back home by 1pm, and the start punch was not in place yet. No big deal since it's just a club race. I then managed the most magnificently poor navigational performance all year going to the first control. First a parallel error led me to run on the wrong path, how it took me almost 300m to discover that should give me pause. Then I underestimated how far I'd run, and looked for the control for a good 5 minutes some 200m to the SW, also mistaking a swamp for one closer to the control. Eventually relocate using the large path and former power line open area, realizing to my astonishment I was 350m to the SW of the control. Wow!
1-2 was fine. 2-3 I veered to the right on the final approach, got pulled downhill and clearly didn't check direction properly. Stood for a while 75m W of the control until I figured out where I was. 2 minutes.
3-4 was fine. 4-5 I got confused by a path that was clearly not on the map. But instead of making a fair assumption that there would be new paths on a map barely updated since the 80s, I ignored my compass and somehow imagined I had ended up at the large path to the SE of the control, which more or less fit with what I was seeing. Several minutes lost meandering around the hills.
5-6 was OK, except on the final approach I should have headed straight for the control instead of going downhill into the reentrant. 30s.
6-7 looks OK based on my GPS track, but actually it was pathetic. I made it down to the path / former power line, but then I was really hesitant about where I was on the path and almost headed into the woods searching for the control some 150m too early. At least I kept my head on but strange how even this could confuse me today. Probably lost 1 min just hesitating.
7-8 was OK, I guess I took the faster route using the path.
8-9 was another example of poor concentration. I was fine coming out on the path / former power line, knew precisely where I was, then just veered to the right for no good reason at all. 1 min lost.
9-10 was fine and pretty quick.
10-11, oh dear. This was supposed to be easy, head straight for the northern tip of the large passable swamp, with the path as a great handle right behind it. I thought I was doing just fine, then found a nice little forest path that I followed. Very pleased with myself, got quickly to the final approach. Then things just didn't fit very well, I started hesitating, then fairly quickly realized where I was and found the control. Probably not much time lost, perhaps a minute owing also to the fast running on the path. But I actually ran off the map! My direction coming out of 10 was around 20 degrees off. How could that happen?!
11-12 involved an incredibly steep climb from 11 up to the path. The map doesn't really do justice to how steep it was, I was on all fours part of the way. The map shows only about 20 meters climb, it felt like twice that.
12-13 was very easy, a quick run along the path albeit very rocky. Decided to stay on the path until the sharp bend, as opposed to following the ridge, and was again rewarded with a very steep climb up and then down again. Felt much steeper and higher than what is shown on the map. Greg Ahlswede caught up to me right by the control.
13-14 was positively hazardous climbing down the steep hill, I was holding onto trees for dear life...Greg somehow gained 15 seconds on me over less than 100 meters.
14-15 saw Greg take off in the distance...tried to follow but no chance. Then made the silly mistake of climbing up just a few meters to the path, which seemed a good idea at the time except the climb down to the control was steep and hazardous through the rock field. Probably cost me almost 1 min due to the time just to climb down from the path.
15-16 was fine.
16-17 at first I planned to run along the river but it was too thick and narrow. Very very steep climb up to the path, practically on all fours again. Then got confused by the various paths and did a detour up the first dried-up creek, lost 1 min.
17 to Finish, managed to screw up even this as I ran to the start triangle not noticing that the finish came before it. 1 min.
All in all lost some 20 minutes. Lesson is to 1) focus on that first control...; 2) running on an old map is different; 3) directional control (not the first time this year). I kept veering to the right. I used to have that problem last year, thought I fixed it early this year, but today it all came back with a vengeance. I have to focus much better and not be sloppy on direction, especially in steep terrain like this.
All that said, beautiful weather and very much appreciate the efforts of the HVO team and Bob in particular for bringing an old map back to life!
Map and GPS track here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxensnas/Archive/Archive/...
Thursday Nov 23, 2017 #
12 PM
Treadmill 23:11 [3] 5.0 km (4:38 / km)
ahr:142 max:157
Did some intervals and incline along the way, max speed 9 miles/hour
Wednesday Nov 22, 2017 #
6 PM
Treadmill 24:17 [3] 5.0 km (4:51 / km)
Took it easy, felt surprisingly sluggish. Wonder why?
Sunday Nov 19, 2017 #
Event: WCOC Tarrywile Park
Event: 46th Blue Hills Traverse
11 AM
Orienteering race (16.14km, 9.14 min/km) 2:27:37 [4] 13.2 km (11:11 / km) +534m 9:18 / km
Blue Hills Traverse in Blue Hills, south of Boston. 13.2km course, came in 10 out of about 35. Actually ran 16.1km, 534m climb.
Great fun race. Slightly rainy at first but warm (57 degrees), heavy rain about 30-45 minutes in, then it cleared up and became sunny and 10 degrees cooler. Nice conditions.
Mass start, I took off very quickly but for some reason legs felt quite sluggish on the way to 1. About 8 runners passed me, partly because I took a "shortcut" through some of the green which slowed me down a little.
#2, straight through with no issues, still felt sluggish.
#3, went around on the paths which I think was the better route choice. Slow going up hill...
#4 went W on the path which should have been faster, though I failed to see the path going straight through the green, probably would have been better. The approach was slow on the steep slope, then I hesitated. Lost some time, WinSplits reports 2.44 which surprises me, maybe also because going straight on the path I didn't see was faster.
#5 navigated using the rocky areas as handles and then caught the hill right before the control, no issues.
$6 was a quick sprint. #7 I lost some time on, WinSplits surprisingly doesn't report anything but I probably lost 2 mins, first by straying too far north and even across the stone wall without realizing it at first, then was very hesitant on the final approach to the small cliff, looked for the control for at least 1 minute before finding it practically right below my feet.
#8 was quick except for heavy traffic on the road, had to wait a little before being able to cross. Approached the control from the edge of the dense swamp but it was very runnable.
#9 was also a quick sprint, same with #10 (refreshments, I didn't feel I needed any, just said hi to Jeff who was there). No issues with #11 either, approached it from the path going slightly up the slope.
#12 I took the "tourist route" up the top of the hill, which rewarded me with a glorious view in the sunshine. Wish I could say that was the best route, but should have stayed north on the slope which would have saved me 25m climb. Clearly didn't analyze the contour lines enough. Plus the path up and especially down the hill was very rocky and slow. But the view was great! Tried to make up for it sprinting on the path and approaching the control, but no doubt lost a good 2 mins.
#13 and #14, tried to make up for lost time by sprinting which went well.
#15, had passed JJ somewhere around 13 or 14, and tried to keep up the pace to 15, but came too far to the right and picked the wrong boulder. Turned around and saw JJ at the control 50 m behind me...
#16, for some reason kept pulling right which meant I completely missed the path and had to struggle through some blueberry. JJ gained a minute on me from 14 to 16...
#17, after some initial hesitation decided to go on the paths to the right which turned out very fall, fast running past the lake and to the road. Looked for JJ but turns out I passed him by 2 minutes to 17.
#18 was straight forward. 19, went around on the paths to the north which was quick except for a lot of climb. Think faster than going all the way around to the south though.
#20 was a straight shot. #21 was mostly a road run, except I started cramping and had to slow down a lot.
#22 veered a little to the south and had to climb up the ridge, but not too much lost.
#23 had trouble reading the map due to the "alternate" scale on this section, but found the path which was rather big and then it was easy going into the control.
#24 slower than should have been as I had trouble reading the map, but no mistakes.
To the finish couldn't read the map at all but just aimed south and found big paths.
Overall a good race, not too many mistakes and running speed was "ok", certainly improved from Hudson Highlander - but still a long way to go before I am at what I would consider an acceptable speed. More intense training needed this winter...had some trouble with my eyes, they kept tearing up which is not unusual at the beginning of a race when it is a little cold, but today it kept happening and didn't help reading the detailed map towards the end. Maybe because of fairly strong winds.
Map with GPS track:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxensnas/Archive/Archive/...
Great fun race. Slightly rainy at first but warm (57 degrees), heavy rain about 30-45 minutes in, then it cleared up and became sunny and 10 degrees cooler. Nice conditions.
Mass start, I took off very quickly but for some reason legs felt quite sluggish on the way to 1. About 8 runners passed me, partly because I took a "shortcut" through some of the green which slowed me down a little.
#2, straight through with no issues, still felt sluggish.
#3, went around on the paths which I think was the better route choice. Slow going up hill...
#4 went W on the path which should have been faster, though I failed to see the path going straight through the green, probably would have been better. The approach was slow on the steep slope, then I hesitated. Lost some time, WinSplits reports 2.44 which surprises me, maybe also because going straight on the path I didn't see was faster.
#5 navigated using the rocky areas as handles and then caught the hill right before the control, no issues.
$6 was a quick sprint. #7 I lost some time on, WinSplits surprisingly doesn't report anything but I probably lost 2 mins, first by straying too far north and even across the stone wall without realizing it at first, then was very hesitant on the final approach to the small cliff, looked for the control for at least 1 minute before finding it practically right below my feet.
#8 was quick except for heavy traffic on the road, had to wait a little before being able to cross. Approached the control from the edge of the dense swamp but it was very runnable.
#9 was also a quick sprint, same with #10 (refreshments, I didn't feel I needed any, just said hi to Jeff who was there). No issues with #11 either, approached it from the path going slightly up the slope.
#12 I took the "tourist route" up the top of the hill, which rewarded me with a glorious view in the sunshine. Wish I could say that was the best route, but should have stayed north on the slope which would have saved me 25m climb. Clearly didn't analyze the contour lines enough. Plus the path up and especially down the hill was very rocky and slow. But the view was great! Tried to make up for it sprinting on the path and approaching the control, but no doubt lost a good 2 mins.
#13 and #14, tried to make up for lost time by sprinting which went well.
#15, had passed JJ somewhere around 13 or 14, and tried to keep up the pace to 15, but came too far to the right and picked the wrong boulder. Turned around and saw JJ at the control 50 m behind me...
#16, for some reason kept pulling right which meant I completely missed the path and had to struggle through some blueberry. JJ gained a minute on me from 14 to 16...
#17, after some initial hesitation decided to go on the paths to the right which turned out very fall, fast running past the lake and to the road. Looked for JJ but turns out I passed him by 2 minutes to 17.
#18 was straight forward. 19, went around on the paths to the north which was quick except for a lot of climb. Think faster than going all the way around to the south though.
#20 was a straight shot. #21 was mostly a road run, except I started cramping and had to slow down a lot.
#22 veered a little to the south and had to climb up the ridge, but not too much lost.
#23 had trouble reading the map due to the "alternate" scale on this section, but found the path which was rather big and then it was easy going into the control.
#24 slower than should have been as I had trouble reading the map, but no mistakes.
To the finish couldn't read the map at all but just aimed south and found big paths.
Overall a good race, not too many mistakes and running speed was "ok", certainly improved from Hudson Highlander - but still a long way to go before I am at what I would consider an acceptable speed. More intense training needed this winter...had some trouble with my eyes, they kept tearing up which is not unusual at the beginning of a race when it is a little cold, but today it kept happening and didn't help reading the detailed map towards the end. Maybe because of fairly strong winds.
Map with GPS track:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxensnas/Archive/Archive/...
