Training Log Archive: broccolisaIn the 7 days ending May 14, 2017:
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Sunday May 14, 2017 #
Orienteering race (Short Advanced) 1:16:41 [0] 4.91 km (15:37 / km)
P5, Gatineau Park
Yet another rainy orienteering Sunday! Actually it wasn't all that rainy, just a wee bit of showers here and there. Fine by me! And no thunderstorms at all while I was out there, bonus!
I was planning to do the Intermediate course, but it looked like it wasn't going to satisfy my bushwhacking appetite. So, I threw caution to the wind and ventured out on my first ever Short Advanced!
Gear:
- Thumb compass, version 2! I didn't feel in touch with the map at all when I was using the closed model, so I had reverted to using my baseplate the last few outings (plus then I lost the thumb). However, I found my thumb compass safely in a coat pocket, and the O-store was super nice when I asked if there was any possibility of exchanging for the open model. This morning they swapped out my closed base piece for the open version. LOVE the open one! *****SO***** much better. Today's course was my first time using the open model and I felt so much more in touch with the map than with the closed one, and it's definitely more convenient than a baseplate. Finally now I'm totally happy with my compass setup. Yeah!
- GPS watch! Woo! My first time using one! Picked up a Garmin Forerunner 10 a few days ago, $119+tax at MEC. I had no interest in heart rate monitor or anything other than the GPS tracking file to be able to look at it on the computer afterwards, so I gave this low cost model a try. It worked great! Afterwards, was able to upload it to RouteGadget without much issue. One thing though, I had to edit some parts of the route because some of the places where I **knew** I was on a major trail were showing as parallel to the trail. Not sure why that would be. So I guess it isn't 100% accurate, but, close enough I'd say.
- SPI belt with one water bottle worked great. Love this setup,
Ok, so on with today's story.
Driving up, I had fully planned to do the Intermediate course, but when I picked up the map... well, hmm. It seemed pretty easy, 90% trails/roads and hardly any bushwhacking (insert sad face here). I debated which course I should run... I couldn't have a sneak peak at the Short Advanced map since it wasn't given out until the start area. So -- I returned the Intermediate map, went ahead and took the plunge and decided to try my first Short Advanced! (insert mildly nervous but excited face here)
Walking to the start, I wasn't sure if I was in way over my head or what. But then off I went, and with the first control under my belt, I felt confident I'd be able have a good try at the rest of the course.
It went very well! Much better than last weekend's Intermediate. I think last weekend I was assuming it would be easy, so I wasn't nearly as terrain/map-aware as I should have been, thus ended up good and lost a few times. This time I figured it would be hard, so I really focused on taking as slow a pace as I needed to really read the terrain and stay in close contact with the map. This included stopping after most of the controls (a bit of a distance from the control and crouched down, so as not to spoil it for others approaching) and taking my time to decide my route, rather than just bolting off like I'd been doing lately.
There were a few controls that probably would have taken me longer to find had I been all alone out there. But when you know you're close and you see a bunch of people converging -- well, fair good chance you should converge yourself over there too. I hope that's not considered following -- more of an educated guess perhaps? But there were other controls I landed squarely on all by myself. My favourite was -- well I can't remember which one it was, but as I climbed over a steep hill, no one else in sight, I said to myself, "it's going to be right over the crest of this hill", and sure enough, bam there it was. Woo!
So, perhaps I've graduated into Short Advanced now. No plans to do Intermediate again, unless I have a disastrous SA next time and need a confidence boost, who knows!
Yet another rainy orienteering Sunday! Actually it wasn't all that rainy, just a wee bit of showers here and there. Fine by me! And no thunderstorms at all while I was out there, bonus!
I was planning to do the Intermediate course, but it looked like it wasn't going to satisfy my bushwhacking appetite. So, I threw caution to the wind and ventured out on my first ever Short Advanced!
Gear:
- Thumb compass, version 2! I didn't feel in touch with the map at all when I was using the closed model, so I had reverted to using my baseplate the last few outings (plus then I lost the thumb). However, I found my thumb compass safely in a coat pocket, and the O-store was super nice when I asked if there was any possibility of exchanging for the open model. This morning they swapped out my closed base piece for the open version. LOVE the open one! *****SO***** much better. Today's course was my first time using the open model and I felt so much more in touch with the map than with the closed one, and it's definitely more convenient than a baseplate. Finally now I'm totally happy with my compass setup. Yeah!
- GPS watch! Woo! My first time using one! Picked up a Garmin Forerunner 10 a few days ago, $119+tax at MEC. I had no interest in heart rate monitor or anything other than the GPS tracking file to be able to look at it on the computer afterwards, so I gave this low cost model a try. It worked great! Afterwards, was able to upload it to RouteGadget without much issue. One thing though, I had to edit some parts of the route because some of the places where I **knew** I was on a major trail were showing as parallel to the trail. Not sure why that would be. So I guess it isn't 100% accurate, but, close enough I'd say.
- SPI belt with one water bottle worked great. Love this setup,
Ok, so on with today's story.
Driving up, I had fully planned to do the Intermediate course, but when I picked up the map... well, hmm. It seemed pretty easy, 90% trails/roads and hardly any bushwhacking (insert sad face here). I debated which course I should run... I couldn't have a sneak peak at the Short Advanced map since it wasn't given out until the start area. So -- I returned the Intermediate map, went ahead and took the plunge and decided to try my first Short Advanced! (insert mildly nervous but excited face here)
Walking to the start, I wasn't sure if I was in way over my head or what. But then off I went, and with the first control under my belt, I felt confident I'd be able have a good try at the rest of the course.
It went very well! Much better than last weekend's Intermediate. I think last weekend I was assuming it would be easy, so I wasn't nearly as terrain/map-aware as I should have been, thus ended up good and lost a few times. This time I figured it would be hard, so I really focused on taking as slow a pace as I needed to really read the terrain and stay in close contact with the map. This included stopping after most of the controls (a bit of a distance from the control and crouched down, so as not to spoil it for others approaching) and taking my time to decide my route, rather than just bolting off like I'd been doing lately.
There were a few controls that probably would have taken me longer to find had I been all alone out there. But when you know you're close and you see a bunch of people converging -- well, fair good chance you should converge yourself over there too. I hope that's not considered following -- more of an educated guess perhaps? But there were other controls I landed squarely on all by myself. My favourite was -- well I can't remember which one it was, but as I climbed over a steep hill, no one else in sight, I said to myself, "it's going to be right over the crest of this hill", and sure enough, bam there it was. Woo!
So, perhaps I've graduated into Short Advanced now. No plans to do Intermediate again, unless I have a disastrous SA next time and need a confidence boost, who knows!