Training Log Archive: jjcote

NA "Long" Champs, Rocky Ridge (ON), Geezer division (M45-54) again. Mostly a clean, fast run, with one small error in a complex area, and on 4-minute bobble looking for a control in a pit on the edge of green, in a tight orbit around it without seeing it. Managed to luck into probably the sweetest route on the long leg, not that you could discern that from the map, and really pushed hard for the last section. Managed 3rd place, only 49 seconds behind Stanislav in 2nd. Even without the mistakes, James Tasker in 1st was probably still out of reach. Particularly since on my worst leg, he also tanked it and was only 3 seconds faster than I was.

I found this place to be somewhat thick, with horrible footing, which may have played to my advantage, because those things may slow other people down more than they do me. I also found the map to be pretty hard to read, both in terms of some of the contours being different from what I would have expected, and some of the colors making things tough (light yellow v. light green, and the limestone pavement obliterating contous, though not as badly as the previous map). There were also some places where the fieldwork was a little dubious, bringing luck into play, and a few things that I consider drafting errors (streams shown as pale blue with no black bank lines). Although it's a place where I did quite well, I'm not sure that it's one I'd make a big effort to return to.

That said, the organizers did a great job in terms of the arrangements, with cookout food available, a nice spectator/socializing area at the finish, and absolutely perfect weather. Software incompatibility issues with the SI system had me rolling my eyes, but my results did come out correctly.

Huh. Well, in addition to having done pretty well at the event, WinSplits has a "times without mistakes" option wherein (if I understand correctly), it changes the time on any splits that it judges to be errors to the time it expects you would have done without the error. And doing that shows me in second place (to James Tasker) both days. Implying that I made some costly errors, but I was actually running pretty fast. Since I don't figure I'm in top running shape compared to everybody else right now, I guess this reinforces my theory that the rough footing was advantageous to me, and that I'm good in a relative sense at moving through that kind of stuff.

C • Sweet 4

Long Course 6 - Splits

NA Middle Distance Champs, Rocky Ridge (ON). Not very good for the first three controls, missing a little on the first two, and way off target on the third (though I corrected ok). Then okay for a bit, and another miss, then not too bad for the rest of the course, pushing pretty hard. Handicapped a bit by the fact that I couldn't see the rough open areas in the middle of light green on the map at all. Pretty sloppy run, really, but good enough for a tie for 4th in M45-54, and less than a minute out of the medals.

Jogging to the start.

A fine trip to Bedford Unicycles in the evening to purchase a new seat resulted in a great little story, which I will write up soon.

Middle Course 6 - Splits

Event: 2006 North American Championships (Golden Leaf Orienteering Fest)
 

NA Champs sprint, McMaster University, M20. The notable "Pajamas Run". Late start, only four more after me, and only half of them passed me (Ken Walker and Mike Smith, 1 and 3 min respectively), and I held off Jeremy and Alan. Basically a completely clean run, just three hesitations: a control where I stopped in the circle and had to let my bouncing brain figure out which bush to look behind for the control, one where I stopped in front of the right doorway and took a couple of seconds to realize I had to look inside the doorway, and one where I paused at the beginning of the leg not knowing what to do because I couldn't see the tiny staircase on the map and couldn't figure out how to get into the courtyard where the control was. Wheezing some, which probably slowed down my running speed, but I didn't really lose any appreciable time to navigation errors.

C • Excellent! 1

Jogging back and forth on the road (with some faster bits) with Alan Young to warm up before the sprint.

Sprint 4 - Splits