Training Log Archive: barb

Armchair at Logan; on the way to IS champs.

C • April 1st 3

Training, Ohio.

We are applying for a grant to run a 6-week 20-hour-a-week summer program serving a dozen Cambridge teenagers. They would learn to orienteer, figure out how to teach it, and teach it to kids in summer camps in the city. The grant would pay them an hourly wage, and also pay for supervisor and some supplies. The grant application is due Monday.

We are packing! Walter is coming! This is gonna be great.
Today Isak took the high school team to train on the Harvard map.

Placed epunch controls for training of the three MS boys.
Consultation with Isak, Dave, Izzy last night resulted in the following training:
First do a lot of armchair with well designed yellow courses, while jogging around.
Then do mass start with forking at every single control. Do it twice with different map combos. Stay focused despite having others running near you possibly to your control and possibly not.

Our best (next to Isak) high school boy is in the hospital ER with impetigo and/or poison ivy like rash, really bad. Started after training on Saturday I think.

C • Good luck with the P-I! 2

Yay!
Planted maybe 60 sq ft of garden. Spinach, lettuce, bok choi, fava beans, radishes, parsley. Isak helped. Dave worked on the chicken coop and dirt.

Easter brunch. Dave photo (as usual)

To see Rachael's rugby game (Harvard)

I was out with the kids for a short time; mostly I was at the start/finish.
Two exercises today, both designed by Isak.
Ian came to help today, which was great.
The first was contours only, and the team did it in pairs or three, with shadow.
Then the kids ran their own courses. Half were shadowed. The two high schoolers not shadowed finished first. The one middle schooler not shadowed had trouble and did not make it to all the controls.
My favorite time was the animated course review with Ian. He did such a nice job with them.
Harlan and Keegan think that Ian is *exactly* like some character from one of these superhero shows, I think Roy Harper from Arrow. When they found out later he works at MIT, Harlan said, he's even more like Roy Harper.
We had a potluck dinner with as many of the parents as could make it, and Isak set up an Easter-O, really a memory-O around the neighborhood.

Hanging then retrieving controls for the 3 CSUS boys at Boojum. They did really well; Keegan seems to have come back from some humbling times; Alex did fine until the end when he got pretty lost, and Harlan was solid except when he saw either of the other boys; we've talked a bit about the psychology of seeing other people. (I tell them, when you see someone else, slow down and look at your map. I think I need to do some sort of exercise related to that.)

I had them do relocation exercises while I hung controls: run around for a while and then figure out where they were. They then met me at the start and did the course, staggered starts, and I followed behind retrieving controls.

C • KH 2

Yesterday Isak took Walter to Pine Hill map in the morning (they had a late start due to state testing of sophomores). They did an advanced course, taking it slowly and talking through attackpoints, route choices, etc. In the afternoon, Isak added a sprint on the Harvard map to track practice, for the other 3 guys. Jeffrey did very well with it. Pilli struggled a little; at first going with Jeffrey and feeling slower - but then Isak worked with him in the second half to slow him down and have him think through each leg. Ethan picked it up OK.

Hung some flags and orienteered with Keegan and Nicolena at Hammond Pond. They struggled with the navigation; Keegan said it was humbling. I think that's a good experience to have at this stage.

The press release got picked up.

This morning Isak is taking Walter to do an orange course in the Fells; this afternoon he'll have the high school team do an urban sprint training during track practice. Tomorrow I will take Keegan somewhere, maybe Hammond Pond; should have hung streamers ystrday. Friday the CSUS kids will do another course, possibly at Boojum on a map with no trails, and Saturday we're heading to Nobscot for some contour work. Sunday is off for Easter. Monday and Tuesday the CSUS team will train, and then Thursday evening and Friday morning in Ohio. Psyched.

C • You are awesome 2

Yellow course at Hammond Pond with Alex and Harlan. It went pretty well. We mostly did it together, pausing at each control and talking about alternative routes.

I am seeking advanced orienteers to work with the Cambridge team on Friday and Saturday.
I am not fast enough to keep up with them, and they would benefit from running courses with immediate feedback and corrections. Isak and I have been doing our best to teach, but for this last practice before the Interscholastics it would be great to have more individualized attention.

Today was good. 10 minutes of running an easy course at Fresh Pond. Then about 45 minutes at Harlan's house learning map symbols, walking through route choices on a typical yellow course, learning about the guidelines for course design for their level of course, and then designing a course (each of them separately) on the map that will be used for competition.

Saw the track guys working out at Fresh Pond, and so I handed them O maps to work on. It was fun; they were not expecting me and marveled that I found them.

Dave and I placed electronic controls at Pine Hill using an "attackpoint" training course that I think Erin may have designed, or Ed or Alex, for a sprint camp. Then we went back to the woods; I was there with kids for 4 hours, first the high school, then the middle school team.

All the kids were there; we first did half of the course, then a distance/direction exercise (see below) and then the second half of the course.

THANK YOU so much to those who have donated to our fundraiser, getting Cambridge kids to the Interscholastics. It is a crazy dream but you know, I think they are actually going to do well. I really do. When I see contributions from my orienteering friends, it makes me feel supported and is really motivating.

Yesterday we trained at Danehy on courses set by Isak. Keegan was a little disappointed that he did not beat the high school track guys.

Tomorrow we go to the woods again, during the time that a winter storm is supposed to be starting. I think we'll do a hard yellow course at speed and do some work on distance and compass.

A lot has been happening! Tuesday, Isak led the entire CRLS team through a tough course designed by Ian Smith. They met at each control and discussed strategy for the next leg. It was rainy and a little cold.

Thursday, the CRLS team sold baked goods and talked about orienteering to parents at the high school, as part of the teacher conferences night. Very successful - we brought in $129, and recruited a girl to come to orienteering training.

Friday, both the CSUS and CRLS teams (plus the girl) trained at Danehy Park - first with a longer streamered course (with lots of route choice around uncrossabel fences) and then an electronic punch course. Navigation Games provided loaner thumb compasses and the epunch equipment. Isak designed the courses. It got cold and rainy toward the end.

I spent yesterday baking and "working".
I spen today hanging streamers, and driving frantically back and forth to work for meetings, and then driving the kids there and back and coaching.

Here is a photo from Sunday's grid-O exercise; we learned this exercise from Erin at the Arizona training camp:

Isak, Pilli, Ethan and Jeffrey conducted a bake sale and orienteering consciousness awareness yesterday at parent-teacher night. Isak's idea, from a suggestion by Elizabeth. I baked all day, including a highly successful new recipe for choc chip cookies (in the past I have always made Toll House version but was told no nuts, and some research led to a new recipe). I didn't attend the bake sale (instead going to a CSU/hang-with-Diego meeting), but did drop-off and pick-up of stuff. They wore the hats. They prOselytized. It was good. It was gratifying to have this happen without me needing to be there. Isak is awesome.

Jeffrey was talking about going door to door for donations, and asked me if I thought one person alone or two people would be more successful. I mentioned this to Isak later, and Isak said he managed to convince Jeffrey that going door to door was his (Jeffrey's) idea.

We are up to $94 + $555 toward our goal of $3600.



Dave took this photo - the maps were for the star / attackpoint-to-control exercise from last weekend and Monday.

C • Goal 2

Yesterday Isak took the CRLS team to experience Ian's training course at Prospect Hill. They met up at each control. Sometimes some of them executed the leg reasonably cleanly. Isak mopped up the rest of them. Ethan was best in the beginning, but faded; ran out of steam - they had also done a 4-mile run for track before starting, and the woods were wet and cold. Walter improved and was the best during the last half.
This picture is not from yesterday; rather, it was from the much nicer (weather wise) training on Sunday at Boojum.

Navigation Games news:

Dave and I met with the director of Community Schools in Cambridge. We need teachers for spring after-school classes, so if you're interested let me know! If you know anyone in the Cambridge area you think might be good - again, let me know!

Also, we want to run a 6-week summer camp, 20 hours/week, July 7-Aug 15. Need people to work that. For teens, to teach them (1) how to orienteer (2) how to teach other kids and (3) how to put on an event.

We have a 19-year-old coming for the summer; she is not an orienteer or a teacher but she likes maps and is willing to work for us. She'll stay with me and Dave.

And, we are training two teams for IS champs! :-)

C • 6 weeks 6

I convinced a bunch of Cambridge kids and their parents to go to the IS champs and said I was confident that we could raise a lot of the money so they didn't have to pay $500 each for the trip. So far we've got about half of the hotel bill covered, and donations of $145 on our fundraising page. NEOC agreed to handle the money to reduce fees by allowing us to use Generosity.com, which is awesome.
Anyway, if you can donate cash or loan us a thumb compass through April 4th, that would be awesome.

As incentive, here is a photo of two of the athletes on the Intermediate Schools team.

C • Map 2

Today I took the 4 7th graders to Boojum. There was some light rain, which cleared up partway through. I worked with Alex and Nic on distance estimation, orienting the map, route planning. I sent Keegan and Harlan to do the star exercise (practice going from attackpoint to control), and asked them to pick up the controls (placed yesterday). Everyone did better than yesterday. I was happy. Yesterday was interesting - seeing the group being 7th graders. I had kind of forgotten about 7th graders, and assumed I would just have 4 Keegans, or two pairs of Keegan+Harlan. Alex and Nic injected a sassy vibe, you could say.
I love how focused they can be, while still easily slipping back into random patter when there is space for it. They were completely engaged with the training. They went through an armchair course with me on the Ohio map afterward, that went great.

Dave and I hung controls in the morning.
We spent the afternoon in the woods with the team, training.

Went to Pine Hill with Dave and checked out some of the control locations for an old CSU race. I think they could work as an orange training course for the high school team.

We are up to 8 definite athletes at the IS Champs on two teams (Int and JV), plus 5 parents, another coach (Izzy), and the possibility of another 2 kids plus 1 parent. Dream come true. All flight, rental car and hotel arrangements have been made. Still need to register one or two people.

In other news, I got to spend time with little Diego (Katia & Giovanni's son) last night! He is twice as big as he was last time I saw him. He smiles.

C • Diego sighting 1

Took a stats midterm today.

Nearly final plans are now in place CRLS is fielding a JV team at the Interscholastics Championships. We will have 6 or 7 guys, and I hope it works out!

C • IS Teams 13

Spent an hour and a half at Boojum with Keegan and Harlan. We did the same exercises as yesterday with the high school track kids. Keegan and Harlan were faster than me so I had them pick up the ribbons and just met them at the finish of each of 5 little courses. Then I had them do the orange level legs at the end. Keegan prefers urban sprints to being in the scratchy woods. Harlan likes the woods. They have different strategies that work well for them; I forget the details at the moment, but Harlan doesn't read the map well while moving, so he stops, carefully figures out the next step, identifies where he's going, and gets there as fast as he can. Repeat.

I'm getting kind of excited. Will register the team today. We have 5 boys, plus two more possible ones. Need to fundraise to pay for it. Need to train them in the remaining 3-4 weeks. Have to figure out travel logistics. Slightly overwhelming but a lot of fun.

Isak is doing a great job of coaching the other boys. I really appreciate how open he has been to trying to pull off this adventure. He had a couple sessions with some of the xc team members in the fall, laying the groundwork.

Setting white/yellow controls for 3 CRLS kids in our first team training. It will be interesting to see if we pull this off.
Tomorrow I plan to train with a younger kid on the same maps. Need to print a couple more out because while I was in the woods I gave away three maps to passersby with kids. People are remarkably open to stranger old ladies handing out maps and explaining about orienteering.

A few more potential recruits. We will try and round them up and take them to the woods on Sunday for a first training.

Went by school in the morning to drop off some flyers, trying to raise a team.

First training with Keegan. We focused on distance estimation.
Potential recruits include Alex, Harlan and Pilli

Working on fielding an IS team; will know sometime this week. Need to talk to GuyO.

This is cool. Robin's Butte score-O. Isabel's track is in green. The guy who came in third, behind her, is shown in purple. There were decoy controls, and you can see when people were fooled.