Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Event: ROC - Mendon Ponds Regular Meet
 

Mendon, Green course.

Given that my knees are apparently not up for any more running, I walked probably 99% of the course. Thus, I knew I was moving slowly, but I was fairly pleased that I didn't make any significant mistakes. In fact, when I was done, I was thinking that this might be the first time when the AP split analysis has a chance of concluding that I had zero lost time. That wasn't quite the case -- I had 43 seconds of lost time, on control #10, and I can see why that would be my bad one. (because I got off line when exiting #9 and covered more ground than I needed to)

So it was encouraging that my lost time was very low, but also a little discouraging that, since I WAS moving quite slowly, I didn't do too well compared to the rest of the Green competitors. Guess that's the new reality though ... so I should be happy to be relatively mistake-free, and not upset that my time is slower than people who are running much of the time.

Only a few specific comments --

Start to #1 -- I went up the first trail that headed up to the ridge, although after I had done that, I was thinking it might have been slightly better to stay on the low trail until the reentrant that headed up to the ridge, very close to where the control was on the other side. Seemed like it might have been a little less climb and a little less distance.

#1 to #2 -- I think that control #1 was placed much higher than the circle indicated. Based on the actual placement, I should have gone back up to the ridge to save some climb, like I see Tyler did. If the control had been lower, in the center of the circle, maybe going the low route out wouldn't have been much worse than going back up to the ridge.

#4 to #5 -- I'm sure when the map was last updated, the vegetation in the field that #5 is in was mapped well, but now it is certainly FUBAR. I saw the coniferous tree from a ways away, and then had to hope that there were passages around the areas of thick, nearly impenetrable vegetation to get to the tree. Fortunately there were.

#5 to #6 -- If the vegetation in the field was as it was mapped, a direct line probably would have made sense, but seeing how thick and badly mapped the vegetation was, I didn't want to rely on making it through the field, so I bailed to the trail to the N of the straight line. Seemed to work well.

#9 to #10 -- got way off line to the right exiting #9, but fortunately it wasn't too far to the trail, so I didn't add too much wasted distance.

#12 to #13 -- took a more or less straight line through the woods with mottled green vegetation shown, which wasn't a problem at all. Came out on the field in a place where I could tell where I was, and quickly found my way to the control. Happy about this one because I was worried about the "overgrown reentrant" feature in a field where the vegetation might have been again badly mapped (but didn't seem to be).

#16 to finish -- took a more or less straight route instead of going out to the road, but I wasn't too happy with the outcome. The going was a little slower than I had expected, plus I wasn't paying enough attention to the contours and wound up doing a bit of extra climb. I think the road would have been the better choice.

My route is on Route Gadget; I think this is the link (can't get to Route Gadget on this computer so I can't confirm it right now, had to use my tiny old laptop to put the route in):
http://www.vmeyer.net/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?ac...

Indoors, WRC. Only 10 people today. But had a number of very good games.

Pickleball probably doesn't seem (especially to people who haven't tried it) like a very strenuous game, and it also doesn't seem like it should be that much of a workout to walk a Green course, but the combination of the two in one day totally wiped me out ... plus my left knee wasn't all that happy, and I'm not sure if was grumbling due to orienteering or pickleball or the combination of the two.

Green - Splits

WRC, indoors. Good group of players.

Whiting Road. Lots of vegetation updates needed. Many because I didn't do the greatest job when I first did the map, but some were due to actual changes in vegetation, many for the better (a few very rough open areas with lots of undergrowth have been cleared out to where they are actual rough open with no undergrowth).

Mostly-suburban dog walk. Getting the feel of the portion of Brighton that is fairly close to Cobb's Hill Park, as an initial rough assessment of whether it would be worth using for a future Rochester Map Adventure (starting at Cobb's Hill, for example, and using much of what we used in the city this year, plus some of Brighton). Results of the assessment were fairly discouraging -- not a whole lot of any even remotely interesting questions were apparent.

One exception was the Brighton Cemetery, which is quite small compared to Mt. Hope, but looks to be about the same vintage in terms of age of graves. Definitely could ask a question or maybe two from there.

There is a rail-trail which I took for a while, thinking (I'm not sure why, in retrospect) that could provide some map adventure material. Definitely did not.