Training Log Archive: smittyo

North American Sprint Championships. I had a reasonably good race today. #11 was strange. I felt I had a good attack point from the trail, but ended up in the wrong clearing area and had to correct. After talking to others, this seemed to be a common problem, perhaps the map had some issues in this area? or we were misidentifying the attackpoint?
Unfortunately, these sorts of courses aren't my best competitively since I'm not that fast a runner. Even though I lost only about 1/2 a minute, I was still quite a ways down in the standings.
Harvey got 2nd place in his open category though - Yay, Harvey! He walked faster than all of the other walkers.

Sprint - Course 3 - Splits

I haven't had a lot of chance to post this week. Been busy with Federation business, couldn't find a hookup, etc. I'll start today with NAOC and probably get around to posting my US champs stories tomorrow.

I usually prefer to start earlier, but today I had a late start that worked out well for me. With the field so large, I was able to see quite a few of the results before I ran, so I had some idea of what time I was trying to beat. While it was clear that I couldn't hope to match the very top competition in my age class, my closest typical competition had run 1:11ish. This seemed a little tough for me, based on my usual pace, but I kept it in mind.

I had a nice, clean run. Was pretty efficient as well, taking advantage of climbs to plan future routes and really understand the map. Did a nice job of really using attackpoints in my planning to avoid big mistakes. In some cases I didn't actually go all the way to the attackpoint if I was really sure of myself, but it did mean that I always knew where I was and had a quick bailout to stay on course if I got confused. Around #10 I started to believe that I might actually be able to beat that 1:11, so while I started pushing a little, I was also very careful to 11. It seems this is where a lot of others had trouble. It was probably the most difficult route choice problem on the course. I went pretty straight, deciding that the climb was a more sure route and the around route seemed too long to really be faster. Pushed in harder after 11 and was very happy to beat that target time. While I didn't earn a NAOC medal - second US after Peggy makes me pretty happy.

Long - Course 6 - Splits

Event: North American Orienteering Championships
 

Wish I had made it to the Model Event. I ended up blowing #1 while getting into the map. Once again my tendency to not measure and pace everything took it's toll. I just didn't go far enough to see the hill and got confused by some subtle unmapped detail. I decided that I must have made a mistake and went up the hill to the left. Once I was on it I managed to relocate and then finally got to the control. Lost at least 3 or 4 minutes on this one.

After that things went much better. I still had a few minor bobbles and hesitations along my routes, but basically stayed on course and hit everything well. I really loved the map, terrain, and course - a perfect combination of technical, but runnable terrain to make a great middle experience.

Karin Didisse managed to edge me by just 3 seconds, but we were both a ways down the results list. There are many strong Canadians and others here - it is a very deep field.

Middle - Course 6 - Splits

A combination score-O / sprint event with a mass start and handicapping system. We got to Cranbrook in the afternoon and had to decide betwen this or the model event. It wasn't entirely clear if the model was even still open, and I opted for the fun event (paid for it at the Middle, though).

A few controls in I was feeling my legs up a hill and reminded myself that this was a training run - tomorrow is the championships. So I pulled back and took it easier. Sue Kuestner and I were duking it out at the final few controls and she managed to beat me through the chute. Like daughter, like mother.

Long sprint - Splits

Trail-O Championships. Missed two including the very first timed control. It's difficult when the first control is timed and you haven't gotten your head into the map yet. This really was a fairly simple control, but I understand lots of people missed it. Many protests, including one that I filed but later decided I probably shouldn't win (Remember - it can't be a Z because of an error in the control description!). Two protests were upheld, one involving an equipment malfunction (good), the other because the map wasn't perfect (should have stood, I think). Anyway it didn't change my final result which ended up being 17 out of 19 and fourth place behind Eric B., Steve B., and Joe B. Maybe I should change my last name to "Burand"?

"Wedding O" at the Convention. This was in honor of my nuptials, so I went in style and wore my wedding dress. Harvey came with me and we just sort of half jogged the course. The rules were to only punch three controls - the ones that you thought represented the most expensive gifts. We just punched whichever gifts we actually wanted. Surprisingly, we still only punched three items and two of them were among the most expensive. Harvey and Clare picked - Google Stock, Espresso Machine, Knife set. A nice, fun event.