Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Jericho Beach Park, Vancouver. Sprint Camp Session 3, Race 2. 2.5km/25m. Rained over night, but just occasional drizzle here. Course was too easy. Didn't want to run hard at this stage, but there wasn't much to do besides run, so did put some effort into it. Managed to finish well ahead of my peers.

1. Made left turn too quickly, but realized it immediately. Lost :10. Lost more relative to others because I wasn't running hard.

4. Marg and Brian went straight, right through the light green, with no problem. I took the path, intending to cut straight to the control once beyond the green, but even there the veg looked too thick so stayed on the paths. Cost me :30 and so led to my worst split.

[Orienteering race - Sprint]

Good warm up and cool down in the assembly area.

Instead of cooling down in the assembly area, probably should have jogged over to where the training started. Instead, later drove over in Francois & MJ's car. After I aborted that little session, jogged and walked back to my car, catching up with Alex Kerr and chatting a bit.

Jericho Beach Park, Vancouver. Sprint Camp Session 4. Didn't do much of this because it seemed not worth the physical effort in comparison to all the other sessions that I need to feel OK for. It was several loops in the area we had gone through just S of the lake, picking out the right control when you got near it. Walked over towards one set of controls and saw that it was very easy to pick out the right one.

Totem Park (on the UBC campus), Vancouver. Sprint Camp Session 5, Race 3. Mass start Farsta, 2.2 km, no climb. This was really fun, all about keeping your head. I navigated extremely well but didn't go all out physically (the races tomorrow are the ones I really want to go for). My time of 16:40 is from when I punched at the Start Triangle. My official time was 1:20 mins slower, with :50 of that due to my misunderstanding the start procedure.

Went to the meet in the Ellis' car. Got there just in time, but no time for a warmup. Though I heard some instructions for the mass start (in four waves), including that we weren't standing in the start triangle, I didn't get that we were supposed to go to the start triangle and punch before heading to #1. So, I start heading for 1, wondering why no one else was going that way. After a bit, figured out that everyone was going to the start triangle and punching, so I had to go all the way back and do that. Cost me about 50 secs.

After that, navigated extremely well and without much hesitation, only once or twice missing the optimal route, but not by much. Did particularly well (reflected in the split rankings) on the first leg of each succeeding loop, which I was able to do by reading ahead on the next map while I approached the Finish on the current one. Also did really well on course B leg 4 (determined S route was best while running on the road to 3) and 4th course, leg 2 (found the middle way, with Marie-Josee in hot pursuit).

Note: My ordering of the first 3 courses was BCA. Other people had different permutations, making the split rankings in AP meaningless. Easy to identify course C because it had 5 controls and the others had 4, and also it had one extremely short leg. Better yet, in Winsplits the legs are rearranged so that the splits ARE comparable, though the legs are not necessarily in the order you did them.

Unfortunately, the gps couldn't seem to get the signal in the start area, which was among some very tall trees.

[Orienteering Race - Sprint]

Cool down (hadn't been time for a warm up), partly with Joanne Woods.

Totem Park (UBC), Vancouver), Sprint Camp Session 6. A line-O on the same map as the race a few moments ago. Didn't find this very compelling, especially with one more race coming up this afternoon and then the two I really want to run tomorrow morning.

Memorial Park West, Vancouver. Sprint Camp Session 7. Two-person relay. Raining and cold, wasn't into it. But my teammate Mari-Josee wanted to do it, so did it at modest effort. No official time and couldn't get my GPS going, so just estimating from my watch. Each leg was 1.1 km, took about 7 or 8 minutes. Had a little trouble on #8 on the first leg and then accidentally skipped #9. On the second leg, one very small error, leaving #7 too hastily and hitting 9 before 8 (which was only about 25m away).

Would've been a fun challenge on a nice day at full speed.

[Orienteering Sprint practice]

Jericho Expert Male - Splits

Totem Farsta Expert Male - Splits

Event: Vancouver Sprint Camp
 

Met up with Marie-Josee, Francois, Erin Schirm and the Petersen twins on I-5 north of Seattle. MJ went the rest of the way with me. Lots of rain, heavy at times, but when we got to Vancouver, the sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the afternoon. Gave rides to Katie and Sarah and Zack Hoeffner from Ohio, who we met at the hostel (meet HQ).

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises. Eased off on the latter as the week wore on.

Oak Meadows Park, Vancouver. Session 1, training with Brent Langbakk. Sunny after heavy morning rain, so the ground was very wet. Total for course was 1.6 km.

Just jogged through it, unwilling to go faster with a race coming up in less than 2 hours. The artificial constraints on the map might have made it challenging if one was running hard, but it was much too easy for me at jogging pace.

There were two copies of the map on a single sheet. The first copy had 5 controls. Many of the trails were marked as out of bounds, with a few gaps, to force you to keep from just going straight. The second copy had six more controls; this time a number of patches on the map were marked as white and you were not allowed to go into them.

Note: GPS track is completely wacko here. Didn't get the watch started until I was going from #2 to #3. Took a split at 5 (end of the first exercise) and then again at the start of the second exercise (38 secs). The time of 7:46 for the second exercise is almost certainly correct, but the track is so far off it's hard to say if the distance is correct. The finish (final split) is pretty close to the correct location.

Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver. Session 2 of Sprint Camp, Race 1. 1.9km/72m. Very detailed park on a big hill. Mapping of paths and stairs could have been clearer. Tried to save legs by going slowly on all uphills. Really good navigational challenge, felt like I did it very well, and it was fun. Had to stop 6 or 8 times to see details on the map. Turned out to be my lowest scoring day, maybe because most others were very familiar with the park.

2. Leaving 1 on a direct line to 2 looked like it would be extra climb (but that was wrong), so went NE then N to the road. At least that gave me the opportunity to work out the details of the rest of the leg, which then executed flawlessly.

3. Had to stop at the end of the dashed line path because I couldn't make out the paths on the map from the contour lines.

5. Almost ran past the building, but it was my highest rank split (3) as I retraced my route from 3 to 4.

6. Leaving 5 NE and then W through the field might've been faster than what I did, SW then a long the path, because reading the path was difficult.

8. Looked at the path SSW of the big round building, but didn't go that way because it seemed to be blocked on both ends. In actuality, those are stairs that are printed with lines that are too thick. Walked up the long stairway on my route.

Otherwise, did a very good job of navigating on the run.

Drove to the race with Katie & Sarah Petersen and Zack Hoeffner.

[Orienteeering race - Sprint]

Warm up: 8 minutes, ~.7 mi; felt pretty loose.

Spent a long time speaking with Coach Brent before doing my cool down, which was done mostly by jogging back to the car (off the SE end of the map).

Cool down: 5 minutes, ~.3 mi.

Queen Elizabeth Expert Male - Splits

Fly to Seattle in the morning, headed ultimately to the Vancouver Sprint Camp.

Front of house. Started off to do an easy mile or two, but my legs are still tired from Sunol, and I'm feeling a lot of stress from preparing for this weekend's trip and (much more so) the summer trip to Estonia, so after getting to the 5.0 mark just stopped and walked back.

Theraband interleaved with core, weights, hips. Two sets of the arm exercises, and omitted "punches" because I think they've been hurting my neck. Alas, the next morning my neck was sore again.

[Strength exercises]

Event: BAOC: Sunol Regional Wilderness
 

Sunol. Walk to the start. Long, uphill climb under a hot sun.

Sunol B-meet. Brown 4.2km, 90m climb, 18 c. Finish 3rd of 31 in 1:00:32. Stumbled and bumbled a bit through the first 8 controls (including three errors of 4+, 2+ and 2+ minutes), but did very well over the last ten. Getting used to the 7.5m contours might have been a factor.

1. Around the S end of the spur, gaining a little elevation to save some distance. Encountering some bushes, cut down towards an animal trail 15m below, but it was so steep that my legs just couldn't stay in control, and I wanted flying past the trail and stopped only by tumbling into some bushes - and had a hard time getting up from the awkward position I landed in. Quite disconcerting, but no bodily damage. Lost about 10 secs. Got up, took a few steps back up to the trail, proceeded directly to the control without further problems. Thought the control description was rather vague, and it turned out that the flag was not at the green patch inside the circle but rather at the edge of the wide-hatched green stripes - not an obvious veg boundary on the map, though it was an obvious boundary in the terrain.

2. On a rough bearing, picked my way down and east through the bushes. Spotted a fence with a gap in it ahead in the terrain, checked the map, saw that going through that gap was exactly what I should do, so did it. Continued E into the clearing on the spur. At first didn't see the flag, but then saw it slightly downhill, tucked against some bushes - exactly where both the map and the ccntrol description indicated it would be. Felt like a good leg, and I had the second fastest split, :04 behind the leader. Actually was in first place overall at this point, :28 ahead of second.

3. Lost over 4 minutes on this very short leg! First thought was to go straight, but looking downhill, the descent to the creek bed looked very nasty, so went NNE along the edge of the clearing and pretty much contoured to the bottom. I did not see (until after the race) that the best route would have been to go SE to where a trail crosses the creek. Once at the bottom, I couldn't see a way out: the opposite bank was rocky, muddy, heavily vegetated and very steep. Clawed my way up, getting further and further N as I tried to find an escape route. This meant even more climb, but straight up was always not viable. Finally got up all the way at the N end of the fenced in area! Ugh. Knew exactly where I was on the trail. Headed down to the sharp bend, intending to go down the reentrant to the control from there, but it was way too steep and with heavy ground cover, so continued down the trail another 50m and went due E from there, soon spotting the flag.

4. Contoured all the way, keeping an eye out for the trail below to make sure I didn't drop. As I approached the ditch, spotted that trail a little below me, so knew I was exactly in the right place at the edge of the circle and easily spotted the control. Probably a little too cautious on this leg, but I was still a little shaken from the previous one.

5. Going straight, which meant following the ditch, seemed like a good choice until I noticed that that would mean crossing the creek at a place where it was mapped as a gully - and I wanted no part of that! So went to where the little trail crossed the ditch, back along the trail for 50m, then downhill on a rough bearing, parallel to straight. No trouble crossing the creek at that point. Mounted a sharply defined spur at that point - just what I expected - and proceeded down towards the circle. But stopped when the terrain ahead had a lot of detail that I didn't see on the map. Could I have drifted down before I crossed the creek, meaning I was now below the control instead of above. Also noticed a real trail to the NW, which seemed close than I thought it should be. Stood still for a while deciding what to do. Finally went to the trail to relocate. Saw a post a little further uphill on the trail, went there to see if it was a junction and it was, so now I knew I had been in the right place when I stopped - darn! (Indeed, the gps track shows I was heading directly for the flag, only 50m to go.) Down the trail to the rocks, cut in from there, and saw the flag (which I was expecting to be on the spur but was more in the reentrant). Lost about 2:15 from the time I came to a stop until the time I left the trail (again 50m from the flag). I was 1:38 behind the leader, so that last bit squandered what could've been a very good leg.

6. Angled SW to the trail, and planned both #6 and #7 while running down the trail. Plan was to go SW down the reentrant leading towards the control, but when I got there it looked like there was too much vegetation in the way, so decided to continue on the trail to the elongated N-S knoll that trail goes over. From there, turned 90 degrees right and went down the steep hillside. Expected the cliff to be on the my left, but it was on my right, and had to fight through some deadfall to get there. Lost about :30.

7. Had planned to go straight (over the knoll), but having just come down it and thus knowing how steep it was, that seemed like a bad idea. So, started to contour around to the S, but there was a lot of junk in the way, so changed my mind again and headed directly up. :30 loss. Crossed the trail, went just N of the rocky ground, saw the two boulders and then the first dot knoll, and then came to a form line knoll, which wasn't what I expected from the map, so stopped for a couple of seconds to look around. Seeing no other possibilities, continued on a few more steps and there was the flag, over the lip of the little hilltop.

8. Hadn't planned this one in advance. Went straight, keeping the creekbed on my left. Came to a quite sizable hole, with an opening out towards the creek. Puzzled because I didn't see anything like this on the map. Later, at home, with a magnifier and a lot of scrutiny, I could see that there was a formline indicating the exact shape I was seeing, but at the time, since I didn't see a flag, I thought maybe I was at the bend in the contour line just N of the circle - the thought being that maybe this little bend was the big gouge I was seeing. So, scrambled along the muddy west side of the gouge, hoping I'd see a small depression ahead, but then I saw the trail ahead. Realized that that gouge must've been the depression I was looking for, so went back, this time on the rocky E side, but still didn't see a flag. Stood there for several seconds, finally saw the flag tucked in between two rocks. Lost about 2:30. Even without that loss, Johanna Karras would've beaten me (and everyone else) by over 40 secs - how'd she do it?

9. W towards the trail. Turn my right ankle on the rocky ground and can hardly put any weight on it. Am I going to have to DNF? Better try to jog it off. After a few steps I can run again; a few more and I hardly felt. Never noticed it again for the rest of the run, and no after effect. Amazing. Anyway, continued on my bearing, up and over the spur, noting the W edge of the clearing and the rocks, see the top of the reentrant and go over the lip and there's the flag. Very good leg after stopping for turning my ankle; surprised I had the fastest split given that I lost at least 10 secs.

10. Had seen early on that this was a long leg, that the obvious trail route was going to result in a monster climb at the end, and that there was an intermittent trail higher on the hillside. After punching 9, quickly checked that higher trail on the map and saw that though it was a bit out of the way to get to it, it would save a ton of climb. So, back the way I came, to where the trail crossed the creek and ran along the trail. Had to walk a little on some of the rises, but kept moving steadily. Looking to come out of the woods on a little uphill with a big knoll to the right and a reentrant beyond, and that's exactly what I saw. Then could see the lower trail ahead, followed that all the way to the nose of the spur, turned down and saw the flag almost right away. Could have saved a little time by angling down instead of waiting to make a right angle, but didn't want to take a chance that I'd wind up too low. Had the fastest split by over a minute.

11. Knew I had to make a 90 degree right, so headed in that direction on a rough bearing, looking for an then spotting the shallow reentrant, and then seeing the bag. A very good leg, and another #1. Johanna Merriss was climbing up as I punched in, but I think she was heading for #10.

12. Simplest route looked like dropping down to the bottom of the reentrant and then taking the intermittent trail. But I didn't want to lose all that elevation, so thought I'd try to contour through the reentrant. But it quickly became apparent that I was going to have to go a long way to get around on the contour, so would up dropping to the creek and then having to deal with the very steep hillside to get back up to the right contour. Lost about :30 - :45 with that route. Trying to run until the hill turned east, but it seemed like a long time and I was still going S. Then young woman, who I'd noticed started Brown 2 mins ahead of me, asked me "Do you know where we are?" At that point, I saw a control marker further up the hill behind her. It looked like it was in a clearing, not a copse (as it was supposed to be), and the hill hadn't turned E yet, so I didn't think that was it, but I did have the sense that I'd already gone for enough, so I thought it might be it. So I asked "That's not it?" She seemed uncertain, so I went and checked, and it wasn't, so I told we hadn't gone far enough yet. So, continued on the contour, and soon as the hill started turning, there was the bag. Lost another :15 - :30, but still had the second fastest split.

13. This was my best leg of the day. Had already planned to run the contour to the reentrant, and then head up, so didn't even look at my map and just took off in that direction. Could see ahead that a trail was crossing the reentrant right about where I was headed, so took that across the creek junction and then left the trail to head up on a rough bearing. Had to walk this so studied the rest of the leg (and the beginning of the next one). As I crossed the trail, could see the top of the tree just N of the next trail, exactly where I wanted to head, so started running even before I got to the crest of the spur. Went W of that tree, across the trail, in between the little copse and the small rock on the spur, nailed it.

14. Without hesitation, bolted down to the bend in the fire road and then up through the gate. Rather than stay on the road, cut across to the tree on the red line and continued in that direction, running pretty well. Aimed off just slightly to be sure I'd know what to do at the bottom of the hill. Saw Evan coming in from the right. Hillside was a bit treacherous to get down, but saw the bag ahead and just a little to the left as I was descending.

15. Through the mandatory gate crossing and across the bridge while I carefully studied the out of bounds markings. Went to the small bridge then down the creek (with rushing water) right to the flag.

16. Continued along the creek to the trail along the river. The trail was pretty small, to make sure that it wasn't unmapped trail, took a couple more steps so I could see the river, then went back to that trail and took it. Past the junction, to the rock on the right, rough compass from there, saw the bag dead ahead from a distance. Surprised my split ranking was only 7 as I'd executed this very well except for the few seconds checking that the trail along the river was correct. But now I see that a better route would have been to leave the control to the NW and get on the paved road. I imagine that's what the people ahead of me must've done.

17. Across the road, through the picnic ground to it's N end, out into the edge of the clearing and could see the back ahead. Done with very little hesitation.

18. Up the rise, across the road, could already see the bag, didn't push it.

Strange run with so many #1's and so many legs flagged as errors on WinSplits, but at least I finished on a positive note.

[Orienteering race]