Training Log Archive: iansmith

I went on another ARDF training stroll with Joseph and Ruth at Bear Hill in the Middlesex Fells. I set controls 1 and 2, then found 3, 4, and 5. The topography of the Fells made the search very interesting, but partly because of my slow speed, I got practice pinpointing signals at all ranges.

The 2m signal does not vary as much with angle as the 80m, though I had no idea why. At any range - even a full kilometer, the asymmetry of the intensity of the signal in the direction of the transmitter is often very small - on the order of one or two times that of the isotropic noise. I often get false signals in the exact opposite direction of the transmitter, though I think that's due to reflections from vegetation and terrain features.

Despite my difficulty and slow speed, it was a productive session. Unfortunately, while we did our best, we were unable to correctly configure Ruth's 2m receiver. For reasons unclear, the strength of the signal on her receiver did not vary with the direction her antenna was pointed.

I added a few hard spurts.

I am still limping.

I successfully resisted the temptation to get a second burrito for the day.

Two things I thought about yesterday, on which I welcome commentary:

1. There are many clubs in the US in need of professional mapping resources. Given a mapper, these clubs might spend $10k - $20k annually on maps. Mapping is typically done as contract work, which doesn't provide benefits like health care and job security and does not meet the requirements for an H-2B Visa. (Though I'm not sure why mapping is not a valid reason for an H-2B Visa.)

A solution, which Clem and I independently considered, is for USOF to hire a professional mapper (e.g. Vladimir Zherdev) as a permanent employee. Clubs would need to commit to doing some volume of mapping, and could reimburse USOF as the projects were completed.

There are a number of challenges with this approach. The mapper would have to be proficient enough to map the varied terrain in the country to the satisfaction of the member clubs. There would have to exist a clear contract between USOF and the individual clubs about the services provided. The mapper could be salaried or paid an hourly rate (perhaps $30-$35 per hour?). It would be good to build in some cushion room in the annual schedule so the commitments could be maintained even if some ran late; perhaps ten months of the mapper's year would be booked. However, it overcomes so many existing obstacles that it warrants attention.

2. While my success has not matched my ambition, orienteering is my primary sport. I have applied my competitive drive to orienteering, and I hope it will motivate promising results. However, there are other sports that interest me in a more casual way, like running, biking, and kayaking. I have goals - like a sub 5:00 mile, but these goals are personal and independent of the group.

In that sense, biking has great appeal. There are many fascinating races, like the Cadillac Challenge Century I read about in PG's log. I have no delusions of grandeur, especially given that being competitive in these sports requires tremendous investment of time and money. The idea of drafting in a group scares me, but I would very much like to ride the race for its own sake.

My ride is a hybrid bike - excellent for commuting and cross training, but not really optimized for long events. After some consultation with my peeps, it seems the prudent course is to try a "race" or two on my current bike and see what the experience is like. I may purchase a road bike to more aggressively pursue this activity.

Clem joined me for some good, clean CSU strength circuit fun. We started with the usual drills, then did two circuits of the following:

Tuckups, telejumps, pushup rotation, hip thrusts, kayakers, metzler devils, cherry pickers, lunges, boat rocks, superman.

We did one legged hops in lieu of boat rocks on the first circuit and in lieu of cherry pickers on the second. While logging this, I made the typo cherry -> cheery, which is clearly an inaccurate description of the experience. Clem followed the two circuits with a good number of pullups, demonstrating his unyielding stamina and mental fortitude.

C • Pull-ups 1