Training Log Archive: Canadian

Event: West Point A-meet
 

1st!
Route Gadget

Excellent race. I need to be able to repeat this all year so here's what I did:

Started with a good stretch the night before and writing out information about the area, map, and course, and strategies to orienteer in this terrain (contours are more unique and obvious then rock features). I new what to expect and the focus was entirely on navigation. When there was a chance to open up, read ahead rather than focusing on speeding up.

Got to the meet site more or less an hour and half before my start so I didn't have to be rushed. On the ride there I went over my meet notes I made the night before. I started getting changed roughly 70 minutes before start and was fully dressed, bathroomed, etc. at 40-45 minutes. I then jogged up to the start thinking a bit about orienteering technique - I always like to go to the start early in my warm up so I'm not caught off guard a few minutes before my start. I did a half hour warm physical and mental warm up. While running I'd imagine the map for the terrain I'm in and practice reading my map / looking at my compass then picking points in the terrain up ahead then reading my control description carefully then looking up then looking at map then as I come to that point that I've picked out I look for the next point / control, etc. Start off at a slower speed then at striding pace in the terrain. A bit of stretching 10 minutes before the start then in the last few minutes do the above mental stuff while jogging in place. This got my mind orienteering fully before I even started and I was focused on that rather than on gunning it out of the start.

When I pick up my control descriptions I read them over and noticed mostly cliffs (no surprise) but the last control is on a thicket and the first control is on bare rock. One control in the middle is on a low terrace. The first two control codes are 152 and 115.

The start was 150 m along streamers and the footing was a bit rough so I read to the first control as best I could while trying to get to the start triangle at a decent pace.

1. From the start triangle to the stone wall left of the line then through the gap and up the hill to the left then climb climb climb up the spur. For some reason I was surprised by the massive re-entrant to my right but sure enough that's obvious on the map. It's the first control so the plan is to head to the top and bounce off of the small hill on the top to attack the control. But I get up to the level of the level of the control and there's a bend in the contours that is more obvious than I thought it would be so I use that as my attackpoint and the control is visible from a distance.
2. Up over the top and down the hillside to the control. No reason not to go dead straight on this one so keep a close eye on the compass and picking points far ahead. There are several features in front of the control to catch me if I'm left or right but I cross the stream right on the line (the stream splits there and from there I can see the vegetation and first rock in the control circle. Another spiked control.
3. Leave the control to the road while cutting left to optimize distance. Where do I cut up the hill? The first cliff is quite distinct and obvious and just left of the line. Above that the ground looks pretty clear so I take it and side hill into the control using the bend in trail on the line 100 - 150 m before the control and stay on a level until there. This worked well and I hesitated at a few of the cliffs after my attackpoint but dismissed them quickly. Better safe than sorry. From the splits staying on the road longer before cutting up the hill was faster.
4. Straight forward leg - straight across the semi-open, across the marsh, up the hill and behind the boulder at the bottom of the massive cliff. Reading along and picking out features as I crossed the semi-open so I knew where I was as I went then up the hill with burning calves (Again! At least it's all flat and downhill from here.). As I climbed the hill I could see the massive cliff. Another spiked control.
5. Full speed straight ahead - the control feature is large and the ground flat and easy running. Read the contours on the way and had a strong image of the control in my head. At the same time read ahead and noticed that six is in insane rock on the hillside so slow down out of the control. Spiked.
6. Short decent into the jumble of rock. Slow and kept the map close to my face to figure out the detail and most importantly which cliff the control was actually on. Stayed just left of the line and over the major cliff on the edge of the control circle then counted cliffs as I passed them on my right and the control was right there. Phew, perfect.
7. Across the cliffs and dropped down to the terrace to then side hill below all the steep rock. Didn't notice the indistinct trail on the map until I was on it because I was purposefully simplifying out any black dashes. Anyway, along that, across the marsh and up a few contours. The terrace is visible from a distance but I wasn't 100% confident it was it.
8. Flat and should have been full speed ahead on a bearing but I misaligned the hills in my head and wasn't using my compass enough so hesitated and bounced around a tiny on my way into 8. Nothing serious because I pulled back a bit on the speed and orienteering but I probably lost 15-20 seconds.
9. A long leg with some actual route choice due to some hard to cross features. Here's my thought process: The control is past a green marsh so I'll use the left edge of that as my attackpoint. Now to get there I can go straight. Crap that's some serious jumbled rock and cliff I better go below those and follow the stream all the way. By this point I was already level with the edge of the first cliff so I took a hard right to get below it. Followed the stream to the marsh and then around the small hill at it's edge. Flipped the contour the cliff was on but saw the cliff was in right spot so figure what the hell that must be it and sure enough it was.
10. This should have been reasonably straight forward but there were lots of little hills along the way that I struggled with and downed trees pushed me around so I was more focused on moving forward then on attacking the control. Hesitant at the end but slow enough to figure things out going into the control. Doing this leg properly I probably could have saved 10-15 seconds.
11. Book it down the hill to the road the left slightly to avoid the assault course mess the across the stream and over the flat open section to the control. Visible from a distance!
12. I looked at this coming out of 11 and decided that sticking right of hte line and following the edge of the mountain laurel swamps would be faster then going way around left on the roads but I wasn't paying attention to my compass (I was feeling strong at the end of the course) and ended up too far left with the marsh straight ahead of my so decided to book it down the road instead of doubling back to go through the woods. The right decision but I think if I had come out on the road where I wanted to I could have save 15-20 seconds.
Almost missed 13 because it was tucked behind the bushes off the side of the trail. The control description indicated this but it was the go control so I didn't read it.
The last two controls show that you need to orienteer all the way to the end. I was luck it worked out for me but it won't always.

Day 1, Mid, Blue - Splits

Day 1, Sprint, Blue - Splits

Excellent workout with Francis. Warmup - strides - 3 km easy line-o designed to mimic the start of a middle distance orienteering race - 250m / 500m forest and trail intervals at full speed - cool down. Felt really on the ball today!

Setting out controls, coaching, picking up controls, driving home, and leaving my watch on for an extra 3 hours (before editing my time was 4 hours and 1 minute and my distance was 28.6 km).

Super easy in the pool. Not much energy this morning.

Event: The 35th annual Billygoat Run
 

Exploring in Gatineau from a large school I'm mapping. There's some super nice patches of woods scattered through the neighbourhood with legit contour detail that would make for a good sprint. The woods are generally quite open and not a lot of rock detail so it wouldn't take long to map a significant area. Unfortunately I have no contour data to use as a basemap.