Training Log Archive: Rainbow UnicornIn the 7 days ending May 10, 2014:
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Saturday May 10, 2014 #
Event: MNOC Interstate State Park
Orienteering race 1:42:45 [5] ***** 7.3 mi (14:05 / mi)
22c
Blue Course at Interstate State Park in Wisconsin
Set by PFC and vet by Veronica & Chris
Tough and challenging course both terrain-wise and checkpoint location wise. Spiking between-boulder-boulder locations when there are boulders everywhere is tricky!
A few notes:
- Stopped for about a minute from 1-2 to help a family who was on the WHITE course. They were DEEP in the woods, closer to number 1 and had passed up punching the proper control because they said the number did not match up. Super bummer for them!
- Should have come at CP 7 from the east - the CP was easily visible from that direction (from the west, not so much).
- Misinterpreted CP 10 for sure - I thought the feature would be on the outside to the NE, but the CP was actually inside and the depression drained out to the west. One of the JROTC instructors beat me on this leg. Oops.
- CP 11 clue was iffy. I don't think an area descriptor for a linear feature is legit. Stream bend or something similar maybe would have been better, but didn't lose any time because of it.
- CP 14 was a short control and a total mess up. Read the clue for Control 214 (not CP 14), which was north side of stream. So instead of looking high up on the hilltop cliffs, I'm checking out all the little minor drainages coming off the slope not finding crap. Luckily only lost a few minutes. Dumb!
- CP 15 was a total blow up. I was tired at this point and not on the map as well as I should have been on my first attack. I went right past it (probably within 20 meters) on my return trip and it was very visible. It will be interesting to see how much time AP says I lost here - my guess is at least 5 minutes, but since Michael and I were the only ones out to the control on this leg, it may depend on what his split was.
- Ran the rest of the course decent, but usually ended up spending extra time in the circle hunting for the CP. Tricky placements for sure. Certainly a good challenge for me, though I think things may have been too tough for other folks, especially groups like the JROTC.
- I need to bring a cluesheet. Flipping the map over to look for the clue, especially on a course like this where the clue is SO important, cost me a bunch of time getting back on the map after unfolding and refolding.
- No scale or scale bar on the map? Was this in the course notes at check in? I have no idea if we were on 1:10k or 1:15k...
- Overall a fun course. Tiring for sure. Running 7+ miles on terrain like that is tough. Glad to come away without any major falls or twisted ankles. Some really nice terrain and views in that park though. Maybe will set next year's meet there in the fall.
- GPS turned off half way through the course. I turned it back on after a few minutes, maybe five, but I think it had some bad errors going on. Turns out the GPS locations in the entire first half of my course were lost. Maybe time for a new GPS watch? I think I've had this Garmin 305 for 6-7 years. At least everyone can see where I botched 15 super bad and almost went all the way to 16. Ugh. Not sure why the watch history still has me running for over 1.5 hours and the distance is correct at 7.3 miles though.... Just checked the run on my watch and mapped it. The whole course is there.... I wonder why it's only downloading the 2nd part.... Anybody with Garmin 305 data extraction advice out there?
Set by PFC and vet by Veronica & Chris
Tough and challenging course both terrain-wise and checkpoint location wise. Spiking between-boulder-boulder locations when there are boulders everywhere is tricky!
A few notes:
- Stopped for about a minute from 1-2 to help a family who was on the WHITE course. They were DEEP in the woods, closer to number 1 and had passed up punching the proper control because they said the number did not match up. Super bummer for them!
- Should have come at CP 7 from the east - the CP was easily visible from that direction (from the west, not so much).
- Misinterpreted CP 10 for sure - I thought the feature would be on the outside to the NE, but the CP was actually inside and the depression drained out to the west. One of the JROTC instructors beat me on this leg. Oops.
- CP 11 clue was iffy. I don't think an area descriptor for a linear feature is legit. Stream bend or something similar maybe would have been better, but didn't lose any time because of it.
- CP 14 was a short control and a total mess up. Read the clue for Control 214 (not CP 14), which was north side of stream. So instead of looking high up on the hilltop cliffs, I'm checking out all the little minor drainages coming off the slope not finding crap. Luckily only lost a few minutes. Dumb!
- CP 15 was a total blow up. I was tired at this point and not on the map as well as I should have been on my first attack. I went right past it (probably within 20 meters) on my return trip and it was very visible. It will be interesting to see how much time AP says I lost here - my guess is at least 5 minutes, but since Michael and I were the only ones out to the control on this leg, it may depend on what his split was.
- Ran the rest of the course decent, but usually ended up spending extra time in the circle hunting for the CP. Tricky placements for sure. Certainly a good challenge for me, though I think things may have been too tough for other folks, especially groups like the JROTC.
- I need to bring a cluesheet. Flipping the map over to look for the clue, especially on a course like this where the clue is SO important, cost me a bunch of time getting back on the map after unfolding and refolding.
- No scale or scale bar on the map? Was this in the course notes at check in? I have no idea if we were on 1:10k or 1:15k...
- Overall a fun course. Tiring for sure. Running 7+ miles on terrain like that is tough. Glad to come away without any major falls or twisted ankles. Some really nice terrain and views in that park though. Maybe will set next year's meet there in the fall.
- GPS turned off half way through the course. I turned it back on after a few minutes, maybe five, but I think it had some bad errors going on. Turns out the GPS locations in the entire first half of my course were lost. Maybe time for a new GPS watch? I think I've had this Garmin 305 for 6-7 years. At least everyone can see where I botched 15 super bad and almost went all the way to 16. Ugh. Not sure why the watch history still has me running for over 1.5 hours and the distance is correct at 7.3 miles though.... Just checked the run on my watch and mapped it. The whole course is there.... I wonder why it's only downloading the 2nd part.... Anybody with Garmin 305 data extraction advice out there?
C • 305 3
Friday May 9, 2014 #
Note
Spent 4 hours building and planting a garden on the side of our house tonight with my brother in law. Bring on the veggies!
Thursday May 8, 2014 #
Bike Training 35:00 [2]
Dungeon.
Tuesday May 6, 2014 #
8 AM
Biking 57:00 [3] 15.7 mi (16.5 mph)
To work.
5 PM
Biking 55:00 [3] 15.7 mi (17.1 mph)
Home from work.
Monday May 5, 2014 #
6 PM
Running 20:00 [2] 2.0 mi (10:00 / mi)
With Boo in the Bob. Had to keep it short due to feed/bed time constraints.
Sunday May 4, 2014 #
Event: MNOC AR Tune-up
Orienteering intervals 2:00:00 [3] * 8.0 mi (15:00 / mi)
22c
Setting controls in Cleary Lake Regional Park for the Adventure Race Tune Up. Moving time about 1 hour with 1 hour of hanging controls and triple checking locations. Luckily got to the pre-race meeting just on time!
Really had fun putting together the course. Didn't mean to have so many wet controls, but the lake was up 2-3 feet from when I was there the previous weekend. Streams/creeks were up 1-2 feet as well and all the marshes were a LOT bigger!
ARs are certainly a time commitment to put on, but very rewarding when (most) everything goes as planned.
Many thanks to our volunteers and all of the racers!
Really had fun putting together the course. Didn't mean to have so many wet controls, but the lake was up 2-3 feet from when I was there the previous weekend. Streams/creeks were up 1-2 feet as well and all the marshes were a LOT bigger!
ARs are certainly a time commitment to put on, but very rewarding when (most) everything goes as planned.
Many thanks to our volunteers and all of the racers!