Training Log Archive: ndobbs

Pergine, Valsugana

Irish Sprint selection race. Navigated well, didn't run fast enough. Not a particularly tough sprint, but WOC probably won't be either.

warm

Training in Turcio, not doing a particularly good job of figuring out the map. Some bits are easy enough, but couldn't identify the start location.

WotD: seikkailla ~ be out in search of adventure

beating out - senkin tyhmä! ~ you stupid (one)!

Bought size 42 Sarva as I was slipping around in the 42.5.

Please please let them fit me snugly and carry me around the next week of o.

Prisma-rastit

Only did the 21A course because it's 18 euros cheaper, I'm going to Italy today so not particularly racing (didn't decide I would def run until this morning) and last year's elite course was crap because of tv compromises.

Bits good, bits bad.

http://routegadget.tulospalvelu.fi/2014/cgi-bin/re...

I forgot to bring my spirit level today. It would have been useful for distinguishing some knolls and form-line hills (leading to serious hesitation to 6, mistake at 9).

No excuse for veering left on 5 and 12. Nor not hitting 13 directly.

As Finns would say, piss-easy terrain.

I should beat at least one Finn, right? http://www.oribruni.it/startlist.aspx?nomedb=20140...

C • Finns 2

Interesting sprint in Pasila. Only did the kunto course, as I sort of knew the area, didn't particularly want to run hard, and well, 15 euros...

I was surprised they didn't map the stairs at all, only to see when examining the map back at Kumpula that they did map the stairs, they just barely printed them. Line thickness also varied quite a bit, not entirely sure what was crossable...

All sorts of multilayer tunnel madness going on.

Body wasn't in the mood for sprinting. I went back to bed three times this morning and still fell asleep in the afternoon colloquium. Allergies, I hope.

kumpula-pasila-kumpula

Woo, back to bed for a bonus two hours of sleep this morning again. On the plus side (?), it should be raining today.

PS: pesye ~ litter, brood; hatch -- funny how all three English translations each also mean something completely different.

--
Could have done with another hour or two. Hohum.

In other news, this is pretty fantastic -- http://www.rome2rio.com/s/Verona-Italy/Asiago .

Damn, miscommunication and leaving my phone at home meant I spent 45 minutes waiting for a lift that appeared five minutes after I gave up. So no IR this evening, and no FL tomorrow. Days without orienteering.

Four times the hill. Form is improving.

PS - kuperkeikka ~ somersault

Oops, didn't realise there was a sprint in town on Wednesday, so I'll be running the kunto course, all going well.

Somehow I think orienteering Monday evening (IR), Tuesday evening (FL), Wednesday evening (stadisprintti), Thursday morning (Prismarastit) might be overdoing it before orienteering Friday (Asiago), racing Saturday (Pergine), Sunday, Monday, training Tue/Wed/Thu.

Also. There are a couple of large and very confused spiders wandering my flat. They must miss Vesikkola.

Two mostly solid runs at Finnish Middle Champs. Great terrain for racing in, and properly challenging final.

33 unread favourites... not going to catch up tonight. Or tomorrow.

Prompted by Hirppa, I did some further research. The buggers that make me bleed are mäkäräisiä (remember, halfway down this page?), black flies. I thought midgies were mäkäräiset, but apparently they are polttiaset of some sort. There seems to be some confusion here, as "että polttiaiset on siis heimo, johon kuuluu ainakin kymmenen ihmistä järsivää suomalaista laji" -- the name covers a multitude of buggers.

SM keski qualie

http://routegadget.tulospalvelu.fi/2014/cgi-bin/re...

Maybe it's because I'm Irish, but I have to slide the RG slider in the opposite direction to what the instructions say.

SM Keskimatka B2 Finaali

http://routegadget.tulospalvelu.fi/2014/cgi-bin/re...

40:19, winner broke 33.

Good race, but definitely a bit of time lost. Hesitant to 1, Ss to 2 and 3, hadn't properly read the circle to 10, 20s there, and then 10 to 11 I tried micro-navigating around a bit of green in the middle of the leg and that ended badly.

Great variety to the course, great terrain, happy with my runs today.

There were only two and a bit hours between qualie and final. I ate three pears, two oranges and a bit of chocolate. Leaving 6 I really needed to fart, stomach was sore, so I did... a couple hundred metres later I needed to control myself and not fart... had to slow down a bit around then.

And shoes... new Sarvas weren't tight enough and I was slipping around in them. Not sure how much energy one loses like that, but not inconsequential.

C • Racing 4

See Monday and Wednesday. More of the same.

"Helsinki: the following warning is in force: heat warning"

Time to go Lappeenrannallle

C • 27C = heat warning? 4

Legs felt good for the first while. I'll probably pay for breathing outdoors later.

Stuff like this just doesn't happen in winter. http://www.maailmakylassa.fi/english

More tiredness and scratchy throat today. Not the only person suffering, so I guess it is allergies.

Maybe I need some fresh mountain air.

Neil after getting dropped off in Viikki, to bunch of kids: Hej, one of you dropped a bottle back there.

Bunch of kids: Uh, yeah.

Neil: Are you going to go back and pick it up?

Bunch of kids: No. We don't need the money.

Self-entitled knobs. In Finland. Who'd have thought? On the plus side, they weren't stoning cyclists.

Subnote: Is there a more appropriate term than "self-entitled" or "over-privileged"?

C • sheltered 1

Firmaliiga Kattilajärvi

Inter-firm league only gets 600 or so people turning up, apparently. But it's money coming into the sport from companies (they pay) rather than orienteers.

Not great orienteering or energy, didn't push too hard but still sweated buckets. Ahh summer. No wait, it's not summer yet because there weren't hordes of swarms of insects.

I took a strange route to 9. http://helsinginsuunnistajat.fi/harveli/cgi-bin/re...
(besides all my other strange routes)

C • you are adopting 5

Scratchy throat when I woke up, light breakfast, paracetamol and back to sleep for 2 or 3 more hours.

Not sure if it's a bug or not, there was also a thick layer of pollen on my bike. But anyway, ugh... supposed to be tuning up my body ahead of SM and selection races.

Girls who read... maps?

C • Girl who reads 1

Henkka's Herttoniemi Hill-o loop A

Since I've done it before, it doesn't get logged as orienteering.

Kind of failed at social life this weekend... quit after one beer (and several hours) on Friday, went home early from Arabia yesterday, didn't meet up with people today as intended (at a Japanese cherry blossom festival).

Hohum. Need to go orienteering I guess.

PS : Sä juokset tai sitten sä itket ja sä juokset ~ you'll run or you'll cry and run!

Still coughing up some stuff, but feel mostly healthy.

I'm not orienteering today.

kurjistuminen

PS olla kännissä ~ be drunk, in one's cups

Also, down to nought remaining open submitted job applications.

PS2 Ei lasta eikä paskaa. ~ I pushed and pushed and nothing came out.

work

PS haltiokas ~ enraptured; entranced; exultant; elated; highly inspired, highly enthusiastic.

C • haltiokas 3

T/f work

PS: Auringon halo ~ sun halo. Accompanied by a sun dog and another strange circle, big, meeting the halo at approx right angles.
Seen at lunchtime, but may have been around all day. Halo was (still?) there cycling home after 8pm. Wonderful.

C • Parhelic circle 3

certified, then went up one and a half routes. I remain terrible at overhangs.

Not healthy yet.

päivän sana: kitkutella ~ rub, chafe; creak; k. viulua ~ scrape the fiddle; elää kitkutella ~ make a meager/scanty living, eke out a living, live from hand to mouth, lead a niggardly life.

Collecting IR controls, Pirkkola. Not really able (or not willing) to run. Grey evening, so only 900+ people turned up.

C • 900+ 2

To and from Pirkkola, only a couple of hours after getting back tho Viikki.

Tired, didn't push hard, and hungry too bby the time I got home.

Still coughing up stuff.

Päivän sana: Todistus ~ a piece of paper with erinomainen and suomi 3/6 written on it, awaiting me on my return.

C • onneksi olkoon.. 4

IOC stuff again.

This is what I was running with. Click for a bigger version.

Routegadget map bears no relation to the real thing. Eg, I stopped at 27 when I found two boulders where I thought a cliff should be.

Also, unlike roar, say, I didn't pace-count.

C • waterproof paper 2

To start. Visited the girls' toilets, which elicited giggles.

Järlä Jubileum Middle, Brevik

Skipped the long the day before. Felt a whole lot better on Friday than the Wed/Thu of death, but didn't sleep particularly well on Fri or Sat nights, and there didn't seem to be much point heading out on Saturday as I was still producing quite a bit of green, plus tired. Resting on Saturday helped some.

Anyway, ran some bits, walked some bits and jogged. Generally, went fast enough to sweat but not fast enough to have my heart work too hard. Stopped a couple of times to blow my nose properly...

Navigation seemed pretty straightforward compared to the week before. Lovely terrain though, would have been fun to race, and the long from the day before looked wonderful.

Didn't sleep enough to be healthy today.

Test. How I lost 8 minutes and an IOC middle medal. Zoom in twice.

C • Ouch. Frustratingly close. 1

Feeling slightly more human, though green production levels still high. Attending workshop, no-one shakes hands with anyone, everyone claims to be sick.

Logged Sunday's race!!!
Logged Saturday's race!

Nose and throat producing voluminous quantities of green stuff. Tired, no Stockholm DM Sprint for me.

Up before 6am for breakfast, lift to bus, bus to dublin, flight to ARN, taxi to A&B's since I was wrecked, arrived a bit after 5pm. Nose and throat a bit sore.

Watched cnoc kick ass in relay.

Got hungry and tired, but had to drive to waterford and eat and laundry and pack instead of sleeping.

Well that was fantastically epic! With a map bag I might even have had a chance of winning. Still on a bit of a high now. HS did fine without me, so I'm happy I chose exhilerating.

Edit: woooooooooooo

Edit:

C • Cool pic. 3

IOC Classic M21E

On the one hand, it was just orienteering.
http://www.orienteering.ie/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.c...

Summary.
This feels like one of my best orienteering performances. Conditions were as difficult as they get, 15-20m visibility for essentially the whole course. The map printing was poor, so it was hard to read the map from the get go. I chose features reasonably well and usually knew what would work. I ran well, mostly in control, for the first 11 controls, had a five and a half minute lead over everyone at that point, and then fell in a hole. Legs, arms, clothes and the map were covered in mud and it was impossible to get the map clean. Consequently, I had even less information to go with and finding controls became even more of an art. I still managed to keep mistakes controlled, none bigger than 4 minutes, and mostly safe mistakes. A bit of luck and the title could have been mine (ColmM could say the same), but overall I'm very happy with how I ran and, given the conditions, couldn't expect to do much better. I was on a big high all day following. Finding thirty controls in those conditions meant thirty moments of elation.

This is a race that will go down in history.

The blow by blow.

A couple of bowls of weetabix with muesli for breakfast, a good way to start the day. Driving up, between Laragh and the Wicklow Gap, I passed a cyclist walking down pushing his bike. Why? Ten seconds later, I was in thick fog, with still ways to the junction. I crawled up towards the reservoir, the hairpin bend still managing to appear unexpectedly, and passing a few hillwalkers, some in combat fatigues. The parking official up top told me to continue on and turn right by the white van. I never saw a white van, but did get directed in by another yellow jacket. I didn't really know where I was when I parked, but it turned out to be all of 15 metres from the big tent.

Apologised to SET for yesterday's complaint.

I was bouncy and happy getting ready, excited by the challenge. Cagoules were mandatory, a reasonable decision give the conditions. I think I might have just gone with a thermal or a sleeveless vest given the choice.

Entering the start box, I passed the incredible controller Ruth who'd been out checking the controls since dawn. No objection to my incomplete leg cover (I forgot my long socks, and would pay for this later), and my not really waterproof HS jacket didn't raise eyebrows, phew.


#1 Followed the tape to the start triangle. Strange, the map seemed to be saying turn almost 180°, and maybe back down the start chute would have been better. Got a little ruffled by peat hags taking the almost straight line, crossed the edge of the flat area, dropped down, boulders, oh look, flag, woo!

#2 Down the stream, just needing to relocate when I hit the rock. I went somewhat carefully, looking at the map to find useful stopping points. Eventually I vaguely saw a spur to my right which I double-checked (without was not yesterday's #2, so I had to be not far. Down to the rocks and safely into the control, woo.

#3 I'm not sure why I wasn't expecting this to be easy, maybe because of yesterday's evil #5. Ran past the index spur, then along the edge of the flat, over the nice prominent spur and in, woo.

#4 Up, up up, not exactly sure where, not even whether I went left or right of the big line of cliffs. I drew left, because I never saw the fence. Anyway, not too worried, crossed the stream, thought I was a bit higher up, but wasn't. After going for a bit I switched to running more uphill to hit the flatter area with all the detail. Thought I recognised the v-hag, then was sure I hit the dot knoll, contoured around and in. Not too sure which re-entrant it would be, as I was unable to count, but distance was right and it appeared 3m to my left, woo.

#5 Starting to look more interesting. I'm surprised Marcus ran for the lake, as that seems just as hard to find. Knew where I was crossing the stream SSW of 19, and went up the marsh. Was heading a bit far left, may possibly have gone up as far as the index contour, before correcting. Found the seasonal stream complex near 5, and was fairly confident that was what it was. After a few shaky moments, control popped up where expected, as did Niamh. Decided a hello would be inappropriate. Anyway, control found, woo.

#6 This initally looked hard, how many indistinct streams would I have to count? But then I saw it was easy, just run up the ridge, found the broad triangly spur, maybe even follow the streamy bit I used en route to 10, then there would only be a shortish distance to control. But I went a little left and got caught up in a bunch of peat hags so had to correct right, then only crossed the triangly spur near the top, and wasn't sure of it. Anyway, ran along the start of the slope straight into the cliffs and the control, woo.

Not as smooth as it ought to have been, but no disaster.

#7 Easy enough, it seemed. Controlled direction with compass, went past the stony hill, then the broad hill was quite gentle, but figured it had to be it. Stopped a few seconds short of the control as I just knew I was looking for peat hag, not which one. Then advanced a couple of metres, control, woo.

#8 Left 7 slightly left for a couple of metres, corrected, around the right of the first hag, held direction into the stony ground, dropped between the cliffs right where they ought to be, there was tape between the cliffs but control was where it should be, on the northern one, woo.

#9 Slightly right of the line, flat area was again a little scary, looked for and saw the hill with stone, then the big peat hag, ran around the edge of it, down the 'stream', turned left, one hag, two hags, control, woo.

#10 This time I found my linear stream, ran fast along it, turned left, fast (relatively) down the re-entrant, read my contours, found big cliff, lower cliff, control, woo.

Fastest time by a minute on this leg.

#11 Well, there was a ridge of sorts leading to the control, downhill to left and right. I stayed on the left side for the first lot, didn't understand much of anything, so veered right to the other side, went down a little and got a fright as the lake appeared 5m in front of me, water lapping against the shore under a shroud of fog. Followed the contour somewhat hesitantly down to the control, woo.

Big lead at this point.

#12 And halfway along I fall into one of the marshes. Wipe the map on my pants, makes it worse, on my top, slightly better but still very grimy. Fingers, no better. Spit, no good. Argh. Compass manky too. Polish a little corner of the map enough to sort of see where I should be going. Eventually hit the trail after a little meander, trail helped a lot. Hesitant, but went in below the boulder and found control, woo.

At this stage, there was next to no race sensation left.

#13 First half I was possibly a little north of what I drew, as I saw some rock ahead, but I couldn't see it on my map, so I veered a little right, hit the linear marsh, decided I was there, ran down to the control, phew and woo.

#14 Ran in the right general direction, found the pond. Stopped and found a bit more map to read, ran in the right general direction, control, woo.

Don't remember more details on that leg.

#15 Ran up over the ridge, slightly off line, corrected easily with the detail, must have had a clearer patch of map, left of one hag, right of the second, over the third and onto the control, easy, woo.

#16 Left of the big peat hag, past the boulders, past the pool (stopping to verify its location) into the control, easy, woo.

#17 A bit silly, got within twenty metres, didn't know which of the rock piles to run to, went to the left one, nope, okay, must be the other one, yes, control in the re-entrant the other side, woo.

I think the left rockpile may have just had the big boulder in it mapped, I'll blame that.

#18 Ugh, meant to be higher up, got pushed down contouring and appeared below the giant crag. It wasn't all that clear what was going on between there and the control, but after a bunch of hesitation and struggling up the hill, I found it, woo.

#19 Aimed for the uncrossable marsh but went a bit right, ended up crossing and landing into peat hags, no worries, I'll go a bit further then up onto the stony ground and read myself in. Map was too hard to read, got close but no cigar, went up to the lake (was I really S of lake, better at least make sure of that). Practically had to touch lake, but on the plus side the knoll with rock was very helpful. Easy from there to control, woo.

#20 Ran to stony area, then could read the streamy stuff, got into the right channel and ran up into control. Looked harder than it was, woo.

#21 Straight (almost) up to the top of the ridge, hopefully pass identifiable feature at end of ridge, drop two contours into flatter area, find peat hags and control, that was plan. It had the benefit of not needing much detail. But I was, as I suspected, a little left of where I wanted at the end of the ridge, so I missed the hill/stone combo, got very scared, decided I had to be where I thought I was even if I couldn't see much on the map, went around to the right a little, hit the stony ground, sweet, 20m on found the knoll and the control, woo.

#22 Straight, then left of straight, over the ridge, put me a little left of the line, didn't know exactly where but didn't need to either, crossed the streams, hit the rocky stuff, drop into the control, not as scary as it was, woo.

#23 Ugh. Again a little lower than I thought, hit the slightly stony ground, thought I might have passed the marsh (but was too low to have hit the marsh proper, didn't think this though). Went downhill looking for the gully leading to control, but all was (relatively) smooth. Huh. Meandered a little, then went back up to the stones to try to relocate. Stood beside them and tried to distinguish black from brown on the map. This was tough. Decided to go across to the next stone, no clearer. Then up a bit, hey, cliff control, mine, woo!

This was my worst control, was it the only one where I came upon the control unexpectedly?

#24 Stayed high to first re-entrant, ticked off two boulders on the next spur, then down to the control, safe, woo.

#25 Down the 'stream' to the open marsh, then left of the spur, down, past the w21"E" posse, tried to ignore their chatter. Down the re-entrant and around to the big cliff from below, smooth, woo.

#26 Could have been faster, but didn't understand the contour the control was on at all. Anyway, visibility was better here (took me a while to realise), and I could see the big boulders the other side of the marsh, and where the control had to be, even if the contours didn't make sense. Control was there, woo.

#27 Dropping down out of 26 I went slowly, then ran up the marsh/stream/line of crags all the way to the cliff, which turned out to be two boulders, control, easy, woo.

Foot went in a hole, gashing leg, somewhere towards 27. No pain, so no big deal.

#28 And back up the mountain. There wasn't much of my map left near 28, and enough mud that relocation was going to be hard, as was navigating directly. Oh well, aim for the ridge. I had hoped to see a big cliff not too far from the ridge, but that turned out to be mud -- I wasn't even sure of this, as I thought it might have been ink rubbing off. Got to the ridge, saw vaguely a big cliff to left, went to check it out, and ridge-line, trail and rock with control (not mine) were there too. Pretty sure I knew where I was, so was able to navigate down. Paused to check the rocks 10m before the control too, for good measure, before hopping down (and sinking a foot) to punch, woo.

#29 back up to the cliffs (slightly left of my relocation cliff), hesitated at the next big line of cliffs, decided they were the ones I wanted them to be, around and dropped into the control, woo.

#30 Contour, rocks, contour, fence, woah fence, where did that come from, people too. Okay, fence, control should be in re-entrant just ahead. Slope goes down, no re-entrant, no control, uh-oh. No, there's the control, just 12m away... punch, woo.

Run-in. Taped route, tape ends, did I run past finish control? No, tape starts again, follow tape, punch, whoop!


I got all the controls! !!

Colm was there to greet me, damn, he had time to change already!? Oh, he didn't make it very far...

Bounced around for a bit, still all excited. Changed top, dry thermal, down jacket, then to first aid.

Paul and Susan did a great job washing out my wound. They advise going to clinic.

Back to car for dry pants and socks and shoes, brr.

Bounced around some more.

Marcus bounced in, leading Colm by 3s. Oh well, there goes my lead. Still, wonderful experience, who needs to win.

No-one else seems to be finishing. Others eventually finish. Not as bouncy.

Ask the wonderful Catherine about clinics. She hums and haws and offers to check out the wound. Paul and Susan's work is admired, steristrips and a bandage applied, instructed not to run tomorrow, told stitches probably unnecessary.

Bounced around some more.

Long 1 - Splits

Well, let's just say that normally I'd be happy beating Marcus by 15 minutes.

Umm. Marcus and I provided some entertainment. I presume others will soon enough. http://www.orienteering.ie/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.c...

IOC Middle.

Nerves affected me a bit from the start, not very smooth or good to 1/2/3, though no disasters. 4 was easy, along the edge of the steep then drop in. Short leg down to 5, go slightly left, hitting the big rock cluster, foot in hole, fall forwards, arms in holes too, oops. Take a moment to get up, doesn't feel very racy.
Go to where I think 5 might be, no control, no real understanding of where I should go. Look below and all around, trying to place big isolated rocks I can see far off, but they don't make too much sense, and the local stuff doesn't make much sense either. Do a little spin around a bit more of the rocky stuff, no control. Hmm. Better do a firm relocate. Run to stream, except I'm at the point where there's no stream, pass it and come back, sure where I am. Run towards control, don't really understand anything much, pass where I previously pondered, try a bit further on, nope, go up the hill a bit, not much makes sense there either, look down, see someone and Catherine pop in under a rock and out again, maybe they are punching something? Drop down, control.
Strange, I was sure there should have been more rock to the right, but grass... maybe it's not in the right place. Stop and try to make sense of it for a few seconds, nope. Back to, umm, racing, 8 minutes lost. EIGHT MINUTES.

6 easy enough, boulders on the stream and across the stream were huge and clear, and then could see the cliff above the control. 7, went up to about the right level, then contoured across, not exactly sure where I was, and not making much sense of the re-entrants --- difficult to interpret, difficult to map --- but the control appeared not unexpectedly.
8 was poor, ran across to the rock, but went to the big cliff below the control because I couldn't see it on the map. Another 40s lost.
9, ran to above the stream, pretty obvious where the slope was curving, then to the boulder beyond, having decided where on the map it was not. Met Hugh coming down ("don't mind me, I'm heading in"). Up to past 9, thought I was at the 'stream' bend, but apparently not. Back to control, yay.
Since I came in to 9 at not the angle I thought, I went out at a funny angle too, or maybe I just didn't pay enough attention to compass. Hit a bunch of big peat hags, thought I might be near 10, but doesn't make sense, hmm. Worked out where I was eventually, a long way down from 10, oops. And were they unmapped, the hags? Even in the circle at 10 I messed up, didn't really understand that stuff. 4 minutes.

Better from here on, not sure if I just worked out better what I could use or what...
11, went right of line, past cut-out with marsh and peat hag, passed Ger(!), hit linear bank, then down to control, no prob. 12, aimed between boulder and control, watched out for boulder, saw boulder to my left, nice. Easy in. 13... one boulder, two boulders. 14, ran to re-entrant, saw knoll lower in re-entrant, guessed where it might be, ran to where 14 might be relative, stopped to read map, saw control 3 metres away, ha. 15 I didn't quite understand what was going on, so went slightly above and past. 16. finish.

Printing on grainy waterproof paper is unacceptable (in detailed terrain at IOC). And while waterproof, it is not bloodproof, skinned a fingertip today.

Annoyed with #5. Annoyed with printing. Happy the end of the course went well, feeling good about Classic.

Results were not at all what I expected. At all.

C • Done 3

Middle 1 - Splits

IOC Sprint, NUI Maynooth.

Solid run, lost a few seconds a couple of times, just nowhere near the speed of Darren.

Course and map were good, hats off to Mr Quinn.

I could see where I was going.
https://www.facebook.com/Irish.Orienteering/photos...

Sprint 1 - Splits

Stretching the legs before lunch.

Another reasonably solid month of training, 24h, of which 15h orienteering, and that with a bit of rest thrown in this week and last.

Only skipped two days of oranssivalkoinen huhtikuu, so reasonably good there too.

Yay.

C • of which 15h orienteering 1