Training Log Archive: cedarcreekIn the 7 days ending Apr 20, 2007:
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Sunday Apr 15, 2007 #
Event: MVOC Hills and Dales Sprints
Orienteering race 30:30 [5] *** 2.53 km (12:03 / km) +75m 10:30 / km
spiked:7/10c shoes: Adidas Tri-Star Cleats ($35)
Sprint2 was first.
Spent about 90 minutes Saturday at Bob Frey's getting the SportIdent software install files, and then about 2 hours last night installing everything (including the cash register printer driver).
Gabe asked me to do SI at his sprints about 4 weeks ago, and then there was some difficulty getting the details figured out. Yesterday, after I was at Bob's was the first time I'd heard from Gabe about doing SI today. But I really wanted to have splits for the ranked sprints.
So I was up this morning, and just before I left, I got a call from Mike asking me about the master station, which if you remember from my Flying Pig experiences, had some fried electronics smells. I had assumed we had another---I don't know why---I just did. Long story short---We don't have an extra master station.
I arrived at the sprints 2 hours early, intending to take a look at the PC Board to figure out if the problem was easy, and I had to stop at Wal-Mart for an 88-cent set of hex keys so I could get the one 2.5mm wrench I needed. I don't like disassembling stuff like this on picnic tables in the wind, but I did, and I found---fried electronics.
This was a showstopper, so...We didn't have SI at the sprints.
Spent about 90 minutes Saturday at Bob Frey's getting the SportIdent software install files, and then about 2 hours last night installing everything (including the cash register printer driver).
Gabe asked me to do SI at his sprints about 4 weeks ago, and then there was some difficulty getting the details figured out. Yesterday, after I was at Bob's was the first time I'd heard from Gabe about doing SI today. But I really wanted to have splits for the ranked sprints.
So I was up this morning, and just before I left, I got a call from Mike asking me about the master station, which if you remember from my Flying Pig experiences, had some fried electronics smells. I had assumed we had another---I don't know why---I just did. Long story short---We don't have an extra master station.
I arrived at the sprints 2 hours early, intending to take a look at the PC Board to figure out if the problem was easy, and I had to stop at Wal-Mart for an 88-cent set of hex keys so I could get the one 2.5mm wrench I needed. I don't like disassembling stuff like this on picnic tables in the wind, but I did, and I found---fried electronics.
This was a showstopper, so...We didn't have SI at the sprints.
Orienteering race 21:54 [5] *** 1.85 km (11:50 / km) +70m 9:57 / km
shoes: Adidas Tri-Star Cleats ($35)
Sprint 1.
Quality topics:
1. First of all, this map was made by Gabe, and he's still in high school, ...and he also set the courses. Everything that follows needs to be understood from the perspective that I'm really, really impressed with the event.
2. Map legibility. This is almost unfair, because the mapper didn't have a printer to use to check print quality. It was basically a 1:10000 map printed at 1:6000, and I think of maps like that as having big crayon lines. We discussed ways to make the map look better and ways to possibly make this an ISSOM map. Once the line widths are figured out, they can work on the colors. It's unclear whether some of the apparent distortions are real or just from the line widths.
3. Control Placements. Some of the descriptions were a little odd, and some of the placements were deep in fight. Part of the difficulty was the crayon line map (see above). I've been thinking of writing a little article about control descriptions. And not because I'm an expert, but because it affects the quality of the courses so much, and so many people get it wrong.
Overall, I was deeply impressed. I liked Sprint 1 better than 2, but only because 2 had more boring get-out-there-to-the-good-stuff simple legs along roads. It's clear that Gabe has a good sense of what makes for interesting legs, and I especially liked the "forking" of the courses in the area immediately north of the finish, where multiple bags are visible, and where controls are shared between courses in ways that make them not seem so easy the second time through (e.g., approaching from different directions).
And just another comment---It's amazing how little map you need for sprints. If they used 6mm circles, they could have packed in more controls and more crossovers. (Although this also relates to line widths---It would have been confusing to use 6mm circles on this map today.)
Quality topics:
1. First of all, this map was made by Gabe, and he's still in high school, ...and he also set the courses. Everything that follows needs to be understood from the perspective that I'm really, really impressed with the event.
2. Map legibility. This is almost unfair, because the mapper didn't have a printer to use to check print quality. It was basically a 1:10000 map printed at 1:6000, and I think of maps like that as having big crayon lines. We discussed ways to make the map look better and ways to possibly make this an ISSOM map. Once the line widths are figured out, they can work on the colors. It's unclear whether some of the apparent distortions are real or just from the line widths.
3. Control Placements. Some of the descriptions were a little odd, and some of the placements were deep in fight. Part of the difficulty was the crayon line map (see above). I've been thinking of writing a little article about control descriptions. And not because I'm an expert, but because it affects the quality of the courses so much, and so many people get it wrong.
Overall, I was deeply impressed. I liked Sprint 1 better than 2, but only because 2 had more boring get-out-there-to-the-good-stuff simple legs along roads. It's clear that Gabe has a good sense of what makes for interesting legs, and I especially liked the "forking" of the courses in the area immediately north of the finish, where multiple bags are visible, and where controls are shared between courses in ways that make them not seem so easy the second time through (e.g., approaching from different directions).
And just another comment---It's amazing how little map you need for sprints. If they used 6mm circles, they could have packed in more controls and more crossovers. (Although this also relates to line widths---It would have been confusing to use 6mm circles on this map today.)
Note
My vote for best leg of the day goes to Sprint 1, 2-3. Even though 3 is in deep fight, there just wasn't any good way to get there. And this leg is only about 300m long.