Training Log Archive: dlevine

Ottawa Orienteering Championships - Bonus Relay - Leg #1

Start->1: Had trouble on the bridges on the way to the start triangle and was last to the circle where the pack split. Knew which pack I wanted but was slow and losing contact by the time I got to #1. 4:15

1->2: Lost contact with pack by the time I hit the swamp. Saw the "other pack" to my right and got pulled slightly, but adjusted well. 3:26

2->3: Plan was to hit trail, and split swamps after the knolly area. Got to the area, but went south of the southern swamp and through the green slash to the trail. Amazingly, I didn't know where I was at all and stumbled in to the control by luck after have walked with three meters of it earlier. 10:06

3->4: Down trail, around hill, see the pond and in. Mostly tentative due to lost confidence from previous leg and knowing no one else was around. 4:18

4->5: Straight on line, crossed first fence and didn't see trail or second fence. Walked forward tentatively scanning and saw control. 3:05

5->6: Gnarly exit to trail, across swamp and up hill, but had trouble spotting flag. 3:42

6->7: Aimed off left and was somehow surprised by the swamp I meant to use as a handrail. Saw hill to my left and turned, but did so without confidence and muddled it inside the circle. 4:25

7->8: Out to trail across bridge to junction and then angle in. Took a few minutes to realize that I meant to turn, go to the NEXT junction and angle in. Damn, the bad weekend continues. 8:00

8->9: Tried to go straight at it, but veered left and hit trail. Looked right and saw cliff, but no bag. Another runner (on another course came in from the side as I approached and looped around without stopping. Pays to know which side of the feature the bag is on. 3:35

9->10: To junction and then angle in. Despite its small size, the hill was obvious. 2:41

10->11: Straight to it with the bonus of hikers on the trail serving as a visual catching feature. 2:49

11->12: Debated trail or road and decided to go straight to it using crossing trail as an attack. Was a bit left, but had no real trouble. 3:55

12->13: Angle to it past ruin to trail. 1:21

13->F: Avoiding falling in the dip before the punch. 0:22

Tagged off to Celine who looked very lonely.

Ontario Orienteering Championships - Bonus Relay - Leg 3

Alone when I was tagged as Celine also had a tough time. No longer worried about getting to her before the mass start, now just worried that we may be out after the course closes.

S->1: Trail to correct fork to junction to control. 4:02

1->2: Trail around first bend and then skirt the hill mass on the side by #6. Did look for it, but didn't see it. Back to trail and passing mountain bikers walking their bikes up that tiny hill, around bend and attack from NW. 7:10

2->3: Point and shoot, but approach was grody. 1:48

3->4: To trail at stream and saw the same bikers riding slowly to me. Hurried in and was off to the left (again), but adjusted well. 3:55

4->5: Gross footing caused me to veer right and then it was a very grody hillside as I attacked from the SSE. 4:45

5->6: Across swamp, turn and see hill mass. Took my time when I got there as it was a bit tucked in. 3:37

6->7: Over to trail and across swamp, but I missed the first junction. Went right at next one and realized my error, so I attacked this (same) control just as on the previous leg and made the same "off to the left" error. 6:36

7->8: To trail, L at junction, cut in at next junction, cross fence at cairn and in. 4:22

8->9: Out to road and in one trail before control, past second to last from previous leg, and continue straight towards it. 4:32

9->10: Tried to straight line it, but thick woods pushed me somewhat to the trail. 1:09

10->F: A relatively clean run deserves a good final run in. 0:17

Ontario Orienteering Championships - Long

Pre: Having seen the map, I vowed to value maintaining map contact more than before and to expect bare rock where yellow was indicated.

Start->1: Treated it like Harriman, hopping from bare rock to bare rock with green in between and it felt almost easy. Probably the worst thing that could have happened to me. 4:23

1->2: Headed SW with the pond as a handrail. When it disappeared, looked for the kidney shaped pond and never found it and bad things started to happen. Tried to compass and relocate and found myself just SW of control. If the flag wasn't on the next hill, I was sunk, but it was there. 11:52

2->3: Around S end of pond and tried to go off NW corner of next. From there, I came out just SE of circle, but adjusted badly. Went SW and hit pond to W. Misrelocated and found the hunter stands. From there I was good, but... 14:11

3->4: SE around pond and tried to attack aggresively since I had a ncie catching feature. Missed N and relocated off the two islands, but more tentatively than I should have. 8:08

4->5: Meant to go N of the pond on the line, but left 4 going S instead of W. Adjusted plan when the ponds didn't match, but it took some time and problem solving. Took deer path along S shore of pond where I finally found a person, not having seen anyone in over twenty-five minutes. Through forest by swamp and right to it. 14:50

5->6: Tried to straight line it in a bit of a train. Lots of micro-detours cost me time. When I got to the area, there were three of us, but the other two guys missed it S, so I was alone again. 12:16

6->7: No confidence, so I was a bit slow, but I went back moving a bit while maintaining contact. Saw a large crowd looking for 124 (based upon conversations) but kept going and spiked it. 7:47

7->8: Best leg of the day. Saw the flag on the boulder on the line and only got slowed down by deadfall near the control. 1:34

8->9: Trying to adjust to new terrain. Crossed stream and climbed small hill in white woods, but got confused and slowed down. DID notice the trail before the control and saw the edge of the swamp, so I spiked it in the end. 5:43

9->10: Managed to hit every piece of medium green on the way to this one, but descended the hill right by the fence, so I was able to attack with gusto. That was until I started noticing unmapped cliffs too soon which slowed me back down again. 7:27

10->11: Across the dam, but I took the trail SE to avoid the swamp. I now think that going W would have been better. Across the hills okay, but got a bit confused in the green near the flag and slowed down. Was saved at the last minute when it wasn't on the cliff, but I read the clue sheet and adjusted. 6:58

11->12: Took the trail on an northerly detour; longer but safer. 5:32

12->13: Went right by it, but it had the wrong number (I misread my control sheet) so I kept going. Hit the trail, turned left found the swamp (with control 116), relocated and went in. This time checked things and then left. 6:25

13->14: Very sloppy and feeling very down about the whole run. Out to trail and turned an ankle slightly to add injury to the insult. 3:37

14->F: Didn't care and actually ran. 0:54

F*** this. Download says that I skipped number 13. I swear I was there, but a guy behind me says he saw me go by and didn't think that I had punched. Not sure if he saw me the first time or the second. Oh well, I am not the first person to claim to have punched when the e-punch disagreed and it's not like I was losing a run of any quality. I do wonder if I pulled the stick too quickly or if I really did just gack it. If I had finished legally, I'd have been right at the bottom anyway, so I'll just try to use this as an object lesson for tomorrow.

Event: Ontario Orienteering Championships
 

Ontario Orienteering Championships - Middle Course

Pre: Got a good look at the map from Summer 2010 courtesy of Glen Tryson. Trail network is very dense and map is 1:7500 so I decided to think about trail options whenever possible. Yeah, right.

Start->1: Being careful, around on trail, cutting off late and finding the woods a bit grodier than I expected. Clean, though. 3:18

1->2: Around cliff to trail to power line cut where I could see the hill. One of my better legs. 2:12

2->3: Off on compass, but compass was off (a common problem all day). I got too close to the pond and then had to slowly figure out my problem. 2:56

3->4: Across trail to next trail, but apparently off-line. Had to stop to relocate only to learn that I really wasn't far off. 2:43

4->5: Out to trail, then N to small trail that should have taken me right to it. Saw other folks to my left and jumped in too soon and slowly worked my way to the control. It was on this leg that I finally internalized the meet notes about bare rock being mapped as "open". 4:35

5->6: Slow through some junk, but otherwise clean. 2:30

6->7: Veered a little too much left and hit the small trail E of the field (which looked to be undermapped, causing confusion). Upon clearing up the goof, ran right in. 3:37

7->8: Took a very bad compass bearing and came out at the five-way intersection E of the control (and further from it than #7!) Didn't recognize where I was and went on the NW trail until I saw the thick green. Then right in. 4:23

8->9: A bit tentative after the last goof, so of course I was clean. 1:43

9->10: S to trail (but it took so long!) and then SW to the road that was parallel to the path and then in when I saw the field. 2:49

10->11: Plan was SE to main trail, turn left, then S near the circle and spike it. Never saw the little trail next to the north line. Hit it while it was momentarily properly aligned and turned left. Noticed the shift but "went with it". When it hit the junction ENE of the control, I had to stop and figure things out again. Then trails right to the flag. 4:42

11->12: Grody leaving the circle, but then trails to the junction S of the circle and right in. 3:11

12->13: Lots of folks seemed to be searching for this one. I could see that they were short, but did get help when part of the crowd in front of me found it before I got over the ridge. 1:52

13->14: Along the line to the little stream, across it and tried to spot #6 to my left as I went to the powerline. Got there near the hill to the right of the (bent) control-path line. Could see the swamp was dry so I cut through it and could see the field. Did get pulled in to the flag on the knoll 75m S of mine. 7:29

14->F: Tried to run in, but surely looked bad as Ali Crocker just loped by me at a much higher speed.

7th out of 14 in my age class, but not a good run. The one positive was that I kept all of my (way too many) mistakes small.

Ontario Orienteering Championships - Sprint

Last starter on my course. Never a good thing for me.

Start->1: Ran around corner to start triangle and headed for the fence. Alas, it was the wrong fence. I made it to the left field foul pole before realizing my error and retracing almost the whole way to the triangle. Then I barely noticed the gap I should have hit the first time. Nothing like giving up 90 seconds on the first control! 2:29

1->2: Dodging more parked cars than expected and still mad at myself, but otherwise clean. 1:09

2->3: Actually paid attention and didn't get fooled in the circle. 1:06

3->4: Saw Janet Tryson coming the other way. 0:47

4->5: Almost went to the wrong side (outside) of the courtyard, but looked up and could see the flag. 0:32

5->6: Bobbled near the trail head and again near the flag. 1:20

6->7: Not being used to sprint maps and not being "with it" I looked for the "wall of green" behind the control. Alas, olive green doesn't look like that. Should have been smarter. 0:51

7->8: Veered right and had to adjust at the end. Stupid, stupid. 1:37.

8->9: Through the parking lot and right to it. 0:42

9->10: Down the road and right to it. 1:26

10->11: 0:17

11->12: Advantage of late start? No one staring at you as you try to run to the spectator control. 1:08

12->13: Tried to go right at it, but top of hill was grody and I felt like I did a poor job. Splits say it wasn't as bad as I thought. 1:13

13->14: Chose to take the longer route, using the bike path all the way around to attack. Worked well, but i was already getting too slow. 2:50

14->15: The less said about this leg the better. Saw lots of folks, but saw many more trails than were mapped. Should have just set a compass and run to the wall of green since that was the feature. It took me a while to realize this and I face-planted and really banged my forearm before I got around to doing the right thing. Hit the green wall N of the control and just about walked in as two other folks joined me. 3:57

15->16: Set the compass and tried to lose my "friends", but hit the bare rock E of the control and ended up going out to the road. This did feed me in pretty well, though. 1:42

16->17: Grody stuff screwed up pace count and I stopped early before remembering the "trail" through the "yellow" and was able to use the bare rock to my advantage. Good finish to a bad leg. 2:32

17->18: Stayed in the white as another guy from my course (started two minutes ahead of me) went high. I think he gained about ten seconds on me, but I was solid. 1:44

18->19: Crash to road, look in correct direction and see it. Chasing... 1:07

19->20: Can see it from #19. Chasing... 0:48

20->F: Chasing... 0:23

11th out of 14 in my age class. Definitely one of my lesser sprints. Arm is quite sore as well. Not one of my better days. And, yet, it was nonetheless one of my most enjoyable.

Course 6 Middle - Splits

Course 4B Sprint - Splits