Training Log Archive: Matej

If I had to choose one word to describe today, it would be "sad". I hit the first three controls perfectly and headed out on the long leg with a creative, if suboptimal route choice. Unfortunately, major mistakes at #4, #5, #9, #19, and #20 ruined my chances of placing well. I couldn't adjust to the technical navigation around the control circles, and it cost me a good race.

To add injury to insult, as I was relocating in the tricky marshes west of #19 (I had missed the control), I slipped and hit my left thigh against a fallen tree I was crossing. Adrenaline took over and I finished the race, but afterwards, I had problems extending and contracting the muscle I hit. Judging from previous experience wih similar injuries, I should likelyp be ready to run Middle distance on Friday, but it is frustrating to say the least...

Mentally, I'm trying to put all of the disappointment behind me and look ahead to the next race. The steep, open forested, re-entrants-gone-crazy terrain of the Middle is a good fit for what I've been practicing, and I was navigating confidently and cleanly at my last training session there. I guess I just wasn't prepared for the abrupt changes in navigational styles that the Long demanded, not to mention the challenge of successfully navigating through dense, green areas.

Analysis:
#1: Took no risks. I followed the trail to the re-entrant, the re-entrant down to the open area and straight into the control.
#2: Ran down (northeast) to the marshes and then east along the trail until the bend northwest of the control, where I angled uphill. I hit this one straight on.
#3: Slipped and slid back down to the trail, ran north and the attacked from the big boulder next to the trail. Another clean control.
#4: I was looking for a decent attack angle that would approach the control safely _and_ follow as many trails as possible. I never saw the small trail going west from the hairpin bend in the road, along what was probably the optimal route choice. Instead, I did something a little more creative: I headed northwest out of #3 to the road, but then I crossed the forest to get to the northern section of road and followed it to the north-south trail parallel to the power lines. I cut the corner and ran through the arena, jumping the streamer tapes for the arena pass-through along the way. Unfortunately, after following the westward trail to the sharp drop into the re-entrant, I veered slightly to the right, but hit the final footpath just south of the junction wih the large path and relocated. I followed the footpath to just above the control and attacked from there. I must have misread re-entrants though, beacuse I ended up far to the west of where I should have been. I relocated off the contour features relatively quickly, but I had been practically due south of #5 when I realized my mistake.
#5: I'm not quite sure what I did to #5. The presence of the boulder fields came as a total shock; they were basically open areas with medium-sized rocks scattered all over them. Crossing them was extremely difficult, but using them for navigation was necessary. I somehow managed to overshoot the beautifully visible control and end up in the large boulder field to the west. Did I mention that crossing and re-crossing the boulder fields was painfully slow?
#6: I attacked off the boulder field and hit this one cleanly.
#7: Another clean, technical leg, mostly because I was following a Czech guy who caught me at #6.
#8: The Czech guy helped me find the east-west footpath, which I followed to the junction. I cut due east from there and then ran north along the second path for a while before cutting east again, just south of the boulder field. I then followed one of the re-entrants up to the control.
Butterfly: I started looking for #48 one marsh too early, then missed #52 by ~15 meters to the east, then had issues finding #47 on my third trip to the control. The thickness of the vegetation and reduced visibility made this part of the course slow and painful.
#16: I lost the trail and went straight on a compass heading, successfully relocating off of the arena. I came out of the green a tiny bit to the west of the control, but I quickly saw it.
#17: Hit this one on a compass heading while aiming off to the left of the green patch.
#18: Elephant trails led straight to it. Otherwise, it would have been the hardest control on the course.
#19: My plan was to follow the spur into the control. Unfortunately, the spur was nearly invisible and I overshot the control, reaching the two large southern boulders before relocating... and missing it again. I got lucky on my third try and saw it in the distance, but I should have been using streams and marshes, not contours and boulders, to navigate this hillside.
#20: Did not learn from the previous leg and attempted to use contours to navigate again. I hit the girls' control (on the boulder next to the thicket west of mine) three times before bailing west to the marsh next to the steep hillside. I lost >10 minutes here, on a vague hillside where no approach to the control was completely safe...

(to be continued after training)

C • Next Race 2

My first JWOC course was a memorable experience, not because of the difficulty of the course (though tricky, the terrain was easier than something like Berkeley or DVC), or the nervous anticipation (I was pretty relaxed when starting), or even the atmosphere, which was incredible...

Torrential rain was what characterized my course the most. The warm up area was inside a gym, and I only realized how hard it was raining after running out of the building and onto the course. I joked after my race that the mapper had used light brown to map rivers and lakes. It was true; after sheets of water poured from the sky, they rushed through the cobblestone streets, turning any paved road on a slope into an inch-deep stream.

That said, I ran a solid, if not spectacular race, with only one 5 second "overshoot" of a control and a bad route choice on the long leg that might have cost me ~ 15 seconds. However, I was never able to run as fast as I wanted to because of the slippery conditions. At the finish, I slid in to punch, missed the control, and had to go back to get it; that moment exemplified my race...

Analysis:
#1: Ran up the staircase, across the bridge, cut southwest to the open space between the two horizontal apartment buildings, and followed the paved area into the control.
#2: Cut southeast through the paved area and approached the control from the north; this gave me a better attack angle than a southern approach.
#3: Straightforward.
#4: Ran north and then west, north of the large parking area. After weaving through the intervening buildings, I hit the north end of the long apartment building and followed it into the control. Looking back, this appears to be the straightest but most technically demanding option...
#5: Took the slightly slower northern route. Might have lost a second or two here.
#6: Ran to the main road, then east through the passage north of the first north-south apartment, then due north along the path.
#7: Never saw the tiny passage just south of the control, so I took the northern route around the L-shaped building.
#8: Avoided the one tricky trap on the entire course by hitting the control through the norhwest passage.
#9: Atrocious route choice; I headed back northwest the way I came, then ran south around the building and headed east. I had chosen the suboptimal southern route choice, and I hadn't even noticed the staircase-passage south of #8 that would have made it much faster. I lost a lot of time here, potentially 15 seconds or more.
#10/#11: Straightforward; I was following a Swiss guy.
#12: Lost the Swiss guy and almost ran into the same olive-green driveway as a Slovak girl in front of me (I went right).
#13: I went left.
#14: Only saw the girls' control north of the statue and overshot my own, in plain view of all the spectators. Lost ~ 5 seconds.
#15: Almost overshot this one too, but saw it just in time.
#16/#17: Straightforward.
#18: Ran up the staircase immediately and attacked it from the east.
#19/#20: Straightforward.

Event: JWOC 2014 - Borovets, BULGARIA