Training Log Archive: rjb3

Event: WMOC 2010 - Pays de Neuchatel - Switzerland
 

La Chaux-de-Fonds
Sprint qualifier.
A big climb from the assembly area to the start provided all of the warm up I needed. For the most part a good run. Lost about 3.5 minutes on 9 due to a mental lapse. Finished 42 out of 63 in M65-1. Good enough for the C final.

Riederalp, Switzerlaand.
1:10000, 5M. Start at 2227M and finish at 2065M.
Riederalp is a resort area above the town of Morel, reached by cablecar or gondola. The start was reached by a ski lift.
This area is on the dry side of the mountain and although it rained in the morning before the event, the footing was good with very little mud. The area of the map we used was mostly light yellow with a few small areas of dark yellow. The ground was mostly covered with low shrubs (juniper, etc.). There were occasional trees, but none that I saw made it to the map. The terrain was feature rich, with many dot knolls, small ponds and reentrants. This made for a busy map which I never became comfortable with. The visibility should have been very good, but for most of my run I was in fog. I could see OK for about 20 to 30 meters. I was using bearing and pace count, but since it wasn't possible to run in a straight line I kept drifting off and stopping short. Fortunately there was a large trail network (some for humans and some for cows) so relocating was usually reasonably easy. I did a lot of relocating. For a while in the middle of the course the sun came out. This didn't seem to help my navigating, it made that part much more enjoyable. But this didn't last. The fog moved back in and the last three controls were in a cold rain.
This was a nice course and would have been more enjoyable without the fog and rain. This was not the typical Brown course in the US.

Chrienseregg (Sometimes spelled with a K), Switzerland.
1:10000, 5M at 1032M.
The map is at the first cablecar stop going from Kriens, (a suburb of Luzern) to the top of Pilatus mountain (site of the evening meal).
This is not my favorite terrain for Orienteering. We were on the wet (north) side of the mountain and after the first two controls the ground was moss covered and soggy. There was a lot of fern, blueberry (?) and various other kinds of shrubbery, limiting visibility, both forward and down. Underfooting was rocky with lots of downed trees, everything slick.
Enough complaining. The course was quite challenging, technically as well as physically. The open areas (ski slopes, cow pastures) were out of bounds, so we were in the woods most of the time. I did reasonably OK for the first half, slow but no serious problems. Lost time on 8 as I stopped short thinking I had gone too far, and on 11 where I drifted well to the left and took a while to relocate.
The top times for M65 were under 45 minutes. Very humbling.

They ran out of maps for M/H65 and five competitors had to wait for maps with hand drawn courses. Not too bad, but they failed to include the out of bounds areas on these maps. The judges allowed the results to stand but every one in M65 received extra chocolate, a fine unexpected bonus.

Appenzell, Switzerland.
Sprint, urban.
1:5000, 2M.
Today's map was more technical than yesterday as there were many small streets and alleys going in all directions. Flat, I think the 25M is a bit of a stretch. Got off to a bad start by picking up the wrong map (H55 instead of H65). Lost about 11 minutes by the time I figured out the mistake and went back to get the correct one. Very cautious, but OK, up to 10. Lost concentration. Actually ran right past the control. By the time I figured out where I was, I had no good route back to the control. Lost another 4 minutes here. Despite the blunders, this was another fun course.