Training Log Archive: Vector

World ARDF Champ's - 2m Classic: This is absurd but somehow I got lost coming out of the start! 15 min's of pure chaos. Finally I found myself on the map and mad pe my way to the planned mandatory crossing point. From then on my navigation was solid. Went to #1 first due to proximity and its southern location. Bad ankle pain today was especially tough compared to other days, so this week was probably as much as it could handle. Will have to give it a lot of TLC in the weeks ahead now. Got sucked into a trap road coming out of 1 (lots of those here-really have to have tons of map contact here compared to typical orienteering venues). Didn't want to go downhill from the ridge line by 1 until I knew for sure there weren't any more transmitters up high so I was pretty cautious and slow for a while. Then I went down the hill and found 4 but took way too many cycles to do so. Went to 2 from there. Opted to go back out to main road to move west but should have stayed on the ridge road because I had to go right back up the ridge again. Had some trouble with the signal for #3 so I did some counter-reflection tactics which helped clarify. Again too many cycles to get there but got it, then the long haul to the beacon and finish from there. Only 30m shy of an optimal route, so I'll call it optimal. Good improvement from the 80m Classic. Much nicer run with less abusive thrashing green compared to the Wed Classic.

Team USA had another really good day too. Vadim, our Jedi Master, got gold! And the M50 team medaled too! Bob Cooley 4th again! Ken almost got a top 10 finish too. We are trying to confirm but this may be the best World ARDF Championship success for Team USA ever in history!

I feel very fortunate to have been a part of this and to have been able to contribute to our team success. Great experience and very proud of the entire team and honored to have represented the USA with such amazing athletes and such a fun group.

World ARDF Champ's - Sprint: Open, runnable forest as a nice change. Decided to go to the western controls (2 & 3) first, then had to cross the map over to 1, then 5 and spectator beacon. Coming out of spectator beacon I thought I had real strong signal for 4F on other side of fence so I went around west side of fence but 4 was farther away and not as far west as expected, which made me lost a bunch of time going back up to the 1F, 2F, 3F and 5F cluster north of 4F. But I executed that cluster fairly well all,things considered. Not a bad sprint for my second sprint race ever. I think I can definitely improve to under 20 min's w/ more experience and a healed ankle. But wow those 15 min win times are amazing!

Tonight Ken and I were awarded the Bronze team medal for our combined scores in yesterday's 3.5 MHz Classic race. Really glad Ken did so great and that I pushed to go get that #4 transmitter despite not having the map towards the end and being down to the wire almost overtime!

C • Woo! 3

World ARDF Champ's - 80m Classic: A very grueling but beautiful course criss crossing cultivated land like rice patties and orchards while climbing very steep hills with amazing mountains in the backdrop. Picture perfect weather too. This was actually my 1st ever 80m race. I had only done a practice event before. Came out of the start chute and used the high ground nearby to get good bearings on signals. #1 was clearly the closest but 2 and 3 seemed equidistant and when I got to 1 it seemed 3 was really close. Turns out I should have gone to 2 and then 3 becuase I did a ton of backtracking to get to 2 from 3. I got abused by terrible vegetation trying to get to 3 and find 3 once I got close. Sticking to roads next time given the extremely dense vegetation and unreliable mapping of trails that seem to always disappear and dead end into impassable green. Started getting close to overtime and resolved to just finish wth 3 of the 4 transmitters but once I started on my way to finish mid way from 2 I realized 4 might be quite close to finish... and then somewhere along the way to 4 I lost my map. But I already had my route to where I thought 4 was located memorized as well as the route from 4 to finish, plus the beacon helped with the finish too. I had just barely enough time to go get 4 and then haul like a mad man to the finish. Mission accomplished! Had less than 3 minutes to spare before overtime. And good thing I persevered because it helped contribute to Ken and I getting 3rd place/Bronze medal team score on M40. Czechs and other teams to follow had at least one control they didn't get, but we got them all, just barely!

USA did great all around with Vadim, Bill and Nicolai getting a Bronze for their team score on M50, Bob Cooley 4th place finish, Lori 7th in her race, and Ruth was oh so close to medaling again! Sprints and cultural day tomorrow.

Ankle still giving me pain on occasion so still a lot of hobbled running especially on the downhills. Kind of frustrating but taking a day at a time.

World ARDF Champ's - Foxoring. Steep hills, trails 95% of the time. Somehow I missed seeng an outlier control on my map, so when I came in everyone thought I won. Nope. I'm only the World Champion of everyone in my class who also accidentally missed the outlier control! I'm not sure how I didn't see the control on the map as I deliberately scanned it several times to make sure I wasn't missing one. Lesson learned: on my frequency note card I put in my clue sheet holder I should also list the controls I need to find. Had I done this it would have forced me to slow down and re-scan the map visually until I found it. On the positive side my split times were pretty good for the controls I visited despite the lingering ankle sprain issues.

World ARDF Champ's Day 1: Sprint, Fox-O, 80m classic, and 2m classic model events. Frequencies are going to be the main challenge. Map was really good. All equipment worked like a charm. A bit rainy, enough to cancel the fun parts of opening ceremony.

Event: World ARDF (Radio Orienteering) Championships