Training Log Archive: GM

Run along the streets of Pest trying to find City Park, which I did, then a lap of the park and back through more streets. So hot. I didn't take a map and only had a rough idea of where to head as the map in the Loney Planet Eastern Europe wasn't that detailed. After a couple of km I hit the SW corner of the park and did a lap. Found the Szechenyi Baths which we plan to go to tomorrow morning. I still keep looking left and right and left and right everytime I cross a road as it just doesn't come naturally. Don't want to end up as a Hungarian hood ornament.

WMOC Long Final M50-B. Today was hot (34 degrees) but it didn't feel too bad in the forest which is generally shady. I feel like it was a race of two halves for me. The first half felt really good, not brilliant, but smooth. The second half was a bit of a shambles.

I started in a good frame of mind and was determined to focus on my navigation. I took the safe wider route along the track for a while leading to 1 but that gave me a chance to have a look at the course. Good through 2 and 3. I had a slight drift going out of 3 and started running along an indistinct track too far but corrected fairly quickly, but a straighter route would have been better. Good through to 7 but heading to 8 I picked up a parallel track for 100m but could easily slide over to the one I wanted as both were heading downhill. Blair passed my down this track and he was certainly running with purpose. I cut the switchback at the bottom of the hill and went straight to 8. I was a little hesitant on the short leg to 9 because it was just a jumble of gullies and pits and small depressions, but then in the middle I saw a track, picked it up easily and 9 as well. At this point in the splits I was sitting in 3rd place less than a minute behind the leading time in the B final.

However, they want to make you complete the entire race. I had made a good plan to get to 10 but leaving 9 I got sucked into taking a track to get closer to the creek, and then crossed about 100m to the left. Crossed the road and climbed the short steep hill and then for some stupid reason I kept navigating on my original plan, not from where I had ended up. So I was making a lovely parallel error, and all those big deep depressions (20 - 30 metres deep) start to look very much alike. Things were fitting - sort of - but after a while I bailed west to a track, relocated, said a few choice things to myself then navigated to the control, loosing 4 minutes. Number 11 felt even worse but my time loss was also about 4 minutes. I missed an indistinct track and came off the one I was on making another parallel error. I blundered around the top flat part of a huge depression, but unfortunately it was the wrong one. I ran out to another track, relocated, and then navigated to my control. I had a bit of deja voux on this one. So two controls totalling less than 500m and 8 minutes blown. I got some flow back through 12, 13 and 14, but I was slow leaving 14 and didn't see the drinks control symblol on my map - I did however see the drinks control so I was really confused. This didn't help my route choice to 15 and I ended up snaking my way there, all the time thinking about the drinks station. Early on I had seen what I thought was a long route choice leg leaving 15 so I had planned this lovely route and was just about to take it when I noticed a control sitting in the middle. The controls 15, 16 and 17 were in a lovely straight line. A quick replan and I went ok to 16, and onto 17 where I must have been in the circle but I just couldn't see the pit. Back out to my attackpoint and back in again and then I noticed the pit about a contour higher than I had been. I was slow to 18 which was a short flattish leg to a pit. Again I missed the pit and overshot by about 20 m so had to turn around. From there it was a 300m leg to the last control on the edge of the clearing, but we had to negotiate another 3 huge depressions. This was fun running especially passing 3 other controls and a horde of people searching for them. I didn't have much left up the finish chute, and felt stuffed at the end, but partly from having such a poor second half. It really knocks you around - such a mental game.

I finished in 32nd place about 13 minutes down on the fastest time. I am a bit disappointed that I couldn't put together a good run in the long distance events, but I know I have to work a lot more on my orienteering especially when I am getting tired. Great event today - but a pity about the heat as everyone just wanted to find a piece of what little shade there was. The Australians had staked out a great little patch next to the forest which was in shade for most of the morning and still had a bit from the overhanging branches into the mid afternoon.

Great runs by Susanne in W35 for 2nd place plus a couple of other top 10 finishers including Jymbo in M50.

The BEST thing was the fire engine at the finish which was showering anyone who wanted, so I just stood there and got drenched in this lovely cool water and then the breeze just evaporated it and I felt so much better.

A hot day, so I was very gentle with my warm up. Walked to the top of the hill and then did some easy running in the nice bit of forest on the warm up map - most of it was varying shades of green which I wanted to avoid.

Rest day at WMOC and we kept the window closed so the Swedish bus driver's reving of the engine and playing his bloody alwful music at 5:30am didn't wake us, so had a nice sleep in until about 8:00am. Went and visited the halt and the lame down the corridor to make sure he would be ok for his golf game in a few weeks and if he needed some beer. He said he should be ok for the golf and waved a half bottle of red so things were better.

It was warming up outside but such a lovely summers day. I had been traversing the last two runs I had so this morning I ran up the hill for a while, and sort of kept going till the houses ran out then got onto a switchback walking track and finally came out at the TV-Torony, which is the Pecs equivalent of Black Mt tower. Then retraced my steps except I cut across a few of the switchbacks. The time up was 34 minutes, and the time down was 20 - it is quite steep initially on some of the streets, and they even have grooves in the concrete so if it rains the cars can make it up the hill, but probably in reverse as it is usually a lower gear. I met an old Hungarian stacking huge lumps of tree for fire wood and gave him my best good day in Hungarian to which he replied with same and smiled. Another 50 or 60 years here and I will be fluent.

C • Hungarian ... 2

WMOC Long Qualification 2 at Vizfo. They talk about people being in the moment - I must have been somewhere else today because it just didn't work. I finished in 18th place over the two days in my heat and missed the A final by 3 places and 2:37 in time. Still really enjoying the orienteering, just have lots of room for improvement now.

The course today was a series of medium length legs through the karst terrain, but not that complex. The changes in vegetation were more difficult to cope with than yesterday, and some of the controls were hard to find, even when standing very close.

I started well to my first control and tried taking a good safe route, but about 100m before the control I veered a bit to the right and didn't see the tiny gully and kept going to spike the control in the next gully about 100m away. I took about 30 seconds to relocate but by then had lost about 2 minutes. A good leg to 2 had me back on track, and ok up to 3 but should have run a bit harder up the hill. Number 4 was a pit in the green and I had followed the line of depressions until on the edge of the circle and then must have been within 5 metres of it as I passed it and found the next depression. I turned back and got the control but lost 30 seconds. Now the dumb things really started. Because I had turned back to the control I hadn't reoriented my map so left number 4 in the opposite direction (this is not me) but at least I was reading the map because it wasn't fitting and I stopped after about 30m and turned around and headed across to the track to regain my sense of direction. I followed the track but expecting a T-intersection but it just curved around which made me start doubting I was where I thought I was. Decided to keep going straight and hit the next track where I expected to and headed along to a vague clearing so things were fitting again. Number 5 was a pit in a jumble of pits but the circle hid some of the contours and I just didn't see the huge depression as being a big figure of 8 shape so I was looking for a pit up above the big depression instead of the pit in the bottom of the same. I kept looking to the slope to the NE of the control but couldn't see any pits so headed out to the track to try and relocate, but again it didn't make sense so went even further to a big junction and looped back around but still didn't see the shape. It then suddenly made sense, I felt like a dill, and ran down to the control but I had lost over 4 minutes on that leg. Number 6 was a small pit in a flat vague area so I was careful and read the very suttle spur/gully and but quite slow into the control - lacking a bit of confidence at this stage. Ran well down to 7 and the short contouring leg to 8 and ok back up the hill and then ran ok to 9 and 10. Then comes 11 which is on the other side of a big depression with clearing but slow run which I tried to avoid but there were also two large areas of fight to avoid but I didn't pick the gap and ended up running right around the big one so had to come back down to the control in the gully and lost about 2 minutes. By this stage I had no rhythm to my orienteering but was at least navigating ok into the circle but I just missed the pit in the green at 13 and had to doulbe back about 20m and again something similar on 15 so another minute gone. The last proper leg was down this steep slope of 25 contours and I did the first part ok down a clear diagonal path beside the out of bounds but should have dived off the corner and gone down through the forest, but saw a track to the left which I assumed would have been quicker so ran on about 50m but it didn't look like a path so I traversed trying to pick it up. After yesterday I should have learnt my lesson about traversing on steep leafy slopes. After about 100m I realised that the path was where I had come down so angled back across to it but it didn't help and it was slow and steep, and lost something in the order of 2 to 3 minutes. Hit the bottom of the hill and then just ran as hard as I could through the last two controls.

All up I wasted about 13 minutes on 7 controls, and probably more by being too cautious on the ones after the stuff ups. Oh well, that's one of the joys of orienteering - it can always challenge you. The forest is great, and the final day should be the best terrain of the week so lots to look forward to. And at least I am into the B final (there is a C and a D) and will have Nick Willmott and hopefully Golfer to compete with. Golfer had a fantastic run yesterday (except for the last half of the finish shute) but his calf injury doesn't sound too promising. He also missed the A final by about the same margin as me, which was a shame after yesterday's effort. Uncle Jim is sitting pretty in third place in his heat but there are some very fast orienteers in some of the other heats.

I am really happy for MaryMac who had two good steady runs and is into the A final in W50 along with Debbie. Rest day on Thursday so we will take in some of the cultural aspects of Pecs - or eat and sleep.

There was a 2km with 130m climb walk to the start so I just walked that and then did a nice easy warm up on the warm-up map which was a lovely little bit of forest - so dark and cool.

WMOC Long Qualification 1 at Szarvaskut. MaryMac had a relatively early start at 10:11 but my start wasn't until 13:23 so I was out at the assembly area for quite a few hours. It was warm and sunny, but no shade, which may have had some influence on how I ran - should have coped better.

The terrain is the Hungarian version of spur/gully which was lots of fun. The detail was provided by the extensive track networks and changes in vegetation plus numerous erosion gullies, but not as complex as gold mining terrain. The runability was in general very good, as was the visibility. I had two controls which were in the green so I just paid them due respect and got close then walked in.

I started well and ran well to 1, making use of the track network. Then I had a lot of trouble interpreting which feature number 2 was. The description said NE shallow gully, but I just went to the NE gully which was the main one. I would have run past the tiny little side gully with the control by less than 5 metres, but didn't see the flag in the green undergrowth. Continuted on down to the next main junction then had to double back and lost over a minute. Running through 3 and 4 was very straightforward. I overran number 5 by being a bit low and not recognising the dark green on the map as the clearing I could see up above me. Probably cost me 30-40 seconds. Good to 6 but then the wheels fell off. I should have gone straight over the hill, as Golfer did, and instead contoured out which was ok until I rounded the spur then it was SOOO steep and slippery I kept loosing my footing as I was traversing. The dry leaf litter just gives no grip. I was then slow going up the next climb to the control so probably lost 1 to 2 minutes due to a dumb route choice. We then had a long route choice leg of about 1.7km - I took the left hand route which was a track run most of the way then a gentle climb of about 75 metres to the control. By this stage the heat was having a not so good effect and I was feeling so tired. Ok through 9 and took a very conservative approach to 10 as this was the control in the darker green on a tiny spur - so easy to miss - but went straight to it from my AP. Straight to 11, but I did stop at the drink station on the track just before it for a cup of water which is unusual for me. I was slightly off to the left on 11 and ran into a shallow gully first and had to swing right and back up to the ditch loosing about 20 seconds - the ditches are very shallow and rounded and more like a long shallow gully than a ditch in Australia. Straigh to 12 just checking off the errosion gullies and tracks, and then the last two controls in the forest became a bit of a conga line as there were lots of people going to each control.
As long as your direction was good there wasn't much trouble in finding them. The hard part is getting around the slower competitors on the single track. Not much left in the tank for a sprint finish, but it was nice to get a few cheers running in.

I finished 13th out of 51 in my heat, but about 15 minutes behind the leading time. The top 16 from each of the 5 heats go into the A final so I will need a good run tomorrow to be confident of getting in. There are a lot of runners within a couple of minutes either way.

Golfer was in heat 2 but we had he same course. He was having a good run and was a minute up on me at 10 but then he had a brain explosion leaving 11 and did a 180 out of the control and lost 13 minutes and obviously a stack of places. Uncle Jim is currently leading heat 5 and if he keeps that position tomorrow he would be the last starter in the A final. MaryMac had a steady run and is just in the top half which is where she needs to be. Debbie had another great run and is in 8th. I was back late and a bit tired so I didn't spend much time looking at the results, and they aren't up on the WMOC site yet.

Some interesting aspects about the event:

- the assembly area used to be a uranium mine back in the good old Soviet days, but a deep underground one (there was a memorial over an old ventilation shaft which was over 1km deep)
- there is no amimal life in the forest except for the occasional bird, a few fat bumble bees, and lots of grass hoppers in the assembly area.
- you get given a 0.5l bottle of water when you finish but there is no other water available except what you bring; beer on the other hand is in plentiful supply with a couple of stalls selling draught beer
- the wooden well with flowing water is the last control every day
- MaryMac tried one of the local Hungarian delicacies for lunch which comprised a big lump of pizza looking dough shaped into a round about the size of a small dinner plate, then deep fried, and covered with sour cream and grated cheese, with the option of some thick garlic water sprinkled over it; sounds like a nutritionist's nightmare, but Mary said it was delicious.
- we had to catch shuttle buses into the assembly area, which meant queing for a long time to return as everyone seems to leave at the same time
- the showers were cold, but very refreshing.
- the organistion is very good, and the officials are so pleasant and helpful
- the commentary is excellent

C • Sounds like ...., 2

Warm up to the start, with a bit of a detour in the forest using the warm up map. Had to help one old guy who should have been at the Red start but had ended up at the green start - luckily they were reasonably close today.

WMOC model event for the long at Lyukas-hars. Having been out to the training possibilites 2 area we didn't feel that we were going to get a lot of extra out of the model, but you still pick up things eg. what a distinctive tree looks like and they just look like other trees only larger in girth, or maybe a slightly smoother/rougher or darker/lighter bark. Who knows?

MaryMac and I decided to treat this as a training run in the forest and had a lot of fun. We both did our own thing through the karst terrain, but kept meeting up at controls. They were easy to find because there were usually at least 20 people standing stock still around the control. I went over onto the north side of the map to run through the 3 depression controls in the NE corner - it was so dark in the forest - and then had a long track run, with some terrain running up and down the steep spur gully to pick up the two controls in the spur/gully terrain (this is more representative of the Long Qualificaiton 1 terrain than the other two days.

Wore our new HUNGARY O-tops which were so cool and comfy. Overall it was a very enjoyable run.

Went for a swim at Harkany in the afternoon, but stayed in the huge public pools rather than venturing into the 35degree spa pool, or the really hot sulphur pools which were inside and cost more. The outside pools were still quiite warm and relaxing.

WMOC Sprint Final at Komló, which is a small town about 25km NE of Pecs. It has lots and lots of uniform housing blocks just uniformly spread around a number of ridges. Not the most inspiring place visually, but really good for a sprint event. Apparently it became a planned mining community during the Soviet era - got to love the Soviet architecture.

I had no real major stuff ups but I didn't make the best choice on a couple of legs. Clean through 1 and 2 but ran a little bit too far to the left on 3 so lost about 15 seconds. Also had trouble seeing if there was a gap in the fence leading into 3 as the red line went straight over it (mind you even when I got there I couldn't tell until I was nearly on top of it). I hesitated for a couple of seconds going to 4 to see if there was another way through, but there wasn't so the route involved running past the control for about 30m and then cutting back in through the school gate. Good down to 5 and across to 6, but the uphill leg to 7 started to take its toll. Found the control ok, but ran the long way around the little building. I should have been looking at the long route choice leg from 8-9 as I ran the simple leg to 8 but i was having trouble getting my map refolded - not a good sign. I saw a simple route left and ran hard but overshot where I wanted to turn down to hit the sharp bend in the main road in the gully. Instead I inadvertently kept going to the next path which wasn't as good, but when I realised what I had done I pressed on as it was still quicker than turning back. I then had the long gentle climb along the road to work out what to do for 9. I had a good plan of coming off the bend in the road and did what I planned, but when I hit the path I couldn't see the next gap down towards the control, just a wall of green, so I turned left and ran up about 10m before realising I was too close to the end of the path so turned around about 5m past where I hit the path and there was the gap. From there I went to the control ok. The next few controls were in these semi formal gardens on the side of the hill above the finish but there were controls everywhere, and there were people everywhere too. It was bedlam. I had just a few tiny hesitations through here and only lost 5-10 seconds. I nailed the 2nd last control which was a good way to finish the course (I think this is the only split I was ahead of Jim), and from there I just ran as hard as I could to the last control and the finish. Good barracking from Nick Wilmott and MaryMac helped.

I finished in 39th place out of 81 starters in the A final (or out of 232 entrants overall) and 2:43 behind the winner today. It wasn't a clean run today, but some of that came from pushing hard. I really think the best I could have done would have been about a minute quicker, but that would still only have been around 20th. The guys at the pointy end of the field are just so fast and there wasn't a lot of really detailed stuff to slow them down. Hopefully they will slow down a bit in the forest but I don't like my chances.

Great atmosphere at the event, brilliant weather, and good courses/area, and well organised. A couple of good results from the Australians with Ann Ingwerson's 9th in W65 a great result - she said she always wanted to make the top 10 at a World Masters so she was very pleased. MaryMac had got over her "I'm just pleased to make the A final attitude and had started ot hope to do better, but she was still happy to be the best placed Australian in her class (a 20 second margin over Debbie was enough to cheer her up). Debbie on the other hand wasn't so happy, especially after visiting control 4 before control 2. Golfer like MaryMac was pleased to make the A final but had hopes of finishing higher, but it is really hard. The fields here are just so big with so much depth.

C • Great ..... 3

Jog to the start with Uncle Jim

Similar run to yesterday morning, just a bit shorter and I didn't venture into the old part of town. Even though we have until 10am I thought it better not to run through there. Instead I ran along the northern edge which still has the old medieval city walls in tact. Bumped into Alex and Debbie who were off to catch a bus to the TV tower on the hill overlooking the city.

WMOC Sprint Qualification in the old centre of Pécs. I made a poor route into my second last control due to misreading the side of the fence the control was on, but probably only lost about 10 seconds. I also stopped a couple of times to double check some complex areas to see if there was a route through or if it was a dead end, and some of the dead ends were diabolical if you got stuck so it was worth checking. Other than that I was really pleased with my navigation and map contact.

I didn't feel particularly fast running but I must have been going ok. Finished in 5th place in heat 2 out of 68 starters. Just over 2 minutes behind 1st (Tim Tett) but I was only just over a minute behind Jorgen Maartensson in 2nd, and 33 seconds behind Uncle Jim who won heat 1 (heats 1 and 2 had the same course). So I should be starting in the last 15 in the A Final tomorrow which is a lot better than I hoped, especially after standing at the finish for a while and watching all these fast looking people in my class come running in. My goal yesterday was to 'not stuff up'.

The first few controls on my course were simple and just climbed up through the streets to the top of the town - probably to get you tired before launching into the detail, and some of it was very detailed. A few of the legs meant having to take very wide routes from the straight line, even running out backwards on some legs. I ended up actually running nearly 4km on a 2.4km course.

Golfer made it through to the A final comfortably in the end from heat 3, after having some nervous moments, which is really pleasing, as did our better halves in W50 with Debbie having a great run for 5th in her heat and MaryMac in 18th place in heat 3. The top 27 in each heat go through to the A final.

My highlight was watching the only competitor in M95 finish. The guy is 97 and he punched the last control then ran, and I mean ran, down the finish chute. Unbelievable. Check him out http://wmoc2011.hu/article/erkki_luntamo_5_minutes...

C • Well done! 4

I can count the warm up as orienteering because they give you one of those tiny little warm up maps with 4 controls on it. I am always amused how the warm up takes longer than the race.

An overcast, cool, and very windy morning wasn't that inviting but quite enjoyed it once I got going. From our student accommodation I just ran along roads that contoured around the hills above the centre of Pecs past a number of churches and the Tettye Ruins (nothing like a good ruin) then down the steep streets and back along the northern edge of the 'historical' town centre. It was here that I realised I had been running with the wind, because it suddenly got a lot harder.

One of the brochures we received in our Masters goodies bag states that "Those who were born here quite often marvel at the cities fortuitous moods". At least it wasn't raining, but it wasn't summer either.

C • Really ... 2

Sprint model map at Pécs-Kertváros which is a Soviet-era style housing estate about 5km S of the centre of Pécs. The WMOC organisers had put out controls and a suggested course but it looked a bit short so I made up a course for MaryMac and myself. Always fun dodging Joe Public on sprint maps, or in this case Zoltan Public. The map was supposed to me more representative of the Sprint Final on Sunday rather than the qualification tomorrow which is in the old centre of town. No real mistakes except for a sharp dog-leg I had created which was hard to turn around and head back the way I had come. Not drawing the lines between controls made it a bit more challenging having to find the next control on the map. In the end just cruised around and enjoyed it a lot.

MaryMac and I felt like a bit more training so we walked back to the start and did the organiser's course. The last couple of controls were the same as my course but the other legs were different, or where they were in reverse I took a different route choice.

Note for Heffer - crazy Russian guy is here! We said hello :)

Back out to training area number 2 on the Vízfő Kis-hegy map which abuts the Long Final map so I thought it worth the repeat visit. Also Blair's less than enthusiastic description of training area 1 helped to make the decision. I drew up a course of about 6km and found that provided more purpose, plus forced me to go into places I may have avoided if I was just pottering around. I tried to emulate the types of control features that they have on the Long Model map. Only one real stuff up when trying to get through some green on the map I went around a series of pits and it didn't take long for me to be heading about 90 degrees to my intended route. I was surprised for a bit and had to force myself to turn back. Feeling reasonably confident about the karst terrain, but some of the tracks are hard to spot, and the rides are almost invisible unless you are going directly up and down one.

As with yesterday there were only about 7 other people out in the forest - and we think only one of those wasn't an Australian. I am always amazed how easy it is to come across other people out in the forest: first I passed Lachlan on a track closely followed by Jim, then a short while later I crossed paths with Jenny. I must have missed Blair by a minute as he was ahead of Lachlan, and I had jogged with Susanne as she was heading to start her run - my start was a bit futher on, and my course was almost a reverse of what Jim had provided for the others - part of a World Cup course he had run back in the 90's.

I was still a bit dithery about running when I couldn't see the ground - the broad leaf vegetation in parts hides the branches and small stumps, but as this was just some training I thought it best to take it easy.

MaryMac wasn't feeling 100% so she waited in the car and read her book. Hopefully a day's rest and she will be feeling better.

I went to the training area number 2 with MaryMac. The map is Vízfő Kis-hegy. The parking area was at the top of the hill on the SE corner of the map. The really interesting karst terrain was in the NW corner of the map. Still fun to look at the Hungarian version of big spur/gully dotted with a number of point features, including the occasional very small boulder <1m. The karst terrain was well worth it though. Such a jumble of depressions, some small and others massive with 4 or 5 contours to get to the bottom from the rim. The area was well mapped and could find everything fairly easily, but that was jogging - running harder might pose more of a problem. The dark green is impenetrable but the other greens are quite passable. We both enjoyed the run, and met some nice older Russians while we were out there. But that's all there was: us and the 6 Russians. The day was a bit overcast which made running pleasant. Finised off with a climb of about 135m over the hill and down to the car.

Event: WMOC 2011
 

It was light and I was awake so I headed out for a run from our pension in Vonyarcvashegy at about 5:30am. Headed out along the bike path and then up Saint-Michael Hill (a very small hill) to check out the church and view of the lake. Back through the town and then up into the forest to the Kitaibel Pal lookout tower for a 'lookout' which was good. I felt like I hadn't done anything hilly for a week so I ran half way back down the hill and did 3 hill reps of about 2:45 each. Finished with a run back down then through the streets to the pension. Nice time to be out running before the wind really picked up.

A long walk into Graz with MaryMac including up and down the Schlossberg. The previous evening I wondered how all the old people managed to get to the top for the concert - turns out that on the other side that I ran up there is a fenicular railway, plus there is an elevator that runs up through the middle of the hill. And I just assumed they were all tough fit Austrians from the same stock as Herman.

Easy run with MaryMac around the streets of Vonyarcvashegy on the NW shore of Lake Balaton in Hungary. The place is so quiet but I imagine it will pick up from the start of July. We checked out the Hungarian lake-beach scene. Reminded us of some British holiday seaside resort from the 1950's, but it was clean, neat and grassy although we couldn't see the bottom so not sure if it was sand, gravel, or sharp rocks. The water is this milky, cloudy green colour. A lot warmer running here than a week ago in Canberra.