Training Log Archive: Spike

A few notes about the weekend:

This was a lot of fun. The organizers did a great job. The terrain the first couple of days wasn't especially interesting, but it was still a blast.

I stepped on a rock or something on the first sprint and a spot on my left foot was uncomfortable all weekend. It wasn't too bad, but kind of annoying.

It was good to catch up a little bit with Frank. He flew his little airplane to the events. I was surprised he made it to the third day because I'd guessed the weather (lots of wind/rain/some snow) would have kept him on the ground. But he told me they made it with no problem and were able to fly around the bad weather.

I spotted Tom be-the-map, but never got a chance to talk to him. I wanted to.

This was "Nationals." That seems like a strange name for an event, but whatever.

I was chatting with someone about how lots of people gripe about formats (SML, two day, relays, 2 sprints, etc). I wish more people lust liked orienteering and didn't stress about formats.

The southern Michigan terrain is really nice. I hope they host some more events in the near future.

We had a nice visit in South Bend. The N.D. art museum had some interesting stuff. The Meso-American collection seemed quite good. They had a good exhibit of contemporary artists of African descent and a video exhibit by Alana Olsen: http://zweifelundzweifel.org/

We also had a good meal at a place called Chicory Cafe.

Super interesting terrain and a fun course. I slogged around as best I could. I had one rough leg where my mind wandered and I lost contact and didn't react very well. That probably cost a good 2 minutes.

Early in my course I was running together with Cristina. That was fun. We were slogging along at a similar pace. At one point I was behind Cristina in her Nydalens SK (or is it OK?) suit and thought, "hey, this is just like watching one of Anders Nordberg's headcam videos." Then I realized I'd better look at the map.

5

Sunday_Long_Bishop_Lake_Oct_2018_7 Green B - Splits

Fun race. I'm not fast enough to do really well. But, I enjoyed it. My mind wandered a little bit once or twice, but never enough that I lost any time. Still, that counts as a couple of mistakes even if it didn't mean I lost any time.

5

I wasn't really ready for the afternoon race. I missed the second control. Then on the route to 7-8-9 I decided to look at the descriptions and check the control codes. When I went to 7, the vegetation pushed me off line and I saw a control a bit to my right. I noticed the code and thought, "that's it," and punched, then went off to the next control. Things looked odd and didn't seem to fit, but there was a control in more-or-less the right direction and the code was a code I'd memorized. I punched and looked up and things looked wrong. I looked back at the map and realized that when I was on my way to 7, I got pushed off line and bumped in to 8 and - since I'd checked the codes in advance recognized the number - punched at 8 thinking I was at 7. Then went to what I thought was 8 (but was actually 9). Only after that control did I realize what was up and turned around and went back to 7, then took 8, and then 9. It cost a good 3-4 minutes (so a good 20 percent of my time on the course...yuck).

The lesson I learned is to not read codes, just read the map and navigate to the feature. I think if I'd done that, I'd have lost a little time, but more like 20 seconds.

5

Saturday_Sprint1_Plymouth_Oct_2018_7 Green B 1 - Splits

Saturday_Sprint2_Plymouth_Oct_2018_7 Green B 2 - Splits

A strange race. I was running and then reading. I should have been reading and then running. I had a couple of sloppy legs.

I also went into the deep mud - well over my waste. That mud was strange. My map got coated and I had trouble getting it clean enough to read throughout the rest of the course. Cutting through the stream also was on the straight line and that was the wrong choice because of the big fence that was on the straight line. I hadn't seen the fence until I got out of the stream.

I saw Frank Skorina on the course. That was fun. I haven't seen him in a few years.

5

Friday_Middle_St_Patricks_CP_Oct_2018_7 Green B - Splits

I jogged around on West Campus for a bit. I felt ok. On the way home Mary passed me in her car. That was kind of fun.

1