Wow, that took such focus! Found it quite technical, very 'middle'.
Most happy with how I raced in this one out of the 3 this weekend (nice that it was the WRE!). I never felt very speedy, but found the right balance between going as fast and not losing myself in the low-visibility and sometimes vaguish areas.
A few bobbles:
1- went through the dark green marsh, not an awesome start...
4- scary, low-vis and vague from the squiggly trail corner in
5- hit trail first, almost right on though, just a bit high
8- almost ran past to spur closer to pond
13- went right route choice, to trail before dark green
15- went straight, didn't see Alex's awesome route choice of far left, along parking
18- checked out earlier too-low cliff
2 PM
Orienteering16:00 7c
Control pick-up, the furthest set away, bit of dismay to find a wooden sawhorse at the 6th of the 7 I was collecting, ran back with it awkwardly draped over my neck...
Orienteering race 19:33 2.05 mi (9:32 / mi) +26m9:11 / mi ahr:174 max:185 22c
US Champs Sprint @ Franklin Park
Oooh, did not learn my lesson at WOC!!! Was on the wrong side of the wall for 4 and could not figure it out!! Jeez. I really honestly had come to the conclusion that the control had been stolen, kept poking around for a good 45s or so before Annika came storming in, took a good look at her map, and went to the inside. Gosh!
Had also botched the one before, going to a control off-course that wasn't mine, between these two, 2 min lost.
But after that, was pretty good, although Neil's opinion racing around me was that I really wasn't smooth. Well, to work on, I guess. Really enjoyed latter half, very woodsy technical sprint!
Running9:26 1.16 mi (8:09 / mi) +18m7:46 / mi ahr:132 max:169
Drills7:44 0.56 mi (13:49 / mi) ahr:137 max:155
Woo, the sun came back! Along with at bit of wind, but I'll take that trade.
Scampered home from colloquium and hey, snazzy new headlamp arrived, awesome! Actually haven't tested yet, but imagine it works. Might have to obtain some way to carry battery like Brendan got...
Then out for a little joggeroo + drills at the Amherst track, nice sunset.
Orienteering1:02:26 3.05 mi (20:28 / mi) +259m16:12 / mi ahr:126 max:163 14c
Rainy, dark, and time to collect night-o controls from last Sat's training... So out I went. But didn't have a very bright light at all, so was super-narrow-corridor-o kinda.
Was frequently off substantially, like 50-100m, but at least stopped once I had gone far enough, which is good, and then would swish light around and just barely make out control in another place. So I guess wasn't being super good on compass, and I couldn't really see features, so was hard to navigate on them at all... Think I did a reasonable job of putting things together, but wish I hadn't been so off.
Oh, and freaked way out when I saw two eyes to my right going from 9 to 8 (oh, yeah, I went backwards), and then headed left but two eyes were there too- eep!! But on left could at least tell it was definitely a deer, not so scary, unsure about the other one, but we'll assume the same for my piece of mind...
Rollerskiing1:01:31 7.96 mi (7:43 / mi) +86m7:28 / mi ahr:100 max:151
Easy peasy distance double pole out on the bike trail. Normal mix of dogwalkers and bikers, even saw Sanjay on his bike with Osiris in little trailer behind- on way to daycare, presume. Stronger than a month ago, and cool weather = no blisters.
Did take mapholder out, with last year's Pine Hill maps. Psyched for the weekend's racing!
Body feels pretty ok, except for a bit of niggle at back of R heel, did a reverse crunch painfully twice yesterday, must be from that. Still, think an easy day is probably warranted, so this is it!
Trying to chase down Orange runners who headed off without map change to avoid shooting range... didn't find them to 1, or 2, or 3, must be fast orange folk! So went over to #7 and left my map with the change and a warning note, but turns out they hadn't started yet. Ah well, we'll call it a warm up.
Orienteering race 1:51:32 7.47 mi (14:56 / mi) +442m12:37 / mi ahr:151 max:177 17c
Blue @ Norwottuck
Race! Wowzer, that was long. Was really hoping to get Ian's predicted winning time of 1:40 before I totally botched 10. The control (128) was in the right place by the time I went through (wasn't for early runners), but the map there isn't very good, actually kind of a disaster... so I stopped at earlier, significant unmapped cliffs in the right reentrant. Eventually found it, coming in from the North.
Also mistakes to 6 and 7, 6 didn't execute plan well, forced higher by green... 7 came to boulders low in earlier reentrant, had a plan to go over to the right one, again, didn't execute that plan.... other things mostly alright, wonder if the stream would have been faster to 9.
Orienteering24:41 1.72 mi (14:21 / mi) +103m12:06 / mi ahr:135 max:170 8c
Control pick-up round 1:
Mostly nearby ones, still had issues with two of the yellow controls, right... felt faint towards end, ate leftover enchiladas upon return, mmm, needed those!
Orienteering43:38 2.62 mi (16:39 / mi) +143m14:14 / mi ahr:137 max:157 6c
Control pick-up round 2:
Did the loop south of the quarry, including the infamous 128, and a few others people couldn't find. I thought 128 was on the best cliff for the job, but really other cliffs in that reentrant should be mapped, and the trails actually indicated, think some of that is actually done on Phil's more recent map version. Found all the others exactly where I expected, not as major map issues in the vicinity.
Orienteering38:37 2.44 mi (15:50 / mi) +204m12:34 / mi ahr:139 max:159 6c
Control pick-up round 3:
Exhausterated to start, but back out and to it, set of 4 just south of mountaintop, that side of the mtn is so tough to run on loose rock perfect ankle-twisting size... and then 2 on the way in.
434/2000
Running9:20 0.89 mi (10:29 / mi) +32m9:26 / mi ahr:146 max:155
Being cold won over being tired, making a nest of control flags was only so effective at keeping off the chill...