Training Log Archive: Jagge

Yesterday I posted a new version of RG. I removed some bugs and added lots of new ones to keep the it well balanced.

+2C, wet. Route in Google Earth

C • This one looks cool too. Remin... 1

Still some hamstring pain, but not much.

Three days ago I wrote here some facts about SportIdent. I posted similar badly written whining to a Finnish orienteering forum. Now they seem to have picked it up and now it's #1 candidate for getting the posting of the month award (20 euros)! Too bad I didn't know it would turn like his, I would have written it a bit better way with more facts and better examples. The other candidates are written in a much better way, like O analysis article about Jani Lakanen and an article about discontinuing of the Finnish orienteering realy league. But I am not suprised if my posting gets some votes, lots of Finnish orienteers think the same way I do about SI. They are here used to run fair races and they are not used to accept questionable results. So Don't think I am just a weird fellow who alone dislikes SI and likes to kill the "cancer" before it grows ;) Actually I am a conservative one, I am not running for organizing boycotts for SI events like some more unorthodox people suggest every year.

C • 20 euros 6

Slowed down, Kemopetrol, 2000
(Just noticed it's recorded at Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki, only 100m away from I used to live back 2000)
Youtube video Chhild is my name from this album.

C • Terrain 5

0C and snowing wet snow. My skiis had very bad glide, and I wonder why. I waxed them two years ago and brushed last winter. Do I really need to do something to them every year?

Sad to see we are not the only team who has these SI issues. Yesterday Liisa Anttila was the fastest on Women's Ski WOC, but was DQ:d for missing punch. Other competitors saw her punching, but punch was never found from her stick.

Yes, it could be that she didn't wait for the signal. The real question is why she couldn't do it right? Did she do it in purpose? No. Weren't she experienced enough? Why did it happen?

The problem with SI is you need to wait. When you are racing you are supposed to do everythin as fast as you can. That's what racing is all about, right? This is why you shouldn't need to wait for any mechanical device to do something on is's own while all you can do is just wait. With pin punch you did the puching yourself, some were faster than other and it did take some time but you didn't have to stand still and wait for something to happen.

With regular Emit system punching is a lot like the good old pin puncing. You need to do it yourself and you can learn to be very fast in it. You can do it as fast as you can and you don't have to wait anything. You can not do it too fast. If you are superhuman lightning fast, you can be too fast for the electronic system, but you'll get a pin mark on your backup paper and you will not be DQ:t.

I have a feeling people think Emit back up paper is for backing up for a broken unit or a dead battery. Of course it for that too, but the more important thing is making sure you get the punch no matter how fast you do it. When you puch with Emit, there is never need to doubt if you got the punchig done or not. And you don't need to wait for anything. As a competitor, the absence of waiting aspect is the major difference between these systems. No matter how fast new stick you have, you need to wait and see you get the signal. With (regular) emit you never need to think of it. People who uses mostly SI and Emit only occasionally doesn't seem this see this difference.

Waiting is also big issue with big realys. In last 10-mila (actually 2-mila) there was 200 girls fighting and rying to punch until they let them without puching. Some lost several minutes there. The only reason wasn't the small amount on puch units. It's not easy to punch with SI if you need to keep your stick in a hole for almost a second while ten other competitor are trying to push you away from the unit.

As far as I can see SportIdent system as should not be used for competerive orienteering, because the designg includes this waiting aspect. You could use it for recreational activities. But in real competition only systems without waiting aspect should be used.

And as far as I can see SportIdent system doesn't have any major advantages. You can use Emit a lot like SI style without backup (and with the need to wait and check you got the punch) by using the Emit's touch free mode.

I am not saying Emit system is perfect or even good, but the whole Emit concept is faaaaar better than SportIdent's. And I say SportIdent's concept is quite bad (waiting issue without backup). And it may be the hardware is much more unreliable than Emit's hardware. It's sad to see this unreliable and wrongly designed SI system keeps spreading around the world just because it's already used in so many countries and is used in Sweden. If Swedes made a really bad and unlucky choice some years ago, the rest of the O world doesn't necessarily have to suffer for it, you know.

I hope some wise men/women would start working with this issue instead of this m[i/a]cr-o nonsense.

(But this is just my opinion and I may have missed something, but I am afraid I am right)

C • Wow 13

Indoor track, 12 min (3400m ) + 8 * 300m (~58 sec)

Damn, look's like will loose our 12 min test run bet.

Ice klister rocks!