Orienteering Team Trials

I have done a lot of orienteering this spring, if that somehow escaped your notice (27 hours, 145km, and 352 controls of it). Enough orienteering, in fact, that I felt justified in showing up to the Team Trials races last weekend in Harriman, not because I thought I'd make the team, but because I wanted to see how I'd compare, and didn't think I'd be embarrassingly far behind everyone. There wasn't really any pressure on me to perform, because I did not have an A-meet ranking score, having only done two of those in the last six months, and you need at least three ranking scores to come up with a team ranking score, which meant each of the three team trials races would count as a ranking for me.

Saturday had both the middle distance and the sprint race, and the middle was probably the most technical thing I've ever run. It was still way better than some of my previous experiences at Harriman, but not at all what I'd call a good run. The splits on attackpoint claim I lost about five minutes to mistakes, and I think I lost another 1-2 minutes on just being hesitant and overly tentative. I never got running fast, which seems to be just what happens on middle distance races, but at least near the end I started to run more confidently, when Cristina caught up and I was trying to hold her off/pass her back. I didn't feel very good about that one, but thanks to a lot of other people making mistakes, I placed 7th (for the WOC-eligible runners, the Canadians all beat me), although 24% back. Arrrrgh.
A horrible photo of the map. My scanner no longer works with the OS on my computer, so I stole this from Peter Gagarin, who had just taken a photo of it.

After a couple hours to recover, it was time for the sprint. I did a decent warmup, although I could feel lunch still bouncing around in my innards, and tried to focus my brain, not dwell on the mistakes from the morning. The scale of the sprint map really helped, and I ended up having a great race, flowing smoothly from one control to the next and always in control of my run. I could use some more leg speed helping me out, but the navigation was about as good as it gets for me, which was quite encouraging. Unfortunately, I was pushing so hard that I just never saw #15 on my map, causing me to completely skip it, and get disqualified. A huge bummer to run a good race and then blow it, but I was on such a high from navigating well and smoothly (except for that #15, whoops) that I just couldn't get mad about mispunching.

Coming in to one of three spectator controls - definitely still favoring the ankle a bit, but its otherwise healed.
If we're going to play the woulda-shoulda-coulda game, had I not mispunched I would have been 6th, 10.8% back, definitely one of my better races. That course definitely favored the fast runners, maybe someday I'll get fast.

The long race was on Sunday. I decided that I would have a comparative advantage going into this, thanks to leftover skiing fitness, because I wasn't actually all that tired from the two races on Saturday. So, I attacked the course, and for the most part that worked really well, although I was definitely slowing down by the end. I have good endurance right now, but not very good speed or orienteering fitness - it takes a different skillset to be fast in the woods, and although I'm learning the tricks and getting better at it, I can't float through the blueberries like some more natural runners. Of course, I'm also not really training for that (or for anything at all), so its to be expected that I'd be slower.

I had a relatively clean run, some bobbles in the beginning, and then a really good middle section of the race as I was trying to stay away from two girls who were catching up. I might have been able to hold them off, too, had I not made a 3.5min error on #15, and by then there wasn't enough course left to make up much time. It was still a good run, with some good navigation, although to my chagrin I was 7th again. At least this time I was near the pack of Ali/Erin/Cristina (all named to the WOC team), if at the back of it.

The only part about this weekend that makes me sad is that the Team Trials races don't count for your A-meet ranking score, so the good points I got from Sunday's race don't go into my overall rank. But it was super fun to see everyone, hang out in the sun, and cheer on my friends and teammates who will be representing the US in Norway this summer! CSU named four to the team, so that was pretty sweet. (if you feel like seeing where I'd stand had I not DQ'ed the sprint, my sprint points would have been ~90, so the sum of all three races would have put me either tied or just behind Alison Campbell, the 3rd alternate).

Pine Hill re-run

Ed has been on this kick recently of re-running the park-o races. I think we can both admit that its to try and beat my time =). Anyway, after last Thursday, I wasn't sure I wanted a re-run. Pine Hill is green and brambly at the best of times, and the early spring here means that now you can't quickly differentiate between nasty brambly stuff and just regular nasty green bits. This is important, because I will happily bash through the normal nasty green bits, but thorns stop me pretty quickly. Nothing like having strings of briars wrapped around your legs in multiple places - you get immobilized pretty quickly. Not pleasant. Anyway, Ed was prepared with carharts this time, and even I wore windpants instead of the usual spandex I choose for orienteering.

Last week's route is below. You can see my major mistake on the way to 11, but re-running the course made me realize that I made a couple minor mistakes along the way as well.



Splits from the two runs, with Bill and Sam having added their splits as well. The map below is my route from last night, although its a bit confusing, due to a couple fast laps around trails between 5 and 6... I didn't want to fight through all that green stuff, I thought intervals sounded more pleasant, so I ran around on trails for a bit until I was close to 7.



I guess its a bit hard to see the quickroute line over all that greenness. Anyway, I made a chart of where I was faster last night, to try and figure out more accurately how much time I think I lost. It should be noted that I wasn't running as hard last night, so anywhere I picked up time was definitely a better route. The red difference numbers is the time I lost the first time, blue is what I lost the second time.

5/6/10, 5/11/10, Difference:
1. 2:28, 2:14, +0:14
2. 2:12, 4:18, +2:06
3. 1:28, 1:45, +0:17
4. 2:11, 2:17, +0:06
5. 2:19, 1:40, +0:39
6. 2:50, N/A
7. 2:46, N/A
8. 2:24, 2:34 +0:10
9. 1:39, 1:38 +0:01
10. 2:53, 2:17 +0:36
11. 6:12, 4:35 +1:37
12. 2:15, 7:51 +5:36
13. 1:19, 2:24 +1:05
F. :34, :39 +0:05

From this, I can see that there were five splits where I was faster the second time 'round. The first control I took a better route second time - around on trails to the left, instead of through the fence. 2-4 I was a little shaky last night, with a blatant mistake at 2. 5th control I went out to the trails to the right, that was clearly faster.

I didn't visit 6, and 7 was part of my interval lap time, 8 I hugged the line a little closer on the second time, but was more hesitant - pays to run fast I guess. Then I went straighter to 9, instead of going down the trail like I did the first time, and this was barely faster. It was way faster (and more pleasant) to go out to the trail and back in to get to 10, and likewise way faster to go around on trails to 11. Then I got stuck in the brambles going to 12. Really wishing I had Ed's carharts at that point. The stuckness continued out to the trail to 13.

This was a pretty valuable exercise, but Ed ended up beating my time this time (although not my time from last Thursday!). From my analysis, I lost 3:07, and that doesn't count my hesitations on the way to 6 and 7 last time (~20s total). Had I been 3:27 faster, I would have been 5th instead of 6th, although of course you can't really compare like that when you're doing a re-run. Results from last week. How Ross ran that course in 22 minutes is a total mystery, he must not have any nerves left in the skin on his legs.

WCOC A-meet: Long distance

The second day of the WCOC meet was at Huntington state park, near Bethel CT. It was billed as a "classic" course, not quite a long, but definitely longer than a middle. The women were doing 8km, and I'd heard that this forest was also very open and fast, so I was psyched to try and run faster than I had on Saturday. Unfortunately, I ran too fast, and completely outran my brain, botching the first control by 17 minutes. Yes, minutes. By the time I finally found that stupid control, I knew I was out of contention. I had just taken 23 minutes for a 5-6 minute leg, you can't make up that sort of time. So I punched the control, stopped, and said "ok. Push the reset button now".
This is the little bugger that gave me all that trouble. Grrr.

The second race of the day (#2-17) went pretty well. I was pleased with my ability to put that first leg out of my brain, and I was moving really well at times. I had some excellent legs out there, as well as a couple bobbles, but near the end my left achilles started to get really tight and painful. This hasn't bothered me since 2007, so it was probably related to rolling my ankle or something, but I definitely slowed down as the pain increased. I have come to the realization that even though I have a relatively high pain tolerance, when I think that whatever is hurting is doing something bad to my body, with lasting effects, I won't tolerate the pain, or at least I get really wimpy about it. So I will tear my legs to shreds on brambles, and not notice it, but if I feel a twinge of pain in my ankle, I slow down. I guess that's self preservation for ya, didn't know I had it in me...



I rolled in to the finish eventually, sort of hobbling because of my sore achilles, definitely didn't win that finish split. I was so pissed about that first mistake that I went out to run the first leg again, although it turned out that running was painful, so I mostly walked. And took some silly action shots along the way. It was a beautiful sunny day, if a bit chilly and windy, and the forest was just so open and fun to run through that I couldn't stay angry for long. Sure, my overall score for the weekend was crap, but I was able to find the good in each run. The courses were very well designed, the maps were exquisite, and everything was run very smoothly and very professionally.



Results, which also have the overall weekend results, and splits, although that is for the entire red course, which also includes M40, M55, and M-20, so there are a lot of boys mixed in. I was 35th if you want to scroll all the way down there...
That is a big boulder.

Action!

WCOC A-meet: Middle distance

The Western Connecticut Orienteering Club (WCOC) put on a national level meet last weekend, which also happened to be a World Ranking Event (WRE). This attracted some of the really fast Canadians, as well as a bunch of fast Americans, many of whom are sticking around until next weekend, which is the US Team Trials at Harriman. I had heard that CT had really nice forests to run through, but I didn't really believe it until after this weekend. It was just beautiful out there, open deciduous forest with a smattering of mountain laurel just to make things interesting, rolling hills but nothing too steep, and not too many annoyingly pointy rocks on which to break my ankles. I don't think I've ever run so fast, or so hard, during an orienteering race.


Saturday was the middle distance event, at Ansonia Nature Center, near New Haven. Middle distance races tend to be the most technically challenging, so I was interested to see whether all this technical training I'd been doing this spring would make me faster.

The sky had been alternating between heavy thunderstorms and heavy rainstorms the whole drive down to New Haven, and naturally that didn't let up for the race. As the thunder rumbled ominously and the rain soaked me to the skin, I wondered briefly if I would make it through the race alive. A few years ago, I was informed just how scary lightening can be. I was anxiously counting the seconds between the lightening and the thunder, but by the time I was at the start I'd convinced myself I'd make it through alive. Its a credit to the course setter that the course was so interesting I didn't notice when the rain stopped, or even that I was running in a forest in a thunder storm. Totally engrossed in my navigation, which is how it should be.



I ran a fairly clean race, but I did not particularly feel happy about it. I never got up to full running speed, and I felt like I was relying a bit too heavily on my compass. If you trust your compass you can sort of just run fast in the right direction until you hit your attackpoint, but that is pretty risky in case you miss it, and I felt like I was just moving too fast for my brain to keep up. Nothing worse than running with a sense of panic building inside that you're just going to outrun yourself, but I kept moving and picking off features and didn't make any huge mistakes, although there were plenty of hesitations out there.

I ended up in 7th, ahead of some people I definitely did not expect to beat (including someone who went to the World Championships last year, although she had a bad race, and someone who will likely go this year, although she also had a bad race). Its impressive that Sam managed to take almost 10 minutes out of my time, a lot of that is due to straight up speed, but I like to think that if I felt more confident with myself I could knock a couple minutes off. That said, a cautious run was probably the best approach today, and it worked well enough. Results, scroll all the way to the bottom for the F21+ class (elite women). And splits, for the analysis.

That evening we all gathered at Kat and Boris' house, "we" being a large chunk of the serious orienteering population under 30 in North America, to play Kubb and have a barbecue.

Kubb involves throwing sticks at wooden bricks. Its Swedish, and I imagine it would be much more fun as a drinking game, but we all had to race tomorrow.

The champ herself!
Boris

Mike the grillmaster.

Park orienteering: Peter's Hill and Cat Rock

The only racing action I've seen recently is on Thursdays, at the fast and furious park orienteering races. Two weeks ago was at Peter's Hill, in the arboretum, and last week was at Cat Rock park, in Weston. Peter's Hill was pretty brutal, as we had to go up the hill three times, and I found that my legs didn't want to cooperate on either the ups or the downs. This was just after four days of orienteering at Harriman, so you'd think I'd be all coordinated, but I made mistake after mistake, and my slow running couldn't keep up with my mistakes. I'll blame being tired. I ended up 10th for the day, but 32% behind Ross. Dang.



Cat Rock park was last week, and like Peter's Hill, it featured a big climb, that we went up, but only once this time. Unlike Peter's Hill, it was a forest sprint, so there was some actual navigating involved, which was nice. I was feeling pretty sluggish again, and my calves were still sore from the track workout two days earlier, so I incorporated a slower pace into my race plan. This worked wonders for not making mistakes, but my newly discovered navigational skills weren't enough to boost my sluggish running pace. I'm noticing a pattern - you mean I have to run fast and orienteer cleanly to do well? I also managed to be a doofus leaving 13 and leaving 14, which cost me ~2 minutes.

This time, I was only 28% behind Sam, who won, and I was fifth, although Ross and Brendan and SGB weren't there. Still not a great result, but at least it is an improvement. This week is at Pine Hill, in the southern part of the Fells, so hopefully my not-so-fast running speed won't be too much of a hindrance, since the woods are a little thicker there. I just can't keep up with the boys when its flat out trail running or open parkland.

The garmin was a little off on this one - anywhere that the track is near a trail, I was probably actually running down the trail. And I didn't climb all those contours over by 15, I may be dumb but I ain't stoopid.

A catchup weekend

Everyone else was off at the West Point A-meet this weekend, but with three weekends of racing coming up, I realized it was time to stay home, pay homage to the travel diet, and catch up on some spring cleaning. The cleaning part was pretty bad, especially on Sunday when it was 90 degrees, laundromats weren't made for that sort of weather. But it was good to lounge about, as much as I'm able to lounge about, and get my feet back under me. And clean some bikes.
Yes, this is from ice weasels. Yes, that was in December.

Saturday was the first CSU practice of the year, followed by the newbie meeting and the training meeting. While Rob and Jamie talked to the parents, I took the noobs out on a run at Mt. Misery, across the street from Jim's house, where the meeting was being held. I should have known this would end badly when Jim said something along the lines of "Anne knows some loops in there, but I get lost every time". If Jim is getting lost, what hope does someone have who has never been there? I bravely led 13 noobs across the street, and we had a fun little jog, interspersed with some pushups, jumps, bounds, boofoos, and skips, and mostly everyone was able to keep up. It was a little scary when one of the girls had an asthma attack - she claims to not have asthma, but that might not be true after Saturday. I don't have an up to date red cross certification or anything like that, so when she started wheezing I was pretty scared. We sat down and slowly got things under control, but she was close to panic. It could have been really bad.

After that, I decided that she shouldn't run anymore, so sent most of the group back with Joe, one of the older noobs, in charge. Who puts a 14yo boy in charge of a group in an area that they've never been to? Luckily, they were all back by the time I and my two charges (the asthma girl and the girl who was having trouble keeping up) walked back. After getting lost. Whoops. I would not call this one of my more successful outings as a coach...

Family time

I went home to Rochester last weekend, to see Christophe, the parental units, Michaela, and Tira. Flying made it super easy, except for the minor delay on Monday morning when the plane was discovered to be missing its static wick, and the Rochester International Airport, not having any static wicks in house, had to fly one in from Philadelphia. Anyway, it was a great weekend, great to just hang out and be happy with my family and my dog.




It just so happened that the Rochester Orienteering Club was hosting a meet on Sunday, so I headed up to Webster park, dragging along my parents to make them finally try some orienteering. Christophe and Michaela got out of it because I didn't want to force my brother's girlfriend to run in the rain if she didn't want to - she must already think this family is weird enough. Luckily, Linda Kohn was there to teach beginners how to orienteer, because I tend to leave out the important bits when I'm teaching, sometimes. I went off on my red course and they went off on their yellow course, and we finished in about the same time.

I was hoping to have a clean run, I've been orienteering a bunch recently, so you'd think this would translate to fast, clean, orienteering, but apparently not. I started out with a 6-minute mistake, making a parallel error on a trail and getting totally turned around. It didn't get much better after that, but I certainly ran hard. The quickroute tells the story. The other really bad spot was #6, when I was just being stupid. My run was good enough to win the open women's race, but only good enough for 7th among the men running Red. All the same, it was a good course on a good map, and the P-units claimed to have fun too. I really just wanted to subject them to it, so that they could better relate to what the heck I'm talking about when they ask "so, how was your weekend?"

Results.