okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering


Sunday, April 26, 2009

More time in the ring

 

Today I took at look at my time in the ring from the West Point middle distance course. I didn't run the same course as Hammer, but the courses are similar and the terrain is the same.

Here are my seconds in the ring for each control:

1. 49
2. 42
3. 39
4. 33
5. 46
6. 34
7. 27
8. 55
9. 26
10. 38
11. 34
12. 18
13. 12

What stands out?

I was running a good bit slower than Hammer in the rings (and for the rest of the course, too). I seem to have slowed a good bit toward the end of the course. Look at my times in the ring for controls 10 and 11. I spent a total of 1:12 in those two rings. Those two controls were easy to get in and out of and didn't pose any particular technical difficulty. I was just tired.

My time in the first ring stands out as slow. I compared my ring times in the rockier terrain to Hammer's ring times in the rockier terrain (keeping in mind we're not running the same course). Except for my first control, I seem to have been pretty steady (if slow). Here are how many seconds I was slower in the first six rings: 22, 8, 2, 7, 9, and 4. The first control looks out of place.

I suspect that my weak time in the ring at the first control reflects the terrain - some rocks, some downhill, and some uphill.

My time in the 8th ring was 55 seconds. I was taking a careful look at the next leg. I'd picked a route, but I took a second careful look. This struck me as the sort of leg where a hasty route choice might cost too much time, so it was worth spending some extra seconds to double check. I think my route to 9 was the best option.

The graph below shows my ring times from 4 races this spring. The green line is the West Point middle.



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posted by Michael | 10:22 AM

3 comments


Comments:
Based on your time of 50:46 for a 4.2km course, one can estimate the time you should be in the ring as (50/4200)*50.7666 = 36 seconds per ring, with a ring diameter of 50 meters. That's a bit of an underestimate, given that you didn't follow the straight line perfectly on the course. Averaging over your "time in the ring" values gives 34.8 seconds/ring, which suggests that you don't slow down much or lose much time in the control circle. Look for other places to focus your training.
 
An equivalent analysis for Hammer gives 24.4 seconds/ring based on his overall time. The average of his time in the ring values is 26.5. Again, remarkably similar.
 
I'm not really looking for where to focus my training, I'm seeing what (if anything) I can learn by looking at some new data. To get better - to focus my training - I would do three things: drop some weight; run a lot more (last year was the least I've trained since the mid 1990s); and work on running up/down/through the terrain.

Michael
 
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