tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33902892024-03-27T01:37:46.240-05:00okansas.blogspot.comOccassional thoughts about orienteeringMichaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.comBlogger2828125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-45611071133330048392013-09-02T15:47:00.000-05:002013-09-02T15:47:14.146-05:00Orienteering (and looking at animals) in South Africa
Mary and I ran a local orienteering event near Johannesburg, South Africa, a few weeks ago.
I had a clean, but slow, race. The area sits about 1600 meters above sea level. That's enough to make climbing hills difficult for someone who lives much lower. Not being in very good shape doesn't help.
While we planned out trip to include an orienteering event, our main Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com308tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-33595450092916315252013-07-08T20:03:00.000-05:002013-07-08T20:03:01.888-05:00US v Peer Nations WOC rankingsPeer nation standings after the long qualification, sprint qualification and sprint finals races:
Portugal
New Zealand
Belgium
Ireland
USA, Canada, Japan are all tied
Back to okansas.blogspot.com.Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com93tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-68678517800004254552013-07-07T11:08:00.000-05:002013-07-07T11:08:12.191-05:00Final JWOC peer nations rankingAfter the JWOC relays, I came up with my final JWOC peer nation rankings.
New Zealand 96
Ireland 83
Belgium 71
Japan 69
Portugal 67
USA
Can 46
The scores can be interpreted as the chance that a matched runner from the nation will beat the matched runner from the U.S. "Matched runners" are the runners from each nation who are best or 2nd best or 3rd best and so on, in each event. ForMichaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-26461338143240873662013-07-05T20:29:00.000-05:002013-07-05T20:29:00.196-05:00JWOC peer nation rankings...no changes after sprintAfter today's JWOC sprint there are no changes in the overall peer nation rankings:
New Zealand
Ireland
Japan
Belgium
Portugal
USA
Canada
Back to okansas.blogspot.com.Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-72466851491448585322013-07-04T11:03:00.003-05:002013-07-04T11:03:57.233-05:00Portugal moves up in my JWOC rankingsBased on the middle distance finals at JWOC, Portugal moved up a notch (after being tied with USA going into the middle finals). The key for Portugal was having one A qualifier in the men's race and 2 B qualifiers in the women's race.
The overall rankings haven't changed except for Portugal's move:
New ZealandIrelandJapanBelgium
PortugalUSACanada
While the overall rankings haven't Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-27710787032499067252013-07-02T20:53:00.002-05:002013-07-02T20:53:50.407-05:00After 2 days...JWOC peer nation rankingsHere are my "peer nation" rankings after the first two days of the JWOC.
New Zealand
Ireland
Japan
Belgium
USA and Portugal (tie)
Canada
Both Beligium and Portugal suffered from a number of DQs in the long event.
Back to okansas.blogspot.com.Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-13989338760914583642013-07-01T20:36:00.002-05:002013-07-01T20:36:25.586-05:00First look at JWOC results and peer nationsI took a look at the JWOC results by looking at the U.S. and my list of "peer nations" after the first day's race. You can read a bit of background on the peer nations approach. Keep in mind that I've updated my nations list a bit since 2004. My current groups is: Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand and Portugal.
I calculated a U.S. win/loss record for the long Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-38671393139806765112013-05-26T17:56:00.001-05:002013-05-26T17:56:22.178-05:002013 US WOC Team AgeI took my nearly annual look at the average and median age of the US WOC team.
Here are the results:
Year Avg Median
2013 28.9 29.5
2012 30.2 29.5
2011 ??.? ??.?
2010 33.4 31.0
2009 32.4 30.0
2008 31.4 Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-60804635277906755072013-05-26T17:18:00.002-05:002013-05-26T17:18:11.084-05:0037 Year Old Orienteering Map
Orienteering first got started around here back in the mid 1970s. A group called the Johnson County Outdoor Society put on a few events and some of their members eventually started PTOC in Kansas City. One of their main areas was Shawnee Mission Park.
The map above is Shawnee Mission Park, but it isn't the map that PTOC used. Back in the mid 1970s, PTOC used a black and Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com69tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-46268748827353666132013-04-06T17:01:00.002-05:002013-04-06T17:01:49.978-05:00First test with OpenOrienteering Mapper
I finally got around to downloading OpenOrienteering Mapper and trying it out. My first test was to create a tiny map of an area I'm familiar with but that is a long way away. You can see the result below.
The map is based on a georeference air photo that I downloaded from the National Map Viewer. I haven't done any fieldchecking, but I might do something the next time Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-74249993665935565272013-03-12T19:06:00.001-05:002013-03-12T19:06:28.870-05:00My training tree
I made a little "toy" of my training log in 2012. The idea was to take my entire log and use the information to be able to predict how I trained given two bits of information - the day of the week and the activity. Here's how it works:
The top of the tree begins with the day of the week. Today is Tuesday, so the top of the tree means that I branch off to the left (if today Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-73638930955038032662013-01-21T16:58:00.001-06:002013-01-21T16:58:11.124-06:00MTBO Project updateThe theme for last week in the 2013 MTBO Project was "steal without apology ." My stealing was to read the new ski O handbook and lift a training idea. I'm not sure I'd really call that stealing, but it was close enough to meet the theme for the week.
I set up a "batong" (see page 58 of the ski O' handbook). Basically, a batong training combines riding around Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-9761798305337530642013-01-13T11:01:00.000-06:002013-01-13T11:01:45.242-06:00Looking at mapsPart of the first two weeks of my 2013 project involved some map study. Easy and fun. A great feature of orienteering as a sport is that you can practice without actually getting up off the sofa. Small amounts of concentrated map study - say 2 x 10 minutes a day - take very little effort. It also fits in with some of the principles from Coyle's book.
Coyle writes about Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-32266531876251149412013-01-05T09:31:00.001-06:002013-01-05T09:31:36.522-06:002013 MTBO ProjectIn 2013 I'm going to be a better MTB orienteer. That shouldn't be too difficult because I'm not a good mountain bike rider and I've done very little MTB orienteering (a local event a few years ago and a few training sessions on my own last fall).
To give some structure to my 2013 MTBO Project, I'm using the ideas from Daniel Coyle's book The Little Book of Talent. Coyle has 52 "tips"Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-5017257948077769842012-12-24T11:10:00.002-06:002012-12-24T11:11:51.670-06:00Contour map of USA and Canada WOC results
I mapped the USA and Canada WOC qualifying results for 2003-2012. I created contours to show the shape of the results over time. I'm not sure that makes sense, but it makes for some interesting contour features.
Back to okansas.blogspot.com.Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-76625330757350070312012-12-09T11:19:00.000-06:002012-12-09T11:19:02.977-06:00Playing with training text analysisI read training logs for a number of orienteers at Attackpoint. It is fun to see how people train. It is especially fun to read what they write about their training and racing. Attackpoint makes it pretty easy to get summaries of the basic information about how someone trains. Say you want to see how Emily Kemp trained in October. In three mouse clicks you can get a Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-42585080530803503592012-11-28T17:52:00.005-06:002012-11-28T17:52:55.649-06:00Another look at WOC qualifying results 2003-2012One of the things I can do with my spreadsheet of US WOC qualifying results is compare those results with what you might expect given a simple measure of each orienteer's performance. For the US runners, I've looked at each individual race and ordered the entrants based on their OUSA rankings. It makes more senses with an example.
The US entered three women in the middle distance Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-67236741684613265892012-11-25T11:09:00.000-06:002012-11-25T11:09:40.481-06:00Looking at US and Canada WOC qualifying results (2003-2012)I came up with a really simple way to try to forecast the U.S. WOC results last summer and called it SPROUT. I've been planning to improve the system a bit, mostly by adding 2012 results and by more carefully collecting some historic data. This weekend, I spent some time putting together a spreadsheet with all of the U.S. WOC qualifying race results from 2003-2012.* In response Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-46994788516664726372012-11-22T10:05:00.000-06:002012-11-22T10:05:34.897-06:00Adding some more training hours to the graph of training hours
I updated my graph of the relationship between total training hours and orienteering training hours. I added 7 of the North American orienteers and their hours. I also changed the line from a straight line to a "loess" smoothing. The North Americans that I've added include five who live in Europe.
Back to okansas.blogspot.com.Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-70068383647829885062012-11-17T10:31:00.001-06:002012-11-17T10:31:43.030-06:00Looking at some training hours for elite orienteersThe Norwegian O' Federation web page listed some training data for a bunch of elite orienteers and elite junior orienteers. Most, but not all, are Norwegians. I spent a few minutes looking at the numbers for total physical training and orienteering technique training.
Here's a simple graphic showing the relationship between total hours of physical training and total hours of Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-82761034995422022002012-10-28T19:33:00.004-05:002012-10-28T19:33:58.870-05:00O' videos from KSFILMCREWHere's a great orienteering video:
Great because it shows you speed and some of the amazing terrain we orienteers get to experience.
You can find more of these at KSFILMCREW on youtube. I'm not sure what the "KS" in "KSFILMCREW" means, but I'm pretty sure it isn't Kansas.
Some of the technical details of creating the videos is also available. (Google does a good job of Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-41657987147696003002012-09-02T14:01:00.000-05:002012-09-02T14:01:04.100-05:00My current "rule of thumb" for MTB O trail mapping
I spent some more time working on an MTB orienteering map. The map clip shows some of the trail network.
I've been struggling a bit with the mapping. It is tempting to draw lots of variations in the rideability of the trails. As a trail alternates between faster and slower (usually due to rocks on the trail), it would be easy to over map the changes.
For my current Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-1017582044088206072012-09-01T10:17:00.001-05:002012-09-01T10:17:22.725-05:00"Year of he Perfect Run"I recently finished Year of the Perfect Run - a non-fiction orienteering book about trying to have a perfect run. I found it interesting, though I got bogged down in some of the leg-by-leg descriptions of the races. An orienteer reading the book will recognize a lot of the author's experiences and frustrations.
Back to okansas.blogspot.com.Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-43491450437605495822012-08-20T19:00:00.001-05:002012-08-20T19:00:42.272-05:00Mapping some trails for MTB orienteering
I took a few photographs of the trails at Clinton yesterday. The trails are on the mountain bike orienteering map and the photos illustrate two different types of mapped trails.
The first set of photos show a trail that I've mapped as a "path slow riding." From the MTB O' mapping standards that would be:
A path narrower than 1.5 m wide, with sufficient obstacles to require the Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3390289.post-65064887588715544872012-08-18T08:54:00.000-05:002012-08-18T08:54:08.006-05:00Some MTB Orienteering notes
I did a bit of mountain biking riding this summer. I also did some mountain bike orienteering mapping. And since I now have a couple of nearby MTB O' maps, I've done a bit of mountain bike orienteering training.
I've learned a few things about mountain bike orienteering and figured I ought to write those things down:
1. I expected that finding my position on the map when it Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06129175522144032637noreply@blogger.com1