Occassional thoughts about orienteering
|
|
| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
|
|
Sunday, January 31, 2010 31 Day Challenge...is over!I did an O' session today and finished the challenge - do an O' session every day in the month of January.Some numbers. I did 18:30 of orienteering technique (out of a total of 31 hours of training). I found 313 controls. I ran on 15 different maps. 7 were sprint standard maps. One was an Open Orienteering Map (using the street-O setting). One was a map that showed pavement and buildings on the Kennesaw State University campus. I did 1 session on skis and 3 on a bike. Gear. My headlamp was important. I did 13 night O' sessions. Neoprene socks proved useful. We had more snow than usual. Neoprene socks made running in the snow a lot easier...no, not easier, more comfortable. Map feel. By "map feel" I mean comfort with having a map in my hand and using it to navigate. Lots of map sessions develop a very good map feel. The map feel from training every day is different from the map feel of training a similar amount of technique but in less frequent sessions. It reminds me of the difference between fieldchecking 5 days a week versus fieldchecking on the weekends. Company. It really helped that Cristina was also doing the 31 day challenge. It provided some added motivation to check her log and see what she was up to. Many short sessions. I did a lot of short technique sessions. An interesting question to ponder - is it better to train the same amount of technique as many short sessions or fewer longer sessions? It is probably specific to each individual. I've been pretty happy with lots of short sessions. Of course, the ideal is a mix. Creativity. Having an arbitrary goal - like 31 days of O' technique - forces some creativity. You need to figure out when and where you're going to train. You need to figure out what you're going to do when you get to the map. You need to make sure you're focused. It is easier to make all of those decisions if you only train technique 1 or 2 times a week. Peter made a similar observation about running at least 30 minutes a day for 45 days in a row: I'm not sure why I got started on this silliness, but it actually has rarely been hard to get out the door, with the question each day (or more accurately each week, because I try to plan ahead a little) being how and where am I going to train rather then just am I going to train. Back to okansas.blogspot.com. posted by Michael | 4:14 PM 
Thursday, October 24, 2002 Relevant?I bumped into a discussion on the US Team yahoo group about the team trials for the 2003 WOC in Switzerland. Reading some of the messages made me think about what we mean when we talk about an area being "relevant." One of the messages gave scores to several options (using a 1-5 scale) that included:Terrain Relevance/Challenge - Is it like the Swiss WOC terrain? Is it at least reasonably navigationally challenging? Event Length Relevance - The goal here is one ‘middle-distance’ day (30 minutes winning) and one ‘classic/long’ day (60-75 minutes winning). Frankly, I don't think it makes much difference where the US selected the WOC team because the better orienteers in the US are likely to rise to the top regardless of terrain. How do we decide what is relevant? I think it is interesting to consider what we mean by "relevant." Even if you're not interested in running in a WOC, it can be useful to prepare for any race by thinking about the characteristics of the area. If you goal is to finish the Possum Trot, it is worth spending some time thinking about what would be "relevant" terrain for preparing for the Possum Trot? I haven't spent much time organizing my thoughts, but some of the questions I'd ask myself when I'm thinking about relevance: 1. What type of leg/control is likely to be hard in this terrain? 2. Are the places where a leg will be difficult in the middle of the leg? 3. How far will you be able to see in the forest? 4. Is the footing rough, smooth, soft, hard, rocky, etc.? 5. Are there "social" stresses? For this year's Possum Trot, I can begin to answer these questions. 1. Controls that will be hardest are either point features in green areas (which we can hope the course setter doesn't use!) or controls where you cross a flattish ridge top and have to go down into the correct reentrant on the other side of the ridge. 2. The problem in the middle of a leg at the Trot will probably be to keep a high pace and hold concentration. I don't foresee any especially difficult navigational problems in the middle of legs, but I can imagine losing time if you're mind wanders. 3. It should be possible to see a long way in the forest. This means you may be able to see markers and features from a long way away. It might also make it tougher for another runner to get away (or for you to lose someone who is following you). 4. The footing will be typical of the KC area -- a few areas with loose rocks, some areas with downed trees and some areas with un-pleasant underbrush. Green areas might have thorns. 5. It is a long distance race with a mass start. Going out too hard will cost you. It'll be easy to get caught up running too fast. You'll probably be faced with decisions like -- do I push the pace a bit to stay with this guy and risk bonking or do I let him go and hope he bonks? The weather in December is likely to be cold and could easily be cold and wet. Back to Switzerland... Preparing for a WOC is interesting and in some ways a lot more difficult than preparing for the Trot. But, the process -- asking and answering questions -- is basically the same. One real difficulty in Switzerland (something I've written about before) is the huge variety in terrain and races. The sprint race is a street O' event on a 1:4,000 map with 2.5 meter contours. The winning time for the sprint is 12 minutes. The long distance races (qualifying and final) are in a terrain with steep slopes and deep valleys. The maps are 1:15,000 with 5 meter contours. The men's qualifying should be won in 60 minutes and the men's final should be won in 90 minutes. The middle distance qualifying and finals are in another type of terrain -- an ancient landslide covers the area and leave it with complex contours and some boulders. The maps are 1:10,000 with 5 meter contours. The winners will be running for about 25-35 minutes. Finally, the relays are in terrain that seems to be most similar to the long distance event, but with some other features (like some sandstone). The challenge in thinking about relevant terrain for the Swiss WOC is obvious -- there isn't a single relevant terrain. The differences in terrain (from street O' to complex contours) is tremendous. posted by Michael | 8:27 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||
