Thursday, October 25, 2007

Where's the F$%@ing Photos?

I currently do not have a camera. Actually, the last camera I had was a 1980's 35mm beast that took photos on what they used to call film. Yeah, I've actually never owned a digital camera and have decided that enough is enough. I need to get one soon. Besides, all text and no photos sucks! To be continued... hopefully soon with photos!

Weekend Fun

I had a great Saturday last weekend with a day filled with good stuff. It all started out with a solid sleep and upon waking, knew that I just needed to get out on my feet. I haven't been running at all lately and felt the urge to get out there for a nice short job/run. It wasn't long before I was good and warmed up and headed down to run along the sand and gravel beach of Cordova Bay. I'm lucky to have this nice beach just a couple of blocks from my house and will definitely be enjoying more this winter than I have recently. The tide was fairly high and the water was like glass. I should have been out kayaking! At the end of the beach, I hoped out to the road and found myself heading toward Mount Douglas. I hadn't been there in quite some time and thought that I'd just do a nice loop around the base and back along the Lochside Trail. Well, once I hit the trails, I just started to go up and up, and by the time I knew it, I came out to the road and figured, what the hell, lets go to the top. While I've been to the peak before by biking or hiking, I've never actually run up. The view was gorgeous! After taking it in, I took and nice winding way down and looped back home. A little longer than I thought I would go but when your having a good run, you just don't want to stop!

After some a good breakfast and relaxing early morning, I lubed up my mountain bike which hadn't seen any use since the Cumberland MOMAR. She was getting pretty lonely in the garage and was happy to get out.

I met up with Sleepmonster's Doug Doyle and road out to the dump to get in some technical riding. We should have stayed home. At least that what I thought when we entered the grey darkness that overshadowed our destination. It was going to be a wet ride. Now, had it been raining at my place, I may have not even left. But, once your out there, it's never as bad as you think it will be. Especially when you get under the heavy tree cover; even a fierce rain can seem like nothing in the thick BC forest. We took the back way in (up Meadowbrook) and met up with some other riders at the main parking lot including Shane Ruljancich (2nd in MOMAR Shawnigan), and Brent Chan who was demoing a sweet Gary Fisher 29er courtesy of Oak Bay Bikes. The ride was just what I was looking for; relaxed. We maybe stopped too much and eventually all of us got cold from yapping but it was a good ride anyway. It was the type of ride that makes you think "yep, the summer is definitely over now. Time to bring out the lights soon." Can't wait for some sweet night time fun!

After the ride, I hooked up with my friend and co-worker Mike Sanborn for some kayak technical training in the Crystal Pool (which is put on by Ocean River Sports). Pool sessions are a great way to practice your rolls, bracing, and sculling work. While rolling seems second nature to me now, I still cannot get the hand roll down. I guess I've never been shown how to do it properly though so that could have something to do with it. As Mike has a background in whitewater kayak racing (think skinny fast boats not a chubby playboat), he was able to put his old skills to work and even managed to do some hand rolls while he was at it. Maybe next time...

My day finished with some X-Box zombie killing with Pizza and beer at Mike's place. It's been forever since I played any video games so it turned out to be a pretty fun evening. I dreamed of killing large rats in a Dungeon with my enchanted arrows. Need I say more :)

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

2007 Western Orienteering Championships

I just got back from a great weekend of orienteering in some of the best terrain in the Province. The desert terrain in and around the Kamloops area is simply awesome. Here on the coast, the forest is so thick that it inhibits your route choices significantly. So often, it is easier to run four or more times the distance on a trail than to do a short bushwack. In Kamloops, it is a different story. The terrain is so open that you can take virtually any route option you want. With so many choices, it becomes a matter of picking the best overall route, and also the micro route choices you make along the way. Contour reading at its best.

I drove up with Kim on the Saturday morning who I had not seen in over two weeks as she was out in the field doing some seafloor mapping. So, we decided to spend a nice weekend together up at Sun Peaks resort. We rented a nice quaint condo with a private hot tub that saw a lot of use. Ahhhh, the luxury of the hot tub!

I've been on the down swing in terms of racing and had several goals in mind for the weekend's events: don't make mistakes, race smart, stay in-touch with the map, read ahead, make good route choices. These may all seem to be goals that you would strive for at any orienteering event but man are they hard to achieve. The biggest problem that new orienteers have, and I include myself in this category, is to run too hard, lose track of your position and make mistakes. It is so hard when racing to slow down, stay in-touch with the map, and race smart.

I've made some good progress since getting into this sport less than two years ago, yet I still find it extremely hard to not get ahead of myself. This time however, I was going to keep everything under control.

Orienteering is such a complex sport. It may seem pretty easy at first (you take a map and compass, take a bearing and whoever can run faster will win) but it is far from that. I have found that this sport takes years to get good at and a lifetime to master. Sure, you can get by with basic map reading skills but there are some key mental tasks that, if carried out, will separate you from the rest of the pack.

Read ahead
Good orienteers will have their general entire route planned after the first few controls. This doesn't mean that they have planned all the micro route choices that need to be made; it just means that they get a general feel for the course and have spotted major features that can either help or hinder their progress.

Pinpoint the Control
Another technique that experienced orienteers possess is reading the control descriptions ahead of time and planning a proper attack into the control. This means that they'll know already know exactly where the control will be placed and will save time by approaching it properly. For example, if the control is hung at the bottom of a cliff, and you know it's at the bottom because you read ahead, you'll make sure that your approach doesn't cliff you out from the top. Good orienteers will also slow up slightly as they approach a control so that they accurately find the control and waste no time backtracking.

There are many more techniques that can be used, but these are two that I really wanted to work on.

The Sprint
The first event was a sprint event at Thomson Rivers University (TRU) located right in Kamloops. I was not at all set on hammering it out on the asphalt and concrete of the campus but nonetheless, did a little warmup and hit the finish line calm, relaxed, and focused on my goals. I was off before I knew it and instead of the typical 'sprint' to the first control, I took it down a notch, got into the map, and actually started planning out where I would go after I hit the first control. The first control was actually a little tricky as it was tucked in a little corner of a building so you had to be careful not to miss it. I slowed up when coming close, quickly found it and was off on the next leg. I ended up making a small mistake going to the next control, was able to quickly recover, and planned out my next few controls on the fly.

I was never able to fully plan my route but did manage to read at least two controls ahead which helped in noticing key features that had to be identified (a flight of stairs was the only way up to one of the controls and, if missed, would have you wasting time by running around the building).

My race was going well until just after the midway point and started to slow down on a long leg across the campus. I was starting to suffer but kept telling myself that it would be over soon. A few more controls, some good route choices, and a sprint into the finish and I was done. While I was quite winded, I thought I had a good smart race. Had I been more trained for this type of event, I know I could have done much better as I could have held a higher pace while still being able to stay in the map. In the end, I was suprised to be in 4th place beating out some National Orienteering team members. Not only that, I was only 10 seconds out of 3rd place! Damn it! If only I had pushed a little harder....

Middle Distance
The Middle distance did not go quite as well for me. I had a good start to the event but aroudn the 4th control, I was surrounded with other racers who influenced my route choice and caused me to make my first big mistake. Rule #1 in orienteering: never follow anyone or trust where someone else is going. Why? Because they might not know where they're going or might be on a different course. I really prefer to not have anyone else around but it happened, I made a small mistake and continued strong hitting control after control.

What happened next was the turning point in the race for me. I hit a road, could have easily took it to the next control, but decided to stright line it through some thicker brush. This was a mistake. The brush funnelled me off my intended route and ended up spitting me out further down than I had wanted to come out. While I didn't lose much time, I lost some gumption. When you lose some of your gumption, it always takes a control or two to get it back. In the meantime, your more vulnerable to mistakes. I was getting tired, was vulnerable and made a bad route choice again (again straight lining my route rather than going longer but over better terrain). The mistakes just compounded until I hit the last few easier controls into the finish. While it was not a good race for me, it was an important learning experience.

Long Distance
The long event was just that. 12.2 km stright line with over 500m of elevation gain. I was feeling a little drained from the other events and really just wanted to do a smart race where I was as strong in the beginning, as the middle, as the end. I held a decent pace, walked the steep hills and made mostly good route choice decisions. The more experienced racers put some good time into me just like in the middle distance. However, I learned a lot from the long event just as in the middle distance.


When looking at my small mistakes and route choices, my time would have been much closer to the elite orienteers and shows me that while I could stand to be a little faster on my feet, that my real challenge is to become a better orienteer. And that's what this weekend was all about.

Thanks to Magnus at GVOC for setting up some great courses and for everone who helped out with the events. Great job!

Monday, October 01, 2007

Team HH / MOMAR Sweep the MOMARs!!!


Gary and I are ecstatic! We couldn't have asked for a better end to an already awesome season. Going into the final MOMAR of the year, Gary admitted that he was actually more nervous than any of the other races we had done. This says a lot. There was a lot riding on our shoulders as we were the previous winners of the inaugural Squamish and Shawnigan MOMARs, and it was like we had targets painted on our backs. There is also the fact that we're up against the local crowds, the people that we have come to know and have come to know us. At some of the larger races, we're just another team, but at the MOMAR, there's no hiding. Nonetheless, we went into the race with a calm demeaner and just wanted to have a solid race with no navigational issues.

We once again had our super long (25 feet?) outrigger that treated us well in the Shawnigan race and allowed us to create a large lead on the pack before we hit the bikes. However, this race was probably the most competitive of the season and with some fast boats at the start line, I knew that we wouldn't have the same advantage.

After countless Cumberland races with perfect weather, today was just not meant to be. Grey skies and misty rain started the race and it got progressively worse throughout the day. The line-up of boats at the race start is always a cool sight as racers get ready to head upwind on Lake Comox.

As with most races, the start kind of catches you by suprise and before you know it your red-lining it to make sure you get a good position. I don't think Gary or I felt super strong on the paddle but we managed to hold on to the lead pack and drafted as much as we could to help save some energy. We weren't too concerned with the pack in terms of the overall race results, but Jason Sandquist was looking strong in his surfski and we knew that we would have to make some time on him in the kayak and navigation legs in order to hold him off during the bike section of the course.

While the wind wasn't as bad as previous years, I was concerned as we turned at the buoy and started to get hit on the left with the cross wind and waves. While the outrigger is pretty stable, it doesn't do well in a crosswind on your left (since your outrigger is on the left and lifts up in waves). Also, it is meant to be paddled with offset strokes (if the bow person paddles on the left, the stern person paddles on the right). So, using kayak paddles in unison and a crosswind on the left can be a good recipe for flipping as Roger McLeod and I found out during the 2006 Cumberland MOMAR. So, we had to slow down a bit, paddle offset, and just try to get to the next buoy without flipping. We lost a bit of ground on the lead pack but this all changed when we headed downwind. Our boat just started to surf and the paddling became much easier as the waves helped us move back up to the leaders. We had a strong finish and ended up being the second boat off the water (the lead team was paddling a K2).

We got the nav map and started to go as I planned our route on the fly. The route usually tends to be a loop and in the last races, I've done a counter-clockwise route with some flat running in the beginning to work out the legs. This time, I dedided to try the other way and I think it worked out to our advantage. It allowed us to hit most of the controls before seeing another team which was great for us as having other teams around typically only makes things more stressful and, if you know what your doing, you tend to give away to other teams where the controls are. The last control we hit was on the flats beside the river and during the flat run-in we both found that maybe we had pushed a little too hard as our legs were starting to feel the burn. It's usually best to ease into the run as a hard start will build up lactic acid in the legs and this can come back to haunt you.

We hit the boats again and made off quickly as the lead team. After pushing off we saw that we were followed closely by Darrell Soefield who put in a solid effort in the first paddle and trek.

After a short paddle and we were on the bikes and into the awesome single track offered by Cumberland. The bike route looked pretty short as the bucket-of-blood trail had been cut-out to include some different singletrack; these first trails would be punishing on the legs. We hit a new trails called 'short and curly' and this trail was not well worked in, was wet, and seemed to have more roots covering the ground than actual dirt.

This was a leg cramping nightmare. I started to hurt.

During the trek my bottle of NUUN tablets had opened and I lost all my electrolyte supplies. With a hard pace and no NUUN coming in, the effort in the trek had come back to haunt me. Eveytime I would stand or spin out a little, my leg would half seize. I tried walking some sections but this didn't seem to help much. While both Gary and I are comfortable in technical trails, when your hurting, it becomes a whole different story. It wasn't just the technical nature of the trails either; some of the trail sections just didn't have much flow so, it was hard to get into a groove and just go. It wasn't until we hit 'spanker' that the trails started to flow and I was able to pick up the speed considerably. It was awesome to have my favourite trail (and Tasaka's favourite) Cumberland trail on the course this year, 'space nugget', which topped off the end of the sweet singletrack.

Hitting the Hostel, the Mystery challenge had us running through town and writing down the business names of four addresses that were given. While I'm not too fond of the mystery events usually, I thought this one was good as you didn't have to do any math or figure out any clues (Squamish comes to mind here). Just as we were finishing up, we saw Sandquist and knew that he was not far behind. We got back on the bikes, picked it up on the homestretch as other teams watched in suprise that we were just finishing the bike leg that they were just starting, and rolled into the finish area hoping that there would be no additional finish suprises.

"What do we do? Do we need another map? Straight to the finish?"

"Straight to the finish!"

"Yeaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!"

We knew at this point that we had it in the bag. Just under four hours of racing! The finish was a little emotional with both of us on the verge of tears as we were so happy in our accomplishment and in each other for putting in a solid effort.

We actually finished at a great time as the rain started to turn worse and the wet trails that we rode were about to get even wetter.

Thanks again to Bryan Tasaka for putting on another successful and awesome event and a big thanks to all the volunteers who held out in the weather to make this event happen.

TNO