Chris Curtis Web Site

I have had two events where I was under 14 mins/km. Mostly I am around 20 mins/k and yesterday at the Hawth it was my worst ever at 21:15 mins/k. Last for the first time (if you know what I mean) and I want to do better. Why was I so slow and what can I do to improve? I have been thinking about the differences between this and my last event where I did well.

Fitness was certainly an issue. I am basically healthy but not fit. I can sustain a decent jog for about 300m at a time and I can do several 200m jogs with a brief pause between. This is much better than 6 months ago (and probably better than 90% of people my age), but three years ago I could do 5 or 6km without stopping except to cross roads and do 3km at around 8mins per km. Obviously, target number 1 has to be to return to those levels or better. I found myself having to walk across the open playing field yesterday, when I knew where the control was and should have been running full speed. The “red, amber, green” system of orienteering does not work when you only have red and occasional amber speeds! One thing that holds me back with running is that I have had trouble with shin splints. If I do too much, too fast, I cause myself real problems. I think this can make me hold back and do less than I am capable of. With the added uncertainty of my post-surgery state, I definitely felt myself easing off the accelerator at times. Even so, I was honestly struggling at times and especially towards the end.

The only answer is a proper, progressive programme of running, slowly building the miles and speed. I think I will be better running on grass and doing little and often rather than the “weekend warrior” approach that is what does the damage. This must be the programme for the summer holidays coming up.

I still have some navigational issues to address too.

All the issues in the Hawth were in the woods. The “Park-O” stuff around the playing fields and gardens was no problem at all, expect I could not go at a full run.

I realise I made one very stupid mistake. I interpreted the small black circles, which were key to several of my attack points, as “distinctive trees” (green circle) not “posts” as I should have done. I think I must have lost lots of time to that one. I kept seeing the posts, and using them as “mental markers”, especially when I relocated, but never once realised they were secure map-marked points. D’oh!

For some reason, in my last event, the map “made sense” – I could clearly see the ground when I looked at the map. I had a real feeling for what I would be seeing next and where things lay in relation to each other. I was quickly picking up features and lots of things became handrails – streams, ditches, and even contours. In the Hawth woods I never felt that secure. I never really had a mental picture of the ground. I think the reason is that the map was extremely complex (with all the pits and depressions) and so was the ground (with an incredibly dense network of paths, plus such things as fallen trees, children’s camps as well as the very broken ground). The answer was to “simplify” – to mentally reduce the terrain to the essence of what I needed to find the controls. I had been given a big hint beforehand – “ignore the map in the woods – use compass bearings to the controls” – but I never quite managed it. I kept looking for handrails, like paths and lines of pits, but kept getting confused by just how much stuff was going on.

I also was poor at attacking the controls. Instead of working back from a control to find an obvious attack point and working back from there to find a few simple “catching features” en route, I was rather vague, heading off hopefully and trying to find where I was as I travelled.

Just to add to the catalogue of woes – I can take and follow bearings perfectly well, but implementing that on the ground, especially in complex terrain, is still an issue. I do not look far enough ahead and so drift off parallel.

The answer to all those has to be some technical training. I need to really work on my map skills and in the field too. I should try to combine that with the running programme.

You only learn by mistakes, so I should learn a lot! I do feel good about yesterday and not discouraged. I was pleased to compete and to complete and I just love being out there. There were times in the wood, moving quickly through very complex terrain, that I felt great. The reason to get better is to do more orienteering. That is quite an incentive! Watch this space.:wink:

I have added a minor repair or two and some improvements to the TAF decoder script. It now displays windspeeds in mph, kph and beaufort and I have added a little formatting.

To see it in action, click here to download the php script click here.

For the first time since the operation (4 weeks ago) I went to an orienteering event. This was one of the local “Park-Os” run by Southdowns Orienteers – this time at “the Hawth” in Crawley. I ran light green.

After a brief trip straight through the woods, it was out onto open cut grassland. I went off very fast (for me) feeling good and very confident. I maintained pace well for about the first km and was through the first four controls very smoothly, then we went into the woods… people had warned me before I started, but the reality soon dawned.

The woods are small and in an urban area. This means that they are criss-crossed with paths so there are too many to show on the map. Which are shown and which not is very hard to determine. Added to this was the strange woodland floor. There were literally dozens of pits and depressions shown on the map and many more on the ground. These varied from 1 metre across and 20cm deep to several metres across and deep enough to hide a standing man. It was very hard. Twice I went past a control and could easily convince myself that I was in the right place. I was also beginning to fade in fitness and was struggling by the end.

I took a long time, but my target had simply been to complete. With the operation, and four weeks of zero exercise, I was a little fearful of what might happen. I was pleasantly surprised – no problems with the scar etc at all, and there certainly were times when I was running freely through the woods feeling good. I will need to build fitness to get back to where I was, and then can start the serious task of becoming genuinely fit, but I think I can say that “I am cured” and can forget about the op and get on with my life.

A little more work has sorted the problem with US TAFS and visibility in miles. I have added code to handle RMK fields too and to report CB and TCU properly. Having tried it on Vancouver and Berlin as well as Gatwick it seems to work reasonable well so I have provided a download for anyone who wants to try it.

To see it in action click here. To download a zip click here. Instructions are in the readme in the zip.

Further plans are to test it on more tafs and fix problems (easy), provide a version where you can type the airport code into an input box (easy), provide beaufort descriptions (e.g. “light air”) to wind forecasts (a little more tricky) and see what else might be worth doing.

A nice little sail in a small boat for an hour or two takes years off your life.
I was back on the water with a group of kids today for the first time in ages. It was brilliant – I just love that feeling of moving with and through the air and over the water. We had some showers, but the water was warm, the wind was OK and the sun shone between the showers. There are few things better.

After being inspired by “pericat’s” weather report plug-in for wordpress (see output on the bottom right of this page), and borrowing some of his code, I have produced a first working version of “taf.php” – This fetches the current coded weather forecast (from the US National Weather Service site) for an airport of your choice and decodes it into reasonably readable English. There are still some “issues”, especially with non-UK TAFs but I think these are soluble. This is definitely v0.1 – a work in progress. I have learnt some more php while doing it though!

If you want to see what it does look here. Feel free to comment, but don’t moan – I did this with a very little bit of spare time and I know it is far from perfect – what do you expect for free?!

With Thom’s 18th birthday this week he plans to have a barbecue. The “built-in” at the bottom of the garden is not in a good state, and the weather has been so variable, that the thought of having to slave over hot coals was not appealing. I bought a gas barbecue. It is Canadian and was complicated to put together, though it worked first time! It is the sort with a pull-down lid and two levels of grill inside.

I am looking forward to cooking on it.