GPS Tracking of Tasmanian Championships 2005

Pittwater Dunes - M21E

Click on the links below to download the mp4 files for each section of the course.  Choose the options on the right if you have windows media player, or left (h264 codec) if you have Quicktime (better quality).

Below are comments from 3 of the men who wore the GPS units during the race.

mp4 - files	h-264 codec	plain
Controls 1-3	cont_01-03-h264.mp4	cont_01-03.mp4
Controls 3-10	cont_03-10-h264.mp4	cont_03-10.mp4
Controls 10-13	cont_10-13-h264.mp4	cont_10-13.mp4
Controls 13-15	cont_13-15-h264.mp4	cont_13-15.mp4
Controls 15-23	cont_15-23-h264.mp4	cont_15-23.mp4
Controls 23 to finish	cont_23-Fi-h264.mp4	cont_23-Fi.mp4

Comments

Bruce Arthur (Victorian Nuggets)

Bruce had a great result finishing 3rd, only seconds behind silver.  This is what Bruce had to say about his run and the GPS unit.

Thanks for the opportunity to use the system.  I would be very interested in being able to get a copy of the data for my own analysis.  Is this possible, and do I need any special software? [Yes, you need Rex Saye’s software – Oztrack - BR]. I am particularly interested in the heart rate information.  I was fortunate enough to have Robbie catch me and force me to run at a higher intensity than I normally run at in the forest.  Now that I know I am capable of this pace, the heart rate information would be very useful as a benchmark for me to achieve in future races. That second control looks like a bit of a blue.

How would you attack it now, given a second chance?

After a good first control, I thought that I could simplify the leg and pick up the tempo a little.  Midway through the leg, I lost contact with the map, but kept running thinking that I could pick up the linear depressions before the circle.  I found one, but it was a parallel error and it led me 200 past the control.  I felt that I had gone too far and the shapes weren't looking right.  This was confirmed by finding the 3 contour hill at the end of the depression.  Immediately I knew where I was because there were no other big hills in the vicinity of the control.  I then navigated back 250m to the control.

I actually ran this leg again on Monday.  By using a similar plan, but executing it much better by being careful and using more compass in the middle of the leg I was able to find the control perfectly in a time similar to the fastest split from Sunday.  This shows that in the pressure of a race, there is a tendency for me to push on because of time pressure, but sometimes it does not hurt to slow down for a few seconds and take an extra look at the map and compass when the terrain does not exactly match how I expect it to. 

What caused the error?  GPS distractions?

The GPS was no problem and had no impact on my performance.  I ran with it on a couple of times prior to the race to ensure that I felt confident with it on and would not be distracted.  The heart rate monitor was unit was more comfortable than previous versions of monitors that I have tried.

What do you think about the GPS system from what you have seen so far?

I think it has great potential for coaching when used together with other information such as heart rate, topology, comments from the athlete.

Generally I can draw where I run perhaps just as accurate as the GPS.  However the real benefits can come from analysing effort and speed in various terrain types, particularly just prior to mistakes. This I think could take orienteering coaching to the next level. 

I do something similar in my regular 7.5km terrain loop at Fairfield Boathouse, where I track my speed and effort in various terrain types each month for categories such as uphill forest, semi-open flat, downhill track etc, using just a stopwatch and heart rate monitor.  It would be an interesting to compare data from a test loop such as this to a real race. I would be interested to know how the Victorian Nuggets could borrow/purchase a couple of similar units for our own use. Cheers

Bruce

Lorenzo Calabro (Queensland)

Lorenzo had a solid run and admitted to being a bit surprised placing so well during the first half of the course. Lorenzo did start well, in fact he was leading at the 4th control and re-gained the lead at the 8th control before slipping back later in the course.

How did you go into the race, thoughts, how did you attack it?

I was very relaxed going into it.   Felt like I had plenty of experience in sand dunes from the UK and no pressure for an out of form Qld'er at a Tasmanian Championships!

Started carefully- struggled to read on the run for the first control which was probably a good thing.

Was conscious of feeling very sluggish in the soft sand which made me try to push harder physically (probably too hard for me) in the beginning.

Got scared and stopped early on number 6.  Ran left to the road on leg 9 which didn't seem a good route.  My lack of fitness started to show after the first 45 minutes or so but managed to avoid any bad errors through the back 9.

Was the GPS system comfortable, did it bother you?
Forgot I was wearing it. 

Lorenzo

Craig Dufty (Western Nomads)

Craig didn’t have the best run on Pittwater, but I’ll let him explain it. 

Not my best race, basically I screwed up number one badly enough to lose interest in racing and just spent the rest of the course trying to learn how to understand the map.  I didn’t make any other big mistakes but I never felt as though I was reading the smaller details well and my concentration and motivation was really poor on the longer legs through the green.

Not up to your normal high standards Craig.  How did you find the terrain technically?

On the first control I wasn’t prepared to take as much time as I needed when leaving the track for the first time.  I stopped at the junction for a few seconds, looked to the left and saw the knoll I expected then looked to the right and couldn’t really make sense of what I saw.  Instead of taking a bit more time to understand it I headed for the top of the biggest knoll I could see in what I thought was the right direction hoping it would make more sense when I got to the top.  It didn’t!  I thought I had either come over the knoll just east of the control or one on the edge of the circle to the north.  It didn’t look how I expected for either case but since I couldn’t see the control I figured I must have come over the northern knoll so I headed south.  Nothing was matching and I sensed I was getting very close to the beach so I decided to try to limit my losses by heading back to the track junction and starting again.  I tried to read every detail carefully this time but realized I must be getting it wrong when I found myself climbing the same knoll again.  I can’t clearly remember what I did from here but I think I decided I might as well try heading the opposite direction to the way I went last time and eventually stumbled across the control without ever understanding where I was.  By now I had lost about 5 minutes and had absolutely no confidence in my ability to understand the map so all thoughts of racing for a good result were gone, I just wanted to start feeling as though I understood the map.

Any thoughts of how we can use the GPS system to improve the coaching and/or organisation/promotion of orienteering?

I can’t say much about its value for coaching/promotion without having seen any of the output from the GPS.  I can’t see much promotional benefit without having live updates on a big screen at the event or on TV and I can’t see that ever happening in Australia.  For coaching I think its value depends a lot on the accuracy of the speed changes it can detect and I haven’t seen anything to judge that by.  I think most people can usually work out pretty accurately where they went when they have time to think clearly about it afterwards, what you can’t work out that I imagine could be valuable is where you were going faster or slower than other runners on the same section of the course.  My experience with my own GPS is that it isn’t accurate enough to be really useful on its own but I have never had the chance to compare with other runners using a GPS before so I will be interested to see the result (although less interested than I would have been if I had run better). 

Was the GPS system a problem, did it put you off?

I don’t think the GPS had anything to do with my problems.  Even if it did influence me to rush things a bit at the start (I don’t really think I did) I don’t think that was the real cause of my problems because I repeated my mistake on the second attempt when trying to be very careful.

Craig