Matt Rooke

Back in the UK

2008-05-14T10:59:00.005-04:00

I'm home now. It was a great year and I definitely recommend exchanges.

I have my results, averaged 80% over the year which I am very pleased with. The second term was harder but I am still happy with the individual module marks.

I visited Warwick last week to sort out my options for next year. I'm going to have to do a 3rd year module as well as the normal load which is a bit of a pain but I should manage.

Most likely this will be the last proper post. I might add some links if I continue a training diary elsewhere or to the website I have to make for my Exchange Report module.
EDIT - Exchange Report, Training Diary

If anyone actually read this at all, thanks! Hope it was interesting.

If anyone wants to follow my training and racing this will now be on Attack Point
http://www.attackpoint.org/weeklyactivity.jsp/user_4350

Montreal

2008-04-28T19:48:00.004-04:00

I'm in Montreal at the moment, in Quebec (French Canada). It's a pretty nice city, been here 4 days now with some guys from Waterloo.

The trip was mainly about the nightlife but we did sample some culture and see some sights.

Olympic Stadium

climbing Mont-Royal

view from Mont Royal

One more night here, on my own since the others left today, then I'm in Toronto for a night before heading home!

Photos

US Middle and Relay Champs

2008-04-21T13:35:00.003-04:00

I travelled to Rochester in the USA this weekend for the US Middle and Relay Champs. It wasn't that far, 4 hours drive and is on the south shore of Lake Ontario.

The areas were really nice. Not much on the ground so were fast and had big contour features to navigate by and still detail for fine navigation at the control sites. I was a bit shaky in the middle, taking 48 mins for 5.3 km. Lots of misses. I think I am just a little out of practice. Hopefully the summer evening events can fix that.

There was also a sprint race in the afternoon but I took it easy, wanted to save myself for the relay, and make sure I got it right.

The Relay was much better. My team came 2nd (not counting the non-comp team of two who actually won and each ran two legs - they are both Canadian national team runners), just missing out on winning the USA/Canada Challenge Cup by 90 seconds.
At the US Relays a handicap system is used and each team must have at least 4 points for the premier relay (eg. in our team, M40 (1 point) W40 (3 points) and 2x M21 (no points).
My run, on 3rd leg, was pretty clean but I did mess up by about 2:30 mins at one control by following the wrong re-entrant, stupid. Enjoyed it though.

Maps from Rochester Orienteering Club

Results at http://roc.us.orienteering.org/2008-A-meet/A-meet.main%20page.htm

My exams finished last Wednesday. One was really good, two were decent and one was bad.
Montreal on Thursday.

End of Term

2008-04-07T20:45:00.002-04:00

It has been a while since my last post, I have been really busy with projects and lab work leading up to the end of term. Last day of classes was today. I still have a couple of assignments to get done this week and two exams this week!

Couple more exams next week then I have a trip to the US Middle Distance and Relay Champs near Rochester in New York state. After that I am going to Montreal for 4 or 5 days, then I come home.

I did manage to make it to a Sum 41 gig a couple of weeks ago which was fun, and it was the Warrior Sports Banquet, a couple of track/XC socials as well which have been good. The snow has also pretty much melted and it is getting warm. Just need a t-shirt and top now.

It has been a fun term but I will be glad to be back.

Spring!

2008-03-22T18:19:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was officially the first day of spring and it seemed like it too. I was woken to birds tweeting for the first time in ages and the snow has begun to melt.

Stars Thomass

2008-03-09T19:07:00.007-04:00

Today I ran in my own club's Thomass Race in the Huron Natural Area in south Kitchener. Getting there was orienteering in itself, map memory from Google maps and bus timetable route maps, but when I did get there (after a bus ride and about 3.5 km of running) the course was pretty fun.

A local outdoors shop was sponsoring the race and was offering free use of snow shoes for the course. Since it snowed loads yesterday I thought I'd try them. They certainly helped in the places where I was breaking my own trail but a lot of the course was on paths and they had been deliberately trodden down by the control hangers. I think it was worth trying them, if they had been smaller and lighter they would have been better for running in.

Not sure where I finished, or my time actually, but it will appear at www.orienteering.on.ca and stars.kw.net. I was pretty high up though, most people who beat me benefited from a handicap.

A took a friend from the XC team who wanted to give it a go. I took him out in a Waterloo Park (the XC team training area before the snow) yesterday to give him an idea of what he was doing and today, at his first orienteering event, he won! I must be a good coach. Being a novice his handicap helped as well. He's going to come along to the race next weekend as well.

I am rubbish at shot put

2008-03-02T12:31:00.003-05:00

The Track & Field Team had their annual Shot-Put Competition for Non-Shot-Putters yesterday, and I came last, I expected to.

I was happy I managed to throw over 5m though!

Blue Mountain!

2008-02-25T16:03:00.003-05:00

I've just had 4 days at Blue Mountain, a ski resort in Ontario. It was much better than I was expecting with good snow conditions and the hill, while not a mountain, was big enough. It is a couple of hours north of Waterloo by Lake Huron at Georgian Bay, good views from the top.

View Larger Map

I went in a group of 5 lads, we had rented a holiday cottage which was awesome. It had a sauna, huge lounge and dining room, kitchen, cable tv, everything. Skied for 3 of the 4 days, we were too tired on the other day, some good nights out.

View down a slope, and of Georgian Bay

Pretty tired now, and plenty of work to get done before mid-term exams next week.
There are some more photos on my Flickr account (link to the right)

U of T Track - my final race in black and gold

2008-02-16T11:58:00.002-05:00

I ran at the University of Toronto today in my last race for Waterloo. I finished the 1500 m in 4:31.3, not quite my target but it is a PB.

Reading week, yay! Skiing on Wednesday.

Thomass Race 5

2008-02-10T18:08:00.000-05:00

I ran my second of the Thomass Winter Adventure Running Series (aka Orienteering Series) today. It was tough.

Gators Orienteering Club

The novice planner had set an good quality course, if it was summer. At this time of year it was a bit long (7.4 km) with the winner taking 100 mins compared to the recommended of 60-75 mins.
I ran the first half in a big train (it is a mass start race) and that was hard going but manageable, but I ran a section to number 6 on my own and had to plough my way through thigh deep snow. In the second "box" score section I made a mess of control X, not too sure how I managed to cross a fence and not realise! This meant I ran another section on my own but caught up with the group on the way to 7, helped by a deer which decided to run into a tree after being startled by the pack and they stopped to make sure it was ok, it was. Train to the finish where I'm pretty certain I was top 10.

Results here or here

York Classic Track

2008-02-04T13:31:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I raced at York University in the 1000 m and 1500 m (2:53 mins and 4:33 mins). I enjoyed the shorter distances much more than the 15 lap 3000 m.

RESULTS

There are two more weeks before reading week when I am going skiing to Blue Mountain for four days, can't wait.

I'm Famous [sort of]

2008-02-01T11:35:00.001-05:00

I have a profile on Sporting Canada...

Today is a Snow Day, which means the Uni is closed. Heavy snow storm over night and it's still falling now.

Snow is back

2008-01-26T14:55:00.000-05:00

This past week there has been a lot of snow and there's a foot on the ground again now, and it's seriously cold.

I ran the track meet at Western last Saturday. 10 mins for the 3000 m which is 15 s slower than last time so not great but still ok. Hopefully with another two weeks training before the York meet I can get a bit faster, I am going to run the 1500 m.

I've got a lot of work at the moment, especially for the project module but it is all pretty interesting stuff this term so I'm happy with it.

Photos from www.geoffrobins.com
By Geoff Robins

Back in Canada

2008-01-14T20:42:00.000-05:00

I returned to Canada just after New Year and spent a few days with my cousins in Sarnia before heading back to Uni. It had really warmed up and the snow melted last week, temperatures reaching 13°C one day and I was able to run in shorts and t-shirt. More snow settled today and it's cooled back down but not even close to what it was last term.

I've had one week of term now, and my class choices seem ok. The electronics course is a little advanced (4th year final term level) but I think I'll cope. I have a couple of 9pm tutorials though which is insane.

2008 Warrior Track and Field Team - Steve Brooks

On a sport front, I've got on the track team local roster, which means I get to compete at the near-by one-day races, the next is this Saturday in London again. It's been good to get back into training after quite a lazy Christmas, but I think the break did me good. It was a shock to my body after the first interval session though but I feel good now after a week.

End of the First Term

2007-12-27T08:44:00.000-05:00

Term 1 is over, and I'm at home in England for Christmas at the moment. I got my results a few days ago, averaging 86% which I am very pleased with, with all modules above 80%.

My first time in Canada has been fun. I've enjoyed being part of the cross-country team, live with decent people and got on with my course mates. All engineers at Waterloo do co-op degrees meaning they spend a term at uni, then go work for a term, so my course mates will be all different next term.

The teaching at Waterloo has been mainly good, one lecturer was very poor (bad level of English) but that could, and does, happen anywhere. The weekly tutorial slot was used differently by each module. Some using it to go over problems, others to summarise the previous week's work, and the civil module used it as a bonus lecture period. Tutorials were in groups of 30 but typically only 10 turned up so you could get the TA (teaching assistant, a post-grad student) to go over whatever you needed help with and I think are a good idea to aid learning.
Something I like over Warwick was a high-level of assessed work. The civil course had weekly marked assignments, the others had much more marked lab/project work than at Warwick. combined with mid-term and end-of-term exams I much prefer this system than just a little assessed coursework and a big exam in June. It means I get nice Christmas holiday with no work or revision, the first since pre-GCSE. The module exams were typically 55-60% final, 25-30% mid-term and 10-20% coursework.

I've selected my courses for next term, much easier this time since I have a better idea of how the system works and how module level is indicated. Lectures begin on the 7th January and I fly back on the 3rd, spending a few days with my cousins in Sarnia before heading back to uni.

So far I'm glad I went on this exchange, it's been a change, but it will be nice to get back to Warwick next year.

Thomass Winter Series

2007-12-09T16:48:00.000-05:00

Today I ran at the second race of the Thomass winter orienteering series, held annually in Ontario. This is a handicapped race with a score element where you miss out controls depending on your age/sex point score. My age wouldn't normally let me miss anything but with it being my first ever Thomass I was able to miss one control.
The rest of the course was a normal 4 km loop in a nice wood. Also, depending on your handicap you started a different distance from the start kite in the mass start, with old ladies about 300m away and M21 1.4 km away, I started about 1.2 km away.

After the start kite was the score element, so I skipped the control 35 m down a steep escarpment that I would have just had to climb straight back up again. After completing this I'd already picked off most people who started infront of me and missed out more but I got the rest soon after. I made a mistake at number 4, not reading the slope direction correctly, and the M21 people caught me. A big train to number 7 but the leader made a mistake at 8 and I slipped away with two other people. It was only 1 km to the finish so a proper race, I beat one of them but couldn't get past the other so finished second.

Golden Horseshoe Orienteering Club - www.dontgetlost.ca

I enjoyed it, and think it is a really good format for small informal races since it joins the entire field to give more competition. There was a few inches of snow on the ground.

I played some Canadian Football (slightly different rules to American) on Friday night in the snow, it was actually quite fun. I scored a touchdown :)

More Snow

2007-12-02T11:53:00.000-05:00

It snowed a lot last night...

Waterloo Santa Shuffle

2007-12-01T16:00:00.001-05:00

I ran a 5 km race in a local park today with some of the XC team. There weren't many other serious runners there (national XC champs the same day quite near by) and I came second, being beaten by one of my team mates. With a time of 16:20 mins, over snow covered tracks and very slippy boardwalk, I think it was a bit short of 5 km.
There were a lot of family groups and younger kids running, the race was for the Salvation Army, and people commented that we seemed a bit serious when we were all doing a proper warm-up in our matching team kit. The Waterloo XC girls got a one-two-three.

If there ever are any results then they should be on the Running Room website.

There has been a full week of snow now, it has melted a bit today in the Sun, and it's seriously cold. Just over a month ago I was still wearing shorts and t-shirt!

First Track Races

2007-11-26T20:43:00.000-05:00

I ran my first ever track races on Saturday at Western University (London). My first races was the 1500 m (4:32.5 mins) followed by the 3000 m later in the day (9:47.7 mins).

RESULTS

I was pretty slow compared to the leaders (4:09 and 8:37) but was reasonably pleased. If I hadn't been last and there was someone pushing me, or I'd had a watch on, I could have got my target times of 4:30 and 9:45 (3 min and 3:15 min kilometres).

I haven't made the track team with those results but I can still train with the middle distance/XC group, and maybe run track again at the more local races; the next couple are Windsor and Montreal so only the actual team will go. It will be quite nice not to have the commitment of regular competition next term. If any are open competitions not that far away I might enter myself as Warwick University, I enjoyed the races more than I expected.

Toronto

2007-11-18T20:51:00.000-05:00

No racing this weekend so I went to visit my cousin in Toronto. She goes to university there.

There was a Christmas Parade this weekend. A bit early I know! The decorations are already up and lit in towns here.

Raid the Hammer Adventure Run

2007-11-11T15:15:00.000-05:00

http://www.dontgetlost.ca/

I ran a 10 km adventure run today (a little more than 10 km I think) near Hamilton, the Raid the Hammer hosted by Golden Horseshoe Orienteers.

The main event was 25 km but I ran with two pretty quick juniors (14 and 16) to make up at junior team, and we were first to finish on the 10 km beating the seniors that entered. 1hr 44mins 03 secs.

Golden Horseshoe Orienteering Club, 2007

It was a navigational event on a 1:20000 custom map, with contour removal in places to hide some steep river valleys that had to be crossed out of the start and into the finish. I was doing most of the navigating and messed the first checkpoint but we made up time and were the 2nd team to checkpoint 2, with the leaders being on the 25 km course that branched off at number 4.

The 10 km was more aimed at people new to orienteering/adventure running (Britain take note, call orienteering events adventure runs and randoms turn up!) so didn't include the Matrix score elements or the follow the line from 4 to 6, and didn't have the second 1:10000 contours only map featuring E=mc² (effort = mud x climb x climb). Considering the age of my team-mates I was pretty impressed, the last part in big river valleys was tough going.

It is the sort of race that I think could work well near University at home and I might try to put on sometime. Connect up a lot of parks and have sprint sections connected by trail sections.

And I went LaserQuest-ing yesterday for a birthday party, and came second :)
It was fun.

US Champs - how can I be so bad?

2007-11-06T09:19:00.000-05:00

I travelled over 10 hours to Virginia to compete in the US Orienteering Champs at the weekend, and did really badly.
I just couldn't seem to navigate correctly on the terrain, contour details seemed vague and it was nasty green everywhere. I retired for the first time ever on Saturday after being out for 2.5hrs and only completing half the course, it was still over 5km back to assembly from where I gave up. Sunday was better (map below) and I finished 11.2 km in 1:54 hrs, mainly down to one stupid mistake (> 10 mins) part way round and then getting too tired at the end.

maps.google.com

Prince William Forest Park, Quantico Orienteering

I enjoyed Sunday's course much more, despite overlap with the previous day's terrain. Either I'd learned something from Saturday or I preferred the planning style but I was able to plan a proper route on it (seemed more options for using the larger re-entrants rather than having to cross lots of vague ones) for most controls.

US Champs website

Trick or Treat

2007-11-01T20:51:00.000-04:00

OUAs

2007-10-28T12:16:00.001-04:00

A really strong run, with the Warrior's men coming 6th.
My time of 37:05 mins was a huge improvement on the 39:21 a month ago on the same course so I'm happy. I finished 6th Warrior (7 in a team) in about 72nd place (of 100 ish). It was a tougher course than Kingston, soft golf-course ground from rain, more hills and windy so I'm pretty sure it was an improvement on Kingston as well, I felt much stronger.

On the start line - Jenna Holz

It was also my first cross-country race to have a false start, which resulted in the starter being out of caps for his gun so had to use a whistle.

After the race - Monika Bolejszo
(L to R - Alex Magdanz, Rob Bark, Aaron Cooper, Me, Rob Preator)

The banquet afterwards was alright, not quite a BUSA party but still fun and the food was decent (and free!). It's a bit strange the cross season being over now, it just started in Britain. I'll probably run track in the winter here, certainly train with the track team anyway, which pretty much is the cross-country team for distance events.

In the OUA team

2007-10-24T20:31:00.000-04:00

Just found out today that I am in the team of 7 men to run at the Ontario Uni XC Champs this Saturday. This will be on the same course as the Western Invitational 10km at the start of term, I expect to run a bit faster this time!

This week's training has been pretty easy to give us a rest before the race, which is the only one considered important by the team.

The Warrior Cross Country Team

I had a weekend off from racing last weekend, which was nice. I went out on the engineering "pub" crawl on Friday and my neighbours had a house party on Saturday.

Kingston XC

2007-10-14T14:16:00.000-04:00

Ran a new 10km PB yesterday at Kingston (4hr drive at the opposite end of Lake Ontario) - 37:04 mins. Still know I can go faster but felt strong and feel like I'm improving. Waterloo men and women both came 3rd as teams (2nd university) so it was a good race for us.

It's getting cold now as well, gone from 35°C to about 12°C in a week.

Ontario Champs

2007-10-12T11:17:00.000-04:00

Lase weekend was the Ontario Orienteering Champs in the Durham Conservation area (up north towards Georgian Bay). I did pretty bad on the middle and long, second half of the courses was much better but I'd already blown it by then. Maybe I'm not focussed properly before the race but on all the proper courses I've done over here it's taken me half a course to get into it.

The sprint was much better though, but it was very easy. There were only two real route choices with very little between them so it was all about running fast and control flow. I came 4th but there was a tie for 2nd, with one of them being an American so I was 3rd Ontario competitor and I won a nice medal.
Restuls - stars.kw.net

Ontario Relay Champion!

2007-09-30T16:52:00.000-04:00

Today was the Ontario Relay Orienteering Championships held at Milton (near Toronto). It's quite a low key event but my club (Waterloo Stars) and team still wanted to win.
RESULTS NOW ONLINE

Nick Duca set off strongly on first leg, and despite losing 2 minutes part way round, he capitalised on a mistake by the rest of the field to come back in 1st with a 1 minute lead. Andrea Chappel ran second, with a good run to set me off in 3rd place about 2 mins down. I overtook 2nd early on, and didn't see the leader but went past them somewhere. A clean run led to victory, and a nice homemade pumpkin pie. The area was fast but hilly (a ski hill) and I completed my 4 km course in 24:35 mins.
It was a good day for Stars, with two top 3 teams in the handicapped class as well.

Kelso, Gator Orienteering Club

I also ran cross-country yesterday. This was the home meet on North Campus. 8 km (four 2km laps on parkland) took me 27:33 mins. I felt strong and was fairly happy. Only seven people can run at the Ontario Uni champs in about a months time, and I think I'm currently about 7th or 8th in the team, so I'd like a good run at Kingston in a fortnight.

The Warriors Prepare, a view of the course area and Columbia Lake
Photo of me, credit: Natasha Lane

Western Invitational and the Turkey Trot

2007-09-25T23:18:00.000-04:00

On Saturday I ran at the Western Invitational in London (Ontario). This was a 10 km cross-country on a golf course, so soft but flat grass and some tough climbs. My time of 39:21 was ok considering the tough week of training (Coach's race report). The Waterloo team's aim is to peak for the Ontario Champs at the end of October, so we aren't resting up for these early races.

The training is getting tough, two long interval sessions a week and 45-60 min runs on the other days, with competition and a long run at the weekends. I'm sure it will be good for me in the long term but I am feeling it at the moment. My first impressions of Canadian university sport is that it is much more tightly controlled than in Britain. Teams are run by the university, rather than students. I can't say which I prefer, I think the all-inclusiveness of Britain is a good thing since it encourages casual sportsmen to become competitive, but there is still a great team atmosphere here and having a (free) professional coach can only be a good thing (and free race entry, free transport, meal allowance).

Next XC is this coming Saturday, our home meet. The Don Mills open. I don't think it'll be the most enjoyable course ever, certainly will be a lot of laps.

On Sunday I had my first orienteering experience over here; day 2 of the Turkey Trot. The area was Albion Hill and was a managed forest, with lots of bike trails (not all marked). It took me a while to get into it, a combination of not orienteering for about a month and being out late the previous night. The second half of the course was much better. The forest was tough going, definitely worthy of its slow-run screen and it was hot. There weren't many competitors (I'd rank its importance somewhere close to Twin-Peak or October Odyssey, but about a tenth the number of people and a very reduced number of classes to make that sensible competition) but they did have decent prizes for the top 3 each day on all classes and best overall.

Ion Gheuca and Janos Kuszalik

Next Sunday is the Ontario Relays, I hope to do better there, followed by the Ontario Champs (sprint, middle and classic) over the following Thanksgiving weekend. I've also just entered the US Champs (incl. a World Ranking Event) at the start of November near Washington DC.

As for uni, there is definitely a lot of work to keep on top of.

End of week 1

2007-09-16T14:48:00.000-04:00

I've had one week of classes now, and things seem ok. It was difficult to schedule my lessons to avoid clashes but I got things sorted, and it's fairly common to have classes till 8pm over here, fortunately I don't. I also have a weekly assignment for each class which is a bit different!

I ran in the black & gold of Waterloo Warriors Cross-Country team yesterday (results) at Guelph Uni. The race was mainly on trails so fast going. It was 7.4km and I finished in 28:18 mins (winner 23mins ish) and was 6th Waterloo. I felt as though I could keep running but was lacking speed, probably from training every day since I've been here. It will probably be good for me in the long term to up my training, but at the moment I can't do that and race anywhere near my best.

There was also a team social to a bowling centre last night (they only have 5 pins over here!) then some of us went on to the Bombshelter club on campus. The DJs could do with learning from a British Students' Union about music choice though. It was a fun night, but getting up for a 9am long run wasn't.

My US trip next weekend is off since Stars couldn't get a team together, but I expect to have another XC race in London and then a regional orienteering event near Toronto on Sunday.

Why this blog?

2007-09-09T11:26:00.001-04:00

I've moved to Canada for a year, and when I get back I need to write a report on what I did so I thought it would help to keep stuff all in one place. If people read it, great, if not it'll be useful for me.

I plan on writing about my orienteering, running, university life and anything else that could be [slightly] interesting.

I've had one week over here now, it's been quite quiet since most Canadians are only turning up this weekend but it is a nice enough place with a few patches of woodland about to go running in. I've been out with the uni XC team a few times so I've learnt some routes, and with Nick Duca from the local orienteering club (Waterloo Stars).

University starts on Monday, and I think I have a cross-country race for the university next weekend, with possibly a trip to the United States orienteering relay champs after that. If not I expect my first North American orienteering experience to be the Ontario Champs in October.