Training Log Archive: TomN

Flying Pig Day 3 Middle Green. OK, finally a good run. No big mistakes, just a few minutes here and there.

The terrain between #2 and 3 looked pretty easy on the map, but somehow got really confusing as I worked my way around the top of the big reentrant system. I came around a little too far and saw a control in a ditch, I think on Brown, then finally made sense of the spur and saw the right reentrant from above.

A minute lost on #6, attacked from the corner of the field but contoured around a little too far, saw what I thought was the control and barreled down the hill, but it was on a rock 80m west and down 2 contours. This area has so few mapped point features it seemed like there was a control on every one of them.

From 7 to 8 I went up to the trail, which turned out to be a good choice. I tried to attack from the place where the trail starts to go up, but I went a little far. Came down along the fence line (but didn't see the fence), stopped when I got to the right pace count, then spotted the tree quite a bit farther downhill and back to the south. The good thing was it was clearly visible from this direction.

I had a chuckle crossing the cornfield diagonally along the line from 11 to 12 when the cornrows lined up in exactly the right direction, pointing the way like runway lights. Take your pleasures where you can find them.

Wretched job on #14, went down to the building without noticing that the control was 2 contours up from it. Then 15-16-17-18 were pretty easy, but I routinely mess up this kind of thing, so I traded off a little speed in favor of certainty. No surprises.

OCIN_FP2014_Mounds_Sunday_Middle_8 Green - Splits

Flying Pig Day 2 Long Green. Another big disappointment. Boy, I'm on a roll. I ran very well on 13 out of 14 controls, taking only 66 minutes in total. But on that one control, 42 minutes.

It was No. 5, a long leg admittedly, but should have taken about 15 min. I made my way to the ridge trail in good style, and ran up the ridge to the junction where the little trail forks off to the left. I didn't even see that junction on the map, and still have trouble seeing the left-hand trail in all the green. But I took that left fork and didn't know it. And things didn't immediately strike me as wrong, so I kept pushing for the ponds, which of course, never arrived, and there it went from bad to worse. I got into a forest of brambles, and took forever to get out of them and relocate, all the way back to that junction, which I still didn't read right but decided to try because the other way obviously didn't work. And now there was blood in my socks.

So another good run ruined on a fairly easy leg. Other than the place where I shouldn't have been, the woods were reasonably nice, and the weather was a big improvement over yesterday.

C • the trail fork that everyone didn't see on long leg 2

OCIN_FP2014_Mounds_Saturday_Long_8 Green - Splits

Event: OCIN Flying Pig XVIII / US Interscholastic Champs
 

Flying Pig Day 1 Green Middle. I mispunched, darn it. Completely skipped #15, and then wondered why I had to go so far along the road to 16. But my time wasn't so great anyway because of a mistake earlier on #5. I had a good plan, but the real problem was I crossed the river downstream of where I thought I was. So I went up the last reentrant at the edge of the map, and recognized the problem pretty quickly, but contouring back along the slope was really slow due to bad footing in the mud. Probably 4 minutes lost. So, two big mistakes marring an otherwise competent run.

The course was physically demanding, made even more so because of the saturated ground and high water. I got soaked out on the model map just after noon, but no rain on the Middle course, just wind. Tomorrow should be nicer, but I'm sure it will still be muddy.

C • how deep? 2

OCIN_FP2014_Bear_Creek_Friday_Middle_8 - Green - Splits

Another E-Z run around GSFC perimeter road. Partly cloudy, temp in the 50s. A little faster this time. Did 6 strides on the flat sections of the dirt road. Felt it in the calves. No butterflies this time (more sun might have helped).

Easy run around GSFC perimeter road. The air warmed up rapidly as I was going around, and the sun came out. A beautiful afternoon. The hot water is out in our building so it was either a cold shower or a paper towel wipe down. (The wipe down, of course. It didn't get that hot.)

FOY lepidoptera (at GSFC) -- almost certainly an Eastern Comma (given the topside coloration it could hardly be anything else), but I didn't get a very good view. If it was a Comma, it was a pretty small individual, which may be normal for these overwintering adults. Unlike almost every other kind of butterfly, they emerge from the chrysalis in the fall and survive the winter, nestling in crevices in the bark of trees, emerging on occasional sunny days to mate (hopefully). This one was on the flat part of the dirt road just above the pond. It ended up on the outside of the fence where I couldn't chase it.