Training Log Archive: OutdoorsMama

Sore legs and glutes!
I got an unexpected text mid-day, asking if I wanted to spare at ball hockey tonight. I've never played ball hockey. So I said yes. How bad could it be? Running around on concrete in a non-air conditioned building in July in Southern Ontario.
Actually, it wasn't so bad. And apparently I was "trying out" to be on the team for the rest of the season, and I made the cut. They must've been desperate, but I'll do it :)

Nitrogaine.

Trying to move some lactic acid around my lower body.

Event: Nitrogaine III
 

Faster and faster intervals.

Easy ride to spin class, then took the scenic way home via the dog park (a pair of nice German Shepherds plus a German Shepherd pup at play today).

Nitrogaine

I have never done an all-night O/AR event, so why not try something new?

I didn't get any extra sleep during the day on Saturday. A Starbucks Double Shot Espresso beverage during map study time got me past my usual 9:30 pm bedtime......then it was go time at 10 pm. A nice, warm night without rain was on order.

I did a clockwise route, starting with the two controls roughly on the way to the front gate, at a walk, trying to get into the map. I planned on doing a lot of walking, and traveling by trail whenever feasible, especially after reading a key paragraph in Squiggly Lines about such things (the trail part, not the walking part). I came at the first one in the opposite direction of most other racers, and promptly blew past it. Turning around, it was a case of "Oh, those glowing things over there are markers for the control.....not racers in reflective vests".

The east side of the road was new territory for me (as was 97% of the route). Holy green stuff when I got off the trail! As in, drop to my knees and belly crawl through it. I missed one in the middle of the woods in there....I made a couple passes, but didn't see it (looking at my tracks, I think I was a bit too far north).

Back on to the west side of the road, I followed the mountain bike trail under the hydro line, and got 4 controls without too much duress. As I was moving along the trail with my headlamp on low, I realized I was moving faster than the pair of skunks moving ahead of me. D'oh! (and I could smell skunk too....) So I just stood around for a bit until they moved along. Deer have yellow eyes (I wasn't sure if the first one was a deer or a person without a reflective vest, but convinced myself that the eyes were far enough apart to not be a person), mice also have yellow eyes, and some moth creature who was often noted resting in the undergrowth had golden eyes, when reflected in the light from my headlamp. Pretty cool!

After those 4 controls, I opted to take the longer route by trail north, rather than bushwack. The next control was on the edge of a swamp just northeast of the trail junction and northwest of a distinctive jig-jog in the trail. Easy! Sure, until I dived into the woods. I picked the wrong jig-jog and came out of the woods on a trail...which was actually the right jig-jog. Sound confusing? I was confused but pleasantly surprised to find that the control was indeed just NW of where I now was.

Then it was decision time.....to the west seemed to be several low-value controls, but to the NW were some 60 and 70 pointers.....so I did some jogging to the land of the bigger points. And I did OK in there....and turned my headlamp off while crossing a little bridge to the island with the 80 pointer, enjoying the Milky Way and The Plough (Big Dipper) for a few moments. Some more bushwacking, some more controls.....and not a soul to be seen. But I was watching for skunks now.

I was feeling pretty good about navigating (and still quite awake), when I went for a 50 pointer "on the edge of a marsh" north of (I believe) the Poto trail. I got to the marsh, and walked a lot of shoreline.....could see the lights from the cabins across the water (which seemed to be in the right spot), but no control. Looking at my tracks afterwards, I was on the wrong peninsula (and had checked another wrong peninsula to the east, but should've checked the right peninsula to the west). I was about as far away from the finish as I'd been all night, and there were only about 2 hours left, and I couldn't find a freakin' control on the edge of a marsh, and why do I always seem to find the thickest underbrush to go through or the pickiest vines, and will this be the time that the PI gets me (did I just rub my face with my hands? where have my hands been?)........will I stay awake long enough to make it back? At what pace? What route should I take back? Gaaa! Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I headed to another big pointer to the south of the Poto, and did just fine finding it. Relief. I'm not an idiot. Well, my co workers and family think I'm (insert less than complimentary word) since I've chosen to spend a Saturday night wandering around the woods in MI by myself, but that's another story.

That's when I cracked out the RockStar drink (about 4 am) (I have only ever had a few sips of one....so drinking a full one really perked me up). Maybe the rest of the route was downhill (yeah, right), but I certainly felt like jogging a lot. Which is unusual for me!

So I jogged a lot of trails (compared to what I would usually do), diving into the woods to pick up my last few controls. I debated doing a longish (for me) road jog to pick up a (I think) 40 pointer, but I wasn't sure how long this "I love jogging" feeling would last. I finished with a half an hour to spare, so maybe, maybe I would've been OK going for that other 40 pointer. But on the other hand it would've been lousy to get there and floundered around in the woods, struggling to find it. Down in a gully, getting the second last control, I wondered why there were dusk to dawn yard lights over the next hill (and there weren't any buildings on the map). D'oh....it was the eastern sky starting to get lighter.

I finished in the middle third of the 8 hour event, which I was happy about. I had planned on sleeping in/near my car before heading home, but I was still feeling good, so I drove home and had a wee nap. Then washed my gear.

A totally awesome event. Ontario folks....you need to put this on your calendar for next year! Make a weekend of it.....do some mountain biking while you're there. And if you plan your route right (assuming the event is in the same general area), you can tuck a few greenbacks in your pack and drop in at the bar in Hell for a cold one part way through the night. Where else can you do that? :)

Stretching the legs out.

No wind for my morning commute from Staples to Tilbury. Zero traffic....one jogger on the rail trail (out in the middle of nowhere!), one new born calf (in the pasture with its mama).

Return trip into the wind. Stopped to watch a very newborn calf get licked and licked and licked by its mama until it was ready to stand up.

Blood donation night.