Training Log Archive: BorisGr

On Monday, Alli, Inara, and I drove up to Invermere, BC for a little winter getaway. Unfortunately, I have a cold, but that's not stopping us from enjoying the beautiful Canadian Rockies. We are staying at a condo owned by theGriz, which is working out extremely well. Today we checked out the Lake Windermere Whiteway, a 30km groomed ice skating loop on a series of lakes. It was amazing! Surprisingly, we saw almost no one using nordic skates: nearly everyone had hockey skates on. I guess that's Canada for you! Anyway, the ice was great, the sun was shining, the mountains surrounding us spectacular, and the Chariot worked really well for me and Alli to take turns pulling Inara behind us. What an outing!

C • But... 2

Skiing at Pattee Canyon with Alli and her cousin Alex. Really nice conditions.

Back at Seeley Lake. They had groomed yesterday's new snow, and the conditions were fabulous. Fast and smooth without being icy. We had a great time, and I took Inara around on a couple of extra loops going through some lovely Montana forest. I think this place would make for a great Ski-O middle distance area.

We drove up to Seeley Lake to ski on their trails. They had gotten a couple of inches of new snow, and the conditions were very slow and tough. My skis dragged on the downhills, which made me a little nervous with the chariot. Inara was a champ and didn't make a peep as long as we were moving. Alli was great too, continuing her return to exercise after giving birth.

As we were finishing up, a bunch of kids showed up for their ski team practice. It really made me think about wanting to raise Inara in a place where she can have a ski team and an orienteering team to train with as she is growing up. Not sure DC will cut it for those purposes... where should we go?

C • the struggle is real 12

Recumbent bike again, while watching more biathlon.

We planned to drive somewhere to ski today, but all the roads around Missoula were covered in slush and ice. Boo.

Recumbent bike while watching biathlon.

Inara made her skiing debut! Alli, Jackie, Inara and I went up to Pattee Canyon to test out Inara's brand-new chariot with the ski attachment. Alli and I both skated, and I pulled the chariot with Inara behind me. It was awesome! The chariot was way more maneuverable than I had expected, and I felt confident skiing with my baby. Moreover, she enjoyed the movement and seemed pretty happy as long as we kept going. Progress!

C • Chariot 4

I went skiing! I joined my brother in law Joel at Pattee Canyon in Missoula for what ended up being some skate skiing on classic skis. The conditions weren't the best I'd ever seen, but it was really nice to get out, the company was great, and the nature beautiful as always.

My joy at racing the Bumble two weekends ago was short-lived, as I have had some back discomfort return, keeping me from training since then. Hoping it's just a setback on the way forward...

Inara is one month old today and taking her first flight. We are off to Missoula!

C • Missoula 8

Event: QOC Pohick Bay
 

I jogged a Green course at QOC's event at Pohick Bay. Barney joined me, and we had a good time going back and forth with Rick Oliver, former US Team member and very good orienteer. I was very limited by my back, but trying to out-navigate Rick provided for an excellent challenge. Barney and I had a great time.

Green - Splits

Some very light stationary biking to stretch my legs.

Stretching.

Event: QOC: The Bumble
 

The QOC Bumble! (The race format is a mass start on a course that has 5 boxes of 4-6 controls each. Within each box, you can visit the controls in any order. Blue runners have to do all five boxes. Others can do fewer based on an age/gender handicap.)

The temptation of a mass start race was too great to resist, so I decided to see how my body would respond to this, giving myself some mental slack given the Inara-induced lack of sleep. I was late leaving the house, but managed to get to the start line with a couple of minutes to spare, surrounded by familiar faces.

After the chaos of the mass start, the group settled down into a lead pack of Wyatt, Chris, AJ, Kevin, Jon, and myself. Jon took the second box in a different order and came out a bit behind, flying past me on the way to 15. I could tell that I did not have a top gear today, but was ok with running at a comfortable pace and seeing how far that would get me. Climbing up to 17, Jon mentioned something about having skipped 16 and turned around.

On the long leg to 18 back through the start, Wyatt and Chris pulled away, and I entered the third loop just behind AJ and Kevin. I made a poor decision here, failing to optimize my order for this loop. Despite spiking all the controls, I came out of the loop about 2 minutes down on Wyatt and Chris and knew that I did not have the speed to catch them. Luckily, Kevin came out with me (and AJ went on to skip the next loop, getting way ahead of us), so I had some company.

Kevin and I cruised around together the rest of the way, with Jon coming past us again at the beginning of the fourth box. Kevin was somewhat faster than me, but I took enough shortcuts or different routes (including using the road around on the long leg to 30) that we were together again going into the final box.

I screwed up the first control in the box, losing Kevin again, but was clean for the rest of them, and we hit 36 together. The next shortcut I took did not work out, as I was stuck in some brambles, and Kevin had maybe a 20 second gap at 36. I took a chance and went straight across Rock Creek (brrr and ewww) on the way to 37 and pushed hard up the hill, emerging at the same time as Kevin. But he had more fight left at the end, and I had no chance at a finish sprint.

I ended up 5th, just under 5 minutes down on Chris and Wyatt. Pretty satisfied for not having done much running or orienteering, and going on 4-5 hours of sleep a night.

I am still sore a couple of days later, but am hoping that the soreness will wear off and I will be able to gradually continue getting back into shape.

At the finish I met Miles, an enthusiastic guy in his mid-20s, who is a fast runner and a newcomer to orienteering. I hope we see him again at future meets. It's always fun to meet new folks who are excited about our sport. I hope he felt welcomed.

C • Nice work 7

Looks like it's official: I'll be heading to Tiomila 2017 at the end of April as an English-language commentator for the first-ever English-language webcast of Tiomila! I am really excited for this opportunity and can't wait to be back at Tiomila again, this time observing it from a different angle.

I hope that as many of the readers of this log as possible tune in, in order to support the English-language broadcast and make sure that it is not just a one-time thing, and that the wonders of Tiomila are exposed to the larger international orienteering community.

C • Congratulations! 25

A long elliptical session while on the OUSA Board of Directors phone call. Multi-tasking at its best! The setup was a phone with headphones for listening and talking, and an iPad for viewing the shared screens and seeing related documents. I think it worked really well. Also, I think we had a good productive meeting, moving forward on the first piece of the OUSA 50th Anniversary Funds through a very exciting marketing initiative spearheaded by Bob Forgrave, and providing "spiritual support" to the Ski-O World Cup and World Masters that Alex and Ed are organizing in Vermont in 2018. Shaping up to be a great event!

C • Skio 1