Training Log Archive: KFish

Waterloo - Scouting mostly W and Y, but a few other R/G/O that were nearby. lots of snow to wade through!

Not the best time. 5.9, 5.10, 5.10+, 5.10+, 5.10-

first pure run in months.

We looked at the timing for the SWSW Goat and the 2.5 hour drive to pheonix to catch our flight and decided it was going to be too close for comfort. Kind of bummed we didn't get to try out the goat and do more orienteering, but we found a good hike to make up for it.

Hiked up to Romero Pools in Catalina State Park. Pretty amazing that you can get a few hundred feet up and completely dry stream beds become flowing water. Lots of hikers on the trail, but we were able to fly by most of them. Got to the pools, which were pretty, but decidely low, took a quick look and then huffed it back down so we didnt miss our flight (which ended up getting delayed by 2 hours after a system malfunctioning requiring us to change planes...).

Hiking in Sabino Canyon. Recommended to us by the cashier at Tucson REI. Very busy area, with a shuttle you can take to trailheads and look outs along the road, but once you got away from the main road it wasnt too crowded. Very pretty area, nice casual hike.

SWSW Urban O on University of Arizona campus. School was in session so the biggest difficulty was dodging students, especially when class let out.

It's too bad I haven't been running because with urban O there is no need to stop and plan, just go go go . No flags - virtual controls with a MC Q/A sheet to fill out at each stop.

#4 tripped me up cuz of the 3D, probably lost 2-4 minutes. Same on 6 only I caught on quicker. Started flagging around 9 but pushed through.

No knee pain over 4.4 miles at a 10 minute pace, which I am SUPER EXCITED about. Now back to regimented build up so I dont do anything stupid.

2/7 on Long - blitzed by 6.5 minutes for first

SWSW Classic Red

3rd event at Cataline SP, and third new area to explore which was cool. Taped my ankle, which was a tremendous help.

Was feeling less stuffy so i took off at a jog down the road and didnt have a cough attack, which was a good start. Hit 1 and then walked a but past 2 bought caught it quickly. No problem at 3 or 4, except I either forgot to punch or it didnt register at 4 so i ended with a DNF :(. Live and learn. Went downhill from there.

Parallel error that should have been pretty obvious on 5, but I wasnt the only guy in there exploring the wrong reentrant. Took the trail/stream to 6 which wasnt too bad - got behind a few horses and wasnt sure how to pass them. 7 was fine, 8 I ended up too low and I think I was off the bottom of the map. Met up with a guy who had been searching for 20 minutes, which ruined my confidenced. Blundered around for a bit before reseting. Once I got to high ground it was obvious. From there I couldnt hit anything. Must have walked right past 9 and then again on 10. Got bunched up with several others for the last 3, good thing or I might still be wandering around the desert.

would have been 5/6 if I got the official finish. Bummer since I know i was there, but oh well.

Event: Southwest Spring Week
 

SWSW - Catalina State Park - Long Red

Terrain was so different than MI! Still feeling a little under the weather, tried to run to one of the early controls and ended in a coughing fit, so running wasn't going to happen. 85F and Sunny meant when I grabbed the map I was blinded for a bit - should have brought the sunglasses. Maps available for viewing at: http://www.tucsonorienteeringclub.org/index.php/ev...

Started off ok, beat the guy who started ahead of me to 1 and again to 2. Headed off down the wrong spur to 3 and had to backtrack a little. Also took the wrong hill to 4 and head to up down over a couple hills to get to the right one. Wow 4-5 was LONG. Took the "Safe" route trail to stream bed ("wash") which was full of 2-5 foot boulders - very slow going, but it sounded like most people ended up taking the same route. 6, 7 were easy. 8 was the first "distinctive boulder" in "rocky ground" - both of which are very different than similar things in MI. Rocky ground is 2-5 ft boulders everywhere - some loose some well attached. Also, there are cacti everwhere, about 10 different types and none afraid to scratch or prick you. Apparently you are supposed to bring a comb to comb out the needles.

Found 8 ok, back to the trail for 9 and missed the turn so I went WAY to far, stupid mistake. Found a wandering Syd on the way to 10 and helped her, which ended up meaning she beat me. Also twisted my ankle (the one that I had just started feeling better about after Fall Chenango meet), and it swelled up and I could hardly walk for a bit. 11-13 went OK. tried to take a shortcut back to the finish to get back ahead of Syd, but it didnt work out.

7/8 M red. I know I couldnt run and made a lot of mistakes, but I dont know people could in this terrain, but they definitely did based on their times.

SWSW Night O

Convinced syd to go together with me after the pep talk saying the back half of the course was hard. Mostly worried about breaking my ankle and being lost in the desert. First time Night-Oing with a full moon, which was very cool.

Brisk walk most of the way, and it actually went really well. Syd took lead on navigating so I could focus on not twisting my ankle again, but I did pace when necessary.

No orienteering flags, just Red white blue reflectors which were really easy to see from a ways. Also, was better at dodging cacti this time around.

8/12 finishers

Hike up Picacho Peak at Picacho Peak State Park, Arizona.

2 hour time difference meant I couldn't sleep so we set out pretty early. It warmed up fast and turned into a beautiful day. Caught a couple people who had set out earlier. Trail was a lot of fun, giant cacti - I seriously couldnt believe how tall they got, and a several spots where they had installed steel cables to help you up (not necessary in our opinion, but they were helpful a few times). Could see far from the top, unfortunately it was mostly a view of flatness with mountains far off in the distance.

Short loop around Romero Ruins in flip flips.