Training Log Archive: maprunner

Checking out the Woodridge map. Mike printed a map, with a course designed by Ken Walker. That was unexpected!

Walked the whole time, because
1. I stopped a lot to check out the map
2. the woods were crap, and the grass in the "yellow" was as tall as me
3. but mostly because I was tired.

Nice course, and the map has held up very well over the past 10 years. Too many spiderwebs still; one big fat ugly spider even made it into my bra: ugh. Knees felt fine :)

After three quarters, I'm a little bit behind my plan for 100 hours of orienteering this year (65 hours so far). But, given how hard it is to get in some hours during the summer, I'm doing better than I expected.

C • Yellow at Woodridge 1

Back to the woods weekend. It's still a bit too early, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Mike set a course for me at Wyandotte, mostly on trails and roads, with some brief forays through the nicest woods. It was a fun course, and good practice (I need it!). Walked most of the time, since my right knee protested if I jogged too much. Not many spiderwebs left, so it was a nice day to be out and about.

At SMP after work. Three sets of 8 min/ 2 min. Knees felt good during the run, but now they ache a bit. I think I'll ice them as I sit like a slug and watch my favorite three hours of TV tonight :)

C • Favorites 5

Decided it was time to start running again. So I went to the local HS fields, and jog/walked three repeats of 7 min/ 3 min. Felt a tweak once or twice in either knee, but nothing really bad. Mostly muscle fatigue in flabby muscles that haven't been trained in a couple of months. Depressing how quickly it goes. But it was nice, cool morning, and they had laid out a cross-country course around the fields, so I had fun. And I'm really encouraged by how my knees felt. If they feel OK tomorrow, I may consider marking myself as "recovered" from this injury :)

C • glad to hear 1

I'm marking this as more intense than usual, since the therapist put me through some new, tougher exercises.

Relay champs. Last year, I had one of my worst O days, ever, at the Relay. I was determined to have a good clean run today.

And I did actually run, at least 50% of the course (OK, jog is more accurate than run, but I was definitely not walking :)

I was really nervous when Peggy tagged off in SECOND place; there was no way I could hold onto that. But I could do my best, and not screw up. I was mostly clean. Overran 2, but caught myself quickly. A big mistake at 7, after I ran through the spectator control. I think too much about the fact that everyone is watching, instead of reading the map, and I just blindly ran ahead. Tried to calm down and read the map to relocate, but instead I wandered a bit till I could think clearly and find the control. Lost about 2.5 minutes here.

Overall, I had a decent outing. Lots of room for improvement, but probably the best I cold have expected this year. After my leg, we fell to 9th place, but fortunately Mike had a great run and brought us back up the 4th, which Mook maintained. Next year, we're on the podium!

Event: Sprint Series Final & US Relay Champs
 

Sprint #1. I walked the course (had to save myself for the relay:) and tried to remember how to orienteer. Slow, had to stop once or twice to make decisions, but mostly OK. Wandered a bit too high on #4, into the field (as did several others), and a bit off the line on the way to 9. But otherwise, a clean outing.

Sprint #2. Much better flow on this race. I caught up to Barb Dominie (she started 30 seconds ahead) by the first control, and we walked together for the rest of the course. I had a hard time ignoring her; instead I was thinking about her, and how we could separate. Which was ridiculous; what did it matter? It distracted me on the way to 3; but after that I settled down. She and I both knew she would literally run away from me after the last control, so she beat me in the end. I was pleased with my navigation (although it's pretty easy to navigate at this pace). Knees felt fine.

Nice dinner for the annual OK banquet. Food was very good at Gusto's but I wish it was bit quieter so I could have enjoyed the conversation more. But it's always fun to spend time with the team, plus honorary members.

Sprint A Course 2 (OBG) - Splits

Sprint B Course 2 (OBG) - Splits

Therapist showed me a more advanced way to tape my knees (5 pieces of tape!) and cleared me to start running. Yahoo! Now I just need to draw up a sensible plan to get back up to speed. I'll probably start with a mix of walking and jogging. Am I allowed to _walk_ during the sprint finals ? :)

C • Yeah! 4

Brisk walk on the bike trails at SMP after work.

Therapist taped my knee today, and it seems to help.

PTOC meet at Prairie Schooner GS camp. It's way too early to go back into the woods, but how could we resist a new map? This was nice little area, and Dick set a very nice score O course. I was doing pretty well, walking hard, trying to navigate cleanly. Goofed a few times on overgrown trails, and not thinking clearly after I had climbed hills (boy, am I out of shape!). I let Gene go first through the woods in some places, so he would clear the cobwebs for me :)

I was feeling pretty good at the beginning, so I admit I jogged once or twice. Tried to tell myself to slow down, this was just a local meet. So I tried not to jog any more. But the uphills finally took their toll. At 40 minutes, my knee started to ache. At 45 minutes, it said "enough". I walked straight back to the finish, not bothering to pick up the last 4 controls.

A nice day, even if the Giants are now 0-2. I think it's going to be a very long season...

C • I totally could have attended this.... 3

Mike set me a course on the KU map. I walked this at a non-stop brisk pace, and tried to keep my concentration. It was excellent practice for the sprints next weekend.

I like training on the campus, because the map is very detailed and intricate. And, since I'm not familiar with the campus, I have to read everything. I can't just say "Oh, that's past the library behind the union". To me, they are all generic buildings on the map. Beautiful, crisp fall weather made me feel like I was back in Iceland (except for that strange ball of fire in the sky).

I have added some notes about our trip. Read my log entries starting on September 2nd.

We had a great time in Iceland; I'll write up some notes in the next day or two.

Today was my first PT session. The therapist noted that my patella moves laterally, so he gave me exercises to strengthen the VMO muscle. At my next session, he will show me how to tape my knee. After that, he said, I can try running again.

This additional delay means I will not be at peak fitness for the US Champs. Ah well. I still have time to practice even more map reading, so that I can execute the courses perfectly and do the best I can.

C • Welcome Back! 5

We thought we were flying out of Reykjavik at 10:30 am; so we arrived at the airport (50K out of town) at 8:30. Instead, they moved the flight to 5 pm. So, we rented a car for the day to kill the extra time. We explored the Rekjannes peninsula, and found some interesting thermal features and an Elvis burger joint.

Mike took lots of fabulous pictures. He's editing them this weekend, and we hope to put them on a public website soon.

More walking around Reykjavik, mostly souvenir shopping. Also took a nice walk along the shore, and saw some non-tourist areas of the city (ie where the real people live). This is a very nice city: European flavor, but small and not crowded.

Exploring Reykjavik again, after the requisite visit to the Blue Lagoon.

We found that the soup in Iceland is very good, and your best bet for eating on the road. We even found the "best lobster soup in the world". we concurred.

Several longish hikes around Snaefellness park. Again, very interesting, but different terrain. Lots of evidence of former homes (turf ruins) and ship wrecks. Beautiful sea cliffs and wide open meadows were mixed in with lava terrain of various types. Truly an amazing variety.

One thing that I found hard to get used to in Iceland was the lack of mammals. I kept expecting to look up and see a herd of elk, or at least a deer or two. But, this is a lonely volcanic island. The only mammals that were here before man were the field mouse and the arctic fox. Now there are also horses, dogs, sheep and reindeer.

Long driving day, from Skaftafell to Hellnar. Again, we stopped at many roadside attractions and took several walks. I got plenty of map reading practice today. The topo/street map we bought was excellent. After a while, you could begin to notice different types of lava fields, and see them a long ways away. It was also fun to check off the individual farms. Yes, each and every farm in Iceland is on the map. When you pass a road sign, it is not naming the road, it is naming the family that lives there. My favorite was when we passed through a small area with 5 signs that said Johanson I, Johanson II, Johanson III, Johanson IV and Johanson V.

Glacier hike at Skaftafell. This was amazing! We had a guide, who gave us crampons to wear and ice axes to carry. He took us up on the glacier, showed us the clear, clear ice, and brought us to caves, labyrinths and waterfalls. A trip highlight!

Hiking in Skaftafell, past several large, gorgeous waterfalls. We hiked all the way up this ridge, to overlook the glacier we had been on that morning. However, there was a lot of fog over the glacier, so we couldn't see it. But it was a cool scene, because it looked as if we had hiked to the end of the world; you couldn't see anything beyond the cliff. Sat and ate some Skyr (Icelandic custard/yogurt dairy stuff; very tasty) before descending.

This is one of the most popular sites in Iceland, so we passed maybe two dozen or so folks (total) on the way up and down. Outside of Reykjavik, this would be the most people we would ever see in one place. They were mostly European tourists. We saw very few American tourists on the whole trip.

Driving around the Golden Circle, and out to Skaftafell National Park. We stopped at most roadside "attractions" which could be anything from a note that so-and-so once lived here, or an absolutely stunning waterfall. The terrain is very varied, and changes around each bend in the road. We stopped a lot for mini hikes and photo ops. This country is stunningly beautiful.

One thing I found interesting: they know everything of (human) note that has ever happened in Iceland. Roadside signs would often start with "On this site on October 27, 1342..." or something similar. They know who the first settler was, where he landed, where he farmed. And everyone who followed afterwards. Current population is about 300,000, with about half living in Reykjavik.

Another map hike, this time in lava terrain at Galgahraun, just outside Reykjavik. This was very weird terrain, no rhyme or reason to the hills and rocks. And the rocks were sharp! The wind was intense up top, but that's where the best footing was, so we stayed there after a while. Very intense map reading; challenging and fun. See Mike's blog (okansas.blogspot.com) for map and photo.

Map hike on a city map at Oskjuhlid (or something like that; this keyboard doesn't have Icelandic characters). This is a small area right near Pearlan, and it was lot of fun to walk around in the mist. Saw some interesting artifacts from WWII military activity.

There are no forests in Iceland. Instead, every tree has been planted, and within the past 50 years. It's very odd to drive past groves of trees planted in rows. I really missed seeing trees in most of the country.

Walking around Reykjavik, after a long travel day. (For the whole Iceland trip, I'm just putting in partial walking times, as a rough estimate of effort only).

This is a very cool, hip, kind of city. Also, very small. It is very easy to walk to all the major sites.

Note: the hot water is VERY hot out of the tap, and smells of sulfur.