Training Log Archive: maprunner

Ribs are much better, knee is improving nicely. So we did a bit of leg work tonight, and lots of arm work. Tough.

Yeah, I've got a cold. Not too terrible right now, but it still sucks.

Windy, gray day but still warm. I think I might be getting a cold, so I asked mIke to set me a short course. I was feeling pretty tired as I started out, but felt better and better as I went. Even got to the point where i wanted to run, so I did, in short stretches. Knee felt fine. It is definitely getting better.

Saw Matt and met Cara in the parking lot before I started. They did the mini-course yesterday, to introduce Cara to the sport. She loved it! Hope to see her at some local events this winter.

Corridor O at Rockcrusher with Mike. Beautiful day (16 and sunny). Walked almost all of it. tried to keep moving. But I stopped once or twice on the way to 8 to take some photos.

The ribs are definitely getting better: I was able to lie on my back this morning, with only a bit of discomfort (no more pain!) Knee feels fine most of the time, still hurts with deep bends or direct pressure.

Mike and I drove to Topeka to explore his latest map project: Skyline park. He drew a course for me, that included some suspected trails that were not yet on his map. My role was to walk the trails and get a GPS track for him. Fun area, lots of trails but crappy woods. Lots of birds, would be nice if I was interested in birds.

Went off the main trails once or twice to capture something interesting for MIke. Also made a guess that I could pick up an unmarked trail from 14 to the finish, but that didn't work out and I had to backtrack.

I decided to try some jogging today. Knee felt fine during the run. The real test will be to see how it feels tomorrow.

Another nice warm day. Saw some people and dogs at the very end; no one else the rest of the time.

I love the Thanksgiving weekend, because I get to spend four days in the woods. Not as much fun this year since I'm injured. Mike and I went to Rockhaven to do the mini course he set out. My quads were sore from yesterday (how quickly we get out of shape!) so going downhills was awkward.
But I tried to keep moving and cut through the woods once or twice. Unfortunately my mind wandered on the way to A, and I did a totally bogus move. Nice day, around 11, and sunny. Didn't see anyone else out there.

Left work early and went to the gym. We tried some walking lunges and squats, with just body weight. Knee seems OK now, we'll see how it feels tomorrow. Also, more heavy arm stuff.

Slowly recovering from my injuries. Knee doesn't hurt as much, ribs get better every day. I was able to roll over in bed last night, which is real progress.

Just a short test of my knee, before heading out to Sewing Guld

Took the day off work, since I'm always worn out after the Possum Trot weekend. Took yesterday's results, copied them into a new file, and changed the courses from "rogaining" to regular. The I was able to export the splits for AP and WInsplits, but anyone who had less than 31 controls was listed as "MP" instead of getting credit for the number of controls. Better than nothing. Maybe we;ll go back to Or, but it crashes every 10 minutes, which is so frustrating. I like some of the added features of MeOs, but it also is a bit more complicated (especially for score events, which we do fairly often)

Spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, sewing, shopping for Thanksgiving (I do appetizers), returning some on-line purchases and binge watching Good Girls Revolt.

Possum Trot XVII at Longview Lake.

I was nervous about today, and really hoped that the computer would behave itself. Eric S (meet director) brought his father's RV, so we used the generator to run the equipment. WOrked out great, and would have been nice to have a warn dry spot, if we had needed it. Weather was great, sunny and upper 40s.

This park has a weird shape, so Mike Shifman set a one-direction course. Which meant we bused people to the start, for the first time ever. I went to watch the start (I love that!). I put the maps down on the ground. I had not seen the course. The meet director told people to line up on one side of the map. But when they started, it turns out that #1 was behind them. It was fascinating to watch how long it took people to figure it out and start running back down the road. Proud to say that Spike was the first to turn around :)

Also rode the bus to watch the start of the Half Possum (no turn around here, just a much slower start group). Then back to man the computer. We had a beginner course, so that helped me make sure that download and printing were working. I also used a different download station than we had used the day before. That seemed to help.

I set up the courses in MeOs as rogaining, with 1 point per control. As long as the competitor punched 31 controls, then they had done the full course. You could punch fewer controls, but then you were correctly sorted down the list, below those who had found 31. The downloads all worked well, until late in the day. Suddenly, the printer stopped working, and the download was recognizing names again. I unplugged the download station, plugged it back in and restarted MeOs. Success! Crisis averted today, with just a short period of time where split printouts weren't available. I was able to print them out later for anyone who missed them.

We had a problem with some competitors not getting a beep on the last control (but not all). We could see the last control, so we knew they had punched, and I gave them credit. Turns out we have older rental cards (SI-7?) that only hold 30 punches, and they needed to punch 31 today.

Always fun to watch the race, and see Andrei win (again!). Seem s like more women participated this year, I'll have to check. Nick and Reta did a great job with the food. Paul, Dick, Mike and Eric handled all the controls.

Came home and tried to export the splits, but could not figure out how to do that with rogaining controls. Decided to just post results, and work on splits tomorrow.

C • Possum Trot 3

Event: Possum Trot XVII
 

Working at the Pre-Possum at Kill Creek. It was a beautiful day, and we had a a great turnout from SLOC, MNOC and other clubs. My course was well received, even if it was a bit too easy (hard to set a navigationally challenging course here).

But we had a disaster with using MeOs for results. We had used it three times prior with no issues. This time, it worked fine for a bit, then stopped reading the cards,. Next, the computer gave me the blue screen of death. Then we got it back up again, but now it read every card with no name assigned. So we tried to shut down the computer again, and we had to force it to shut down. Came back up and now worked, but we lost all the downloads that had no names associated. Some folks had already left, so we couldn't read their cards again.
As near as we can tell, the software didn't like old firmware (download station). Stressful day, I hate when I can't give people results right away.

Came home to enjoy a nice visit with iamstillhungry and Lisa. We fed Tom so much that he actually said he was no longer hungry :)

I just had to get outside after work today, it was 22c! And I hadn't orienteered yet this week.

How to take it easy (I walked) yet still get a bit of a challenge?

1. Cut up the map into tiny snippets, then pick 6 random pieces and try to find them on the map (scroll down on the map image to see them)
2. Wear a crappy Petzel headlamp
3. Try to hold onto the map in the gale force wind

I thought it would be too easy, but I made a mistake.
Next time I think I'll go out with just the pieces and no map

Workout with my trainer. We avoided leg exercises that could hurt my knee. Also did lots of arm stuff. Hadn't done straight bicep work in awhile, this was tough.

Hair cut and color tonight, then home for the KU basketball game (Mike watched it, I didn't).

Knee and ribs are worse. I had a hard time sleeping last night. Knee hurt during the day. And it was difficult to find a position where my stylist could wash my hair. Guess it was too soon to trying running again. My self-diagnosis is a knee contusion and fractured ribs.

C • oof 5

Annual Geography Awareness Week event at KU. I ran back and forth to the parking garage, and lugged some equipment up and down stairs.

I had lined up plenty of workers, because we can get inundated at this event. But this year it wasn't well advertised and we only got 9 starts. Bummer. But it meant we had more time to visit with Gene, Dick, Sandy and George. Nice dinner afterwards.

At the dog park with Sandy and Kiri

Decided it was time to try running again. Walked a bit to warm up, then jogged steadily (but slowly) for 11 minutes. Knee felt a little stiff, but no real problems. Ribs were hurting, and I couldn't breathe as deeply as I wished. Also got a stitch while running.

Everything felt fine afterwards, so I think I have no more excuses about not exercising. Just have to avoid kneeling; that's the only thing that still hurts.

Mike and I went to Kill Creek to test out my courses for next weekend.

Decided it was time to try some exercise, so I did a few minutes of Nordic Track. Knee survived, ribs survived. Iced my knee after.

Knee only hurts when I bend it (like going up stairs).
Ribs were recovering nicely, but I did something yesterday and now it's much worse. Had a hard time sleeping last night.

All day Lean Agile KC conference. This is my latest work passion, so this conference was a welcome diversion today. I always get hyped up (in a good way) at this conference.

But as soon as I got in the car to come home, the reality of the new world order hit me hard. It was a tough ride home.

But the drive was brightened a bit at the end, when I drove on the newly opened South Lawrence Trafficway. I've been hearing about this road since I moved to KC in '93, and it is finally a reality.

Rolled over in the middle of the night, and stretched, and felt something go "pop" in my ribs. They are much sorer today. Decided to take the day off.

Decided to try some rowing. Knee didn't hurt much, but it definitely felt aggravated. Did a lot of one-legged rowing and concentrated on my arms. Iced my knee after.

Mike and I walked around campus checking points for Geography Week

Season Opener at Kill Creek Park. It was too soon to go back into the woods, of course. Sunny and 20. I forgot my Garmin, so no track today.

Mike Stewart set a good course. Long trail legs in the beginning, followed by some navigation legs at the end. I was moving well, staying on the trails and out of the woods as much as possible. Mike E passed me on the way to 4. I saw Mean Gene leaving 8 (he was on a shorter version of the course). He took a different route than me to 9, but I still got there in good time. I beat him to 10. I was just leaving 11 as he arrived. Then the next thing I knew, I was falling, hitting something and crying out, then hitting a second thing and crying out again. Ended up flat on my stomach on the ground, with the wind knocked out of me. Damned barbed wire fence got me! Gene came to my aid, but I told him I was OK, and he should go on.

Right knee hit or rock or something, right chest hit a stump, left shin hit something, right hand was skinned up. Sat there for a few minutes trying to assess damage and get my breath back.

C • fall 9

Of course, I was pretty far away from the finish. I would pass by 3 of my final 4 controls even if I cut the course short, so I decided to see if I could finish the course. I could walk fine, but the knee and chest hurt too much to run. After I left 12, I caught up with Reta, and I asked her if we could finish together. Reta is 70+, has a bum knee and half a left lung (lung cancer survivor) so I felt like we were a matched pair today!

When we finished, I took some ibuprofen, and used some ice from Mike S. But I was suddenly overwhelmed by it all, and I asked MIke if we could go home immediately. I lay on the couch all afternoon, which seemed like the best thing to do :)

Knee still hurts, but no serious damage, just cut and swollen. Rib cage hurts now, and left shin has quite a bump and bruise. I'll live.

Had to get in some exercise at work today, since I wouldn't have enough time after work Nice dinner at India Palace with Lawrence Women's Meetup Group.

Stopped on the way home and voted. Very glad that Kansas has advance voting; beats waiting in line for hours on Election day, as we had to do in Missouri. Also felt surprisingly emotional to vote for a woman for President.

Quick dinner with Mike before the KU game started, then I went into the basement for a bit of rowing and podcast listening.