Training Log Archive: maprunner

Dancing Queen

Practice at Clinton. I drew a series of controls where I had to leave the trail at a certain location, and follow a straight line to the control. I often have difficulty heading in the correct direction when I leave trails. I did pretty well on this exercise. I had difficulty with 6 because I always get confused at this trail and stream crossing. Plus I didn't want to go through the nasty vegetation near the stream. But I should have been more conscious of the contours.

I did not go all the way to 7 either. But that was because I saw a beautiful great blue heron in the water right there, and I didn't want to scare it away.

Mike and I drove to Clyde MO (about 2 hours) to visit my aunt, who is a nun. Very interesting to visit a group of elderly nuns. My aunt is getting frail, but her mind is still sharp. She easily beat us in a game of Scrabble.

We stopped at Smithville on the way back. It was nice to run in an area I don't know well, but my mind and body were not into it today. Ran an old Green course backward, since it was more fun to be in the woods rather than the fields.

First 5k test run of the season. Nice that I had a tailwind to push me up the hill. Also nice that I'm 2 min faster than this time last year. A good position to start my annual 5k training.

My "Map Monday" posting on the OK page is not generating the conversation I had hoped. Anyone on AP wanna guess where Mike and I were born (which maps)? Check out the March 20th posting at facebook.com/OrienteerKansas/

I attempted to cycle the Lawrence Loop, which is ~5/6 bike path or lanes, ~1/6 surface streets (with plans to make a bike path along the other sections). This seemed a bit ambitious since I'm not a seasoned bike rider, but the day seemed great: temps expected to be 20-25C, slight wind (11 kph out of the south). And I wanted an adventure today.

Drove to the movie theater and started from there, heading east along the Baker wetlands. saw birds, ducks, an animal that was either a muskrat or beaver and a great blue heron. Also, lots of graffiti on the inside of the K10 wall. This was a nice section, and I had been on it before.

Got to the Haskell avenue exit, and headed north. I missed the turn that the bike path takes here (somehow?) and got to 27th street before I realized it. Backtracked a bit and joined it off 25th. This was a nice tree-lined section next to the Haskell campus, very pretty, and new to me. Lots of fun.

Got to the Burroughs Trail section, also new to me. Nice to ride through a neighborhood, and a little creek. Stopped to help a mom and daughter who were pumping up a tire using one of the city-installed bike repair stations (so cool!)

This section ended at 11th street and I had to ride surface streets through downtown, to get to 6th and Mass. This was fine, but a bit nerve-wracking for me. Stopped at City Hall to try to use the bike repair station to add a bit of air to my rear tire (didn't really need it, just wanted to try out the pump). But I could not figure out how to work it. You could remove the adapter to use all these different adapters, but it made no sense to me (granted, I'm a complete novice). One of the pieces started to blow away and I had to chase it down. I had a really hard time trying to put all the pieces back the way I found them. No instructions on the pump, just a QR code. Which I used. But all it said was do you have a Presta valve or not? How the heck would I know? Not good instructions for a novice. I decided to move on.

At this point, I noticed that the wind had picked up. I was now heading west, so it was a crosswind. Not too bad. Got to the new bike section along the river, which was great. This was the busiest section, had to deal with some clueless bikers and walkers. But so pretty!

Around the lake in Shaw park, and the bike path ended again. Now I was back on streets (had to find 2nd again, when it disappears near the hospital). Was getting a bit tired of the wind now, and feeling a bit run down. Just on cue, a gas station/quick trip showed up! Stopped for a caffeinated Diet Coke and some salty chips. Ah, so fine!

Crossed Iowa and hit the bike lane on Princeton. I had never been down this street, some really nice houses along the golf course. This was fun, and I enjoyed it because Mike had warned me about what came next: the Peterson Hill. It definitely was a big hill, but it was only about 1.5 blocks long, so it wasn't too bad. Stopped once to rest, but otherwise, I rode the whole thing.

Stopped often to check the map here, since the route goes all over the place. Made a slight error going down Monterey for a bit, then got to 1300 Rd and could finally go downhill. Usually, this would be lots of fun for me, but this was a rough surface road (rural) with no shoulder, and very curvy. I rode the brakes a bit, went fast when I could see. No cars passed me, which was nice. This was also a nice section of town, which I had only seen once before.

Merged onto 1750 Rd, a nice flat road. Started to notice that I was getting a bit sunburned, and it was feeling warmer and windier. There was one section, just before 1100 Rd, where I was riding straight into the wind. I did not enjoy this section.

Picked up the bike path at 1100 Rd. Nice new section (officially not open yet, I rode past the "trail closed" sign). It went through some nice woods, and joined up to the infamous Rock Chalk Park. I had never been out here before, so this was fun to explore.

But I was now heading uphill into the wind. And my legs were saying, No thanks. The hill wasn't that steep, but I got off and walked, more to give my quads a break. I was also feeling the heat and the sun (I still had plenty of water, so I was fine).

I got to Rock Chalk Road and looked at my watch. Already out 2:25, and I still had about 45 minutes to go. Granted, I was very close to the high point, and a big portion would be downhill. But heading south, straight into the wind. I did not want to push hard to get to the high point on 6th Street, and wipe myself out, and still have a long way to go. As Mike often points out, I don't like to suffer. There was no need to push myself to exhaustion today. So I called Mike and asked him to pick me up.

I rode up to the Sports Pavillion to wait for Mike. My first time seeing any of this, but I didn't go inside. I was surprised to see 8 tennis courts; I wonder how often they are used, let alone need 8 at once? Seemed excessive to me.

As soon as I stopped, I felt really tired. Especially my quads. Just for fun, I checked the weather. No wonder I was tired: it was now 30C and the winds were out of the south at 37 kph. So, so, so glad I stopped.

I had a great adventure today, saw lots of new things. And I set a biking PR for distance and overall climb. A good day.

Night-O at SMP. I was glad for the practice, glad it was a nice warm night. I almost forgot to talk to myself as I ran. I did manage to talk to myself the whole time but it didn't prevent me from making a big mistake at 2. I just talked about how I was lost and nothing made sense. So, a fail on two counts. After that I calmed down and managed to have a decent run.

First bike ride of the year. Fun to check out what is new around my usual route.

Strong southern winds tonight. The tailwind made me feel really fast when I was sprinting :)

For sale:
brand new Inova8 X-Talon 212 Precision Fit.

Size
6 UK
39.5 EU
25 CM
8.5 US women
7 US men

I paid $40 for them; make me an offer.

(I just forgot to return them before the return window closed at Amazon)

C • offer 9

Mike and I went to Rockcrusher for practice. I decided to re-run a course from last year. Although it wasn't a "run". I ended up walking a lot of it because I was tired. I practiced speaking out loud, and that went fairly well. I stopped doing it as I got really tired near the end. It would have helped me realize that I never really went to 8.

PTOC event at Burr Oak Woods. Long Course. Windy, snowing, -1C. Haven't had winter temps in a while, had to find all my cold weather gear. Nice new map (contours were 2.5 meters, not 5 m)

Pretty good start, no issues through 3. (Mike and I got to 2 at the same time.) The 4th control was slightly misplaced, Tom Hanley and I had to search a bit to find it. Straight up to 5, then across the spur to 6. Had some difficulty here, hard to follow my compass, and I started to drift down the spur instead of going straight across.

OK through 10 (was 7 also misplaced? Or the circle drawn incorrectly?). I picked a slow route to 11, but I saw the control as I was approaching. However, when I got right down into the creek bed, I lost track of the marker (cleverly hidden behind a downed tree). Stood there a moment or two trying to find the marker. Had the same problem at 12, marker "disappeared" right when I got there !

On my way to 13, I hit my shin on a broken off stump. Man, that hurt! Stopped to curse, scream, moan and wail. Gene came by right at that point, asked if I was OK. We moved on together to hunt for the marker, which was slightly hidden. He went on the straight route to 14, while I decide to help my shin and avoid the woods, and went out of my way to the trail. I got to 14 just as Gene was leaving, so that was a good route choice for me.

I was really tired by now, happy to be running in towards the finish. Mike was waiting to cheer me on at the Go control, and he also took some nice pictures. The run into the finish was quite beautiful (see Spike's log for photo).



So, I tried to vocalize my race today. This was hard! Hard to remember to keep doing it. Hard to talk out loud during the few times I was running fast. Hard to not vocalize everything (My hands are cold; damn my hat got caught on a branch again; ooh, the snow is coming down harder now; there's Mike). Hard to vocalize when other folks were around. I had no problem vocalizing after I hit my shin!!

However, overall, it helped me focus (most of the time, see exceptions above :) It also made me stop, on the way to 7, when the trail junctions didn't match what I was expecting. I think I will get better with practice.

But I also discovered that I sometimes notice something without a conscious thought. As I was going across the spur to 6, I suddenly knew I was not going the way I wanted. I couldn't articulate (and I didn't) but I made the correction any way. It was instinctive. I will need to practice noticing these "thoughts" and vocalizing them.

Tough arm work tonight

I took a vacation day today, so I was able to get out into the woods. I decided to focus on moving through the woods, pushing through the crap, since I was so slow at that this weekend. I walked to a few locations from Fritz's overlook course and various other parts of the woods. Legs were tired from the weekend.

Day 2 Texas. Much better day mentally (for the most part) and I finally bonded with my new compass. A few goofs: got pulled off line by other controls twice, at 2 and 16.

Then, the big mistake. Chiori caught up with a 10 (she started 4 minutes behind me). I got distracted. I got to the trail that I planned to take to 11, but some how, I convinced myself that I was about to head the wrong way. And then I did head the wrong way, for a long time, a classic 180. Lots of warning bells were going off but nothing stopped me until I hit a road. A road??? WTF? Figured it out and headed back the way I had just come.

So disappointed with my races this weekend. Physically weak pushing through the woods, mentally weak the whole time.

It's been years since I had a clean run at an A meet. I need to figure this out...

C • seeing other people 8

D2 Green A - Splits

Event: US Interscholastic and Intercollegiate Championships
 

Texas Day 1. Crazy day. My head was not in it, and I didn't trust my new thumb compass. Bad combination. Made mistakes on almost every control. Big mistakes on 12 and 13. Then I thought I had to go from 16 to 3, went way out of the way.
http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

D1 Green A - Splits

Travel day to Texas. Mike, Sandy and I drove down in my car. It was so nice to have Sandy's company. And to have a third driver. Although her stick driving skills were a bit rusty, she warmed up quickly.
Nice pizza dinner with the whole OK/PTOC contingent. Saw JanetT and Glen there, too.

Just a short jaunt around Holcom to get the blood moving after sitting in meetings all day.

We took it easy tonight due to this weekend's races.