Training Log Archive: Spike

Green course at Granite Planite.

Altitude is difficult but I handled it about as well as could be expected. Walked a good bit.

The area is fun - good runnability, good visibility, and flat.

I had a clean run and was mostly navigating well. I lost a few seconds at the next to last control when I saw the boulders and the green but didn't see the little outcrop.

My left calf has a strange tighness. I noticed it walking and warming up, but it wasn't really a problem running.

5

Middle Green - Splits

Event: 2018 Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival
 

Jogging on West Campus.

A storm came through and dumped a bit of rain, but then the sky cleared up and the sun came out. Humidity went way up.

On the way out the door I picked up a map that had a couple of very short control picking courses on it. I did the two courses. I got a lot of sweat in my eyes. I forgot my sweat band.

Before the orienteering I stopped by Pioneer Cemetery. It took us over a year to actually get the marker for Dad ordered and in place. It is there now. The mock up version had "US Army" and I made sure that was corrected to "US Air Force."

2

A post shared by @okansas on Aug 28, 2018 at 5:39pm PDT

Biking to/from Clinton.

On the way out I decided to ride via the arboretum and hoped I'd see Mary out on her training. And I did!

On the trails at Clinton. I just did a short jog with 2x HU/ML.

1

C • HU/ML 1

The first Ft Lev Adventure Series event of the new season. Today's course was street/park orienteering.

When I woke up, the dew point was 73 and the humidity was over 90 percent (and temp was 75), so it was going to be a bit of a slog as the temp went up.

I took it at a pace I figured I could hold. I made a point of walking a bit at each control and then took 3 breaks where I just walked for a minute. I also walked the longer uphills. Still, after about 30 minutes it felt like I was overheating. I dumped some water on myself a few times. I think that helped. I think my overall approach helped me feel not-too-terrible when I was done.

They time the event to the nearest minute, so three of us tied at 1:08. The other two with the same time were Meangene and a two person team.

Turnout was light. I hope they get more people at the next event. I think they will. Mary got an email from a couple of former USMAOC orienteers who are now at Ft Lev. They weren't there, but maybe we'll see them next time.

5

I planned to go for an easy bike ride with Mary after work. But, I felt sleepy and tired all day at work and decided to do nothing after work.

I felt like doing nothing, but it was good to get out the door and move around.

1

Jogging to/from the course.

My plan was to do a short run and be home before Mary got home. But, she was home when I was done. That was good.

A downhill line orienteering course on West Campus.

2

Stopped at Sunflower Nature Park on the way home from work and jogged through a sprint-ish course. Fun. Weather was amazing - cloudy, 70F, and a light misty rain.

2

On the trails at Clinton. I included 2x ML/HU/ML/HU.

Reading a map at 1:10,000 without a magnifier is tricky for me.

Muggy, but with the clouds the temp was relatively pleasant.

Near the end I saw Matt Q and chatted with him a bit.

2

Biking to/from the O' training with a little bit extra.

I ran 4 short (from 170m to 232m) courses on the new map of the area around Lindley Hall. The map is very close to finished.

The course printing wasn't great and I think that was why I skipped a control on the 3rd loop. Or maybe it was because my mind wandered a little.

The map is really small but there's plenty going on. There are three buildings to make for left/right route choices. The map is on a hillside with about 15 meters of climb from the low to high point. There are a bunch of boulders, too.

3

C • really? 4

I rolled around on the bike path. I felt pretty good. The sun wasn't very intense (maybe some of that Candian fire smoke?) and the temp was declining.

1

Mary's out of town. My routine gets messed up when Mary's not here. So, I'm taking a day off when I'd initially planned to bike/run. I still worked up a good sweat by mowing the lawn. The recent rain and sun meant the grass must have grown a bunch in the last 1.5 days. The lawn looks a lot better now.

A sweaty jog on West Campus. Felt ok, but I'm kind of tired.

1

Biking to/from my campus mapping project 2x.

I spent an hour on the map in the worst of the heat, then went back out in the early evening and did another hour.

The project is a really small map (probably print scale of 1:1250). The area is 0.015 square kilometers. It is around Lindley Hall. They've recently completed two new buildings south and west of Lindley and east of Naismith. It should make an interesting little area for mini-orienteering. Part of what makes the area interesting are the boulders. They've placed about 30 boulders between the buildings. Each boulder has a sign next to it with some details about the rock, how old it is, and where it was from. The most exotic boulder being a basalt column from Inner Mongolia.

My base map is lidar, but from before construction + a plan of the area that I photographed. I'm having to redraw a bunch of the contours because the construction changed a lot of the hillside.

I've done all of the field work with OOM on a tablet (an old Kindle). I've got some drafting left, but I should be able to finish that up tomorrow.

Also, Mary and I explored the area yesterday, including wandering around inside of the largest of the new buildings. It would make a nice indoor orienteering venue.

1

Combo course (basically the long course + the middle course) at Burcham. Mary set the course. It was fun.

When I was getting ready, a guy in a pick up truck stopped next to me and asked what sort of orientation was going on. He'd seen the signs. I explained what was going on. Without really any change in the conversation, he started talking about how terrible Kris Kobach is. That was fun. Maybe the guy was just driving around, stopping in different parks, and complaining about Kobach. I like to think that's what he was up to.

Back to orienteering....well, it was fun as a course and I'm glad I did it, but I really sucked. I ran ok for the first 12 minutes and felt like I was moving at a pace I could hold. Then I started struggling and feeling hot. Then at about 25 minutes, I was really suffering - jogging slow, looking for ways to get into the shade, just sort of shuffling along. That was what I did the rest of the course. When I finished I was worn out and drenched in sweat. The temp wasn't actually too terrible (maybe 82F when I finished).

Even when I'm in shape, I don't like running in the summer. But, today was ridiculous.

5

C • Unicorns and rainbows 8

Update on the trial where I was a witness:

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/public-safety/2018/au...

Nordic nations, North Americans and Antipodeans rank top in navigation skills

The researchers also speculate about more specific factors. Top performing countries including Finland, Denmark, and Norway all share a national interest in orienteering, a sport relying on navigation, while the other top performing countries - New Zealand, Canada, the United States, and Australia - all have high rates of driving, which may also boost navigation ability.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-08/uc...

It was hot and humid when I left work. But on the way home, I spotted a storm brewing over Lawrence. As I arrived in town, it began raining. When I pulled into the garage, it was raining heavily and there was plenty of thunder and lightning. The temp was falling.

I checked the lightning map and weather radar and waited for the lightning to pass by. As soon as it looked good, I went out to run on West Campus. It was nice - cool, cloudy, a few raindrops. The sun popped out for the last 5 minutes of my run.

I felt a lot better than I did two days ago.

1

"Oh no! Better get training! Cristina currently has 60 more minutes than you over the past week!"

So I hopped on my bike and biked for an hour. I went out to Clinton.

A little rain storm popped up around 530 and just south of town. That cooled things off nicely.

I felt terrible running yesterday, but I felt good biking today.

1

I usually feel ok when I run. But, tonight just felt crappy the entire run. No energy. Just one of those days. And, I'm glad I got something done. But, mostly not much fun.

1

I ran a short course on a street orienteering map I made of a part of Sound Beach, NY. The map was OSM + KP + building footprints from Suffolk County. I jogged around the course. Fun.

2

C • KP 9

Fun. Ran in a steady (and wonderfully cool) rain. I ran with an OSM + KP map in some really nice terrain at Rocky Point.

2

A bit of the map and terrain:

A post shared by @okansas on Aug 4, 2018 at 6:41pm PDT

Our morning flight was cancelled, so I had time to get out for a jog. Temp was mid 60s when I left the house and that felt nice. I shuffled around on West Campus.

1

I went out and rolled around on the bike. It felt hot.

1