Training Log Archive: Spike

The first part of today's adventure race at Milford.

Orienteering on a USGS map with bingo controls.

My strategy in the beginning was to not waste time hunting around for markers if I wasn't absolutely sure I was in the right spot. The course I'd planned went out and back. I had trouble at the first marker. I looked for a minute or two, then just moved on (knowing that I could give it a second try later in the course). I don't know if that was a wise strategy, but it kept me from getting too frustrated.

I'd been out 47 minutes before I actually found any controls!

When I got up at 4:45 a.m. to meet Sandy and drive to Milford, Mary reminded me "it is an adventure race." Even in a very sleepy state, Mary had good advice - it is a reminder that the map and control placement might be sketchy but don't get frustrated.

I wacked my ear on a stick in some thick and crappy forest. It didn't hurt at the time, but it hurt after the run.

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MTB orienteering section.

The way the controls were set, I thought the best route was to pick up all of the controls going out and then just bike back on the main roads. That was a good decision, I think, but the pure biking back was a chore.

We were lucky with the lack of wind. March in Kansas would normally be windy, but we had light wind and a little bit of light rain. No sun. Mid/upper 50s. Very nice conditions.

The control placement was a bit sketchy in a few places. It helped a lot to have a good idea of the trail network in Milford State Park (the trails aren't on the USGS map). One control was especially hard to find. It was tucked in a bunch of evergreens in an overgrown flat field. Really the only was to find it was to just get in the general area and search and hope. I spent ~20+ minutes before I bumped into it (and that was because I saw someone leaving the control).

My legs were shot on the trip back. I was working hard but moving slowly. I'm not a strong cyclist. Maybe I'll work on that a bit more this year.

Kayak section.

This was simple - just paddle along the shore to the next cove, take the control (which was on a tree and easily visible, and paddle back.

I had some hassles with gear. I grabbed a lift vest, but it was way too large. So I had to shuffle back up the beach and find one that fit. I was also moving pretty slowly because my legs were shot. Moving the kayak down to the water was hard.

Another solo competitor came up behind me and passed me. Having some competition helped me push a bit. I wasn't going fast, but I was working hard. In the end, I didn't catch him. I recognized him from the AR in Salina. He was on the team that beat me in the short race. This time he was racing alone.

He beat me to the finish, but it turned out that he had decided not to get all of the biking controls, so I finished ahead of him.

It turned out I was the only person to sweep the course.

Afterwards, I had a short chat with the 2 Army Rangers from Fort Riley who are training for some sort of national Army Ranger compeition in April at Fort Benning. They looked fit. I told them how much I struggled with the sketchy map and that as an orienteer the map was so rough. They thought it was pretty good, compared to military maps. I guess your perspective makes a big difference.

Interesting story about doping

http://www.nrk.no/sport/latvisk-vm-vinner_-_-som-a...

C • meldonium 9

No training, but I did some organizing for Saturday's "adventure race" at Milford. Sandy came by with her new bike rack and we got both bikes on it, so that's one less thing to do early Saturday morning.

Jogging on West Campus. I felt pretty good. I took a short stop at the cemetery to look at graves.

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Walk To Work Tuesday.

A bit over an hour each way, with just a few drops of rain each way.

Podcasts on the walk were Skidskyttepodden and Generation Anthropocene

I saw 8 deer on the last bit on West Campus.

MTB on the river trial.

I felt strange most of the day at work. Just not feeling right and having a hard time concentrating. I started feeling a bit better around 4 p.m. and decided a little river trail ride would be worth a try. It was and I'm glad I went.

A bit of my bike fell off during the ride. There is (or was) a little plastic shield on the outside of the chain ring. I don't think it serves any useful purpose. It definitely made it harder to clean stuff off the chain ring.

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A photo posted by @okansas on Mar 7, 2016 at 5:11pm PST

Trails at Rockcrusher and a little bit in the terrain.

Temps were warm (low 70s) and the sun was out. It felt hot. The wind helped, I guess. It was quite windy. We were lucky we didn't hold the event today as the dust from the gravel road at the start/finish/registration area was a pain.

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MTB on the river trail. I tested out a bit of stuff that I'll need for next weekend's adventure race at Milford - map board and Camelbak. both worked fine.

There were a lot of cars at the trail head, but I didn't really see many people out on the trails.

Things are really dry. Parts of the trail are getting sandy that don't usually get sandy. I think there's a chance of rain tonight. That'd be good.

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