Training Log Archive: Sandy

Control pickup. Thanks to Clem and Tom who drove up and helped. We got them all in less than 2 hours. Another 15 minute trip across the boulder field and back.

I liked the race format: a rafting section on the Lehigh River, some biking, some river crossing with bikes and tow lines, more biking, a run up a huge hill and back down, more biking and then more biking (a combination of single track, canal towpath, huge uphills and downs, and some road) eventually ending up at Hickory Run where they had 4 controls on the land adjacent to the O map and 17 controls that I set on the O map. These last 21 controls were rogaine format - get as many as you can before the 24 hour time limit. The race started at 3:30 pm and teams starting coming through for the O section around 1am. Three teams got all the points. Some teams got a handful and called it quites at 11am, other teams got as many as they could right up to the 3:30 cut off. The nice thing about the format is that the top teams don't finish and then 6 hours later other teams are still straggling in. Here the top teams were finishing around 1pm right along with other teams that had decided they'd had enough. But unless you got them all you didn't know how you did until everyone was in so most of the teams stuck around until the very end.

They had an interesting way to make sure all team members visit controls. At a few controls, there were bags of nail polish with instructions on which fingernail on which hand was to be painted. There were different colors at different controls and everyone on the team had to paint the designated nail. At the finish there was a check that everyone had red, white and blue nails on their left hand. (There was a Fourth of July theme - the race is called the Cradle of Liberty AR.) It wasn't announced which controls were going to have the nail polish - the boulder field was the only orienteering control that did - so if not everyone went to the control you risked having to go back for your team mate and back to the control.

Control hanging for the Goals AR at Hickory Run. It wasn't continuous; there were several 10-20 minute in to the woods and back out to the car including a 15 minute out and back across the boulder field. (I was surprised at the time - I knew I was making good time but it was hard work and took serious concentration so felt a lot longer.) I set the course so had hung the streamers so not much navigating. Thanks to Rob Wilkison who hung the other half.

More yard work...

I dug up about 10 plants (daffodils and hyacinths) that didn't do very well this spring and ended up with over 400 bulbs that I planted around in various places. I think they were a tad crowded...

C • Wow, that's a lot of bulbs. T... 2

MRI today to see what exactly the story is with the "good" knee.

C • good knee 2

TNT - a nice group tonight for a great dinner.

I had a lot of trouble tonight - could not run at more than a shuffle, slowly enough that Eric W. could easily walk at my pace which was a bit disheartening. Dasha did her usual when I'm not at my best which is to run with me for a while then go ahead and circle back. Had to walk several of the hills and even then couldn't just walk right up like normal. Not sure why I was so exhausted.

Had the MRI but will have to wait to see if there's anything "fixable". Knee very sore after running; something in the joint shifted and got stuck under the kneecap making just bending it more than 5 or 10 degrees very painful.

Did do some core work and weights. But the fun part of my day was buying a new car.

C • New Car! 5

TNT - ran with Sandy; Karl ran some trails. Started my watch at the trail head since I just walked the roads there. Jogged down and then 2 miles on the drive at about 10:20 pace. On the return trip we did lamppost intervals: sprinted to a lamppost, walked to the next, sprinted to the next, walked to the next. They're reasonably evenly spaced out and about 8 lampposts to the half mile. Goal is to be able to jog the recoveries instead of walk by the end of the summer. Stretched for a bit and then walked the hill home.