Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Quantico Bumble (Blue), Seneca Creek, 13.7 km by my sequence, 9th place.

Drove down with Steve Tarry and Clint Morse, after spending Friday night at the Bretons' house. Almost got ourselves confused by not reading the meet notes closely enough and heading for Seneca Creek State Park, when the meet was actually across the highway at Smokey Glen Farm (two of the controls were in the area that GoogleMaps shows as the state park). Temperature just above freezing at the start (water crossings were cold, and the terrain had a decent supply of thorns. I wore two shirts, and a thin beanie the whole time, plus gloves that came off with about 2/3 of the way through. New shoes, which created a few hot spots but nothing serious.

Mass start race with windows, I signed up for the four-window Red, but things were going well enough that I did all five windows. My control sequence was UVWXY-RTSPQ-JHFGI-EDCAB-NKLMO. Navigation was almost entirely clean, though there were some sequence changes that would probably have sped things up. I lost a little time on H (#13), where the vegetation has changed and it was easy to get into the wrong clearing in the thicket (others had similar issues), and B (#21), where I missed a bit to the left. Crossing the river on the next leg was false ecomony, because the marked ford wasn't great, the trail on the far bank was pretty faint, and then I had no plan on how to get back, so that ford took extra time as well. I stopped for about two minutes on the way to my 20th control to dump stuff out of my shoes, but that was offset by the fact that at W (#3), I found one of the time bonus prizes, good for three minutes off (Amy put that in and printed a corrected split sheet for me, but it's not reflected on the results page -- no matter).

First time orienteering on February 29 (woo!). 29 dates left to go. :-)

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I didn't find out about this until the next day, and I wouldn't have skipped the Bumble for it in any case, but it sure sounds like it would have been right up my alley!

A little loop around the cemetery. Chilly morning (~27 F) and still fairly windy. I intended to run as soon as I woke up, since I'll be traveling later, but it was over a half-hour before I could drag myself out the door. One patch of treacherous ice in the back of the cemetery.

I drove past Fort Pond, where I skated last Saturday, and it was 100% open water.

C • So now you just need cold e... 2

WBSE, In The Dark. High 20s F,and breezy even in the woods. Considerably longer than I had planned, but that's okay. The intent was to do the south half of the challenge loop, but after I acknowledged that I had missed the main trail crossing (again), I found a tack trail and followed that deep into a bunch of laurel. My pace dropped to hiking, and I kept a surprisingly straight line until I hit a surprisingly unfamiliar trail, but that led me in short order to a familiar trail, and then it was a short trip back to the car. There was still some snow, a lot of ice, and a lot of standing/running water that I spent a bunch of time pussyfooting my way around. Give this one a while to dry out before I go back.

Rattlesnake Hill, well ahead of the rain and just ahead of The Dim. Put out a little more effort tonight.

Rattlesnake Hill, In The Dark. No ice left. Off trail for a bit in the middle.

Gilchrest T, In The Dark. Got out there before the witching hour. Edges of the road were getting a little slippery from refrozen meltwater.

Sunday River, with Nancy. 13 lift rides before a lunch break.

And 10 more lift rides afterwards, including the three magic carpets. I think Nancy said we hit all of the lifts except the T-bar (which may have been available only to racers.

One highlight of the day was when we were recruited to take a couple of three year olds (out of a large bunch) up a chairlift. They came equipped with big handles on their backs, which were very useful in several regards. The little boy sitting next to me wasn't too bad, but the little girl on Nancy's side was like a bag of overcooked spaghetti

Another highlight was when a guy on the lift with us looked at my equipent as and asked, "So, how long have you had those skis?". And my reply was, "Oh, these are my new skis!".