Training Log Archive: Cristina

Event: CSU Pine Hill A-meet
 

I really don't do very much of this. I thought it would be good to warm up a lot to try to loosen up my calves (still quite stiff this morning) but it was warm enough out that I didn't feel like running a lot. Seems like the orienteering loosened them up nicely, so it's all good.

Red Middle "Semi-Final". Figured I wouldn't be able to run too fast today, and also figured that was a good thing since it would be easy to get confused if you overran stuff out here. So I moved at a decent pace without ever hesitating to slow down, tried to pick safe routes, and hey, what do you know, it went pretty well.

I'm not sure what everyone's complaining about regarding the temperature, though.

Afternoon Middle "Final". I was 4th on the morning's course so I was in the "A Final", which was the same course as the "B Final", we just started a little later. And this was some pretty sloppy orienteering on my part.

I blew the first control by getting pulled over to a blue control, enough so that Kseniya passed me before I even punched it. The next few weren't any better, with first Pavlina catching me on the way to 2 and then Erin catching us at 3. I passed Erin at 5 (she missed it) but she soon caught back up and was out of sight for the last few controls. Got ahead of Pavlina a few times, but took an apparently inferior route to the penultimate control and couldn't catch back up. Nothing that was phenomenally disastrous, but the goal is hardly just to avoid disaster.

Felt just okay physically, probably thanks to my not fully recovered state from earlier in the week, and also probably getting too much sun. Orienteering-wise I was having trouble reading some of the detail on the run, stuff that I think I was able to read in the morning. I think it was because I was running faster (when I was running "fast") because of all the other people around, and then would have to almost completely stop to read stuff. So rather than going at a sustainable speed and be able to read a lot on the run and have a good flow, I went along in fits and starts and wasn't smooth. I think I know which method I'll aim for tomorrow.

Saturday Red Semi - Splits

Saturday Red Final - Splits

Travel day to MA. Very uneventful.

When I woke up today my calves were supertight. And yeah, I was singing that to the tune of "Superfreak" this morning, just like it was 1981. (Not that I remember 1981.) Hopefully they'll mellow out a bit before tomorrow. It sounds like it's going to be a bit thick anyway, not like I'll be flying through

... this log update has been interrupted for a celebration of a Jason Bay homerun...

the woods.

All pics from this week's Rincon trip here.

Morning PT. I was quite disappointed to learn that my only day of work this week would be a PT. Blast.

The warmup calisthenics were a bit more involved than is typical. Log-worthy, in fact. So here it is.

And then I went for a run around the twisty track. Two laps, plus a little more to make it 30 min. My legs were not nearly as uncooperative as I expected them to be, but still a bit sore - calves and butt, mostly.

Today there were clouds in the sky for our trip back down the mountains. It was great!



Stinky and done!

C • hiking trip 4

Happy Valley was great, lovely campsite, the night was fairly warm, and we had no bear attacks. What more could you ask for? Well, okay, the only problem was that there really wasn't any water. We had prepared for this, carrying quite a bit of water up to the site, but I don't think we quite anticipated exactly how much everyone would need to drink. So on Tuesday morning we trekked down (away from our night's destination) to a gully that had some pools of water and filled up everything we had, but only after each drinking about 2 liters of water. (I'm not kidding. We all cheered when Caroline was the first to announce that she had to pee.)



First use of my MSR HyperFlow microfilter and it worked like a charm. Much tastier than using iodine. Unfortunately, I didn't read the part about doing the reverse flow cleaning every *8 liters*, so I didn't do one until Wed, by which time it was pretty clogged. Probably a bit too late to preserve the hypersuperfast filtering rate. Bummer. I guess it's not the most convenient thing for a group of 5 needing to filter 20+ liters at a time.

We made our way North along Heartbreak Ridge. The plan was to spend the night at the historic Manning Camp, dropping packs there to hit Mica Mtn (highest peak in the Rincons). I could tell everyone was dragging and I could sense a mutiny building. (See, they all went on strike:


)

So... we stopped for lunch and I proposed modifying the route every so slightly to spend the night at Spud Rock instead - saving us ~1000 ft of climb and ~1 mile today, ~1000 feet of descent and ~2 miles tomorrow. It was a unanimous decision, and clearly I was the only one who felt any disappoint whatsoever in deciding to skip Mica. Some other time, I guess.

Spud Rock was lovely and, most importantly, the spring there was flowing. Sort of. There was plenty of water, at least. We spent a very relaxing evening at the campground. Oh yeah, and the weather was perfect again, no bear attacks either.

We even let the boys cook:

Off to the Rincons for a few days!

C • Penance for yesterday? Out ... 1

After months of cajoling, my college buddies Josh and Kharis finally came in to town for a little bit of a Southwestern outdoors experience. I planned a 3-day backpacking trip in the Rincon Moutains/Saguaro National Park East, and we were joined by Caroline and Melissa. Five awesome people ---> guarantee for an awesome trip.

We drove around to the east side of the mountains to start in Happy Valley at the Miller Creek trailhead, elev ~4200 feet. Here's the U of R contingent Tuesday morning:



We trudged up the trail to the Happy Valley saddle and stopped for lunch. I had heard from a reputable source that the campsite had been moved (and you have to camp at campsites in the NP), so I went on a short scouting expedition to check. Turns out it hadn't, but I got in a ~mile jog while the others stuffed their faces and tried to nap.

The plan was then to drop off our packs at the Happy Valley Saddle Campground (elev ~6200') and head up to Rincon Peak (~8482) in svelte mode. Here's Melissa at Happy Valley Saddle with Rincon in the background:



Melissa and Caroline opted to stay in camp while Kharis, Josh and I headed up. That turns out to be a wise decision, since it was a stupidly steep trail and a longer trip than we expected. I was thinking just well enough to bring headlamps and we made it back to camp safely. Plus, this is not a peak I'm likely to hit by accident, and it was well worth the trip. You can see basically all of southern Arizona from the top! But this is just the Rincons:



Caroline, Melissa and I took advantage of the free demo of Leki trekking poles from Summit Hut. I can't say for sure that the poles helped me divert a lot of the stress away from my legs, but it sure seemed like it did. I liked them.

Box Canyon Red.

I went straight from 9 to 11 and didn't realize it until well after I'd finished. I don't think I can live with that kind of mistake.

C • skipped 25

Well, I found the map. Scanned it before drawing my route so that it can be viewed naturally. I was practicing 'safe' routes (my plan for the next two weekends) and took a very safe route far right from 9-11. I'm not that surprised that I didn't notice 10.

My time on Red(-10) was about 7 minutes faster than the winner, so I think it could have been a close fight for the win. Bummer.