Training Log Archive: vmeyer

5:32 PM Washington, Dulles to Los Angeles
10:00 PM Los Angeles to Auckland (paid $50 more on 11/26 for an aisle seat. WooHoo!!)
11:40 AM Auckland to Napier arriving January 1.

C • Have a fun time in NZ 6

Started the long trip to New Zealand today!

The decision to go to New Zealand was made pretty quickly, especially for a heavy thinker like myself. At the end of October, I decided that I could exercise without pain for the first time in over a year, and though I wasn't going to be in great shape, I wanted to go to New Zealand for the Oceania Carnival and Sprint the Bay.

Not wanting to drive myself around New Zealand, as the events were over a good part of the north island, I emailed Phillip and asked if there was room for me to travel with the O-Lynx crew. I had met Phillip online about a year ago after purchasing the O-Lynx radio controls and results display software he created. We used O-Lynx fairly successfully at the North American Orienteering Championships in October 2012, and this would be the same technology used at the New Zealand events for the Live Results.

I was grateful that Phillip and his wife, Jane, were able to accommodate me, with the extra bonus of having the housing arrangements made as well.

So, with the travel details out of the way, I just needed to get through getting the office sorted (trained a temporary employee) and the holiday season. The time flew by, and departure day was upon me.

Extremely nervous about how I would handle the long flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, but it turned out the flight from Dullas to LA was more stressful since the plane was changed, and I ended up in an inside seat. Also, there wasn't much time between the two flights, so I had to hustle to get between the domestic and international terminals, clearing security and getting to the gate just in time. Whew!

For the flight to Auckland, I had the two seats in my row to myself, but I was unable to get much sleep during the ~12 hour flight - only about 2x15 minutes. I watched 3 movies and multiple episodes of the Big Bang Theory to fill in the time.

Also, took in the view...

In Philadelphia for Christmas Day with Roger, my mother and aunt. Not my most favorite day of the year, so a workout with Sandy surely enhanced the day. After being sick the last week, I wasn't up for much, maybe just an hour of walking, as long as we avoided the big hill down and up from the flat stuff.

By the time I was on the way to Sandy's, I was determined to walk down and back up the hill, as long as I didn't run a step in between. By the time I arrived at Sandy's, I was determined to run a bit as well, so at the bottom of the hill, I set the garmin to do 2 run/1 walk, and that is what we did for the outbound. Walked the bulk of the return trip until Sandy's knee starting barking, and at the same time my foot, so it was good to run a bit more at that point.

Hiked the trail back to the house. Then back to my aunt's for the rest of the day. Thank you, Sandy! I owe you big time!

Event: QOC Oregon Ridge
 

4.4 miles with 293 m climb per the FR.

More in a little bit.

So, 24 hours later, and maybe a little bit more than a little bit has passed, but not as much time as what has passed since NAOC and the related unwritten log entries...



Slept a bit better last night, thanks to an additional pillow and some adult beverages, on top of 9 hours of fun in the sun and wind.

Left Eddie's around 9 AM after a lovely breakfast of Snoopy pancakes and two diet cokes. Threw back some OJ as well, just to pretend that I was eating healthy.

Sandy followed me to the park, and she and Amy helped me unload the messy O'Mobile from yesterday's event in order to sort things out. Huge amount of gratitude to both of them with helping me get organized - both from yesterday and for today.

Last night, we had decided on Green vs. Brown, and Sandy texted the DVOA women who were coming and suggested they do Green as well. Nice to be part of the representation.

Handed off the epunching duties to Heidi and headed out a bit later then expected. Knew I wasn't going to be speedy, and I was suffering at the first control. Slogged it out, egged on a bit by running into Addie (F18) who was messing up a couple of controls, mostly the same ones as I.

So, I hung in there, with a goal of just finishing, and a reach goal of breaking three digits, and a dream goal of holding Addie off. And, I was so close, until my heels, especially the left one became so painful. I could barely walk, and going down the ski slope was equivalent to the pain I felt at the end of 18 hours in the Rogaine I did with Sandy a few years back.

Refused to quit but lost 4 minutes going down the slope to the last control and to the Finish - supposedly only 200 meters away - the longest 200 meters of my life. I sat down and took off my shoes once I was on the lovely, cushy grassy area, and I walked it in from there. Worst Finish split of the 77 people who did Brown, Green, Red, and Blue.

Ah, well, I finished, and it was under triple digits, and without Addie's mistakes, she would have lapped me anyway, so all in all, it was a very satisfying effort.

Worked the computer and waited for my controls and stands to come back in. In the car by 4:30, home by 6 and unloaded by 6:30.

Besides losing my voice, and being sore all over, which I'll take over not being able to exercise, it was an excellent weekend.

Green - Splits

Slept very poorly last night - my fault. Forgot my sleeping pillows and carpal tunnel braces, though Eddie and I had an exciting trip to WalMart to get replacement braces. Couldn't adjust and only slept an hour or so combined. Compounding the issue was my neck. I got rear ended right before Thanksgiving, and though the car showed no visible damage, my neck was an issue a couple of days later. So, last night, my hips were objecting, and tonight it is my neck. I can barely tilt my head to the right now without extreme pain.

Anyway, stopping the whining and talking about the day...the exercise is from walking to pick up some controls from today which aren't being used tomorrow.

Today's NJROTC event? I would need a whole entry for how not to put on an event with 400+ entrants and the most minimally experienced meet crew ever of 30+ high school students, but it in the end, it came together. Everyone was out of the woods by 1509, no search parties were required (these folks LOVE to start search parties), the team scoring was correct (though it turns out I had the points calculating incorrectly, but the recalc kept the placements the same. Whew!).

Lots of other things about the day, but now, it is time to chill, and to not worry too much about how much my neck hurts. And, tomorrow is another day - QOC event and perhaps the Green course.

P.S. Everything hurts except my foot. Yeah!!
P.S.S. Yesterday took me over 100 hours for the year. A lame Yeah for me.

C • Lame yeah! 3

The start of a weekend of orienteering related activities. Can I hold up or will I break before it is over? Only time will tell. However, only getting two hours of sleep last night and being wide awake at 3 AM was not a good way to start.

Being up early did give me a chance to leisurely print the maps for the QOC event on Sunday in the morning, then off to get 15 gallons of water and 300 cups for one of the water controls for the NJROTC meet tomorrow. This purchase put me nearly over the edge of capacity in the O'Mobile, but I was able to squeeze them in, and I was on the road to Cockeysville about 10 AM - just an hour behind schedule.

Arrived at OR around 11:30 and discussed the Saturday logistics with the facilities person. A plan was agreed on such that we could use the fields for the Start and Finish as long as we parked our buses and cars in the field as well, since this was their overflow parking area, and there was concern that we would max out their parking lot. Apparently this had slipped through the cracks of this combined QOC/NJROTC event.

Feeling good after my unusual foray into the field of diplomacy (I am more of the behind the computer person), I headed out to put out the controls I had been assigned. Having controls in the more public areas, I decided to wait until closer to 3 PM to get things set out, so I called the course setter, Tom to see if I could help him somehow. He needed to get water up the hill to out staging area, so I decided to do that.

From the parking lot, it is 15 contour lines, with about the first half much steeper . I put 4 gallons in my backpack and one in each hand. Huffed and puffed to the top of the steeper part and put the two hand gallons down and continued on with the rest.

Repeated the process, except the second time, I put the two extra gallons in a smaller pack and carried it on the front. Still had to drop them off halfway up.

Went back for the 4 stashed gallons, and then that was it for me. Put out the rest of my controls and then met Tom halfway up the hill for a hand off of some control stands. So, that ended up being three round trips to the top.

Finished up putting out controls at the Nature Center area, leaving two for tomorrow, and then off to Chez Eddie for the night. A fine evening, though the cato doesn't like me, but I take no exception to that. Ate at Ashland Cafe for dinner, hanging out a bit as Eddie baked, and then off to bed.

A very delightful way to spend a suspiciously well sick day off from work.

Event: QOC Prince William Forest
 

FR = 2.988 miles with 123 m climb.

Crazy day getting the NJROTC folk set up to stuff and seal 450 maps for next weekend, as well as get ~375 SI-cards put into envelopes, and labels on the bibs. Fretted big time because the help wasn't materializing, but, once I got them all in one place and started, they tackled the projects and those items are done for Saturday.

Thank you to Jon T!! for manning the epunch computer longer then originally projected.

Finally started gearing up to go out around 1:30. Would have been so easy not to go out at all, but I really wanted to orienteer. Yeah! for good feelings.

Thought to cut corners and not put the ankle support on, after it was a bit painful to wear yesterday, but I listened to sufficient reason, in the name of Dan and Amy [uncomfortable murmurings vs. outright advice], and so, I did the entire pre-race prep. Went with lighter socks today, one light pair instead of a light and heavier pair like yesterday, so the shoes were more comfortable. This was a better choice then then yesterday.

Wanted to dumb down to Yellow or White, but I knew I needed to be orienteering a bit more advances in preparation to having a decent time in NZ, so I went with Orange. Won it. Time to move up...again.

Did not win even one split, but once you take out the 30th place for the Finish split, the rest are fairly respectable with 3x2, 1x3, 2x4, 1x6, 2x9, 1x11, 2x12. Best splits were the ones I went the straightest on, since I wasn't really doing a bunch of running, I made up time by going straight with my fast walk. Felt best going uphill, or downhill, but clumsy on the flat stuff in the terrain.

Anyway, enough of this babbling. Synopsis - a very good day.

C • No problem 1

Orange - Splits

I can actually find controls in the woods. Today, I found about 20 of them in order to place control stands for the NJROTC event next weekend, and the "controls" were only short little yellow streamers. Condes says about 7 km for my course.

Thanks to Jeremy for hauling 30 stands up the ski hill for me and putting 7 of them out on the way back down.

Not the most efficient planning. Got near the furthest out, and within a reasonable distance of several more locations, but I was out of stands. I guess I didn't expect to be doing that well.

I also carried 5 faulty stands up the hill, and then around on the last loop, when I could have just left them somewhere for retrieval later.

I am really going to be sore tomorrow, but hopefully a good sore.

I left some stands stashed up the hill to make putting the rest of them out easier next Friday.

Out three hours, moving 1:37 according to the FR - seems like that is underestimated, so I will put 1:45. Didn't stop watch while talking to Jeremy, or taking breaks, or unbundling the stands, or planning the route, or when scratching my head, so I guess that could be close to the real moving time. Doesn't really matter though. It was all a fine time in the woods. Fog burned off, and about 55F.

Treadmill since I am trying to avoid too any road runs. Warm up walk 5 minutes, run 20 minutes from 4.3-6.0 mph increasing .1 every minute. Felt good. Walked 15 minutes to end.

Restarted Advair yesterday, dose 100/50, after stopping the 250/50 before NAOC. Breathing and mucus seem better already, which seems a bit quick, but I'll take it.

I am guessing that yesterday's box of krimpets will be reflected in tomorrow's weigh in. Yup, all or nothing.

Training is at 95 hours for the year. I am pretty sure I can make 100. Can I make 112, which would be 50% of last year? I will try.

More importantly for me, can I get below 190 by January 1? Cutting out a bottle of wine each evening should help with this effort. We shall see.

C • Keep it up! 18

Ride to work. Yeah! Almost 60 at 7 AM. Yeah!

Ride home. Headwind was pretty strong on the leg from Potomac Avenue to home.

Slightly embarrassed when a guy on roller blades went blowing by me on Potomac Avenue. Looked like he was doing 1 mile intervals, since he stopped a bit up the road. This was the perfect road for roller stuff. Pristine asphalt, fairly flat, and until all the construction is finished, not many cars...

Consoled myself with the thought that I was a bigger target, higher up going into the wind, while he was tucked. Then I turned around for a bit to pick up the bike trail. NOW, I was going into the wind. Yes, I am a weenie!

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the December commute in shorts. Hard to beat that.

Too lovely outside to record another exercise fail, so with temps in the mid 60s, and the sun going down, I looped around the neighborhood alternating 2 minutes run and 1 min walk for 30 minutes. Sort of cheated on the last two minutes by heading down the big hill. Then walked back up it to end the workout. A very satisfying effort.

EX2 BYB Hemlock

An exercise fail. Agh! I even brought my bike home from work yesterday so that I could ride today and do a little trail run tomorrow. Sneak peak on tomorrow - that was a fail as well. Agh again!

Need to get a handle on the insomnia and the will power.