Training Log Archive: PG

Big Muddy rogaine with Barb.

Strategic plan -- excellent. To the extent that we gave any consideration to what part of the course we might be doing at night, the plan was to make sure those legs were as difficult as possible. :-)

Navigating -- excellent. One minor fumble at night, corrected well. It does make it a lot easier when all the controls are in exactly the right place.

Physically -- terrible. Struggled up many a hill. No energy. Not so bad the last 6 hours, perhaps because at some point around dawn Barb offered to carry my pack. I declined, we all have our pride, and I think it spurred me to put out a little more.

Equipment -- wonderful. The Tesla was magnificent.

Ailments -- the usual 50-100 falls, so a little battered. But nothing serious. And no blisters. The feet/heels hurt most of the time.

Results -- Not sure. Maximum was about 3200 points (58 controls). One men's team got them all in 21+ hours. Second (Vladimir and ?) and third got 3100+. We had 2550, got beat by one mixed team and an unknown number of men's teams. Seemed excellent given how slowly we were going.

Team karma -- excellent. One of our better ones, maybe the best.

Event: North American Rogaine Championships
 

Even found an oasis in the Central Oregon desert.

Heavy rain driving up here but should be fine for the rogaine, not too hot, not too cold. We'll see if we have our act together or not.

In Minneapolis on the way to Oregon. Everything looks really clean and neat. Is that the way it always is here?

I chatted up the third person in the row as we were waiting to get off the plane. Middle-aged woman, lived in Boston, short trip to Iowa for a relative's graduation.

And then she said, "I heard you talking about orienteering." She likes going out in the woods, sometimes gets lost, would like to try O', never has. Life is so busy.

Gave her some encouragement and the NEOC web address.

How do you get someone to take the first step?

Entertained myself in the Minneapolis airport by writing a semi-angry (but polite) e-mail, and then thinking about it some, and then showing it to Barb for feedback, then revising it some, then trying it out without the angrier half, then accidently deleting that angrier half, then thinking about the mellow half, then shelving that.

Quite a productive layover (in the sense of avoiding future spitting matches)!

C • email 2

For anyone interested, here are the courses for previous Billygoats at Mt. Tom --

From 1979, the original Billygoat, course set by Fred Pilon, won by Bob Lux.

From 1986, memorable for the time John Rogers arrived by helicopter (seriously). It was Mother's Day and all mothers who finished got roses. Looking at the map also bring back memories of something that many orienteers may not be familiar with, namely the old-fashioned way of printing courses on maps, one at a time, first setting up all the circles and lines and numbers on the sticky pad, then for each map pressing first into the big ink pad and then onto the map, all the while saying the mantra, "Never again." :-)

From 2004, course by Will Hawkins, map now at 1:10,000.

C • 1986 9

C • 1979? 5

Almost the last bit of rogaine practice before heading off to Oregon, carrying the sticks as usual for 3 hours, temps well up in the 90s.

The D1, or perhaps its owner (or perhaps both), is bipolar. When it is good it is very good, but when it is bad it is awful. :-)

Got out on the bike before it got really hot, although it was certainly warm enough. A slightly less vigorous effort than usual.

Wish I could say I amused myself, wish I could say I entertained myself, let's just say I passed the time pondering the dust-up over posting maps and other related issues. Perhaps the phrase "All's well that ends well" will apply. We will see.

Meanwhile, time to get my rogaine stuff together. Big Muddy is this weekend and I am woefully unprepared.

So I suppose there should be a proper review of, well, for lack of a fancy title we'll just go with the mundane, "Life is Always Exciting: A long weekend with Valerie."

-- She arrived Thursday early afternoon, and right away we took care of one of the reasons for the trip, a very little bit of tax consulting.
-- A training session, the traditional up to the power line and back.
-- A late evening trip out to the film house, when we normally would be falling asleep, with popcorn for one of us.
-- A Friday morning trip to the zip lines, her and Gail only, I was too chicken.
-- Another training session, up to the power line (and a little farther) and back.
-- A trip to Vermont, her first ever, for a Thai dinner, also her first ever.
-- A couple hours of training at Norwottuck Saturday morning, followed immediately, and I mean immediately, by a trip to McDonalds for a double cheeseburger (I was driving, and I got my orders), followed by a trip to the supermarket to lay in supplies for dinner (including two boxes of a very rich fudge brownie mix), followed by a trip to the bookstore for something to read, followed by various preparations for dinner, and the arrival of Peter Goodwin, and Alex Jospe, and Ali, and SGB, and Presto, the best behaved dog ever. And a very fine evening....
-- And then the Billygoat, and she makes it around successfully, and then goes to work on the e-punch data for a bit while I go fetch a few controls, and then she loads it all on her computer and we head home, with, of course, a stop at the Northampton McDonalds for another double cheeseburger, where I'm having such a fine time chatting up the girl at the first window where we're paying that when we're done there I'm almost out of the lot before Valerie yells to remind me that it might be a good idea to go back to the second window and actually get the food we've paid for.
-- And then she works until after midnight trying to sort out the data, wonder woman that she is.
-- And then up early this morning to head off to the airport for her flight back to DC.

I was very tired today, I thought from yesterday's Billygoat. Though, on reflection, it may just be from trying to keep up with Valerie. She is amazing, and fabulous.

C • Gagarin Retreat Weekend 2