Training Log Archive: hughmac3

Bright sunlight. Too bright to see properly, so I walked a brisk 4 around town. I don't see how AnnieMac walks 14 min.miles. Now to the yard, which is needing BOTH grass-cutting AND leaf-raking.

Added the six leg machines I took out in the Spring. Whew! Got the shakes.

C • Good news . . . 3

The bad news is that I could hardly see in the bright sunlight. I ran into a yellow barrier tape - fortunately the sidewalk was already dry. The good news is that my self-diagnosis is something called "posterior capsular opacification", the procedure for which is "painless, requires less than five minutes, and is usually performed in the doctor's office." Appointment tomorrow.

C • eyes 3

This was a driving/rest day, and a chance to ponder. Here goes. This weekend I saw and greatly enjoyed the time I spent with three beautiful daughters and one granddaughter, and two sons-in-law. I was fed, housed, amused by and eventually driven home by my children. Thanks kids. I also orienteered, and here are some thoughts about that:

June 25th, 1876 - Custer at the Little Big Horn; 1812 - Napoleon in Russia; October 20th, 2013 - Mac and control #3 at Bear Brook State Park, Day 2, U.S. Classic Championships. It’s likely that Custer and Napoleon regretted the decisions that cost them so much. It’s certain that I regret my foolish decision to utilize a unique Bear Brook feature as a navigational aid. I speak of the areas the course setter’s notes called “lungs”: which, for those of you not attending were features mapped in light yellow, delineated by microscopic dots. I suppose they did look a little like the bronchi of lungs, and perhaps also like staghorn coral. I think they were made by strip clearcutting, were referred to as a “ride” by some; and they were extensive and multi-branching, often overgrown and involving 6 of the 10 controls on the Brown X Course.

I’d had a decent day on Day 1, finishing 3rd in my surprisingly large and competitive M-70 Class. I’d accomplished that by acknowledging that my distance vision was recently impaired, especially in areas of bright light, and by therefore being very careful, using baseplate compass bearings and pacing. None of my splits were at all fast, but neither did I make any big mistakes. I was not unhappy with the results. It would be logical to use the same tactics on Day 2 – just as it would have been logical for Custer to refrain from charging up that hill near the Little Bighorn; and it would have been logical for Napoleon to consider Russian winters.

Nevertheless, I departed Control #2 hell-bent on using one of the seductive and countless yellow bronchi to locate Control #3. It was a bright, sunny day, and I was having no difficulty reading my map, but significant trouble seeing distances. Undeterred, I became lost, really lost; and like Napoleon’s troops, foraging for food and fodder in the freezing rain, snow, sleet and hail, I foraged for controls – looking behind likely boulders and listening to the cries of other confused wanderers. After about an hour – on a 300 meter control – I found the next control and worked backwards to #3.

I stumbled around the rest of the Course and finally finished, noting that others in the M-70 Class were having one of those “no – you take it” days, when at a place or at least a show was offered up freely. In fact, I believe the 3rd place finisher spent 42 minutes on the same control – no Custer or Napoleon he, but perhaps a Pickett, surprised at a reprieve. Another fine M-70 competitor spent 37 minutes on the control.

I’ve worked through the standard phases of orienteering distress. DENIAL, is not available to us, of course, given e-punching perfection, splits and accurate placing; so I skipped to ANGER – which in me takes the form of quiet blasphemings and maledictions while still foraging and then to pondering “why am I doing this” after the run in – a phase which lasts about an hour. Then DEPRESSION, usually lasts for the rest of my waking hours of the event day – a phase that (I’ve been told) is particularly annoying and inappropriate given my many blessings, and the example I’m expected to set for others. By the next day, I’ve reached RESOLVE, the final phase.

I RESOLVE to get my eye fixed, to never attempt to use the staghorn coral/lungs bronchi/ride/strip clearcut to navigate again, to trust my compass and pacing, to go slower in order to go faster and to give it another whirl soon. Thanks for listening - I suppose this is therapy.

C • fcn 13

Completely lost getting to 3rd control. Unable to sort out the map; and really just not seeing things. Likely my worst effort in a very, very long time - after an OK day Saturday. More (much more) on this after I get a chance to think about it.

C • Oh no! 1

Day 2 - Brown X - Splits