Training Log Archive: kissy

Body Pump

A late afternoon ride to take a break from packing.



It was also a beautiful day, and I didn't want to waste it. I headed to Vienna and on the way back, I took a detour through my new neighborhood. It looked like the current owners were busy packing, too. As I was cycling through the neighborhood, everyone was so nice and saying hi. I think this is going to be a good place to live.

It had finally stopped raining and the sun was shining brightly. After a draining week at work, it felt good to get out for a run. The beginning was a little rough because I haven't gotten much sleep in the last few nights, and I'm dragging a bit, but the run energized me.

Control picking training. This is my favorite type of orienteering. I made sure to know exactly which direction to head in before touching each control.

C • Control pick 2

Event: 30 Years of Pond Mt
 

This was a great weekend! The courses and training were excellent. It was fabulous to see a lot of good friends. And my Airbnb stay was amazing. The owner knew of Peter Goodwin...her son went to Kent School with John. Also, she had a friend staying there, too. A Harvard professor of seed digitization...or something like that. Two very brilliant and interesting women. We sat at breakfast on Saturday and talked for a few hours. And then made dinner together on Saturday night...kind of like a lamb tangine.

Her house and gardens were so nice and cozy. I'm so glad I convinced myself to take on that little adventure.

Corridor-O and Line-O. I completely lost the corridor at one point and then made the decision not to follow the line at another place because it was so green.

This was my first corridor-O and it was fun...and hard.

Green - Splits

A short run this morning to shake the legs out and before taking my car in for a 30K mile check up. The time is a little slower because I had to go through the woods trail and cross the creek again. The stream construction guys were already working(!) and I couldn't run on the normal path. I was really surprised to see them out that early.

And I felt great! There was no pain in either of my knees and when I was running on a good path, I felt like I was going at a good pace. What a turnaround from just a few years ago. I'm excited to explore the trails at my new house. I should be moving at the end of October, right after the Nationals.

I'm headed to Pond Mt. for the weekend. I was ready for a road trip and the training sounded like it was going to be a lot of fun. I'm staying in a room at an Airbnb in Kent. The house is a beautiful garden cottage owned by a woman who seems to be about my age and is a gardening writer. She also loves to cook and wants to hear all about orienteering. It sounds like it's going to be a fun and interesting weekend.

I bought a house.

C • Wow! 15

Body Pump

so hot and sweaty in the gym this morning.

Event: QOC Occoquan
 

QOC's season opener at Occoquan Regional Park. I ran Brown because I didn't have much time since I wanted to go to 2 Open Houses in Arlington and because I wasn't expecting to have time to go orienteering today, so I had a biggish breakfast this morning with Mom and Don. They left earlier than I thought they would, so I ended up being able to go orienteering *and* go look at houses. However, the breakfast was not sitting well in my stomach the entire time I was in the woods.

From what I could see, the event was packed with people. The crowd around the registration and download areas was large, there were mobs of people in the woods, and the parking lot was overflowing. I know I didn't stay long, but I only saw a few familiar faces while I was there, mainly some of the volunteers.

I am happy to see so many people enjoying orienteering and I know it's good for the club to have these big local events, but it does leave me missing RMOC's events, where it was all people you knew. And you hung out and talked to your friends and it was nice. Today, I just felt like a stranger in a crowd, doing my thing and then leaving. I guess I could make more of an effort, too, but it just seemed easier in Colorado.

C • QOC meets 11

Brown - Splits

I had been feeling under the weather all week and on some antibiotics, so there was not much motivation to do anything. Also, it was a busy time at work because my boss just got promoted to President of NPR! It's a newly created position that recognizes reality in which she is actually running the organization. Busy, busy times.

Happy to be feeling a little better so went out for a run. Still muggy and sweaty, but it was nice to be out in the woods.

A morning workout by myself at the gym at work.

I didn't feel sore or tired at all this morning, so I went to Body Pump.

Buff Betty Adventure Race. Black Hill Regional Park, Boyds, MD

Many, many years ago, Meg, Victoria and I did an adventure race called the Buff Betty. It was a ton o'fun. After many years of me not living in DC but now moving back, we decided to do it again, but sans Victoria since she was busy today. So, Meg and I did it today in cool weather and sometimes pouring down rain. We had a ton o'fun again. And we came in second of all of the teams...not sure about the solos. And, I met one of our new Board members, Ellen Stefaniak, who was also doing the race! Small world.

This first part was orienteering to find 6 controls as they led us to the transition area for canoeing. It was yellowish in difficulty.

C • AR 4

This was only 4 controls, all of which were right on the shore, but there was a very strong headwind for most of the race. I have to say that Meg and I paddled one of the straighter courses. We were side-swiped about 5 times by teams that were zig-zagging their way across the lake.

This was a loop course with 10 controls, but they were all right on the trail. You just had to know when to begin looking for them. This was also not a namby-pamby trail. It was 90% single-track and technical in many areas. We did two uphill hike-a-bikes to avoid some long sections of trail that went all of the way up an inlet and then back again. I was glad that I had ridden some of this trail a few weeks ago, and I was so proud of Meg who hasn't been on her mt. bike since I think our last Buff Betty.

The last section was orienteering again, with Orange to Brown level controls. When we started out, Dasha and Alex from QOC were ahead of us, and I didn't think we would pass them...we were tired. But, on one of the controls early on, I saw them going a weird direction and I thought they had missed a control, so we had a chance to pull ahead.

Then, about halfway through, I was beginning to think that we were maybe in second place when we caught up to Jana and Monica, also from QOC. I figured they were in first. We passed them and were going well, but that's when I blew up a little. I got too cocky and lost time on the next two controls and they passed us again and stayed ahead until the end. They were indeed the first team and we were second, probably by 1-2 minutes. Oh well, that was much, much better than I thought we would do, so I was ecstatic!

This was a great race, especially after my disastrous performance last weekend at the RMOF. I am very happy.

Before and After shots:

A very hot and wet run after work. A little slower than normal because the main trail was closed for bridge work, so I had to go through the woods to cross the stream further down. Also, it was very, very, very sweaty and hot tonight.

Western States Day 2 Brown - Splits

Western States Day 1 Brown - Splits