Training Log Archive: kissy

I went down to the Battlefield, and this did not feel good. After the first two minutes, I knew it was going to be a tough run. I'm not sure why. Maybe the heat. Maybe because I had new shoes, and sometimes that takes getting used to. Whatever it was, it didn't feel pleasant, but I finished it, with my own minor, self-selected victories along the way.

An early morning ride on the Battlefield road, after a trip to the farmer's market. Yum.

Ran the SSS in Rockville, put on by David Onkst. At the beginning of the summer, I had told Patti Mace that we could run together at some of the SSS's for some practice, and today was the first one I made it to, so we did the short course together. It was a training session with corridors (and the complete map on the back, in case of emergency), and I thought it was really good training.

We did pretty well, with me messing up the most! Hope Patti doesn't learn from that! I'm finding it difficult again to read the map, so I might have to start looking again into alternative vision enhancements while orienteering, although I'm not sure what that could be other than wearing reading glasses while running. Yuck.

Caitlin came along to this training, but when she realized it was corridors, and she had to be back by 6:00, she opted to stay behind and watch Max, since Nadim was on a crutch.

After the training, we all went to California Taco (or Burrito) and Ben & Jerry's. Good woods, good food, and good friends. Life is good.

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I went back to PWF to retrieve the first control from my SSS last weekend. Vic had gotten the others, but he couldn't #1 either. I went right to where I had hung it, and there it was. I then did a little map checking and the ditch that's mapped is a little wrong, and there's another ditch that's not mapped. The one that's mapped should start more to the SE end of the parking lot, nearer the knoll, almost in the small reentrant there. And then it curves around and ends where it's mapped. The other ditch starts where the mapped ditch starts on the map and hugs the north side of the ride, down to the fence. When I placed the control, I came over the knoll, along the side of the formline spur and dropped in to the ditch, so everything looked fine. And when I passed over the ride towards #2, I just figured the unmapped ditch was just the side of the ride. Hopefully that will get corrected in the next mapping exercise.

After I got that control, I went for a shortish trail run. It was later than normal, and an awful line of thunderstorms was getting ready to pass through the area, so I didn't want to be out too long. Too bad, because I really felt great on this run. I kept thinking of movies along the way. In the beginning, I felt like Jody Foster in "Silence of the Lambs," when she's running on the trails in Quantico. Then, at the end, when I ran through William's ballfield and there was a herd of 6 deer grazing, I pretending they were buffalo and I was Kevin Costner from "Dances with Wolves," and I stalked them with my spear...well, my stick. I saw a total of 11 deer tonight and one fox, unfortunately not of the swamp variety.

And it was a good thing I cut the run short. Just as I was getting in to my car, with the door still open, a huge bolt of lightning hit very, very close by and the thunder was deafening. I quickly hightailed it out of there.

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I wasn't feeling 100% today, and the awful heat and humidity didn't help. I took a relaxed day today, and ended it with a nice hike in PWF with Caitlin, Jack and Lucy.

C • Did you see any white squir... 1

Hanging controls and e-punch boxes for my training event today. It was so incredibly humid and hot. I've had a headache since last night, and this certainly did not help.

Sadly, only 6 people showed up for the training event...but 6 very nice people who I hope enjoyed themselves, for the most part. Evidently, the map leaves something to be desired in the area of the first control. I must have just hit on the correct ditch when I went out, but there appears to be another, unmapped ditch in the same area. Sorry!

After the event, Peggy, Nadim, Max, Mark Mace, Vic Culp, and I headed to a nearby Panera Bread for some good eats and good company. All in all, a good day.

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I had to go in to the office today, so I brought my bike and went for a ride on the Mt. Vernon trail. I had forgotten what a beautiful ride this is. It's right next to the Potomac River for much of it, with sweeping (albeit a little hazy today) views of Washington and all of the monuments. Then, it goes *right* by National Airport, where you can stand under landing jets that look so close that you could almost touch them. Then it follows the GW Parkway, with beautiful trees and views, and then into historic Alexandria. I turned in Alexandria, but you can keep going down the river to Mt. Vernon, home to our first president.

I felt really good today despite the high temps, humidity and general yucky air quality. I also dubbed this the "Transportation" ride because along the way I saw speed boats, tourist cruise boats, kayaks, canoes, sailboats, Metro trains, commuter trains, freight trains, cars, busses, airplanes, helicopters (the president's hovering low along the Potomac), and, of course, bikes.

Hanging streamers for my short course on Saturday in PWF. The control locations were all fine except one of them was a little iffy. I'll have some map "enhancements" available for people to review.

The woods were pretty open for the most part; just one area of green. And there were a gajillion spider webs, with a big fat spider in the middle of each one. Yuck!

Using the Ross method of motivation, tomorrow I plan to streamer my short course in PWF for this weekend's training event.

I got my bike back from the bike shop yesterday and decided to take it for a spin. Luckily, the tech at the shop said my bike was in remarkable condition and, except for truing the rear wheel and doing a little cleaning it was fine. Total charge: $5. Not bad for a bike that's 20ish years old. I guess my dream of needing a new one won't come true this year.

And, the bike felt great today. I have a feeling they might have done some other work, but I was very happy on my ride. It was only 10:00, but it was already incredibly hot and humid. I felt much stronger, though, than my last trip there, so that was a good sign.

Walking these munchkins in Locust Shade Park. These are the newest additions to the Beecroft/Harrison household, Lucy (tan and white) and Jack.

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Here's a cuter picture. And I swear this is the last one!

I'm back in Basking Ridge for a few days, and I learned the pain of FDFs today. I innocently headed to my little park for a run this morning...a run that was supposed to be an easy 45-minute run. Well, about 1 minute in, an FDF came buzzing around. I swatted it away, and kept going. Within 3 minutes, there was a cloud of FDFs over my head. I almost headed back, but I was already out there and going, and I knew I wouldn't get anything else in today. So, I kept going but picked up the pace.

Well, by the time I was the furthest distance from my car, I had resorted to screaming at the flies and swatting at them like a mad woman. By this time, the run had turned into a tempo run, and it was all I could do to find the shortest route back to my car. At one point, I stopped to look at a map at a trail junction, and I was attacked!

I stumbled back to my car and hightailed it back to the hotel, where I did my stretching. When I brushed out my hair, there was a pile of dead FDFs on the bathroom floor. Yuck!

C • You know... 3

I went for an early morning ride on the C&O canal in Shepherdstown. It had rained all night, so the towpath was very muddy and full of puddles. At least it wasn't stifling hot.

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Mom, Don, Caitlin, Graham and I went for a hike up Maryland Heights across the river from Harper's Ferry. By this time (noon), it was very humid, and Mom wasn't sure she was going to make the whole trip. Graham cavalierly offered to go back with her whenever she wanted to turn. In the end, she stayed with us the whole time, and when asked what her motivation was, she said, "Because I didn't want you all calling me a sissy!" Graham was not happy that she made the whole trip.

It was a good hike, and the route up was very steep. Once at the top, though, it looped along the ridge, passing through Civil War campsites, artillery bunkers, defensive walls, etc. It was pretty interesting. At the top, it was much less humid, and it looked like it was going to rain for awhile, but it never did.

The way down was uneventful until we got near the bottom. It was me, Graham and Mom walking together, and Graham saw a funnel spider in his web on an embankment on the side of the trail (so the web was about chest high). When we got near, the spider went down in the funnel, so Graham tried poking it gently with a stick to get it to come out. He was completely ineffective, so I took the stick to show him how it was done. One poke later, the spider was *flying* out of the funnel, up to the top edge of his web, where he looked like he was going to leap onto my face.

Well, this caused me to scream like a girl and start running sideways down the hill. Right then, I tripped on a rock that was jutting out of the trail, fell, and rolled about 3 times before I popped back up, with a cut knee and blood oozing down my leg. Graham and Mom were both laughing their asses off. Nice. They did say that I looked like an expert roller. I said that I have had a lot of practice from orienteering. Another adventure done.

As discussed on vmeyer's log yesterday, we met this morning at 8:00 at PWF for some O-training. It was lightly foggy and grey when we started out, but soon the skies opened up and there was a veritable deluge. We looked like two drowned rats.

It was fun training, though. We did most of the Day 2 Green course from the US Champs. Parking Lot E - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 2 - trail run back to car. It was another day of finding open patches in the woods so I could see the map better. And some amount of stopping to discuss the map and what we should be seeing around us.

It wasn't a hard workout by any means, but it was a workout that more than likely would not have gotten done if I hadn't arranged to meet Valerie. So, a gold star to both of us. Thanks, Valerie!

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I ran the Heritage 5 Miler in Fredericksburg today, with Caitlin. I hadn't run on roads for awhile, so I was looking at this more as a way to get in my run for the day and not really as a race. At the start line, Caitlin informed that she had never run 5 miles before. Had never run more than 3. Okay. I decided then that I should just stay with her as she is very competitive, and I could just see her sprinting out from the start, and then dying at Mile 3. So, we kept a nice steady pace throughout the whole race. She started getting a side stitch around Mile 3, but I showed her how to even out her breathing, and it went away.

I'm happy to say she did the whole run without stopping and under her goal of 50 minutes. Another proud moment.

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Another trail run in PWF with Carol. Again, time flew by as we chatted away. I felt really good on this run, even running up all of the hills (when Carol had to stop a few times). Not bad.

Caitlin, Graham and I went to the animal shelter tonight, looking for a new dog. I had seen a beautiful Basenji on the website, and she was still there and available. So, we filled out adoption papers, had our interview, and should hear something by next Tuesday. I hope we get her because I am really ready to have a dog again.

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