Training Log Archive: j-man

Played golf today at the South Course at Stow Acres. Unfortunately, it didn't conform to this: http://www.stowacres.com/sites/courses/layout9.asp...

The foursome ahead of us was not just bad, they were amazingly inefficient.

Anyway, that is not important. The important thing is my pretty bad play.

My golf seems to be on a long term secular decline. At the end of high school I would shoot in the low 80s and could (on a few occasions) hit 80. My best was a 78.

Then, after college, I could break 90, but would be happy +/- 5.

Today, I am very hard pressed to break 100.

I carded a 104: 56 out and 48 back. Notably, on the front 9, I three putted every hole, except I 4 putted one. On the back, I started putting rather well.

The 8 on the par 5 last hole was ignominious.

Level 8 hills, 7mph.

Level 8 hills.

Level 8 hills, 7 mph.

Level 8 hills, 7mph.

Level 8 hills.

Indeed, an insipid week--even by my standards.

Level 8 hills, 7mph.

Level 8 hills, 7mph.

Level 8 hills.

Please comment:



and

I don't need a rest day (physically), and I didn't plan on one, but the day has gotten away from me. And I do need mental rest. So, I guess no training today.

Event: DVOA Mt. Penn Antietam
 

Mt. Penn

I have done my share of vituperating on my AP log. I have complained about orienteering concepts, orienteering disciplines, Trail-O, and obliquely people in orienteering. Maybe that is all bad form, but it seemed at least somewhat relevant. I have tried to avoid personal monologues completely unrelated to orienteering, but I've had it. And, since I'm supposed to be thinking about orienteering now, and instead I am incensed, I guess it is somewhat germane.

So, yesterday I spend 7 hours in a bus just to get to NYC. My stupidity, of course, and I afflicted Vadim with that stupidity as he was waiting for me for 3 hours to give me a ride to PA.

Anyway, get to PA a bit after midnight, thanks to Vadim, who even made a sandwich for me. He is awesome.

In the morning, arise to meet with the painter who will extract his several pounds. Unavoidable, really.

Finishing there, I retrieve the Saturn, whose last driver was clearly of much lesser stature than the person who asked to use the Saturn for an emergency in late May. Well, whatever. C'est la vie. It was almost none the worse for wear.

[Go to FC. Run. Comparative bliss.]

Come back, circa 6PM, and no visible sign of who I was looking for. But, a faint rumbling suggested he was reposed.

[Go to Rileys. Have a good time. More bliss.]

Come back and Snow White has arisen. Discuss a few things:

No--he has not done anything, not even posting one of the many flyers we left for him, to try to find a roommate.
Rent will be another week late. It inexorably slips. We are now 5 bloody weeks in arrears.
The good news--the dryer, which I heard through the grapevine was not working well, seems to have corrected itself. Great, I think. I'll wash my laundry. OK. Hmm... strange noises from the washer, but not too bad. Washer done. Clothes completely soaked, unwashed, and a faint acrid smell from the washer. Oh, yes, this has been like this for a while. I see. And you have been putting soaking wet clothes from a clearly broken washing machine into the dryer for several weeks so you can break that too.

I go to bed, now without sheets or pillowcases.

Tomorrow, I get on a bloody Amtrak at 5PM, getting into Boston at 12:55.

Lovely.

Somebody, please tell me why we are enduring this? I have HAD it. Thank you.

I have spent the last 50 minutes standing in line for the silly Amtrak. There have been two mitigants: getting to read the propaganda advocating "incremental" high speed rail development and watching the status board prvide completely useless updates--not contemporaneously, but itself delayed, regarding the minutes behind schedule. I wonder if there are really any sane people who travelled on Amtrak more than I (I have used it a lot) that can relate consistently OK experiences? Needless to say, I am not a fan, but moreover, I think you must be delusional to cite anything about Amtrak as a justifcation or example of intercity rail travel.

Dante lives. The train was cancelled. "Please go to the ticket agent to exchange your ticket for the 6:20 train, the next to New York.

All the sheep sprint from their dutiful queue to another one.

Why, pray tell, must we go through this charade?

This is duch a fecund environment for contemplation of organzational dymanics, sociology, anthropology and comparative economics. The snippets of conversation, the variegated ways to express "getting the shaft."

Leave the appartment @ 1:30 PM Friday for South Station. Arrive in Media the following morning at 12:30 AM.

Arrive at 30th Street at 4:55 PM Sunday. Projected to arrive at Back Bay at 12:55 AM Monday.

During the intervening time I orienteered for 58 minutes. And read the FT, WSJ, National Geographic, the Briar Patch, Plato's Dialogs, and De Tocqueville.

So fine.

Oh--and a conversation with Harvey where we considered the basis of conspiracy theories/theorists and the apprehension of the typical student of relevant epsistmes. I asserted that the conditions Harvey bemoans are the fruits of post-modernism, while he avered that they stem from its failed realization. A worthy argument might have ensued if time had availed. However, his argument was already becoming Balteresque. I was willing to concede that a certain distilled, archetype of pure post-modernism may have carried water, but from a positivistic point of view, that assertion was neither here nor there.

Warmup. 10 minutes and I was very sweaty. Legs felt smooth and the noticeable toe pain from yesterday had abated.

DVOA Mt. Penn Pagoda Red.

A very good run. Immediately afterward, I decided it was probably my best of the year.

After some time has passed I have realized that 1) it wasn't that hard, and 2) there were a few problems (but not severe.)

Highlights:
I did two things extremely well: 1) I modulated my pace as appropriate, and 2) I ran in a very fault-tolerant manner.

In general, I maintained a very high (at least perceived effort) the whole way through. Physically, no complaints. But, I did slightly dial up or down as necessary.

More importantly, I think I did a good job maintaining the right level of attachment to the map. There were a number of controls (3, 4, 6, 8, 9 and 13) where I would say there was something very noticeably wrong with the map along my route. But, in no case was it more than a passing bother for me. There were also two controls that were misplaced (7 and 10.) 7 you could see (if you looked in the right direction from the right location) and 10 you could almost see from the right location. (7 was really close, just not placed correctly.)

In some situations, these misplaced controls (say at WP this year) would have caused me a big problem. Today, barely a hiccup. I am not sure why. I don't expect technical precision at WP. I didn't expect Mt. Penn to be a perfect map, either. WP was an A event. But, I was very focused on this local event also.

Finally, I maintained very good concentration. For a variety of reasons, I didn't sleep well or much the night before, and there was an issue seething below the surface that I had to keep under. I guess I was able to do that.

One notable problem: on 9, my fault tolerance was apparently not good enough. I didn't have perfect contact as I got over the hill, but down into the white reentrant, I found a lot of barberry and really couldn't make sense of things. I go on some unmapped trail and had all sorts of minor hesitations, etc. It looks like I lost a minute or possibly two on that control. A better route and better execution would have helped a lot.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2508/3784952767_5fc...