Training Log Archive: AliC

Event: UNO Pawtuckaway Camping Weekend
 

Pawtuckaway Camping Weekend Red Course, Day 1

Sunny gorgeous day, and warmed up well, so hamstring felt ok! All in all pretty good orienteering, but significant mistakes to 3, 6 and 17. Erin and I were really close, for 1 and 2, just 45s apart.

1- Bit hesitant as veg got denser close to the control.
2- Round pond, up reentrant, behind hill.
3- Was in great contact til halfway, then lost it going up hill. Looking at my GPS track, looks like I was perfectly on line, but didn't go quite far enough before freaking out and investigating elsewhere...
4- Over spur, other side of little pond.
5- Attack from nearby big green marsh.
6- Argh! Looks like my bearing was off right from the start, too much south. So went into the saddle between hills and kept going for a bit, and had to come back.
7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14: This whole bit of the butterfly went pretty well. Pretty slow to keep in contact, and definitely used contour and water features more than rocks, because there are far too many rocks in there!!!
15- Oops, forgot, this one was also not perfect, drifted significantly left of the line, probably because nicer to run there, reoriented based on huge-normous boulder.
16- Fine, but maybe quicker to stay low closer to ponds?
17- Again, drifting/pushed by terrain issues, ended up on the hill overlooking the pond.
18- Over hilltop, looked too flat to bother going around.
19- To big reentrant with blue dots, then up reentrant with ponds.
Finish- To road, then south.

215/2000

Sprint Team Fundraiser/ try SI course!

Almost forgot I did this! And do forget how many controls, and my map drowned along with my canoe-O map with my splits, so if anyone knows, let me know! (Update: Ross says 9.)

Did it sans compass as required for team members, and that was fine for the first bit around trails, but was definitely uncomfortable without being able to use bearings in the woods bit!

Calf cramped up badly afterwards, so I didn't do the mini-challenge of map-memory-sprinting the first 4 controls.

224/2000

Long Canoe-O!

Ken and I went out to do the long canoe-O which was a blast. There were 3 controls on land too, so had to plan when to dump someone off (me) and find those, we even did an extra by land #4, which think made sense. We made a big mistake on the way to 3, which you can tell in the GPS track. Mistook islands. Oops! I also had issues with one of the land controls, which is embarrassing! I vote the 4 controls accessed via land count towards the 2000. Using kayak paddles rocked!

228/2000

C • Canoe-O controls 6

Wicked Hard Night-O

Although I was pretty much wimpy and only did 1-4 and then 12-13-14. I wasn't staying in great contact at the beginning, found it really tough orienteering, but the streams of people made it easier. At 4, I decided to do my own thing, contemplated doing 9 and in, but was even wimpier and just went straight for 12. Still, actually found those last 3 controls totally on my own and without big mistakes, just going painfully slow.

235/2000

Red, day 1 - Splits

Rollerski with Alex on River Road. Lovely to have company! 15 min w/o poles, 15 min with, 15 min w/o and then 15 min double poling alone. And Alex spent the last bit minutes picking grapes (being good to her elbow!), so yay, have those for breakfast tomorrow!!

Legs feeling more normal, happy!

Woke up and did abs immediately, pre-breakfast.

C • Pre-breakfast 1

Legs are on planet weird. They just feel tight and not very happy, so skipped the track work, went out for a waddle instead. But legs really felt like the hamstrings want to rip out of them if I stride out. So had a mega-stretching session when I got back, hopefully will feel better shortly!

Day off, actually meant to go running, but missed the group? But maybe it was for the best, left hamstring was iffy all day (hurting exactly where I pulled it 2 years ago), hopefully better tomorrow for some track work!

Over to the Northampton 5k, finally! Registered myself and went out to warm up, ran into Sanjay out there, and he showed me the first lap of the course, at least. Left hamstring tight.

And the race! Started out for the first mile right around Sanjay and Paul, then went a bit quicker than them the second mile, although I bet our third mile splits were pretty even, felt Iike I was fading a bit (there's also a big hill in the 3rd mile, so some excuse for uneven splits!) I ran most of the race in 3rd, but a guy passed me right at the end.

Splits: 5:54, 5:53, 7:08
(so last bit was at 6:28 pace! definite fading, although I'd give 15 seconds of it to the hill)

So, at this race, they keep track of records for each age on the course. The F26 record is 17.56. Hmmmm. Possible? Unsure. Would have to be sometime next summer probably, there's only a few more this fall.

C • My best on that course is 1... 7

Little loop with Sanjay and Paul, chattin'.

15 min double pole, 30 min mostly w/o poles, then last ~15 min back to double pole. Gave River Road a try, on PG's recommendation. First bit was pretty flat, good DP territory and then a bit hillier, but nothing impossible to go down on the skis (did 'road-plow' a bit)! And nice pavement too.

Feeling better double poling, legs were way tired today, would have been a slump for sure if I had gone for a run. Afterwards, made sure to stretch, and found some ripe Concord grapes in the parking area- will see how they go crushed in some yogurt tomorrow! Also, on the way back, stopped at Bub's BBQ for all-you-can-eat sides and a pulled pork sandwich. Mmmmmm....

C • So what does 20 mph feel li... 6

Event: WCOC Pond Mountain
 

So I got completely lost on the way there and couldn't find it for ages. There was a sign, I just didn't see it the two times I passed it from the right direction. Kept going way too far down 341/up Macedonia Brook.

Anyways, I finally got myself to the Pond Mountain Natural Area parking lot, which no one else was in. Thought I might just have the wrong day/the wrong Kent, CT or something, so decided to go for a trail run. But then I started seeing controls!! Kept running around, found a young family out on one of the courses together and asked if I could see their map so I could find the start. Had a minor break down when I got there (sorry Becks and Anne Louise!), but then settled down, ran back and brought car over to proper spot.

Mmmmm and got quite confused out there at times. Psyched that I actually started my Garmin (on the way to the first control, actually) so I can have a look in a bit, will try this Quickroute thing? Gather I have to photo/scan the map? May have to wait to access the scanner at work on Tues...

Not great controls:
3- was unsure if I had gone over the first big nose, which made me hesitant the whole next bit, then the bit on top was very vague, was about to enter into a panic when I found the control
4- went to a different, parallel, nearby cliff first, which isn't on the map...
6- took the road, really shouldn't have been scared of staying in the woods, lots of stone walls to keep track of location
8- scared by the vagueness really close to the control, but pretty ok
11- stood in the pit (a nearly enclosed stone wall) right near the control, confused why it wasn't mapped before figuring it out...
13- eep, likely my worst control of the day. hit the marsh in the depression right on the way, but then lost it with the cliffs, kept trying to put things together and drifting, had to relocate off the trail to the north
14- long leg, slow at times, being careful to stay in contact
16- hit the line of cliffs right above on the way there nearly perfectly, but then hit the trail and ran the wrong way, argh!!!
18- Neil pointed out a reentrant nearly under the line that would have been great to use, had I noticed it. I ran down to stream, not that fast...

Really good fun, really good orienteering! Thanks much to Marie and Mike and Boris and Becky and Anne-Louise and anyone else!

191/2000


And... QuickRoute! Way cool. Most striking- I was super-duper close to #13. Painfully close, argh!! Think I was just looking down instead of up and went right by the control... Also my mistake to 16 make a lot more sense now, was not on the line of cliffs I thought I was.

QuickRoute

Picking up 5 controls. Do these/should these count to the 2000?

Edit: 196/2000

C • Absolutely yes. A very good... 10