Training Log Archive: MJChilds

Flying Pig Ultra Long Championships. Not such a good day today. :( Struggled with the map trying to flail my way through all the underbrush rather than seeking routes around it. Not checking compass carefully enough. Being distracted by Ethan as he whizzed by drawing me toward him and his control--when will I ever learn? Most bummed about #9 where I had a good plan, but got stupid when I was looking for a stream fork, expecting it to be two reentrants coming together (which I eventually found, about 400 beyond the actual junction I was looking for) when the map clearly showed the two streams joined on the flat. Grrrrrrrrr.

Then, on #12, the trail under the power line detoured into the woods where I happened to hit it and it appeared that I would have been 150 further down the power line. With little faith in my ability to orienteer at that point, I crossed the power line and tried to relocate which took a bit of walking, reading, and head scratching before I located the stream's earth bank on the map and felt I had identified where I was. Too bad about the trail that threw me off.

Disappointing results.

Saturday UL Brown - Splits

Flying Pig Middle Distance. Pretty good race except for #9 where I went straight instead of looking at the route options and realized I had climbed several contours only to go back down them again. . .devious, but good course setting. . ., #10 where I should have looked at the control code so I would not have hesitated when I saw no control at the end of the ditch (it was in front of the earth bank below) and #12 when I went up and over anyway, even knowing that there was a more level route. I didn't feel like running through the honeysuckle to stay on the flat. All in all, was happy with my course and was pleasantly surprised to have ended up first on the course.

Friday Brown - Splits

This is the walk part of my run with Lucy, the uphill part that she labored over. It was slow, but nice to have her out with me. She seemed to enjoy it.

Ran from Catamount down the road to the pavement and back as a warm-up, leaving Lucy in the car. Then, brought her along, but had to stop a lot so she could catch up. We did the downhill, OK, but ended up walking back up the hill because she was struggling.

Temps around 40 degrees, brilliant sunshine, but WINDY, again, yet, still. . .

Back to the old routine. Hard to progress when one does not work at it.

Also did about 10 min stretching.

Walked Butternut in the freezing, windy temps. Temp around 26 degrees with such a severe wind I needed a face mask! Sunny though. :) Joined by KH, JG,AH, KM, PS and Ruby. Enjoyed catching up on what everyone's been doing.

Set controls at Osborndale on west side of map near Ansonia Nature Center. Boris gave me the nearest group which was nice since I wasn't certain how my legs would be today. Going was slow due to the extra checking of terrain to be sure my controls were set accurately. When I got back, I decided to not run the course since it felt like my legs had had a good amount of exercise but not too much. After the start, I took my camera out to catch some orienteers in action. Enjoyed sitting in one place for a while and just watch the forest as it gets ready for another spring. Still very cold, sunny and windy.

Got to see both Andrew and Ethan on their courses which was fun.

Long drive home--6 hours--since we took Andrew back to WPI on the way.

All in all, a really nice weekend.

C • first weekend 1