Training Log Archive: MJChildsIn the 7 days ending Apr 29, 2018:
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Sunday Apr 29, 2018 #
Orienteering race 1:07:20 [4]
DNF. 0 for 2. Geez. Worst weekend ever in terms of results, but except for being 120% miserable at the end of the race, I had a great time this weekend.
Not happy about the pouring rain and 40s, but I decided to not be a wimp. Decided to leave hat, gloves and jacket behind. Could have used the jacket.
Felt pretty good about all my routes except for #8 where I lost it.
Took trails all the way to #1, passing by the little cabin and retracing my route from yesterday as I neared the control.
Headed N to the road for #2. Planned to stay on road till even with control but reconsidered enroute and cut up by the stream and up through the saddle. Worked well.
Down the reentrant to #3 and followed the crowd to the road crossing at #4. Dave Yee's photo of me here shows me still smiling.
For #5, I wanted to avoid unnecessary climb so I took the road till it flattened near the stream and headed into the woods. Crossed the first stream and then the second which had a beautiful waterfall upstream and lots of smaller cascades due to all the rain. No problem heading up the spur to the dot knoll.
On #6, I took a bearing to the saddle and followed the reentrant down the steep hillside. More rocky ground than mapped so it was a bit slower than I expected. Could read the terrain on the other side and could see where to go. Dot knolls visible from a distance.
On #7 I contoured a bit before crossing the stream, climbed the spur and could see the rounded knoll in front of the small reentrant with the control from a distance. So far, so good.
Decided to climb early on #8 which is advice so old I can't recall who said it years ago. Headed roughly west till I got to the rounded knoll with the cliffs around it but then started to have trouble with the map and features matching up. Map showed a reentrant above the knoll--I perceived a spur. Should have stopped and oriented my map there but kept moving and soon saw a whole train of people, mostly men, heading up the large reentrant. I expected to drop down into the reentrant, climb a little, and then see what looked like a ride that curved and pointed to the control. Should have looked more closely at my map. And, the course setter should have broken the red line because it made the black trail look like a solid line which I thought was a short ride. With my foggy glasses and my impatience, I never saw that that " ride" was part of a trail I could have picked up early had I taken the lower route around the S side of the rounded knoll. I needed to stop but couldn't when there was a crowd heading up hill. (That was my downfall, as on Day 1, not being able to ignore the competitors around me.) I got on the "train" and ended up at a control about 200 m NNW of my #8, along with a dozen other brown course runners. It was Brown X #9 and Green #12. There were parallel features so we all convinced ourselves it must be up there. It's never a good sign when a group of orienteers are wandering around looking for the same point. I checked out my hunch that it was lower on the slope and I saw the trail below (the trail I could not recognize on my map) and could not make sense of the map at all. I think I did not use my compass to orient my map, just kept trying to reorient using features. I finally returned to Green #12 where a posse decided to head west. We encountered the trail and the huge valley below so I was pretty sure of where we were and then led the pack down the trail hoping to relocate. But I couldn't I was already very cold and very annoyed. When I saw the swamp below with the trail next to it (going through it, it turns out), I still could not relocate. Others were stopping and figuring it out. I was too frustrated and too cold and was upset ,so I bagged it. Maybe if I had a jacket on and been warmer, I could have coped with the cold. I found a park map with a "You Are Here" and still could not figure out where to go but using my O map, I knew I needed to head west and south to bet back to the finish. The west trail went uphill, the south trail went downhill so I went south on the Blue trail and took it almost back to the finish. I crossed the finish line, forgot to pick up my raincoat at the clothing exchange, and made a beeline for my car. Can't remember ever being more miserable at an O meet. Stripped down, dried off, put on 2 wool shirts, a warm jacket, a down sweater and eventually my raincoat and still could not get warm. Didn't warm up till a couple of hours later in the car with the heater on. I was pretty out of sorts--I think in part because of the bad case of SAD I have had this April--I felt like I had no resiliency and had to struggle to maintain my composure at all. Kind Candace Raines offered me a large raincoat but I couldn't even cope with the thought of putting on someone else's gear--I was emotionally and mentally exhausted. But I will remember her genuine thoughtfulness.
Too bad for the event that the weather was so crappy, but at least it stopped raining for the terrific awards ceremony later. I wanted to see the kids get their awards so we stayed. Barb got me engaged with the awards presentation and that took my mind off my misery. It was really a good event from every measure except the weather and I appreciate all the efforts NEOC made on the courses, the festive arena, the food, etc.
To cap off the day, I managed to incur a bad ankle sprain when Carl and I stopped to have dinner on the way home. It was our 28th wedding anniversary and we decided to get something to eat. When I walked out to the car afterward, I stepped off the curb, twisted my ankle, fell and skinned my other knee. The three crunches I heard/felt told me this was a bad one. Carl helped me get up and encouraged me to walk on it. We stopped at the next rest area and managed to put some compression on it using his ankle brace. Bummer. Guess I won't be doing the Billygoat (Pygmy goat) as I had hoped this year. It never ceases to amaze me that I can orienteer for hours off trail and then get hurt on a sidewalk or on a trail run. Oh well.
Now if the sun would just come out.
Not happy about the pouring rain and 40s, but I decided to not be a wimp. Decided to leave hat, gloves and jacket behind. Could have used the jacket.
Felt pretty good about all my routes except for #8 where I lost it.
Took trails all the way to #1, passing by the little cabin and retracing my route from yesterday as I neared the control.
Headed N to the road for #2. Planned to stay on road till even with control but reconsidered enroute and cut up by the stream and up through the saddle. Worked well.
Down the reentrant to #3 and followed the crowd to the road crossing at #4. Dave Yee's photo of me here shows me still smiling.
For #5, I wanted to avoid unnecessary climb so I took the road till it flattened near the stream and headed into the woods. Crossed the first stream and then the second which had a beautiful waterfall upstream and lots of smaller cascades due to all the rain. No problem heading up the spur to the dot knoll.
On #6, I took a bearing to the saddle and followed the reentrant down the steep hillside. More rocky ground than mapped so it was a bit slower than I expected. Could read the terrain on the other side and could see where to go. Dot knolls visible from a distance.
On #7 I contoured a bit before crossing the stream, climbed the spur and could see the rounded knoll in front of the small reentrant with the control from a distance. So far, so good.
Decided to climb early on #8 which is advice so old I can't recall who said it years ago. Headed roughly west till I got to the rounded knoll with the cliffs around it but then started to have trouble with the map and features matching up. Map showed a reentrant above the knoll--I perceived a spur. Should have stopped and oriented my map there but kept moving and soon saw a whole train of people, mostly men, heading up the large reentrant. I expected to drop down into the reentrant, climb a little, and then see what looked like a ride that curved and pointed to the control. Should have looked more closely at my map. And, the course setter should have broken the red line because it made the black trail look like a solid line which I thought was a short ride. With my foggy glasses and my impatience, I never saw that that " ride" was part of a trail I could have picked up early had I taken the lower route around the S side of the rounded knoll. I needed to stop but couldn't when there was a crowd heading up hill. (That was my downfall, as on Day 1, not being able to ignore the competitors around me.) I got on the "train" and ended up at a control about 200 m NNW of my #8, along with a dozen other brown course runners. It was Brown X #9 and Green #12. There were parallel features so we all convinced ourselves it must be up there. It's never a good sign when a group of orienteers are wandering around looking for the same point. I checked out my hunch that it was lower on the slope and I saw the trail below (the trail I could not recognize on my map) and could not make sense of the map at all. I think I did not use my compass to orient my map, just kept trying to reorient using features. I finally returned to Green #12 where a posse decided to head west. We encountered the trail and the huge valley below so I was pretty sure of where we were and then led the pack down the trail hoping to relocate. But I couldn't I was already very cold and very annoyed. When I saw the swamp below with the trail next to it (going through it, it turns out), I still could not relocate. Others were stopping and figuring it out. I was too frustrated and too cold and was upset ,so I bagged it. Maybe if I had a jacket on and been warmer, I could have coped with the cold. I found a park map with a "You Are Here" and still could not figure out where to go but using my O map, I knew I needed to head west and south to bet back to the finish. The west trail went uphill, the south trail went downhill so I went south on the Blue trail and took it almost back to the finish. I crossed the finish line, forgot to pick up my raincoat at the clothing exchange, and made a beeline for my car. Can't remember ever being more miserable at an O meet. Stripped down, dried off, put on 2 wool shirts, a warm jacket, a down sweater and eventually my raincoat and still could not get warm. Didn't warm up till a couple of hours later in the car with the heater on. I was pretty out of sorts--I think in part because of the bad case of SAD I have had this April--I felt like I had no resiliency and had to struggle to maintain my composure at all. Kind Candace Raines offered me a large raincoat but I couldn't even cope with the thought of putting on someone else's gear--I was emotionally and mentally exhausted. But I will remember her genuine thoughtfulness.
Too bad for the event that the weather was so crappy, but at least it stopped raining for the terrific awards ceremony later. I wanted to see the kids get their awards so we stayed. Barb got me engaged with the awards presentation and that took my mind off my misery. It was really a good event from every measure except the weather and I appreciate all the efforts NEOC made on the courses, the festive arena, the food, etc.
To cap off the day, I managed to incur a bad ankle sprain when Carl and I stopped to have dinner on the way home. It was our 28th wedding anniversary and we decided to get something to eat. When I walked out to the car afterward, I stepped off the curb, twisted my ankle, fell and skinned my other knee. The three crunches I heard/felt told me this was a bad one. Carl helped me get up and encouraged me to walk on it. We stopped at the next rest area and managed to put some compression on it using his ankle brace. Bummer. Guess I won't be doing the Billygoat (Pygmy goat) as I had hoped this year. It never ceases to amaze me that I can orienteer for hours off trail and then get hurt on a sidewalk or on a trail run. Oh well.
Now if the sun would just come out.
Saturday Apr 28, 2018 #
Orienteering race 1:05:10 [4]
Troll Cup & Jr Nationals at Mt. Tom in Holyoke, MA. Gorgeous sunny day.
Had a decent race except for my sloppy route on #6 and my stupid blunder on #9.
Took trails to #1. Easy and a chance to get into the map.
Followed stream on #2 to fork then hopped over spur to reentrant.
Compass and distance est to #3. Walked mostly. Did not like the extran trail enroute but it was obviously not an issue. Came in high but spotted control from 100m away when I emerged from stream reentrant.
#4 straight up killer slope.
#5 straight up using hands to climb up slope. Continued to trail to saddle and down and around cliffs to control.
#6 Sloppy. Drifted to the right. Found Green control. Relocated on swamp. Twice.
#7 headed north to trail stream jctn then followed upper trail (by mistake) as far as Boulder and noticed I was on wrong trail and dropped down into the knolls.
#8. Trail to driveway to road to yellow field west of swamp. Stayed high to control.
#9. Followed edge of swamp and crossed early coming out at reentrant which I hoped to. Climbed up, saw cliff (just below my control) but got distracted seeing Rick W ahead of me and crossing the reentrant after having punched at his cliff. Persuaded myself I was wrong and his cliff was my cliff so I headed over there and saw the control. Two guys came up from below just before me and punched; I reached down from above and punched and was distracted by the thought of blocking their exit route so I quickly turned and jaded back across reentrant, never having checked the control. I am confident that had I been alone, I would have stuck with my plan. I actually saw my control once I got on the trail but since it was right next to the trail, I assumed it was a yellow control. Was quite surprised to learn I had MPd. Bummer.
But, I enjoyed being out there, I enjoyed the course, and had fun visiting with some folks afterward. I even got to see Ethan, briefly. :). Not sore tonight--guess I didn't work hard enough.
Was a real treat to see and visit with Peter and Gail at the start.
Wonderful arena set up. Also, I LOVED the latter part of the course which wrapped around the arena allowing me to hear very enthusiastic cheering by the juniors for their teammates. Exciting and Such fun!
Had a decent race except for my sloppy route on #6 and my stupid blunder on #9.
Took trails to #1. Easy and a chance to get into the map.
Followed stream on #2 to fork then hopped over spur to reentrant.
Compass and distance est to #3. Walked mostly. Did not like the extran trail enroute but it was obviously not an issue. Came in high but spotted control from 100m away when I emerged from stream reentrant.
#4 straight up killer slope.
#5 straight up using hands to climb up slope. Continued to trail to saddle and down and around cliffs to control.
#6 Sloppy. Drifted to the right. Found Green control. Relocated on swamp. Twice.
#7 headed north to trail stream jctn then followed upper trail (by mistake) as far as Boulder and noticed I was on wrong trail and dropped down into the knolls.
#8. Trail to driveway to road to yellow field west of swamp. Stayed high to control.
#9. Followed edge of swamp and crossed early coming out at reentrant which I hoped to. Climbed up, saw cliff (just below my control) but got distracted seeing Rick W ahead of me and crossing the reentrant after having punched at his cliff. Persuaded myself I was wrong and his cliff was my cliff so I headed over there and saw the control. Two guys came up from below just before me and punched; I reached down from above and punched and was distracted by the thought of blocking their exit route so I quickly turned and jaded back across reentrant, never having checked the control. I am confident that had I been alone, I would have stuck with my plan. I actually saw my control once I got on the trail but since it was right next to the trail, I assumed it was a yellow control. Was quite surprised to learn I had MPd. Bummer.
But, I enjoyed being out there, I enjoyed the course, and had fun visiting with some folks afterward. I even got to see Ethan, briefly. :). Not sore tonight--guess I didn't work hard enough.
Was a real treat to see and visit with Peter and Gail at the start.
Wonderful arena set up. Also, I LOVED the latter part of the course which wrapped around the arena allowing me to hear very enthusiastic cheering by the juniors for their teammates. Exciting and Such fun!