Training Log Archive: Cristina

NEOC BYOM at Noon Hill, Green

Livelox

It's all sticky and warm again (it was 80F with a dp of 66 or so). The good news is that I got to go orienteering today! Yay! The bad news is that I just wrote a too-long entry about it.

I set out a bit late, having underestimated how long it would take to drive there, and forgetting how early the sun sets, which ended up causing me issues. All completely preventable, of course, but I didn't prevent them.

Since I got there about an hour before sunset and knew it would probably take me a bit more than an hour to do the course I set out without any kind of warmup or even properly thinking about orienteering, just hoping to be able to squeeze it all in. Lots of trails, so I could always bail to a trail to get back if it really got dark, but I went all the way out there so I hoped to finish.

About half way to the first control I realized I had no idea where I hopped off the trail and tried to sort of figure it out. I figured wrong and ended up with a couple of minutes of wandering before finding the control.

Things were much better after that, with mostly pretty fine orienteering from 2 to 9. A few times I was off a little but I was able to correct quickly. There was plenty of bashy terrain but also some white woods and I tried to run when I could.

Then we hit sunset and it was getting darker in the woods and I started to panic a bit. I have done a lot of night-o but that's pretty different because, a) I have a headlamp for those and, more importantly, 2) I'm not actually alone alone. I have an intense fear of encountering a person (man) while alone in the middle of a dark forest. And once it starts getting dark my eyes start playing tricks on me and every weird tree stump or shiny bit in the woods looks like a person (man). I think today my brain was primed to think the worst because there had been a man in the parking lot when I arrived who was just sort of tinkering with something in his truck and it was a little weird.

This was my state of mind as I looked at the map for the final three legs. The leg to 10 (11 on Livelox) was longer and I didn't even see the road route to the left (panic mind), so I took some wiggly trails instead. The road would have been good because it would have been lighter and also I would have moved faster, especially given how hesitant I was getting down to the control, partially because of an unclear approach and partly because one of the aforementioned apparitions tripped me up. (It was a tree stump but I would have sworn that it was a man wearing a white coat, kneeling on the ground.)

Then I just had to get to 11 and down to the parking lot and it should have been easy, but I muffed that up, too. My mind transported me farther than I was and it took me a while to figure out why nothing seemed right about how the terrain was (not) climbing along the wall. Not a huge problem, still got to the trail I wanted, but then I had to go back into the woods for the control. I don't know why I was so freaked out, maybe because the woods there were especially junky, but I just didn't like being there. Eventually I found the control and finished, relieved to be done.

The sun had set several minutes earlier but it wasn't *that* dark. It had been a little harder to read the map and see things in the woods but that wasn't the cause of my issues. It's really just a fear of the alonedark. It seems to me that there are two possible solutions to this problem: I can either do some exposure therapy or I can make sure to give myself plenty of time to finish runs before dark. I think I'll stick with the latter for a while.

C • Fear of Alonedark 5

Green - Splits

Today's family hiking outing included the entire family—Lukas, Melissa, me, Mormor, Morfar, and the dumb dog. We went to Purgatory Chasm and everyone managed the rocks through the chasm, with Lukas charging ahead and me lingering back with my dad, who did not ever need help but also he would never ask for it even if he did, so maybe there was some luck, too. My mom seemed more concerned about the dog than anyone else, despite the fact that the dog could probably have just run through the whole thing in a couple of minutes.

My dad was done after that so the rest of us went for a brisk walk on one of the other loops around the chasm. Lukas and my mom do a great job motivating each other to move faster. It's pretty amusing.

Food delivery. Today one of the other women volunteering was riding in the same direction ahead of me, and when we stopped at a red light she turned around to chit chat. First it was, "where are you headed?" and then, "You went to the University of Rochester, right?"

I was a bit confused because I was not wearing anything UR related. Turns out she thought my name was familiar from the volunteer list and then recognized me when she saw me. She was also a computer science student but 2 years behind me. This is now 20 years ago, so I suppose I can be forgiven, but I have no memory of this person. Makes me extra surprised that she recognized me in a helmet and mask, though I suppose my mode of walking and other mannerisms (and voice?) give me away.

Really awful attempt at a trail run in the Fells. I was so low energy when I arrived that I sat in the car doing all kinds of totally unnecessary things to delay running. Once I got going I felt like I had basically negative energy reservers. I was planning on a full loop of the reservoirs but after 15 minutes I couldn't wait to be sitting down again. Only kept running because walking would also have taken energy but would have taken a lot longer. Not sure what's going on.

Went all out and took well over 200 swings tonight, which resulted in a couple of blisters on my hand. I guess my batting gloves are not snug enough. Never used to wear gloves when I played (thanks to George Brett) but I was swinging all the time so my hands were tougher.

Took some pretty good cuts but not as consistent as I'd like. Guy working there thought I was "crushing 'em tonight, eh?", so that's a good sign.

Out on the Charles for some tempo intervals things.

Warmed up 15', then 4x15" strides, then the heart:

5x[5:00HM + 1:30E]

followed by shuffling the rest of the way home.

Felt pretty nice out and the running was fine, even though of course it still seems like way too much effort to run not that much faster than 8min/mi.


We are in the middle of a company "offsite" that includes a bit of a competition. My team is trying not to be humiliated by the other teams so I would be forever grateful if everyone were to click this link and engage with this store in some way. You can ask questions about the products via chat (bottom right), or text (tap the number on top), and if you abandoned a checkout with your phone number included then you can get a message from us that way. You can also provide your number by clicking the discount thing on the bottom left. We get a lot of points if you actually buy something but... you probably don't want to do that.

We'll delete all the numbers and other customer info after tomorrow, so you will not receive further marketing from anyone.

C • website 5

C • Blue vs. Pink 9