Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: Hudson Highlander
 

What a fun day! We started in cool, sunny weather beside a beautiful lake surrounded by low mountains covered in golden leaves. The first leg was a trail run where we ran up to a summit lookout, then came down a steep hill on a streamered route to join a main trail to the final trail run control. Sandy had kindly invited me to run with her, which seemed like a great idea, but like a total jerk, I got caught up in the excitement of the large group and ended up running most of the way up the mountain. For unknown reasons - certainly not due to adequate training recently - my legs felt great today. I ran most of the trail/road sections throughout the race and as much cross-country as I could handle, given the large expanses of leg-grabbing blueberry bushes.

The first orienteering section consisted mostly of long legs of 1-2 km on the Silvermine map. For #2, 3 and 4, I ran into people near the control, which helped me to find it. For #5 and 6, I was on my own. I can't think of the last time I had such a tough time choosing a route as I did going to #6. I literally stood still for 90 seconds, evaluating the different options and finding them all pretty poor. It sounds like I headed a similar direction to Peggy, coming out on the trail just west of the water stop. I crossed the trail without seeing it, but luckily heard some runners going by. I'd be interested in knowing what the fastest route was, because it certainly wasn't the one I took!

After the map exchange (with great food at the aid station), we crossed the road to the larger, more detailed Rockhouse Mountain map where we did #8-20, a mixture of shorter and longer legs. Things went well until after #11, when I made my big, horrible, dumb error of the day. With my huge map folded down to a manageable size, I made the classic rookie error of thinking that down was up, so I took off on a due east bearing for 5-6 minutes, when I should have been going due west. Naturally, I didn't need to refer to my map very often because I knew I was just aiming for a big trail. But finally I realized that the terrain was nothing like it should have been. Rats, that was 11-12 minutes wasted, some of it in a dark green marsh. Other than a few minutes lost looking for #14 at the wrong bend in the trail (along with a group of people making the same error), things went smoothly for the rest of the section, which included some of the more challenging technical nav. (Although experienced Highlanders told me that the nav was relatively simple this year, compared to other years.) From an initial look at the results, it appears that some of my better splits rankings were on the shorter technical legs, and as per usual, I got sloppy on longer legs.

After the final map exchange and yummy aid station break, we headed back across the Silvermine map with one fork. I stayed east to go through the green marsh, since that meant a slightly more direct route to #23. After #24, it was time to blast down the ski hill for one final control before the finish. Amazingly, my legs still felt energetic, although my brain was definitely turning to mush. According to Winsplits, I moved up 6 places on this final map, although I saw very few people.

As always, there was lots to be learned today. It was only the 2nd time I'd used a 1:15,000 map, and this one had loads of intricate detail. It was the first time that I'd raced in a field consisting exclusively of experienced orienteers with a range of ages, all doing the same long distance course from a mass start. In an adventure race or trail run, I'm accustomed to being much slower than average. To my surprise, I was faster than the people in my part of the pack. However, I'm accustomed to making up time through my nav in adventure races and adventure runs. Today it was the opposite. There were people who mostly walked who would arrive with me at several controls in a row, having taken different routes. I passed most of those familiar faces on the final map, since there weren't many controls, and there were long sections where I could run. But the bottom line is that my nav skills need work. It's not that I didn't know where I was or how to get to the next control (except for my south-is-north error), but I obviously could be making more efficient route choices - including better micro-routes. That's good news, actually, since I don't expect my running to get any faster as I get older, so it's good to know that my nav has so much room for improvement.

Great event, yummy post-race food, well-organized, and a very friendly, welcoming bunch of orienteers. Glad I made the trip. I finished within the time limit, which was my goal - 48th of 70 runners, 10th woman.

XI - Splits

9.5 hrs to Middletown, NY - by myself, because no other Canadian residents were brave enough to attempt the Hudson Highlander. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) Spent an hour waiting to cross the border. I was advised to say that I'm going to a "running race", rather than attempting to explain orienteering. Somehow the immigration official thought that I was going to be involved in horse racing, but he cheered right up when he heard that it would be ME doing the running. He sent me on my way with good luck wishes.

Going from Buffalo toward Rochester, I drove on dry pavement with good-sized snowbanks along the road. It was sad to see the devastation to the forests. Virtually every tree and shrub was showing some bare, jagged wood where the trunk had snapped or a large branch had broken off. Large trees with flaming autumn leaves had collapsed or broken in half. I can understand why the power will take awhile to restore.

Black clouds chased me most of the way to Syracuse, then the weather got nice and the scenery got nicer. The autumn colours in the Catskill Mountains were gorgeous.

Tonight I reviewed Hammer's maps of the Harriman area to get an idea of what the terrain will be like. Just last week, I was wishing that there were more 2.5 m contour lines at Rocky Ridge to help keep me oriented. Well, it's clear that this terrain has more than enough contour lines to make me happy!

Off to Toronto tonight, then going the rest of the way to the Hudson Highlander tomorrow. I sure hope the roads are better around Buffalo tomorrow than they were today. It's a long enough drive to New York City (almost) without getting caught in the aftermath of a snowstorm. Really looking forward to the event though! :-)

Attackpoint doesn't lie, and today I realized that I've done all of 7 hrs of running training in the past 2 months, and a good chunk of that was in the nebulous category of warm-up/cooldown. I have done a fair bit of orienteering over that period, although that doesn't always mean running for me.

So... I figured that a 26.3 km orienteering race this weekend would be a good idea!?! Yikes!

With the urgency of a student cramming for an exam, I went out for a run around the block, which in our case is close to 9 km of country roads. I pushed myself relatively hard and felt surprisingly good. It's a really scenic route, especially with the fiery autumn leaves, and there are lots of rolling hills. I don't do it very often because of narrow roads, blind hills, summer dust and occasional speeding motorists. Today was really nice though - not too many cars and a wonderful, crisp temperature. I had sunshine at the start and finish, but in the middle, I was running in the first snowfall I've seen this winter. After I got back, we had heavy flurries for quite awhile. Yahoo, I love this time of year!

While watching the Daily Show.

Eliminator Sprint night at Bronte Creek Park. The weather was absolutely nasty beforehand, with wind lashing the rain so hard against the windows that I didn't want to get out of my car. We had a reprieve for the time that we were running, then it started up again as we chatted at the finish. Tonight we did three 1 km sprints, and I was supposed to drop two controls from each, based on my age/gender handicap. I won the first and third loops - the ones where I dropped the controls. On the second loop, I didn't notice that I should have dropped one of the first two controls, and I ended up being the first person to miss the cut for the Eliminator finals. Oh well... the prestige might have been too much for me. It was a fun and friendly event with some different faces, including Sherpa's friendly dogs. A highlight was the chocolate birthday cake and accompanying singing to celebrate the 18th birthday of Justine Scheck. Her parents were both there, and her Mom signed the event waiver for the last time.

Hmmm... I'm trying to remember why I thought it was such a bright idea to join two orienteering clubs... With my NAOC work over (mostly), it was time to head out to Glen Haffy to check Nick dSC's control locations for the advanced course for the Indian Summer O Fest. I ran a little bit, but mostly hiked along, enjoying the luxury of map and terrain that I actually understand! :-) Lots of 5 m contour lines made for good map reading practice and a bit of a workout even without running much. BulletDog had a fantastic time in the cool weather with all the great smells - not to mention a flock of wild turkeys that she flushed.

The SI units for this event (more than 60 of them need to be programmed) are supposed to be delivered to us late the night before. Eeek.

Wanted to spend some Thanksgiving time with my parents, so skipped today's Wine-O. It would have been a beautiful day to be in the woods, but family time is special too.

BulletDog is healthy enough that I'm going to be able to get away next weekend after all, and Piutepro has kindly allowed me to enter the Hudson Highlander after the deadline - woo hoo! I've been wanting to do this 26.3 km orienteering race in New York ever since I first heard of it. Should be fun, and I'll just be glad if I don't DNF.