Training Log Archive: Work4justice

Didn't charge watch enough for data. Rode with Michelle out to Proud Lake to canoe. We got some funny looks with our paddles sticking out! On a little single track connector my paddles got hung up with a branch and on the way down I hit myself in the nose. OUCH.

Rode home.

Was doing great, then big boomers, biting bugs and thus, I bailed for another day! Not checking data until I finish.

C • Where? 2

Kinda slow, not sure if it was the shoes, rain or hour!!!

Feeling really wiped lately. I have had to get away from early workouts because of my son's summer schedule I go to work early. I guess it's good to train later in the day, when I am a little tired, but sure feel like I'm not getting anywhere!

Felt like a fragile flower who might melt in this warmth, so decided to bike to the gym for Spin Fusion.

Includes warm up and cool down. This class is a combination of spinning, weights and plyos.

Easy spin home.

I hadn't done it before, what a nice little roll...smile on my face the whole time! :)

Working on feature recognition on USGS tromped around several controls at PLRA...Y6, Y2, R2, O1,R4, O2 and feature reviewed from trail RB and RC. The success was in really sensing terrain to USGS and o map. Had an o map along to translate, keep clear. But GPS on my watch didn't turn on! Bugger. Then went swimming with Ali...yay!

Met Jen Kilbourne (got her on AP! OutdoorsMama) at Seven Lakes for an exploratory adventure! Rode out to Quick Road, Fagan, and found a little two track that went nowhere. Then, over to Holdridge. Not sure if it was a blessing or a curse that we didn't read trail reviews on the Orchard loop. Couldn't see more than 2-3 ft ahead in many places, very slow and technical. We did about 4 miles-ish there and the rest dirt/paved.

Hiked around Dickinson, Seven and Little Lakes with USGS.

Today we have oodles of volunteers coming out to SafeHouse Center to spruce things up! Should be a lot of work and a lot of fun!

Blue Yellow with Michelle. Hmmm, wonder why the distance showed up short. Pretty proud of my time. Includes 2 falls...one a shifting fall into a sapling and slid down a slight hill...Michelle had to pop my foot out! EMBARRASSING. And the second was a slide on a root. Bugger.

Felt puny yesterday, easy run around Barton and Bandemer.

In line with keeping things on the easy side, went for a hike around Kuebler Langford and the Bluffs. Great terrain!

Kent and Kensington.

C • nice pace 2

Event: SmartBlast 6 Hour
 

Meeting got cancelled. Bugger.

Rode out to McCabe, then Bishop to Fieldcrest to 1st trail entry. Took the trails to the group camp then to Blue to Spring Mill to experiment with Bike-O.

Well, after going to a few controls (in reverse order) on Jens Badlands streamer, I decided it was NOT fun going to them via hike a bike--got some funny looks too! I got to 15 and decided to do a bike tour of the controls. Much better. Nice challenge on the gravel, holding a map and compass and being mindful of features. It was fun. Good to see how the bike shoes are so different than other shoes on terrain.

Rode home!

What luck! Michelle and I were both in the vicinity of Seven Lakes tonight so we met up for a leg stretch hike. No pack, no watch, just fun! It's going to be a great course, just beautiful.

No HR data, the strap is wonky this weekend. Boo. Also, my gps was funky for the first 20 minutes. Double boo. Guessing a little on the distance. Did a little USGS course in Brighton that Cooper streamered. So much fun!

#1
Cooper said don't take the trails, and because Michelle knows the woods so well, they tempted her! We got a little off track, but she got us right back on! Phew!

#2
Spiked, it was an over the field to the road and then an entry decision for along the road. Worked well for us.

#3
Spiked, went south to the road, then looked for the first bit of marsh, then entered, looked for the plateauish break in contour on the hill, followed that line around and there it was on the spur.

#4
We went around a hill to get to it, mostly to use the line to get to the marker.

#5
Used several ridgelines, and then the line around the depression, the depression was pretty deep and decided to stay high although we went a tad south.

#6
Looks of spaghetti in there! But we took a bearing to the south of it and got to the southernmost point of a honkin ditch reentranty thing and was able to bear due west to the larger reentrant where it was. Landed right on top of it!

#7
Got a little tricky, had to hang in with counting off the ups and downs and different contours, but got on the right ridge along the marsh and spiked it.

Hiked to the trail then ran to the finish. Whee!

Forgot my heart rate strap.

Jens' Badlands sampler at ILRA.

Great map for me to regain some measure of confidence! In short, spiked all but three. Bobbled a bit on 12, a lot on 15 and a bit on 18. Fun course! Totally runnable, but today's partner preferred otherwise. So fun! #18 was definitely my favorite. Very AR.

Blue Loop at ILRA with Ali and Jen K.

Nice little ride on the connected paths along the Huron River. Good practice dodging pedestrians, oh my! Left from SafeHouse Center, to the Dam, to Fuller, to Argo up to Longshore then back through and around. Beautiful day, so glad I took a bike break in this long day!!!!

Re-entrants, gullies and ditches OH MY.

So, realized that I really need to learn how those work in topography. And also started to internalize how they can lead you in the right direction. Also picked up a lot about how contours/inclines work.

Went back to work on the area where there is 4, 5, 6 and 7. If I did the QR correctly, I hit 5, then 4, then 6 relatively well. Then 7 it took a million tries-cannot even read the lines hardly, and 8 I bobbled on a more prominent ditch to the dual ditches with gullies I was really looking for--aha.

Then, in the spirit of not making myself crazy, I decided to park to the north of where the last four I planned to find. I don't have data for this...kid was calling, stopped the watch (won't do that again) and forgot to restart. Anyway, took a bearing off the trail at a point that was incorrect, doubled back to the fence line and used that. Then, 13 was a little nutty for me. I had it in my head that it was in that reentrant ditchy thing, but it was on the north side up on the hill. I need to do some armchair orienteering to start visualizing some of the features. Then head up the trail to 14, and as I took a bearing to the east I thought, heck, this is practice, why not look for the reentrant that seems to lean to the depression. So I went over to the water body positioned southwest and followed the reentrant. Voila! Used the ridge to 15 for practice then north to the trail to 17. Used the reentrant and compass to get to the northern side of the circle tipped south a tad and spiked it. Phew. Feeling a little better. I need to study how all these contours work together. and figure out a way how to aggregate the information on to the o-map and USGS map.

C • Awesome, right back at it, I love it. 2

Pond Lily that Igor streamered...

It was tough for me. I got to 1 (saw Oleg en route, and he looked a little concerned--eep!) and 2 fine, and heading to 3 the indistinct trail was not apparent to me (didn't go far enough) and bobbled along the shoreline. Then there was that pink streamer! :)

I just QRd my experience, and there were a couple of areas that it all just fell apart. First, going from 3, I let myself trot down the trail to the east too long and hit the road. Grrr...I was able to relo pretty quickly and thought to turn off my watch until I was in spitting distance of the QR. I got down the road and saw the two track/abandoned road to the N/S trail to the E/W and headed down that looking for the knolls. (During the whole time I kept telling myself I wasn't a moron) I threw a bearing from there a couple of times, as well I tried from that gully thing south of 5, and well, you can see the spaghetti soup that ensued! I took a bearing from 4 to 5, and found myself in that small water body to the N and made my down and then finally got it, but I was so frustrated that I just don't remember how it happened! Then to 6, and in my travels I saw how to get there, spiked it, then on to 7, and my head got to swirling about so many things, bumbled the bearing, and got turned around in the heavy green and got frustrated...then I decided to head out. Bugger. Looking on the QR I was close.

The good news is that I had not qualms about running out, and felt strong, just got to worrying about getting home, getting better, wondering shy I bumble so much, blah, blah, blah...

So, bah. I am feeling really worried that I will never get this. Also, I don't know how to pace this, and am totally willing to do what it takes. But I don't know if I am going about this the right way? I mean, I think just working at it, and the relo stuff I have to do is probably helpful, and getting to know new terrain is fine too, but I wanted to reach out to seasoned folks to see if I could be doing anything different. I do struggle with the differences of contours. and making sure I am where I am on the map.

Onward and forward. Only thing I can think of to keep my chin up is if I quit, I definitely won't get better.

C • Looks like the main problem... 2

No data...forgot to charge my watch. Estimating the 24 miles on google maps. Rode Peer to 12 to Dixboro to 11 back up Dixboro to Silver Lake back to 12 across to Rushton up to Silver Lake to pavement turned around to McCabe to Evergreen to a trail I had been looking for then back home. 6 lb pack.