Training Log Archive: Work4justice

Dirt road power pole and hill pushes.

Cruise with Angel. Almost used to the gearing on the 1x.

Cold wet rainy ride. Ugh. The rain came a lot faster than forecasted! Cut it short.

Event: SMOC Night Orienteering @ Silver Lake
 

5k for SafeHouse! Ran with law enforcement in full gear.

The practice is helping. Standard route to 1. Headed for 2, then realized I was looking at the 11 circle! Gah! Was able to relo and had a shorter AP which is always good for me. Dunked around because it had the wrong control# but decided to punch and go.

Going to 4 I missed a road and low area opportunity (Igor’s route) but got there with a small bobble. Then a mega trail run to 5. Stopped to be sure I had it right which was not smart. Got 6 fairly quickly, but my exit was tougher than it needed to be. Getting to 7 I turned the map upside down but corrected and met Angel there.

We decided to finish the course together. Trail run was the name of the game for 8, 9 and 10. 11 was close to a trail which afforded some good options to 12. Maybe road was best. Then road to finish.

Thanks Phil! Congrats Richard.

No time to practice this week with going to the Fig. Will resume next week. Need to work on confidence, bushwhacking and entry/exits.

Night O - Splits

Rolling a 1x now. Took everything in mo to get out the door.

Mr W drew up a map for practice. One bad mistake...a really prominent trail in the vicinity I should have ignored. Couple of bobbles and not great entry and exits. Great practice. Had to accommodate for my R ankle..a bit tender.

Dogman race report done.

Did the National Champs F45+ Green A course. Sigh. I was really foggy in the head, and was convinced to follow every squiggle on the map. So freaking slow...and still mistakes. Super impressed with Syd's ability to change gears!!! Still glad I did it though.

Sunday_Long_Bishop_Lake_Oct_2018_6 Green A - Splits

Event: Legend of the Dogman (8hr/18hr Rogaine)
 

Legend of the Dogman Race Report
Team "Thought this was a 5k" -- 7th OA
First, I highly recommend this race. I know the RDs put a lot of time into thinking things through, planning for lots of eventualities and racer safety was a high priority for them. Controls were well placed and I thought it was a great course.

Ross asked me to do the race with him back in the spring. It has seemed he had been doing quite a few ultras, and thought it could be good for me, and worried a bit about keeping up. Little did I know that at about th 4 hour mark, he would be done with any kind of running or hustle because of a hip pain. Admittedly, I was disappointed, but I got to navigate a whole lot more because of that, and practiced encouraging teammate skills. :) A couple of weeks ago, Brenda shared that she was going solo, but preferred to hang with others during the night hours and we invited her to join us.

Anyway, back to the beginning. We got the maps at 8:30 and had plenty of time to plan the route for the first 3 maps. We had not planned to drop anything going into the TA. We were bused to our start location, had a smidge of time there, then off! Ross started the lead on the navigation, then I would say after about a few controls Brenda and I started to tag team quite a bit. Of the 52 total controls, I would say that I led the nav on at least half. We bobbled on a few, mostly meaning that we were slightly off on our bearing but recovered quickly. Exiting 75 went terribly. I was leading the nav into the control, and I knew we needed to count off 3 gullyish things, and Brenda's pace count suggested that we had arrived. We checked it out and needed to go further. Got the control, and Ross was leading out. We didn't go far enough, thought we saw the way across the swamp, and missed it totally and wound up swamp stomping far too long. We decided to go south, in that I suggested if anything we would hit the road, so got back on land and headed that way.

We decided to skip the couple that we would have landed by properly crossing the swamp. And, this is where Ross's hip was really starting to bother him. The next couple went badly. Then Brenda said...we have to nail this next one, and we did and went on our way with the next quite of few with no problem. When we got to 80, we needed a strong bearing. I somehow walked right past it...and Brenda paced back and got it. Phew.

Took trails around out of Waterloo heading to DTE. We were shocked to see the Kiwis. They needed to walk because Tom's knee went bad. Once we were in DTE, Brenda broke off to run more, which I totally understood. We decided to do just a few and head for the TA. I kind of wondered if Ross wanted to stop, and that's why he wanted the TA. He did want to do the 4th map and quit at HQ. We got everything fine to the TA, and once we got there, talked to the RD about options. Ross decided to rest, change his clothes and think about it.

Steve (RD) said I could continue as a solo female, but that didn't sit right with me either. So, we talked, and decided to do the points on the most direct route to the HQ/Finish. We headed off after about 40 min in TA (oh my). No real difficulties navigating through most of map 4 (we left 3 CPs on that map behind). Ross and I argued a bit about the property line, I thought the property owners encroached and he didn't want to tempt fate. LOL.

Started getting closer to the HQ/F and he was talking about picking up some of the other points he thought we should skip. That made me feel a lot better, because I had not planned on leaving him and going solo. We made our way further north and then the hail storm hit. Holy smokes. That hurt! And then the trees were creaking from the intense wind and he hollered at me to get out of the woods. We stood in a soybean field until it passed. Then continued on to HQ in the storm. I was so cold. So wet. Got inside, and frankly, I thought he was going to say he was done...but he had access to his other bag (the RDs were being very nice considering the circumstances) and got some dry clothes on, had a few hot chocolates, and then the sun came out, and said we could do a few more. I changed my jacket and we headed out. I was prepared to finish punch and then head out for practice, but glad we could get a few more. Started with a few easy ones, and then went for some high pointers. As we entered our last point, he wanted a more aggressive route. Hmmm....we landed a fair bit south and lost about 15 min or so on that one, but in our defense it had started to completely downpour AGAIN. Then, made it back to HQ. I just remember being cold, but also thinking, this is totally temporary.

Again, loved this race and will definitely do it again!

Event: 2018 USA Nationals - Sprint Middle Long
 

Crazy work week. Down 10# so far. Honing I’m on my over winter goals. Strength, stop crappy orienteering, swim classes and paddle/mountain bike as possible.

In other news...AliC is coming in tonight! Been too long!

C • ah, I was wondering about A... 2

Richardson map...no flags...no streamers. Bumped my watch...doing a QR to see how long and how it actually went.

C • nice work 1

Ortonville Rec O meet

Easy ride at PLRA with Angel.

Looking forward to livelox for this one.

1. Took the trail and then cut in a bit early
2. Picked up the trail to the north and followed it to the x trail then north and went in N of the swamp.
3. Followed the water, crossed the stream and into the control.
4. Crossed the stream (not bad) to land then the trail and the trail around to a cut in for the hill.
5. I had planned to go north. And, I think I miscounted marshes....gah. I went way east--good grief.
6. Slowed because my confidence was so shaken. And realized I swung too far to hit the trail and struggled to get things to match up, so I pulled back to the trail, matched things up and back in for the flag.
7. Climbed out of the depression and went north on the trail to 7.
8. The way I went in was crazy and makes no sense. Grrrr. Livelox shows I was so high up and I was justifying everything around me. When I got to the trail I realized that I did not relocate myself well and did not hold my bearing.
9. Crossed the marsh. Had to do it. Was worried about the green to the south...realize now the trail would have been way better. I can't see these things and it's crazy making.
10. Headed off in the wrong direction on the trail...took and indistinct which was kind of terrible, made it there, but see a better route of attacking from the W through the swamp.
11. Took the trails. Which, in theory, for me, not a bad idea, but it was very hilly and sandy and the xcountry route with the trail on the back end would have been much, much better. The green was kind of terrible so I went through the depression into the circle.
12. Caught up with Angel. I tried to pace count to an attack point, but I think I overshot that. As I was looking at the map I just couldn't see anything to hook to.
13. From the road, wasn't as much a problem for me as 13.
14. Went north to the reentrant system that dumped into the control.
15. Set a bearing (now I'm realizing how little I do this...oops) and it was a feature rich leg, but needed the bearing to get around the right hill and up through to the S part of the next big hill to follow the marsh.
16. Followed the marsh around, and got into some ugly thorns. pushed us off the line a bit, but realized we were in the depression with small depressions and was able to get to the trail. The indistinct trail was very much so....Angel spotted it and we took that to the main trail and around to the peninsula.
F: S to the road and ran it in.

Areas to focus:
1. Best routes.
2. Bearings (balance with contours)
3. Subtle terrain recognition, on 5 and 8 I just wasn't seeing what I needed to see!

Red - Splits

Last night my kids surprised me and took me (and said I could invite a fun friend—which was Angel) out to see a Beastie Boys tribute band at one of my long ago haunts at St. Andrews hall. They have cleaned up the joint and beer is a lot more expensive.

Took it easy until it was light out, and then hill pushes.

Leg shaker.

C • way to go! 4

Event: Python Rogaine - Cuyahoga Valley N P
 

NEOOC, 2nd Masters Women...not sure OA

The Michigan gang (I still count the Fishers :)--sorry WPOC) snagged first and second OA, 1st Vet Women, 2nd Masters Women and 1st Elite Women.

Decided to head to this because one of my winter goals is control count and really working on navigation (hint hint igor and Mr. Wonderful, if you are ever bored...Marshall Park, Bishop, ILRA, Peach, Maybury Huron Meadows...even 5-7 controls at a time)

Anyway, signed up for this and was not in O shape so to speak, but gotta start somewhere. Got our maps and quickly realized that this would be difficult. There was a lot on the map to consider. I decided on a quick west jaunt and the 3 controls there and was able to mark a route that cleared 75% (?) of the East map, and some options for the west map. There was a 4k run to get from the planned last control on the east to the first on the west. Oy.

Got going, and fortunately/unfortunately it was slow going with lots of mud and a bit of climb. I was executing kinda well (no major excursions) with bobbles here and there for the first five, had a little trouble pinpointing a subtle spur on my 6th, exectued well for the next six excepting going to fast on a trail. Coming out of my 11th control, I executed it very well, and thought I had bombed it, which led me to bushwhack off and wound up on the road. Darnit. Got back on track to my 12th, 13th and at about 3ish hours in I lost my compass.

Nooooooooooo!

Went back and forth several times looking for it. I only had 4 controls before being able to cross to the west map. I felt so deflated. Decided to run back to the start finish, grab my wrist compass that I keep in the car and continue on. I felt crushed. I also got some water while there and gave myself a good talking too because I got mad that it was warm and so many briars and no thumb compass. But, had to move on. Ran back to where I left off, I wasn't thinking too clearly and see now how I could have done better, but hindsight is 20/20. Finished the last nine executing the way I planned, but again later seeing how I could minimize climb, etc.

I did assess whether I could manage a straight up 4-6k road run and nav a few points, but decided that I could finish the east map, and while I might have had an hour on the clock at the end, it was a safer bet--wasn't jazzed about running on the road in the dark in penalty time.

Definitely can improve on route planning, seeing flags (I had 2 right in front of me that I didn't see, bugger) and operating with more confidence. On the flip side, There were a few I absolutely spiked side hilling right on the contour line, used streams and reentrants well, and not bad on the pace considering I had a bit of time back at S/F doing things.

Early morning trot with Sara. :)

Finished race report for WT.

Core, lats, shoulders complained...but otherwise feel remarkably good!