Training Log Archive: Doris

@ King Farm loop

5 miles easy. beautiful day!

@ Mt. Tom - Holyoke, MA

Because Saturday had me in the woods and Jeremy on a bike, Vince was charged with taking care of Edda at the grandparents' house for most of the day (about 9 hours). We've never before asked him to take care of Edda for more than an hour at a time (enough time for a quick run either outside or to Target) and we had thought of bringing someone with us for the weekend or hiring a Bard student, but it didn't work out. Vince was cheerfully up for caring for Edda (with Kiki and Kappa's help - though they are in their late 70s and can't do much physical care for Edda) and even though I had hoped he'd try both days of the meet, frankly one day was enough for Vince. But I do wish that one day had been Saturday and not Sunday.

Sunday was a miserable day, it's the only kind of weather that I will certainly head inside for a treadmill run. A cold rain is no fun at all. But here we were, Jeremy driving in from Bard in the morning with Vince and Edda.

I had not slept well the night before in the hotel room and I was discouraged from Saturday and I wanted to be home and warm in my bed, but whatever, sometimes one just shows up for no good reason. So off we went. I was not optimistic. I also self-declared a pretty hard 2 hour time limit because I did not want to pull into Rockville past 10 pm.

Really, the rocks are impossible! I was wandering around, looking for the first control, looking all around different rock piles wondering how anything matched with anything else and I bumped into a completely muddy junior who was lost too and whose bib had fallen off and he couldn't manage to pin it back on himself because his fingers were frozen cold. So I helped pin his number back on his muddied shirt and then, I hoped in exchange, he would help me find my first control. This did not happen.

I found a trail and I wandered down it hoping to come to an intersection where I could find myself on the map again and I bumped into Vince who had just started on his course. He was dressed in a full raincoat and sweatshirt as if he was taking the dog for a walk and he looked at me like I'm crazy and kept walking past me and I said - Wait! I'm here right? pointing to a spot on my map and he said - yeah! We exchanged good lucks and kept going our own ways.

I gave up on the first 2, found the 3-5th and then on my way to the 6th, I noticed legs 7-9 and sighed and figured there was no way I was going to manage to go through that complicated mess in any amount of time and planned to cut those out and skip from 6 to 9. I couldn't find the 6th one, but I did bump into another junior who looked at me and asked - you lost? and then he showed me where I was on the map, but really, by then I had had it. I was really cold, my feet were wet, I wanted to be in dry clothes and in the car headed home. For a few minutes, I made a half hearted attempt to find 6 off of the directions I had been given and then headed back home to the car as I was getting on to the 2 hour mark. In the car, I found Jeremy and Vince and Edda all happy and dry and picking out a restaurant to go to before we all headed in our own directions. As we made our way down the mountain, the skies cleared and the sun started to emerge. We had Korean for lunch - hot spicy tofu soup to warm all the parts. Then we said our goodbyes - Jeremy in the minivan with his bike headed to Cape Cod, Vince & Edda and I in the Civic headed back to Maryland.

I thought I might be exhausted on the drive home which would have been terrible, but I was quite alert and we made it home in almost one straight shot listening (to Vince's dismay), my soundtrack the whole way.

GreenY2 - Splits

Event: Troll Cup and Junior National Champs
 

@ Mt. Tom - Holyoke, MA

Many times this weekend I wondered why I was on a mountain in the middle of Massachusetts wandering around lost and, in the end, quite cold & wet. I'd never really seriously considered traveling to any orienteering meet - my affection for orienteering is pretty much is cancelled out by my disdain for the New Jersey turnpike. I thought the big meet I did last fall was a one-off because it was in my neighborhood - no need to go out of town to run around in the woods. But early this year, as I was trying to figure out how to get Vince to come into the woods with me, I noticed that Jeremy had a business trip in Cape Cod the week following the Troll Cup. I mentioned this to Jeremy (who is always desperately trying to figure out ways to get his bike to go with him on business trips) and said - keep me company on this Troll Cup thing, we'll drive up and we can bring your bike and I'll drop you off at Cape Cod with your bike and maybe I can tell Vince that he can join in too - something to prep for if he goes to the local meets. It'll be a family thing, Jeremy & Edda will try a recreational course. We'll have a picnic lunch. It'll be relaxing & fun!

As soon as I mentioned this to Jeremy, he got all excited - both for me to go orienteering (how can you possibly pass up something called the Troll Cup?!?) and him to have his bike with him. But he wanted his bike not only at Cape Cod, but he also told me about a bike race he wanted to to the same weekend in the same area - Tour de Battenkill and launched into a crazy logistical weekend which also involved a trip to RPI to see our friend Josh & a visit with the grandparents and then he promptly booked all his arrangements and made a complicated training plan for himself including plans to get down to "race weight" and then it seemed settled.

For this meet, I hoped that I would find a few moments in the woods where I felt sure where I was and where I was headed (of course, that is the most joyful feeling), but this was not the case. I had been worried about my hamstring, but that also was a non-issue because I walked. I still have trouble with parts of the map where it is very dense and where it is very sparse. And so many rocks! I have no idea what is going on with the rocks. As soon as I felt sure I found the rock that I was looking for, it would become clear that it was not the correct rock.

I have many questions, I don't even know how to ask them. I'm sure I'm making typical errors in navigation, but I'm not sure what to call them or how to correct them. I feel like I don't have the vocabulary to even start a considered conversation about what I'm doing. Anyways, it's always an adventure. At one point, I got to the top of a hill and I could see so far out into the distance and it was so beautiful and even though my traversal through the course was both slow and a slog (I didn't even know yet was was going to happen on Sunday) I felt lucky to have a chance to explore this place, that my body could bring myself to this point in space, that I was both alone and also with many other people.

C • Welcome to New England 2

GreenY1 Day 1 - Splits

@ Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

3 miles walk/run easy

@ RPI - Troy, NY

bouldering with Josh at his climbing wall.

drove 7 hours today, hamstring achy the whole way, I hate the car.

@ Rockville swim

10 min warm up, then intervals 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 lengths with 4 lengths rest in the middle. Intended to go all the way down and make it an hour long workout, but I was starving. Swimming makes me hungry.

@ King farm loop

5 miles easy. hamstring better than I thought it would be.

@ Earth Treks Rockville

intro class