Training Log Archive: Linear Ice

Event: MNOC Camp Ripley Fall Orienteering weekend
 

I really like the way the Ripley weekend was set up. With a sprint, followed by middle, Night-O and regular courses.
Sprint: 1:5000 scale, short distance, easier control location, great introduction back to the map and the terrain and a good way to get my mind back. I also happened to mp. Not once, but twice!!! I believe on 5, I might have folded my map and then forgotten which control I was on, and on 10, I was just looking towards the finish. The first few controls were as planned, slow, paying attention... but then I started having so much fun and my plan was out the window and I started speeding up and got sloppy....lack of discipline? or just having too much fun? probably both.

It was a cold and rainy night........ more later.

I was totally looking forward to Ripley this year; last year this was my introduction to "real" orienteering... meaning that I first realized it was more than aiming at the direction of a control and hoping for the best. And, it was also the first really challenging terrain that I had seen, with a lack of trails and a real NEED to do more than just point and shoot.
I also recall the excitement of the whole event and yet the complete confusion and I was very curious to see how I had improved, since the experience still seems vivid and so it seemed like a great baseline.

And of course, this was the event where I got to meet a good bit of the MNOC team beyond very short conversations at start/finish of local events. What a pleasant surprise that a sport that has individuals running in the woods in remote locations can be so sociable! Cookout, barracks, Molly's game.... all great memories from last year that were great again this time.

Middle - Splits

I took Alice and Rita for a hike through the back woods. They were going to be spending the weekend alone while I got to go to Ripley, so this was their time out for some fun and attention.
All the itchweed and foliage is gone and it's a perfect time to assess my terrain route and see if it can be expanded from its single out and back track to perhaps a loop along each side of the creek. The terrain has some quirky banks and spurs and deadfall areas that might make this a bit tricky, but I think it can be done.

I have chest congestion due to my cold, so I took it easy on this warm(ish) October eve. I like the smell of the leaves and the crunch crunch.

I was trying to make up the 10 minutes on either Eileen or Trisha, but that was kind of hard to do after taking 35 minutes on the first leg!! Yeah... this race, not so good. I must've run pretty close to the control on 1. I simplified the leg and just ran.... it looked pretty straightforward. Somehow I missed the control and ended up a looooooong way away (not in one jaunt, but after concerted effort to spiral away). I heard someone say "well, at least now we know what green on the map looks like" Huh? Green was at least a couple hundred meters South of where I wanted to be!
For the rest of the course, I varied between trying very hard to use my best orienteering techniques at the appropriate time, while staying smooth and clean, and just walking and picking up details as I went along.
What a MAP! I did like it, but I also hated it.
I had a few good tumbles. I slid down a steep muddy embankment. How long? Long enough to think , "Oh, poor maprunner, now I know how scared she must've felt yesterday when she took her MUCH worse head over heels tumble on rocks", and then I thought, "It looked like more fun sliding down a gully when Indiana Jones did it", and then I thought "wow, all my stuff is getting really dirty and this soil sure looks fertile" and then I thought "good think I wore my O-pants instead of shorts, although I didn't need them for the underbrush- except they sure are slippery" and then I thought "I hope I don't break my compass and ooops there goes my map". That's how long it was. About 30 feet.
Oddly, it kind of relaxed and focused me. At least for a short while.
I had some good legs, but a good leg can not possibly make up for a bad bad leg, and had several of those too. Even after the Control 1 Explosion.
So, this was a very bad race, timewise.
I know I could not have completed this a year ago and that feels good, but mostly it was a bit depressing to be hoping for a decent time and to end up near the bottom.
Still-- Really, really good orienteering.

I just put my maps away, and glanced at the local maps too. Suddenly the local maps (except Ripley) look much easier to read. Hope that's true when I need to run with them again!

200 m climb hike to start, then jog back and forth in terrain a bit to get warmed up and head ready

Day 2 Green Y - Splits