Training Log Archive: jtorranc

Once more to work and the Library of Congress - the program this time was a documentary about Antonio Gaudi (scored by Takemitsu, of course) and a documentary about Takemitsu's film music.

Commute plus travel to volunteer at PCRM and then to the library, where I finally got my hands on the two CD set of Shostakovich Ballet Suites I gave them back in the winter (cataloguing took them 6 months, putting it on the shelves another few weeks, then someone else checked it out). I'll have something to listen to driving down to Prince William Forest Park and back on Saturday - some emergency course setting to do.

A replay of Monday except the film at the LOC was "Kwaidan", a set of four ghost stories based on the works of a Greek writer who lived in Japan in the late 1800's. Very eerie score in the first section in particular. Also, the opening credits featured a gorgeous montage of shots of coloured inks dispersing in water.

Routine commute and grocery shopping.

Commute and excursion to Library of Congress to see "Harakiri" - first of 10 films scored by Takemitsu they're showing in the leadup to a 75th anniversary concert of his chamber music in a couple of weekends.

The Venture Quest sprint adventure race is adding a solo category this year. Could be fun if I successfully get over the sticker shock of AR pricing. - No longer an issue since Valerie is gifting me with a complementary entry she's getting in exchange for helping EX2 with timing, etc. I believe she said she had one for a team as well if anyone's interested.

Cycling in the morning from Hemlock to Fountainhead with my race gear.

Venture Quest - short run, lap of mountain biking course, trail run navigating using the O map, brief paddle on inflatable raft, longer paddle in kayak, second lap in reverse direction of bike course, short trek to Tyrolean traverse, shorter kayak, and then a long run up to a zip line at Hemlock before running perhaps 600m to the finish. 2nd overall by 1:17 (minutes and seconds) - I arrived at the zip line to see first place with his harness just about cinched up and concluded I hadn't made up quite enough time on foot after dropping large amounts to the better mountain bikers on the two biking sections. Fun but I should have tried harder to eat and drink early as I was dragging for the last several kilometers on foot. Not that that much off-road cycling wouldn't have had that effect somewhat even if I had been more dutiful about refueling. Compass bezel acquired a mass of bubbles somewhere near the middle of the course - made the nav heading north to Fountainhead somewhat more challenging than it ought to have been.

C • Congrats 3

First dance class in a long while. A master class with the duo performing that evening and the next. They were concentrating on partnering exercises so I ducked out early - I pulled something on the right side of my rib cage a week or so ago and I didn't want to take the chance on someone else manhandling it. Granted I manhandle it plenty but at least I can feel whether it's hurting me.

To Metro (single-tracking Yellow and Blue lines and making everyone switch trains at Pentagon City - arghh!) and from Metro to Valerie's to get a lift out to Hemlock.

Work to bike shop, heavily laden, to pick up my bicycle.

Home on my bike.

Skating in again - won't be doing the homeward leg though as I'll be going to see "Die Bad" (part of a Korean film festival) at the AFI in Silver Spring.

C • 2

Bladed into work today - have to do something with the bike in the shop and don't want to overdo running with Venture Quest on Sunday.

And home - one really runs through brake pad rubber quickly going mostly downhill through the Maryland suburbs and DC.

Picking up the bags from the previous days clinic. Also, what appeared to be a bag left over from the meet I course set here last fall. It was the go control on a few courses, I believe, so I think whoever organised pickup in my absence must have decided they could just walk out and get it any old time, not included it when they divied up the map and then forgot about it. Good in a way since I managed to lose a control somewhere in the woods while I was hanging the bags on Saturday - at least I brought back the same number of bags I borrowed even if the one that's been hanging there for a year isn't quite as pretty as the one I lost.

Green course at Lake Accotink. Most small difficulties due to low visibility in the vegetation. I also wasn't at my most disciplined about doing everything properly - a careless attack on the first control is my only excuse for losing that split and I had a few other lapses. The newly added area east of the dam was fairly bewildering - reading all the details through the undergrowth screen that covered much of that section was hard. Also, I think 13 was mishung slightly south of the end of the ditch in question. Though it wasn't far off and it shouldn't have taken me so long to spot if I'd been scanning in all directions inside the circle as I ought.

After running at Lake Accotink, I headed back to Fountainhead and quickly mapped some bits of the Bull Run Occoquan trail that have never made it onto our Fountainhead West map (from slightly before the trail reaches Wolf Run Shoal Road to just past the first major stream west of there). Not quite to orienteering standards but the pressing need is to get a map stretching from Fountainhead to Hemlock in shape for Venture Quest so that shouldn't matter for the moment.

Green - Splits

Hanging 31 controls for a navigation clinic I put on at Fountainhead aimed at adventure racers preparing for next weekend's Venture Quest sprint race. A holdup in permitting meant this wasn't publicised until 8 days in advance; ended up with 11 participants. Gave then a not-overlong lecture then they had a short yellow/orange course to warm up on, a line-O focusing on reading and following contour handrails, a control picking course, a course with longer legs emphasising route choice and, in case some navigational genius showed up, a memory-O. Let them all work through as much of it as they could or wished to manage in six hours. Just about everyone got through the line-O with one significant parallel error somewhere during it. Most then did part of either the route choice course or the control picking exercise or hybridised the two of them. I believe it was very useful for the adventure racers who had little nav experience but I don't think it was so useful for the one relatively long-time QOC member who registered. Think I'll do this again next year with a longer planning runup and, anticipating higher participation given that, at least one or two QOC members enlisted to help.

C • Cool 11

Commute in then dropping my bicycle off at the shop so many vital transplant operations can be performed. Obtaining the required parts in time for me to have a usable bike in time for Venture Quest may be a bit sketchy.

Commute, trip to watch DC Library Board of Trustees meeting and buying, among other things, some plastic bags to use as map cases for the nav clinic I'm giving for adventure racers on Saturday.

Cycling home with grocery shopping on the way. Somewhat stiff and sore from the weekend with my rib cage being a surprise member of the complaining crew.

Commute in. Left bike at work and walked to Bethesda to see "2046" - just as mesmerising as anticipated, the futuristic scenes being particularly flat-out gorgeous if you like that sort of thing. Presumably boring as hell if you don't.

The Mega - Great fun but also a matter of endurance rather than elan. I punched everything though only the blue ones in separate boxes so I could count them later. This slowed me some what with having to turn the map over at each control to punch. The rest of my slowness I'll blame on the combination of technical terrain and fatigue.

Picking up 23 controls fairly close in (~153 to the one after the radio control).

Event: 2005 Sprint Series Finals
 

Horribly lazy of me but I left my splits at home and I'm not feeling like writing up a detailed account of my bad sprinting at Pawtuckaway. Synopsis: I need to spend more time in Scandinavian terrain and doing a rogaine a week before a big weekend of orienteering is probably not a good idea.

Round 1 Men's Heat 1&2 - Splits

Round 2 Men's Heat 1&2 - Splits

Round 3 - The Finals! - Splits

An extremely easy skating foray from the Georgetown waterfront out and back along the Capital Crescent trail. No sign of Nadim or Rich commuting but I imagine if I did this often enough (more often, admittedly, than is likely anytime soon) early in the evening running into one of the other would be an inevitability.

Commute and search for an apparently no longer existing sporting goods store downtown to buy a replacement brake for my in-line skates and some new pads to replace the antiques I used once more on the last visit to Ottawa. Fortunately, their other location was still where the web said it would be.

Commute. Feeling okay except for my left hamstring (felt fine in the morning then mysteriously started complaining while puttering around work) and a significant likelihood that I'll lose the nail on my right big toe (which got a standard beating plus my teammate stood on it once in the dark).

Rogaine - time walking during the night and morning.

Rogaine - ime running in the forest in the morning.

Rogaine - running along the road back to the finish. Jamie and I made it in with about 5 minutes to go to take second place. I expect we could have won if we'd slept an hour or so less and walked/jogged out along the road to the west end of the map in the dark so we could come back picking up controls once the sun rose, though whether less sleep would have been enough to restore us physically I don't know - my ankles were enormously tired when we dragged ourselves to the hash house at about 1:30am. My being cleaner navigationally might well also have done the trick - we did one fairly big wander on Saturday afternoon that I had to bail out to the road to recover from and some lesser errors. Interestingly, I was cleaner at night due to increased care and choosing more foolproof routes.

Event: The United States National Bushwhacking Championships
 

Rogaine - time walking on the first day.

Time running on first day of the rogaine.

Commute, and volunteering at PCRM/shopping for a higher capacity hydration pack for the rogaine tomorrow on the way home.