Training Log Archive: jjcote

Gunstock, Long course. My official time is something like 25 seconds longer than this because I was taking my sweet time putting the map into my home-brew holder, and didn't start the watch until I finished. Route choices generally probably fine, although I did make one wrong turn and climbed a (relatively short) steep hill before realizing that things didn't look right. No big hurry punching or starting out on each leg.

Interesting note: My ski poles have these funky straps on them that are almost like gloves without fingers. They're great at keeping the pole right where it should be relative to the hand, but they can be inconvenient if you're trying to do anything other than ski, like punch or rotate the map holder. So as I was leaving the ninth control, it occurred to me to take a split, and I realized that because I had been thinking about the straps every time I got to a control, I had neglected to take any splits before that. Or so I thought. When I looked at the watch, I saw that I hadn't missed even a single split, even though I had no recollection of doing it at all. It's that automatic.

After the skiing today, I sort of expected that the push-ups and pull-ups might be a bit tough. But they were fine, and the sit-ups were the hardest. Go figure.

Street-O practice in Newton with Samantha, Ross, and Jeff. Sam drew out a course, and we ran as a group, taking turns navigating the legs. I did the first and fifth legs, then my alloted time was up, so I ran back to the car while the others continued around the rest of the course. Running surface was mostly sidewalks covered with ice and crusty rotten snow, although our little excursion through Edmands Park was an exciting slip-sliding adventure, as the trails were just short of having been Zambonied.

Lane-Horse-... whatever. In The Dark (hatlamp), temperature just below freezing. Got past the laurel jungle via the new route very cleanly. It will be interesting to see what that looks like in the daylight, and I should really do it while there's still snow so that I can follow my tracks. Things went not quite so well after leaving the horse trail. Seemed like I was going the right way, but I wasn't positive. Went some unfamiliar places, including across a pond that I didn't recognize. Figured as long as I kept going, I should eventually hit the Friendly Trail. But then I wound up in a back yard. Hmm, didn't recognize it, so I skirted around it on snowmobile tracks, then went back into the woods, and right away I hit a driveway. Hoped that it was the one that leads to the Friendly Trail, so I followed it to the right, but it went on too long, and I realized that it must be the long driveway to the house on the town line. Damn, I must have drifted way left going up the hill. Continued until I could see a car up ahead, then headed into the woods again, figuring that I could still get to the Friendly Trail. But as I was skirting around the edge of the property, a spotlight appeared from up by the house, and a voice asked, "Who's out there?". I said I was snowshoeing and I was lost, and were we in Townsend? He said yes, and I said okay, and that I live in Lunenburg, and I was sorry about the disturbance. He said no problem, but asked if I didn't think it was a little late to be snowshoeing. What, it was only about 11 PM. Was somebody saying that orienteers are weird? Anyway, shortly after that I found some snowshoe tracks. What the heck, might as well go that way, must lead somewhere. They were following yellow blazes and orange streamers, and they kept going and going. Finally hit a larger trail, which I correctly guessed was the power line trail. But the tracks and blazes also crossed the power line trail. Huh? Where could that go? Have to go back and check that out. Went back via the esker, then followed the 9 Valley driveway out, looking for but not finding any wayward snowshoe tracks on the left side. Took off the snowshoes and jogged back up Gilchrest.

In The Dark (fresh batteries for the hatlamp arrived by UPS today!). Started out on the usual route, but took a different way through the laurel jungle, following the stone wall up from the creek valley, and just about missing all the green to the right. Then when I hit the power line trail, I took it out to the power line, then back to the esker and home. A substantial amount of this was snowmobile tracks, making the snowshoes superfluous. Alternated between a pretty respectable jog and a purposeful marching pace. Surprised to see a few night blazes (reflective tacks) along the stone wall that I took to avoid the laurel. Quite a few footprints out there -- then again, I didn't get up to my secret northern sanctum, where nobody goes but me.

C • Hatlamp or headlamp? 5

C • Paragliding 4

C • Snowshoeing 2