Training Log Archive: AliC

Event: 2013 U.S. Individual Championships/Team Trials
 

US Champs Sprint @ Camp Wakpominee

Not terrible, but not great. Mistake on super-short control #6 of 25s hurts.... least please by that. Also didn't select the best route choice to #2, although mine wasn't that bad, in the end. Could have also done better taking trails to #4, longer on trails to #15 and better direction to #11.

QuickRoute

Sprint Red - Splits

Feel like being all congested from allergies has perhaps caused a sinus infection. Not cool! But maybe it'll disperse super-quickly because it's not illness season? Hope so. Drinking lots of water and tea and blowing my nose to rid it of blech.

C • sinuses 3

Woke up at 5am in Hamilton, at work in Toledo by 10.15am, not bad! No-wait border crossing at Sarnia, but a bit of traffic near Detroit, even though I tried to give it a wide berth.

Blah! Poison ivy rash is just getting worse, so swung by Rite-Aid and picked up some Tecnu (does it or doesn't it work if you already have the rash?). Then continued on to Wildwood for a little run with some cruise-y tempos (2 x 10 min) mixed in. Lots of folks about and the floodplain is back un-flooded. Read a Moreau map from Classic champs as I went around.

C • Maybe go to the doctor and ... 12

Ankle plyos. I had good momentum on the twisty jumps today. But maybe I was cheating by having my feet too far apart...

Woo! Morning o-training with Hammer. Awesome to be out, and some good line-o and then control-picky times. Tripped off the line of the line-o once or twice and had problems with one control-pick control, was just a bit low and didn't look up... Great to be weekday-orienteering!

C • Your Garmin? 5

Tuesday Night Training - warm up loop around the fields with the crew, then partnertervals! Partner one takes off, does a loop, then partner two joins in for a second loop, and partner one drops off, leaving partner two on her/his lonesome. And then keep going, a really nice way to do it! I teamed up with turbo, perfectly good pace for them and great to have the chance to do intervals with people!

Afterwards did a little talk about how I ended up where I am as an athlete and an astronomer to a group of 10 or so of the most dedicated ARK kids, hopefully was good! Also learned that really I should be opting for lactose-free milk over soymilk thanks to Mark T.

Morning pre-conference joggeroo. Beautiful morning, and beautiful little run out Sassafras Point. And talk went a-ok later on too!

C • Churchill Field 2

Event: SMOC - 2013 Spring Halfmoon Lake
 

Warm up, Garmin seems to not be a happy camper... hm, will let it try to dry out...

Red course at Halfmoon Lake

We could just call this one a battle. Out of 13 controls, I'd say the score was 7-6 for me versus the course. But it wins in reality because I never found the darn 13th control, despite feeling pretty sure I'd checked all the veg boundary that could be reasonably considered to be in the circle. But the veg boundary on a clearing that's mostly grown in is maybe not so clear...

Anyways, regardless of the just lots of thick, I got totally lost for the first time this spring, which I think was all my own doing. I crossed a marsh from 3-4 going north-east instead of just straight north and so ended up on a different bit of land than I thought and for a good long time, nothing made sense... Embarrassed by how long it took me to relocate!!

Other controls the course won:
1 - Well, the control wasn't there. So I moved on.
2 - The woods didn't look so green, so cruised through them, just hesitated in the circle because a sweep up and down in the reentrant didn't reveal the control. Ah, hidden at a tree.
4- My totally and utterly lost one. Was just too eager to get across the linear marsh and didn't pay attn to direction!! Bah!
6 - I got across the marsh, but then failed to note that the control was on hill top and not reentrant in the circle, so bushwacked in some gross green in the reentrant for awhile.
10- Slightly off to the north for starters, then the marsh helped me, but took awhile to find the control in the thick.
13 - Um, yeah, didn't find it. Lew promised it was on the north side of some big pine tree. I'm pretty sure I searched all that veg boundary in the circle (some guidance on which of the two boundaries, or maybe if it was on any particular corner/edge would have been welcome...)

C • ~#13's been used before 7

Putting the first control where it should be, after confirming with Lew that it wasn't in the right place.

After some 4h of driving and a border crossing, arrived at the next training, just a bit late. Said hi to Hammer and jogged out with him to the start of a first training, something Sergei L had set before jetting off to Europe!

Whoa, different and fun terrain! Rocky Ridge map, home of the 2006 NAOC Middle. But first, this other course. Getting used to the flatness and the rock features. I did ok, but was a bit wimpy with the swamp crossings, because they were super-full.

Detoured the wrong way from 11, similar to this morning's error. More looking at direction, I guess? Or when a feature forks, really make sure you're going to the right one.

A blast! Hammer had hung out new streamers for the NAOC 2006 Middle. I knew I was tired, so I opted to just run the first 7, but to run them as well as I could. The course was really fun and having Mike shadow me really made me focus, even at the end of a pretty long training weekend.

Spiked most, hesitated at 2, because I thought it was on the cliff not the boulder. Maybe a bit hesitant to 5 on the approach and also 6, which I was almost trying to leave the area of before seeing the streamer! I also felt slightly not sure of everything coming into 7, and thus a bit worried indeed when I didn't see a streamer where I expected. I made my way to the rocky hill top just NW of the control and was trying to relocate, but everything located me to exactly where I thought I was. Turns out the streamer was just very slightly off in a nearby reentrant, phew!

Many thanks to Hammer for an awesome afternoon training!!

C • Middle 2

Yeehaw! First Adventure Race! With Barbara at the Get Your Bearings race at Bishop Lake. (Yes, where I'm planning o-courses for in 2 weeks, but no, that doesn't seem to DQ one for AR...) We came in 2nd overall by 5min and first double-female team!

But hmph because Garmin died some portion of the way into it, I guess while orienteering. Probably my fault for not fully charging plus having on 1sec recording! It also got quite wet in paddling section due to some swimming through marsh and now looks all funky. Probably should have plastic baggied it and put in bag, at least for the potentially wet sections....

So this really was a blast. We opted to 'trek' first, doing 3-2-1 along with a good troop of others (you could chose to paddle or trek first, and what order you did the controls.) Opted for the more direct marshy route, 'cause we're tough. Then paddle times. Barbara did a great job keeping straight lines and effectively dodging other boats in the narrow passage. I jumped overboard to nab a control that canoes were lined up for, which was probably a smidge quicker, but not terribly so, because I ended up blocked in by a canoe and wasn't enough dedicated to submerge myself in the totally blech gross marshy water.... In total, we were 3rd or 4th for this split (1h02, only timed to the minute).

Next biking, which we sailed through, even if a few teams were faster. The control in the pine plantation was totally my fav. Getting to bike truly off-road and off-path, woo! We cut one switch back of the bike trails, but generally that didn't seem that worth it, better to go with the flow of the one-direction singletrack. 4th fastest bike split in 0h52.

And then time to play o! Erm, treking I mean. =) I'd planned the route before hand, since you have oodles of time to do that, and Barbara and I pretty much did just as planned, cruising around. Kinda wished I had long pants on though! A 2nd fastest split on this moved us into 2nd overall, fun to come in and ring the cowbell. Love that as a finish mechanism!!

C • excellent start to your AR career :) 2

C • Halgofs Silva won the Africa ARWS qualifier 3