Training Log Archive: iansmith

Despite a cold, rainy morning - a steady rain, 12 C - I set out to run the Skyline anticlockwise. I suspected that conditions would preclude anyone from joining me, but I didn't want to abandon my quest in the off-chance that someone would meet me. Unfortunately, I didn't arrive at Bellevue until 9:45, biking gingerly. I was chilled biking even with tights and a synthetic long sleeve. I left my tights with my bike, but ran with the long sleeves out of concern that I would get cold. I think I would have been fine with just short sleeves, but once I started running, I had to keep the long shirt on lest it get cold as I carried it.

The trail was a bit slippery. I ran about six minutes slower than last week; the three salient factors are the conditions, the race yesterday, and that I was running alone. I saw a handful of other runners, and about twice as many hikers.

C • Good job 5

Event: NEOC: Great Brook Farm
 

A quick warmup - I ran five circuits of the parking lot and did a few drills to wake up my legs.

Great Brook Farm Red course, set by Tim Parson. My orienteering career began with an orange course at Great Brook Farm on September 16, 2007. As I intended to stay to pick up controls, Keith, Anna and I arrived at GBF at about 11:50. The course information lists the registration and start windows as 10 - 12, with courses closing at 2. This was my doing, and it was designed to influence people's planning; whether someone can start is at the discretion of the meet director. I'm pretty sure a director wouldn't stop anyone from starting - it's public land, after all; each participant is informed that control pickup will begin at 2, and that's that.

I ran aggressively, and while my stamina was more than sufficient, I wasn't particularly speedy. I failed to distinguish myself on the trail legs - 13 and 19, e.g. While I didn't have any huge errors, I had numerous small hesitations (see comments) due to insufficient planning. I didn't wear Garmin, so I will post my drawn route later.

Conclusions:
- More o-training. Practice on good flow and precise in-circle activity.
- Run faster. Seriously, slower than 5 min/km on trails? Lame.
- Make good decisions while running faster. Overspeed O-intervals.

While my strat is to do more base running (and in a less pathetic way than this past week), I wonder if I should incorporate some volume of threshold and VO2 max running. Thoughts?

Control pickup. Keith grabbed the nine controls in the technical area, and I picked up those south of the road (excepting those that Alex and Tim were getting). About half of mine were on trails, and the other half were technical. I reran 9-12, and while I executed 12 cleanly, it was sluggish moving through the vague vegetation in that area. Great Brook Farm is a solid NEOC map - primarily because Tim and Bill have worked hard at keeping it up to date. It also has a good mix of terrain types - lots of easy, open trails for beginner courses, plenty of catching features for intermediate courses, and some technical sections for advanced courses. The event is always a draw, and this weekend's attendance suggests that the popularity is not related to "National Orienteering Day," which the majority of attendees probably don't know about.

Red - Splits

A belated log entry: on Sept 16, a stalwart crew of comrades helped me move my furniture and various belongings into my apartment, saving me tremendous labor. Their assistance was invaluable, and made the entire endeavor almost trivial. I owe them much gratitude.

Also, it's always a good time for Rach 2, II.

C • an email 1

I went on an easy, uneventful evening run. I ventured into atypical territory, and ran somewhat farther than the 40-45 minutes I had planned. I felt generally good - with a slight niggle in my right heel, probably related to plantar fascia action. I will be good about using Wyatt's healing boot of power during the night for the near future. I kept to 4/4 breathing for essentially all the run.

I listened to Pacific Crucible - a book I have read before, but an interesting history of a tumultuous period. I first read about the pacific theater of World War II when I was young - some reading of the carrier war at age 8. At the time, I had only the vaguest grasp of what was involved; certainly my comprehension of death and the horrors of war was undeveloped. It was some time before I understood sequences of battles, tactics, execution, and strategy. Theater-wide strategy is the most challenging problem, and it is too easy to frown upon poor tactics in hindsight. Games like Starcraft are excellent ways of posing the same problems in a more accessible way.

I would really like to run the Highlander, but the volume of training I have put in over the past few months isn't enough to justify it. There are also advantages to running the Lowlander - it is a distance that I run at long competitions but seldom practice. Still, it's disappointing to not go the distance.

Ghettotrack.

C • lowlander 2

I received a call from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health asking a set of anonymous survey questions about my health. I enjoy participating in these sorts of surveys, and I hope the data is revealing about the problems the US currently faces. I asked, and while this survey was conducted by MA, it is being run nationwide by the appropriate entities. I suspect the survey was this guy.

I wonder if doing surveys within an orienteering club or by the national federation would be a good way to profile its membership. It would be somewhat straightforward to compare the NEOC membership list to the list of results from A-meets to determine how many NEOC members are going to A-meets, e.g., but understanding what members are looking for on the schedule, where their interests lie, and what motivates them to go to events would be revealing. Barb proposed this idea to the Board in 2011, but it never materialized for somewhat ambiguous reasons.

C • I wonder if doing surveys within an orienteering club 1

I went on a long, easy run from work to home via Tufts. Ghettotrack.

Event: Canceled: NEOC: High Rock
 

Middlesex Fells Skyline run with Ali, Brendan, and Andy D. I haven't run the Skyline since March 24, and it was delightful to get out on a magnificent section of trail. The day was gorgeous - slightly cool, and sunny. I will steal Ali's gpx track when she posts it. We ran clockwise and lost the route a few times. Afterward, Ali, Brendan and I picked up sandwiches at Angelina's Pizzeria in Davis.

Event: NEOC: Nobscot Night-O
 

I ran a 3k time trial with Ali to gauge fitness. We started simultaneously, and I hung with her for the first km, but gradually fell back over the next two. I felt sluggish, but it's hard to pinpoint exactly what seemed to be the limiting factor. Usually, I can break down constraints in terms of breathing, muscle weakness or lactate, and energy; today, I seemed lacking in all three. My plan has been to build up my base lately, but while I have cut back on speedwork, I haven't succeeded in maintain a regular running schedule. Running such a sluggish 3k should be good motivation for the months ahead.

Warmup before the 3k time trial - some easy laps at around 5:00/km, about eight minutes of Ali's drills (high knees, butt kicks, side skipping, karaokes, running backwards, and leaps). I felt sluggish, probably from a lack of sleep and lack of training. We then ran 800m with alternating 100m strides, 100m easy.

Cool down jog around the fields. There was a carnival happening at Danehy, with booths, a jumping castle, and various activities.

Easy warmup jog with Magnus around the parking lot at Nobscot.

Nobscot Night-O, set by Alex and Ed. I started reasonably well, but started making mistakes which quickly took their toll. My old weak 3xAAA headlamp broke recently when one of the batteries leaked, so I purchased a new 3xAAA 90-lumen headlamp. Even if I acquire a powerful lamp for Night-O, this light will be useful for camping and sating my flashlight enthusiasm. The light was adequate, but something more powerful would have helped.

Routes and execution to 1 and 2 were good.
To 3: I took the obvious trail route, but hesitated in the circle after a weak attackpoint off the trail bend. I should have paid more attention to the contours and used the three small hills to vector in.
To 4: I considered going through the start, but took the worse route choice of running along a major trail to south of the control, then bashing through a marsh. I hit the control ok, but was slow moving through the vegetation.
To 5: Straight, ok.
6: I think straight on the line would have worked acceptably, but Markku and I had chatted about the greater advantage of trails at night. I ran left to the trail-wall junction, then up the reentrant, just south of the marsh edge, to the trail and in.
7: I ran along the trail and had a terrible attackpoint (poor guess based on the bend and the hill to the left). I went into the wrong reentrant and hesitated for about 30s before correcting.
8: Down to the trail junction, up over the nose, and in. Clean.
9: Left route; clean, albeit hesitant on the attack.
10: Charged up the hill straight on the line, missing the trail to the left I was planning to hit. I hit the trail about 100m south of the control, and had to stop to figure out which trail junction I was on. 2:00 error
11: fumbled around on trail junctions before picking the way I wanted to go, then bobbled inside the circle looking at smaller cliffs before hitting the lower, bigger 3m cliff. 1:00 error
12: Hesitant, reeling from my mistakes.
13: I somehow missed the trail left of the line entirely and skirted farther to the left. Despite guessing that I had gone left and correcting right, I didn't see the control on my descent, so after hitting the trail, I ran right to the cliff and went up. 1:15 error.
14: Good on the trivial trail running, but didn't see the contour line under the circle and underestimated how high the flag was. I must have run on the north edge of the circle before seeing the steep descent past the control; I doubled back and hit it. 1:00 error.
15: Down the trail, still smarting from my mistakes. I came across what could have been a rock wall (my attackpoint), but was nothing but a pile of rocks. 1:00 error.
16: Fine; trail left of the line and up over the spur.

Overall, not my finest day, but it was a fun course. This year has two Night-Os based on the fact that lots of people seemed to enjoy the event last year. It might be better to have one night-O in each season rather than two in the fall two weeks apart; even with 65-ish people attending, Night-O is not everyone's cup of tea. Thanks to Ed and Alex for a fun time.

C • two in one season 1

Long - Splits

Easy run to work. I carried a small backpack, which left red marks where the narrow straps crossed my shoulders. I kept to 3/3 breathing.

Ghettotrack.

I ran home in the rain. I would have gone on a longer run, but it was pouring, and I was carrying a bag-o'-stuff. I was thoroughly drenched about a minute into the run, but due to packing geometry, most of the stuff in my bag stayed dry.

Evening cruise around Somervilleburg. In a display of minimalism, I ran both without gps and without a watch (as I couldn't find my watch); the time is an estimate based on checking my phone before and after my run. On my way up Walnut St, I observed two enormous bushy cats marching down the street; as I closed, I realized the were raccoons. We all three briefly paused and regarded each other, as if the raccoons were saying "sup." They then waddled off to whatever shenanigans or evening festivities in which raccoons partake.

Route. Need to get 305 fixed.

C • 11PM 14

Event: NEOC: Boojum Rock
 

It turns out that moving furniture is much easier with friends. Thanks a bunch to Stephen, Alex, Ed, and Magnus for carrying all my junk into my apartment. The highlight was bringing the legendary Couch of Many Tribulations in through the fire escape. The most work I did was calling the pizza place to arrange for subsequent noms. I estimate the endeavor took about three man hours, not including travel time.

At my suggestion, Giacomo took on the task of designing courses for the Boojum Rock National O-Day meet. In my negotiations with DCR for land use permission, the issue of vernal pools came up; I offered some suggestions to Giacomo on his courses and changed a few legs to avoid vernal pools.

We left Cambridge at 8 AM, drove to Boojum, and set 34 controls. I think I divided up the controls suboptimally. We stopped on the far side of the map from the start and each took about five controls. After hanging those and the water, I dropped Giacomo off on the south side with ten controls, hung two myself, and drove to the start to rendezvous with Joanne (who was directing) and the crew of meet workers. I then ran off with the last ten white/yellow controls and with a little help from Mika and Giacomo upon his return, got everything set. Unfortunately, the last white control went up at about 10:10, and I didn't return to the start until a few minutes afterward.

The meet itself went well; while the courses were challenging and the woods thick in places, people seemed to enjoy themselves. It's still frustrating to fail; our plan was good, but an extra half-hour would have made tremendous difference. It also would have been helpful to have a mechanism to carry more than 10 controls; I could imagine dropping Giacomo off with fifteen on the far side of the map, then driving to the start and taking care of the rest.

Thanks to everyone who helped out; apart from course setting, Giacomo and I didn't have much to do. Special thanks to Mika, for setting a string-O and helping with control pickup, Jim and Raina Crawford for running the results, and Joanne, Pete, and Andy for de facto directing the meet.

Courses closed at 2 PM - a while ago, I decided that leaving courses open until 3 was silly, as the last hour was typically spent waiting for a handful of people. Even 2 PM may be unnecessarily long, but control picker-uppers can leave for their most remote controls at 1:45-ish and start at 2.

A group disassembled the meet site, Andy and a few others waiting for the last stragglers, I left Andy in charge of dividing up the control pickup, and I set out for the furthest sector. I picked up eleven controls, left the water stop garbage by the road, and looped back. Giacomo, Mika, and Andy picked up the last controls, and Giacomo and I left the meet site at around 3:15.

Optimizing event scheduling and logistics

My efforts to make our events more efficient has run into the desire for a higher grade event site. I think at this meet, we had five tables, a tent, a handful of chairs, start/registration boxes, a generator, the computer, a printer, a monitor and stand, a big extension cord, and some signs. Oh, and the flags and e-punch units. Also, the course setters had an eight hour day. The day of the event used up about maybe 40 man-hours, with an additional 20 in planning, vetting, map printing, etc. This is ridiculous; the benefit from the meet was probably 120 orienteering hours.

What's the solution? There are a set of people who are willing to take on projects like directing a meet once or even twice a year - they are the lifeblood of our sport. My scheduling has been very ambitious, and I think I have exceeded the optimal capacity of the club. Instead of 35-40 events per year, 25-30 is attainable - emphasizing quality and sustainability instead of quantity. Perhaps a third to half can be large scale local meets with all the bells and whistles on the best, most accessible maps. The rest can be smaller - no compromises on courses, but minimal equipment, less volunteer intensive. For each map, a set of vetted control sites can be maintained to simplify course setting - though at least one trip to the woods is probably necessary, or at least a cursory familiarity with all the information the map doesn't provide. Maybe each meet needs a setup group and a take-down group so people don't have to hang out at a meet site for six hours.

The data also suggests that having two geographically proximal events in one weekend is unnecessary, and reduces the number of attendees at each event. The set of people who want to go orienteering twice in one weekend is fairly small, particularly among the casual crowd that is the bulk of NEOC. Additional thoughts welcome.

C • two events per weekend 8

Event: NEOC: Turtle Pond
 

I showed up at the Turtle Pond meet at 9:30, partly because I had received an e-mail from Peter Amram the day before outlining the event schedule and noticed that I was on it. I had intended to not have any responsibilities so I would be available to step in if need arose. It turned out that Peter had planned on me helping out with control setting, so I grabbed the ten controls that were waiting and scampered out to hang them. Bo Nielsen was also hanging; the control locations were very accessible from the trails in the park, so it didn't take long.

After hanging controls, I chatted with the orienteers arriving for the meet. A cadre of usual suspects was running the meet site, with a large tent and something like five tables.

I warmed up for about five minutes - I figured that the run out and back from setting controls substituted for a more thorough warmup, and set out on sprint 1. I had minimized the data I collected from the map while I was setting, and the course was novel. The course consisted predominantly of trail running, with a few controls off-trail. The park doesn't lend itself to more creative use - much of the vegetation off-trail is thick, but I would have approached the course setting differently.

There were still challenges and opportunities for mistakes. I lost a few seconds at 2 because I left control 1 in a suboptimal direction. At (3), I hit a broad boulder in the circle and paused before noticing the correct boulder about 40m to the south. I think they should both be on the map, but the map is outdated. I had a 30s error at 5 where I attacked too early and had to backtrack to get around a thick marsh. On ten, after charging over a hill, I descended to the wrong boulder and had to bounce out to a trail to get around some green briar. I got creative to 12 and decided to bash through about 200m of woods rather than take the trail around; I missed far to my right, passing by control 4, while punching through and lost perhaps 30s.

It was good to revisit Turtle Pond, but I think the map needs some substantial updating before using it again. It might also be better to use a larger section of the map to invite more variety in course setting.

C • Turtle pond map 4

Smarting from my loss to Giovanni in Sprint 1, I resolved to focus entirely on racing fast rather than exploring a map. Even with all the trails, the event was still a sprint, with lots of direction changes and quick decisions. I set a goal of having good flow, quick reactions, and a solid plan in and out of each control.

I ran hard to 1, and made a good route choice cutting some woods to a trail to 2. I made a bad decision to run on the left trail option rather than the faster right to 4, probably losing 20s. I slightly overshot and climbed too high to 5 for 10s loss. Control six was a disaster due to a poor attack and a fuzzy map; the feature was a cliff in a line of cliffs along a river, and the feature wasn't terribly distinctive. I overshot after attacking and ran south for perhaps 60m before doubling back; I probably lost 30s, but it would seem that no one executed that control well. I think it was in the correct spot relative to the nearby trail junction. I passed Ben and his parents on the way to 8, and then chose to leave the trail early to 9 by attacking from the cliffs. Had visibility been good, my route would have been optimal, but as it was, I couldn't see the boulder and lost 20s ambling around in the vegetation.

My performance was middling at best, but has to be interpreted in the light of an older, vague map. It is my recommendation that Turtle Pond not be used again until it has received some mapping attention. I have run on the map before, and I maintain that it is sufficiently interesting and convenient to be used for sprints and WYO instruction. It's like a slightly bigger, more complex, gnarly Menotomy Rocks, and especially in the spring, it could be useful. It falls short of Hammond Pond in terms of quality of orienteering, but diversity is attractive.

C • Exploring the map? 1

C • #6 2

After Turtle Pond, I drove to High Rock in Foxborough and wandered around on the map. There are numerous mountain bike trails that are not on the 20-year old map; as mountain biking is encouraged and the network is complex, it would make for a fantastic MTB-O. Given its age, I am very impressed with the map quality, and the terrain is very interesting despite the trails. While the vegetation can be nasty in places, it's on average a fair bit better than the Fells (e.g.) or Hale Reservation, and it's big enough to set a very good 8-10 km course.

Sprint #1 - Splits

Sprint #2 - Splits

Checking control sites for Boojum. I was very dehydrated by the end of my excursion, and my will waned.

It took about 72 hours for my legs to feel normal again after the strength training on Monday. The rest of my week was a disaster, brought about by busyness at work and perturbations to my schedule. I have much to learn.

I found this perspective interesting: an exposition on what motivates Tove to compete at the highest level, to strive to be the very best. From the translation: "I do not need a scoreboard to know if I should be happy or not."

C • Wise thoughts 7

Keep checking for Camping weekend results:
http://upnoor.org/results/2012_results.html

It turns out that this is the fourth Camping weekend I attended - I have been to every weekend since I started orienteering except 2010, when my tibia was broken. My results haven't been great, though the results from the first course of the weekend have been steadily improving. That the others have not is clear implication that I need to do more long runs, and have more base in general.

C • UNO results 3

Rest after Pawtuckaway and strength. My legs feel like jelly, though unfortunately not the kind of jelly you can put on toast. I had a recovery pizza, and I will attack the rest of the week with renewed vigor. I am still failing to attain my goal of 8 hours of sleep per night. I often set optimistic alarms, with bold visions of getting to work by 7:30, going for a run at 6:30, etc. When my body wakes to deactivate my alarms, in my barely conscious stupor, my will is insufficient to overcome my body's complete disregard for my wishes. It's as if my brain were to say "Well, we could conform to your best laid plans and delusions of grandeur, or maybe we'll just go back to bed for another hour instead. Yeah. I'm going to need you to come in on Saturday, etc."

To begin my gym session at War Memorial, I ran for 5k on a treadmill starting at 5 mph and peaking at 7 mph with a 2' grade (presumably a slope of 0.02). I listened to the September 8 podcast of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. I weighed in at a comfortable 179 lbs, though I was probably a bit dehydrated.

An assorted workout that was poorly optimized according to exercises, weights, and repetitions. I didn't have anything to record the set of exercises or much of a plan beyond a desire to strengthen my legs; next session will be better prepared.

Exercises:
Three sets of:
- 10 squats with bar, +85 lbs
- 10 deadlifts, + 70 lbs
- 10 (x2) box step-ups, +70 lbs
- 10 lateral dumbbell raises, + 10 lbs
- 10 (x2) lunges, +30 lbs
- 10 bicep curls, +10 lbs

Two sets of:
- 15 (x2) clean and presses, +35 lb kettlebell

Three sets of:
- 15 calf raises, +40 lbs
- 30s wall sits (ow ow ow)

I started the UNO Camping Weekend Red Ultralong, but felt really tired while I was 2/3 of the way through the leg to 4. I decided it would be best to bail out, and stopped by the blue ultralong controls 12, 11, 8, and 9 on my way to the finish.

Event: UNO Camping Weekend
 

Blue Middle Distance course at UNO's Pawtuckaway Camping weekend. I started out by remembering how to orienteer; I lost about forty five seconds combined on the first three controls. Things started clicking, but I was bumbling around in the woods much more than was necessary, particularly on a middle distance course with simple, short legs. I accidentally crossed to the west side of a marsh en route to 5. I hesitated running up the spur to 6 to be sure of my position. I ran south of the marsh to 7 (which I thought was optimal), and was ok on 8-9. I was sluggish descending to 10, as I didn't want to miss it and blast past. I ran north of the marsh to 13, which while longer, avoided a marsh crossing and a steep hillside. I finished with two spectacular errors of about thirty seconds each on 18 and 19; on the first, I let myself get distracted by a white control on a nearby knoll. On the second, I didn't have a great attackpoint and assumed it would be easy. There were enough boulders near the pavilion that it took some effort to discriminate among them.

Overall, my orienteering performance wasn't fantastic. I ran fairly hard and managed to have a cleaner run than a sleepy Giacomo and the rest of the field.

C • that white control 5

Canoe-O with bgallup. We mass started with Giacomo and Ethan and had similar plans for at least the first half dozen controls. There was a vicious south wind that slowed us making the east-west traverse from 5 and 6 to 8 and 10. Part of the motivation of our figure-8 loop was to take shelter from the wind behind horse island and to have a long south-north leg with the wind at our backs.

Ben proved his mettle by driving hard the entire way. The racing canoe paddle technique was unfamiliar, but he beasted while I chirped suggestions. We decided to bail on control 14 and finished with 13 total; it's questionable whether we could have gotten it in the four minute cushion we had, but I think it was prudent to avoid the penalties. Control 13 lacked a pin punch.

The Pawtuckaway lake doesn't really lend itself to splitting tactics. Ben (and Giacomo) ran to 1 while I paddled solo up to a rendezvous point. Ben had to disembark to get 12, but we got all the other controls together from the boat. When last I checked, we were in second behind Aims and JJ, who got all 14 controls in 47 minutes under ideal conditions with no wind and a questionable drug test result. My GPX track is shamelessly stolen from bgallup.

C • drug test 1

JJ's Wicked Hard Night-O from the UNO Camping Weekend. The course was novel, though on the easier of the difficulty distribution of historical WHNOs. The controls were geographically grouped into sets of three - controls 1, 2, and 3 were proximal; 4, 5, and 6 were a triplet, etc. The triplets had to be taken in order, but the controls within a triple could be taken in any order. My headlamp, which I have not used in months, turned out to be destroyed - at least one of the batteries had ruptured in the case, and there was damage to the lamp housing. I ran instead with my bright Fenix TK35 held in my hand. It had rained intermittently through the evening, but I think it was dry when we started.

The first leg was a km+ trail leg, and I moved into the lead with Giacomo and Ethan nearby. Neil got creative and tried to cut the leg, but we headed him off. Ethan decided to run 2-1-3; Giacomo, Neil and I ran 1-3-2. I had a weak attack to 1 and punched behind Giacomo, but I had the lead when we left 2 on the long leg to 4. Giacomo and I were together, and Ben had attached himself to us. We missed the spit of land across the lakes and had to hack through some reeds; we ran into Giovanni here, who seemed to be going in the wrong direction.

By the time we reached 4, the rain had become torrential, and visibility was reduced. We saw Giovanni again when we missed our marsh handrail poorly. Our trio punched 4 and ran into a confused Neil about 50m past 4; he ran back to get 4 and caught up to us by 5, where we found Giovanni. The five of us took slightly deviating routes to 6 but converged there. We lost Giovanni, who decided he was happy with his outing and made the 2 km+ run back to the start. Our merry quartet ran the 2.3 km leg to 7 without incident, though we did break up into two groups and reconverge well before the control. Controls 9 and 8 were uneventful; at 8, Giacomo decided to go "Hunger Games" on us and broke away from the pack. Ben and I followed Neil out of 8, and I decided to adjust my plan after some consideration. Neil had gone out of sight when our routes diverged; I probably should have stuck to my plan, but I instead bailed to the road. Through a swamp. Yay dumbness.

Anyway, Ben and I marched along and executed the rest of the controls fine, but finished about five minutes behind Giacomo. At the start of the race, I had planned to try to break away from the pack and run the race solo. I'm still somewhat inexperienced at Night-O, and having company through the deluge in Pawtuckaway in the dark was pleasant. Ben showed great toughness plowing through the night, and only majorly lost contact once. GPS track again shamelessly stolen from bgallup.

Blue middle - Splits

135 wpm

On an unrelated note, has anyone on attackpoint seen my thermarest? It's green, full size (72" long or whatever), and looks a lot like Neil's.

I took a rest day because my body felt tired - possibly from the weekend, from insufficient sleep, from an imbalanced diet, or from the stress of trying to be unimaginative. Day 2 of Cactipocalypse continued, but I gave Nikola a rest day to prepare him for future treatment.

C • thermarest 3

It appears that Nikola Tesla the cactus has a pretty bad case of mealy bugs. As attackpoint is conveniently integrated into my life already, I will use it to document treatment efforts. The infestation is extensive (and observation gives me the hibbly-jibblies). I intend to ultimately use a combination of topical alcohol, capsaicin, and the insecticide verticel to treat Nikola.

Day 1 Treatment: I removed around fifty mealy bugs and much accumulated cottonlike secretion covering the top part of the cactus using tweezers. I left an application of 70% ethanol spray on for two hours, then rinsed it off with water. I mean to leave the cactus alone tomorrow to let it recover, then apply more alcohol. I have some concerns about killing the cactus, but there already is discoloring and deterioration on the outside of the cactus.

C • Careful - straight alcohol ... 14

Late night run home. I felt sluggish - even at my lumbering pace, I had to ramp up to 3-3 breathing. I may not be well rested; I have not been sleeping well of late. I pondered novel ways of destroying mealy bugs, including a collimated microwave gun that I could move along the outer edge of Nikola - hopefully frying the little bugs without cooking the cactus.

As I set out for the first run from my new apartment, I was struck with an unimaginative sense of loss since my gimpy Garmin would not accompany me. Despite the absence of pace data with which to regulate my run, I clung to the same banal speed at which I have been cruising of late. My mind turned to the prosaic, and I elected to purchase a half gallon of chocolate milk upon my return to my abode.

In other news, I am excited about the Camping Weekend, which has been the traditional kick off of the fall orienteering season for me. I have also acquired SCH3 for my Droid phone, which will doubtlessly compromise my productivity. Groupies are incredibly flimsy.

My body is clearly still tired from the past week, which I must remedy if I hope to have a productive training fall. Soon I shall face ken "Swiss Watch" walker and test my mettle against user_1.

YYZ-BOS.

Three of my top four ranked races on attackpoint are corn maze races. Perhaps I'm in the wrong sport? Maybe it's time to become a full time professional Corn Maze Orienteer. Hopefully the rankings will be posted soon.

I suppose this video would be considered art, not unlike its prequel and sequel.

C • rankings 4

Ali and I continued our morning training routine at Lake Kahshe. We canoed from the cottage, Ali set out on her roll, and I went for a run. The run was relaxing, and I savored the rolling hills along the rim of the lake. I began at a very gentle pace and gradually accelerated to cruising speed. I finished with 6x30s strides and felt strong.

Canoeing to and from training; we stopped at Ali's cousin's cottage to say hello.

Event: NEOC: Beaver Brook Urban Rogaine
 

After a long drive to Canada, some much needed sleep, and a very sluggish morning on my part, Ali and I went for a long run. The cottage isn't on a road, so we first had to canoe for about fifteen minutes to get to the entrance to the lake. The pace was probably a bit higher than I should have pursued, but I liked the challenge, and managed to hold everything together. My breathing for most of the trip was 4/4, with periods at 3/3, 3/2, and 2/2 on uphills.

In general, I feel fatigued and sore; this week has not been forgiving. A few good nights of sleep should help my restoration. One day, I will learn how to master the low-variance running week rather than the nonsense I managed this week.

Canoeing to the boat dock. I used Ali's long-handled wooden paddles with an angled blade at the throat; it was novel.

After a lazy afternoon, Ali and I went boating - she in the scull, I in the kayak. While the kayak is reasonably speedy, I could not keep up with Ali, though I did gain on her on turns. I was only vaguely familiar with the layout of the lake, so I mostly followed her. She was wearing a bright red shirt, so even as she drifted off into the distance, I was able to keep in contact. I was waked with some regularity by the numerous power boats on Lake Kahshe, but I largely stayed dry.

GPS track is of Ali's sculling trip, which approximated my path.

C • waked 2