Training Log Archive: PG

Last of the maps from the weekend --

My route from Saturday morning's middle.

And my route from the afternoon sprint. Not sure I should publish this one. After I took a careful look at the map when I finished, I figured I had gone out of bounds four times, once blatantly, three times maybe yes, maybe no. GPS confirms that.

I had in my mind that the OOB areas were ones where RV's were parked, so I gave those wide berth. The others, well, It just didn't occur to me at the time. I was having enough trouble trying to keep up with the map reading, and the OOB slashes made it hard to see what was underneath them, and of course there were no markings in the terrain. Whatever, if they want to retroactively DQ me, so be it.

Though I don't think we were following the Canadian rule that you are supposed to turn yourself in -- if you haven't already left, and if you heard the announcement, and if you actually knew where you were out there....

Whatever. Main lesson from the run ought to be that my map reading under stress was way too sloppy. Got to be more precise.

And finally, not that it made the slightest difference, but did anyone else notice the finish (the double circle) was mismapped both morning and afternoon? Both showed the finish chutes too long -- look where my GPS tracks stop. I wish I could run 120 meters slightly uphill and stop and punch all in 22 seconds (as I supposedly did for the middle), or 45 meters and stop and punch in 12 seconds (in the sprint), but those days are long gone.... :-)

C • L&F - the end? 10

C • Honesty 13

Just because we had left West Point yesterday in early afternoon didn't mean that our orienteering was done for the day.

We were heading for my mom's in Litchfield (CT), and there was no rush to get there, and it was a nice day, so I planned to take a few back roads I'd never been on. Lacking any road maps, I spent a few minutes in the morning looking at Google Maps, picking out a route, and doing my best to commit it to memory.

Here is what the planned route was. Get off I-84 at the exit for 311, take it to 22, a short bit north on 22, right on Quaker Hill Rd., to 37, to 7, cross the Housatonic, and then back streets on the north side of New Milford to miss the usual traffic snarls on the south side of town. I did my best to commit it to memory. Supposed to be 41 minutes, not quite 20 miles, just about as fast as going around via 84 and 7.

Here is what we did. 71 minutes, 33 miles. In the process I --

-- slept right through the exit for 311.
-- got off at the next exit, happened to be route 312, maybe Google just had it wrong?
-- got over to 22 as planned, a quick jog north, the next right, looking good but the street name was wrong.
-- still trying to head generally northeast, eventually came out on a bigger road, but no signs indicating it's name.
-- gut feeling, turned right on it, not a good move.
-- Eventually got to some civilization, a road sign that said we were on the desired road (37), and a gas station. Went in to ask.
-- Clerk said they had no maps of any kind, and she had no idea where any roads went.
-- Another customer started giving me a lengthy set of instructions, starting with head back the way we'd just come on 37, and then going on and on, only confirming how different our minds work.
-- And we did the rest of the route perfectly (I really did remember a bunch of turns correctly).

Orienteering lesson I took away from this.

1. Having a map is a good thing.
2. Looking at a map, assuming you have one, is a good thing too. I've never been a great fan of map memory exercises or map memory courses. That stuff can get you into trouble. Just learn to read the map a lot better, and a lot faster.
3. And don't daydream, which is what got me into trouble in the first place.

C • next time 1

C • Planned route 1

A little warm-up.

Twice up and down South Sugarloaf, up the road, down the trail.

It seems I am just as uncoordinated as ever. Second time coming down, and it is a fairly steep trail though not very rocky, I nicked a rock or root with one foot and went sprawling forwards, first continuing down the trail (which was angling diagonally down), then off the edge and down the slope. Fortunately I got stopped pretty quickly by a fairly small tree -- the slope was steep enough that I would have gone quite a ways (though not off any cliffs).

The usual cosmetic damage, this time re-opening the wounds on my left hand from yesterday, plus a few assorted other scrapes, plus a right quad that feels like it hit something, but I don't think anything serious.

What with stopping and then climbing back up to the trail, it did mean my descent, which had been proceeding quite quickly, was a bit slower than the first time.

Obviously I shouldn't be doing this stuff. But I'm going to be like my mom soon enough, better enjoy things while I can.

Splits: 9:58 up, 3:31 down, 9:55 up, 3:43 down. Vertical is about 450 feet.