Training Log Archive: cmorse

Out to the lake, then along lake to far end on dirt road, then back. Legs felt heavy, pretty much a slog. Not much fun in the doing, but glad to have done it...

late afternoon run out to hare road and back, just to see what my body felt like. Restrained pace going out, muscles stiff, hit turnaround and decided to try and continue to run evenly, but fast enough to do even or slightly negative return split (slight overall uphill on way back). Felt like I had to push harder on the way back to maintain the same perceived pace. 10:40 out, 10:22 back. Overall felt good to get out.

warmup run on base trail, pleasant enough temps, but humidity made it quite oppressive. Legs feel dead.

Made it up and down the first climb ok, but felt like the day was going to be a struggle. Topped out on the 2nd climb and bagged it - body felt totally wasted and figured it wasn't worth injuring anything to press on. Went over to the waterstop at the top of the 3/4/5 climbs to watch and cheer the runners on. Brett Stoefler in 1st, followed shortly by Deb Livingston who wasn't chased down until just before the final climb up killer hill. Glen Tryson came in 6th I believe in just under an hour total running time for a 5.5 mile race.

Deb should have been caught by a fast, 18-yo XC runner from Manchester who was only a minute back after 3 climbs, but he missed the 4th turn even though it was marked with flagging tape and a traffic cone, thus throwing him out of contention. It was his first trail race and I gather he was rather pissed about missing the turn. But trail racing isn't all about running balls to the wall with the entire field in clear site and a clearly obvious course.

I'm disappointed at having had to bail on the course but between the lyme disease still taking its toll, not running in the past 6 weeks (due to the Lyme) and the weather being so hot/humid it just wasn't going to be my day, so better to retire the course and save it for a better day..

Didn't get around to a run today, though early AM would have been a fine choice. Took the kids to the Old State House in Hartford, afterwards walked around on Constitution Plaza and over the Riverfront Recapture area that I've never been on. Although it would be a very linear thing, it would be really cool to do a sprint on the plaza(s), down along the river and up to the North Meadows where NEOC has a rudimentary map with lots of nettles. Or a Hartford metrogaine would be pretty cool too.

Off to New Hampshire tomorrow for a couple days, passing through Northampton MA for breakfast and a gander at Rob's Titan which is a sibling to our crowd here at UConn.

Then up past the lovely village of Sunderland and on up to the White Mountains. Bringing my running gear, but if past years are any indication, probably won't do much if any running.

C • titan 3

Road run in the rain after dropping car off at Dougs for service.

Trail run in the rain after dropping car off at Dougs. Trail section sandwiched between road sections. Glasses useless and trail pretty rocky so a fairly slow pace to ensure no faceplanting. At one point I missed a turn and drifted off the top of the ridge and had to follow off trail on a wet slope below a long 3m cliff - even slower than slow...

and then the rest of the rainy road run home...

Legs didn't feel like running, so I just walked back to Dougs to get the car - brisk walk on 140....

Was just going to go for a run over at Cross Farms this AM, but the GPS had a very good signal lock under trees (2-3m) so I took a casual stroll on one section of trail to get a rough track and wall/marsh/trail crossing points for referencing back to the base.

After walking the first section of trail, I saved the track, then ran easy for a while on some more of the same trail. Its blazed in the woods, but in a number of areas is very vague on the ground and occasionally the blazes are not close enough to be obvious which way to go, so a couple of spots involved standing near the last blaze and scanning the woods for another blaze (orange paint spots) before proceeding.

After finishing that section of trail I ran back to the car via the 'back 9' of the disk golf course - sprinting tee to hole, then a very short jog to the next tee and repeat. The disk golf course goes through the woods but from tee to hole the woods are laced with small trails and I've been trying to figure out how to best map these areas. I think I will map the 'fairways' as rough open w/ trees as they are definitely more "open" in appearance and ground disturbance than regular white woods and would be obvious if crossing them at an angle - leafy forest floor versus heavily trafficked forest floor. We'll try it that way and see how the map legibility goes...

Get out the door and do something was the goal for today. So out the door I went. Up to the forest to see who else was around, not many. A couple of recovering knee replacements walking, and Willi doing a run/walk rehab as well. None of the regular runners in attendance today so I just headed north on the dirt road and headed up into the basemap area east of Bald Mountain. Decided on roughly an hour and the first 10 minutes were tough, but things loosened up after that, but I could tell that the energy level/pace would decline as I went, so I turned around at 28 minutes and headed back. No big hills, no running fast - just an easy run on a very fine morning.

nice casual ride to the lake with Hayden. Nice temps, lightly overcast - hung out by the lake bridge for a bit before coming back. Estimated riding time.

'Race Day' at camp. Put out the 530m, 9 control, e-punching course along with 30+ other bogus controls in an area behind the school. Enough controls scattered around so that you couldn't just go running around hunting for the correct control. Some controls were visible, others were hidden behind their respective features to add a little challenge to the mix. All controls except the start were visible from the finish (so I could keep an eye on everyone) and the course crossed over itself a couple times. A camp staffer started the kids at intervals from behind a wing of the school before starting themselves. Kept it interesting and kids were running in every conceivable direction...

Some kids did surprisingly well, visibly studying their map and the terrain before heading off to accurately spike the next control while others ran off in the general direction of the next control and prayed, and even others ran off in totally different directions. But everyone eventually found all the controls (some with a little assistance) and the faster kids were in the 7-8 minute range while others were in the 15 minute range.

With the younger groups (K-2 plus a few learning disabilities) we reviewed the entire course on the map (but out of sight of the course itself) then sent them out in pairs. A handful of the older kids who had already done their course volunteered to chaperone each younger group and keep everyone focused. Worked out pretty well. Again, all groups finished the courses, though many with quite a few extra bogus punches on their epunch.

4 of the kids enjoyed it enough that they decided to re-run the course for speed so that they could compare splits with their earlier run. Course times ran from 3:20 to about 4:45 for the repeat runners... (benchmark - I ran it in 2:20 waking up controls)

Take home course maps had USOF, WCOC & NEOC web addresses and I think there were at least a couple kids who might show up at a future local meet - one girl even commented to me that she was going to make a map of her house and set a course for her family...

The schools PE teacher who was helping out a couple of the days said he was planning on writing a grant so that they could get some orienteering gear and integrate some O in the curriculum. He had done some orienteering in college, but had never really been exposed to it as a 'running sport' and said that it put quite a different perspective on it and that it would make a good addition to his program. The O.mov video and epunching helped reinforce that as well.

A fun week, though a little stressful at times since I kind of winged the curriculum but it ended up adapting to the range of ages and abilities quite well. Good weather all 5 days didn't hurt either.

And a big thanks to WCOC for allowing me to use a full meet kit for the week - I'll be sending a portion of my compensation along as a donation to the junior team....

I'm on vacation for another week or so - but when I get back to my webserver, I'll post up maps and photos if anyone is interested in checking back...

C • Nice job 3

went to the doctors this afternoon after O camp. Previous two bouts of mystery illness in June (6th & 26th) now diagnosed as positive for Lyme Disease, not shingles, not vague flu-like thing....

'test running' the course for tomorrow. As close to a sprint as I could muster without warming up and without any real training for weeks now. 2 whole minutes and I was gasping for breath. A whole half a kilometer.... Take what I can get...

Spent the first half of each session talking about map scales, using the Cross Farms map at 1:2500 that we've been using all week, then showing the same map at 1:5000 & 1:10,000 and discussing the ramifications. Then showed the Crandalls map at 10,000 and then 5000 & 2500 versions. So one map scaling up, one scaling down. Seemed a pretty good way to get it across to the younger kids.

Then discussed the mechanics of a meet/race - starts, e-punching, finish, checking control codes, description sheets. Followed up with a 20 minute (x4) practice course around the school. Included similar type control sites as tomorrow and also demonstrated how the course could cross over itself (which it does 3x tomorrow). Those that retain today's lessons should be able to do tomorrows course in 7-9 minutes I'm guessing. Others will be hunting since the 9 course controls will be accompanied by roughly 30 other 'bogus' controls (can you say Micro-O?) Should be fun.

I'll try and post maps and maybe some photos of the chaos tomorrow evening...

Another day of map walking and learning to orient the map. Discussed and practiced a couple of advance level legs with attackpoints and aiming off. Most seem to be getting the hang of it and having a good time...

Map Walking - Day 1. No running today, so intensity 0.

Created a map with 50 reduced sized control circles and numbers and took each of my 4 groups on a 45 minute map walk. Learning to identify features, constantly orienting the map and thumbing their location on the map as we went. Began a little discussion of handrails as well. Most of them had quite a few troubles early on, but by the end of the session they seemed to be getting the hang of orienting the map and matching features on the ground with the map. The last 15 minutes I'd lead them along and then stop at a control circle (no flags out today) and have them tell me which number circle we were at and then describe the feature to me.

Tomorrow we'll do it again but I'll take the older kids into the woods and go off trail a bit... Some of the kids really seem to get it, others not so much...

One of the adult helpers is a PE teacher who is switching school systems in the fall and has been asked to 'bring new ideas' to the school system over in Andover and is really keen on trying to work some orienteering into the program. I'll have to dig up some more info for him to keep that spark alive...

Putting out controls, leading 4 groups of kids (7-12 per group) on a mock O course (complete with e-punching - a big hit), and then running the course with my own kids after camp. The picking up controls.

Additionally another (unlogged) 100 minutes of classroom o-training including looking at maps, watching O.MOV juniors movie and talking about orienteering as a sport. Will start teaching them to read maps in tomorrow's lesson.

a bit more off the north end, as much as I'm going to get done for the class which starts tomorrow. So I'll draft what I have, the fudge what I didn't field check but I'll only take the kids through the checked areas. Should be interesting...

Raining again when I woke up early, slugged in bed a while then finally got up around 7 when I noticed the rain had let up a bit. Out to attempt some fieldwork but an awful lot of water coming out of the trees making it a real nuisance to try and draw - so I opted to detail some of the edges of the sports field complex and also took a preview walk in a couple areas I haven't gotten into. Found a nice cellar hole I wasnt' expecting and a few other interesting features.

Still waiting for the Titan, measured 67 inches this AM, making this the tallest inflorescence yet for us. Too bad our specimens don't seem to have the same genes as the really big ones (8 feet+) that some of the european botanic gardens have.

Matt's blog entry yesterday takes a stab at answering the frequently asked Titan question - 'What's it for??'

raining this AM, so didn't do any mapping, but went in to work directly and spent most of the day drafting the past weeks field notes, interspersed with occasionally showing folks the Corpse Flower. 4pm - not blooming today. Will do it again tomorrow.

A few odds and ends after work...

Another early AM fieldwork session. These early sessions are definitely more productive than the afternoon variety. A few skeeters out this AM though.

Been using the GPS a bit more the past couple days, not for absolute positional stuff though for some things it works ok (large vaguish vegetation boundaries). But the past couple days I've been using it as a more accurate pace counting aid, particularly over rougher ground where my stride length is forced to accomodate available places to step. Did a couple longish loops of trails and stonewalls and such and in both cases when I got back to a solid, known basemap location my circle closed with very good precision. Not always the case when counting paces the old fashioned way.

Additionally, since I reset my distance counter at the beginning of each feature I was measuring, should I come across a feature (such as a wall junction) enroute, I can readily make a note of how far along the feature it occured and then keep moving on the original feature. Quite handy...

Ahh yes, another vacation wrecker rears its giant phalloid visage.
My vacation was supposed to start tomorrow :-(

Matt Opel, one of my staff horticulturists/botanists, has been blogging about this years flower on his personal blob - Burger's Onion - I highly recommend that link for an easy to read perspective on the natural history of these things (smells, pollinators, growth rates etc). I'm only posting stats on the greenhouse website since I'm busy trying to do fieldwork at the same time..

Looks like it will probably bloom over the weekend, so my game plan is to do fieldwork in the AM, then come in to work in the afternoon and alternate drafting with keeping the Titan watch...

C • B-AL 3

AOWN moment - nothing to do with training or anything. After picking up the meet kit from Georges (I'm teaching an O camp next week), I stopped by the folks house in Granby to pay a visit. While there the resident mama bear wandered into the yard, snatched one of the bird feeders off the line and headed for the woods down back. That was one well fed bear, and this time around she was accompanied by three young cubs. Prior bear incidents at my folks have only involved a single adult. I've seen the photos previously, but this time I got to witness the whole snatch and grab...

Very foggy this AM, did some work around the ball fields to avoid the water dripping from the trees. Need to fabricate some contours though, the ones on the base aren't really very close in the disturbed open areas. Seem pretty good in the woods though.

A bit more field work in the afternoon after work (and after rain showers passed through). Not nearly as productive in the PM though..

Started at 6am, got a couple very productive hours in before heading to work (later than usual) at 8am. Got a lot more done in the AM than I would have gotten done in the equivalent time in the afternoon.