Training Log Archive: RJM

Octagon -warmup with bob and check if anyone is at the original gathering point for the skills event.

Skills development at octagon. Stan set two courses to emphasize detailed map reading (paper on branches as controls). I took a batch of beginners and some experienced folks on the first one, walking and talking. Worked well for all. Nice wildflowers - spring beauty, some straggling cutleaf toothwort, early Cohosh, yellow violets, blue spurrred violets. Trees just starting to show leaves. Skunk cabbage leaves large and full. Barberry in full leaf. Saw about 5 Bombus searching for nests.

Stan's second course, done by myself at a run. Substantially more physical with harder vegetation and down logs to go through, and much more climb. Did reasonably well, but hard to keep up the effort in these conditions.

Easy in - leg was better but still a bit of trouble on the way in. Better in afternoon, so a more regular effort. Enjoying this american life on the blackberry

Shortly after starting found that the inside of my left thigh was tight and sore. Better if i ran slow and easy, so i did. slightly better on return. It's odd to run so slowly, but probably good to have in the mix

Mill Stream Red course. Gloomy day with threat of rain, but no rain arrived. Damp conditions nonetheless. Snuck this one in after a church meeting. Good orienteering until 5, where the map seemed sketchy and the large circles on the map and the 'vegetation boundary' controls started my head to scratching (half a minute). Same for 6, another veg boundary (3 minutes?), and then wasted ~5 minutes on 7 because the circle was on a rock in the reentrant, not the base of the reentrant (clue sheet said that, but i didn't think it through clearly). Misjudged 8 but recovered quickly (30sec lost?). 9 -10-11 were quite clean. But 11 was ugly - thought i had a good attackpoint, but drifted too far uphill and missed it, and dropped in to river valley south of where i could see the river junction. Thinking i had drifted left, i went almost 400m south before recovering.
Around 55 minutes (after control 10) i ran out of gas (in retrospect, i should have eaten lunch!), and also made that big mistake. Lesson learned. 8.1k by gps