Training Log Archive: Misha

The physics GRE score came in today. Not a stellar performance, but probably good enough. There's little I can now do about the fact that I chose not to practice physics between 2002 and 2014, except do my best to catch up. Hopefully, the grad schools will see potential in the rest of the application.

trying to take it easy after yesterday.

Event: Hudson Highlander XVIII
 

Hudson Highlander XVIII. Thank you, Kseniya, Nadezhda, Greg, Ching-Hua, Declan, Geof, Guy and all other volunteers who helped organize and run this terrific event!

We were blessed with perfect weather: not a cloud in the sky and temperature several degrees above freezing. Nervousness transformed into exhilaration as I headed from the starting point to the first control, the shape of the land clearly visible for hundreds of meters all around, beautiful fall foliage covering the forest floor and groups of orienteers invariably converging on the orange-and-white marker at the top of the mountain.

Even though I was running alongside other orienteers, I consciously focused on carefully reading the map, knowing that I would thank myself for this later. Getting into the map early would prepare me for latter parts of the course, when oxygen levels in my brain would be depleted. It also made me more efficient in moving through the woods, and I was elated to catch up with a pack that included Kenny and Wyatt before the end of the first map.

I stayed with Kenny and Wyatt through the trail run. However, I lost them at the end of the trail run, when I failed to pick up the second map at the right spot and had to come back for it. Tired after the trail run and kicking myself for missing the map pickup spot, I promptly got lost on the way to the second control of the second map. Gradually, I got it together again. By the third map, it started snowing, and I was running with several orienteers, including Sam K, Ari Ofsevit and Jon Torrance. The deciding moment for our group came soon after control 30, with only two controls between us and the finish. The long leg between controls 30 and 31 presented several route choices. A good choice had to be made and confidently executed. Ari and I elected to go right, along Lake Kanawauke dam, hoping to be guided by the powerlines and the trails beyond. Unfortunately, the route proved to be less straightforward for our exaustion-addled brains than we had hoped it would be. Sam K and Jon T, who chose to go left, beat us to the finish.

In retrospect, I should have drunk more electrolyte solution: I was experiencing some serious cramps in my hamstrings on the last map and was quite afraid that the legs would simply stop working at an inopportune moment. On the second and the third maps of the course, I dutifully consumed the two Gu energy shots that Stefan had given me beforehand. I am certain that this helped restore that extra bit of energy that I needed.

In the end, this was a far more enjoyable experience than I had feared it would be. In other words, I got lost relatively little given how fast I was able to move and how long the course was. I felt that I knew sufficiently well where I was on the map the vast majority of the time, even towards the very end and even during some of the more technical parts of the course.

HL - Splits

51 rpm.

Music this morning: Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. Oldie but goldie :-)

With the map of the memory-o exercise from Thanksgiving camp. This time the exercise was to memorize 2-3 course legs over the course of ten minutes while engaging the elliptical machine with legs only. Then stick the map in a slot in the machine so that I could still glance at the map, engage the machine with the arms and see if I could remember the map legs. Repeat.

With a map of the control picking exercises from Thanksgiving training camp last year at Harriman. Memorized three sets of controls (3, 3 and 2), then followed a line-o. Forgot one of the hrm units at home, the watch for the other didn't work. Listening to Shooting Star by Bad Company on the radio on the drive home.