Training Log: AliC

This past week of being in the East and doing lots and lots of orienteering has been really, really, really fun. I have certainly missed orienteering since my bad ankle sprain last fall - I guess it was a few ski-o meets, Laramie, prepping for Tom's meet at Lowell and then this week (thanks to Kseniya, PG and Phil for mid-week sessions!) that has been all my orienteering for the year. (Edit: nope, looks like a ZerO or two as well). I survived doing other things, including biking and trail running in OR and AZ, but orienteering is *more* fun.

Looking forward to Petrified Forest rogaines in a few weeks and then hope it's a good West-coast winter for some ski-o!!

NAOC WRE Sprint @ Dartmouth College campus

A good sprint on home territory! A mistake to #3 was the worst bit of it, totally could not make sense of the dorms there for a bit. Got that sinking feeling of panic about losing time, then figured it out, phew! Lost some time to #2 as well, as I didn't see the tunnel approach from the North. Smoother and faster after that. Helped some by overtaking others towards the end in the cliffy bits.

Argh!! Mispunched by not punching the end of the spectator chute. Such a bummer to be the reason my whole team, who had very good runs, was DQ'ed. It just doesn't feel good. So - great to focus and read ahead on the spectator chute, but *must* punch control at end too. Was an ok run other than this, did lose sometime to Emily, but she's very speedy these days!!

C • Flyby spectator control 1

Sprint - Red Y (WRE) - Splits

NAOC WRE Long @ Burnt Mountain

Wow, that was impressive terrain. Felt very challenged by it, went slow and carefully. Felt a total turtle to the first 3 controls, just going slowly and staying in contact. Had some misses in the control circle, but generally clean. Strung together trails basically the whole way on our longest leg and think that was a good choice for me.

After the long leg, could tell Louise had gained, but was actually encouraged she hasn't yet caught me, so kept up the fight. But on the next medium-long leg, I lost a contact to a hemlock or pine branch. I hoped for a little bit that it was just squidged somewhere funny in my eye and I might get it back, but nope. The whole world was funny looking after that. For some reason, things looked sparkly, especially in the first 10 minutes as my eyes adapted most rapidly to the new situation.

Louise caught me a few controls after that, and then I kept up the chase, which wasn't that hard as mostly thereafter a road run and a bit of a control pick. Happy with the result, would have liked to see if I could have stayed ahead if I had kept 100% vision.

Long - Red Y (WRE) - Splits

Event: North American Orienteering Championships 2016
 

NAOC WRE Middle @ Storrs Pond/Oak Hill

Neat to be where I spent so much time in college skiing. Not a great race. Very control-picky and my compass work and orienteering wasn't up to the task. AP thinks I only made 30s of error, but it was more like I made 10-20s of error on nearly every control, and so consistent. Ah well.

Afterwards, got to chat with Putt Blodgett, who was my canoeing coach when I was on the woodsmen's team at Dartmouth. He's a legend and I was honored he came out to watch me and happy to get to catch up with him a bit afterwards.

Middle - Red Y - Splits

Traverse pre-run, Norwottuck edition. Have fun all! =)

Gave my talk at UMass Amherst afterwards at Star Formation lunch. Was a good turn out and great questions throughout, glad I opted to give even thought it meant more stress preparing it!

Traverse pre-run, Earl's trails.