Orienteering1:53:03 5.91 mi (19:08 / mi) +145m17:46 / mi ahr:134 max:182
SMOC Night-O at Haven Hill.
Having a half hour to plan was great! I went in knowing that it was a very tough field, and last season was rough, I had tempered expectations.
I decided to go east first mostly because the first five controls in that direction netted about 15% more point value than west in a shorter distance. The scale was 1:6250 so pacing was just out the window and played into some of my bobbles.
One thing for me was that I had to stop a lot to just look at the map...the contours were tough for me to read, just couldn't see them and was at a loss on where I was heading most of the time! And, it was so nice out, my glasses fogged up.
Headed out to 2 easier controls and then tried to sweep to only 50+ pointers...which in the end was my undoing because I missed at least a 40 and a 50 that I could have incoporated into my route. I bobbled pretty good on 55 and 53, +7ish minuted on both for sure! However, I figured them out and went to it when I did. I paused after 53, got worried about 74 and figured I could get 45, 65 and 63 and 3 30's and not worry about 74 -- I was worried about the attack.
For the future I need to do a better job planning, and consider a bigger picture of controls.
Great fun and loved seeing some faces I hadn't in a while.
Mountain Bike (Single track) 1:20:29 15.31 mi (5:15 / mi) +168m5:05 / mi ahr:146 max:167
PB on Green 1:05--shocked because I felt pretty meh today and sore from yesterday. Before and after I bumped around some random trails I have seen but never checked out.
Michelle and I went out to Chenango to bump around a bit in the dark. What a crazy time. To begin, we tried to wait out hunters and by 7:30ish decided to go in despite the trucks still on the road. In short, we were doing fine going slowly and talking through everything until we heard a very close coyote pack calling howl, lots of rustling and some squeaky noises. I completely lost touch with the map at that point. Tried to keep heading to a point, missed it by quite a bit. Bumped watch so no data, but on strava.
When we got back to the car we both divulged how completely creeped out we were, and we both just wanted to get to a trail and out of there but didn't tell the other. We looked up a coyote howl and sure enough, that's what it was. Michelle said she was trying to remember her map in case we needed to run and I kept thinking we were near the alpha female of the pack and if the fun size snickers in my pocket could debilitate a coyote long enough to get away.
I have never been this bad on conjuring images, and funny that neither of us shared what we was flying through our imaginations until we got to the car. On further research with how loud it was, they were close. It seems juvenile wolves get away and the pack tries to call them back during this time of year.
We thought maybe a good team name could be the Screaming Coyotes. And writing this is giving me a bit of a chuckle.