Training Log Archive: bubo

Walking from Barb´s place to Bunker Hill (ca 5,5km) and USS Constitution and then continued with the Freedom Trail 'backwards' - back to Downtown Crossing - to pick up the sights I missed on Monday.

C • History!! 1

Went out for a walk before lunch - on Jeff's suggestion a went to Wilson Mountain Reservation and the Northeastern University Dedham Campus. Had a street map of Dedham and an old black-and-white map of Wilson Mountain to guide me. Pretty warm out but it was OK to start with.
After getting to the parking lot in the northern end of the map I went a little ways down the road to see if there would be any place where I could buy something to drink, but no luck so I turned back rather quickly after checking the map on my phone.

On the return trip I went along some other trails to see a bit more of the terrain in the area before going back out on the roads where I took a different alternative back into Dedham.
In general I think it´s an interesting small area for at least a training map - suitable for middle distance type orienteering. The forest seemed to be open and runnable enough, there were lots of rock features (rocky ground, boulders, cliffs) and also enough knolls and other contour features to make it worthwhile.

In retrospect this may not have been the best way to prepare for the training tonight since it eventually turned into a two hour walk in the mid-day sun.

CSU Training at Hammond Pond.
Alex had prepared a 'Window O' for everyone but I made my own course out of available controls on the 'Panic map' that was provided if you got lost... Basically I made it a control pick at a (very) slow jog pace. Still had a few problems with mapreading since my old eyes didn´t appreciate the lack of proper daylight.
After the training I was invited to dinner with Barb, Dave and Ethan. Some nice discussions followed. Also stayed overnight since public transport isn´t the best at late hours.

Went with Jeff to Blue Hills for a trail run where he did his usual 10,5 km loop while I aimed for half that distance.
Started out just behind Jeff but felt already after the first uphill section about 200 m into the run that I still have a long way to go. Since this is only my second training run this year that has not been orienteering nothing else is to be expected.
Managed to jog/walk for about 25 minutes before the trail turned too rough for me and I started walking. VERY rocky in places both uphill and downhill made for some slow going! Basically walked for the next half hour to the top of Big Blue Hill before I could start running again on the last trail section back to the car.
Another run without the knee brace that was actually quite OK in that respect.

Walking around in Boston most of the day visiting some of the historic landmarks along the Freedom Trail.

Another try at Pawtuckaway - this time on a longer course = Green 3.8 km
Same #1 as yesterday a little bit faster (18 s) and a good flow to #2 but didn´t see the flag even when I was probably less than 10 m from it.
Went to the other knoll in the control circle slightly to the left and didn´t look right. Decided that I was too far to the right and started turning left when I was stung by a couple of bees which threw me off and I started running (away from the control - and the bees) until I hit the trail and realized my mistake - probably two minutes lost here.
Another long leg to #3 - it started to rain heavily on the way there which was actually quite nice. Similar "flow" as in the Night O - I tried to be careful and ran on the trails for a while but constantly had to correct after that which made for some slow running. Spiked the control once I sorted things out though but must have lost quite a bit of time on my hesitations.
Very good flow to #4 - until I hit the trail behind it and realized I had done a parallell error - no problem to find it from the trail though. Another two minutes lost?
A possible bad route to #5 going over the top of the hill to have a good attackpoint which still didn´t help me since I may have lost 1.30 from hesitations before the control.
The rest was good and I even felt I could start running a bit again. I had aimed for a time sub-60 and without mistakes and some more running that would definitely have been doable

Event: UNO Camping Weekend
 

My first try at Pawtuckaway: Not knowing what to expect after being sick for over a week and with possible jetlag I chose a shorter course than normal. The "Tan" course - only 2.1 km - also had the advantage of being on a 1:7500 map which I´m used to from back home.
Orienteering in general went well with a decent flow - I spiked all the controls but may not have made all the optimal route choices. Map contact was definitely not 100% all the time.
With this event not being run at normal "competition mode" I didn´t do my usual preparations - and actually forgot to put on the knee brace that I´ve been using for every orienteering race since early spring.
Instead of going back to put it on I decided to try without it. Very happy with the outcome since I didn´t feel a thing from my knee and actually felt that I could run almost normally for once :) One probable cause for this lack of pain may be the fact that I´m presently taking some NSAIDs for a toe that´s been bothering me for a while?

WHNO (Wicked Hard Night O) at Pawtuckaway
Mass start with close to 20 starters where I started out like in the old days since running felt good - but only for a minute or two until I started to realize that everything isn´t like the old days and I had to pay for running too fast...
There were three shortish loops in a butterfly fashion and I had planned to at least do one loop and possibly two if everything felt good within a reasonable time-frame.
After starting out on my first loop from the common #1 control I found a decent flow and spiked #2 even with a little hesitation along the way.
The long leg to #3 turned out to be really tricky. I tried to do it in a safe manner with careful compass bearing and then checking off the marshes along the way. The terrain made running really slow and I didn´t feel very confident in my orienteering having to constantly correct my bearings and thoughts on where I was. Came reasonably close without really knowing where I was but finally relocated on a big hill just north of the control. Very slow on that leg - probably at least 5-6 min's lost.
The rest was OK with #4 and #5 found without any problems and then back to the common control before returning to the finish. I didn´t feel like I did well enough to go out on a second loop having been out for close to an hour on the first but I was still the first one back.

From Charlie and Rhonda we continued in the morning to Ward Pound Ridge where Jeff was vetting the WRE courses for the US Champs next weekend. I had an old map of an area that was not going to be used for the event and went for an easy map walk to see what the terrain was like. Hot and humid so pretty sweaty out there...