Training Log Archive: maprunner

2015 Review

Training:
Overall goal: 268 hours. I edited this mid-year to be 246 hours, which is only 2 hours more than I did the year before. My original intent had been to increase by 10%, but real life got in the way. I am just not motivated enough to put in long hours during a workweek. I did hit 246 hours this year.

Orienteering goal: 85 hours. I only hit 77 hours this year.

Stretch: every day. I did this pretty consistently for the first half of the year, then I fell off the wagon. I did pick up yoga instead, but I’ve only done that intermittently. Need to get some consistency in this goal next year.

Results:
Goal: a new 100m PR. I did it! My highlight of the year. Happy to have been healthy this year, and finally understand how my mind and body needs to prepare for these races.

Focus:
Goal:, my focus will be...stop! Whenever I get that nagging feeling that something isn't right, stop and consider.
Results: terrible. I had huge mistakes in every race this year, where I did the exact opposite of what I wanted. I did not stop, I wandered instead. Most of the mistakes were due to being tired, so I need to watch out for those conditions in the future,

It was a rough year, on many fronts. Work stress, parental stress, poor O results. I expect that the parental stress will continue in 2016, but I hope that work and O results are better!

Some numbers (edited):
16.56 100m PR
27 books read
9 garments sewn
226 starts at OK events (a new record)
28:40 5K PR

Woo hoo, hit my goal for annual training!

Hard to believe, but tomorrow will conclude my first 10 years on Attackpoint. Since i'm a numbers geek, I put together a few graphs to look back and summarize my experiences. You too can share in the fun!

Helps to have an episode of Serial to listen to while training indoors.

Ho hum, back home, back to work.

Another hike at Pt Reyes. Much larger crowd this time, which was fun and offered lots of varied conversations. It also meant we moved at a faster pace and covered much more distance. Another perfect day with sunny skies and calm seas. Great day.

Mike made an O map of Tomales Bay state park before we left. We went for a short outing there today. (map later). This was basically one big hill covered with thick green vegetation. As Mike said, we now know why BAOC hasn't mapped this area.

We ran into a problem right at the start: it was high tide, and we couldn't cross the beach. So we had to bushwhack through some thick stuff, which was an "adventure". The rest of the outing was fun. I tried to find a few point features off trail and just read the contours. Met Mike near the top, and we came back down together. And this time, two areas of the trail were under water. So, even more bushwhacking. But it was beautiful day and it was cool to be orienteering in such a different terrain.

A Jones Hike in Point Reyes National Seashore. Bernadette, Jay, Patrick, Laurie, Denis, Mike and I went for a leisurely stroll in the beautiful park. Denis decided to bushwhack us up the hill for a gorgeous view. Then we sat for an hour enjoying the view. Then I ran down the hill while they hiked down. We met Mike on the beach and finally made our way back to the cars. We were out over 3 hours, but I'm only counting our moving time. The scenery and company were wonderful; I was just frustrated by the pace.

Packing again. We rarely travel at Christmas, but my brother from London will be in San Fran area (where one brother and 2 sisters already live) so we decided to join them. I have no vacation time left (we have use-it-or-lose-it policy on an annual basis) so we're only going Thursday thru Sunday.

Night O at Clinton, a re-run of the score O course from last winter. I was a bit distracted in the beginning, but then I settled down mentally. Took it pretty slow, but had fun on this warm night.

Back to the home gym. I pulled up an advanced step aerobics video on YouTube. It was an hour video, but I could only make it 30 minutes; I'm out of practice.

Dad has to spend another day in the hospital, since his prostate is still enlarged and he needs a catheter. They hope the prostate meds start to work soon.

This morning I did get up early enough to use the hotel gym. Unfortunately, I arrived at the hospital too late to prevent my dad from refusing his meds and throwing a pudding cup across the room. Physically, he's getting better, and should be released from the hospital tomorrow. Mentally, it's going to be a long haul...
I flew home this afternoon, because my sister Susan was flying out from San Francisco to help for a few days.

I meant to get up early and use the hotel gym, but I didn't have enough time, so I just did some aerobics in my room for 15 minutes. Later, I got away every so often and walked up and down the stairs in the hospital, which I'm counting as 15 minutes.

Dad had pneumonia and not a heart problem, which was good news. Bad news is that the hospital stay exacerbated his dementia, and one time when he woke up and didn't see anyone he knew, he got violent and had to be restrained.

My presence seemed to help calm him down, which was good. I was also glad to give my brother a day off (he's also dealing with a terminally ill father-in-law)

My dad has been in the hospital for a few days. On Thursday night, my brother and his wife asked for someone to come help, because it was too much for them to handle all alone. So I hopped on a plane Friday morning and flew to LI. Not how I planned to spend my weekend,but it had to be done.

Just what I needed after another stressful day at work.

I had every intention of going for a run on the trails after to work, to take advantage of the warm weather. But a bad night of sleep, and continued work stress, made me just want to go to sleep as soon as I got home. But I managed a few minutes in the Nordic track. And then I sat on the couch and had a glass of wine.

Control picking course at Clinton St Park. It had rained more than an inch today, so everything was filled with water. I hadn't seen the creek this high for years, and it was a bit scary to cross the rushing water.

I took it slow and tried to be accurate. Some compass work, some contour work. Missed 2 and 9. I never can seem to find 12. Doesn't help that the map is old, and incomplete in this area (for instance, the huge swollen creek that I had to cross just before 12 is not shown). Some day I will find this one contour hill.

Another warm day (12) and still drizzling while I was out, so it was dark in the woods.

PTOC night O score event at Hodge Park, one hour time limit.

I took some time getting into the map tonight. The trails are hard to figure out (some are wide and clear, others are basically deer trails). After about #18, I begin to get into the groove, and I felt good running.

The trails around 20 are different than mapped. I deliberately passed 13 and saved it for the end, but I probably should have picked it up along the way (19-13-16 would have been good). Was sorry to be going uphill to 5, but that's the way it goes.

Managed to sweep the course within the one hour time limit, so I was happy. A beautiful night for running, even a bit warm (15C and overcast).
EDIT: after looking at the results, and then re-examining my route, I see that I skipped 3. Never saw it on the map.

Nice visit with Sandy and Simon on the drive over, and quick dinner with Sandy after the race.

I get bored working out in the basement, so I broke it up into 15 minute chunks.

Beautiful warm night (10C) and i needed to practice night o, so I ran to west campus and did a few controls that I skipped on the 100 control course.

Some easy jogging around west campus. I went out without a head lamp because I haven't charged mine up yet this season. Need to do this soon, since we have a night O event coming up this Saturday. This felt good after a crazy stressful day at work. It helped that it was 14 degrees out.

A nice day: playing with the niece and nephew on some playground equipment, including some climbing and swinging, which I love. Then we went for a nice hike at McConnell park,which was some pretty woods with nice historical signs and ruins. Finished with a lovely wedding at the Lyric Theater.

A nice orienteering outing at he Arboretum in Lexington KY. Mike and I ran around exploring his new map, while the rest of the family walked around. We weren't supposed to go off trails. There were many other trials out there, made for a little bit of map reading challenge in a bland area.

Quick course on the new Free State map.

Got caught up at work (my job changed, again, on Monday) and had to cancel my weight training with Eric. On the way home, I realized that I would be able to make it to the liquor store in time for the Wine of the Week tasting (I liked it and bought a bottle). Gotta keep your priorities straight :)

OK, then I did some weight work and Nordic Track in the basement. Now packing for our trip to Lexington for The Wedding.