Training Log Archive: Leanimal

The Caledon Navigators Mountain Bike-O out in Palgrave forest. I arrived late from work so everyone was finished but Bent quickly put his map holder on my bike and I was off. I was warned about #8 being slightly misplaced and I still had trouble finding it. Things were going well up until then though. Fun to get out on the trails and I will have to make sure that Phatty and I get up there more often this summer.

Fun course and I think we are going to do another one in August if anyone is interested in coming up for it!

Rocky and I were the only ones to make it tonight. My legs were really heavy from the weekend. I have a mild tear in my right quad that I have to take care of. That means letting Thumbs of death get in there and I am dreading that! Good pace though and lots of chatting.

Between the 6th and 8th lines of Oro-Medonte. Beautiful day, lots of trilliums, and amazing trails. I felt pretty good today.

This one only counts because it was a much needed hike after our pig out fest the night before when we were camping at Lac Taylor. We ran in to some spots on the trail that Dogrunner and I had seen the day before and we were once again reminded of our painful orienteering performances.

Very bad day for me on a tough course. All of my weaknesses were made painfully visible today. I will write more later.

So now that the results are up I am super embarrassed. Things got ugly VERY quickly as it took me over 14 minutes to find the first control. When I was climbing a hill and saw Hans I knew I was probably off course. I even took the time I needed to orient myself and although I was trotting through the forest I was sure I was on bearing. Not even close. I don't think I have ever been that far off a bearing!!! The day continued like that with me being consistently too far to the right. As the frustration mounted I tried to pace count but that didn't seem to help much. I just didn't know how to approach a control that didn't really have many large features around it that I could use to attack. Most of my control descriptions were boulders (in a sea of boulders) with very little definitive contours around and many small cliffs. I rolled my right ankle twice, went down on my right knee hard on a boulder (how ironic) and took a large branch right in the trachea (ouch). Don't worry I got the best of that branch and I am so glad no-one saw me fighting with it.

Unfortunately I mis-punched control 10 and because I thought there was a 90 minute time limit and I was near 2 hours I just punched 11 and went to the finish rather than going back for 10. I guess there was a 3 hour time limit so I was a little disappointed that I didn't complete the course after all of that. I would love to sit down with Bash, Hammer, or Sudden to talk about how to approach those controls. It was just beyond my level and I want to know what to work on to get there.....I know pace counting is a big part of it so rather than talk about how bad I am at it I should probably just practice. Slice said she was out practicing the other night so I better get on it since we are teaming up for the US rogaine champs in June.

Great setting though and I still love orienteering even though I may have said that I hated it while I was out there! I do wish I had a video of my fight with the tree branch though - it was impressive. I even did the snap over the knee thing - I'm so tough.

With Phatts Jr. after the orienteering. Some technical stuff which made me realize how much work I have to do on the trails....