Training Log Archive: Sandy

Putting out controls for Sunday's event at FCN. There's still a good bit of snow around although I expect a lot will disappear before Sunday with the warmish temps and rain predicted during the next 36 hours. Hope so as my footprints will lead people right to most controls otherwise.

The ranger let me drive my car up the water tower road so was able to drop off 8 gallons of water that I didn't need to lug up the hill. I also had to wait for the portable toilet guys to arrive so I could tell them where to place the unit. Finally got started around 12:30 which was actually fine since the rain had passed through by then.

I modified my planned route to lug the water in from where I dropped it to the actual controls. Only hung 13 flags and put in 6 more stakes. But those were the furthest 13 and all but a couple water stops are out so tomorrow shouldn't be bad at all. And if they let me drive up the road again it will go even faster!

I'm clearly not as recovered from last weekend as I thought I was. I was really dragging on the uphills and I didn't actually have to do much climbing today. And then towards the end, my back really started to bother me. Feels like a pinched nerve or something since it only hurts in one particular spot and only when I stand a particular way, And it's not the same area that was so sore on the long slog back to the finish.

And here I was getting all cocky about getting into shape. At least I didn't push it today and try to get a lot more done. The weather turned great towards the end - it was probably about 60 and the sun was making a showing and I still had a couple hours of daylight but I just had had enough.

I hung long pink streamers two weeks ago and all but one was still

C • In shape 1

Training session with some stretching before and more after.

One thing she wanted me to do bothered my knee a lot - 2nd position (from ballet) squat and then going up on your toes on one side. Not sure why that hurt so much, I've done that before with no problem. She just swapped something else in instead so no big deal. Will have to try it again in a few days and see if it still hurts or if it was just a flukey thing.

Not too sore today. Stairs last night were not fun on my knee but they're fine today. The one not so good spot is my right hip, in the back. Don't think it's anything major but I'm definitely taking it easy for a few days.

Valerie probably did an O course today. She was a champ yesterday keeping me going when all I wanted to do was sit down and stay put.

C • Today 2

Event: Crooked Compass Adventure Trek
 

Event: LAOC Camp Scherman National Meet
 

The rest of the time for the Crooked Compass AR with Valerie. We had an adventure that's for sure. Won our category. Oh, wait, we were the only ones in our category. :)

More later; Valerie took lots of pictures. I'm beat.

C • A couple of pics including this one 3

Not sure what would be interesting to report...

Got the maps, made a plan, revised the plan when Brent and Abby said they really hoped many of us would do the mandatory five controls (F1 though F5) in order. So our new plan was to do F1 thru F5 picking up any reasonably easy looking controls on the way. Took a conservative route out of the start down the road, not wanting to dive right in with a climb up the hill in the snow. By the time we got to where we needed to cut off the road to B1, there were footprints and a pretty good trail right to the control. That would be the story for the first half of the day at least. Followed some footprints to B2 even though it looked like maybe only one team of three but they were going where we thought we should be going and sure enough came through the stuff right at the control. Down along the stream and around to B4 knowing to keep going when many people were stopping and looking too early. We were in a crowd here but after this we quickly found ourselves on our own only running into other people here and there until near the end. We made our own way to B5 staying north of the stream for a lot longer than most other teams, were a little confused after fighting our way across the stream but quickly figured it out and set off for where the control had to be. From B5 we backtracked along the beaten track that everyone else had made cutting across the stream earlier and in an easier place than we found. Made our way to the road, debated using the trails or just going down the hill, but when we saw footprints headed down the hill just followed those to I. From there we dropped down to F1. I think we would have been fine navigationally without the footprints, but the made the going a little easier and a little drier I think. Our original plan was just to go F2 and then the tunnel But R wasn't that far out of the way and then Q was an easy short trek up the old interstate. At this point we decided to pick off two close by controls not realizing that H was going to be a doozy. We should have headed right into the woods but futzed around looking for a trail until finally deciding to head in. Again, not hard to figure out where we were but we got stuck in the middle of a swamp and had to cross a knee deep stream. We hunted up and down the stream for a bit until Valerie just sucked it up and crossed. I'm standing there thinking oh, crap, I need to get wet and then I'm going to be cold and miserable and and and and then I just crossed the damn creek too. Cold! Got the control and headed to the next one and then back to a wide trail that took us to F2. My feet never dried out but I was pleased with how quickly my pants did and I really wasn't that cold. F3 was sneaky - clue was "tunnel entrance" and it was close to the old interstate tunnel that we knew we needed to go thru, but there was a small little viaduct type tunnel off to the side that was the real control. Figured that out pretty quickly, got the control and then headed through the tunnel.

The old tunnel was pretty cool but it was long and it was chilly inside and it was hard pavement and about half way through, my knees and hips started to complain a bit. Valerie kept me entertained singing about Pepper and we finally reached the other end. F4 was up a really steep side hill that was slippery and scary but I put my head down and climbed up and got that one and then we snuck behind the tunnel facade to head to F5.

At this point we were feeling okay; tired but still in the game. But the going to F5 was tough. We were following the stream, but there was a lot of deadfall and then the bank got really steep. Crossing to the other side didn't seem like a good idea as we weren't anxious to get wet again. I think this is where it became clear to me that while adventure trekking can be fun it's just a totally different mindset from orienteering. No way would crossing that stream be part of an orienteering course.

So we decided to head up the hill. We were confident we knew where we were and that we had a long way to go to get to F5, but there were lots of rocks up the hillside and the clue was on some rocks, so a bunch of people were headed up thinking the flag was there. We knew it wasn't, but figured maybe we would be able to contour over from there anyway. Well that took us a really long time. While we're not total couch potatoes, our fitness isn't what it once was, and that climb, slipping in the snow, crawling on all fours at times since it was so steep, just took it out of us. When we finally got to the rocks and started contouring around it seemed like it would take us forever. I had suggested climbing up to the turnpike and contouring up there when we first started the leg but that seemed really daunting. But since we had gone 90% of the way up by this time Valerie said we really ought to just go all the way. It turned out to be a good idea and when we finally got up to the turnpike we were able to walk along the edge on a nice flat pebbly surface that was very refreshing. Made our way to the spur where the flag was, and found our way down to the control.

At this point we had a little over two hours to get back to the finish. It looked pretty straightforward and we would be able to follow a lot of people that had congregated at the control and there was a good trail network back to the finish. But all of a sudden we just felt exhausted. We could go all the way back down and then up again on the other side and hope that we didn't mess up and got back in time. Or we could just slog our way around along the turnpike and then the road with not much climb knowing that we could that in the time that was left. We hemmed and hawed and really hated giving up like that, but I think in the end it was the right choice to go around.

C • Thanks for the help 3

The charge in the watch only lasted this long. But the rest of the outing was just a long slog back along the turnpike and then the road. We had had it with slipping and sliding in all the snow, were tired and starting to get some aches and pains and decided that climbing up and down another few hillsides was a recipe for injury.

C • Great job! 3