Training Log Archive: Ricka

Rest day.

I started walking 1.25 mile trail at Old Stone Fort SP south of Nashville. Thunderstorm hit 0.5 mile in. Tried to run back - NO WAY and pointless.

Pioneers thought this was an Indian fort. Actually a 2000 year old mound formation by Hopewell era Indians. Apparently never used for living or defense. 50 acres above and between two Duck Rivers for ceremony only for over 400 years - wow!

Nashville coffee shop for good coffee and Internet connection! Home tonight. Walking uphills of Nashville painful. Looking forward to resuming variety of cross-training: biking, swimming, and machines.

Hydration works! Legs felt much springier than expected. Any uphill tough.

If I keep errors small, there is hope! Even with at least 4 errors totaling 6 minuets, I nabbed a bronze! I recognized and recovered efficiently from every bobble! (This is one of the first times I've had a sense of "how did I just get here?")

Competitors: Only Walter had smooth (and bloody) run. Bortz edged me due to my late bobbles; Bob Lux MP again (no idea why); Boltz, Clatterbuck, and Nolan struggled. Many M50's and M55's in low 40's -and 3 F50's under 50 - but they're so young!

S-1: Short first leg (similar to ones I set at Cuivre River Middle) got me. Bearing, saw Tom Nolan meadering, pace count ran out, wnet bit further, curled back. FINALLY I read the terrain on map - found clearing. I just never read the control circle properly - weird. "Aim right to reentrant, turn left" was obvious and fast. Nolan still wandering as I left. -3 minutes

1-7: Very clean, not fast but with hills and vegetation few on Green had any pace - good! Expansive bare rock (ala S Bar F Scout Ranch) was very useful - no veg and well-mapped (except 'grey on green' was hrad to see). From 2 on, I realized that bare rock was best feature and used it well - good adaptation.

7-8: found boulder on hill as AP. Drifted left to first bare rock; hesitation; found subtle spur, ran it. Worked as Clatterbuck joined me - he'd just made huge error. I'm surprised I lost -1.5 minutes here - felt like less.

8-14: Clean to spectator control. Small loop left, "Be Careful". Tight square of controls in rocky, hilly terrain was tough!

14-15: Drifted right onto large rock face. Corrected well. 30s

15-16: Bearing and pace. On wrong side of big reentrant! Why? Oops, compass was set on 14-16 bearing. Bottom of reentrant, read rocks well, up side. Pleased to limit error to 1 minute.

17-18: Ran hard to chute & chute, 30 degrees off, hit chute 60m right of GO control. It was so tempting to "Just wave" at GO control. Ran left, back right - nothing left in legs.

I could have been cleaner, but keeping errors small and 3rd place feel great!

It is clear that the two weeks of hiking, back-packing, and orienteering have been a big physical boost - made possible by the 3 months of increased exercise base. Phase one of retirement is a success!

C • Good job on a Bronze 1

C • MP 2

Middle - Green X - Splits

7.8K is "too long" for my current endurance, but with only 70m climb since it was flat on the Chattahoochee River flood plain (which doesn't flood often due to dam).

Two monstrous errors.
S-1: As in Cincy Day 2, I sensed the "red flag" and ignored it; this time wandering into 'terra ingonito' (ie swamp).
I chose safe, long trail run. Getting close to control, I changed mind and chose to cut a corner. Instead of 80m NW to next trail, I ended up 400m east in a swamp. WTF! Since there was no swamp within 300m of control, I was clueless - could not find trail to south to relocate, went north to river. Then executed same plan (without cut corner) to perfection. 25 minute errror.

1-8: I'd looked ahead to 1-5 legs. Good plans and execution, especially 4-5 where Charlie S and I exploited narrow white corridor next to swamp. "Thanks beavers for the dam." Very clean to 8, getting discouraged by length and slow result no matter what.

Did use notorious #73 on junk to my #8 on junk. #73 was the disputed Brown control. I knew exactly which mapped junk pile it was on - unfortunately, it was not the junk pile circled on Brown map.

8-9 was so easy: due east and up stream to junction. I ran 200-300m without checking compass or terrain - on hillside, almost off map. Relocated to stream, but didn't know location on stream. Huge parallel reentrant error. Surprised I only lost 15 minutes. Attribute this lack of focus and discipline to exhaustion and discouragement.

9-10: Missed much faster safer route (used #73 again!).

10-F: Clean and slow.

Good route choices except #10. Even for #1 and #9, my do-overs were perfect. :)

Body totally trashed: legs, scratches, energy. As i drank over a gallon of water, beer, Gatorade, and lemonade for next 5 hours, I realize that I'd run dehydrated. Dumb!

Long - Green X - Splits

Event: US Individual Championships (Sprint/Middle/Long/Trail)
 

Several runs to and from parking lot to get heart pump 'a bit'.

Placing in a campus sprint was a long shot for me but I grabbed 3rd! Very satisfied. Pace was slightly stronger than I expected as i stayed with (faster) Bob Boltz for 10 controls - he pulled away at end. He hesitated more out of controls, letting me stay in touch.

My top competitors: Bob Lux MP (see below), fast Tom Nolan skips sprints; Walter S struggled. Congrats to Paul Clatterbuck of PTOC on 2nd place!

Only error was 'trick'. From 5, I followed red-line to 6 - Oops, it was 9 - very confused. Fortunately I did not proceed onward to 10 as Bob Lux did. (the red-line was the broken line from 8 to 9 which unfortunately went straight through #5). I just couldn't figure out why I was pointing to #10 so fast Unfolded map and 'found' 6-7-8-9.

Also, two route choice bobbles. Read map well, planned ahead, did not fall for 'dead-end chute' on 4 to 5 (but that is probably why I had no time to look ahead for 6 & 7.

Sprint - Green - Splits

Recovery day. Not surprisingly, legs a bit heavy from yesterday.

Up beautiful Mill Creek. Then return trip to look for several walking stick candidates. Rhododendron is tough - wonder how it will hold up.
Also two look like a version of ironwood.

Hmm, I'm on trail - better run. Down Mill Creek path - slight downhill was nice boost

Then took highway 61 all the way to Carrolton GA - seeing rural and small town GA was more pleasant but a lot slower than I-75.

Motel to get laundry done and repacked for SML Champs.

4 hours up from Hickey Gap CG in GA NFS up to panther Bluff. 3 hours down.

With Richard. Oil driller, lives east of Grayling MI. It was about 2000 feet climb. Panther Bluff looked like great view to west. When we got there, dense 10 foot saplings obscured view. "Can't see the forested hills for the trees."

Richard is a supervisor of small team of 10. They're finishing drilling a hole in Florida - South Carolina is next once they can figure how to get their equipment out of the hole - a vital piece broke. Not a HS grad but now self-teaching himself Chem and Physics on internet in order to master wind & solar energy, electrolysis to make hydrogen, and efficient storage of hydrogen (all this in his spare time!). Wife joined him - left two teen-age boys in MI. Great with contour map and compass but prefers 'mil rads' over degrees for bearings.

Beautiful waterfall - forced a 100+ foot climb straight up next to do it. Passed a mountain biker - about 50. Don't know how he dragged his bike up here. 3 back-packers told us the 'regular route' to Panther Bluff was tough, so we took a steep short cut. Horrible deadfall and green briar. Returned via 'regular route' - so darn easy!

First chose to be a tourist for one day in Knoxville. Eastern Tennessee Museum was small but impressive:

Revolutionary War & later: French and Britain fought for Cherokee allegiance, French won. French and Indians did well against Brits.

Civil: Few or no plantations in TN so fairly few slaves. Most were maids, farmhands, carpenters, etc. The Union dominated Eastern TN - lots of really ugly raids and starvation on both sides. Split families and communities.

TVA dams in 20's and 30's finally brought electricity here. CCC's were big in the area.

One display to counter the "hillbilly" image of the area.

Great food selection surrounds Market Square. Then a walk along TN River.

Found a Starbucks to get on Internet and pick next campground and hikes. On to northern GA - next to Cohutta Wilderness. Hickey Gap was very nice NFS campground - FREE!