Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Northfield Mountain, Red, first half of the Little Troll Cup. I swear, I used to be able to do this. Now I'm slow, dumb, blind, and I fall down and run into things and it hurts. I'll facetiously blame control #1 on a distraction*, and maybe the ones in the middle were because the rain hit and I had not prepped my glasses, so they fogged up. (Really, it's just the slow, dumb, etc.) How come I can go for a run and actually run, but when I do something like this, I'm trudging.

*So, as I was approaching the control I encountered a guy who I think was on Green, and, he said, "Jean?". I looked at him, and there was recognition, but I had to do a context switch because he clearly knew me from a non-orienteering context, and not a recent one. I managed to put it together: I met him at science summer camp in 1978 (he was also in my class in college, but I saw him only infrequently then, and not since).

Northfield Mountain, Red, chase start. Well, this was an improvement. Tim and Glen were way out in front and were faster than me, but I think I came in third (some people didn't run the second race). My one mistake was when I was low on #4, and spotted another control down below that I (punched and) checked first. Not so easy to read this multigenerational photocopy of a map, but it is what it is.

Picked up a couple of controls up the hill, walking.

Cruising around Willard Brook with Marcello, on a variant of my SW loop, to give him a look at the terrain, in case it's a candidate for an upcoming mapping project. Not sure why my watch stopped a little early (we were heading straight back to the car at that point).

Daisy-chained my two Willard Brook routes together, with an extra excursion up the hill. Kind of humid; a pack probably would have been annoying. Something longer would have been nice, but this is what I managed to get done, no complaints.

Found this in the woods:

although none of the surrounding trees were very big, which is as you'd expect.

A lot of pollen in the air, I think. No itchy eyes or wheezing, but the air felt abrasive on my eyes and respiratory system.

First stationary tick of the season -- felt something on my neck while driving, asked Nancy what it was, she said it was a tick and pulled it off. Came off easily, so it must have just grabbed in. I was hoping this would be a light year for ticks, but it's not looking great. I don't think it's GPS that's going to kill orienteering, it's poison ivy and ticks.

C • Ticks 7

Ansonia, Red, 6.23 km. Arrived late, but Jim and Rich were accommodating and let us go out anyway. Embarrassed to be the last one back. Pretty pathetic from a navigational perspective, and a bit hot as well. Screwed up #2 horribly, including one point when I was probably looking right at it and decided I was probably somewhere else and went wandering for a while. Got passed by the Ukrainian guy when I stopped to take a leak on the way to #3, and saw him a number of times after that -- he was faster and woudl rush off ahead, then I'd make a mistake, and he'd catch up (yes, that's exactly what I mean). #4 was quite a bit lower than the circle, but I found it no trouble. Botched #5, though I probably could have seen it if I had looked to my left.#8 seemed a little sout of where I expected, but I had no trouble. Last saw the Ukranian as I was approaching #9 and he was heading in an odd direction. Stuffed up #10 and #11 despite being quite close. Furtunately, I'm quite capable of enjoying myself even when bumbling around, and it's hard to not have a good time at Ansonia.

New shoes, which seemed quite satisfactory.

From Iranistan Ave. in Bridgeport CT out to Fayerweather Island with Nancy. Bridgeport has quite a beautiful park right on the sound. Some of this was with my shoes off, on the sand and in the water.