Training Log Archive: JanetT

Event: WCOC Stratton Brook State Park
 

WCOC Red course at Stratton Brook SP in Simsbury. Decided to work on upping my control count/control-finding practice for the year, and get in a longer workout pre-Lowlander. ;-) Managed to finish a bit better than twice PG's and Becks's times (~62 and 64). Mangled a few route choices.

Straight line distance 6.4 km. Sunny, breezy, and mid 60s made for a gorgeous day. This course had a map exchange in order to get a long enough course on a small map (1:5000, 2.5 m contours)

Good routes and execution to most of the controls. Had a couple instances of being at the right feature and wondering where the bag was (sometimes it was on the other side of the small tree, and sometimes it was just thick woods or dim lighting).

To 3, I thought I had headed down the white woods off the trail and down but ended up too far W/SW, on another seeming terrace-like spur in white woods that doesn't show up on the map.

Tried to attack 8 from below, taking the trail N of it to the larger reentrant NE of the flag and trying to follow the reentrant through the med. green to the white woods. Didn't work as planned; I never went far enough up the hill, and was pushed around by the green. Bailed out to the trail that goes around to the south, intending to find the little trail SSE, but think I missed it and found the next one. Saw the other control on the boundary stone (white and/or yellow course?) but knew it wasn't my code. Arghhh! (Better yet would have been to continue on the trail up to the white-course boundary stone and then in.)

Picked up my new map at the exchange and saw the next leg, 600m or so back down across the stream and up the hill on the other side. Turned to Jim and Rich and noted it was "evil," which amused them no end, I think. :-) I think the best route (if I'd taken the time to look) would have been down the hill to the S and then across the bridge and along trails; a little bit off the line but good trails the whole way. Instead I headed off mostly along the beeline planning to hit the bigger trails at the midpoint and then head to the eastern bridge. Execution didn't follow the plan, though, and I turned the wrong way at the first junction. At that point, after correcting and getting down the hill, I decided to just ford the stream past the SE end of the pond. Found the rest without too much difficulty, though I stood in the circle at 13 and 20 wondering where the flag was.

Nice course and a great day for O. Thanks to Jim, Rich, and WCOC.

At this point last year I had visited 631 controls with an accuracy of 72%. So far this year I have visited 693 controls with an accuracy of 86%. Yay, improvement, at least in one area.

Red - Splits

Up to Moreau to test-run some draft A-meet middle courses, and determine walking distance and est. time to start.
Early dinner at Davidson Bros. followed by coffee at Starbucks ...
FR later

Up to the plateau.

Test run of one of the middle courses. Temps were in the mid 60s and it was overcast for the most part. Still sweated a bunch.

Test ran another A-meet middle course.

Back to the car.

Walked with Rob at Hand Hollow from the Rt 9 parking lot. Temp in upper 60s and sunny with low humidity - gorgeous day. AOWN: one heron, one toad, and numerous birds. No bears.

Saw some of these unionids in the ground under what used to be a shallow pond near parking. CLC says the earthen dam that held the pond was breached earlier this year. We saw less water and more grass on the pond bottom than shown in the CLC photos taken last month.

Methinks the local beavers are trying to do a repair, based on newly laid sticks on the dam...

AOWN this morning (up early for a blood draw pre-annual physical): Not one, but two gray foxes in the field. I think one had found a breakfast snack and the other was trying to mooch.

A woman at Starbucks this morning, knitting a sweater, had two buttons:

"I knit so I don't kill anyone."

"I know I can buy socks at Walmart for $2.00."

Left Starbucks to go to the Y just a few miles down the road (instead of traveling back and forth from home). Did a mile warmup for Pilates, with plans to do something more after class. Eye doctor appointment at 2, also away from home. [So back to Starbucks for lunch after I decided the line at Panera was too ridiculous.]

No tools today. Modified the downward dogs (which I don't like anyway).

Caught up with another Pilates class member who was walking the inside lane and walked next to her until noon. She usually does 20-25 laps with a jogging lap in between. We talked about some of the different exercise classes, sore shoulders, PT, etc. and I lost track of how many laps we did. My guess is about 1.25-1.4 miles.

Adductors (2*12@75!!) and pulldowns (12@68.75!), plus some leg presses and wall sits while I waited for adductor machine.

Energetic class; no stepping today because there were more class members than steps available; doesn't happen all the time but occasionally there's a shortage. Sometimes in these cases she sets up circuits (a group on the step and a group using weights), but we haven't done that in quite a while.

Used elastic bands. My right shoulder is sore enough that the outer part of the bicep was shaky during band stretching (arms in front; pull shoulder blades together as you stretch the band). But good PT, I think.

Skipped aerobic training as I have a ton of things to do this afternoon; did adductors and pulldowns (62.5#), and added some leg presses.

Energetic class today because she wanted to get us out on time (class member had to leave early); I had to wipe sweat off my brow, so level 2! (It's all relative anyway, isn't it?)

Didn't think my two falls during orienteering were all that bad, but my right triceps sure let me know today that they didn't like high planks, and various triceps-focused moves.