Training Log Archive: PG

You can tell the body is slowing down. Normally I would have had the results and maps from the corn maze all posted last night. But all I could manage was getting a little food in me and then off to bed. So that stuff will get done today, slowly.

Nevertheless, it was a fine event. Totally lucky again with the weather. Managed to stay one step ahead of disaster the whole time. But even a little bit of common sense would say that it needs to be more than a one-man show. The CMOUSA Board of Directors will have to make some decisions about that.

Though first it has to deal with its upcoming elections.... :-)

C • Big thank you! 4

Wore up still tired and with a sore back, but both got better as the day went on. Finally got out for a corn ride, vowing to take it easy. And I actually did. Very pleasant saunter to Old Deerfield and back. Light breeze out of the NE.

Event: 2016 Corn Maze Champs
 

Up the river a little, windier than I expected (out of the north). But still a fine day.

also stopped at the maze just to check. It's still there.

Several trips into the maze putting out the 29 controls and the 4 balloons. Managed to get them in the correct places with no streamers. No streamers because one year I put out streamers a couple of days in advance and the maze folks thought they were trash and picked them all up, so I stopped doing that.

Back was getting pretty sore by the end, hauling the stands around.

Whately and Hatfield, breeze out of the north, nice cool day. Mellow pace.

Thinking about plans for the corn maze tomorrow, just mulling ideas. The beauty about the event from an organizer's perspective is that you can try out different things each year, see what works and what doesn't. Almost feel obliged to change something each year just to keep things fresh. And all of that can be done without worrying about a set of rules.

Before I left I posted the handicaps for the Night event -- in a course of 29 controls, the handicap is the number of controls you can skip. The goal isn't to try to get everyone to finish at the same time, more just to add a little spice to the event.

In the short time between when I posted the handicaps and when I left, I'd gotten two "suggestions" for "improvements" (ie. requests for a higher handicap). Note that complaints are severely frowned upon at corn maze events but suggestions are always welcome.

As I was riding along, enjoying the fine afternoon, I was thinking about how the standard complaint in the rest of orienteering is usually some version of "it's not fair." And always, fair or not, nothing is ever done about it.

So I thought, why not have bonus handicap points given out for the "it's not fair" reason, so that everyone who suggests that either their own points or someone else's isn't fair, well, I make a change and they get satisfaction. And that struck me as a pretty good idea, and amused me for the rest of my ride.

It seemed only fitting, that on firing up AP again, what should I find but a suggestion from Ian, the king of the Night, that his penalty lap wasn't fair. So I will certainly change that.

Whether I change it to 0 or 2 remains to be seen, since it wasn't clear whether he was suggesting it was too many or too few...

C • Suggestion 3

Finished off the corn maze courses, excellent as usual. The Night is the best. Still have to assign the handicaps.

And get the maps printed, sync the controls, assign start times, get the balloons and refreshments, assemble the controls, produce the model map, hang the controls, and who knows what else. In other words, under control. :-)

River Road - Old Deerfield. Definitely had the wind with me more than against me today. :-)

Testting the Sprint Shuffle. Almost just right, just needs one tweek.

C • data 5

Lower Road - Upper Road in Deerfield, south breeze. Not so bad.

To Montague.

Tried a new saddle, took the one off my old bike. Might be better? Only when I was done did Gail notice that I had taken the saddle off her old bike.

It only gets worse...

Leverett loop counter-clockwise. Started out with no ambition but got into it after a while. Lots of wind, ostensibly from the NW, but seemed liable at any moment to be coming from any direction.

In the maze, trying out ideas. My navigating is fine and the maze is cool, but running is just barely possible, and painful at that.