Training Log Archive: PG

Just one control, my car in the parking garage at Bradley, took me 20 minutes to find it (and carrying my bags the whole time). Just another step in the direction of total humiliation.... :-)

C • A lot of that around 10

On Mt. Toby.

Long Champs at Red Rock Canyon, Brown Y, 4.8 km.

Another glorious day. Not what I would have ever considered a long course, but this sure felt long to me. But I did the best I could, didn't miss anything and moved as quickly as I could. Lots of walking interspersed with small bits of running, but if that's all you can do, then that's what you do. I guessed it might take me an hour and when the watch stopped at not quite 55 that was very satisfying.

John Harbuck got first today, then me, then Dennis just a few seconds behind in third. Had the course been a hundred meters longer Dennis would have had me, but the finish came just in time.

As with yesterday, lots of good vibes throughout the day. Swampfox had arrived, hadn't seen him for a long time; the pleasure for both of us was very evident. And another day of fine organization by the Los Angeles club and meet director Clare Durant. Thank you so much.

Routes are on Livelox.

C • C U 2 4

Brown Y - Long - Splits

Middle Champs at Vasquez Rocks. A glorious day in so many different ways, except one -- might as well get this out of the way first -- mid-afternoon we were about to head off to Red Rock Canyon to check out the model for the Long Champs and I rolled my right ankle in the parking lot. WTF. But although it felt like the ankle was momently far beyond its normal range of motion, it seems like I got lucky. We still went off and did the model. I walked around there for a while and it was tolerable. So I'll at least start tomorrow.

But that is the normal for any orienteering these days. I start a course, no idea whether something will bust before I am done.

For the middle, nothing busted. And I orienteered rather well. AP says I lost no time, but it has rather low standards. But really, other being a dumb ass and following Pavlina though a gap in some cliffs that anyone my age ought to have enough sense not to do, well, the rest was real good. And it is an amazing place for orienteering.

Physically, well, my conditioning sure hasn't improved in the last 3+ weeks of inactivity. So the running segments were shorter and shorter, the tiredness very much making itself known. But, a big but, it was such a pleasure to get to do the whole course with nothing getting busted, without walking back to the finish from the wrong direction. Been looking forward to this day for quite a while, and it did not disappoint.

Routes are on Livelox.

And then the model for Long Champs, walked around with Phil and Clint in the late afternoon light. Gorgeous.

Brown - Middle - Splits

Event: LAOC: Orienteering USA Nationals
 

Map for the Sprint Champs at Pierce College. I opted out, not knowing what my hamstring might do and wanting to at least get to experience Vasquez Rocks. Seemed a wise decision.

Easy to read the map if you can blow it up on the computer. With the paper map it's tough for my old eyes, even if they are a lot better than they used to be, to tell whether gaps are really gaps, or what was really going on around a couple of the controls. That said, it sure seems like a more interesting course than college sprints I remember running in the past.

Model at Vasquez Rocks. Fascinating terrain. Map seemed just fine, but took some mental adaptation on my part with regard to how best to use the info it was giving. Seemed like the orienteering could vary from straightforward to really hard with not much advance notice. Very cool.

Finally looked at the photos of the eclipse. Not as bad as I thought.

With Gail, flats south of town. Upper 40s, sunny. I was chilly most of the time, could have used another layer. But still pretty nice out.

Woke up, looked at my watch, 4:50, figured I might as well check out the lunar eclipse. Maybe a quarter of the moon was lit up, and it was still high enough in the sky to see from our house. But I drove off a little distance to a spot with a better view of the low western sky.

The first few minutes were actually quite cool, as the part that was lit up slowly shrank and then was gone. You could still easily see the whole moon, grayish beige with a hint of orange. I stayed for a while, thinking it might get a more interesting color, but it actually seemed to get duller.

Other than that, I suppose more stars were visible (not a cloud in the sky!), but no sense of any big change. It did remind of the times, it's now been many years ago, when during a rogaine or a 100-miler there a point after a long and usually arduous night when the sky begins to brighten ever so slightly, as does one's morale. Those were some fine adventures.