Training Log Archive: Linear Ice

Busy weekend w my second job (non-profit, lots of weekend and evening work for no pay). I wish I could have made it to Sand Dunes - splits look like it was a photo finish! But it would have taken too long...

I ran a slow loop with the dogs.
Nothing exciting, just a secondary procrastination technique, since the kitchen was already clean.

Wow... was aiming for a 7:20 pace, which felt impossible when I started. My legs are tired tired and energy quite low, but kept the goal and just sucked it up.
Ran laps along the river (down river road to end, turn to beginning, then back) 7:33, 7:15, 7:13 Not fun, but success! Tomorrow is a rest day.

Ended up walking home the last bit.... upset stomach. =(

Along river, crossed ASP to southern Exit, to horse barn (quick break/drink/eat-not included in time), to Neal Ave back to 50th and down the coulee.
Very tiring despite the pace.

I looked William O'Brien up online, to see if he could possibly have something personal against me. WOB was a lumber baron in the late 1800s, who purchased the land north of Stillwater after it was all logged and mostly worthless. His daughter Alice donated much of the land at WOB for a State Park.

(IMO, the most interesting character in Stillwater Lumber history is the fellow who had a special knack for knowing where a body would surface, after disappearing into the St. Croix during logging days. If a lumberjack fell of a log, he was a goner....no way to find a body underneath a river completely covered with floating logs. But, it was possible to get the body and this fellow knew the currents and patterns so well he could tell exactly when and where it would show up, with stunning accuracy. I learned this from my daughter - her 8th grade social studies class covered "Stillwater" and "Japan", so I got interesting facts from each. Weird class..")

Back to WOB, though.... I don't think it's personal, but I still have issues with the park.
Went back up there after work, to try to run two week's ago course. The one that got me then, and the one that got my keys last week.

Today didn't start out much better. I left my compass in my car, and didn't notice it until I was halfway to the start (a mile away from lot). Went back, got it. Set.

I had no problem with the first few controls (which is no surprise since I've done them a few times now!!) but got trapped in raspberry bushes and in my head again going from 4-5. I was going to swoop around the top of the ridge, it was going to be so much fun, except it wasn't that easy to follow and I got trapped, and lost, again. =( And so on, and so on.
At control 10, I suddenly realized it was much later than I thought, and I had a hair appointment in 30 minutes, 30 minutes or so away. ARRGGGHHH.
So, I bailed again and ran back to the car....
I'm not coming back to WOB for a while.
Raspberries and itch weed will have to survive without me.

Event: MNOC - River Bend Nature Center
 

River Bend Nature Center
After my train wreck of an orienteering race from last week, I decided to focus again on what I meant to do last week, before my head fell off.
I took the course at a pace where I always knew where I was, stayed on the map, and did not try to go as fast as possible, but as clean as possible at whatever pace that meant.
The course and terrain were much easier than last week's, and I was able to stick to my plan and still jog most of the way.

Very enjoyable. Nice course, Ian.... I like the new map!

Plan last week was to also run orange, but to practice here at a faster pace.
LAST week, I didn't have time for orange because I used it all up on the red. =(

It was fun to see (from course setter's perspective) how the same controls that were used on the Red, coming at them from one direction.... were so much easier to find on the Orange.... coming at them from the other direction. Perhaps having punched them before helped, but I was impressed with the clever course setting in this regard.

orange - Splits

red - Splits