Training Log Archive: Linear IceIn the 7 days ending Aug 1, 2011:
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Monday Aug 1, 2011 #
Bike (Mountain Bike!!) 40:00 [3]
I got my Mountain Bike in a box last Friday, and was just DYING to get it assembled so I could play a little.
FoxShadow at one point had offered to assemble it once I got it, and Space Monkey had offered up Pwentz3l's help, saying he would probably put it together for me if I mowed his lawn.
I figured that Pwentz3l was probably too exhausted from rtnx to want to deal with a bike, and besides... having been gone a while his lawn might be in a bad shape..... and really both he and FS live a bit far away so I just brought it over to local bike shop at lunch and picked it up again after work (two shops said they were booked until Thursday but I begged and pleaded and the one agreed to assemble but didn't tune - didn't notice any problems though.)
So, at home, I got Alice and we rode down the road a bit, then over to the dike by town, where I played a little on the slopes (lots of bail-out options) and I went down the gravel trail to the river bottom trail, over logs, no problems with the bike at all. It is awesome! But I do realize I have a very big problem with commitment.... commitment to tackle a hill at full speed, or making circles on the hill (similar fear as to snowboarding, with stuck feet), or even going down a hill at even a moderate speed if there's something scary at the bottom (small mud swamp area). I am SUCH a chicken. But every now and then --- I can feel it's going to be FUN. That's what I need more of, so I will start on the easy trails, gain confidence in myself and my bike, and then slowly (very slowly) work my way to more challenging, more varied stuff.
Tomorrow, my colleague (the one I originally rode w in Singapore when I thought - I gotta buy a bike!) and I are going to try to head over to Battle Creek... I think it's much too challenging for me but maybe I can ride some spots and walk others. Funny... I wasn't this afraid in Singapore. I think I'm getting a little freaked out for some reason. Maybe because everyone keeps telling me about their injuries and that I'm going to fall a lot. Which I know I am. =/
FoxShadow at one point had offered to assemble it once I got it, and Space Monkey had offered up Pwentz3l's help, saying he would probably put it together for me if I mowed his lawn.
I figured that Pwentz3l was probably too exhausted from rtnx to want to deal with a bike, and besides... having been gone a while his lawn might be in a bad shape..... and really both he and FS live a bit far away so I just brought it over to local bike shop at lunch and picked it up again after work (two shops said they were booked until Thursday but I begged and pleaded and the one agreed to assemble but didn't tune - didn't notice any problems though.)
So, at home, I got Alice and we rode down the road a bit, then over to the dike by town, where I played a little on the slopes (lots of bail-out options) and I went down the gravel trail to the river bottom trail, over logs, no problems with the bike at all. It is awesome! But I do realize I have a very big problem with commitment.... commitment to tackle a hill at full speed, or making circles on the hill (similar fear as to snowboarding, with stuck feet), or even going down a hill at even a moderate speed if there's something scary at the bottom (small mud swamp area). I am SUCH a chicken. But every now and then --- I can feel it's going to be FUN. That's what I need more of, so I will start on the easy trails, gain confidence in myself and my bike, and then slowly (very slowly) work my way to more challenging, more varied stuff.
Tomorrow, my colleague (the one I originally rode w in Singapore when I thought - I gotta buy a bike!) and I are going to try to head over to Battle Creek... I think it's much too challenging for me but maybe I can ride some spots and walk others. Funny... I wasn't this afraid in Singapore. I think I'm getting a little freaked out for some reason. Maybe because everyone keeps telling me about their injuries and that I'm going to fall a lot. Which I know I am. =/
Sunday Jul 31, 2011 #
Orienteer race (US Champs Green X Day 2) 1:37:00 [3] 5.4 mi (17:58 / mi)
shoes: Icebug Spirit-L olx
Not a very good day.
Yesterday's course was thrown out due to misplaced control 9, so I had a fresh opportunity.
I did follow my plan of mostly just heading to the controls. I mostly found them okay, and I wasn't feeling too bad about it really.
It was a little frustrating to see Val at EVERY control pretty much; she and I took different routes and I generally would run into her at the control. And her time was better than mine by a few minutes.
As Val commented afterwards.... "yeah, you'd get to the control before me but then I'd see you there fumbling around... sorry to be blunt, but that's what you were doing". True. I guess the good point is I'm getting to the right general area, but now I need a better strategy for actually finding the control when I believe I am somewhat in the right area. It's rare that I KNOW where the control is.... it's more of the feeling of "oh, where are my keys, I know I had them a second ago and they MUST be around here". Add that to my list of things to work on.
I did have an truly bad second to last control, looked at it and said "oh easy". Then got confused by the fresh logging trails even as I remembered reading something about staying away from the equipment. Finally just ran hard for the clearing (and the bizarre swamp control with no attack point) which had been my original plan prior to distraction.
So, all in all, my time was probably close to the bottom, but it didn't feel that bad while I was out, cause I never felt that lost. It felt bad when I heard it though. SO much to learn still.
Yesterday's course was thrown out due to misplaced control 9, so I had a fresh opportunity.
I did follow my plan of mostly just heading to the controls. I mostly found them okay, and I wasn't feeling too bad about it really.
It was a little frustrating to see Val at EVERY control pretty much; she and I took different routes and I generally would run into her at the control. And her time was better than mine by a few minutes.
As Val commented afterwards.... "yeah, you'd get to the control before me but then I'd see you there fumbling around... sorry to be blunt, but that's what you were doing". True. I guess the good point is I'm getting to the right general area, but now I need a better strategy for actually finding the control when I believe I am somewhat in the right area. It's rare that I KNOW where the control is.... it's more of the feeling of "oh, where are my keys, I know I had them a second ago and they MUST be around here". Add that to my list of things to work on.
I did have an truly bad second to last control, looked at it and said "oh easy". Then got confused by the fresh logging trails even as I remembered reading something about staying away from the equipment. Finally just ran hard for the clearing (and the bizarre swamp control with no attack point) which had been my original plan prior to distraction.
So, all in all, my time was probably close to the bottom, but it didn't feel that bad while I was out, cause I never felt that lost. It felt bad when I heard it though. SO much to learn still.
1 PM
Run (Erie Canal) 53:00 [3] 5.2 mi (10:12 / mi) +100m 9:37 / mi
shoes: Asics2
I have a sure fire way of getting rid of any song stuck in your head.
Sing "Happy Birthday". It is a nonrepetitive, cleansing song.
Guess what song gets stuck in your head when you start running on the Erie Canal Path? . One verse of Happy Birthday and I was free to my own thoughts again.
I just ran an "out and back" although. I had to ask for directions 3 times on the OUT!! haha. And this was supposed to be easy. You'd think it was just a straight handrail, but it begins, ends, goes by the canal, turns away, turns into bike trail, turns at road, etc. etc. and the signage is non-existent.
Back was in one shot, no questions, no water breaks, knew where i was going for the first time today. Then when I got back, I was very happy to find that my carryon bag had a big bag of icewater in it! Leftover from lunch and you know I took advantage of it and it made me very happy. Simple pleasures.
Regarding the Erie Canal...I was amazed at its width .. it must have been a good 70 yards or so across. VERY impressive for our early nation. Then, I looked on the other side of my canal path, and saw a parallel ditch about 25 feet across and maybe 12 feet deep. I suspect that was part of the ORIGINAL Erie Canal. I will look it up, but it seemed much more reasonable.
Sing "Happy Birthday". It is a nonrepetitive, cleansing song.
Guess what song gets stuck in your head when you start running on the Erie Canal Path? . One verse of Happy Birthday and I was free to my own thoughts again.
I just ran an "out and back" although. I had to ask for directions 3 times on the OUT!! haha. And this was supposed to be easy. You'd think it was just a straight handrail, but it begins, ends, goes by the canal, turns away, turns into bike trail, turns at road, etc. etc. and the signage is non-existent.
Back was in one shot, no questions, no water breaks, knew where i was going for the first time today. Then when I got back, I was very happy to find that my carryon bag had a big bag of icewater in it! Leftover from lunch and you know I took advantage of it and it made me very happy. Simple pleasures.
Regarding the Erie Canal...I was amazed at its width .. it must have been a good 70 yards or so across. VERY impressive for our early nation. Then, I looked on the other side of my canal path, and saw a parallel ditch about 25 feet across and maybe 12 feet deep. I suspect that was part of the ORIGINAL Erie Canal. I will look it up, but it seemed much more reasonable.
Saturday Jul 30, 2011 #
Orienteer race 1:53:00 [3] 5.7 km (19:49 / km) +90m 18:22 / km
shoes: Icebug Spirit-L olx
It was great to catch up with people and have a yummy lunch after our run; thanks maprunner for the new tradition (isn't that an oxymoron?)
Quick write-up while it's fresh in mind.... maybe something will "click" a little better for tomorrow.
Happy Valley map North of Syracuse, NY, very swamping, 2.5 meter contours, a bit subtle (for my skill level) and maybe I should be a bit more unhappy with myself and yet somehow I'm not... my elegant route choices were just not necessary in this terrain and too hard to follow! (failure there) But I was able to know at least in what direction I was traveling (compass helped) and identify catching features. Some of the catching features were QUITE a bit away from where I wanted to be... but they did help me relocate.
Progress? Two years ago I could barely find the first control.... last year I got lost and had no idea where I was until another bumble bunny said "well at least we now know what dark green looks like!" and this year I just made some big mistakes and corrected them. That's progress, right?
I lost my Garmin track, or it never quite took. Have about an hour of me sitting at a picnic table logged on it instead. =(
So, I'll just log my route in text. Will scan map later, iphone camera doesn't do it justice.
1 was good... I was very careful and checked off the features along the way. Helped that there was a big road with a clearing as a "for sure" feature! I was thinking maybe I was making the terrain fit my map.... but I was okay.
2: Went up a bit to avoid all the jumbly contours, realized I must be off when the stone walls weren't quite making sense, so just ran to the road and worked my way down the stone wall, then easily into the re-entrant.
3. Wanted to follow the creek? bed as a handrail but ended far south of it and headed back, kind of figured out where I was and attacked off the brown X in the small swamp. A bit of meandering, but always generally in the right direction.... mostly. (This is an example of my progress from truly bad orienteering to sloppy and slow orienteering).
4: just walked it but pretty easy as I recall...
5: an example of elegant orienteering gone wrong; to avoid the green (it turns out the green wasn't bad and wasn't necessary to avoid) I planned a nice route along the waterfront, then couldn't find what was or wasn't waterfront. Ah well. Hit the trail WAY east of 5 (kind of saw I was on the big hill near the road at least before I hit it and said to myself "aw heck, might as well run to that easy road", then easy to clearing, lake, double XX, control.
6: easy, but lost a little concentration after drinking and getting chocolate GU all over myself at someone else's water stop at the stone wall leading into six. (ALL those stone walls. Amazing. Can you imagine coming to the new world, and trying to farm THIS LAND? All rocky, swampy, mosquito-y. Those farmers probably wished they had stolen an apple in London and gotten a free trip to Australia!)
7: Just hit the n/s trail, then took the other trail pretty much right to 7 and followed the tracks.
8: Headed to trail, took trail to clearing, cut up and across to 8, attacked off trail bend.
9: Just was very very careful on my compass bearing, especially through the green (which I was no longer elegantly avoiding). Hit a clearing and thought YAY! but couldn't find the control. Wah? Spiraled around and finally found it. Some people think it was misplaced. I wouldn't doubt it. But who knows if where I went was really the right place, either?
10, easy setup to go control
Go wasn't fun, because it was up hill and through a field with tall grass.
I ended up in 4th for day 1, well behind Peggy (my baseline) who came in around 79 minutes, and 13 minutes behind 3rd.
Tomorrow.... I think I will try to just run for the controls. =)
Quick write-up while it's fresh in mind.... maybe something will "click" a little better for tomorrow.
Happy Valley map North of Syracuse, NY, very swamping, 2.5 meter contours, a bit subtle (for my skill level) and maybe I should be a bit more unhappy with myself and yet somehow I'm not... my elegant route choices were just not necessary in this terrain and too hard to follow! (failure there) But I was able to know at least in what direction I was traveling (compass helped) and identify catching features. Some of the catching features were QUITE a bit away from where I wanted to be... but they did help me relocate.
Progress? Two years ago I could barely find the first control.... last year I got lost and had no idea where I was until another bumble bunny said "well at least we now know what dark green looks like!" and this year I just made some big mistakes and corrected them. That's progress, right?
I lost my Garmin track, or it never quite took. Have about an hour of me sitting at a picnic table logged on it instead. =(
So, I'll just log my route in text. Will scan map later, iphone camera doesn't do it justice.
1 was good... I was very careful and checked off the features along the way. Helped that there was a big road with a clearing as a "for sure" feature! I was thinking maybe I was making the terrain fit my map.... but I was okay.
2: Went up a bit to avoid all the jumbly contours, realized I must be off when the stone walls weren't quite making sense, so just ran to the road and worked my way down the stone wall, then easily into the re-entrant.
3. Wanted to follow the creek? bed as a handrail but ended far south of it and headed back, kind of figured out where I was and attacked off the brown X in the small swamp. A bit of meandering, but always generally in the right direction.... mostly. (This is an example of my progress from truly bad orienteering to sloppy and slow orienteering).
4: just walked it but pretty easy as I recall...
5: an example of elegant orienteering gone wrong; to avoid the green (it turns out the green wasn't bad and wasn't necessary to avoid) I planned a nice route along the waterfront, then couldn't find what was or wasn't waterfront. Ah well. Hit the trail WAY east of 5 (kind of saw I was on the big hill near the road at least before I hit it and said to myself "aw heck, might as well run to that easy road", then easy to clearing, lake, double XX, control.
6: easy, but lost a little concentration after drinking and getting chocolate GU all over myself at someone else's water stop at the stone wall leading into six. (ALL those stone walls. Amazing. Can you imagine coming to the new world, and trying to farm THIS LAND? All rocky, swampy, mosquito-y. Those farmers probably wished they had stolen an apple in London and gotten a free trip to Australia!)
7: Just hit the n/s trail, then took the other trail pretty much right to 7 and followed the tracks.
8: Headed to trail, took trail to clearing, cut up and across to 8, attacked off trail bend.
9: Just was very very careful on my compass bearing, especially through the green (which I was no longer elegantly avoiding). Hit a clearing and thought YAY! but couldn't find the control. Wah? Spiraled around and finally found it. Some people think it was misplaced. I wouldn't doubt it. But who knows if where I went was really the right place, either?
10, easy setup to go control
Go wasn't fun, because it was up hill and through a field with tall grass.
I ended up in 4th for day 1, well behind Peggy (my baseline) who came in around 79 minutes, and 13 minutes behind 3rd.
Tomorrow.... I think I will try to just run for the controls. =)
Wednesday Jul 27, 2011 #
Run (Battle Creek) 32:00 [3] 3.0 mi (10:40 / mi)
shoes: Asics2
I felt lousy today and wasn't sure if running would clear my head or have me coughing up a lung. It felt not bad, but after 15 min or so I felt it was enough and I told my trail running buddies I wa heading back. They insisted on running back w me, since who knows what crazies are running in the woods (I do--mathematicians and software geeks) but maybe they were concerned about my health too. Anyway- very nice group. Felt fine until I quit, then nauseous.