Training Log Archive: kissy

Day 1 at Peaceful Valley; Red course. My plan for today was to not waste any time at the controls, since there were 18 of them. I wanted to see the control and as I was running to it, get my compass set for the next leg and start getting my plan ready. It worked pretty well. It was also good that I hit each control pretty cleanly, with just maybe a minute of total hesitations. I started out fairly quickly, but by the last third of the course, I could feel that I wasn't charging quite as hard. I think it was a combo of the heat and the sometimes mentally-challenging aspect of getting across those huge prairies. But overall, a good day.

Day 1 Red - Splits

Event: 2007 USOF Convention and Colorado 5-Days
 

After a day of mixed weather, we made it out to Blair Picnic area for a mountain bike ride through Veadauwoo. It started out with some pretty rocky trails, which resulted in a nice-sized lump on my knee after smashing into a rock. After that, it was a nice ride down a valley, and then a climb up to a double-track trail/road. For the finish, we went down a dirt road, a hard top road, and finished on a washboard dirt road, in the rain. It was a great ride and I felt good...even my hurt little toe.

C • Fun 1

First loop of the One Man Relay on the Lights of Cheyenne map. I've had a blister this week, and this morning it was very painful and red. By the end of the first loop, I could tell that I shouldn't be running with this blister. After the meet, we went to Mikell's doctor, who diagnosed an infected toe, so it was a good decision to stop.

C • Mikell has a doctor? I thought... 2

It was a good idea to stop running, but it wasn't such a good idea to take the antibiotics that were given to me. Within half an hour of taking the first one, a wave of nausea came over me. For the next 4 hours, I was on the sofa, in some amount of stomach pain. There were also 2 trips to the bathroom to experience the "possible mild side effect" of vomiting. So, another antibiotic gets added to the "do not take" list.

C • Get Better Soon 1

The Toe. Today went much better physically but worse navigationally. Actually, I was doing fine with navigating until I hit 13, 15, and 16, none of which I hit straight on. On 15, I was too high and was looking down at Dave Pruden, who was slightly below me and looking equally befuddled. Then, I saw him whip his head around and take off, so I headed down, too, and found Linda Moore leaving the control, after cluing Dave in to its whereabouts. 17 - 20 went fine, so at least I finished well.

The course was a lot of fun, with many rock features to keep track of and some nice areas to run through. Even thought the temps were a little high, there was a breeze and we ran much of the course in the trees.

I opted for a mountain bike ride at Happy Jack instead of another run in the afternoon. StoraMoo was kind enough to bring my bike with him when he drove out West, so SF and I hit the trails. I was pretty tired and still getting used to the altitude, and I could feel it pretty quickly in my legs. The trails were quite nice, with some good singletrack, although a little too rocky in some places given my state of fatigue.

Antenna Hill map. This was supposed to be a race, but I labeled it as training because I was not moving very quickly. After little sleep (late arrival and early up due to a last required meeting before vaca officially starts) and not acclimated to the altitude yet, my legs were feeling quite dead. The upside, though, was that I navigated pretty cleanly, with one mistake at #6, which I subsequently found out many people did. It was a short leg...#5 was on a hilltop, so you run down the hill into a reentrant junction with a few boulders at the junction, with the control on a boulder. Well, there were two areas with this description very close to each other, and depending on where you ran down the hill, you would either hit the right area or the wrong area. Many people hit the wrong area.

This course was alot of fun, and pretty technical for the Laramie hills. The weather was pretty warm, but absent the humidity. Thank goodness!

Ran some of the training event on the Happy Jack map. These woods are so beautiful. I didn't orienteer as well as I did this morning, but I had a wonderful time in the early evening light. My feet are a little tender, I have some sort of plant sting on my arm and a rash on my hip. There are many strange plants out here! My breathing was a little better tonight, probably because I was going slower.

AOWN: I saw a black snake with yellow stripes on its sides. I screamed like a girl. Oh, right...I *am* a girl.

A very long day of travel trying to get out to Laramie Daze. Twelve hours after leaving my house, amid many delays, I finally made it as close as the airport in Cheyenne at 10:30 p.m., where I was kindly fetched by a swampfox and a big moo.

C • Trip 3