Training Log: Charlie

New PT, recommended by our friends Cheli and Karen. Initial visit, the diagnosis is some serious misalignment in the lower back, knee and ankle, which is causing muscles to overwork and hurt. So they seem to have a plan for it. I'll be going back when I get back in town in three weeks.

Same as yesterday, but less comfortable. Was planning on going a bit longer but the leg was telling me no.

About an hour and a half putting seed and hay on some damaged trail sections. Seeding was fine. The hay operation left me feeling pretty sore and twisted.

W/ Leah, part of the lesson with a trainee, a young woman with no spark to her, unfortunately.

Map and Route

Did a lot of rolling before bed, rolling and yoga exercises when I got up, and resolved to at least start the race, with the intention of bailing out if it got bad. Didn't go great, but not so bad I couldn't finish, and certainly less impaired at the end than I was yesterday.

Bus up the hill, walked to the start from there somewhat gingerly. Nice chat with Jeremy and his friend Jen. I was one of the first starters.

1. Seemed pretty easy. Could see the significant hill from the trail, along the edge of it on the left until the cliff showed up on the far side.
2. Downhill and on compass, apparently not careful enough because I seem to have stopped to soon, drifted off to the left, and couldn't make any sense of it. So out to the road and back in, past the Brown Y control on a small cliff and in from there. Looks like at least 7 minutes lost here.
3. Tried to find the trail on the S, but didn't find the smaller one, eventually bumped into the larger segment and to the corner, R on the road to the junction, then on compass from there, reading the various cliffs and land forms easily enough.
4, On compass, top of the hill and to the end. Easy.
5. Caught back up to Barb on the way to 5. Pretty straight, could read the reentrants well and right in.
6. Stopped short on a hill that was maybe one of the mapped dot knolls, but looked right to me. Barb passed. I kept looking in the area because I thought it was right, and then went back and checked the control I had passed before to confirm that it was not mine, then forward again and came to it. So maybe a 3 minute fiasco.
7. Well behind Barb by now, and on my own, took the trail R of the hill, which had a lot of fallen logs across it. A little confused by passing a stream before the mapped stream, but then could see the land looking right beyond the second stream and went right to it, catching Barb up again and right behind Nancy. Jim A was in the area as well, but moving faster.
8. Down to the road, across the marshy stuff just past the large boulder, and in on compass, checking off the large boulder on my right before.
9. Back out to the road and along to the little parking area with its pile of gravel. Jim out of sight by now, and I was trying without success to catch up to Nancy. I was a little faster crossing the stream, and caught almost up by the control
10. More or less on compass, and very dicey climbing the hill and sidehilling through the rocks, not at all confident I was on the right level. AP says I lost time, but it was only by the difficult and slow approach. Once I got there I saw that it would have been much more efficient to approach from the bottom, since one could see the flag from there.
11. Another loss on AP, although it was just how slow I was getting down and up.
12 - 15 and F. The rest was line of sight orienteering. Not fast, but no issues.
And not too beat up after.
Nice chat with Nancy after about her upcoming trip, and a very short visit with Ching-Hua who was on here way to the bus for her start.

Brown X - Splits

Event: West Point 44th NRE
 

It wasn't clear whether I would be going to WP this morning or not, but after doing my yoga exercises and rolling the heck out of my R leg, decided to go. Longish walk to the start, with Rhonda, who decided she didn't like the sound of the yellow course with its streamered sections, so she walked back.

1. This was a disaster. Left the trail where I was expecting a side trail, but didn't find it on the ground, instead crossing a seasonal stream that was not mapped. Saw the large marshy reentrant to my left and the big rocky hill to my right, and that was the last time I had any sense of where I was. Many, many people wandering around the hillside. I was well up and to the right, mostly. Eventually wandered to where several people on my course were milling about, Ken W, Bob L, Dean, Jeff. Jeff lost patience and headed back down in the direction of the start. Dean eventually decided we were at a specific marsh below the control, and headed up on compass. I couldn't tell it from any other marsh, but followed him up toward an unremarkable looking rock barely taller than the rocks around it, and there was the control, tucked in behind. So at least 20 min lost here, and my back already acting up again.
2. Off in the generally right direction, but drifted a bit right and found myself under a massive cliff. Took a while to recognize it because it was further right than I realized. Then headed down from there in the generally right direction, stopping on top of the hill just before the control, but not seeing the flag until Ken came by, saying that it was just ahead. So maybe another 5 minutes lost.
3. Downhill with Ken, and could see a flag from a distance, but it wasn't on a boulder and wasn't ours. Consulted the map and saw the correct boulder on the hillside S, and then Bob leaving it. So no more than a minute lost here, I think.
4. Trail to the large trail, then in before the stream. Kept going, even though it was further than I imagined, and I think it really was much lower down than mapped, but just kept going until I got there, just behind Ken.
5. Ken went low, under the hill, but that looked pretty unpleasant, so I headed up to the trail and left it just past the water stop, contouring a bit to not go right over the top. Stopped to loo around a bit in the vicinity of the large boulder, but could kind of see the land form developing for a cliff and headed on and got it.
6. Headed down on compass, but drifted left when I saw a boulder that way before correcting and down close to the stream. No more than a minute.
7. Leg and back complaining vigorously, it was a long slog up, past the big boulders, arriving at the trail at the low point and in along the side of the hill. I could see the flag from a distance.
8. Headed south in the direction of the white patch and below the rockiest part of the slope. Ran into Dean again, worked our way across the marshy stuff and Dean was heading further S than I thought was right, so turned back and saw a bunch of people headed down the ditch. Dean behind me saying "I was right!" which didn't register for me.
9. In the crowd.
10. Struggling. Almost caught up to Rick W, but neither of us was going particularly fast.
F. Struggling
Finished in the cold and in the rain, and then when I sat in the car my back seized up and I spent the rest of the day bent over 20 degrees to the front and 10 degrees to the left, and not at all sure I was going to run tomorrow, or even if we should just go home. Rhonda had mostly just been reading in the car.
3.

Map and Route

Brown-X - Splits