Training Log Archive: Charlie

Generally quite satisfactory, and just the way to approach this hilly ride. Most of it in assist level 1, the big hill on case street in level 2 and the devils elbow in level 3. First ride in quite a while and I felt it in the quads right away. A couple of issues with the gears: it rubbed a bit in the second lowest gear, and wouldn’t go into the lowest. Going up devil’s elbow would have been more pleasant if not stuck in 3rd. The chain came off the front gear at one point and I struggled to get it back on. Finally got off the bike and inspected it. There is a little guard that I suppose is designed to keep it from coming off, but which serves as a pretty good ramp to slide it off, and an absolute barrier to getting it back on without pushing on it as one squeezes the chain by it. I’ll let Jan figure all this out. The other thing is that changing the power levels demands a little more attention than is safe. Almost wobbled off the road at one point while I was looking at the button. So a bit to learn about this, but nice to have a reasonable way to ride right from the house.

Deadlifts, squats, but two phone calls and a visit from Zack made my fragile concentration evaporate, so left in the middle to go see Zack’s progress on firewood.

Farewell, brave Sassy,beloved family member and friend to many in the orienteering community. She succumbed to an intestinal hemorrhage last night. Quite unexpected for a dog who was so strong and fit.

C • So sorry! 17

WCOC Tarrywile meet green course . I rode down with Bill, nice to catch up. Felt pretty sore after all the laurel wrangling and other activity of the last few days. Tripped a bunch of times.
1. I knew where I was going, but turned in a bit early, right after the tank, and got into some thicker stuff than I expected, so had to back out and try again. Then I got stuck in some briars extracting myself from the control, and one of them grabbed my map and threw it back, so I had to go back after it. An inauspicious start.
2. Hadn't read the clue, so I was surprised to get to the cliff and not see the flag, continued down the hill to the next one, but it didn't look right. Looked at the clue sheet and saw it was on top of the cliff, so back up. Fell twice tripping on pieces of barbed wire in the area. Pretty nasty.
3. Still not doing so well. Headed up to a trail, tried to make sense of it, but it didn't quite look right. Headed east from the bend, but apparently from the wrong bend and I had gone much too far,so down through some rocky stuff, some laurel, looking hard to the north for something useful and yes, there was the bag. So a loss of time, but not a disaster.
4. Down to the trail, right along the pond over the dam and on compass right to the stone pile. Fine.
5. Sidehill and climbing, and somehow not climbing enough. Seemed like a lot of cliffs on the ground as compared to the map. Under the cliff and climbed up from the back side to the boulder.
6. More sidehill,more climbing, finally got to the larger reentrant and the smaller one heading off to the left, checked the knolls and in. Fine.
7. Mostly on stone walls (and more climbing). Sweat running in my eyes, did most of this leg without glasses on map memory. Fine.
8. Over the hill, a little dicey climbing down the other side, along the trail a ways, the cliff seemed farther down than I expected, but fine.
9. Worked my way gingerly down the hill among rocks, down relatively close to the stream, looking for the big boulder in the stream, and then climbing up rather steeply to the flag. Probably should have stayed higher.
10. Easy enough, angled to the stream picked up the trail, long slog. From the trail junction up and over. Many more cliffs on the ground than on the map, but I came to a reentrant facing away with a big boulder in it so I knew where I was. I was expecting the flag on the first boulder, but it was on the second.
11. Nothing about climbing down from there looked appealing. Tried to go S and E to get out to the trail and the road, but got stuck among big cliffs and rocks, so headed back in a generally north east direction and found some reasonable footing, so angling downhill and crossing the stream where it was convenient, out to the road, through a clearing and on top of the hill. E side of the hill would have been much better footing, but no trouble finding the control.
12. Headed for the marsh, stayed right of it for a while, then found a place to cross where I could keep my feet dry. I could see the house behind the control from a distance and then the bag. One more indignity, though. After punching I ducked under the log that was over the cliffs to head out to the north and stood up into the second (hidden) log, hitting my head pretty hard.
13. Easy, trail along the pond, find the right trail out of there and just keep going.

Green - Splits