Training Log Archive: bl

Flying Pig, Batavia. Saturday long, green. Was around 50F at start, chilly in shade. Went to all the controls & had no trouble near the circle but had 3 confusion spells - "acute confusional states" that were most disconcerting, ie, one moment in contact with map & the next...what the ....?. Managed literally 500m of nonmap contact enroute #5, missed a spur in retrospect & got in green so ran south & west where I knew I'd come upon a path - which I did - saw a woman running as one would run on path, went left like I thought I should but then saw a life-saving pond & recovered - maybe 2' loss but was lucky. Few other times, a path did not turn up or an unexpected one did, so not satisfactory from that point of view yet did not run in circles or really spend much time moving in the wrong direction - just uncertain.

Some amazing slopes to climb - learned to avoid. Put the map in my mouth a few times to have 2 hands for grabbing trees. A not-happy, not-unhappy run.

1st M60, behind Charlie & Glen by 2 minutes, ahead of Bill by 2'.
Weather-perfect day. Sharon surprised me being there, but then again she's everywhere. Went in search of some countryside after, grass much greener here than in NH, a lawn mowing pm, flowering trees in full bloom everywhere.

Springtime in the cemetary

Saturday - up early, before sun but sun's an hour later here than at home. Went to East Fork SP & made my way to practice area. Noted indistinct trails were not to be seen for most part, ditto for the one fence I encountered & vegetation had changed some since original field work. A nice 25', hands got cold - was around 40F. Could hear a rooster in the distance.

Saturday Long - Green - Splits

Event: Flying Pig XIV - U S Interscholastic Championship
 

AM DP under an umbrella.

Flight to Flying Pig, sitting in Newark waiting for the 4:30 to Cincinnati - terminal teeming with passengers. Race to MCH to get there by 1210 for 1p departure which dragged out til approx 2:20 due to rain delay. 3:20 Newark arrival & about 4:45 departure - the start of travel for 7k Sat & 4.3 Sunday. Went largely for the change of scenery, O & "adventure" surrounding. Not a very green way to go -a lot of effort/energy for less than 2 hours of orienteering.

Arrived CVG around 6p - lovely day just finishing - 55F, cloudless, green grass, flowering trees, tulips, a guy mowing the lawn in front of Motel 6. Spent 20' talking with Glen Schorr in the room next door. Didn't know who & after dark - asked if he was an orienteer as I could not get online & did not have good enough directions to get to the meet first thing in am. He had everything including a training map & 20' of visit time.

DP just about to contours, working on keeping feet dry. Pond is now a choice - this route is losing fashion.

C • circumnavigator 2

Cool, tired, felt like a sack of potatoes on shoulders. Start Luti, then
SPS XC, a bit on track and back to road. Diane on vacation thru Boston marathon day.

DP, one streamer on a 1.1m boulder. A spring essence morning, mist & sun, rain drops on branches, silver cobwebs, birdsong. Went around pond, new growth of pine hindering vision. One coyote skull.

Fisk loop, CW, temp 80+F, needed a singlet. Ran with Flying Pig map for distraction.

More time now on OCAD w/ Nottingcook, changes here & there, keeping a 'trophic' connection with the how to's of the program - see/live a bit of the forest & depict it in 'living color' on an ever-so-clever map-drawing program with capability of printing a highly legible map in a matter of hours at a place like Kinkos. 5 mylar drafting in black ink w/ stickies is a fond (?) memory.

DP, put out 2 streamers over Norwegian ridge. Mocha needed (?) help into car from porky shoulder but when it came time to get out, seeing where we were, she couldn't be contained. Another nice day in the making.

Watering Hole

Had planned on a track workout with GSR but it was raining & I really didn't need such type effort so soon after Sunday. Came home & put out streamers in forest with surprised dogs. NB 993s (newish) were unhappy with the off-trail portion, as they should have been.

Spent lunch hour on a drive in Hopkinton - Beech Hill, Patch, Rollins would make a nice run thru picture-perfect pastorality.

AM DP, dogs enjoying Bow's biggest sandbox. Had Nottingcook map in hand, pondering control locations/distribution.

Noon SloGo with Diane on SPS campus. Left leg not sorted out from yesterday's cramping. First mtp joints sore from rocky O.

Had a few minutes at end of day & opened up OCAD 8 - what a blessing I got it on my work computer bypassing admin overseer. Jogged the memory re course setting & set up yellow etc for O meet. Such great benefit to course design/measurement.

Faraway series, photos from elsewhere, #10:
Ferns in a misty forest, Olympic NP, '75

CSU training, Sunday only, and that was enough as I was really beat at the end. Was at boat launch area, had not been there in so long, only vaguest of recollection as to where. AM exercise was teaming up, picking different routes to controls, discuss route, estimate time. Was with Peter Goodwin & 2 other orienteers, a bit slower. My goal was to be accurate/have fun/relax. We all started late; not many finished the 6.7k course by be-back time. We did the first seven (stop/catch up at each) & then went back to #5 & walked back, talking about mapping with Peter. We covered 3065m (8c) around 10'k for me, walk back 1.150k.

Back from am training, beauty all around, we may have been too busy talking.

After lunch, we did two control picking exercises, 3.5 & 2.8k with walk/jog between & return of 2.8k. Pleased with accuracy on first set- no misses but when I took a close look, noted that I ran from #18 to #23, skipping 19-22; retrospect easy to see how but no excuse - at least it was not an A meet. Was tired at start of #2, made some mistakes, it seemed hot, I was hot & thirsty. An excellent experience/training session, 43 controls for doing all in 6.3k. Ever-challenging Pawtuckaway with its scratchiness, rockiness, technical offering. Had cramps in left leg in car on way back, almost had to get out of car. Thanks to Clem & Brendan for doing all the work!

PM control picking courses

Second set, beat, about 2' mistakes.

Walking/slow jog to second exercise and back.

Sunday Picking 2 - Splits

Sunday Picking 1 - Splits