Training Log Archive: Fanatic

Recovery walk with Colette on Golden Hill. Legs are still very stiff and sore. In fact, so are other parts of me. :-)

Event: Hudson Highlander
 

The Highlander was my reintroduction to orienteering after a multi-year absence from the sport, and a sobering one at that. To say that I performed poorly might be the understatement of the year. :-)

First, I hadn't done any real off-trail running, so my body is paying the price for that. Second, other than some large scale maps, I had not even looked at a topo in ages, certainly not while trying to navigate with one in the woods. Hence, I had no feel whatsoever for the 1:10,000 scale map--and, my old compass was so old that the lines on the mm ruler were so faded that I could barely measure distances--certainly not without stopping to look closely. And, to top it off, while the map looked perfectly sharp to me, it was obvious that I might need a magnifier to really see the details.

Truth be told, I could barely tell an uphill from a downhill at times. LOL

And I even managed to go off course a bit on the trail run.

The only good thing was that I did get a nice long run on a beautiful day for being in the woods. It was a good thing that I had done some ultra training leading up to the event. Plus, I got to reconnect with a couple of long-lost O-friends, and met a few people that I had only read about.

So, I plan now to try some shorter O-meets and will get a new compass, and perhaps a magnifier, too.

Short loop in Kennedy Park.

Walk after dinner up the Ledge Trail behind the October Mountain Campground.

Ran the "outer loop" in Kennedy Park, which has one really good climb in it. Unfortunately, despite a couple of days off, I still didn't feel that great today. Maybe it was the stacking of 2 tons of pellets this morning. :-) Or the fact that I had just ruined a custom flashlight that I was making for a client. :-(