My extraordinarily [un]lucky streak at the Fells continues...

Last summer, I didn't get through one ride at the Fells without something bad happening. I got lost in the dark, I got hypothermic, I was riding with Missy when she cut her leg open and needed a couple stitches, I was riding with Rachel when Colin put his derailleur into his spokes by bunnyhopping, I was riding with Colin when he cut his knee open, I was riding with Roz when one other girl with us mangled three tubes fixing a flat... and today I managed to flat my rear wheel twice, the second one on a fast-ish downhill being stupid. "huh, lots of loose stuff. I'll go right and avoid it. Oh, more loose rocks, the better line is to the right. Uh oh, sharp loose rocks, I'll go right to avoid them. Oh, I'm off the trail. Shit, branches. I'm going pretty fast, maybe I can plow through them. Doh!"

The branches stopped my bike pretty quickly, luckily I'm good at rolling but I definitely have some bruises and my shoulder is all scraped up. I guess its good that I didn't break my collarbone, although I like to think that I'm made of tougher stuff than those skinny road cyclists with their reduced bone density. So, the bad luck at the Fells continues... maybe I just need to stop being dumb, but I'll call it bad luck.

This weekend is the orienteering relay champs in Rochester. Saturday at Letchworth and Sunday at Mendon Ponds. Ross said I'll probably be on the A team... no pressure, really. Just don't be a slow fat kid with asthma.

And some gratuitous flower pictures, since it is spring, after all, and the flowers are blooming.

Exciting pastimes of Alex

This morning I painted my toenails purple. Shiny purple! They were looking far too naked to be wearing sandals to work, and I was in a shiny purple mood.

Last night I was at one of the CSU-orienteering training races, we call them park-o's since they're often held in parks and aren't very long. Except that Alexei made this one about twice as long as normal. And it was at the Fells, which has really thick, thorny underbrush, meaning I spent a lot more time running around patches of woods on trails that I would have liked to. Then I saw Rachel, one of my IBC teammates, out riding her bike, and she seemed very surprised that I was running, and exclaimed that I was running very fast. I guess it's good she didn't see me at one of the points where I was standing still staring at my map trying to figure out what trail I was on. That may have happened once or twice.

And I figured out how to make pizza dough! I've never had much success with homemade pizza, because I like thin-crust pizza that is pretty crunchy. I know I could just use a pita, but that always feels like cheating. Well, the trick is to just cook your pizza in a really hot oven on the lowest rack in the oven! That way the crust gets crunchy but the toppings don't get burned. And oh boy was it delicious. Except make sure that the cornmeal is only under the pizza dough, not on the pan around the dough, because it will burn and smoke will come out of your oven. Usually smoke is a sign of bad things happening.

Billygoat 2008

Last year, I'd had surgery on my shin just before this race. This year, I'd taken two weeks mostly off before the race. Always great preparation! The Billygoat is a long distance orienteering event with some interesting rules-- you can skip one control of your choice, and you can follow other runners (in fact, following is encouraged). Each year, a Jockstuffer of the Year award is given to someone who does minimal navigating and maximal following. Some of the stories can be found here, and some are quite amusing. Anyway, the Billygoat is supposed to be tough, designed to break both souls and bodies. Last year was pretty easy, and I worried that they would overreact. Luckily, the course setter didn't overreact, although in one guy's words, this Billygoat was "a real Billygoat run. With rocks and hills and stuff!" I guess that is a good thing...

So, I didn't really have a plan, except to follow people to #1 while I looked at my map and tried to figure out which one to skip. I wasn't having much luck deciding on a control to skip, as there weren't too many obvious choices. I toyed with the idea of #13, which would save a jaunt into the woods off a trail, or with #18, just because it looked like it was in somewhat nasty terrain, but I didn't immediately see any trails around it. I was following Jeff Saeger (the father of the two girls who are like the best orienteers in the US)into #3, and when he headed towards 5 instead of 4, I figured, what the heck. May as well skip 4 and stick with a good orienteer. Heading towards 5 the fact that I am not in shape caught up to me, and I quickly fell into the "run where I can, walk everywhere else" mode. This meant that I was losing Jeff, and I'd have to actually navigate lest I lose myself.

Five and six were uneventful, I was trailing about 20 feet behind Jeff and Tracy Olafson had caught up to me. I ran with her to 7, but then convinced myself I'd come too far down the hillside, since I ran right by 7 on my way to 3. Luckily I was being passed by a stream of orienteers, who all seemed intent to keep heading downhill, so I raced downhill at breakneck speed to catch back up to Tracy and not lose her. We circumnavigated the swamp to get to 8, but I managed to get my foot stuck in mud anyway. Tracy and I started to pull away from people between 9 and 12, and then I mentioned that I would just hoof it along the ridge trail from 12 to 13. She agreed, and a kid came with us, his name was Calvin. He started making noises about how he was tired and getting hungry, but not in a whiny way, so it was ok. Coming off the trail near #9, we crossed the set of three stone walls and hit the big trail, which we followed all the way to the little pond next to 13. Tracy needs some reading glasses, as she couldn't see the map as well as she'd like, but us young folks helped her out and we nailed 14.

I was kind of dumb going to 15, heading down by the swamp instead of over the top, but Tracy and Calvin went over the top and we got there at the same time. Somehow I was deemed the good navigator, no pressure, don't fuck up your compass bearing in the relatively featureless woods to 16 and 17... we got there, and headed up a long-ass hill to 18. Maybe I was just tired, but I started walking and it felt like I was walking forever. Came to the top of the hill too far to my right, and then trudging to the north we hit the control. At this point we were all getting nervous that people would catch up to us, as we were doing quite well, so I picked up the pace going to 19. A group of guys caught up to us at 19, I think they had skipped 18, so I could ease off the navigation for a bit and just follow them to 20, planning my route from 21 to 22, which is essentially the finish, since I didn't feel like sprinting, even though I was pretty sure I could take Tracy in a head-on sprint. We nailed 20 and 21, and then I headed down to the trail to get to 22, with Tracy hot on my heels, but I was faster on the trail, and got there first, beating her to the line by 17 seconds or something.

Not a bad run, and it was definitely nice to have someone to run with and navigate with. We were ahead of some fast girls, so I think 4 was a good one to skip, although it would have been nice to skip 18, and miss out on all that climb. But I heard that there was some thick underbrush on the way to 4, so maybe I got lucky. Hopefully I can keep up this good streak and run a little faster next weekend at the US relay champs in Rochester!

The maps were scanned by Peter Gagarin, a fast orienteer, and his route is in pink, mine is in purple.

Not dead yet!

Given that the focus of my life and my blog is sports, I don't really have much to say when I'm not playing sports. This will change this weekend! I'm going out to the Billygoat, in East bumberfloot NY at some state park, and this event is always a fun one. I am guessing it will border on impossible, since last year it was too easy and too many people finished in under the time cut-off. They'll overreact and make a viciously long, soul-crushing slog. I'm sure of it. Well, no better way to go into this than out of shape!

Aside from dreaming about brambly, muddy orienteering courses, I've been catching up with my sedentary side, reading some books I'd put aside, playing scrabble, sleeping late (for me, 8am is late), half-heartedly searching for a new car, and baking lots of muffins. Busy life, I know.

Soon enough though, it'll be back to the hectic Alex-world that I prefer to live in. Enjoy the cold rain this weekend!

Rochester

I felt the need for some quality beagle-time, and flew to Rochester for the weekend. Playing cards, walking the dogs, riding bikes with old guys who could kick my butt if they so chose, what more could I want from a visit home =)

The most reliable dishwasher you'll ever find


Some sweet finds as you head south on a bike...


regrouping at a stop sign. What, tired?? Beautiful day for riding bikes


Although I had planned on not doing any sports, Jess convinced me to come out and shadow her through an old orienteering course at Mendon Ponds, which was probably good training for the US relay champs that are coming up in a couple weeks here, to get reacquainted with the terrain. And then one of my dad's riding buddies scrounged up a bike for me, so at that point I couldn't back out of a bike ride. I'm not good at not training...

Spring

It's here. Which means its time to take some time off of training. I suddenly have a lot more time during my day. I now have time to read, and bake, and paint, and nap... and I'll probably spend the whole time doing something useless instead. such is life...

A snapshot of a typical day in Alex-world

I borrowed Ed's truck yesterday to run some errands. Come out of the store, sit in the truck, try to turn it on, it's dead. Huh. I didn't leave the lights on or anything, why is it dead? Sit there for a little bit thinking about how much I don't feel like walking home in the dark and the rain, and how I wish I'd brought my cell phone. Wander down to a Mexican restaurant where they let me use their phone.

"Hello?"
"Hey Ed, its me. Your truck won't start"
"oh, negative battery terminal"
"Huh?"
"The negative battery terminal is oxidized, you just have to jiggle it around a bit"
"Uh, ok. Thanks?"

I go back to the truck. Hmm, I've never opened the hood on this vehicle before. Ah, there is the hood lever. I pull on the lever, and the part that you pull on comes off of the part that does the actual unlatching of the hood. Shit. Back to the Mexican restaurant.

"Hello?"
"Hey its me again. I broke the thingy that opens the hood"
"You did what?"
"Well, the thing that connects to the thing that does the actual opening, it came off in my hand. So I can't open the hood"
*laughter*
"I guess you're walking home then"

So, Ed goes to fix his truck this morning. I get a call.

"You're officially the world's biggest idiot"
"...why?"
"well, pulling on my parking brake release isn't going to open the hood. But you did break my parking brake release"
"Oh. oops."