September DPTT

Time for a fitness check-in.  With a summer of running under my belt, a month and change of ski training, and fall finally starting to make itself felt, it was time to see how the t-rex arms were doing in terms of propelling me down a ski track.  Thanks to the achilles tendonitis I have been doing more rollerskiing than I had expected, but not nearly as much as when I considered myself a serious skier.  Not sure what that makes me now... a ski coach who can't stop racing?  Or just a pure racerhead who'll take endorphins any way they come?

The double pole test is four times up a steep lil' bugger of a hill in Concord, and you add all your times together to get a final result.  This is a good measure of fitness, because it's not just one sprint up a hill - it tests your strength endurance, as well.  Can you keep up the speed on your fourth time up that mountain without your technique falling to pieces?  Our juniors do the test about once every two months, interspersed with other fitness tests like the 3k on a track, and the no pole time trial, which is evil incarnate, but I've managed to avoid doing any double pole tests all summer.  The last time I did a  test was last November, and I set a new PR at 12:28.  I figured that probably wasn't going to happen just yet, as I don't consider myself all that strong right now.  Except my core, that seems to be alright.

After a solid warmup, I started the test with one of my juniors, but quickly left her behind.  I felt really good today, snappy and strong through the core, which was a nice change from the achy and sore feeling I'd had earlier in the week.  I'm coming off an inadvertent rest week, since I sprained my ankle a week ago Tuesday, so got a couple extra rest days last week, and made the strangely mature decision to not push recovery too fast.  I had felt good on Tuesday during bounding intervals, too, so I guess it wasn't too surprising that the feeling lasted.  Going up the steep part I had "I'm so strong!" on repeat in my head, trying to lie myself into speediness.  At the top, I saw 3:06 on my watch, and though I wasn't super winded, my legs were burning, and I was a little bummed, since usually times just get slower after the first one of these.

The second rep I started behind Frank and Andy, two other coaches.  They started a little faster up the initial steep bit, but I was keeping pace, mostly, and thinking about getting a good forward position and then rocking on my heels.  Around the corner and suddenly my right pole starts slipping.  What's going on?  I look down and notice that the ferule has rotated by 90 degrees, so I pause, grab the tip, and rotate it back with my left hand.  Damn, apparently that pole grip needs some glue.  Then I realize I've rotated the tip so that it's 180 degrees off!  D'oh!  I grab the tip again and rotate it back to the correct position, cursing under my breath.  This whole operation has taken maybe 3 seconds total, but feels like forever. gah!  The brief pause in forward momentum has actually given me a break, and I attack the remaining hill with gusto, to a time of 3:06 again.  Well, I guess fixing the pole didn't affect my time that much.

Third time up and I'm still chasing Frank and Andy, this time closing in a bit as the hill flattens out and I up the tempo.  This is starting to really hurt by now, it feels like somebody has replaced my legs with jello.  Strange that it's my legs dying and not my arms, but I hope that's a testament to how much I was using my core rather than the arms.  Frank and Andy are done now, having starting one rep earlier, so I have to do the last hill on my own, but there is a big gaggle of juniors that started about a minute ahead of me.  Rabbits!  I resolve to leave everything I've got on this hill, focusing hard on getting the poles into the pavement early and applying power with my core.  I'm raggedly out of breath with my entire body shaking by the time I finish, but I managed to keep the times consistent, so I'm pleased.  I do a quick calculation in my head - 3:06 + 3:06 + 3:03 + 3:04 = 12:19!  New PR!

I'm suddenly feeling a whole lot more confident about this upcoming ski season.

Bicycle scavenger hunt

A few weeks ago, NEOC hosted an "urban ROGAINE", (ROGAINE stands for something like rugged outdoor group activity involving navigation and endurance - basically, a multi-hour orienteering race.  has nothing to do with a hair product), that could be completed either on foot or on a bike.  There were two categories, either a 1.5hr or 3hr time limit, and cyclists and runners were scored separately.  Naturally, I was interested, and so was Ed.  Unfortunately, I had to head out to Littleton for some rollerski action first, but the organizer was very accommodating and let me start out and time myself as the last finishers from the mass start in the morning were trickling in.

Ed opted for the foot approach, but made some key navigational mistakes.  oops.  I was on a bike, which obviously let me cover more ground, and the final results have me in the lead.  Results.  However, Joe and Jeff cleaned the course, and if it hadn't been for a broken chain causing them to come in way overtime, they totally should have won.  

It was a neat format - instead of hanging controls, you had to answer a question, that was written on a clue sheet you had to carry with you.  I quickly realized that the whole deal surrounding answering the clue would be the most time consuming part of the process, so I came up with a strategy.  We got 15 minutes to look at the map and plan a route before the clock started, so once I'd decided on a route, I wrote down the order of the checkpoints on my control card.  This would help me figure out which one I was going to go to next.  I also wore my ski-o map board, so that I could read the map while on the go, and also, slide the clue sheet in and out from the map board as I rode along.  This being urban riding, I didn't want to have to take my hands off the handlebars for very long.  I had a pen and a pencil in my bike jersey pocket, as well as the usual emergency stuff like a spare tube, allen wrenches, and dried figs.  I would memorize the clue for the next checkpoint as I was leaving the existing checkpoint, and pull out the pen or pencil as I approached the next checkpoint, looking for the right telephone pole or fire alarm box, in most cases.  This did make for a bit more strategy, but it was manageable.  

Answer sheet.  It was large and cumbersome, but slid nicely in and out of the ski-o map board, as did the clue sheet.  

15 minutes to study the map and plan a route.  

Map board did not interfere at all with riding the bike, except in terms of aerodynamics when I was in the drops - it doesn't fold up under my chin as well as I'd hope it would.  But it didn't seem to make riding a bike any more dangerous than usual.  

This is the map.  The blue line is my route, drawn in.  What do you think is the most efficient route?  I knew I was operating with tired legs, so tried to avoid any hills that looked too big, but I also knew that higher-numbered checkpoints were worth more points, so I wanted to make sure I hit those ones.  

In the end, I think I won (not counting Jeff and Joe's broken chain and overtime) not because of cycling speed or a good route, but through a mix of minimizing time losses at the controls, and comfort in riding through traffic.  Local knowledge definitely helped, too.  I think if I had been riding a cross bike or mountain bike rather than my road bike, I could have picked up a couple more points - I didn't feel like going too off road, and some of the higher-point controls were in parks on dirt trails.  The one time I did ride off road, it was sketchy as hell and very slow, so I didn't bother doing that again.  Road shoes also don't do too well on rocky hiking trails!  Oh well, next time.  This was a thoroughly entertaining way to spend an afternoon, and I'm glad I went!  

Just some photos

Life has been busy lately, but in a good way.  Thesis is clicking along, I'm forging ahead in hopefully the right direction, and have kept the panic attacks to a minimum.  We've managed to not travel on the weekends for pretty much all of August, which is a rare thing, but it's sort of nice to take a Sunday walk and have Saturday night at home.  One orienteering race last weekend, and the achilles held up well for the two sprints.  I was third in both, behind the same two guys in each sprint.  Results.  That felt good, and I've been training while coaching with the juniors, and that feels good too.  I went riding at Earl's Trails yesterday, since I'm in Amherst for the week, and the predominant thought in my head for two hours was "man, I love my life".  It's true.

Less racing, but more time for friends.  Ian looks guilty about finishing off his chocolate soufflé.

Coaching involves a strength workout on a jungle gym.  Everyone seems to enjoy this one!

We went down to the harbor to watch the Redbull cliff diving competition.  It was pretty nuts, those guys were diving off a 95ft platform, and doing all the twists and flips they do in the olympics.  But from three times higher.  You can see the guy standing on the platform up there on top of the ICA...

They had a jumbotron.

Lots of people - the announcer said 60,000 spectators.  Tons of people on boats out in the water.

We had a weeknight corn maze festival, in Sunderland.  It was super fun, huge thanks to Peter for organizing.  The theme was plaid.  Or just goofy.  Barb and Izzy had a good thing going.

The Italians (Giovanni, Giacomo, and Camilla) went with the straw hat approach.

Team giggles just giggled.  This is Ali's last week in the east before moving to Ohio, so it was a bittersweet party.

Mass start.  I had an unfortunate head-on run-in with Ian near one of the controls.  He won.  I bounced off into the corn, and his path was unperturbed.  But the orienteering was much fun!  

The back of the mass start.

Hey Ed! I beat you =)

Transition to skier

After a brief training "break" after WOC, where I managed to keep myself from doing any intensity for about two weeks, my focus has shifted to skiing.  This is made easier in part thanks to my achilles tendon, which has proclaimed itself to be fully in tendinitis mode, thus making running pretty painful.  So, it's back to rollerskiing and *gasp* BIKING!  I haven't ridden my bikes this much in a looooong time.  It took nearly a weekend to assess all the things that were not working with my various bicycles, but now two of three bikes are in good working order, the third just needs a new chain, and I've discovered that I thankfully haven't lost ALL my skills on the trails.  That makes things more enjoyable!  I am rediscovering the joy of training while being an injured skier.  Seems I never really had a full injury-free season... I'm hoping to kick this tendinitis stuff soon, and not pick up any other nagging overuse injuries!  woo.

The achilles thing is annoying.  Like all overuse injuries, you never really know which session is going to push you over the edge.  For me, I think it was an unfortunate sprint through the Amsterdam airport on my way to WOC; my calf never calmed down after that, and I wasn't doing myself any favors racing hard with tight calves and a nagging ache in my achilles.  I'm doing my best to rest the damn calf, keep things iced and kinesio-taped and massaged, and yesterday I actually managed to make it through a running intensity workout with no pain.  Hopefully this is a sign of better times to come.  I do feel terribly out of skiing shape, but the base is there, so I'm trying not to freak out.

In exciting news, I'm going to be part of Team Madshus this year!  Peter Hale and I started the conversation last winter, and I think Madshus will be a great company to be a part of.  Peter totally gets ski-o, and as well as some top-o'-the-line race skis, I'm also picking up a bunch of last year's demo skis to trash in ski-o races this winter.  Wahoo!  

Now back to the thesis...

Other home

Christophe and I descended upon the parental units for a weekend.  We had a great visit, filled with all the things we love to do.  My dog is 16 and doing awesome, though she did manage to eat something dead that gave her worms, so we had to take an emergency trip to the vet to get some de-worming medication.   That was gross.  

We played boggle.

I won.

Inspired by the olympics.  Come on, Tira, do handstands!

We played pounce.  Endlessly.

We walked the dog.  It was hot.

We climbed trees.

We made a totem pole.

We found a river, and looked for fish.

It was hot.  

That was a fun weekend.  now back to the grind...

Memory training at the Fells

One of my process goals for next year is to run faster when I'm in the woods.  Close that gap between woods-speed and track-speed.  Another of my process goals is to read the map better when I'm running.  A partner memory exercise addresses both these goals!  Woo!  The way it works is that the first person memorizes the first leg, then hands the map to the second person, who memorizes the next leg, while following the first person to the first control.  Then you switch the map again, and second person leads the way, while first person memorizes the next leg.  It's a great exercise, because you tend to run a little faster when you're not holding a map, and you also look around a lot, another good thing to do.  When you're following, you're forced to run a little faster also, to keep up with your partner who is running a little faster because he doesn't have a map.  At the same time, you have to plan your route and memorize it for the next control!  All these are good things.

Magnus and Brendan joined me at the Fells Sunday morning, and we alternated leads.  It had rained all night, and somehow that made the forest feel easier to run through, slipping between trees unobtrusively and smoothly.  It also helped lower the temperature, to a perfect running weather, with occasional drenches when a tree would shake its water onto your head.  Although my achilles started to ache a bit by the end, I couldn't make myself quit, I was having too much fun.

Home

I made it home on Thursday, after a few days visiting family in London.  London was buzzing, getting ready for the Olympics.  On a related note, it's just plain idiotic that NBC doesn't offer a pay-per-view option for streaming the Olympics.  What about poor suckers like us who don't have cable?  Grumble.  I would pay money to watch the olympics! But I don't want cable.


Anyway, I've had time to reflect on my performances at WOC.  It wasn't ideal.  It never is - you can't rely on having everything come together at the perfect moment, all you can rely on is your training, your mental state, your mantras, and hope that is enough for a normal day to produce an amazing result.  I should be proud that I had one good race, but I was left wanting more.  Maybe I'll never be truly satisfied, and that's why I keep racing.  I'm thinking ahead now to next year, in Finland, where the terrain will require leg strength rather than leg speed, and the challenges will be technical.  I hope.  I'm excited.  I believe, somewhere deep inside, that I actually have the potential in this sport to outperform my genetics.  (love ya, mom!)

The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) had a meeting while we were racing, and agreed that in the future, they are going to eliminate the qualification races.  I guess this is done in order to make it easier for smaller (poorer) countries to host WOC.  Of course, this leaves open the question of how to choose who gets to run in the finals.  Right now, the proposal stands at allowing one runner from each country, plus others based on past WOC results and some regional champions.  And then a 3-person relay, although for many runners, who get limited support from their foundations to begin with, it isn't enough to travel to WOC just to run the relay.  What this means for the US women's team is that I'll probably never run WOC again, since right now, Ali and Sam would be fighting over our spot, and neither performed well enough to grant us a second spot.  And by the time they want to retire, hopefully there is a faster young'n coming through the pipeline, for our country's sake.  The proposal doesn't take effect until 2017, but the organizers between now and then could adopt it if they wanted, and there is a rumor that 2014 and 2015 have already decided to do it that way.  What this means for me, is that next year is likely the last chance I get at trying to race my way into the finals, fair and square.

There are plenty of other huge, multi-day, European orienteering events I want to race in, but the World Championships obviously has its own draw.  So, I've done some thinking about how to get better at this sport.  I've come a long ways, but I still have some obvious weaknesses, that I plan to address in the next few months, ideally before North Americans.  I have a whole bunch of process goals, and thankfully none of them interfere too much (I hope) with all my other disparate goals in life.  This is a manageable project!  Here goes!


Did I mention we saw the torch relay, completely by accident?!?  It was shiny, and burning.  oooooo.