The point of this long winded ramble is that last weekend, I went out to do something I love, orienteering in the woods, and because of the pouring down rain the whole time I was out there, I was super incentivized to go quickly. Like, instead of mostly hiking through the woods, finding the control points, I ran. I ran mostly the whole course. And you know what is crazy rewarding? I could run!
I'm not a runner, never have been, even when I ran track in high school to add to my credentials for getting into college (I had the academics, clubs and extracurriculars but no sports). I can run for a bit and then walk and then run a bit more (like a minute). And this is where my habit of going to the gym, working out and building up endurance is nicely paying off in my orienteering world.
As rain was dripping down my nose, and I was cursing I didn't bring a hat and wore cotton clothing instead of the quick dry stuff I have, I was pleasantly surprised I could keep just jogging along. I'd pound up hills and watch my footing on slippery roots on the way down hills. I actually had to slow down to a walk sometimes to read my map since I'm not skilled enough to run, read a map and not run into trees or trip.
I ended up coming in a close second in my group level (I'm orange). And in under an hour too. Some times it will take me up to two hours when I'm just enjoying being out in nature, walking the course and getting lost here and there.
When I was running through the woods feeling like a top athletic performer I was getting a hit of dopamine or whatever internal reward for really doing well. The working out was paying off in ways other than what I mainly focused on - energy boost and mood stabilizer. It felt great. And I really didn't mind the rain. As someone pointed out before I started, it was a warm rain - mid-70s. And as another person I met along the course pointed out, wearing eyeglasses was torture - they fog up constantly so you can't see where you are going nor read your map. I was happy I was wearing my contacts. And don't ask me why, probably out of a well established habit, I had lotioned up with sunscreen on my face and neck before I headed out, even though it was overcast - you never can be too careful. I quickly figured out I better rub it all off with my sleeve, while I was out in the woods, before it ran into my eye and burned. I had an incident a few weekends before on a hot sunny day where the sweat carried it to an eye and it hurt. A lot. Lessened learned, and preempted.
Another interesting thing is that I didn't need any water. At one of the control points there were jugs of water and I decided to skip it, wasn't thirsty. I've never skipped drinking water. Maybe because it want so hot or maybe all the water reduced my sweating. Frankly I really couldn't tell if I sweated at all. My clothes were soaked through to my underwear. Usually I'm very focused on the course but my mind did wander a bit planning what I'd do when I got back to the car. Interestingly I was just reassessing the stuff I store in my trunk, specifically a nice black fleece blanket. It can be used as a picnic blanket (but when's the last time I had an impromptu picnic), more often I end up wrapping my Christmas tree in the blanket to reduce needles and sap getting all over my car when I put the tree in my back seat. But now, as I was wet through and through, I was so happy I had such a nicely outfitted car. I ended up stripping off the wet shoes and socks, pants and shirt and wore the blanket as a long skirt. I had a workout jacket I had left in the car (I.e. It was dry) and opted to drive barefoot. I put all my wet stuff on a plastic sheet I kept from last Christmas tree haul and felt pretty smug about it all. When I got home I tip toed across my driveway, shoeless, carrying my stuff in, took a hot shower and then caught up on my laundry. The only thing that took forever was for my shoes to dry. They are still not dried out, three days later.
Today I went back through all my orienteering results over the last two years to see how I placed overall. I found that I did consistently about the same for the last year and a half - bottom third. I'm a walker and still honing my orienteering skills. Plus, I didn't really care about my placement, I just loved being out enjoying nature and finding the control points, eventually. But the last three events I placed in the top three for my group! I think I'm getting better at orienteering and not getting lost, but these all are events occurring since I've started my P66D challenge. So I'm guessing it's a combination of my skills improving but all my physical ability to go faster. I'm curious if there is a correlation. I know I'm running a bit more but other than last weekend, I still mainly walk most of the course, I think. Maybe I'm running more than I realize.
I can't wait to test whether I'm actually doing better or its just a fluke based on other factors, like who my competition is, etc. I'll have to wait two weeks before the next event but now I'm reenergized to train more at the gym. I have a deadline to keep my improvement going. I think I'm going to do more of the dreaded Jacobs ladder. Imagine something like a stair master, but on an incline and it's a moving ladder where you climb the rungs with both hands and feet. It should be easy but man, I get super winded after 3 minutes. I don't know how people do it for 30 minutes. But I think it's building up my endurance more than other pieces of equipment. Back story on the ladder, all the fire stations across the state got one as part of a grant a few years back. Except it turns out the last thing firefighters want to workout on is the ladder so it got donated to my gym.
Well, I'll hopefully report back on how future orienteering events go. There aren't that many left this fall which is a bummer and a few got canceled. I think there are 4 or 5 left before winter.
I just popped over to the Internet and did some quick research. Earlier this year, I was out at my moms in Ohio for the month of May and was able to catch the one orienteering event near her town. I've done a few events up in NH and of course a bunch in MA. All quite different due to different terrain and forest types. NH is the most challenging - super dense and tons of mosquitos. Well, thinking about who reads my blog, I just searched, and both northern Texas and the Phoenix area have robust orienteering clubs. Florida is a bit more sporadically spread across the state. And you know what? No winters so the clubs don't shut down over the winter months, actually, I'm guessing that's when they are in full swing since they probably shut down in the summers too. So now I've put orienteering in AZ, TX and maybe FL on my bucket list - specifically in the winter months when my club is shut down - I can travel to get my orienteering fix.
At first I was super excited but we'll see what I think once I've slept on it. I mean, here in New England there are nice furry animals, the snakes are mostly always harmless, spiders are your friends (they eat the bugs - I name mine George and have three living in my house at the moment) and the worst bugs we have are mosquitos and ticks which frankly aren't scary, just dangerous because of what they might be carrying. But out west, I mean, my uncle fred last summer said they shot a half dozen rattle snakes when clearing out the brush in their back yard, and that's just their suburban backyard. And their spiders are furry, but not in a good way. And scorpions and those are just the popular stuff, what about all the B-list celebrity wildlife that are probably just as dangerous, if not as scary looking. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a snake that isn't dangerous out west. Maybe I need to do some homework first and figure out how an out of towner would fare at one of these orienteering events. Hopefully I can talk a family member into joining me for an orienteering excursion - no running necessary unless it's for your life!
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