Orienteering and Update

I felt really good after last weeks race.  My endurance isn't so great yet so my time was slow, but my navigation was great!  I slowed down a lot on the second half of the course in order to really focus on my routes.

 

 

Start-1-2

2-3-4-5

3-4-5-6-7

7-8-9. (this is were I started to slow down)

9-10-11-12-13-14-finish

I went past 11 a bit, I think I had the map oriented wrong.... I turned around ("bird watching" as my dad says) and saw a control (11) and reoriented from there

 

 

Goals:

 January~



Running:  Still not running :) see you in the Spring!
Fitness:  I've been going to the gym, but not as much as I would like.  If the weather is bad I don't go, not worth it to get in a car accident.  I've been using the weight machines, reading on the stationary bike, and swimming. 
Dog: Only time I haven't walked (or tried to walk) the dog has been when the weather is bad!
School:  My online class was cancelled so no school... I am trying to do an free online class on dinosaurs and I am studying for my Praxis!

How was your January?

~Maggie

Orienteering

Today I did my 3rd orienteering race post surgery.  I think I ran more in this race than in the other two race, mostly due to my crazy competitive nature.  I'm very pleased with how I did; all my routes were really good with the execution of 2-3.  My running wasn't great... but since I haven't actually been running at all I can't really expect it to be can I?

 

Here is my route start - 1- 2.  I made the decision to run along the road to the creek then look for the re-entrant, great plan.  (I'm not sure if the GPS is off on this map or if I left the road a little early, doesn't matter I found the control easily!).  Then I followed the creek to the next control, luckily I saw the control (and runners), because I never saw the path I was looking for.

 

Leaching 2 I knew I had to follow the path to 3, sounds easy enough but as you can see this is where I made my big mistake.  I couldn't see the path from 2 and was about to start off in the wrong direction when I noticed 2 other orienteers heading off on the path (thank goodness!). I was having a really hard time seeing the path and when I got the large bend in the path I thought it had ended!  I headed off to the right and ended up loosing 15ish minutes wondering.  To fix my mistake I headed back to the path and to the point where I could see the path going down hill, then I was able to reorient my self and got on the right track!  Figures I would make my big mistake on a control that only required me to follow a path!  As you can see I was able to follow the path correctly from 3 to 4.

 

I'm very pleased with my navigation from 4 to 5, my best of the course I think!  The original plan was to follow the path to the creek and then follow the creek to the split and then to the control.  However there was a FUMA boy right in front of me and I didn't really want to run with him to the control.  So I decided I would leave the path right away and head down the re-entrant; this worked out beautifully and I easily found the control.

Leaving 5 I decided to just follow the creek as far as it went and then head straight for the road.  The green area was really dense and I was glad to find that I had veered over enough to hit the path that lead to the road.  I ended up further over than I had planned, but I knew where I was and was easily able to head over to 6.  For 6 I just ran straight from the road intersection into the woods, I knew I had to go up hill so I was looking for the hill as I ran.   Leaving 6 I was walking and reading my map to develop a plan for 7, happened to look and up find myself inched away from walking into a tree.... note to self read the map either standing still or walking in a clear area!



 

Very happy with my route choice for 6 to 7 as well.  Pretty simple, I followed the road to the path, through the clearing then followed the stream to the clearing next to the other stream.  My only difficulties were the dark green, it was very dense.  I need to remember to try and plan my routes around those areas!

 

7 to 8 to 9 to finish were also pretty simple routes.  I planned my route for all from 7 and tried to just run as much as I could.  I got passed by a runner leaving 7 and I tried to keep up with him, but he was fast and I was pretty tired; I was able to (just barely) keep him in sight to the finish.  I followed the creek from 7 to 8 the just followed the road to 9 and the finish.  I had passed the finish and 9 on my way to 1 so I knew where they were which was nice.

Overall I am very happy with how I did today.  I need to remember to correct myself sooner though so mistakes don't cost me so much time.  Next time, if I'm just a little bit unsure I will go back to where I was sure and start over!

~Maggie

Happy New Year!

How was 2014…..

An interesting year to say the least; to myself I call it “the year of injuries.”

January-I remember it being very cold.  I flew to California for the second time in my life and ran the Tinkerbell Half Marathon.  I had great fun and didn’t run again (consistently) until April

February- April- Once again, very cold... I was suffering from sciatica (really it started in December of 2013), I did physical therapy for a while, then swim team started and I just couldn’t find the time

May – I think it was in May, I finally got fed up with my job and quit.  It was a long time coming and I had spent probably a year saving up for the inevitable.  I stayed on part time until August.  At the end of May I decided to do another thing I had been wanting to do forever…I dyed the underside of my hair pink, I loved it and hope to do it again in the future (depends on my next job)

June-July – Swim team took over my life.  I love those kids (all 150) like they are my own, I can’t imagine a better way to spend my summers!  Injury wise:  I smashed my right thumb several times at work (in a safe door, under a heavy box), then I sliced the right thumb open putting knife away at home (the day I was leaving for a wedding), then I broke my right thumb trying to loosen lane lines at the pool. 

August - November– With swim team over and no job, I gave myself 2 weeks of vacation before starting to worry about the no job no money problem. I had an application in for substitute teaching so I wasn’t too worried.  During my free time I had class once a week, observed in a middle school classroom once a week, and studied for the Praxis exam. Thankfully I had savings because it took until November before I was finally approved to substitute teach, I started 2 days before Thanksgiving break and right after my fall class ended.  

 

October – Right in the beginning of the month I ended up in the ER in severe pain, turns out a cyst was killing my ovary.  I had surgery and am now down one ovary, but God gives you two.  I am cleared to do anything now, but I’ve given myself until spring to start running again (and my back which still gives me fits is thankful!)

December – I’ve been subbing pretty consistently, aside for the last two weeks the school have had break.  I also fell in an orienteering race and pull a muscle (or something) in my bad shoulder, so I have to get that to heal.

 

What’s up for 2015?

Running – As I said I’ve decided to start training again in the spring.  I am still doing orienteering, but mostly I walk and try and focus on the navigation part. 

Goals:  Move up to Brown in orienteering

              PR in a 5k

              Run one half marathon (looking like the Hersey Half in PA)

Fitness – I may not be running but I will be trying to stay fit.  I currently walk my mom’s dog on the week days; her distance varies from 1.5-3.  I also received a 3 month pass to Gold’s Gym that I’ll be using.

Goals: Walk the dog every day that weather allows

              Swim 3x per week

              Use the fitness equipment 3x per week

 

 

School – I’m in my last class before I have to student teach!  I also need to pass the Praxis exam to be placed.  Hopefully next fall I will be student teaching (or even better will be hired and do an internship instead) In addition I’ve decided to take some fun classes through Coursera, first up in Dinosaurs 101!

Goals : pass everything :)

 

Happy New Year!

~Maggie

 

 

 

 

 

 

Burlap wreath

I've been working on a wreath for my front door; my roommate sent me a picture and I went with it!  I found a great tutorial here: https://www.burlapwreath.com/how-to-make-a-burlap-wreath/.  This link as a video, I found the picture and description only tutorials very difficult to understand. So instead of me explaining how to make this wreath.... just go to the link.

Here it is in progress. I used 3 rolls of 4in. Burlap.  The tutorial says the wreath will take 10 min., I took a few days but I bought the rolls of burlap one at a time and then had emergency surgery half way though, then kept getting distracted during the process.

All finished!  I added an orange flower and scarecrow from an old fall decoration.  The flower has an alligator clip on the back making it easy to attach to the wreath.

It looks great on the door!

And then I decided I needed a bow... and the scarecrow/flower didn't work out so I added the flower to the bow and went with that.

 

Here is the front of the house (before I added the bow)

 

 

 

~Maggie

 

Bathroom Update!

 

 

I've been working on changing the tile in my bathroom for a few months now.  It all started because my toilet cracked and the leak caused the tiles to come up.  So I pulled up all the tile and started putting in the new stuff.  Then I hurt my back and tiling was off, I finally started feeling better this summer, but between work and swim team I didn't have time to finish.  Last week I finally got all the tile down and was able to put in a new working toilet!

 



 

You can see from this photo that the tile I choose in rectangular instead of square like most stick down tile I was familiar with.  If was pretty easy to work with, would have been easier if I had read and followed the directions to start against a wall and not in the middle of the room!

 

Once I finished the sink/closet area I moved in the toilet/shower area.  The area around the toilet is a bit of a hodge podge of tile, I was trying to conserve because you have to buy them by the box.

 

After getting in all the tile it was time for the toilet!  I've never installed a toilet before so I watched a lot of online videos before putting it in, it turned out to be pretty easy.  I wanted to install a dual flush, but after measuring I could only put in a round toilet and the round dual flush toilets were really expensive.  I decided on a inexpensive round toilet with the intention to install a dual flush later.  After using the toilet for a week I've decided that may not be necessary as the toilet uses very little water to begin with.

 

And here it is all installed!  I'm so happy with it. 

 

Other bathroom updates are the two gold curtains I added to the openings.  I love the way the gold looks with my grey bedroom. They previously were downstairs in my living room.  My mom found the tie backs at her house and let me have them.

 

 

I also had to move the cat box upstairs so I added a curtain to give them privacy.  This curtain almost matches the color on the other side of my bedroom which is nice.  Before hanging here it previously covered my laundry in my apartment and the bathroom before I moved the gold curtains.

Some day I would love to redo my bathroom completely- move walls to create a bigger shower, add another sink, put in real tile.  But until then I'm over the moon with my DIY bathroom makeover :)

Broken Runner Orienteering

How's that for a title?
Yesterday I went for my first weekday run since January, it was wonderful.  It was also raining pretty hard.  It was the first time I felt like I had enough energy to go for a run, I think I'm finally getting better!

Back in December I started having back pain, it went away right before the Tinkerbell half and I didn't have any pain while in CA.  But about a week after I got back so did the pain and it got worse and worse.  The doctors believe I have a herniated disc and after a week of steroids and (so far) 3 weeks of PT I'm getting better!

I have been orienteering on the weekends.  I figure running in the woods is less impact than on the roads.  (Although I ran at a meet by West Point in NY, and rocks are not easier on the back!)

One of my new favorite things is RouteGadget!  After a meet the maps are put on RoutGadget and runners and upload their GPS route.  If other people use it you can compare their routes to yours, there is even a race function where you can start all the routes at the same time and see where you gained/lost time; or how someone else's route helped them.

I thought I'd share 2 screen shots of my routes.  The first was at the actual race and the second is from a week later (Dad and I went back and ran the course again)  This was an orange course.

After the meet I was really frustrated, I felt that the course from 4-5 was too hard for my level, and I let it get to my head during the race.  As you can see from the map I did an awesome job in that section.  It wasn't the best route choice for my level, but it worked.  After talking over the course with Dad, I felt better about my route choice on this one.

 

 

 (I didn't adjust the GPS after uploading, I did hit all my controls)

The red line is me, the purple the straight line between controls.  The start is the triangle and the finish is the double circle.  As you can see I almost made a really bad mistake leaving 4 (heading the wrong direction), but I caught it and got headed back into the right direction.  One thing I learned from this, is that I have no concept of distance!  2-3 I though I was further down on the creek than I really was!

I made a few changes to my route on this run; 4-5 obviously and some others. Without controls I hit everything except 9 (which I barely found the first time around)

I did my second A meet this weekend, so once I get my GPS uploaded I'll share those.  They are vastly different.

~Maggie

Tinkerbell Half Marathon Part 2

So, um... hi!  I guess the last post ended on Saturday night, when I left the pasta in the park party early to go to sleep.  So, Sunday I woke up early and meet up with my running group before heading to the start line.  Some pictures from waiting in the corrals:

 

I need to find a  course map, all this pictures were taken in order... but I have no idea when in the race I was (mile one, four? Who knows?)

ooooh, look at that little tiny castle! (it doesn't look that small in person)

The one princess I wanted at the princess half and couldn't find

They character attendant told me his name was Bullseye, it was actually Finn.

The end of the race went through a neighborhood.  I felt great when I finished, my run walk intervals worked great, my inhaler stops worked great, my water/Gatorade ratio worked great (during the race) I stopped for a bagel and hot chocolate on the way back to the hotel, I WISH I had stopped in the parks real quick on my walk back for better photos in costume.  Once I got back to the hotel, I think the massive amount of Gatorade got to me and I spent a couple hours watching Say yes to the dress before heading back out.

photo of my medal in line for soaring!

 

The green army men band

I spent 30 min. sitting in the waiting area for this, just because I wanted to sit down.  I practically begged them to let me in so I could sit on the floor!

 

Photos of the banners between the parks:

My favorite ride!

This was a stage show, Mickey and the Magic Map.  It's very cute, I'm glad I got to see it.  And that was the end of my race day!

 

~Maggie