McDowell Nature Preserve O-Meet Fall 2023

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Tuesday, Oct 31:

45 min Peloton Power Zone Endurance EDM ride with Ben Alldis with no sound since someone was on the bike next to me in the gym, and I didn't have headphones.  I covered 12.2 miles at 36 ave resistance and 103 ave output and 89 ave cadence.  It wasn't hard like some of the others that I've done.  It was recovery-ish.

Afterwards, I did 7.5 min of arm strengtheners with 2x15# DBs.

Wednesday, Nov 1:

I did the APFT to kick off the new class of PATHFINDER.  I did 56 pushups (vs 45 for max points for my AG and gender), 85 situps (vs 76), and a 14:53 2-miler (vs 15:54).  That was a PR for me on push-ups and a tie PR for me on sit-ups.  I've been wanting to do at least 55 pushups in 2 min for years, so it was awesome to see my recent focused training pay off.

Thursday, Nov 2:

Yoga for a Fresh Start with Adriene

Friday, Nov 3:

18A "Upper Body Prep" in 29:07, followed by "Pull-ups" in 36:55

Coleman's Creek was hosting a night shoot weekend, where the ranges would be open long enough past sunset so that people could practice night shooting.  They do it a few times each winter, it seems.  I jumped on the opportunity and went out there after work.

First, I tried out the pistol steel bay, where there is a target-rich environment to play around in.  You can't move and shoot there, but you can shoot from behind the line.  I did some faster shooting, some plate rack that was very close and therefore not too challenging, a bit of Scott's drill, and some farther, slower shots.

After that, I went to a UKD range to shoot some farther rifle targets than what I'm used to with my AR.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my LRF, since I am more used to bringing that when I bring my long range rifle.  I estimated distances, though (at 150yd and 200yd) and shot from a tire prop.  It wasn't a bad thing to practice shooting at UKD targets, though.  Later on, they did add updated range cards for all the bays on their website, which is handy.

Next, I went to the long range, where I gathered chrono data for my BCM AR15, although I ended up deleting it before making permanent records, unfortunately.  It was easy to gather with the Garmin Xero C1, though.  

- with 77gr, I got dope for 300 (0) and 400 (0.75).  The 400yd later turned into 0.25 for the hold... I wonder if the barrel heated up with the second and third mags.

- I switched to 55gr after running out of 77gr, and got dope and chrono data for it, too.  300yd was 0.5D, and 400 was 0.25U.  Surprisingly, I was more consistent with my hits using 55gr instead of 77gr.

Fortunately, there was no wind to worry about, and the DA was 414 with 63*F and 26%RH... I did bring my Kestrel, even though I forgot the LRF.

At night, I went to a 270* range, where I used NODS the whole time, no white light.  

- I had to get the flood vs medium vs high-beam setting right before I could see the rifle targets (at about 50yd) well, since they were unpainted.  I almost forgot that those settings existed.  Middle worked better than the high-beam, for this distance.

- I did some dueling tree with pistol with the IR light on my gun.  I tried to use the Kiji for extra light on target while shooting pistol, but it ended up lighting up the back of my pistol, and it made seeing the target more difficult, not less difficult.  The Kiji wasn't strong enough for the rifle shots, either, at 50yd, even after I removed the diffuser.  I think it's mainly suited for moving around at night when there's no moonlight.

- I used the PrincetonTec red LED to reload mags, which was nice.  I did also have LEDs on my Sordins, which was also helpful since I hadn't brought a separate headlamp.  

- I practiced positions with rifle... standing, kneeling, and from the top of a barrel.  

- I wasn't able to see IR laser bloom at all on these unpainted rifle targets, so I just had to keep the offset in mind.  The laser showed up as a half-moon, and not a circle, which was odd, too.

- I saw the milky way, a weird star cluster, and tons of stars.  NODS are so cool.

- It was chilly, but I stayed out for as long as I could manage, to take advantage of the rare opportunity, while balancing the need to go home reasonably early for the next morning's Orienteering meet.

- I did miss more than usual on the pistol dueling tree, even though the targets were plenty large.  I suspect that I flinch more than usual under NODS.  

- I did have to reset the poppers each time I shot them, but it gave me good practice with walking around and doing things under NODS.

- I also did some steel shooting and moving, and shooting on paper.

Fun night!

MCDOWELL NATURE PRESERVE O-MEET

Some ruck club friends decided to give orienteering a try, which is awesome.

A couple decided to share a yellow map, and another waited to long to get a map, so he joined me on the green map.  

We met at the same time, and I gave them a quick primer on route planning.  We started with the yellow map and made sure they had a good plan and had a grasp of the basics.  Yellow maps don't require knowledge of how to use a compass, so we didn't need to cover that.  Orienteering maps pre-plot the points, so we didn't need to cover plotting, either.  We just went over route planning, or how you want to go from A to B, taking into account terrain, vegetation, handy trails, distance, and landmarks.

We then did the same for the green map, where we measured some bearings and distances that we'd need later.  

We set off at the same time, following our corresponding maps.  I led the navigation to the first point for my team.  

After that, we swapped, so that BP could get some experience.  He was having a good time, so I let him keep navigating.  Having separate maps per person is the way to go, though, to maximize learning.  Without a map, it's just following, and you don't learn much, and you might as well just be rucking on a trail.  

There was one point (CP 3) that gave us a lot of difficulty.  We ended up being way further than we thought we were, and we overshot where the point was.  It's nuts how far off we were.  We weren't the only team that had trouble, but man, that ate up a lot of time.  I think BP had figured out where we really were, though, so we knew to go back and look.

CP5 was also tough, as we had travelled a decent distance along a bearing and were looking for an earth wall near our point.

The back half was pretty straightforward, though, with a decent amount of trail to follow.  We jogged a lot of that, with me trying very hard to keep up with BP.

The other team finished the yellow course about 45 min before we finished.  They had a good time and are excited to come back and try harder courses.  They did stay until we came back, to compare notes.

I was glad to get to pass along some knowledge, and glad to see how much they liked it.  Now, they can go on to teach others and try solo ones and harder ones next time.  They all did great and are ready for it!

The green team covered 4.73 miles.  I went slick, just carrying water (which I didn't drink) and my nav kit.  I do think I'm ready to give the red map a try next time.

Afterwards, I stuck around to get in a 3.5 mile trail hike in 1:25:44, wearing a 30#RPC and Garmont T8's.  I tried to cover some areas that we hadn't gone through earlier, to get a better sense of the place for future meets.

I did manage to lose my sunglasses when I put them on my head.  Maybe I lost it while bushwhacking, or maybe I lost it when I was messing with my hood or hat or something.  Something to be more careful about in the future!  They were decent ones, too, with much more life still in them.  Oh well, a good excuse to try out some new ones.