Team Rookie Rampage
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Excuses, excuses, excuses!

As an elementary school teacher, I often hear woeful tales of why kids don't do what's expected. The best one was a few years back, while I still lived in Southern California. It related to why Jared Tellez's homework didn't come back on a Friday as dictated by classroom procedure.

"My dog peed on it," the then fifth-grader claimed.

I'm a hard-nosed guy when it comes to homework, so I called the kid's mom, Becky Wilson, and asked if it was true. "Yep," mom said. "The dog peed on it all right. Soaked it right through." After a pregnant pause, she asked, "Do you want me to bring it in?"

Of COURSE I wanted her to bring it in! And so did Jared. No homework on Friday meant no recess for him, and he desperately wanted out of that jam.

Mrs. Wilson dutifully donned rubber gloves, retrieved the soggy task packet from an outside trash can, zipped it into a gallon-sized storage bag and delivered it to the center of my desk at Sundown Elementary School in Lancaster, Calif. The sight was so famously disgusting, we did a class writing project about it the next day.

What made that my all-time favorite homework excuse? It was actually true!

As a freshly-minted adventure racer, I find myself suffering the same fate of the lazy kids who neglect their homework. And I'm getting caught. So you can feel my pain, let's role play. You be Keith Bushaw, my accredited coach in Colorado who co-founded the adventure race training website called ARCoach.com. I'll be Mike Bitton, a rookie adventure racer who still thinks a lifetime of bad eating and exercise choices will be erased during one 20-minute run in the park across the street from his house.

YOU -- Hey, Mike, it's Keith! You haven't logged in your training on the website for a couple of days. What's up?

ME -- (Trying to think of a lie) Oh, uh, you know, things come up. It's been a while, that's true. And my heart rate monitor broke! Did I tell you about that? Every time I hit the button to start or stop the chronograph, it makes this high-pitched buzz and resets itself to midnight, January first, 2005! And it dumps all my heart rate data! So I haven't done much. Can't keep track without the watch.

YOU -- Better get another one. And remember, the most important thing for you right now is to shed some pounds. If you could drop about 40, you'll have a much better adventure racing season.

ME -- Yeah, yeah, that's still the goal (guilt forcing me to put that third slice of leftover pizza back in the fridge).

YOU -- Nutrition is about 80 percent of your training, so keep logging in all the things you eat, OK?

ME -- No problem. (YES problem! The truth hurts so much I could cry! Take in fewer calories than I burn?! Do you know how that FEELS?!).

YOU -- All right, Mike, we'll talk again soon. E-mail me with any questions.

ME -- You got it.

It's true my heart rate monitor is all fouled up. It's also true that I'll have to get another, because all my workouts on ARCoach.com are heart-rate based. Keith is doing his darndest to keep my workouts within zones that will make me work hard enough to get something out of it, but not so hard I injure myself.

I've had heart rate monitors from Nike (lost the chest strap)and HighGear (after several years of abuse, it honestly is making horrible sounds and losing my data). I'm ready to try Polar and Suunto, if anyone has opinions about either. Better yet, if you know someone who can ship me one to try out, shoot me an e-mail at the following address:

rookierampage@gmail.com.

Until I get another heart rate monitor, I'll just have to estimate my actual heart rate during workouts. I can almost guarantee I'll be keeping it lower than Keith would like!

Photo by Cristina Fillis

Members of Rookie Rampage (from left) Ivan Arredondo, Scott Markham, Kim Reinholdt and Jan Newport, nab a checkpoint during an orienteering event at Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, Ore.

Report by Scott Markham

Members of Rookie Rampage tackled another orienteering course on Sunday. Cristina Fillis, Kim Reinholdt, Jan Newport, Ivan Arredondo, and myself took on the 5.3 km course that covered some easy terrain around the Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, Ore. It was a great day, and the sun even came out.

This outing was Kim's second orienteering event and Jan's first. The course followed some trails, but also went off-trail for most of the checkpoints. The course was a lot of fun and we finished in 2:13:06. For most of the day, we couldn't even tell what type of ground we were walking over due to the ivy covering the forest floor. This made for some exciting times while navigating downhill. I had forgotten how the ivy loves to trip you up as you are running!

The funniest moment was when we were running downhill and a set of car keys came flying out of a pocket. Luckily, this occurred on clear ground and Cristina noticed it as she was running behind Ivan. Good thing, because due to the terrain, finding the "key checkpoint" would have been difficult! Thanks to the Columbia River Orienteering Club (CROC) for putting on another fun event.

Report by Scott Markham

This past weekend, two members of Checkpoint Zero Rookie Rampage (Kim Reinholdt & Scott Markham) decided it was time to run in the woods at night. In anticipation of upcoming events, and the need to be able to navigate at night, we participated in the Columbia River Orienteering Club's (CROC) nighttime orienteering event at the Magness Memorial Tree Farm in Sherwood, Ore. While Scott had done this event the previous year during daylight, Kim decided to participate in her first orienteering event, AT NIGHT!!!

When one imagines a tree farm, typically you think of nice and evenly spaced rows of trees. Well, typical of CROC events, this was not the case. Throw in rivers, blackberry bushes, downed trees, a water tower, and a 250-foot hill and the navigation turns challenging very quickly. After hitting the first four checkpoints relatively easily, while Kim learned the ins and outs of navigation, we then decided to take off cross-country and leave the trails.

Checkpoint 5 had a description of â??fork in stream. S end.â?? It should have had a description of â??down steep embankment, across very slippery rocks, and donâ??t submerge you foot in the water.â?? Luckily my shoes dried quickly. Hey what better way to keep new shoes clean than cleaning them off in the river!

After hitting the river checkpoint, we took off uphill, through the blackberry bushes and to another checkpoint. Our idea was to hit the checkpoint at the top of the hill then run downhill to two more checkpoints before finishing. Note: while running downhill in the dark it is really easy to miss checkpoints while you are making sure you donâ??t trip over roots. After blowing past our intended checkpoint, due to time we decided to skip it. The best part was running back to HQ before time ran out. Running down hill, in the dark while only being able to see a little lighted patch of earth is awesome! The one-hour time limit in the woods flew past and we had a great time.

Congratulations to Kim, she did great in her first orienteering event and had a blast running around the woods at night. Our next event is another orienteering event put on by CROC and a chance to hone our navigation skills even more.

Photo by Kim Reinholdt via camera phone
Mike Bitton, Cristina Fillis and Scott Markham show off their muddy duds after a 10-mile ride through Forest Park.

I'll admit, by the time the month of March finally rolls around, winter has worn out its welcome in Portland. This winter has been a real doosey, with record rainfall nearly every month. So when the sun miraculously revealed itself during our Rookie Rampage team training mountain bike ride on Sunday, we were ecstatic! Scott Markham, Cris Fillis, Kim Reinholdt and I all smiled, hooted and hollered as we pedaled like along Forest Park's Leif Erikson Trail. It had been raining all week, so the route was just as muddy as you'd imagine. We had brown ooze in every crack and crevice after the first five minutes, but continued riding gleefully for about two hours.

Training for adventure racing is starting to feel less like training for endurance events and more like hanging out with dear friends. We each took time during the ride to catch up with what's been going on in our lives. Our enthusiasm for each other's company, and our genuine interest in how life is treating everyone, are sure signs we are gelling as a team, not just riding bikes together.

For our next team training, we'll practice orienteering again. Saturday night there's another Columbia River Orienteering Club event, this time at a Christmas tree farm south of Portland. Scott and Cris have done the meet before, and say we are in for a challenge!