Training Log Archive: Geoman

Long Brown Course at Shell Ridge. It was a beautiful day in this stunning park. The hills were so green. So in this way it was a great day.

Knowing that this park is quite steep I was prepared for steep stretches. What I did not expect was such poor course setting at a Team Trials event. The course was set at the level of an Orange/Yellow Course. Over 50% of my course route was on roads or trails. Very few controls were near an advanced level. It was just a trail walk/run punctuated with sleep and boring slogs. Not sure why this happened.

No real errors were made. Maybe one dubious route choice were I lost less than a minute. I lost quite a bit of time as faster people zoomed by me on the long stretch of roads.

Will be nice to get back to the higher quality BAOC events next week.

Walk to start.

Long brown - Splits

Event: Run Black Diamond
 

Black Diamond, Middle Course, Brown. This was a new map created by Vladimir for the Team Trials. My Garmin decided to take the day off so no route. Walked the. Entire route.

Control 1 was my only significant error. About 2 minutes. DEtailed slope was hard to read. Got pulled left by another control in a reentrant close by.
After this no navigation errors but lots of problems with the mapping and the very steep climbs. There were several very trivial controls that were just difficult to physically approach.

Control 4 had me on my hands and knees crawling under thickets. Seemed like the best way to go. Control 7 was a death march up the mountain to an obvious control. Took the left route on Control 8 to avoid anymore climb.


I feel that this terrain was inappropriate for an A-meet. The course setting was an obvious rush job. I understand there was no vetting or test running done. The mapping of the vegetation was rough. No water on the course,. even though a water stop was advertised.Not much fun, but considered it an accomplishment at getting through it somewhat cleanly.

C • You are a brave man 2

Middle Brown - Splits

Scotty's class at the Y.

At the Y.

Walked to the Dentist to have a crown replaced. Then took BART to campus to meet Joan and continue her course vetting. It is a valuable exercise to walk behind and hear the comments of a vetter. Especially a vetter like Joan who is not afraid to say what she thinks. She was able to point out many things that I missed. Now I have more to think about. A number of changes will be made to the courses because of her comments.

Following Joan around the UC Courses for the April event.

Event: BAOC: Pt Pinole
 

Short Orange Course at Point Pinole. No problem with 16 of the17 controls. Made a 3 minute error on number 6. Ran about 7% of the way.