Training Log Archive: Spike

Bad sleep last night. I went to bed and started coughing. It felt like some sort of allergic reaction. After about 10 minutes, my breathing got uncomfortable. The coughing didn't stop. I moved to the basement so my coughing and breathing wouldn't keep Mary awake. The coughing eased pretty quickly. My breathing improved. After a few hours of restless sleep, I felt pretty much ok and went back upstairs.

OK event at Slough Creek. Sandy set the courses.

I ran ok. I felt like I was mostly working hard. My map reading was sloppy in a couple of places. One of those cost me almost 2 minutes.

Warm weather. I remembered to wear my sweat band. I usually forget a sweat band the first warm-ish day of the year and get reminded by stinging sweat in my eyes.

I was helping with registration and it was busy. I guess we had 50 starts (and probably nearly 100 people).

5

Jogging on West Campus and some time on the trails at an honest effort.

Some light rain/drizzle fell.

Very nice temp for a training run.

2

Jogging on the trails on West Campus. Fun and my legs felt a lot better than yesterday. I saw 5 people on the little trail. That's unusual. I also discovered a new sign about prairie restoration. I'm not sure what that was about. It was above a little trail that runs to a small open area. Maybe someone is restoring that little area.

1

I shuffled around a little bit. Not much, but felt good to get out and move around a bit.

1

Jogged through a course from a few years ago at Rockcrusher. I took some unusual routes to check out parts of the map I was curious about.

One of the control locations had moved. The circle was on a manmade feature near a trail. The feature is an old steel pipe, maybe 4 meters long and a foot in diameter. But the high water had picked up the pipe and moved it up the reentrant. I'll need to update the map to show the new location. The new location is actually a little better for future course setting.

I also ran along some of the trail nearest the lake. During last summer, the water was almost 2 contours above the level shown on the lake. In places the lower trails are buried in drift wood. And the horse riders haven't been using those trails, so there are becoming more indistinct. I'll have to update the map a bit.

My legs felt fine as long as I was going flat and on nice terrain. Running up or down or in the woods was slow.

4

And some of the time I was exploring off the edge of the map to the west or just running mindlessly on trails to get back.

MTB on the bike paths. I was mostly on part of the Lawrence Loop, but I also did 2 laps of the Haskell Campus.

I got a little tired near the end.

1

I thought it would be fun to ride my bike after work. I did. It was fun. It was a little cold in the beginning. I followed the bike path out to Clinton.

1

Short jog from home. I did another test of the UsynligO app. I don't understand how the submit results function is supposed to work.

1

Jogging on West Campus with 8 minutes at an honest effort. I need to start doing some regular running at a bit of an effort.

I thought I was over dressed, but it turned out I wasn't. The wind was chilly.

2

Edit: I've learned that the honest effort running I did could be called "Bricker Intervals." So that's what I'm going to call them from now on. But, to be strict, the West Campus session was more like Modified Brickers.

C • Bricker 6

Short West Campus jog. My legs felt good. That surprised me.

Warm today - temp in the low 60s F.

1

I was out 90 minutes, but 10 minutes was spent dealing with a stupid thorn that went through the bottom of my shoe and in my toe. It didn't really hurt much, but getting the thorn out of the sole of the shoe was a chore.

I shuffled around picking up the 7 mini markers that I put out at Rockcrusher last month. I took odd routes - the kind of routes you wouldn't take during a race. I figure it was good practice at moving through the crappy woods. But, I was also feeling tired and I didn't push. So when the woods got a little junky, I slowed a lot.

I saw a couple walking two dogs. That's unusual at Rockcrusher. I played with one of the dogs a little bit.

Warm. mid 50s F.

3

C • played 9

I shuffled around on West Campus. Weather was perfect - warm enough that the snow wasn't frozen solid, but not so warm that it was slushy. There were just a few icy spots.

I spent a lot of time looking at animal tracks - part of trying to understand where the deer are most dense on West Campus.

Home in time to watch the Jayhawks play Oklahoma.

1

I shuffled around on West Campus. It was chilly (9F) but I was dressed appropriately. The wind was a little cold, but as the sun dropped the wind stopped.

I saw a lot of deer tracks. I've adjusted my current estimate of the West Campus deer population to 36.

1

I squeezed in a little jog after shoveling the drive. I cut the run very short so I'd be home in time to watch the KU basketball game.

1

KP tutorial:

https://github.com/jgaffuri/OriMap/tree/master/doc...

I haven't yet looked at it.

C • tutorial 2

Local event at Woodridge. Fun.

I didn't do so well holding a straight line on a couple of legs - otherwise a good navigation effort and worked pretty hard. Dean got me by a couple of minutes. Tom had an adventure on the first control and I beat him overall. I suspect that the splits will show that he beat me on most of the course.

I got a thorn in my shoe in the middle of the course. I had a short stop to remove the shoe, remove the thorn, and get back to running.

The forecast yesterday was for some light rain today. That didn't happen and that's nice. Running in the rain is ok, but entering people in the computer at a park without a shelter isn't so nice in the rain. I worked with Christy at registration and that worked well.

Nice pizza with Blair and Dick after we'd picked up the controls.

5

Some jogging to warm up.

Slow jogging to pick up the two far controls. I got tired. I don't know what I was thinking with volunteering to get those two controls.

1

An easy jog on West Campus. Nice weather - cold enough that places were frozen that will be muddy later.

I saw a coyote. That was fun.

1

MTB on the paved bike paths and a bit of roads at Baker Wetlands. Fun. My legs didn't feel as good as I'd expected. Oh well. Nice day out and I got the clothing just right.

1

I tested the UsynligO app this afternoon.

I uploaded a little map of the neighborhood and Holcom Park. The app worked perfectly.

I can see using it to set up virtual permanent courses.

It reminded me a little bit of the first GPS orienteering long ago. Paul S had about a dozen Garmin portable GPS devices. Back then, portable meant about the size of a hardback novel. The devices had a little text screen that gave you a compass direction and distance to the feature. If I remember right, each GPS cost something like $1500. The event was at Prairie Center.

I don't remember exactly when that race was. Wikipedia tells me that Garmin was founded in 1989 as "ProNav." It seems like the race was earlier, maybe 1988? Or maybe it was early 1990s?

https://usynligo.no/about

A short and easy jog on West Campus.

1

I shuffled around on West Campus. Pace was slow and easy.

A highlight was seeing a group of 12 deer. I started wondering how many deer must live on West Campus. Maybe 60? I wonder if there's a good way to estimate the number.

1

I jogged around on West Campus. I got out early enough that I ran without a headlamp. I carried a little LED lamp in my pocket and used it the last 5 minutes or so.

The north wind was a bit chilly.

West Campus was quiet. I saw a couple of people and 8 deer.

1

MTB on pavement. Most of the ride was on the Lawrence Loop - and out and back route from home to LMH and back + a little extra.

When I was almost home I spotted Mary! She'd ridden out to meet me and we biked that last bit home together. That was nice.
1
I was unsure how I'd feel today. I was extremely tired yesterday around dinner. I went to be at 8 p.m. I slept 11.5 hours. Something wasn't right. I was unsure. But I felt fine. I got a little tired in the biking muscles, but felt pretty much ok.

Warm out there. Mid 60s F. That's not good.

1

C • Wolves in Yellowstone caught on livestream 6

I successfully finished my modified 31 day challenge. A few notes:

It is a lot easier to do a modified version (see how long it takes to get to 31 days as opposed to 31 days without a break).

It is a lot easier to do any version if you are fit and running more. I'm not. As a result, I did more short sessions than would be ideal. That said, short technique sessions are useful. It is also easier to keep the mental quality high for 15 minutes than for 45 if you are doing a 31 day challenge.

Every time I've done one of these, I see noticeable improvements in how my navigation works at about 7, 10 and 15 days.

Almost every time I've done one of these I have some problem - a turned ankle or a cold. I had a tight calf this year.

The only really bogus session this year was a map hike at SMP before I had to go to an evening Park Board meeting.

Including MTBO was useful. It is a good way to rest legs from running and it is a blast. I also have figured something out about how to keep track of where I am on the map when it is on a map board and not in my hand.

I haven't counted how many different maps I used this year, but I think it was fewer than prior years.

PTOC event at Blue and Gray.

This was tougher than expected. The ground was often muddy or slushy. Trails were slow because of the slush/mud. The woods were typical, but there was one stretch where it seemed like I kept getting caught in thorns. But some parts of the course were really nice and the open woods were nice.

I felt slow/tired at the start. After about 30-40 minutes I started to feel better.

I hesitated on a couple of controls. I was indecisive on one leg. Other wise my orienteering was good.

Tom H won about 7 minutes ahead of me. Dean was a couple of minutes behind Tom.

Fun.

5