Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Joe Grant 2-Day Classic, Day 2. Brown X, 3.6 km, 175m climb (I calculated 190), 12 c.

Today was as unsatisfying as yesterday was satisfying. There were 6 different places where I lost more time than I had on the entire course yesterday. Didn't have any fun out there at all. Tired from yesterday, warm temps, and tall grass that grabbed your feet, plus a 14 contour climb to #2, combined to make me feel exhausted by the time I got to #2. I then chose a longer route to 3 just to stay in the shade, and really screwed it up for a 7 min. error. Another substantial climb to 4, and a bag that was really hard to find (some people never found it) resulted in a 3 min error, and I had little left after that. Reasonably steady the rest of the way, but still made 2 more mistakes of about a minute each (and had already made a :45 error on #1). Plus spent half a minute tying my shoe, ripped my pants scrooching under a fence, and lost :05 punching the GO control 3 times because I didn't hear it beep the first two times - it was that kind of day.

3rd on the course for the day (Chuck 52:25, Steve Haas 58:15), held on to first in M65 for the two day combined (though Chuck, in M70, was 2:49 minutes better).

I was one of the first people out on Brown - and the first one to reach the Finish from either Brown course - so there wasn't much in the way of elephant trails when I was out there. The grass felt like vines, making it really hard to run through. My understanding is that later, pathways had been trampled in many places, which must've made it rather easier though also not fun. The time to have meets at Joe Grant is February.


1. First thought was to run around the S side of the French broom patch, but from the hillside it looked like there were pathways through, so I tried to go straight. But kept getting blocked and finally found a way through and came out on the NW side. From there, tried to follow the edge of vegetation, but on that side it was very indistinct, and had to go behind some bushes before I could see the bag. Lost about :45.

2. Up through the saddle, through the gate, then decided to follow the trail to the left instead of going straight (to the right) because I was concerned about crossing the creek. Probably not a good choice. Once across the creek, angled up towards the control. No problem seeing where the control would be, but a lot of problems getting there: steep, hot, and really thick grass. Steve H and Gary C were more than :40 faster on this leg.

3. Going between the two hills was clearly the best route, but I did not want to go out in that field again, because of the thick grass, the climb, and the sun, so decided to contour around in the forest. Felt like I was making a wrong decision, but was desperate to avoid those three things, so off I went. Recognized that the trick to doing this right was to make sure that I got around to where I was directly W of the second hill. But I think what happened is that I saw the first hill from two different vantage points, and even though my pace count told me I shouldn't be there yet, started looking around for the bag. Very pig-headedly, kept doing this for 5 minutes, even checking the hill above and the creek below, before convincing myself that I had fallen prey to exactly what I had been worried about: I was below and west of the first hill rather than the second. Angled up into the field and saw the second hill ahead, then cut down through where the clearing pushed into the forest a bit. No bag, so realized I was S of the circle, so contoured N and finally found it, losing another 2 mins, for 7 minutes all together.

3. Tried to pull myself together. Headed S - and up - to the path that crossed the stream. After hesitating a bit at a false one, found the mapped one, crossed the stream, fought my way up through some brush to the clearing on top of the spur and turned right. Expected to see the path through the fight but soon realized I was already beyond that, so went around the uphill side of the fight. Saw the power line, went along the uphill side of the next patch of fight, into the forested reentrant, and crossed the bottom right at the gully-ditch boundary. Should have been simple from there, only 70m more, but it wasn't. Dave Petty and Linda Moore were searching around - maybe I got pulled off by them. I'd been having some trouble by momentarily using the parallel fence and power line as N-S lines, so maybe that happened again and pulled me to the right. Also, there were two very large distinct trees that looked like they could have been mapped individually, but they weren't (as we were warned in advance: if their canopies touched, they may be mapped as a patch of white). In any case, my GPS track seems to show that I looped around a bit S of the control. Eventually went out into the field to see if I could spot it from there: seemed that I should since the lone tree was mapped as being on the edge of the forest. Looking back into the forest, I saw Dave and Lind coming towards me, with Dave pointing as if he could see the bag. Went towards them and finally saw the bag, tucked tightly against the bottom of the tree. Lost about 3 minutes on what should have been a half-minute segment. (Given the ambiguity of the mapping here, it might have been better to use another feature or at least place the bag so that it was more visible.) Note: despite the big error, had the second fastest split on this leg, showing that lots of people had trouble.

5. Pretty dispirited at this point, but soldiered on. Went a little right of straight, aiming for the white patch next to the fence between the two big green patches. Got to the fence without a problem (meaning I did hit the white patch), but everything on the other side looked horribly thick, and I couldn't find a good place to cross the fence. Finally picked some place, got caught a bit while trying to get under, scratching my scalp (no blood) and fought my way through the bushes, finally getting up to the fire road right where I expected to be. Went 100m NE on the road then on a bearing (along the red line) under the green patch and ran hard down to the lone trees and nailed it. Probably lost close to a minute at the fence and the bushes beyond. I'm told there was a less dense area on the other side, but I missed it.

6. A real slog up the hill with the grass being so thick. Got to the top of the little hill (and saw Sarah P heading for #7), compass and pace to the thicket, peeking behind one other small thicket on the way. Good split on this leg, but it wasn't any fun.

7. Pretty much followed the straight line to what I thought was the distinct tree just E of the control. Went around the next patch of fight and turned down hill, but no bag. Realized I wasn't yet near the W slope of the hill (apparently what I thought was a distinct tree is mapped as just part of the forest), so went back up, continued until the hill turned, then went down a bit and there it was. Lost a minute.

8. Over the top of the hill, into the saddle, take a bearing and head down. Couldn't be sure I was reading the vegetation correctly (but did see Sarah and then Linda below and heading towards #9), but stayed on the compass and nailed it. My best leg to that point, but still :13 behind Chuck.

9. Contour into the saddle, up the next hill (which seemed like much more climb than one contour), passing George and then Linda. Over the top, stay a little left and start down. See Sarah standing still reading her map, just slightly left of where I was heading, and then see a little piece of wood sticking up through the grass next to her and realize that that must be the rootstock. Only 4 secs from the fastest split on this leg.

10. Thought I should head down left of the big green patch (and I should have), but Sarah was going a bit to the right, and it looked clear, so I followed her. Had to bash through some bushes near the bottom, but it wasn't too bad. Sarah turned right when she hit the road; I started to go straight, but was forced to angle up to the left by thick vegetation. Expected to see the small building when I got to the top, but I didn't. (It was to my right: hadn't taken into account that I had gone quite far left on my way up.) Puzzled, slowly headed towards the road before I finally figured out I needed to go right. Lost about :45. Got to the building and had to stop to tie my shoe, losing another half minute. (Guess this leg caused people a lot of trouble, because despite losing 1:15, was only :06 from the second fastest split.) Took the little trail that heads down, pace counting, then cut right, into the woods, and spotted the bag ahead. Signs of my addled brain: two years ago I set a course in this area, even using today's #9 and #10 as control points, and fixing the map in several places, but none of that helped.

11. Straight downhill to the big road. There was a major highway of trampled grass. (This leg was on all the advanced courses, so even though at this point I was the first Brown runner going this way, clearly several other people had been there already. Wonder if that's what it was like on most of the rest of the course later in the day.) Onto the pavement past the junction, hoping I'd see the mapped sliver of white - but in fact there was a very large gap between the patches of green, so no problem cutting in, going around the nose, right to the bag. My best leg of the day, but too late to feel good about it.

12. Wasn't clear to me if there was a good way out, but found the patch of white to the NE, and scrootched under the fence, ripping my pants in the process. Could see the control from the road.

F. Even problems here. Punched the closer of the two units and took a step towards the finish, but I didn't hear a beep, so stopped and reached back to punch again. Thought I heard a beep, but wasn't sure, so punched the other unit and heard a clear beep. I guess because they were two different units, the first and third punches both showed up on my splits printout, 5 seconds apart. (Didn't seem like that took 5 secs; perhaps the units diffed by a sec or two?)

Figure I lost about 14 minutes all together to mental errors, so run under 50 minutes should have been possible even on this physically challenging day for me. And maybe on a cool day in February, mid to low 40's would have been possible.

Warm up. Jog 500m to start, then jog around near the start a bit. Felt ready to go.

Event: BAOC: Joe Grant A-meet
 

Joseph D. Grant Park North. Day 1 of 2-Day Classic A-meet. Rather chilly and misty (rained from midnight until about 6am). Ground was mice and soft, lots of very wet ankle high vegetation, so feet were very wet right from the beginning. Started at 10:14, 3rd person out on Brown.

Brown: 3.4 km, 120m climb, 8 c. (I calculate 100m of climb on my route.) Excellent run for me. No navigation errors, made good route choices and made them quickly, only a few very short hesitations in crucial spots, and ran hard from the outset (expecting my time would be well under 40). Ken Olsson, a Swedish 40-something ran 29:09, and then I was first among the legit Brown runners. Penny ran 35:18, Chuck Spalding 36:37, Steve Haas 41:19, Kim van Berkel (M-Br) 42:50, Leigh Bailey 49:35.

1. Recognized quickly that I needed to take the little trail off the bend of the fire road. Once at the copse, could see the two trees in the circle, and there was an animal trail going about 2/3 of the way there. Tweak my sore left ankle, but it was OK the rest of the way (but sore in the evening).

2. Have had to make this route choice several times in the past, and there was no doubt in my mind that for me crossing the stream bed directly was folly, so caught the intermittent trail going NW then through the saddle S of the fire road (passing Nancy Lindeman), cut diagonally across the spur and soon see the tree with the two rocks behind it.

3. Swing a little left to get on the nose of the spur, then the little hilltop, and see the tree with the rock behind it ahead. Steep downhill was tough on my feet and legs. On my right, a much younger guy was running pretty fast directly to the control. This was Ken Olsson, the aforementioned Swede, who had started two minutes behind me (and was a day-of-meet registrant). Judging by splits, it appears that I lost 10 secs on this leg, but not sure where. (Penny and Chuck each beat me by a few secs, the only leg either beat me on.)

4. Best route was clearly N to the road. Contoured around the spur, took an animal trail that went conveniently across the reentrant, then angled up to the road (walked a bit), hitting it right where the lone tree is E of the little hilltop. Quite winded, but forced myself to at least jog on the road. Studied the map as I ran to the highpoint, realizing that having a good attack point from the road was going to be crucial to getting this one right. Ken was maybe 150m ahead and left the road just after I crested the hill, so I figured that whoever he was, he wasn't on my course. Planned to go to where the last two trees were on the right, but could see them clearly ahead so left the road 80m beforehand, cut diagonally across the reentrant and tried to go down the nose of the broad spur. Seemed to be the beginnings of a shallow reentrant a bit to my left, so kept an eye on that, but then thought I was alongside the left side of the small clearing just SE of the circle (I was), saw a patch of green ahead, and then spotted the bag beyond it. I was closer to the left side of the green, so bashed through a thinner stand of vegetation to get to the bag. Just as I was coming in, Ken came in, contouring from the right.

5. Diagonally up back the way I came, then contoured and climbed a little, aiming for the hilltop just N of the road, which I nailed. (Ken had headed down, and I never saw him again, but he got to the Finish only a minute ahead of me [he lost a little time near #7].) W to lone tree, verify that the open spur ahead was not the one I wanted, SW to the next lone tree (meanwhile had seen a runner 100m W, through the trees, but didn't recognize that it was Marie-Josee, on Green), then W down the nose of the big spur. Saw a standing dead tree ahead on the nose, identified it on the map, stopped momentarily for a good bearing to the control. Across the trail; Marie-Josee appeared on my right. Soon saw the very small rock with the bag on the downhill side. Punched in right behind MJ.

6. Good route choice leg. No way I'd take the trail by the creek because of the nasty creek crossing and the steep hill at the end. First thought I'd run along the N edge of the field, but then realized with my tiring legs, I'd be better off on the trail further S. So, diagonally down towards the trail junction, nice animal trail across the shallow end of the creek bed, cut across the S flank of the hill and finally to the road (where I had to walk a little, so planned the next leg), to the top, then straight N to the control. My split on this leg was better than 34 of the 35 Green runners, and only 1 sec behind the top Green.

7. Straight down, though it was a bit treacherous plus I had to zigzag to avoid some vegetation, and also puzzle for a second about an unmapped trail. Left on the trail at the bottom, see George coming down on my left, through the gate, pace count, see the nice looking dry stream bed, down to it, then bearing towards the control. Struggle a bit up the side of the reentrant, but once up it, see the bag dead ahead.

8. At first thought I'd go around the left side of the lake, but before punching 7 realized there was a trail around the right side, so went that way. Very careful to make sure I didn't miss the trail junction, which was indistinct and gave me a couple of seconds pause (many people ran right by it and made sizable errors). Easy from there.

C • Nice race! 6

After a bus ride up to Twin Gates, just a little bit of a warm up, but it was enough.

Cool down: Walked back to the assembly area with George.

Brown - Splits

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises. Tapered on the strength exercises as the week wore on.

Did some extra stretching in the afternoon.

Did some extra stretching in the afternoon.

Front of house. Chill wind keeps it from being pleasant. Feel very sluggish. Had planned to just do basically a warm up, but sure would have liked to feel better.

629, 548, 114 (just to the 5.0 mile mark)

Cool down

Long staff meeting, dinner in Palo Alto with Jeff.