Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Event: BAOC: Sunol Regional Wilderness
 

Sunol. Walk to the start. Long, uphill climb under a hot sun.

Sunol B-meet. Brown 4.2km, 90m climb, 18 c. Finish 3rd of 31 in 1:00:32. Stumbled and bumbled a bit through the first 8 controls (including three errors of 4+, 2+ and 2+ minutes), but did very well over the last ten. Getting used to the 7.5m contours might have been a factor.

1. Around the S end of the spur, gaining a little elevation to save some distance. Encountering some bushes, cut down towards an animal trail 15m below, but it was so steep that my legs just couldn't stay in control, and I wanted flying past the trail and stopped only by tumbling into some bushes - and had a hard time getting up from the awkward position I landed in. Quite disconcerting, but no bodily damage. Lost about 10 secs. Got up, took a few steps back up to the trail, proceeded directly to the control without further problems. Thought the control description was rather vague, and it turned out that the flag was not at the green patch inside the circle but rather at the edge of the wide-hatched green stripes - not an obvious veg boundary on the map, though it was an obvious boundary in the terrain.

2. On a rough bearing, picked my way down and east through the bushes. Spotted a fence with a gap in it ahead in the terrain, checked the map, saw that going through that gap was exactly what I should do, so did it. Continued E into the clearing on the spur. At first didn't see the flag, but then saw it slightly downhill, tucked against some bushes - exactly where both the map and the ccntrol description indicated it would be. Felt like a good leg, and I had the second fastest split, :04 behind the leader. Actually was in first place overall at this point, :28 ahead of second.

3. Lost over 4 minutes on this very short leg! First thought was to go straight, but looking downhill, the descent to the creek bed looked very nasty, so went NNE along the edge of the clearing and pretty much contoured to the bottom. I did not see (until after the race) that the best route would have been to go SE to where a trail crosses the creek. Once at the bottom, I couldn't see a way out: the opposite bank was rocky, muddy, heavily vegetated and very steep. Clawed my way up, getting further and further N as I tried to find an escape route. This meant even more climb, but straight up was always not viable. Finally got up all the way at the N end of the fenced in area! Ugh. Knew exactly where I was on the trail. Headed down to the sharp bend, intending to go down the reentrant to the control from there, but it was way too steep and with heavy ground cover, so continued down the trail another 50m and went due E from there, soon spotting the flag.

4. Contoured all the way, keeping an eye out for the trail below to make sure I didn't drop. As I approached the ditch, spotted that trail a little below me, so knew I was exactly in the right place at the edge of the circle and easily spotted the control. Probably a little too cautious on this leg, but I was still a little shaken from the previous one.

5. Going straight, which meant following the ditch, seemed like a good choice until I noticed that that would mean crossing the creek at a place where it was mapped as a gully - and I wanted no part of that! So went to where the little trail crossed the ditch, back along the trail for 50m, then downhill on a rough bearing, parallel to straight. No trouble crossing the creek at that point. Mounted a sharply defined spur at that point - just what I expected - and proceeded down towards the circle. But stopped when the terrain ahead had a lot of detail that I didn't see on the map. Could I have drifted down before I crossed the creek, meaning I was now below the control instead of above. Also noticed a real trail to the NW, which seemed close than I thought it should be. Stood still for a while deciding what to do. Finally went to the trail to relocate. Saw a post a little further uphill on the trail, went there to see if it was a junction and it was, so now I knew I had been in the right place when I stopped - darn! (Indeed, the gps track shows I was heading directly for the flag, only 50m to go.) Down the trail to the rocks, cut in from there, and saw the flag (which I was expecting to be on the spur but was more in the reentrant). Lost about 2:15 from the time I came to a stop until the time I left the trail (again 50m from the flag). I was 1:38 behind the leader, so that last bit squandered what could've been a very good leg.

6. Angled SW to the trail, and planned both #6 and #7 while running down the trail. Plan was to go SW down the reentrant leading towards the control, but when I got there it looked like there was too much vegetation in the way, so decided to continue on the trail to the elongated N-S knoll that trail goes over. From there, turned 90 degrees right and went down the steep hillside. Expected the cliff to be on the my left, but it was on my right, and had to fight through some deadfall to get there. Lost about :30.

7. Had planned to go straight (over the knoll), but having just come down it and thus knowing how steep it was, that seemed like a bad idea. So, started to contour around to the S, but there was a lot of junk in the way, so changed my mind again and headed directly up. :30 loss. Crossed the trail, went just N of the rocky ground, saw the two boulders and then the first dot knoll, and then came to a form line knoll, which wasn't what I expected from the map, so stopped for a couple of seconds to look around. Seeing no other possibilities, continued on a few more steps and there was the flag, over the lip of the little hilltop.

8. Hadn't planned this one in advance. Went straight, keeping the creekbed on my left. Came to a quite sizable hole, with an opening out towards the creek. Puzzled because I didn't see anything like this on the map. Later, at home, with a magnifier and a lot of scrutiny, I could see that there was a formline indicating the exact shape I was seeing, but at the time, since I didn't see a flag, I thought maybe I was at the bend in the contour line just N of the circle - the thought being that maybe this little bend was the big gouge I was seeing. So, scrambled along the muddy west side of the gouge, hoping I'd see a small depression ahead, but then I saw the trail ahead. Realized that that gouge must've been the depression I was looking for, so went back, this time on the rocky E side, but still didn't see a flag. Stood there for several seconds, finally saw the flag tucked in between two rocks. Lost about 2:30. Even without that loss, Johanna Karras would've beaten me (and everyone else) by over 40 secs - how'd she do it?

9. W towards the trail. Turn my right ankle on the rocky ground and can hardly put any weight on it. Am I going to have to DNF? Better try to jog it off. After a few steps I can run again; a few more and I hardly felt. Never noticed it again for the rest of the run, and no after effect. Amazing. Anyway, continued on my bearing, up and over the spur, noting the W edge of the clearing and the rocks, see the top of the reentrant and go over the lip and there's the flag. Very good leg after stopping for turning my ankle; surprised I had the fastest split given that I lost at least 10 secs.

10. Had seen early on that this was a long leg, that the obvious trail route was going to result in a monster climb at the end, and that there was an intermittent trail higher on the hillside. After punching 9, quickly checked that higher trail on the map and saw that though it was a bit out of the way to get to it, it would save a ton of climb. So, back the way I came, to where the trail crossed the creek and ran along the trail. Had to walk a little on some of the rises, but kept moving steadily. Looking to come out of the woods on a little uphill with a big knoll to the right and a reentrant beyond, and that's exactly what I saw. Then could see the lower trail ahead, followed that all the way to the nose of the spur, turned down and saw the flag almost right away. Could have saved a little time by angling down instead of waiting to make a right angle, but didn't want to take a chance that I'd wind up too low. Had the fastest split by over a minute.

11. Knew I had to make a 90 degree right, so headed in that direction on a rough bearing, looking for an then spotting the shallow reentrant, and then seeing the bag. A very good leg, and another #1. Johanna Merriss was climbing up as I punched in, but I think she was heading for #10.

12. Simplest route looked like dropping down to the bottom of the reentrant and then taking the intermittent trail. But I didn't want to lose all that elevation, so thought I'd try to contour through the reentrant. But it quickly became apparent that I was going to have to go a long way to get around on the contour, so would up dropping to the creek and then having to deal with the very steep hillside to get back up to the right contour. Lost about :30 - :45 with that route. Trying to run until the hill turned east, but it seemed like a long time and I was still going S. Then young woman, who I'd noticed started Brown 2 mins ahead of me, asked me "Do you know where we are?" At that point, I saw a control marker further up the hill behind her. It looked like it was in a clearing, not a copse (as it was supposed to be), and the hill hadn't turned E yet, so I didn't think that was it, but I did have the sense that I'd already gone for enough, so I thought it might be it. So I asked "That's not it?" She seemed uncertain, so I went and checked, and it wasn't, so I told we hadn't gone far enough yet. So, continued on the contour, and soon as the hill started turning, there was the bag. Lost another :15 - :30, but still had the second fastest split.

13. This was my best leg of the day. Had already planned to run the contour to the reentrant, and then head up, so didn't even look at my map and just took off in that direction. Could see ahead that a trail was crossing the reentrant right about where I was headed, so took that across the creek junction and then left the trail to head up on a rough bearing. Had to walk this so studied the rest of the leg (and the beginning of the next one). As I crossed the trail, could see the top of the tree just N of the next trail, exactly where I wanted to head, so started running even before I got to the crest of the spur. Went W of that tree, across the trail, in between the little copse and the small rock on the spur, nailed it.

14. Without hesitation, bolted down to the bend in the fire road and then up through the gate. Rather than stay on the road, cut across to the tree on the red line and continued in that direction, running pretty well. Aimed off just slightly to be sure I'd know what to do at the bottom of the hill. Saw Evan coming in from the right. Hillside was a bit treacherous to get down, but saw the bag ahead and just a little to the left as I was descending.

15. Through the mandatory gate crossing and across the bridge while I carefully studied the out of bounds markings. Went to the small bridge then down the creek (with rushing water) right to the flag.

16. Continued along the creek to the trail along the river. The trail was pretty small, to make sure that it wasn't unmapped trail, took a couple more steps so I could see the river, then went back to that trail and took it. Past the junction, to the rock on the right, rough compass from there, saw the bag dead ahead from a distance. Surprised my split ranking was only 7 as I'd executed this very well except for the few seconds checking that the trail along the river was correct. But now I see that a better route would have been to leave the control to the NW and get on the paved road. I imagine that's what the people ahead of me must've done.

17. Across the road, through the picnic ground to it's N end, out into the edge of the clearing and could see the back ahead. Done with very little hesitation.

18. Up the rise, across the road, could already see the bag, didn't push it.

Strange run with so many #1's and so many legs flagged as errors on WinSplits, but at least I finished on a positive note.

[Orienteering race]

Theraband and weights only, one set each of the five exercises.

Neck was quite sore soon after.

Earlier, legs didn't feel that great walking up the driveway. Sure hope they're feeling better tomorrow.

[Strength exercises]

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises.

For the record, the routine goes something like this (though I don't know the names of all of these):

5 standing arm stretches (mostly learned from Qi Gong)
3 arm stretches on a foam roller (learned from Pilates)
Walk down the driveway and then up walking backwards
4 standing leg stretches
2 balancing exercises on one leg (just on the ground; bosu is still too hard)
plank
warrior pose
2 stretches while sitting on the ground (learned from yoga)
reverse bridges
crunches (2 sets)
"hundreds" (core exercise from Pilates; I do more like 120)
2 calf stretching exercises against the wall (actually intersperse these with the previous three exercises)
push-ups

Front of house. Feels like a spring day. Nice and easy, reading a sprint map.

639, 609, 552, 231

Last lap in 534 (last two-thirds of that w/out reading the map)

[Easy distance w/map]

Cool down.

Theraband interleaved with core, hips, adductors, bosu balancing, weights. Two sets of everything rather than three.

[Strength exercises]

Front of house. Sunny, upper 40's. Given how I felt on Sunday at the Presidio, namely, that I didn't really have a top gear, thought it was time to do some speed work.

Ran the first 4 laps reading an O-map.

Times in brackets are for recovery jogs.

623, 545, 528, 514 [45], 446 [122], 438 [134], 502

The 5th and 6th laps were faster than my current threshold pace - they were more like (real) intervals. Knew before starting the 6th lap that I wouldn't be able to do a third one at that pace, so intentionally ran the last lap at a manageable pace (probably the correct threshold pace given my current conditioning and ability, plus the fact that I'd run quite hard on the previous two laps), so pleased that it came out as fast as it did.

[Threshold intervals w/map]

Cool down, part 1.

:45 walk
3:17 recovery jog
1:25 walk and stretch

Cool down, part 2, including 3 short loops on Skyline (usually call this 3/4 mi.)

JCCLG. Two sets each (rather than three) of machines, core and weights. Tried bar dips but stopped at three because my left tricep is sore.

[Strength exercises]