Training Log Archive: Ricka

Green on Day Two. Going for "2 day total" medals!.

Today, "Map just made sense!" Wow!

#1. Road to bend; followed ridge to left to trail. Off trial at bend. Didn't see spur at first - 'must be left' - it was.
#2. Bearing to trail - cross it. Read depressions well to knoll. (No hunters' forts mapped on today's map - that's weird.)
#3. Read depressions well, pace-counted, to depression. Look over shoulder, see Tom Svobdny who started 2 minutes behind.
#4. Bearing to big steep climb & knoll - Tom jogs past me on uphill.
#5. Read contours well on way out. Then pace counted and checked off depressions - Tom comes in from left as I punch.
#6. Plan to stay high on right. Didn't see Tom ahead. 2/3 - saw Peggy D low on left. "Following big depression looks better - I know where I am - I'll drop down." Lost Peggy, started hesitating - I was further from circle than thought. "This depression? No. Next? No. Map still made sense and I found high subtle re-entrant. "Sure hope there's a control in next depression. Yes!" Should have stayed to plan! (Lost 1-2 minutes)

#7. Looked ahead - saw maze of trails. "Oh well, I won't pass anyone today." Read contours well, then bearing to trail; hop to next trail, climbed big spur. Very surprised to see Tom just ahead as I climbed spur.
#8. To trail, turned right, suddenly big depression on left, not right. Missed trail junction (why?). 150 meters, then hop to correct trail. Used pace count, trail, and contours, got off at right place. Knoll seemed further from trail than mapped.
#9. Back to trail, run trail, hop trail, run trail - bearing from bend.
#10. Missed trail, but intended to cross it anyway, on bearing to big trail. Junction, turn, junction. Very short left then right - 30 m - oops wrong trail - I took second right not first - hop to correct trail. Trail past knoll, turned right to depression.
#11. Wow - what a maze of trial hopping. Up to and cross trail & right on next trail. At yellow on right, hop left to next trail, run 50 m, hop to next trail, 150 m north on trail, then right to ridge on left. Ridge north to next trail, cross trail, then next trail. Left to junction, north to bend. Almost fooled by 'early' depressions - pressed to big one and down.
#12. Up to trail - seemed further than it should be - saw Gale T - on trail? Yes? Left on trail, looking for severe saddle, not here!?!? Turns out control was depression in depression; map sure looks like depression on hill. From trail bend, 50 m bearing - "I can't miss it" - there it is - faded yellow bag blended nicely. (Lost 1 min)
#13. Up hill - bearing through weeds to GO - hmm, trail to right looks better.
F: Only 15 sec today!

Of 10 on M55, only 3 splits were 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. So I was slower comparatively (vs. 7 splits on Sat) , but clean pays!)

Of 10 on M55: (#1, Ernst, ran a strong Red course)
Surprised by "3rd today"
Shocked by "2nd 2-day total"!!!

C • way to GO 4

Warm-up after long standing to help run Start. Got heart pumping. Had felt heavy in early AM; much better now.

Green Day 2 - Splits

Helped with Start. Then loosened up and warmed up before my late start.

One Day US Champs Green X course. Very nervous due to difficulty of terrain. Goals: plan routes; STAY IN CONTACT WITH MAP; pace count often.
Great morraine terrain with basically no trails. Great course design - kevin doesn't give you a break!

Being Late Start is a bit odd. Fewer people seen - which means less distractions (which can hurt me) but also no one entering and leaving controls. Also, anyone I 'catch' is walking or has made major errors - that can cause brain games.

Start: Before start, I had 2 minutes to study clues - I forgot to. In this terraink, that mattered little. Each 'middle of circle' feature was obvious.

#1: Short trail run to 'get onto map'. With short leg, did not have confidence to plan ahead.
#2: I saw 'trail off-line to left' option which turned out to be very popular. I went straight and don't regret it. I did not choose steep downhill route very well. Aimed for two huge depressions - hit right edge. Aimed to steep ridge, contoured left, aiming for "saddle". Oops, what is this huge depression doing here. I had confidence in map contact to realize "I AM here" and noticed that mapped feature was depression, not knoll, hence no saddle. Turned right to knoll.
#3. Throughout day, I never picked up the 'ridge lines' on tis map. I did use and see "steep uphill or downhill" but never clicked that htis was a often a ridge. So I executed straight route quite well - but it was less safe and slower than ridge run on left. (Checked winsplits - lost 5 minutes here - surprise!)
#4. Short leg - bearing to reentrant in huge depression.
#5. Followed features well for 2/3 of leg. Then poor planning, map reading, and terrain reading as I neared circle. Slowed down. "I know that I'm close." Walked around, climbed, looked over shoulder, "There it is" - right number (Lost less than a minute - felt like more.).
#6. Bearing - short leg did read features well too.
#7. Aimed for long skinny depression, went right so I'd pick up spur pointing towards control. 100 m - passed several depressions - sure hope mine is next - it is.

#8. Caught a couple guys moving in right direction and at my pace (but "remember why they are here"). Smaller features - tough leg. got 75% there, didn't read big knoll on right very effectively. No attack point planned -ooops. As i neared control, saw about 5 people wandering and wondering - i 'joined' them. Turned right, Yes! (lost 1+ minutes).
#9 Right of big depression. Saw knoll coming up. Around to depressionk, yes.
#10. Reading map well now. Checked off minor features well. Lots of small depressions - found mine cleanly.
#11. Perhaps left too fast to get away from other 2 guys. Didn't read and use ridge effectively. Drifted right, climbed ridge, "Where am I?" Found knoll on ridge, next to second knoll - "I got it!" Carefully checked features as I left ridge - all matched! (lost 3 minutes) Straight was better - not sure why I rejected it.
#12. "Last leg - careful - can't make mistake now!" Straight was obvious; went right :(. I KNEW I had to then turn left - saw control to right - I checked it! Dumb! (lost 1.5 minute).

#13. Eschewed trail - straight thru weeds to GO. Then 17 sec to Finish.

M55: 5th of about 12 - about as 'seeded'. 4 minutes out of 3rd. As expected, a 'good run' got me 5th, an excellent run would have been 3rd.

Lessons:
Overall, very pleased - most legs were solid, if hesitant. Lost contact twice (5 & 11), but salvaged both legs.
Need to look for and use ridges better.
Could have pace counted a couple more times - especially through bland contour features.
Winsplit - Of 12 on M55, surprised to see that 7 legs I was 1st (#10), 2nd, or 3rd fastest. So I my pace through woods was stronger than expected.

Green X Day 1 US Champs - Splits

Event: US Individual Champs 2009
 

After 8 hour drive and then frantically making cell phone calls to try to get a phone number I'd left on my desk of 'house care-takers' to open house, I got out for about 75 minutes of map hiking on Model Map with Fran. Verbal descriptions helped me focus on key features for the weekend. I ran no 'real' legs (due to time and to save legs) but I ran often ran ahead 50-150 m to get the feel.

Lessons:
I'm finally getting pretty comfortable with visual estimates of vertical changes - up and down. On moraine terrain, I usually underestimate the vertical.

Find and use saddles - great point features to check off! - I wasn't visualizing size of saddles very well.

"Hunters forts" (triangle of stacked 15 foot or so trees) are usually on high ground - helps in reading up vs. down on map.

Too much recent sitting and driving. 9 machines at Y felt good again.

C • good luck this weekend! 4

Warm-up - ran Clliff Cave trails to start an old Green course near school. Read map - focussing on anticipating the sinkholes coming up on both sides.

Ran 'proposed' Green middle course from A-meet. (Though I designed the courses and set all controls, I never did run these courses.) I started at #1 and finished when I hit the field. Also, though slower, I mostly took-off trail routes when feasible. Leaves were falling, but vegetation still pretty thick - especially honey suckle areas. Felt very good energy wise.

Overall maintained good focus and map contact - but some errors due to vegetation forcing me left or right - low visibility.
Lessons: With technical terrain and vegetaion, features came up slowly. Also, it was easy to let up and not force a pace.

WI: Woods will be much more open. If Cliff Cave had an equal number of hills as sinkholes, it would be much more like WI :). Use pace count frequently. Really focus on checking off features.

Back to parking lot on-trail and off-trail when woods weren't too thick.

BTW: There is now a beautiful large shelter, parking lot, and rest room on river part of CC. 5 mile paved bike trail. More CC land and trail in flood plain to the south - nice developments! Also, two nice benches on concrete pads facing each other on opposite sides of road next to RR tracks????