Training Log Archive: JanetT

Western States A meet sprint at Donner Memorial State Park in Truckee, just down the road from the motel. 1:5000, 2.5m contours. SL = 1.5 km

Fast, mostly flat open park with lots of boulders of various sizes. The ones used for controls (6 on the Brown/Orange course) were all 2m high or larger. A lot of: point the compass and run. Took a little bit to get into the map, missing #1 off to the right (it was behind a form-line hill! from the direction I approached), and then also to the right headed to #5 which was along a trail. The leg was about 200m through the woods, but I must have gotten pushed a bit by the vegetation and hit the trail maybe 50 or so m north of where I intended. Perhaps a total of 30-40 sec on the course. Happy with my time in any case (and any time it's close to 10 m/k on a sprint). I think I ended up 7th overall on the course, first female.

Registration/download was not far from the Donner Memorial. There's a bronze statue atop a 22'-tall pedestal, depicting the depth of the snow at that spot during the winter the Donner party was stranded there. Wow.

Scramble results on the BAOC website

Sprint results

No intentions of racing this, with two A meet days still to come. There were 4 loops, so I decided to do the two shortest. Each loop seemed to have a theme in that all the controls were the same or similar features; I did the "tree" loop and the "knoll/hill"loop. :-) (The others were the "boulder" loop and the "man-made object + a boulder" loop.) Jogged a few times but not at all in the woods. Trashy woods getting to #9 with a lot of downed tree trunks not depicted on the map; the "ride" was NOT the best way to attack it.

EDIT: The Motala took place at Burton Creek, scene of the A-meet in 2000 where I "destroyed" my left ankle (hurt it badly enough that it hurt to walk on for the subsequent 2 weeks plus; I spent a lot of time with it iced and elevated and didn't restart any training until at least 2 weeks after). The two loops I completed didn't take me quite onto the same trail where I tripped and fell twice back then (near the end of the course on day 1 of 2 and needless to say I didn't start on day 2), though the start and common control were not far from there.

Brown/Orange Sprint - Splits

Event: Sierra Summerfest
 

Spooner Scramble at Spooner Lake. Ten of the points were set in the relatively flat area around the lake; the others required climbing, sometimes steep ups. Twenty checkpoint locations and 340 possible points; I got 150. Didn't necessarily choose the best routes to 111 and 102, but maybe they were more fun--yeah, that's my story. :-)

Route: 101-112-100-106-105-110-111-104-103-102-109

In the morning we went to the beach at Sand Harbor on Lake Tahoe. Water Temp was listed at 68F but it may have been a degree or two warmer. I swam out to the buoy/marker placed to keep boats away from the swimmers. Gorgeous clear water. T-showers threatened and there was some thunder once we were at Spooner Lake, but there wasn't much in the way of showers.

In CA, at Mt Diablo, on the nature trail. Good views in most directions. Noted that the fog that started the day over the city remained all day--we could only see part of the north tower of the GGB.

We encountered several CA experiences, the most notable being sitting in traffic (traveling at the wrong time of day). We also had at least two detours due to closed roads, one of which was caused by someone hitting a power pole (we learned later), and the trucks were just responding as we approached the park road (south gate). So we had to go all the way around to the north gate entrance. That of course delayed our leaving (via Rock City and the south gate; we naively figured the earlier hang up would have been cleared up, but we ended up having to U turn and go 4 miles around. Then freeways at 4:30 ... Anyway, we finally got to Truckee after 10 pm.

Other CA experiences so far:
. Eating at In and Out Burgers. Verdict: Five Guys is much better.
. Saw some spilled produce at an intersection in So. SF which turned out to be avocados :-) How Californian can you get?

With stepping and aerobics plus strength (aka, a typical class). Small class, but not the smallest I've seen.

Local walk, warm day, but not as humid as it's been, and some overcast so not all sun. Nice.

Event: Ward Pound Ridge
 

Brown course on newly digitized map of WPR, 4.2 km SL. Stinking' hot (mid 80's and 70+ dew point), and I haven't been running in the heat, so I walked most of the time with a few jogs on trails. Woods were generally wide open where the Brown course went, and I'd love to re-do this under better weather conditions. Lost track of trail junctions on the way to 4 and relocated from an obvious jct well beyond where I should have turned off. Probably lost at least 6 not 4 minutes or so there because I wasn't hurrying (will check track and estimate the idiocy once I download FR). Sweat stung my eyes when I was done and stopped moving, despite the shade. Bleah.

Thanks to Craig W and Geoff C, and Jeff O who handled registration (and loaned me a corner of his handkerchief to blot my eyes). :-)

Added FR track. Pretty sure the climb AP calculated (224m) is bogus. Will count contours....-- yeah, closer to 125 m.

Brown - Splits