Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Sawyers--or at least a sawyer--had been out today up top, beginning the process of hacking through the multitudes of pine trees fallen across the single track. Summer mountain biking could still happen this year, so they gotta get those trails open for the bikes! Doesn't hurt that also opens them up for the runners. ; )

A few were taken care of today; dozens and dozens to go.

Seasonally chilly--it never made it out of the 20s today. Plenty of new snow for running at Happy Jack, with liberal coatings of snow and ice on trees, rocks, fences, power lines--you name it.

Didn't see much in the way of tracks, even though I ran at the tail end of the day. The complete inventory consisted of: 1 set of ski tracks, one set of footprints, 2 sets of snow shoe tracks, some dog tracks, and some fox tracks (yesterday I saw one of the foxes, a fairly un-shy red fox.) Most of the time I was running in snow that was totally untouched--a really beautiful landscape in the late afternoon light. Adding to the experience was a rare absence of any breeze--quite the contrast to yesterday's demon winds!

The best part was coming across any number of snowdrifts, up to about 3' high, none of which had been present yesterday. Great conditions for putting my exceptional 11" (and growing) vertical leap to use!

I will add that even though it didn't snow much today, it did snow some, and that made it 7 days in a row that we had snow. That made up for having almost no precipitation at all for nearly the first three weeks of April.

C • Snow 2

I did a few errands on my bike in the morning, and even though it was in the low 30s, it was pretty comfortable out. But that changed. By mid-afternoon, killer typhoon winds out of the east were whipping the valley into shape, and they were relentless. Up top, it was windy, foggy, and there was freezing drizzle, so that when I finished running up there, my clothes were sheathed in ice--as was the windshield of my truck, which proved to be impossible to remove without getting some heat going on inside the cab to help loosen things up from underneath. So, all in all, a pretty normal April 28th day in Laramie.

Damn. Another 1st round of another NFL Draft has come and gone, and once more I have not been chosen. What is the matter with these people? Is my battle cry not full throated enough??? Are my sinews of steel not metallic enough? Is it that I prefer spinach to steak? Could it be that it's because they don't have NFL uniforms small enough to fit me that they aren't pulling the trigger? Oh, well, there's always next year.

Meanwhile, more snow this morning made if 5 days in a row for snow/graupel. Yeehaw!

And meanwhile meanwhile, there is pretty neat news out: a stamp is going to be released to mark the coming solar eclipse, and it's not going to be just any ordinary type of stamp either. With this stamp, if it's in some cool locale--say, like Wyoming--it will show an eclipsed sun. But if you take the stamp to some hotter-than-hell place like Dallas, TX, the image will change into an image of the moon. And if you then bring it back to Wyoming, maybe to the Plains of Despair, then the image will revert back to the eclipsed sun.

So where is this neat stamp going to be issued? Well, the eclipse is just about going to center line Casper, WY, so that would seem to be a pretty good choice. But that's not what they chose. Instead, it's going to be issued at the Art Museum of the University of Wyoming, which will be nowhere near the path of totality. And it's going to be issued on the Summer Solstice. (There is an obscure link between the solstice and the Art Museum, and so maybe therein lies the explanation.)

If all this news is not enough to knock you over with a feather, then too bad. You are just not the excitable type.

C • It's not hotter-n-hell season yet. 7

Weatherwise, today was a carbon copy of yesterday. Unlike yesterday, however, I was able to get out on my bike, and experience....graupel!

Actually, I got to experience it many times. Every time heavier clouds came over, they filled the air spaces below with graupel.

Given the choice between graupel and ice rain, graupel is mega better. If you're dressed right, it's even pretty fun, and the sound it makes as it bounces off your bike helmet and bike tubing is an added pleasure.

After biking, I changed over, and ran in more graupel up at Happy Jack. Once, for a moment, there was even some sunshine! For now, that will have to suffice. The next four days are looking like more winter. Someone, somewhere, must have been chanting: "Odin". And someone else, somewhere, must have been paying attention.

C • Cadets wanting to escape drill? 3

Happy I did an O' run yesterday, because today turned much chillier, with a good bit of wind and snow coming and going much of the day. Up top, the landscape had turned winter-like with snow plastering the trees, and the wind was shaping snow drifts wherever it could. Ran out to the eastern overlook at Happy Jack, with beautiful views late in the day. Saw a few fresh snow bike tracks, but none of the actual bike beasts.

Did a short run yesterday at something of a faster pace than anything I had done in the past week since hurting my rib(s). It felt better, so I planned to get back out for an O' run today, and see how things felt.

Getting ready, I used wretched ink jet printing technology on some crude material I ran through the printer (maybe printing paper?) and then stuffed the ensuing mess in some kind of yucky poly bag. Ugh. I stared at it. Such obsolete, stone age technology. It was almost embarrassing. But then I thought, hey, it's worked pretty well for 4 decades, it will probably be okay today, too. And of course it was quite fine. : )

And so with perfect weather in the afternoon (overcast with many little passing squalls of light rain/ice), I headed out to run 10 kms at Remarkable Flats. Today the goal *really* was to not fall--ha! I ran at a decent pace, though not race pace, and felt pretty good. I could feel the rib when my breathing was heaviest, but it wasn't bad. I was moving pretty well the whole time, though it's obvious I need more hill work after the winter--both running up and down any bigger hills. I felt a little under powered on the climbs, but the positive was that my recovery once I topped out on the climbs was very quick--so I think my base fitness at this point is decent.

The first squall didn't go through until I was already well warmed up, and it was just some light rain, and passed quickly. The next squall was also light rain, but this time it felt like some bits of ice were mixed in. All the subsequent squalls were ice/sleet and no rain. Despite that, I remained comfortable for the whole run, even with some breeze out there. There was still a fair bit of snow dappling the ground from last Thursday/Friday, but nowhere was it more than a few inches deep. And things weren't dry anymore--there was a nice spongy feel to the ground nearly everywhere.

I was completely by myself the whole time. I didn't see so much as a bird!

Back home, it rained some in the evening, and then switched to snow.

Must be spring because today the Wyoming Football Team had it's spring scrimmage game to end spring camp. In the days leading up to this, the coaching staff had been quite concerned, because around here--perhaps unlike in places such as Gainesville, Austin, Clemson, and Tuscaloosa--it isn't really spring football unless there is enough snow in the stadium for fans to sit on for the scrimmage.

Fortunately, Friday's ample snowfall took care of that concern.

With lots of new, heavy snow up in the hills, I opted to skip running and bike longer instead. The highlight of the ride was undoubtedly a very loud explosion which occurred just as I was biking past the south endzone while the scrimmage was underway. Were overzealous fans setting off fireworks? Had the field crew fired off the cannon used to mark scores? In town ranchers hunting urban coyotes? No. Upon inspection, it just turned out to be the tube in my rear tire blowing up.

While unfortunate, and a temporary interruption of the ride, the silver lining was that the chain needed cleaning anyway, and my chief chain cleaning method is to take off and put back on the rear wheel. Somehow in that process any excess grime and grease on the chain ends up on my hands, socks, shirt, and face--so really it all works out quite well.

Very sunny day, if cool, thanks to a steady, cool breeze out of the south all day long.

Heavy snow began in the early morning hours and continued until after midday. Very high water content. My guess is that Biggins and company, having surveyed the ever mounting California snowpack, have diverted as many storms as possible to the Colorado River Basin, figuring they have more than enough water for now, and that anything else is so surplus that it will do more good to end up in the Colorado River, where it eventually can reach Southern California. Today's snow here must have been one of those storms that missed the intended mark. But we could use it (April had been almost--and very unusually--entirely dry up until now, with barely a trace of measurable rain/snow), so very good! The flowers will be so happy, and, for a few days, the amount of fine materials blowing over to Nebraska will be reduced.

Started to bike a little bit, and almost as soon as I started, it started spitting rain. I wanted to bike, but not bad enough to want to bike in rain--leave that for the golfers, et al.

So transitioned (by which time it wasn't raining anymore) and headed up for the trails at Happy Jack, where almost as soon as I got started, it began snowing--big, heavy spring snowflakes. No worries though--as long as it wasn't raining, I was fine with it. I ended up running for a little over two hours, at a pace every so slightly above yesterday's--in other words, still really easy.

The last few times I've been up at Happy Jack running, I've looked at the forest and thought to wonder how it would look to anyone who ran on the old Happy Jack map when we first used it some years ago. It wasn't a *totally* open forest (nothing close to like TMFKABM, for example), but it was a mostly pretty nice lodgepole forest with some clearings and meadows mixed in.

Now it looks like it has been semi-tornadoed--and there are still way, way more beetle kill trees still standing than the number that have been blown down by the winds. You can still get through it, picking your way through the deadfall and looking ahead, but it would be nightmarish to re-map it now, and in another few years it will be nightmarish, period. Just flat out near impenetrable.

Ran trails at a very easy pace up top. Nice conditions--cool, some wind, mostly sunny. No problem tolerating the rib pain at the very easy pace I was running, but anything faster would have been a lot less fun. And core exercises at the end of the day--well, scratch that, and was just able to do the stretches.

As it looks like I won't be able to do any hard running for at least a bit, this is something of a setback. So it goes though, and I doubt it will take too much time before I can try running harder again.

After some biking around town, back at home I glanced at my rear tire as I was putting the bike away, and realized that if I didn't change it very soon, it would be changing me. I really like Gatorskins for the rear tire, and thought I had a spare, but didn't. So hope to hang on while one on order gets here.

I was planning to do some easy running later, but couldn't quite get out the door, and so ended up riding some more indoors in the evening.

There are three tulip blossoms in my yard (so far.) The rule is that when there are three tulip blossoms in my yard, it is spring and ski season is over. So it's Spring now!

C • Do the deer get a vote? 9

It is rare to find 100% consensus among scientists on many issues, but when it comes to fixing ailments, there is 100% agreement among waffleologists that waffles are the way to go. Who am I to disagree with that assessment? So waffles for breakfast.

Biking today was fine; some easy trail running up top was okay, too, as long as I didn't try to breath too deep. Today the main goal was very definitely: no falls! ; )

Various body parts (right arm, right shoulder, left foot big toe) are a little sore, but everything looks to be survivable, so on to the next adventure.

On the program today was a 12 km course at Remarkable Flats. It was partly cloudy out with some breeze and a temperature that felt cool when the sun was behind clouds and "lagom" when it wasn't. As I was getting ready to leave my truck for the start, I couldn't decide if it would be better to run in a light jacket or not, and then thought I would wear it and just roll up the sleeves if necessary. But after warming up and at the start itself, the sun was out, so I cached the jacket and took off. Right before starting, I joked to myself that the main goal would be to not take any falls.

Sometimes just as you should be careful what you wish for, you should also be careful about your jokes, though. Because on the way to the #10 control, one toe bumped against a bit of granite that was sticking up just the tiniest bit above the ground, and down I went. So much for that goal! But besides a small abrasion on one hand, no harm done.

What I was really trying to do was to get in a good workout running off trail, but of course wanting to do the orienteering right, too. I felt like I was moving pretty well until one last hill near the end, by which time I didn't have the same amount of drive as earlier. Maybe it was really a tougher little hill than I thought it was, or maybe I was just getting tired by then.

Once again, I included a control at Remarkable Boulder, and as I was "punching" there I could look up and across a wide stretch "sump prairie" (see sumpskog) and could spot the feature the final control--an easy finish to the course! And I took off from Remarkable Boulder like a fast vizsla! And then, wham!--I went down again.

This fall was more spectacular. There was a small cloud of dust around me (given our so far very dry spring, many wet features are quite dry now), I had bits of prairie turf in my mouth, and I fell hard enough on my right side to knock the wind out of me. So for a bit I just laid there, getting my breath back, and once I was breathing at a regular rate again, I did an assessment. Wind knocked out of me from big blow to right side, painful big toe on left foot, more abrasion and several small cuts on hands, new knee hole in O' pants, dirt in mouth and....compass? Hey, my compass was okay, so basically I was good to go--yay! I jogged the rest of the course, and figured that was that--pretty good outing, and head home for some dinner.

However, as the evening wore on, it became clearer that I really should have paid more attention to the main goal, because all the indications were that I had either bruised or cracked a rib. A small setback, but I really don't think it is going to keep me from doing much, and I'll just take it easier for a couple of days and see how it goes from there.

C • ribs and pants 3

C • ants and pants 1

We are in an extended stretch of above normal highs and lows. Nice if you're out running or biking or even sunbathing! But maybe not so nice for plants that might be tempted to get started too early; for at least the next 4 weeks, there is potential for it to get quite cold out, especially on a cool day followed by a clear night.

To that point, I noticed up top that aspens were flowering, and maybe I'm not remembering right, but I think this is wayyyy earlier than usual.

I also noticed a few mountain bikers out at Happy Jack. There are still snow banks in places, and I think most folks so far have been driving by Happy Jack and continuing to (the lower) Curt Gowdy State Park instead. And besides the snow remnants, the real issue now are the large numbers of beetle kill trees down across single track leftover from the winter. It will take a while for those to get sawed out, I reckon.

While running, I stopped at three different overlooks and took in the views to the south and east. On a clear day, there are some beautiful views. I have no idea how far away the horizon is to the east and whether or not you can see as far as Nebraska, but to the south probably Longs Peak is the thing furthest away that you can see.

Biked for a little over three hours. That was probably excessive, considering I only needed to go down to the Post Office (15 minutes, round trip). But I just kept....going. Along the way, I gathered up three empty Red Bull cans. If memory serves, Red Bull used to be Jeff Saeger's #1 favorite drink of all time, which seems odd to think about. I think I only ever tried the drink once, but the design of the original can was standout, and still is.

C • Red Bull 3

Already 68F out, so the warmest day of the year so far. It must be broiling down in the warmlands (Denver).

I have begun my preparations for the Scottish 6 Day. I expect my preparations will mostly consist of listening to Mark Knopfler and possibly some older Dire Straits stuff. Though I will devote no less than 14% of my preparation time to visualizing moving efficiently and unerringly (ha!) through bracken in search of a control on an indiscernible (in the bracken) feature.

Somewhat hazy again in the afternoon. However, today it was easy to identify what was going on: wind out of the south and southeast was blowing haze up from the Front Range. It's almost always hazy down there, especially when it's dry. Ran up top at the end of the day; a good bit of snow melted today.

Returned to Remarkable Bay and ran an 11.6 km course late in the day. Legs didn't feel fully fresh, probably at least in part because of biking I had done earlier in the afternoon. The orienteering went well. I had to stop twice to read the map more carefully as I was approaching controls--a consequence of eyes that are not improving with time.

It was quite a nice spring day out--mild and sunny. The area felt pretty dry to me for April, even though I suspect I was probably unconsciously drawing too much upon a comparison to last spring (which was the wettest I've seen here) rather than to an average spring. Even so, only one bay (Are You Experienced? Bay) has standing water in it, and most of the marshy areas in the little drainage valleys headed east were possible to cross without getting your shoes wet. Somehow it just "feels" like we are headed into a dry spell, even though "feel" in this context must be a highly unreliable way of predicting an oncoming drought or very wet period.

By early afternoon, the "partly cloudy" part of the day was completely dominating, and that was that for sun for the rest of the day.

When I went out biking, I checked the temps online, and it was supposedly 55F. So I set out with a short sleeve t-shirt and a very light jacket thinking I might be overdressed. After about 10 minutes, I returned and put on a long sleeved t-shirt instead, and a windbreaker. Even with that, it was a bit on the cool side riding. Some generous breeze and no sun combined for the effect.

Easy running up top on trails after that. Not much snow melt today.

Today had a funny look to it, compared to the reality: it *looked* like it could be a typical day in mid-August, with full sun, and quite a bit of haze in the sky--which usually denotes one or more big fires somewhere far off to the west. So looking outside, you expected it to be warm. And yet, actually it was cool, and normally when it's seasonally cool, the air will be crystal clear (or as clear as it gets these days.)

Maybe there are fires going on down in the southwest, though I haven't seen anything about that in the news.

My legs still felt draggy and sore from Saturday, so I did some easy trail running up top, and let it go at that.

Chilly day for April, just in the 30s, and much chillier than the past week. What was really pushing the chilly feeling, however, was some decent wind gusto that had travel advisories up on the interstate.

I had planned an easy day, which worked well because my legs were a little sore from yesterday. Ran up top on a mix of bare trail and hard, re-frozen snow pack.

After biking around town some, I headed out for the main effort for the day: an 11 km course at Remarkable Flats, which got an extra bump from some pretty decent amount of breeze. I made sure to include a control at Remarkable Boulder. The area was deserted, since the gates to the jeep road remain locked for now. I was easily the flashiest thing around--not because I was moving so fast, but because I had on a blue and yellow top and flo-jo pink tights--with the nearest competition coming from scattered groups of early blooming lavender pasqueflowers. Birds constituted the only wildlife that I saw, including one blue heron.

Today was the opposite of yesterday: another forecast for partly cloudy conditions, which turned out to be wholly cloudy conditions all day long. But still mild out and generally quite pleasant--just on the grayer side of the spectrum.

It was a year ago today that I found myself sitting on the ground after a bike crash, wondering what had happened. Must be about time for a new
misadventure! ; ) Or maybe not--sometimes there's something to be said for keeping it boring.

A forecast of partly cloudy considerably understated what proved to be the nicest spring day we've had so far. It seemed like a great opportunity to get out on the bike and wheel around for a bit longer than I have any other time so far this year.

While out, I stopped by the Forest Service HQs and finally met the new recreational permit guy, and quickly discussed my still vagueish plans to have some kind of O' event here over Labor Day weekend. Probably 4-5 days of a mix of races/training. But I may have to see about procuring some additional supplies of low tech punch cards. Are they even still made? But we're still in pretty darned good shape when it comes to supplies of map cases. : )

Ran at Happy Jack after biking, and saw all the signs that ski grooming for the season has finally cast it in for good. Still plenty of snow in the trees, but skiable snow would be another thing.

C • eclipse-O 4

Fairly low Inferno Index reading when I woke up this morning--just 11F out. Snow the day before and clear skies overnight will do that for you sometimes, though.

Brilliant day out with a shocking amount of sun, and so even though it didn't really qualify for a first O' outing of the year (wasn't even close to the what the protocol calls for--60F, vs. the actual high 30s or whatever it was when I was out), I went ahead and donned O' shoes and O' pants, and went out with a map and thrived in one of the more open sections of Pelican Bay. In the woods there was almost no snow at all, and the only places there were significant amounts were in some of the larger, more steep sided reentrants in the open.

Very fine, and need I mention I saw no badgers? (or cow carcasses, either?)

As per usual for the last three springs now, all the gates off the hardtop roads were locked, and so had to run in a few hundred meters to get to where I wanted to be--oh, the hardship! ; )

Excited to wake up and see a fair bit of snow had fallen on the ground and that it was still snowing. Eagerly made plans to get breakfast together and then spend the rest of the day happily at Yowsa!!!

What I didn't realize was that, very unfortunately, the snow on all the hard surfaces was melting from underneath at a quite rapid rate, such that by the time I got outside to begin Yowsa!!!, there was almost nothing left to do. : (

Oh, well! It's unlikely that we've seen our last snow this spring, so we'll just have to hope for better luck soon.

To make up for the disappointment, I went back inside, fired up OCAD, and drafted in several contour lines worth of detail from surveying last season at Diamond Bay. It's not Yowsa!!!, but it is more very high quality O' terrain.

C • badgers 3

Yesterday I planted 10 extra strength Amsterdam tulip bulbs and today it snowed most of the day; the line connecting these two things is bright and clear. I wish I had known how effective those bulbs are, because I would have held one out and put it in the pocket I usually put a reserve compass in for races. With that bulb, there's no telling how much faster I would run, but a lot faster for sure. (As far as I know, the IOC still hasn't taken a stance on tulip bulbs, and especially not bulbs that are GPS enabled.)

Took in April Fool's Day with another run in the fog up top, this time without any freeze to the fog. Saw absolutely nobody, which proves you don't have to go far from town to be in utter desolation (at least if town = Laramie).

Heard several robins off in the fog somewhere, and then actually saw one flitting by before it disappeared. The first robins this year, and so I suppose spring has really arrived. Didn't feel like it though! : )