Training Log Archive: Swampfox

No rain Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. However, the month closed out with rain today (twice for me, where I was), and June this year goes down as unusually rainy, with rain on 26 of 30 days (at least) and snow on 2 days.

O' at East Pelican on an old Daze course, followed by mapping at Diamond Bay.

O' at Diamond Bay, easy pace.

Woo-hoo! 80F today--unbelievable!

Not easy to see--in center of photo, a turkey hen (dark) and a poult (tiny white dot):



Easier to see--moose antlers, now back home:

Basically repeated Sunday's test at Granite Planite, with the difference being that today I went as hard as I could, with extra inspiration from a full fledged summer day. 2 happinesses: my knee was 100% fine, and I ran the course 46 seconds faster than my previous best time, and it's a good check that my current terrain fitness is not so bad.

And: no rain anywhere in sight today, breaking the streak of 24 straight days of rain. Felt dry out, almost like a drought could be setting in.

While I was out doing something to my knee on an O' course a week and a half ago, that's not all I did. Several times while training on course this year with one or more "multi" controls (controls used more than once on a course), I have carelessly gone out of the control on the wrong leg. Therefore I've been designing nearly all my practice courses with loops through one or more controls to try to get that trained out of my system. It would be easy to think that since I designed the courses I was familiar enough with them to be sloppy at these controls in a way that I wouldn't be in a race on a course new to me, but it's not a good way to think. If you are making mistakes in training, there is every reason to think those mistakes will be repeated in races.

So on one of the multi controls I had on the above mentioned courses, I went in and out the first time (correctly!) and noticed nothing other than the control feature. The second time through, however, I noticed something else, just a short distance from the control. No idea how I missed it the first time through, but I did:



Today's task was to make a recovery and claim the find. The regulations vary from state to state, but what it meant here today was meeting a game warden (and his technician) out in the forest and taking him to the site so it could be examined and determined whether the death was fair or foul (poached.) His determination was that it looked like death from natural causes, so the antlers were mine to take.

Maybe it was not something for the squeamish. There were still hundreds (at least) of maggots crawling around on the carcass and an odor that can't really be described. But a nice find at any rate.

After that, headed out to do some mapping, during which I saw and killed one mosquito. I was expecting many. Then I ran at Happy Jack, which is where the "many" apparently had congregated. Standing still for even a few seconds was not a good idea. Even running, I was swatting mosquitoes the whole time.

Definitely summer.

Oh, yeah: as I was meeting up with the game warden, a thunderstorm passed through. Rain 25 out of 26 days now. Still 4 days left this month we could potentially stay dry!

C • Game warden 3

With rain today, June has now featured rain on 24 out of 25 days. Lookout Seattle!

Separately, mosquitoes have been very scarce this year, leaving people to hope that maybe this would be an especially light mosquito season. Up until today. Things are now becoming...much more normal. While biking by the river today, I had gangs of mosquitoes successfully launching numerous kamikaze attacks, with happy mosquitoes festooning my legs. Pedaling harder just seemed to attract more of the leeches of the winds.

C • Rain 3

I noted that 2 Sundays ago my knee wasn't feeling so great after orienteering that day, and realized during the evening it was different from anything I could remember before, with some sense of it being swollen and/or stiff. That had me concerned. I did some research to try to figure out what was going on. I considered bursitis, but the location and symptoms made that seem less likely to me. What I decided was most likely was a tear in the lateral meniscus, but not being a human MRI, I couldn't be sure. Some more reading made me think it was okay to continue running as long as I took it easy (which I was going to do anyway), and that there was no point in heading to a doctor so early. The main things guiding me was that I never really had any pain--let alone bad pain; it was more mild discomfort and some sense of swelling in the evening--and that my knee was stable and never felt like it was going to lock up or anything like that. Plus, while I was actually running, it felt 99.9% fine and probably the only reason I wouldn't have gone with 100% was just because I knew something was going on.

By Friday-Saturday, I was more comfortable with whatever was going on, less worried that it might be something seriously wrong that I was making worse, and it seemed like things were maybe a little better. So on Sunday I decided to risk giving it a test by running at speed through terrain, and seeing how that went. My plan was to run at the easier end of the race pace band, and that if at any point I felt pain or something else of concern, I would stop at once. The choice of a test site was easy: the Green course at Granite Planite was still streamered, and would take less than 30 minutes--which was the longest I wanted to go at a non-easy pace.

I made sure to warm up thoroughly.

The course starts out with a quick downhill stretch to the first control, and partly on a jeep trail, which I figured would be the greatest stress of anywhere on the course (fast running on a steepish downhill on a hard surface), and I think I probably held back a little on that part just out of nervousness. But once I started climbing up the side out of #1 and got into some of the sage, it was more about trying to pick a good line to #2 and trying to ht the control dead on, and that was the last I thought of the knee.

I kept up good speed along the way, but the effort felt comfortable even so. As compared to when we ran the course during our training weekend in early June, the leaves were now out, and in many places grass was lush and now much taller. Plus there were cows!

When I hit the Finish and hit my watch, I was happy with how the test went. There wasn't any hint of any problem with the knee: it was perfectly stable, with no pain or discomfort whatsoever. I did a good warm down and there was no sign of any swelling or discomfort during that, so also good.

What was surprising was that for all that, my time was only one second off the best time I had run before. When I got home and was checking times, I saw I was wrong: my time wasn't one second slower than my best, as I had thought. Actually it was better than my previous best, and by 19 seconds. Completely unexpected.

In the evening I could once again feel like there was some small amount of swelling, but if anything it was less than what I had been feeling earlier in the week.

The next day (Monday) the knee felt fine in the morning and the rest of the day as well, which was enough to satisfy me things were heading the right direction.

Tonight I ran trails after the rains and pushed the pace up a little bit, and once again it felt good.

This is of course a big relief, and whatever it is (not quite ready to say "was") going on, I'm basically not worried anymore, though I will continue to monitor things.

Completely unrelated: I aimed my run at taking a look at the snow field off the Headquarters Trail, and it's still hanging in there. I don't know if it will make it to July, but it might.

While waking up and looking out and seeing snow falling in the morning here in Laramie doesn't normally qualify as a rarity, when it's June 23 it does. The weather man says we will head more back towards summer tomorrow.

Plus, rain for 22 out of the last 23 days is keeping the frogs and ducks very happy. It floats their boats.

O' at Granite Planite

If you your preference is for cooler summer temps, Laramie could be the place to be on this first day of calendar summer. It's *only* 31 degrees below the normal high, and with totally overcast skies with intermittent rain, it seems unlikely the temperature will go markedly higher, at least not without help from a couple of good sized thermonuclear explosions. And with today's rain, it has now rained 20 out of 21 days of June (though I will admit that 2 days ago all the rain I personally experienced was just a few brief drops.)

According to the forecast, next week will offer much drier weather, and even maybe some sun!

Whether it's because of the late winter weather we had and a very cool May and (so far) June, there have been almost no mosquitoes up in the hills so far. Maybe it's just a randomness and one of those years with a low mosquito hatch for whatever reason. But my working guess is that the season is just delayed.

Though for all I know it may have been officially warmer, the high I saw for today was 44F. And, as a bonus, while I was running there were several brief periods with scattered snowflakes in the air. That's some good summer weather.

C • Orienteering in the Tetons 10

A late afternoon storm swept in late in the afternoon, with some very powerful winds arriving in advance and kicking up large amounts of dust. I was out biking but only a few blocks from home as the first rain arrived, and I was able to get inside before getting soaked.

Later still, now in the early evening, I ran trails at Happy Jack, and saw that the storm brought down quite a few beetle kill pines across trails I ran. More work for the chainsaw gang!

Went running at the end of the day and took it easy--same as yesterday, out of concern to not make whatever is going on in my knee worse. Oddly, to me anyway, each of the last three days this knee has felt slightly stiff or with some other sensation that isn't quite right/usual when walking around early in the day (but if I go out for a walk, the longer I walk the normal it feels), and then back home after running at the end of the day. But while either biking or running itself, it has felt 100% fine. It seems like, if anything, it should be the other way around if something seriously bad was going on, but then lots of things with the body seem weird (at least to a layperson.)

Up at Happy Jack, the first of the races of the local summer mountain bike race series was underway. I hadn't known it started today, but with all the trail markings and bikers going by, it was pretty hard for even me to miss. They were lucky that the day's rains had ended just in time. (We've now had rain every day this month except for one, I think--and that's a lot for the arid west!)

I ran out to the end of the Headquarters Trail to the eastern overlook and checked out the snowfield. It's still there, and hanging in pretty strong. For sure it will make it to official summer, and maybe it can last through the rest of June. Depends on how cloudy and cool it stays, one would suppose.

O' course, 7.5 kms, hilly, and wet enough post-rain that I was pretty well soaked going through the forest, in one of the areas subjected to a prescribed burn recently.

More fun and easier running overall now than before, with so much of the ground juniper having been burnt off, but for the most part the juniper didn't burn completely so now there are arrays of partially intact (but lifeless) stalks scattered in the forest. Some parts of the forest were really nice and had low grass starting to sprout up out of pine needles on the ground, while other areas were difficult to force pga fallen beetle kill trees. In drawing the course, I had no idea where it might be good or bad, however, and as it happened I didn't come across any places where it was so bad you couldn't get through or else where you couldn't pretty well see how to round it.

Right knee was somewhat sore by the time I was home. It's a small area of the knee that has been a tiny bit sore or tender off and on for the past few weeks. My guess is that I tweaked something a while back, maybe from doing something as simple as standing up out of a deep crouch, and that it's nothing serious. But you never know, and everyone probably knows at least several people who have had bad problems with their knees over the years. So I never ignore strange sensations or tenderness or soreness when I feel those things in a knee. You do pretty much need them to run!

O' at Remarkable Flats, 11.5 kms, sunny with pleasant temps, and wind out of the west. Ran with a good effort and legs felt as good as they have felt so far this season, with quick recovery even after uphill sections into the wind.

One snow patch still left higher up at Happy Jack (visible from the highway driving home) and the Forest Service was conducting a prescribed burn in timber more or less NW off the edge of The Lights of Cheyenne. Considering the wind was going pretty good, I was surprised they were conducting burn operations today, and whether it was a case that the wind wasn't forecast or whether they wanted a hot burn, I don't know. There were large amounts of very black smoke which I guessed was coming from formidable stands of ground juniper (which is super flammable, almost like vegetative gasoline) in this section of forest, and flames were well visible from the highway.

Intervals, 6 x 5 min.

Started work on the next addition to Diamond Bay. Quite good and detailed terrain with much rock and therefore the mapping will be tough and time demanding.

O' pass at Remarkable Flats, 13 km, 33 controls, many cows, on the cool side for a summer day which made for very pleasant running. Many flowers, too, but today the cows were more special--first day this year I've seen any up in the National Forest.

Okay, the cows weren't *that* special, but it is the Cowboy State after all.

Wild iris were blooming, and they're always special.

Line O', Pitcher Hill. Strictly summer.

Re-ran the Granite Planite Green course (which we ran last Friday) as a fitness test: 23:28. I know it well enough now that there really isn't much navigation involved, except for making sure to take the controls in the right order, and it's not a bad way to test for general fitness off trail since it's enough of a judge of aerobic capacity while being short enough that it can be run as often as I might like without being a real drag on the legs. But it wouldn't be a good way to measure hill fitness.

After three days of some harder running and good training, my legs indicated an easy day would go down well.

Picked up the rest of the Chase controls and enjoyed being out in the forest in the late afternoon--it was quiet and idyllic.

I took a look at a deadhead (mule deer) that Tyler had found; had I found it while I was setting out the controls, I think I would have tried mounting it on a stick right at the control it was near--as a reminder of what can happen to orienteers who don't go straight into the control and become a prey object.

Reflecting back on the weekend and the group up here, it really was a lot of fun. Maybe the perfect amount of low key organization coupled suitably high training intensity. All it needed to qualify for a training camp instead of a training weekend were sleeping bags and flat surfaces (to sleep on.)

Third and final day of training for what a very fun weekend. Now we were out at Pelican Bay (west side), and re-running the Chase course from 2002 (I think that was the year.)

Set controls, let the group go out, and then I followed 9 minutes later. Picked up most of the controls afterwards, with some help from Galen and Frances.

Some people came back claiming to have seen a bear, which seemed ridiculous--I watched very carefully as the maps were being handed out, and none ended up in the paws of a bear. So we convened a bear sighting analysis committee, and the committee reviewed the claims and other pertinent data. In the end, we concluded the sighting was spurious, and more likely what had been seen was only a fast moving, black rootstock (they are often mistaken for bears) or else a bear shaped granite rock, of which there are surprising numbers out in the forest. It's also the case that very fat marmots are sometimes mistaken for aggressive, savage bears, so it could have been a marmot as well.

By the weather and temperature, I judged it qualified as the first day of summer around here. Going up one slope thick with sage and the sun beating on my back, it almost felt hot for a moment or two.

A most excellent weekend of orienteering, and all thrown together more or less at the last moment.

C • Fat marmots 3

Got June underway with training with the group at Diamond Bay, a 10km offering by John Crowther, marked with streamers that were at times devilishly difficult to find.

And, as June got underway, so did the t-storm season, with the first hail hitting the ground shortly before we were to start. But it cleared off in time, and by the time we set off, it was sunshine, so good! However, 70 minutes or so into the thing--or whatever it was--things were changing, and unmistakable rumblings were drawing ever closer. I judged that if I kept up my pace, I could make it back to the finish before any rain might arrive, however the rain was moving better than I was, and it got there first. No matter.

Running by the line of parked cars, I saw Doug was already in his truck and facing me so I smiled and waved, and he waved back. At the exact moment, lightning struck a few hundred feet behind me (according to Doug), and it so startled me that I took an unplanned jump in the air.

A good number of bolts hit in the vicinity, and many folks came back out of the rain with their own varied lightning stories to tell.

The lesson learned is if streamers are being used, they should be long, super easy to detect, and should be the type that storms circle away from to avoid.