Training Log Archive: Swampfox

I headed up to the hills to run in some snow under the Halloween moon. With the combination of total snow cover and a near full moon, it was about half dark at best, despite running long after sunset. Calf continuing to improve? I think so. Running in the snow felt a lot better than running on hard surfaces, presumably because of less jarring and such.

I saw skiers as well as the head groomer in the Tie City parking lot as I was driving by.

It's official: we've had our snowiest October on record for this part of the country. It's also official: I've already finished drafting up everything I surveyed over this past "summer", and now I don't have anything to work on. It's going to be a long, long winter of thumb twiddling. UNLESS...the groomers make it up the hill, and groom the trails. Then I can go skiing! ; )

During the record short summer, most of the mapping effort went into expanding The Toe, which has turned into one bad ass hilly, rocky, turkey laden area. The turkey aspect can not be over-stressed enough. My plan for Happy Jack next season is to work along the base of the eastern wall, heading north, and ending up mapping a sweet little chunk of forest right across the Happy Jack road from Bisbee Hill.

The rest of the mapping effort this year went into expanding Remarkable Flats, and it is worthy of some additional effort next season too. The most likely target would be to fill in the missing divot in the north center part of the map which lends it such a curious shape. Rather than being turkey laden, it is chock full of boulders, some of which are truly massive. But it might prove difficult to resist the temptation to continue working to the SE towards Cheyenne, which is what I did this year. It's all such terrific stuff.

C • re the Toe map 2

A very easy run at the end of the day, out on the North Prairie, to test my leg. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but I thought it would be OK to try it, and just be prepared to stop at once if I felt any pain.

There's a fairly firm lump high up on the inside of my calf that is sore to the touch, but it wasn't a problem running, at least not at the pace I was going. I'm guessing that's the site of whatever it was I injured, and there is some kind of clot in there. If I had a masseuse, he or she would probably zero right in on that area, and then I would probably have to shoot them.

Anyway, my fingers are crossed that things are healing up as they should, and I can go a little longer tomorrow.

It's been a long time since I've gone 5 days without running or doing at least something else (skiing, biking) outside. I think I was out for 5 days when I ran the Night Champs in 2007, and within a little bit after finishing decided that not only did I not feel so great, I had a fever. And before that? It probably goes back to sometime in March 1998, when I was out for about 2 weeks with strep throat that my doctor tried 3 different antibiotics on before finding something that worked.

The valley was totally white with snow, and the views were lovely, with even a little bit of sunset. That was the first glimmer of sun we've had since I got back. Looking off to the vast prairies to the NW, you could tell the interstate was still shut, making it the 3rd day in a row it's been down. Classic SE Wyoming highway conditions!

The massive snowstorm continued all day long, and it's still pretty much all blizzard, all the time even as evening approaches. There are hundreds of semi-rigs scattered all over town wherever they can find space to park, and the parking lot at Walmart literally looks like some giant Fed-Ex trucking facility.

It would be great for skiing, except that there's been no chance for the groomers to get up to the trails and start grooming for the season.

Basically town looks like something straight out of Dr. Zhivago. There's no way all this snow is going to melt until sometime in 2010, maybe by July or August or so.

C • Hope you got all of your bu... 3

More Yowsa!!! was indicated, so I performed my duties in a professional manner right at dusk. It was 16F with winds estimated at 43 mph out of the north which, to me, felt somewhat chilly.

Lots of Yowsa!, and since the storm isn't done yet, there will no doubt be a chance to re-Yowsa!

According to the news, this October has already been the 3rd snowiest ever in Cheyenne (Laramie would be similar; we don't usually get the same kind of in-depth weather reporting as far as records go, however), will surely be the second snowiest before this storm is done, and could end up as the snowiest ever.

Naturally the interstate is closed, and has been most of the day.

Took a map and walked several controls, and then walked to the places where I made my map reading mistakes yesterday, and saw exactly what I had done. Each time all the information I needed to do the right thing was in easy visibility from the point where I messed up; all I needed to have done was look a little bit carefully at what was going on. Too bad.

Sometimes mistakes--usually, in fact--don't cost very much in time. For instance, the last time I raced prior to coming out to Minn/WI was in Idaho, where 1 mistake over 2 days cost roughly 1 minute.

But you can't know that in advance, and sometimes they really cost a lot. Today I had 4 mistakes, and dropped a whole bunch of time on each of them.

2 mistakes stemmed from lapses concentration that led me to start following the wrong line where the course crossed on itself, and went to 15 instead of 11--and then going to 11!--and taking controls 14, 13, & 12 in that fine order before taking them in the more "traditional" manner. A little bit shocking to be standing at 12 after punching and realize I was about to head back to 11 once again. ; )

It could be my concentration wasn't what it should have been then because by then I had already completely eliminated any chance for a good race, but I don't think that's what happened. My attitude was still good and I think I just goofed up. At any rate, I don't plan to train on how to follow the line and take the controls in the right order. In spite of this recent contrary evidence, I'm pretty sure I'll be taking the controls in the right order again in future events.

My other 2 mistakes each were rushing the map reading at critical moments, and not quite getting the picture right. If you don't get the picture quite right back home, it hardly ever costs anything. Here it did, and like many others on this day, I was off into voodoo land for a good bit of time, but twice.

I'm writing this not because I think it's of any general interest, but in hopes of reinforcing some lessons re-learned! Orienteering can be such a humbling sport.

The capper on the day was realizing while I was finishing up that my right calf wasn't feeling right. Within a few minutes of finishing, it was very sore, and when I looked at it back at the motel, it was a little swollen and discolored--must have torn something in there--and it was clear I wouldn't be able to go out on Sunday. A double bummer because the terrain and forest were so nice, and it would have been great to have gone back out and had a clean race after what I did today. So it can go, however.

C • So how's the calf? Sounds l... 2

Blue Day 1 US Champs - Splits

US Champs model event, Kettle Moraine, WI.

Quick run out in the woods at Telemark before shoving off for new parts.

Ran at a map at Tamarack Nature Center, sticking mostly to trails, and checking most, but not all of the trim controls set out there. Thus, this qualifies as true trail orienteering (akin to mountain bike orienteering and ski orienteering) and had nothing to do with map puzzle gaming. It wasn't cold, but neither was it warm, thus it was somewhat surprising that my most "at one with nature" moment involved a very large, fat snake in the middle of one of the trails. I don't know what it was, and know only that it wasn't a snow snake. I wouldn't have guessed that Minnesota had much in the way of massive snakes, but then who knew about the secret trash talkin side of certain orienteers that has been recently revealed?

C • Tamarack and snakes 3

My legs were very sore, and after jogging just a tiny bit, I decided it was going to be a rest day, and walked for an hour instead.

Minnegoat, Camp Ripley, MN. I warmed up for about 30 minutes, and got to try out my legs on the flat dirt road, in the woods, going up and going down, hopping a little, and so on, and while my legs were pretty sore from all the cramping yesterday, they seemed like they were going to be basically OK to go, which proved to be the case. While there were times during the race where they felt like the cramps were going to return, it never happened beyond getting those first warning twitches.

The race itself was 100% stellar! For those who have never been to Camp Ripley--which is probably a lot of folks now, since between this Minnegoat and the VWC, the map has only been used one other time (according to what I was told)--it's an incredible area. It's an intricately detailed glacial sand area with almost no stone, with relatively few trails, and, beyond some water features (marshes and ponds), it's nearly 100% contour reading, with lots and lots of little ups and downs. The map was essentially perfect--really, really well done--and the forest is highly runnable, with very good visibility, with the only thing limiting running speed being the usual amounts of deadfall you'd expect in a forest, and then one's ability to keep up with the navigation. Quite an orienteering treat, to say the least, and right up with any of the very finest areas I've ever been to in America.

I got off to a slow start and had some difficulty reading the map as my eyes/contacts were watering up some from the chill. Other folks were doing much better than I was for the first 3 controls, and on the third control I missed entirely, and was a set of features off to one side. But still close enough to be able to look over and spot the control on top of the knoll it was on, as well as the tail end of the lead group leaving the area.

My eyes started clearing up along the way to #4, and I was back up near everyone at the control itself, and somewhere along the way to the next 2 controls, I stopped being aware of other folks around me except for one other fellow who I didn't recognize, who was a little ahead of me. He looked like he was running well and handling the navigation fine. On the way to #7, and as were were getting close to the control, he went one way near a little knoll, and I went another, and found the control directly. I doglegged into and out of #8, and somewhere well outside of the control circle I saw this other guy on the way in, which turned out to be the last time I saw anyone.

I elected to skip #18, not because it looked like so great a skip but mostly because nothing else looked any better, and with my legs doing OK but not great, I figured I might as well do what I could to keep a gap between me and the pursuit. In retrospect, to me #1 looked to be a good skip (but who is going to see that and choose to skip that early? very tough to both see in time to act on it, and to decide on as well because then you're all in) and also #9; at least a few people liked #25 best and chose that.

Other than mucking my way out of #22 and coming off line, with a subsequent need to relocate (always nice to have some helpful marshes!), the navigation went pretty well the rest of the way.

What a terrific area! And the race was both so much fun as well as looking to be a great lead-in to the US Champs terrain next weekend. I also enjoyed meeting some of the other MNOCers I didn't know. It looks like they have a good sized, friendly, sociable core group and that they have a lot of fun together.

C • splits 1

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would ever be in any danger of doing a score O' under the subjugation of Western Mass rules, but by complete accident I found myself on an endless dirt road (truly one of those "road goes on forever" type situations) in the middle of nowhere, and the freakiest thing happened: I stumbled onto an O' event being put on by, of all people, the good folks of MNOC! Adding to my good luck, I got there just before they were going to close down registration. The final, unbelievable good luck topper was that they even had Mountain Dews waiting for anyone who could find at least one control (all Meet Directors everywhere, please take note and learn from this fine example!) Well, I may be somewhat limited in both ability, capability, and competence, but I was pretty sure I could find at least one control, and I did! So I came back and proudly claimed my prize.

Pride goeth before the fall, because as I was reaching for a can, I was told the prize would have to wait, and that first I would have to go back out and help pick up controls. What taskmasters! But you do what you gotta do. I made a mental note note for myself for any possible future Laramie Daze, and I am thinking that, going forward, control pick up is about to get a whole lot easier! ; )

True to form, my legs went into fine apres' travel cramp mode even as I was running to the start, before I had taken so much as a single step in the woods. By the end of the day, my legs were really sore, and really stiff. I've come to fully expect that by now though, and that's why I came out to the North Country early. Well, that and all the North Country cowgirls, of course.

Owen Baird kept on trying to tell everyone a story about how the area was thronged with wild horses. Naturally that perked my cowboy ears, and while I'm sure Owen knew what he was talking about, I have to say I never saw a horse the whole time, wild or otherwise.

87 minutes in Valentine NWR and didn't see a single other person or vehicle from start to finish. That's desolate. Lots of prairie, quite a few windmills (the old fashioned sort used to draw up water), lots and lots of sand, and even more sand, and not so much in the way of trees.

Driving up there on 83--which is not exactly a well traveled highway--I kept on getting passed by vehicle after vehicle form Colorado. I almost thought to myself "wtf", but I restrained myself, because I was sticking to gentlemanly thoughts today, such as cowgirls, post-race pizza, and tunes that my ear likes.

I finally figured it out.

Tomorrow is the opening day for pheasant in SD, and the state goes all out to promote it (they really must detest pheasants there) and it's apparently the one big thing that happens in the state each year. Just from what I saw on that one road, they must be hugely successful in their promotion.

I thought I might see a sandhill crane (since the place is pretty well made to order for them) or an eagle, but I sure didn't.

Beautiful day in the Laramie Valley--sunny, scattered white clouds blowing across the sky, and snow falling over (where else?) the Snowies. Ran out on the North Prairie. So fine!

Not looking like today is going to be a sun-rich type of day...

C • news 13

Windy? You betcha. It felt like a river of wind, moving west to east. You know what they say: "Wind makes the grass grow." Ah--fond memories of bayonet training! I was orienteering out at Twin Boulders, on a course that crossed over itself. There was still some snow on the ground around the crossing point, and, while on the second time through that area, I saw moose tracks plain as day that hadn't been there just a few minutes earlier, the first time I was through there.

Sounds like a moose incident to me!

All the wind blew out the fog over the prairie that had been hiding Cheyenne for the past 4 days.

Add 30 degrees to Saturday's temps, mix in lots of sun, and--poof!--most of the snow in the valley is already gone. Whew! I guess the next Ice Age isn't starting quite yet. At least not today.

My debauchery for this non-Autumnal day consisted of running in 10" of new snow along various of the eastern trails at Happy Jack. Footprints were ahead of me along stretches of yesterday's Silent Trails race course, which unfortunately had to be canceled.

Looking out to the east, it was possible to see that everything in the prairie was completely buried by dense fog banks, which came almost to the edge of the National Forest. It looked really cool, like something you could only imagine if you were extremely jacked up on Mountain Dew, which I wasn't. Therefore I knew what I was seeing wasn't imaginary.

I saw one giant bull elk trotting across the HQs Trail eastern trailhead parking lot right as dark was starting to settle in. He could have earned a favored spot in most any Cabelas.

Ran trails in new snow from home; pretty chilly for October! Somewhat oddly, at the top of the loop I could hear a large dog barking off in the distance, higher up in the hills, yet I couldn't discern any light or campfire--which I wouldn't have expected to see anyhow, given where I was and given the weather, because who would have been camped out in weather like that? The only thing I could come up with was the thought that maybe a sheep herd was up there, but I don't know--I thought the sheep were already down.

Great day for Yowsa!!!, based largely on the fact that there was a definite need for Yowsa!!! to be done.

Beautiful out, but it won't last (even another day) so I hopped on my bike and headed out to the airport, where some brand new streets were being paved today.

After mapping at Happy Jack. The day was nice enough that I could have mapped much longer, if only the daylight had lasted longer too. Soon it will be time for (mapping) hibernation!

Two more wind farms have just gone online on the *other* side of the county. But on *this* side of the county...you can't tell at all.

Out at Twin Boulders in the late afternoon. Want to make the O' more difficult? Try some navigation into the sun when it's sitting low in the sky, and headed for the horizon. You're almost better off running backwards, and reading things in reverse--looking behind rather than looking ahead. Pretty good wind today, so that's 5 days out of the last 6 with decent or better (mostly better!) winds. Mercy!

I think I'm feeling better already. I bruise easily but heal fast, metaphorically speaking.

The chocolate helped a lot.

Mix of trail and terrain, inspecting a chunk of ground for possible future basemapping (a really cool, unique area that is pretty extreme in some respects.) Of course, without the big, big wind and occasional snow squall, the run would have been much less interesting. It's been windy for 4 of the past 5 days, and it's a little scary when you consider it's not even true winter yet, and so the winds are just barely starting to get unlimbered.

I did not get my feet wet, I did not see any animals, I did find one hunter's arrow.

Looped around the golf course in the morning. There were almost no moose perched on the hogback that rims the eastern edge of the golf course.

warmup/warmdown.

Killer Bee Test Loop, mass start, if a rather small mass start (just me and Jordan.) We were lucky to catch a break with the wind, since there was only a little wind out of the west, compared with the two prior days of big time howlin' winds. The mass start provided some extra incentive and I pushed along the best I could, and ended up running the best time I've run this year: 55:50.

By comparison, the first time I ever ran it was during the "A" day there, as part of the 1000 Day in 1998. With controls and pin punches, I ran it in 55:15. Clear evidence of being on the wrong side of the Age Performance Curve! But still not so, so terrible. That will have to wait for next year. ; )

Some light jogging at Plutonic Pleasures after mapping. I finished off the piece of basemap I had on the mapboard, and that meant, in turn, I finished off another entire mile section, the 33rd entire section of land mapped up at our maps east of Laramie (there are also many partially mapped sections!)

Twin Boulders, setting course.

Training course on part of the old Plutonic Pleasures map combined with part of the north addition to Plutonic. The training would have been good under any circumstance, but the long awaited return of some true winter winds added loft to the exercise. The sign on the highway said "gusts 50+ mph", which was a sly attempt to play down the true wind conditions higher up, which of course were a good bit more lively than that.

Lots of forest running, not so much prairie running. When the wind comes calling when the leaves are falling, you respect the wind if you have even one brain cell left.

At one point I needed to empty a shoe, and I noticed something that I hadn't felt in quite a while: stiff shoelaces! Which could mean only one thing: freezing temps, later confirmed by frost in the hummocks of some of the marshes.

The best part of the run was even better than the wind though: spotting the back half of the shaft of an arrow, sticking out of a gut pile, with the gut pile being at the almost exact spot I had chose for the start of the run-in for the course.

All the hallmarks of training the way it should be, Wyoming style. There were even a few snow pellets that blasted by at the speed of REO Speedwagon. So fine!