Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Light snow overnight, deep enough to take tracks (and reveal that an antelope crossed over my driveway early this morning), but not deep enough for much else.

After doing some easy running at Happy Jack, I came home to find the updated Bottom 25 rankings.

As expected, UConn is back in there, battling for a ranking, and no doubt grateful to Missouri for making its reappearance in the rankings possible.

Somewhat surprising was to see that UMass's double overtime victory didn't kick them out of the Bottom 25. But they better not win again this week, or it won't be pretty.

Kansas lost and yet still dropped two spots. But with the game against Baylor this week, it's almost immaterial. Kansas has been here before, and knows how it should be played. Can the same be said about Baylor? Still, no matter who loses and how much they lose by, it's going to be hard to displace San Jose St, UTEP, and Georgia Southern.

O' pass at Rattlesnake Hill, 7.4 kms, clear and cold with 1/4" new snow on the ground (just enough snow for the tiny chill ants to hide underneath, and then leap out unleashing their fierce chill attacks.)

Other than the ants, it was pretty pleasant out even though the sun was rather wan by 3 o'clock. There being only the merest trace of a breeze no doubt helped the pleasant vibe along.

At one point while I was running along an open spur, I glanced off to one side at the creek bottom below, and I saw what I believe is the largest, longest beaver dam I've ever seen before. It's so large it must take a few dozen or so beavers just to keep the thing adequately chinked up with mud. But you know how these things typically go--sooner or later someone will install a boat launch, and the jet skiers will take over the water in no time flat. But for the time being--and today, at least--it was a quite peaceful setting.

Have figured out where I want to course set for the days I will be responsible for at next year's Rocky Mountain O' Festival:

Aug 29 - Lights of Cheyenne (been quite a while since we've used any part of this map), mass start race

Aug 30 - Rattlesnake Hill, One Cowboy Relay (I am thinking of sending the final loop out on a piece of adjoining map that has been surveyed for several years now, but never used.)

Aug 31 - Granite Planite, planned/proposed NRE on what will be a brand new map of virgin terrain, and which I think will prove to be an ultra-cool area. But maybe unreadable because of overwhelming amount of detail, so therefore it will be completely up to date as far as current mapping norms elsewhere go.

Intervals, dirt roads, cooling air arriving late after 60s in the middle part of the day--light jacket and a knit cap were just the ticket in the setting sun.

Ran trails at Happy Jack, mix of snow, mud, and dry trail. Pretty out, as what had been an overcast day cleared off by the latter part of the afternoon. I saw exactly no one for the entire time I was out--you don't have to (often) travel far from town to find solitude, for those who wish that.

It's been a tough week for socks--two more socks bit the dust today.

Came back home and perused football scores; quite an interesting day (and it wasn't even done yet) for topsy-turvy results, which are always more fun when the predictable comes through. Who would have guessed that UMass would come out on top of 5-2 Appalachian State in double overtime? Despite their 0-6 start, UMass clearly doesn't have what it takes when it comes to the Bottom 25.

But UConn just might. After getting drubbed by Missouri, they are probably headed back into the Bottom 25 (and Missouri headed out.)

Even Kansas showed flashes of unpredictability. Yes, they lost, but the game was closer than most would have expected, And 418 yards through the air? That must have left Jayhawk fans wondering what in the world the football team could be thinking. You could win games that way.

O' pass at Pelican Bay, 12.4 kms, some breeze, overcast (all day long), temps right around freezing. At the start, I was unsure if I should wear some light wool gloves or not; in the end I did, and was glad I did so. Ran out of light before I ran out of controls and the best I could do was run to the vicinity of the next last control--seeing any smaller detail was impossible by that point. Light faded on me 20-25 minutes than I had estimated, due to thick cloud cover to the west.

Wore a hole through one sock during the day and both socks I wore for this run are showing signs of severe wear and are nearing the end of their useful life. Economists use all kinds of measurements to gauge the health of the economy, but I have found the single measure with the best overall correlation to the strength of the economy is the amount of socks worn out by runners each year. There is no escaping the vital, bedrock importance of socks--just try doing a 24 hour nav race sockless and you will see what I mean. I felt good today seeing how much my running is helping (or will be, when I purchase more socks to replace those worn out today) the economy move forward. Runners move the world!

Okay, maybe they don't move the world much, but they certainly move around on the world.

C • sockless 5

It's going to be one of those days where the high for the day was reached just after midnight. Yee-haw!

Perusing this week's Bottom 25 rankings, UConn has made a departure. But with their next game against #23 Missouri, there is an opportunity to swap places and get right back in the mix. I know who Charlie will be rooting for.

The most stunning development of the week was the UMass plunge from #6 to #19. Looking over their stats from last weekend's game, and it looks like they kinda maybe know how to spell "offense", and as any overdeveloped hulk in pads and a helmet will tell you, every journey begins with a single step, and that's the first step in moving you well beyond the boundary of Bottom 25 consideration.

Not to worry too much, however. I reckon every football team has its share of players who can't spell "spell". Maybe this was just a one time glitch and UMass will get it back together this week.

In contrast, look at what KU did. Veteran move by a veteran group of players and staff who have been there and know what it takes. It took them longer than most would have guessed (7 games), and there was that early stumble, but now they are in position to fight for the Bottom 25 championship. Some people might think Baylor is standing in their way to another 1 win season, and, who knows, maybe they're right, but I think Baylor is doomed to win at least one game, and I think I know where that win is going to happen.... (hint: it's not going to be in Fort Worth)

I don't know if it's realistic for 4 win teams like Wyoming to think they have a chance to nudge their way into the Bottom 25. But I suppose they can hope, and any future wins got that much harder with the loss of another starter from an already thin defensive line. Most of the teams remaining on Wyoming's schedule can run like gazelles, and that will test the defense mightily.

Ran two hours in the snow on snow trails at Happy Jack. Though it was very light snow (all day long) and the snow was rarely even an inch deep, so if I had written I had run for two hours on trails at Happy Jack, it would have been almost the same conditions.

After yesterday, today's temps were, hmmm, refreshing, we shall say! Not the biggest 24 hour temperature change I've experienced here, but still a nice plummet.

O' pass at Superfly Marsh, 7.4 kms, quite a few controls (but can't remember the exact number offhand; guess my memory isn't near as good as Trump's, who perfectly remembers every detail about everything and way better than anyone else), one stream crossing but kept my feet dry anyway.

Beautiful out, and quite warm for late October--I think the high in Laramie was 69F, which was amazingly nice for biking in a t-shirt and shorts. Won't be many more days like this this year. Probably there won't be *anymore*.

Maybe I should have made it bike day only, because the wind was really revved up by mid-afternoon. I would say the wind distance ratio was about 5:1. That is, if you were pedaling due west straight into the wind, and it took you 2 1/2 hours to get to the airport, then you get back to your starting point in 1/2 hour. It was pretty windy.

It was fun getting back out on Superfly; I hadn't run there in a while. On one control, a small rocky dot knoll, as I was leaving I noted the dot knoll was the high point of a much larger knoll in an area of open prairie, and when I glanced at the map, I realized the larger knoll was entirely missing. Ooops! I figured it was something that got missed in the the drafting. But, nope, when I checked both the base and also the field survey, the missing contour line was missing there as well. There will never be a perfect map--though this miss will be easy to fix.

C • Trump 4

As an additional note, during the day I could feel my upper left leg a little bit while just moving around, walking, etc, so I was wondering if I could actually do a quality O' session, but enough, while running I never felt it once. Weird, but I will take it.

Mix of biking and running to take full advantage of some nice wind. It looks like the wind is already in good form as we inch/lurch towards winter.

Something is strained in my upper left leg, so it was strictly easy running. I think it is just one of those annoying things that sometimes happens when you're running along just like always, nothing special, and all of a sudden a guitar string breaks, interrupting the show. Except here there was no show, and no guitar string, but some bit of muscle instead.

After testing myself on the bike in the winds for a while (never got blown over, but I will concede the wind was more than holding its own), I switched plans for running and took the "easy way" and ran trails at Happy Jack, where the trees afford some protection from the wind. Of course, the trees offer no protection from the trees, and I noted several freshly downed trees across trails. It's that time of year!

Finished up the running week with some trail running at Happy Jack; some newly fallen trees had been chainsawed and moved out of the way, replaced by several newly fallen (today or yesterday) trees. Plenty of wind this weekend, so no surprise there.

Interesting to see how the trails varied from fine and dry, to fine and good and muddy, to fine and covered in snow. I think it's freezing every night up top, or just about, so the next good snowstorm should cover up all but the most sun exposed spots in the forest for good (for the season.)

O' at Pelican Bay, 9 kms, several moose. Successfully did enough damage to the t-shirt I was wearing so that I can remove it from circulation and feel good about it, too.

Another very nice fall day, in advance of a "change in climate" forewarned for tomorrow.

O' pass on the Lights of Cheyenne map, 9.4 kms, 20 controls, mostly open prairie with very good runnability w/ almost no stretches of leg sucking, wet marsh.

Planning has now begun for a 2018 Rocky Mountain O' Festival, with 6 days of racing ending on September 3, and it looks like 4 of those days are likely to end up being "A" days (or whatever it is they are to be called now.)

I am going to set 2 non "A" days along with 1 "A" day, and really hadn't thought where to put the non "A" days. However, I enjoyed today's course so much, and it has been so long since we last used this map for anything that I think this could fill the bill for one of those non "A" days, with maybe a tweak or two.

Another beautiful day, sunny with just a few high clouds, and midday temps in the upper 60s. About as nice as could be!

C • "A" 8

Another super fine day out. Did some more mapping at Granite Planet, and then ran a short O' course--5.4 kms, some snow, 2 moose, and one animal that could have been a mountain lion, a coyote, or a bobcat. The raw odds would favor a coyote, but the color and texture of what I could make out of the fur and the lack of any tail that I could see make me lean towards bobcat. At any rate, it definitely wasn't Billy Gibbons or his beard. Also ran into a small herd of mule deer that just didn't seem that concerned, despite it being hunting season.

But of course it being Tuesday, the highlight of the day was the release of the updated Bottom 25.

I was very surprised to glance through the list quickly and not spot the Denver Broncos, I mean, I realize the rankings are just for college teams, but last Sunday the Broncos really, really, really stunk. How could the same team that pounded Dallas just a few weeks ago lose so completely to an utterly depleted, win-less Giants team consisting of Eli Manning and a motley corps of injured invalids and a few disoriented rookie newbies? The only plausible answer is the alien pod people must have sucked out all the competitive juices from the Broncos roster and replaced them with denatured celery spray or something. Mercy. When the wind is blowing https://www.attackpoint.org/up from the south, you can still catch a hint of the stench all the way up here. When the Broncos play Kansas City, Denver fans better have those solar eclipse glasses handy because they're going to need them to avoid seeing the carnage.

What caught my eye this week were mainly three things:

1) UConn did not impress. Another week like this one, and they'll be out of the rankings.

2) But Kansas did. They may have gotten off to a slow start this season, but this week they showed veteran prowess. They know where they want to go, and they know how to get it done. Baylor better watch out!

3) Massachusetts is headed in the wrong direction, and they better figure out quick how they can actually play some of the games they have scheduled, and lose them.

In closing, hats off in honor UTEP for being the first to 0-7 this year!

C • KU Football 4

Quite a nice fall day. Mapped a little, picked up a tiny amount of trash, and then did some pleasure running. All I saw were blue skies.

C • All I saw were blue skies 2

Intervals not run yesterday were run today, under beautiful conditions. Not a cloud in the sky from sunup to sundown, and all the wind could muster was a light breeze. If every day here was like today, then the population would be x10. But not much danger of that!

On one of my rests, a hunter drove up and we talked briefly. I asked him what he was after, and he said elk. I had seen two nice mule deer bucks in that area 20 minutes earlier, and told him so. He showed me a picture of an enormous bull elk he had shot nearby in 2012, and I showed him the two beer cans I had picked up while I was running. The elk was a lot more impressive.

Ran trails in snow late in the day. I had planned a different workout, but opted to change plans because of the conditions. It wasn't outright cold--a few degrees below freezing, but the skies were mostly gray, and the there was formidable wind putting the "c" in chilly. It certainly felt like the coldest day we've had so far this winter season--especially out in the open. In the trees, it was more comfortable.

Long run on trails, easy pace. Nothing but blue skies.

O' pass, 11.5 kms, 30 controls, at Twin Boulders, partly cloudy, breezy, pleasant running conditions, some snow on the ground, up to 4-5" deep on protected northern slopes. Saw one owl flying low and away through a small wooded area--probably it was wondering what a swampfox was doing out there.

C • owl 3

Biked in the afternoon--nice day out. Then went to run, and by that time I began to notice I didn't feel so great in a vague way--slightly achy, slightly blah. That made it a little tough to get started; I considered not running at all. But I told myself I would go out and run 10-15 minutes, and I didn't perk up, then I would turn around. But then it would be all downhill anyhow. Felt better once I got warmed up, and maybe I was just tired. Tomorrow may tell.

The Bottom 25 Rankings came out a good bit later today than they usually do--I know because I kept checking. All I could figure was maybe there was a DSQ and they had to go out into the woods to check a unit to verify punching. At any rate, in the end the updated rankings did come out, and that's the important thing.


And there were some nice surprises! The Mountain West made a strong showing, with two new contenders entering the picture: Air Force and Hawaii. Hard not to root for Air Force to continue to move up. I suppose there was some disappointment within the conference to see former MWC school BYU drop a spot (though here in Wyoming BYU is so roundly detested that one would assume most fans are rooting against BYU even in the Bottom 25.)

Both Kansas and UConn impressed greatly, and were each rewarded with jumps of 5 places up in the rankings. You can lose, and then you can *really* lose, and these veteran programs are nicely rounding into mid-season form.

But even more impressive was UMass, able to superbly finesse a bye week with a solid move into the top 5 of the Bottom 25. Will they be able to follow on that by taking similar advantage of a cancelled game this week? Most programs need (to play) to lose in order to move up, but an exceptional program will find a way even when they don't play.

At 3-2 and coming off a bye week itself, Wyoming would seem to be a long shot for the Bottom 25. The next three games will furnish ample opportunities to relive some of those glory days of yore, however, especially considering how thin Wyoming is in some positions. Lose just 2-3 key players, and Wyoming could be back again!

Ran in the snow up top. It was deep enough on the trails that it wasn't easy going. With the ground still warm, most of it should melt, and everything will disappear quickly on sunny slopes and open areas. Hopefully the nordic association is thinking in terms of getting fuel delivered pretty soon for the coming grooming season. Down in town, I don't think it got out of the 20s, and it was 15F or so by the time I got back from running--though it didn't feel that cold to me.

Mapped a few hours at East Pelican and then ran intervals. It was a very nice day until the late afternoon. At about 3 pm, I noticed the air started to turn cooler. It was getting windier and cloudier at the same time.

While I was warming up, I heard a strange and yet still vaguely familiar sound from above. I stopped and stared for quite a while without seeing anything, but at length I picked out several "v's" and clumps of swirling black dots very high in the sky. I realized they were cranes. It was the first time I've ever seen cranes flying anywhere around Laramie.

They circled and swirled for a few minutes without seeming to make any progress in any particular direction, and occasionally a clump or a smaller "v" of birds would break off, and sometimes other birds would fall in behind them and start to follow, and other times the clump would curl back into the main group. It really almost looked like they were mis-oriented, and were trying to figure out which way to proceed. Eventually they headed off to the S-SW, and disappeared.

By the time I finished up running, the first few flakes of snow were falling--scout snowflakes of an arriving winter army (winter storm #2 of the season.)

Back home, I watched the Sunday night football game. Could it be that Kansas City is already a strong favorite to win the Super Bowl this year? *The* favorite? They already whupped the Patriots like they were whipped cream.

Biked in the afternoon, by which time the wind was up pretty good (restrictions were posted on the interstate on high profile, light vehicles and trailers.)

Then went up top late in the afternoon for some easy running on trails. It was much as I wanted to do as I banged a knee yesterday; it felt fine today, which I was happy to see. Some new trees were down across several trails and had obviously come down today.

C • No restrictions? 5

Went up to Happy Jack with Kris and ran trails at an easy effort. Noticed several trees that had fallen across trails last week had been removed, probably in preparation for a trail race tomorrow.

Intervals at Remarkable Flats. Noted two hunters; it's the first day of rifle season (for deer and/or elk), apparently.

For opening day, it seems odd to have seen *only* 2 hunters, and to have heard no shots.

O' pass at Twin Boulders, 11.4 kms, 28 controls, full sunshine with breeze out of the south. Fog to the south over the range also, but far enough away that it didn't look like it would make it up to where I was--and it never did. Cattle are still out, and I didn't see anyone else the whole time I was out.

Hmmm...according to the web, at about 10:30 am with full sunshine, it's 17F, which is pretty cold for early October. It didn't feel that cold to me when I was out earlier, but I guess you have to go with the official reports rather than what it felt like to me. And it was clear skies last night with snow on the ground, so I suppose it all makes sense.

But never mind that, the new Bottom 25 rankings are out, and, as always, are illustrative as to what teams should and should not be doing.

For instance, Kansas didn't play last week, and yet still dropped down one spot, from #17 to #18. Clearly what counts is playing games...and losing them. But from here on out things should be looking up for Kansas, as they have no more byes on the schedule. In the meantime, it must be maddening for Kansas fans to see their arch rival Mizzou 3 places ahead of them, at #15.

As an example of the workmanlike approach Kansas will need to adopt form here, UConn played and lost to SMU, and was rewarded by the biggest jump in the rankings of any team in the land! Go UConn! You're #16 and movin' up!

On the other hand, Massachusetts remains mired at #8, even though they played and lost again, making it the first program to reach 6 losses. It seems on principle they should be #1 already, especially when you see the actual #1--Georgia Southern--has only lost three games. But since when is life fair? They are just going to have to start losing more convincingly going forward, and there is nothing else for it. Just a suggestion here, but one thing they could consider trying would be to move up their pre-game meal to 5 minutes before kickoff. Or who knows. Maybe it's just something as simple as not jumping off-sides enough.

Well, they have two full weeks off to brush up on their skills before they get their shot at real gridiron glory: playing none other than (current) #1 Georgia Southern!

C • Kansas 14

Biked in town and then went up to Pelican Bay and did some easy running on dirt. If you looked north up there, it was all blue sky. To the south? Dense fog was rolling up from Colorado. A lot of snow had melted by the end of the day, yet there was more still to go.

It snowed nearly all day long, leading to the new winter season's first snow run.