Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Not only did I survive another mapping outing in the middle of hunting season, once again I didn't see a single hunter that whole time I was out, nor see a single thing that would have made me think that the rifles were out. Maybe they weren't out? Maybe all the hunters have moved on to other things, like staring at their smartphones like everyone else? Very strange.

Mapped some at Diamond Bay, running to and from the mapping area and enough afterwards to go over the 2 hour mark. Didn't see a thing while I was out mapping, but for a while I had the sense that someone else was nearby, and even came across some seemingly pretty fresh boot impressions at one point. But if there was a hunter around, I never saw him either.

Funny to think the last really nice buck mule deer I've seen was about 2 weeks ago, at night, and it was walking right down the middle of the street by my house. I had to look twice to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

For the first day of the dark third of the year, it was really nice out. It won't be so nice when the clock changes, though!

Cool to find out that the Laramie High Cchool boys XC team won its 5th straight state title today; the girls finished 2nd. It's some evidence that living at 7280' isn't all bad when it comes to running.

Cruise intervals on one of my favorite dirt roads in the up country. It was one of those funny times when, as I got started warming up, my legs felt like dirt. In fact, as I was finishing warming up, I was on the verge of canning the workout and just doing an easy run and enjoy what was left of the afternoon.

But once I started running faster, those same legs felt amazingly good, and the distances I was covering (I know the marks very well that I hit or get near with each interval) were really good, too.

No need to guess that today was the day rifle season (deer) started. Saw quite a few hunters driving around in pickups and in contrast did not see a single huntable animal (I don't believe I qualified as huntable.) Didn't see anyone with a deer so I reckon opening day went down as a win for the deer.

Sunset lit up the western skies in an incredible way, and I had full view of it as I was finishing up.

Felt sage deprived, so headed out to Pitcher Hill to take on some of the nicest sage you could hope for--tough, leathery, twisted stuff that bends but never breaks, and could take down an elephant. Didn't feel snow deprived, but as I arrived a cloud opened up with a fine shower of graupel anyway. Quickly the ground was covered in white pellets, which was handy in case I suffered some devastating Bairdish ankel injury--I could use the graupel and a sock as a compress to hold down the swelling.

But I didn't suffer any falls, much less a devastating injury, and the occasional snow squalls that swept through as I was running only enhanced the stark beauty of the landscape.

I didn't see any elephants, of course, but I did see one cow moose that walked out of a wooded area, apparently curious to see what I was up to.

I headed up to run at Pelican Bay in the latter part of the afternoon, figuring I would have about 2 hours of light, well more than enough to take on 11 kms of O' plus some warmup and warmdown. However, as I was driving up in the sun, a large cloud mass moved in and knocked out the sun, and as I was warming up and headed to the start, it started snowing lightly. Now it was looking more like 90 minutes of light, unless the snow stopped and the cloud moved away.

But none of that happened, and instead it became a race against time. The same thing counted that counts in a race, which was maximizing efficiency and taking the time to do things right in the places where you needed to take that time.

I got finished right at dusk, still snowing, and I'm sure I had enough time to spare that I could have taken at least one more control, had the course demanded that.

The Range will definitely be white in the morning, as it snowed all the way home.

There was a brief patter of something outside in the morning, and it turned out to be not hail, sleet, or puppy dog feet, but rain--just enough to dampen the streets.

However, biking later on revealed that what had been rain in town had been snow higher up, and the mountains to the west were very white with fresh snow all the way down to the level of the valley. The Laramie Range was in shadow, so it was hard to be sure, but it didn't look like there was any snow at all on that side.

That proved to be wrong, as I saw first hand while I was running at Happy Jack. About 1 1/2" of new snow was scattered around.

Big wind all day long, with almost no sun in town or east of town, so there was a pleasant amount of chill, enough to banish any thoughts of sweltering, at least for a few hours. I was more surprised than not to not detect any trees that had obviously been blown down during the day, but the fresh snow made it harder to discern the tell-tale scattering of broken branches that always accompanies a fall.