Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Ran trails at Happy Jack; conditions were nice and cooling, with air that looked pretty clear out to medium distances of 20 miles or so. A good many mountain bikers were out when I arrived. It felt like I was the last one there by the time I finished.

Today began with a distinctly Scottish summer feel: overcast skies, breeze/wind, and rain. The rain subsided after some time while the overcast skies remained. I headed out for some orienteering at Remarkable Flats, knowing that the forecast called for possible severe afternoon storms.

I had a 14.3 km course in front of me and expected to get wet, but in fact had nothing worse than a few rain drops, and the cool air and sun shielding clouds made for ideal running conditions.

The only thing more plentiful than the flowers were the campers, who were everywhere it seemed.

The only song I heard was from the cows. Now it looks like it might be a good while longer before we have any O' racing at hand, but I will keep listening for it, I will.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v58iy4iea4fupx9/I%20Will...

Ran easy on trails up top, after biking in some winds that were fully adequate, up a bit even from yesterday. I didn't notice any fallen trees, which surprised me. I did notice many mountain bikers, which didn't surprise.

Cattle have deployed to Remarkable Flats, which was much in need of some grazing/manicuring for the best possible running conditions. That's good news.

The incredibly good news, however, is that the State today approved the Pilot Hill land swap, with the legal closing to take place later this summer. Until the closing takes place, the land is still private and off-limits. I believe this is a transformative event for the community here, even if the full benefits won't be possible to see without the passage of a good many years. Once the closing takes place, it means there will be contiguous public lands beginning at the east edge of Laramie (a few minutes of easy jogging from where I live) all the way to the east edge of the National Forest. It's been a long struggle/effort stretching over 15 years or so, and for much of the time the odds of this happening didn't look very bright, yet enough of the right people never gave up.

Pretty windy today until mid-afternoon, when it got *really* windy as some kind of wind storm came through for about 20 minutes. It was hard to tell what was going on--whether it was going to be a big thunderstorm or a lot of rain minus thunder or what--but other than just a few scattered drops of rain, it was 99.99% wind. Once the clouds went on by, you could see the backside of it all looked quite odd. Lots of branches came down around town but nothing worse that I saw, and many tons of fines went wafting off to Nebraska.

I would guess some trees dropped at Happy Jack, but the plan for today was to do some O' running at Granite Planite. It was still windy when I reported for duty over there, but quite nice for running in spite of that--or maybe because of that--because the perceived temperature was refreshing rather than warm/hot.

First time over at GP this season, and as fun as ever.

C • tons of fines 5

My legs had a good more in them running today than yesterday, no doubt helped in equal measures that I hadn't spent a bunch of time out in the sun digging and biking in front of running, and as well that the temps were a few degrees down along with a very pleasant cool breeze flowing in from the east.

I ended up doing a fair bit of the running at not far below race pace.

Lots of mountain bikers were out, though not as many as the hordes out last Friday and Saturday.

After about 2-3 weeks of proper spring weather, we have jumped forward to summer, complete with mosquitoes and replete with dust in the socks.

Spring is definitely the season that gets short changed around here. It takes a long time to arrive and fully settle in, and then just like that it's gone.

Rode for about 2 hours in the early afternoon, by which time the temps were in the lower 80s, and then went out and did some digging fully exposed in the sun. Digging is some pretty good work, and after that there wasn't much left for running, but easy running is still running, and better than none at all.