Training Log Archive: Wyatt

Event: Chilly Cheeks 7.2mi trail run
 

After a well attended DVOA winter meeting, all the fast DVOAers were in town, so I went to the DVOA meet instead. The meet itself was on a known bad map so meet quality expecations were low. It turned out to be a repeat of a Score O' I'd run before, on the original map without the (major) GPS trail updates. Ran pretty well, losing perhaps a minute counting about 30+ seconds looking for a less dicey place to cross an iced over stream (still fell through with 1 foot.)

Favorite part of the race was running across a frozen pond to improve the order of Score O' controls.. Rarely is that a possibility in PA, but people were ice skating on part of it, and I think the pond is shallow...

R-IT band pretty upset this evening.

Angelica excited about running again soon. Unfortunately she's got a month old hand swelling issue to deal with now too (Lyme?, or ?) - we'll learn more tomorrow...

Good warm up & down - needed as it was awfully cold at the start - but at the finish, I stayed warm for a while w/o changing. Good clothes I think.

Another slacker run. Wanted to spend time with family... :)

A somewhat less sluggish run around the neighborhood near the Santa Clara office. Got up at 5, when into the office, then ran in the 7-8am window before an 8am meeting and felt much better during the run - presumably because I'd been awake for a few hours. Water & oatmeal-cookie was breakfast.

Really lazy getting up in the morning, so 2nd plan to attack the Rancho 3.6 mile loop turned into an even worse short run around the hotel neighborhood.

Was thinking to re-run the Rancho 3.6 mile time trial loop, with an ideal goal of taking the course record, but it was early in the morning and even hobbling along was a struggle, so I jogged the loop in about 36 minutes.

AM run, before work. I'm really sluggish when I just roll out of bed and run. Not fun.

Loop around the canyon north of Qualcomm San Diego, after work, before flight. Made my flight with about 7 minutes to spare, but that wasn't the most memorable event of the afternoon.

Rather, as I was running down a trail, I heard, in the grass to my left, a rattle, and thought "oh my, that sounds like a rattlesnake... just keep running lightly, and you'll pass by it..." as I had way to much momentum to turn around, and skidding to a stop right next to the rattle sound didn't seem to sensible.

Of course I wanted to look for the source of the sound, to see what I was dealing with, and as the sound came up to about 90-degrees off to my left, I spotted it. A snake. A rattle snake. A 4 foot long, fairly thick, brown rattlesnake. Slowly tensing itself back into strike position as I passed by. "Oh my g*d. F*$. aaah....." Stomach muscles tensing to the point I almost gave myself a hernia.... And then I was past it. It didn't jump. I didn't pass out in shock.

All of which happened in about 2 seconds.

Good thing Angelica doesn't read this. She's not a fan of snakes.

C • Snakes... 2

Loops in the dark, mostly paved, near Qualcomm San Diego