Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Hojack Trail run, after getting home from mapping.

Mapping at Rotary, this time on Sunshine Camp property. Definitely some nice areas.

Webster rec center -- looked like a very rainy day so I decided to use one of the 20 visits I purchased, and practice a little racquetball, and check out their fitness center. Hit around on the court by myself for around 10 minutes.

Running on the treadmill at the fitness center at the Webster rec center. I was generally not that impressed by the fitness center; lots of treadmills which was good, but no amenities like TVs to watch, little fans on the treadmills, etc.

I chose the "random hill" workout, but once I got into it, questioned my sanity about any sort of hill workout after all the climbing I did on Sunday at the Holiday Valley rogaine. The incline ranged from 0.5% to 7.1%. I calculated my climb in the log based on what I thought the average climb might have been.

Then when I got outside after the workout, I saw that it was completely sunny out, and I could have done a much more worthwhile outdoor run in fine weather. So it turned out not to be a good day for my first visit to the fitness room.

Event: Mini-Rogaine
 

Holiday Valley mini-rogaine, put on by BFLO. Got all the controls, with 11 minutes to spare. Finished third among the competitors on foot (Sergey got all the controls, using a mountain bike; his time was around 10-20 minutes faster than mine). Dave Levine beat my by around 15 seconds, and Crazytom beat me and Dave by a whopping 40 minutes.

I was pretty lenient in what I called a "spike", given the vagaries of a rogaine-quality map. If I navigated fairly well to the feature, but had to look around a bit to find the flag, or if the map wasn't quite right and I was confused for a while but got back on track in fairly short order, that didn't make it a non-spike. Non-spikes were 14, 15, and 6.

Route:


#1: Pretty much the closest and easiest control from the start. Not very far, not much climb. Seemed like the logical first control. A small group (containing Dave Levine, Eric Smith and his partner, and one other person) headed for it; I was surprised there wasn't a larger group. 3:12. 0.26 miles.

#20: A 20-contour climb (400 vertical feet) up a steep ski slope (Firecracker), then continuing uphill on a somewhat less steep other ski slope. Had a "WTF" moment as I approached where the control was supposed to be. There was one small building on the map, and the control description was "manmade object, N side". (Why not "building, N side"?) I came upon a small building (the start house for downhill ski races), but no control on the N side (or on the E, S, or W sides). About a minute later, Dave Levine and Eric Smith and his partner arrived, we all pondered over the missing control, then Eric's partner observed a second small building (lean to), very close to the first, with the control at the second building. Not sure why both buildings (about the same size as each other) weren't on the map. 9:44, 0.36 miles.

#14: Roughly the same elevation as 20, so it seemed to make sense to do next. I got confused reading the many ski slopes (mapped as open areas) and the windy trail mapped through the ski slopes (which often was indistinguishable from a ski slope w/o a trail), and attacked this once in the wrong place. Finally figured out where I was, and got it. Probably 3 minutes or so of lost time. 12:38, 0.51 miles.

#4: No real issues. 9:28, 0.48 miles.

#19: S to East McCarty Hill Forest Road, then follow the road to a trail junction for an attack point, then down about 8 contour lines to the control. 11:15, 0.69 miles.

#15: Lost some time on this one. Did the 8 contour line climb back up to the road (15 was approx the same elevation as 19, but it was quite a ways, so that would have been a lot of time going through the woods on the side of a hill). Took the road down to what was shown on the map as being a junction with another road (another solid black line). Turned out the other "road" was more like an ex-road -- very overgrown, looked almost impassable. There was a decent trail that went kind of towards the control, but not as close to the control as what was mapped as a road on the map. Took the trail anyway, headed down about when I thought I should (no good attack point from the trail), but it was too early, so I spent some time thrashing through the woods until I found the reentrant and the control. 22:10, 1.29 miles.

#23: A very long but easy control, located in the far SE part of the map. Down a road, then a trail. Pretty level most of the way (after the tough climb out of 15, during which I stopped to change out of my long sleeved shirt and into short sleeves, which probably took 3 minutes or so). Control on an indistinct spur very close to a trail bend. 22:23, 1.17 miles.

#11: The only obvious choice after 23, if I was going to get all of the controls, but the direct route was through private land, and a somewhat less direct route involved a 15-contour descent followed by a 15-contour climb, which I did not give serious consideration to. So the sensible route was a very long and indirect but level trail. 34:17, 1.97 miles. At this point, I was getting fairly discouraged about the prospect of getting all of the controls; it was now 12:30, 1.5 hours into the allotted 6 hours, and I had only gotten 3 controls in the past hour and 20 minutes.

#10: Again, the only obvious next control, but not real close. Long trail walk (with a little bit of running thrown in, on level, non-technical sections) to a distinct trail bend, then about 300 m through the woods to the stream junction. 16:40, 0.9 miles.

#16: Down the stream to a road, then uphill on a trail (which I quickly lost, but the woods were open enough, it was OK). Up some more climb to a spur; I intentionally aimed to the right (higher than the control was mapped, but not much in elevation, because the spur leveled off right above the control). Once I knew I was on the spur, headed down, found the control. 15:36, 0.55 miles.

#13: Down off of the spur at 16, then climbed a hill to a trail leading to near 13. 13 was a hilltop, but one of these broad, indistinct hilltops, one of my biggest worries about rogaine control locations. So I was careful, and found it right away. 25:12, 1.12 miles.

#9: Back to the trail close to 13, NW to the FLT junction, down the FLT until I hit a reentrant that led to the stream junction at #9. Ran into Dave Levine (one of my many encounters with him!), and remarked how we were 3 hours into the rogaine, but it didn't look good for me, because I only had 10 (out of 23) controls. 9:19, 0.69 miles.

#23: This was interesting. Should have been road/trail all the way. Climbed up out of 9 (short climb) to a dirt road. S on the road, was going to go to the CCC camp, then pick up a trail going W to the control. I heard some logging activity in front ot me, as I was going along the road, then a sound of a tree falling, then I saw that it fell right across the road, that I had planned on using to get to the CCC camp! Then chainsaws in action, cutting up the tree. Decided not to take the road all the way, to avoid the active logging operation, so I angled SW through the woods to the trail to 23. 12:18, 0.72 miles.

#8: A major climb (about 10 contour lines) up to South Pale Ale trail, then took the trail for a fairly short distance to the indistinct spur. The control was visible from the trail, but I was certainly helped by two rogainers who were at the control plotting their strategy. 11:04, 0.38 miles.

#5: Continued on South Pale Ale trail to a road which led to another road which led to a blocked off road which led to the trail. All very easy navigationally, although one road was mostly uphill, and it just seemed to take way longer than I wanted it to. 24:52, 1.39 miles.

#7: Took FLT to the trail bend at 7. 11:03, 0.62 miles.

#18: The plan was to go straight west from 7 to a trail that would take me very close to 18. I headed into the woods from 7, and very quickly hit some pretty thick vegetation. I didn't see any relief in the vegetation looking left or right, and since I was only about 5% of the way to the trail I wanted, I decided to bail out rather than fight the vegetation. So back out to #7, then I took a much longer trail route to get to 18. Took FLT north from 7, to a side trail that quickly became a lot more overgrown than it seemed like it would be from the map. Went to a bend in the trail, then headed to where I thought the control would be, and found it fairly easily. But what I thought was going to be a 10-15 minutes control took nearly double that. 26:54, 1.28 miles.

#21: North from 18 to a dirt road, took the road to the junction with another road, from where it looked like an easy trail/road to near 21. When I got to the road junction, I again ran into Dave Levine, on the road and looking a bit puzzled. I quickly figured out the reason for his puzzlement -- the junction looked absolutely nothing like it was shown on the map. The "road" that was shown on the map, going towards the control, absolutely didn't exist. There was a trail, on the correct side of the road, but going at a very different angle than the mapped road. I took the trail anyway, read the contours, and eventually managed to get onto a trail that led to near 21. 18:40, 0.75 miles. It was now 3:56 pm, only slightly more than an hour left.

#6: A long slog uphill through the woods, eventually coming out on a very rough open field. Went through the field, picked up a fairly major but unmapped trail that took me east, then left the trail to go through some pine forests. Eventually came out in the general area of the control, but things just weren't looking like the map showed. Finally found a trail that led to near the control. Dave Levine was again there, coming at things from a totally different direction than I was! 20:18, 1.00 mile.

#17: From this point on, Dave and I took very similar approaches, with him being consistently 30-60 seconds ahead of me. Took trails, which looked potentially confusing so I was pretty careful, to hear the control. Left the trail, came in a little low in the reentrant, headed up the reentrant, saw Dave punching the control. 12:51, 0.7 miles. Time was now 4:30. I finally felt confident, with three controls left, two of them which looked very easy, and a downhill finish, that I would get them all.

#12: Up a bit of a Holimont ski slope, between two ponds, then down a trail to where I thought I should leave the trail to head for the reentrant and the control. I got distracted by a blazed but unmapped trail that looked like it went in kind of the right direction, so I took it. It led to a reentrant but I quickly determined it was the reentrant that was about 100 m north of the right one. Found the right reentrant and the flag. 8:31, 0.45 miles.

#3: Down the reentrant to a trail which led to another trail which led almost to the control. When I got there, Dave L. and Eric and his partner were kind of standing around the control looking perplexed. I got there and found that there didn't seem to be a punch. We all agreed to vouch for each other's presence at the control! 4:42, 0.29 miles.

#2: Down the hill (nice, gentle ski slope, decent footing, nice to have a downhill at that point of the day). 4:07, 0.28 miles.

Finish: Continued downhill. Made a slight route choice error in following Dave to the uphill side of the building that was meet headquarters, which meant I had to go down a flight of metal stairs. (Might have been better to go on the downhill side of the building, and avoid the stairs.) I tried to run down the stairs (even though Dave was clearly ahead and had beaten me), and I almost tripped on the top step. That would have been sadly ironic to survive the whole day in the woods with no injury, and then get hurt falling down a flight of stairs! 2:43, 0.25 miles.

C • #21 2

Ran the Mango course from last week's NOD meet at Highland Park, since I didn't have time to do the Sprint and the Mango at the meet itself.

A few bobbles; it was actually a fairly challenging course to do cleanly.

I think that the Highland map is due for a thorough update, using LIDAR contours if we can obtain them. It's not mapped terribly by any means, but there seem to be many places where it could be improved a bit.

Distance actually covered, per FR, was 2.64 miles (about 4.25 km).

Morning run. Cool to start out (around 54 degrees), and didn't warm up much, 56 degrees at the end, but very humid. National Weather Forecast site reports a current dew point of 54. So there was a lot of perspiring going on, in spite of the nice low temp.

Ran from home, up Maple to Klem, to Drumm, to the Hojack Trail, to Holt, Rt 104 path to Maple, and back home.

Second run of the day. Not feeling real into it after 8 miles this morning, but Anne called up after she got off work and suggested doing a Whiting Rd trail run. I didn't run the last two days, and haven't done much trail running lately. Plus, I figured doing a double workout today might help get at least mentally ready for the Holiday Valley mini-rogaine on Sunday. So I agreed to do approx one loop at Whiting.

I don't know exactly what the climb was, but I'm certain it was more than the 99 feet that AP calculated from the FR route.

Working on Webster map updates, and checking out some of Linda's proposed control locations.

Semi-long, fairly easy run, late afternoon. From home, out Rt. 104 path to Rt 250, then did one loop around the North Ponds Park path, and then back home via the bike path again. 8:53/mile on the way out, 8:33/mile on the way back.

Played racquetball at the Webster Rec center with my son Greg. First real time playing in decades. I expect to be very sore tomorrow.

Hit around a little, then played two games which he won something like 21-12 each, then hit around some more, then one more game which he won 21-17.

He said he thought I played pretty well for not having played in a long time (and for being an old guy, but he was nice enough not to add that comment). I felt very sloppy and awkward.

Webster Park. Checking out control locations that Linda has in her rough draft of courses for the Oct. 13 meet. With Homer along for company.

GPS track from Highland Sprint.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53942305@N06/50064425...

Event: ROC - Highland Park - NOD
 

NOD Sprint at Highland.

Pretty happy with my run; no big mistakes, and I seemed to be able to keep a pretty good flow going.

#1: There seemed to be multiple ways of getting to #1 (including even going out to South Ave., which would take you almost to the control), none obviously any better than others, so I picked one and went with it. I went up the trail that starts just south of the small building, then across the road and through the field, using the manmade object to figure out where to head.

#2: Took the road to the N-S trail across from the Arboretum, but didn't take the trail at all, kind of angled towards the fence, then to the corner.

#3: Headed on a rough bearing, spotted the western tree from the trail, angled in towards it even though the control was shown on the eastern tree (just in case it got placed on the wrong tree! which happened last year), continued to the eastern tree and the control.

#4: Back to the paved path, continued to the junction, took path to the left. Was going to cut in more directly to the control, but I realized that what was mapped as "open with scattered trees" was more like "open with scattered thickets", and I couldn't just go wherever I wanted to go. Stayed on the path a little longer, then headed to the spur, about where I thought the circle was, but no control. Hunted for a very short time and found the flag, lower on the control than I thought it would be, and semi-hidden.

#5: More or less straight line; no issues.

#6: Up to path, followed path along, to the higher of the two flights of stairs, then headed towards the circle. I got to one pretty obvious reentrant, but no flag. Kept going west and found a smaller reentrant with the flag. Control seemed to be placed right, but the map doesn't show much in the way of the first reentrant I came to -- slight curve in the contour line, but I think it was more of a reentrant than indicated on the map.

#7: I decided to minimize climb by going to the right, around the hill with the green. Crossed the path, saw the spur, starting looking for the control, unsuccessfully at first, then saw it higher than I had expected. Reading the full clue, which said upper part of the spur, would have helped. Also, it seems like the circle was shown further from the trail than the flag was placed.

#8: Pondered staying high and going down later, or vice versa. Decided to go down the steep hill right away, since the control was along the fence at the bottom of the hill -- seemed more certain navigationally. It was a bit scary going down that hill, basically grabbing on a tree to slow myself down, then finding another tree I could grab onto next. But once I got to the bottom, no problems getting to the control. In retrospect, it might have been better to get on the trail, since that goes almost all the way to the control, and would have avoided the very steep descent.

#9: Followed the spur up to the clearing, then to the road, across the road, down to the small clearing, saw the spur, and then the flag.

#10: Out to the road, stayed on the road about halfway down the straight stretch, headed in towards the reentrant. I could see the entire reentrant, but no flag in site. Finally headed towards where the circle was, and found the flag, definitely NOT in the reentrant, but on the road side of a small ridge between the reentrant and the road. No major lost time, so can't complain too much.

Edit: ccsteve pointed out that the control, when I got there (it had been moved), actually DID match the location of the control circle, it just didn't match the clue. I was mis-reading a contour line as a reentrant, when it was in fact the low ridge that the control was located on the road side of. To be consistent with the "reentrant" clue, the control and the circle needed to be about 40 m south of where they actually were located.

#11: Across South Ave., up trail to small clearing on top of hill, looked for the right-most of two trails, but only see one trail! Not a good sign, but I take the trail anyway. I quickly realize it is going into a reentrant, while the trail I wanted was on a spur. Back to the clearing, still no second trail, but I plow through some woods, and finally come to a trail, which no longer appears to go all the way to the clearing. According to AP, I only lost 19 seconds on this control, but it seemed like more than that.

Sprint - Splits

Morning run to try to beat the rain (only partially succeeded). In the South Ave. / Clinton / Goodman Ave. area.

C • running area 2

Mapping at DEC lands next to Rotary.

Mapping. DEC lands adjacent to Rotary Sunshine Camp.

Evening run. Left around 7:00, got back close to 8:00, it was pretty dark the last 5-10 minutes.

Out the Rt 104 path to Hard Rd and back.

Event: ROC - Rattlesnake Hill
 

My most major mistake came in the few seconds after I started. I had, of course, intended to do Green, which is the course for M45+ in the ROC club series meets. I was handed a map, upside down of course. I punched the start control, turned the map over, and neglected to spend 1-2 seconds to see if it was the right course. I was just focused on my first control and how to get there.

Turns out it was a Red map. Fortunately the clue sheet was printed on the map rather than loose, so at least I had the right clue sheet for the Red course. Unfortunately, I completed the whole course w/o realizing I was doing the wrong course. I WAS thinking that this was taking me a very long time, longer than usual, but I just figured that the course setter took the opportunity to set everything longer than normal, because most local parks don't support very long courses.

I didn't realize the error until I downloaded and was told I MP'd. I was pretty surprised because I was reasonably sure I had gone to all of the right controls and punched correctly. Then someone happened to ask me what course I did -- I then checked the map and saw that I had in fact done the Red course!

Straight-line distance was 7.0 km.

My route:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53942305@N06/49885839...

Comments:

Start to #1: Pondered, very briefly, taking a straight-line approach, but decided on the road/trail route, to be a very safe route, and give me time to get into the map and quickly scan the rest of the course. Went to the trail bend, then took a fairly straight-line approach to the control. Once I hit the small stream, I knew I was on the right track. 11:26

#2: Headed down to the veg boundary, more or less followed that until I got to the first gully, then headed NE, crossing the first, the second, and the third gully, then looked for the contours to tell more precisely where I was. No problems with this one. 8:57

#3: I didn't like the looks of the straight line route, because it crossed two rough open fields, both of which had a band of green along the edge, but there didn't seem to be any realistic other route. No real problems getting into or out of the first strip of open land, and no problems getting into the second, at which point I knew I was very close to the area of the control. But trying to get out of the field into the woods was a major challenge! Although where I was, it was mapped as medium green, it looked REALLY nasty. I spend a couple of minutes looking for some sort of passage, finally I found something very slightly less thick than anything else, and I plunged through. It was quite an unpleasant 10 meters or so, battling thorn bushes in a short sleeve shirt. Came into the open woods, and spotted the control almost immediately. 9:06

#4: Headed out towards the road/trail junction, took the road briefly across the gully, then headed straight north, staying between the stream and the dark green, until I got to the edge of the gorge. Took the indistinct trail along the gorge edge until I saw what looked to be the reentrant; went in, there was the control. 8:00

#5: Headed more or less straight west, crossing the stream, getting to the road, then went into the woods to the trail. Which turned out to be quite muddy thanks to horse traffic. Took the trail about 400 m to a bend which was near the control. I was initially confused because the contour looked very much like a reentrant on the map, and nothing was making sense, but then I re-looked at the clue sheet and saw it was a spur; found the control very quickly after that. 12:15

#6: Headed west again until I hit a different trail, which took me around a couple of bends, to where I could sort of see the shallow reentrant from a little ways off. Left the trail to head towards it, nailed the control. 7:43

#7: Pretty much a straight compass bearing to the area of the streams, then tried to read the stream bends, junctions, etc. I was a bit confused when hitting the first stream because it appeared fairly wide and bold on the map, so I was expecting a substantial stream; it was only a few feet wide, which made me wonder if I really knew where I was. But I pushed on, then found a distinct stream junction a little east of the control, headed up the hill, and there was the control. 10:25

#8: Headed sourth towards the road, staying a bit to the right (uphill) to avoid the green and swampy area. This worked OK except I was moving slowly; seemed like it took forever even though it was only around 400 m. Once I hit the road, I had a momentary bobble -- I started heading left (the correct way), but then I looked back and saw a bend that looked just like the bend at the intersection I was seeking. Even though I should have known there was no way I could be to the left of the intersection, I felt compelled to head SW to make sure. I quickly realized that was the wrong direction; may have lost 30-45 seconds, not much, but totally needless. Then I found 8 with no problem.

#9: Nothing to do but climb the big, steep hill. I was aiming for the white area in between the two medium green areas. I actually think I executed it OK but I don't think the green and white areas are mapped that well, because I hit some fairly thick stuff; it looked more open to the right, so that's where I went, and got out to the trail, but a lot further to the south than I was expecting. According to my GPS track, I went through medium green, even though I really didn't.

#10: This was actually my worst control. I had trouble getting out to the road just north of #9 -- it was mapped as white all the way to the road but there was actually some pretty thick stuff in the last 10-20 m which caused some lost time. Then I decided to take the trail east until I got to the N-S trail, instead of going a more direct route through fields and light green or white woods, which I feel would have been a much better choice. Especially since going the trail route involved about 3-4 contour lines of climb, which I did NOT need after the climb to #9. Then to top it off, I lost track of what field I was in, and I spent a minute or two looking for the control one field too soon (the field around 200 m S of the right one). Absolutely no excuse for that. The fields don't even look remotely alike. I'll blame it on being late in the race and being tired, but like I said, no excuse.

I remember a teaching I heard once -- that the most common places for mistakes are the first control (not into the map yet, not warmed up) and the last control (tired, feeling like the tough part is essentially over and you can relax, etc.). I did OK on #1 but certainly not on the last one.

C • #3 2

C • #10 8

Red - Splits

More Webster Park mapping. Mostly western and SW part of park.

To Finn Park and back.

Updating map of Webster Park. NE section today.

Ellison Wetlands.

Mid-day run on the canal. Cheryl and Homer came along, and walked while I ran. From Perinton Park, west to Marsh Rd, and back. Cool (low 60's), gray, and windy day, with a few drops of rain. Few people on the canal today.

City run, from Park near Culver. Saw some of the (generally unexciting) Labor Day parade, on Main and on East.

C • Parade 2

Whiting Road trail system, and Gosnell woods and field.

Early morning run; had to be back by 8:00 for babysitting duty (for grandson) while Cheryl was at her water exercise class.

One very easy mile to warm up, then a faster than normal mile, followed by 0.5 mile easy, then another faster than normal mile.

Mile 1: 9:48
Mile 2: 7:48
next 0.5 miles: 4:32
Next mile: 7:47
Last 0.4 miles: 3:43

First visit to Webster Park to improve the map in anticipation of the mid-week October meet.

Worked in the NW section of the map. Found many updates, the majority of which weren't changes in the terrain, but just that a second pass through a map is likely to find some things that weren't mapped quite right to begin with.