Training Log Archive: AliC

Whoops, forgot house keys at Tom's, but bike was in my garage, so cycled back for them instead of driving.

A Wildwood run from the Ward Pavillion parking lot, but that didn't work so well because the big elevated path to the rest of the park is out for repairs... boo!

Cut along Central to get to the rest of the park, after exhausting the few trails near Ward. Read a map of Sant' Anna that Lorenzo gave me from recent Italian Champs.

Ankle plyos. Legs were tired going into them, so only managed one set. The heat kinda takes it out of ya!

Event: SMOC Bishop Lake
 

Setting out controls at Bishop Lake. Wonderful day!!

Round 2 of control set-out.

Control pickup, including water control. One gallon jug disappeared during the race? We brought 5 out, I found 2 empty, 1 nearly empty and 1 unopened...

Setting out some controls after lugging the water out with Tom. I did my three, then scampered back along the trail to find him and asked about how the two he set went. He was totally confident on one, and then a little shaky on the last, saying it was more like a knoll than a reentrant. Smart man! I went to check it out and it was one terrace too low. Phew!

Bishop Lake

Disembark plane from Europe, do not pass go, go straight to Bishop Lake to scout control locations. Luckily had enough energy still, somehow!

C • Wow, I was wondering how yo... 5

Lavarone- Rocchetti (long terrain)

Yeah! Legs feel better/can actually move! On my way to Asiago, I had to go through Lavarone, so figure I'd scamper out for a quick loop by the parking lot. Also took *tons* of pictures of the terrain as I went around the loop, so I can remember what this stuff looks like in the upcoming months!

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#12 - Up from the parking lot, along the road until the trail. Wow! The downed tree across the trail is indicated in dark green, nice and up-to-date mapping! Turned off trail shortly after that, along fence, to knolls, which did stand out as such.
#13 - Tumble down, then along trail on edge of camping. I climbed, staying close to camping fence over big hill, then could clearly see rocky hill that I should get to the far side of to get to saddle. Probably should have gone S of first hill though for a better approach.
#14 - Used trail on right in the reentrant, crossed big E-W trail, stayed right of hill to end up in correct open reentrant.
#8 - Along trail along marsh, went slightly too far, not sure cliff was the cliff, but no other, so turned up and yep, found the shallow spur.
#9 - Just contoured, instead of climbing up to trail and back down, because control will be at the bottom of the cliff anyways. Spike.
#10 - Ooh, think I got the route choice wrong on this one. I went pretty far right, which kept good speed and a nice approach from a saddle, but I think just too long. Better to go left, up the cliff where it becomes possible, and then up the second strong spur.
#11 - Back through the saddle, along hillside to boulder by reentrant. The green here must be deciduous leafy stuff that hasn't come out yet, it's currently totally open.
Then climbed over the top of the hill to the W, because it had fun contours on top. Yep, they all check out. The only thing I didn't like on the way down was a very clear shelf that is indicated on the map, but with not the same shape as I see there.

C • awesome! 4

Platabeck (middle terrain)

Woo! This was so much fun. The terrain was awesome. It's sort of like the crazy limestone terrain from France WOC, but with nicer vegetation. And I was spoiled because the snow actually made the footing easier, could glide over the rocks on an easy coating of dense snow, where it was left. =)

Not as crazy rock-scotch as Turcio, hope the WOC terrain is more like this and less like that.

Also took lots of pictures, for aiding the memory.

Lavarone

Legs are taking convincing to move. But did some convincing and had a look around long-relevant terrain (in fact, immediately adjacent, south of the terrain). Much more New Englandy. Rocks are around, but not so much to make the footing impossible. Forest is pretty open pine forest in most places. Light green in the forrest tends to just be denser younger pines. Lighter/dark green around civilization is more likely to be bushy/deciduous.

Folgarria (long terrain), first attempt:

Attempting to not have trees felled on me, aborted mission to go to #1....

Folgaria, second attempt:

#2 - Starting somewhere above #1, I basically contoured across the slope, trying to keep tack of trails as I went across. But realized quickly that trails were rubbish due to all the recent logging, better were noticable reentrants. When I came to the second big reentrant, I saw a big boulder - ok, too high. Tumbled down and found control in a ditch.
#3 - Cleared first nose, out to big trail, tried to locate ride, but unsure, at least was right where it should be. Continued W across first spur and encountered trail as I descended from second. Cruised on trail until second small reentrant after boulder on the right when I cut to the control.
#4 - Up, up, up. On bearing, noting trail crossings and then the reentrant + ditch combo on the E side of control. Came in to trail that the pit was along just slightly low and swept up a little to find it. Man-made pit.
#5 - More up, oof tired legs. Picked out the boulder on my way, first trail, second trail. Hitting the second trail meant I had to sweep up along it to my small depression.
#6 - Loooong leg across everything. I saw two options for the first portion of the leg. Either to go a bit higher from the beginning and then use a trail that contoured or first to use a trail that contoured and then climb. I opted for the latter, maybe first is slightly preferable because get less up-and-down in reen trants being higher earlier? Executed fine, knowing exactly where I was crossing band of green due to ditches on either side. Tried to just contour from there, staying flat, but ended up being slightly low crossing reentrant with stream just before the control. Nearly spiked it from there, but right at circle edge, I opted to go higher than a big downed tree instead of below, putting me on the wrong side of it from the control, boo!
#7 - Down through some kinda trashy stuff due to logging, then back up. Distance from cliff on side of road is how I choose where to enter the woods.
#8 - I don't like keeping track of mini-clearings in the woods. So I took it out towards the main trail on the little spur trail, then from big trail on a bearing and pace-counting to the control, which worked. Very little contour flavor in the area to help out.
Finish - Whee!! Even tired legs can run downhill! Through the ski area. Decided to end this session and restart for the control-pick of the remaining controls.

Folgaria, third attempt:

#9 After my stop and re-focus, headed straight on a bearing to #9. Found the clear-ish depression on the way, looked at the spur above it, no control. Hm. Continued on a smidge, but then I saw the much bigger clear depression. Turn around, have another look at my spur. Ah! There's a downed tree on top of it, maybe control is hidden under it. Go and check out and I can't find the control, but it must be the right spur.
#10 Bearing to go the right direction, along hillside, right up to knoll. Spike!
#11 Ug. Crusing in on a bearing, but the vegetation just didn't make sense! Much thicker than indicated, I felt. The reentrant to the N of the control helped guide me in despite that. Unhappy, I went and repeated the leg, but still couldn't make sense of the vegetation.
#12 Uphill again, so slow. Across, the open, in from the 'earth bank', which was really more of a less rocky than normal rock wall. Spiked, even through control was on the ground, hung it back up.
#13 A hillside of vegetation features... blah. Came to E of stone wall, figured staying flat from there and trying to note up-down trail/clearing about 100m before control would let me find it. Nope! Was slightly too low (do I often do this while contouring?) and went too far, to the next trail. Retourning, found it pretty easily. Wonder how close I was in the first case...
#14 Tumble down on bearing, see rock on right, check, but then just miss control somehow and tumble down far too far to trail junction, nearly. Confused (think I'm quite tired by this point). See closer big rock, go back up to depression.
#19 (Too tired for it to be worth 15-18). By boulder, enter thick woods, keep on bearing just a smidge, see control and head for it.
#20 On bearing, exepcted to see boulders by trail, but didn't, just tripped on control instead. Which made me check the control code, which was wrong by one number. But I really had to be in the right place... turns out the next two were off by one too, so maybe is systemic.
#21 Contour across, slightly too low, had to climb up.
#22 Climbing to an obvious trail bend. And done!

Hinterbeck

Mini-o-tervals with Brendan. So nice to have the company, made me push it a bit more, especially towards the end when I got tired of just being beaten by lots every time. =)

Turcio

Oh my goodness rocks *everywhere* and trenches. Holy moly need rockscotch skills to improve if WOC terrain is like this... (advertised as a middle-relevant map.)