Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching.

Sierra Summerfest A-meet, Day 1: Sprint at Donner Memorial State Park (new map). 1st on Brown/Orange. My route on the BAOC RouteGadget site.

Very good - and enjoyable - run, though I did lose a little time in 5 or 6 places, about :45 overall. Ran the whole time, stopping only to punch and never walking (maybe a few steps leaving #8) and making very good, quick exits leaving each control. Ran really hard for the last two controls. Woods were wide open and the control features very distinctive. Given the altitude, this led to significant oxygen debt. Long time since I had a race where my warm up was longer than my race!

Green had ten legs in common with Brown/Orange, plus Finish. For those common legs, Tapio, the Green winner, ran 6:37 while I ran 6:56. Phil Bricker, 6th on Green, ran 7:04.

1. With the start triangle 100m away, plenty of time to get the map straightened out. There were some bushes in the direction I wanted to go from the end of the bridge, so ran up to the road junction and took quick bearing from there. Unfortunately, acted as if I was taking a bearing from the start triangle, but I was beyond that (a little hard to see on the map that the road junction was beyond the start triangle). Crossed one road, looking for either trail to right or road ahead. The right thing would’ve been to look for the small hill right in front of the control, but I hadn’t thought at this point to look at contour details. Started seeing the trail to the right but no road ahead, which concerned me a bit, so I slowed a little. Realized the big boulder I’d just passed on my right must be #2 and I then saw the road ahead and swerved left, noticing for the first time the small hill. As I rounded it, I saw the big boulder with the control. This was probably the trickiest leg on the course (perhaps harder than anything on Green); tough having it as the first leg. Lost :15.

Straight, having already seen the boulder.

3. Surprised to not see junction (should have actually aimed off left to hit other trail) when I crossed the rightmost trail but saw (without slowing down) road to the right so swerved left. Spotted huge boulder. Lost :08.

4. Straight, keeping to the right of line of rocks; soon spotted huge boulder.

5. Rough compass towards heavy trail, aiming off a little to right. Visibility was low, couldn’t spot building; pace count started to run out, worried for a couple of seconds, but then came to big trail, but surprised that I was maybe only 50m from the road. Turned left on the trail, but it still took a few seconds before I saw the building. Spoke with many people who also hit the trail much too far to the right. Did vegetation push us that way? Lost :08 (but Glenn Tryson on Green nailed it and was 1st on Green and was only :07 ahead of me).

6. Had time on the trail for a good look at this leg. Straight; as I ascended small bank, picked out the lone tree just a tad to the left of dead ahead.

7. Straight over the hill. From the top, could see lots of rocks along the road, slowed just a little to make sure that the one I was headed for was the right one.

8. Rough compass. Soon saw clearing a bit to my right, maybe 40m away, ran there and saw the tree. It appears I lost time on this leg, but I don’t know why; don’t think I ran more than 15m extra, which would only be :04 at most. But young Fillian Swift ran :26. Lost :08.

9. The contour line made me think that I was on a broad spur; a little surprised when I turned towards #9 that I was in a basin (may have walked a couple of steps while I sorted that out). Slowed a little as I ran as I didn’t immediately pick out the correct rock, but then I did well in advance. Fillian was :10 ahead. Lost :03.

10. Blasted uphill for the gap between the green patches, which I could see before cresting the hill. Saw the big, elongated rock. Was going to look at my clue sheet but then remembered that it was at the N end of the passage, so went around the left side and there was the bag.

11. Still have a lot of run left in me. Blasted across the road (don’t even remember crossing a fence) so quickly I didn’t notice until too late that I should have crossed to the left side of the hill on the far side. Instead, found myself on the trail and as it turned towards the left, I saw the little building and cut to it. Lost :04.

12. Flying now, picked up the ride (which I hadn’t noticed on the map) alongside the little ridge (which I had noticed on the map). Blasted across the road and up a little hill (which the map doesn’t show); only question was whether to go over or under the vegetation. Could not locate the feature within the circle (now I see that the fallen tree was lined up with the line to #13, and even the same color [my only criticism of the map: control circles were too brown and so hard to pick out quickly]), didn’t want to slow down to look carefully, so went over the vegetation figuring I’d have a better view from the top. Saw the bag a little below; would’ve been a second or two faster to have gone under the vegetation. Excellent leg, ahead of everyone on Green.

13. Rough compass to #13, realizing all I need to do was see the bridge crossing the river, which I quickly did see, dead ahead. Worried for a second: I remembered that the meet notes said there were 14 controls, but this #13 appeared to be the last control. Was something wrong? A quick glance at the clue sheet confirmed that there were indeed only 13 controls.

Finish. Getting a stitch in my side now, but keep running hard. A little surprised that I had to veer right to get to the Finish. (Later, I worked at the Finish for 1.5 hours, and saw that nearly everyone was surprised by that.)

Warm up: 1 mi, 12 mins. Already very hot so didn't want to overdo it, Especially since I was still feeling breakfast in my stomach a bit.

Cool down: stitch in right side over the last few mins of the race. Walked around for five mins afterwards, then jogged 0.2 mi in 3 mins.

Brown/Orange Sprint - Splits

Event: Sierra Summerfest
 

Front of house. Hot. Just loosening up: 602, 504.

Saw Horine (podiatrist) this morning. Fortunate that I made the appt last week, because my left big toe nail fell off yesterday. The doc trimmed things up and gave me some liquid that should soften those crazy big toe nails. Hopefully, I can get through three races at Truckee this weekend.

Cool down.

Weights: curls, military presses; only 2 sets, a few less reps than usual.

Just the 3 theraband exercises, and only two sets (rather than 3).

Front of house. Cautious due to left knee and hip. Start off with the shorter half loop, felt OK, then two full loops.

248, 612, 541

Cool down

Two-thirds of the usual stuff.

Left hip and back of left knee very sore this morning. Will take today and tomorrow off from running.