Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Pilates mat interleaved with theraband exercises; only two sets each. Weights (actually done at 5pm), two sets each.

Rest day.

Totals for 3 races over the weekend: 8.9 km, 210m climb, 38 controls, 84:06, 9:27/km.

Sierra Summerfest A-meet, Day 3. Little Truckee Summit. First on Long Brown. (Climb was listed as 95m, but I get 120 for the best route.) My route on the BAOC RouteGadget site.

Amazingly, Long is again my best for the weekend. It was a magical day: I saw so much, and ran like crazy. Very satisfying, even though I made two mistakes (lost 1:15 on #6 and 1:45 on #8). The other 11 legs were right on - a few hesitations, mostly to be super-sure, but no navigation or route choice errors, and ran really hard.

Looked like I had a 10 minute (!) victory (over Penny DeMoss, Gary Carpenter, and Anne Edsen, the F18 from Denmark), but the last starter, Chuck Spalding, came in in 49:53, a terrific run.

This was great terrain and a very well set course (except for having #6 too close to the edge of the map). Maybe I learned something from yesterday. Definitely hope we have another A-meet here!

1. After the problems leaving the start triangle the last two days, took my time and made sure I got it right. Decided quickly to go straight, using the line of boulders on the spur after the (dug up) road as an attack point. Gave up ten seconds or so double-checking my bearing before and after the first stream crossing. Spotted the boulder before the road to my right (after seeing what must have been an unmapped rock a little earlier) and then easily spotted the line of rocks on the spur. Took a careful bearing from the last one of those. Spotted the line of boulders along the nose of the final spur, could easily see the clearing on top, and so had no trouble making a beeline to the uppermost rock and then a few more meters to the control. Felt very confident over the last half of the leg as so many features were easy to identify. I jogged most of the way but walked most of the last hill.

2. Studied the route choice for this one as I climbed to #1. Decided on the road to be safe. Had this leg been later in the race, might’ve gone straight. Got to the road quickly, but the altitude was affecting me, and felt like a slug as I jogged along it. No problem identifying the spur I planned to use as an attack point. Gave up a few seconds going to the second tree on the left and then taking a bearing, unnecessary as I could already see the seasonal streambed, but I wanted to be safe. As I descended, spotted the (shallow) ditch and then the bag.

3. Left quickly heading S, thinking to keep the stream on my right. Soon entered the right edge of a clearing, checked the map, realized where I was and that I should just go due S from here. Stopped one more time just past the S edge of the clearing to get a good bearing (unnecessary). Stopped in the clearing to see what the clue was, saw on the map that the knolls were in the finger of trees ahead, ran there (they were on an elevated spur, even though the map doesn’t show that), went up, saw the knolls on my left and then the bag.

4. Ran to end of trees. Stopped to make a plan and saw that the hilltop right before the control was a good attackpoint. Ran towards the stream junction, took careful bearing towards the hilltop ran at good clip to hilltop. There was a control there with a water stop, but couldn’t identify the feature. Nevertheless, I was at the peak of the (pretty flat) top, took a rough compass bearing, wasn’t worried with the control only 50m from there. Saw a boulder dead ahead and Penny darting towards it from the left, so charged on and there it was..

5. Compass bearing to bunch of rocks NNW of circle. Caught a glimpse of Penny (assumed she was on Red as she was yesterday, but found out afterwards that she was on Brown). Got to the rocks; a few more steps and saw a boulder and Penny darting into it from the left. Accelerated and it was indeed mine.

6. Worst leg of the day. Set off without a good plan, and, worse, see now that I badly misinterpreted the map: Did not see the contour line under the control-connection line; rather thought the ditch extending NE from the control was the continuation of the counter coming in from the SE. So, I thought the control was going to be on the far side of a broad reentrant and that I’d just compass-and-pace-count there, recognize the reentrant, and look around - bad plan even if the map did say what I thought. Quickly caught up to Penny, who might have been going for a different control as far as I knew. Pace count ran out but there was no sign of broad reentrant, though the hill on the left had flattened out quite a bit. Figured I was too low, so turned left and went up. After maybe 30m I stumbled and fell gently - onto a road! Figured it was an extension of the road that was on the map, that I was now off the map, and that where I was when I turned left was too high, not too low. So, went back down, planning to go about twice as far as where I’d been. As I did that, noticed a bit of a reentrant, forgot that I was supposed to go to the far side of the supposed reentrant, so centered on that, and there was the control. Turns out it was dumb luck! Even now, not sure what a good plan would have been, but I certainly was in too much of a hurry on this one. Lost 1:15.

7. Rough compass downhill, moving quickly, avoiding vegetation. Figured I’d be able to recognize contours across the marsh, but I couldn’t. Fortunately,I recognized that I was between the last two patches of forest, with two lone trees ahead on the left. Went down to the second tree, took a careful bearing, aiming for the boulder with the smaller rock next to it. Meanwhile, Penny had gotten ahead of me, but I ran hard across the marsh and got well ahead of her (figured she was on the much longer Red and so wasn’t pushing as hard as I was). Nailed the boulder; didn’t seem to be any patch of forest in front of it. Slowed down a bit to try to read the vegetation but couldn’t, so it was compass-pace-pray. As pace count ran out, saw the bag 25m beyond.

8. Ran hard to the road despite some deadfall, aiming for the big reentrant on the other side. Hit the reentrant to the left of the boulders straddling the road. Unnecessarily stopped to take a careful bearing. Pushed myself up the far side (walking some). Saw a bag on the boulder in the middle of the field on the top. Went to the lone tree just left of the line and took a careful bearing to the small boulder 120m ahead. Took a very careful bearing to a tree. Pace count was about 100m to there and took another careful bearing, about 60m. I suspect that I was actually further along as I was running fast and didn’t account for the longer stride. One last bearing for what I thought was the last 90m, and started swiveling my head, but I suspect I was already past it and a little low. Soon saw the stream ahead, and then a bag/water stop on a small boulder by the stream. Foolishly went and looked at the code. Free of any thought that it was mine, found it on the map, took a bearing back and as my pace count was about to run out, saw the bag 30 - 40m to my left. Lost 1:45, :40 of that due to poor recovery.

9. Felt strong, much better than I had jogging on the road to #2. Also felt confident that I was seeing things well in the terrain (despite non-trivial errors on two of the previous three legs). So, time to go for it. Forced myself to keep running up through the big field on the hillside. Puzzled by the rock tower I was seeing at the top; guess it was the contour-line-knoll at the SE end of the spur. Had to walk some up the last part, and allowed myself a few more steps walking once I got to the upper field. Spotted the boulder in the middle and the cluster at the far end; once at the latter, saw all the rocks on the spur across the reentrant. Ran for the uppermost of those. Cut below the last couple of boulders; just a moment of anxiety as I didn’t see the bag until I was almost right on top of it. Excellent leg.

10. With the big field to the left of the control, took off in a hurry on a rough bearing. Crossed some rides going down, and I’d seen some on the map, but didn’t want to waste time trying to match them up. Soon I saw the big field, and then, dead ahead, the bag.

11. Left the control quickly in the appropriate direction, but walked for several seconds while I decided if it was worth going out of the way down to the road. Decided it wasn’t. Saw that the boulders halfway were the ones I used going to #1 so, confident I’d recognize them, ran hard across the field and got to the second boulder from the left quickly. Stopped for a somewhat careful bearing. After a few meters, saw a boulder - small, so perhaps not on the map, but distinctive - and a dug up trail - was I too far downhill? On the other hand, looking ahead, I couldn’t make out the flattening of the spur to the right nor the big field that should be on it, so was I too far uphill? Stopped, did a 360, couldn’t see anything definitive, decided the best thing was to continue on my bearing. Crossed the entrant and the ride just on the other side (good!) and shortly after getting over the nose of the spur, saw a bag dead ahead. While I couldn’t tell if it was in a ditch, it did appear to be just on the other side of a clearing in a reentrant. Ran hard to it, and it was it. Lost maybe :15 or :20 due to hesitations, but still a very good leg.

12. Short leg, last before GO control, vague terrain, so consciously slowed down and followed bearing. Saw rock after 80m and finally the well hidden bag.

13. Took off like a shot, knowing all I had to do was rough compass to the road. Hit it right at the next to last bend, which I recognized without having to look at the map again. Still going full tilt, remembered that there ought to be an opportunity to cut the next corner; looked in that direction, spotted the bag through the vegetation, which looked very runnable, so cut across. Great leg, best of the day.

C • Nice run 5

Warm up. Pretty warm temp, and don't intend to go out fast, so don't feel the need to do too much. On the other hand, once I started jogging I realized my legs were pretty stiff, so some warmup was definitely warranted.

Brown - Splits

Sierra Summerfest A-meet, Day 2. Little Truckee Summit (newly mapped portion). 2nd overall on Brown Middle, 1st M65. My route on the BAOC RouteGadget site.

Always a tough transition for me to go from a sprint to a classic format. Never felt comfortable, but was very cautious and so stayed away from any sizable errors, though there were lots of bobbles. A good result as I was again first overall on Brown except for a visiting F18 from Denmark, but not a very satisfying day. There were four legs (or ends of legs) where all I could do was compass and pace count and then look for a bag, which, fortunately, I spotted in each case no more than 40m away. In retrospect, I did notice several stands of denser trees, but I just didn’t relate them to the green patches on the map. Also, some of my dissatisfaction stems from several legs where I had to stand at the control and figure out which direction to go for the next one (usually I have that figured out before I punch in) - not sure what caused that, but perhaps it was the sprint/classic transition, that is, I found it disconcerting to be moving so slowly and to not be completely sure of exactly where I was. Lost about 4 minutes altogether, though after the 1+ minute in the start triangle, never more than :45 in one place.

1. For some reason, I had my map turned 90 degrees, so the compass was telling me to go in a direction where the terrain didn’t match up at all to what I was seeing on the map. Crossed the road, thinking maybe things would look better from there, but they didn’t. Finally realized the problem, after more than a minute! Went along the N edge of the big clearing, spotted the two rides at the corner when I got there, took a careful bearing from there for the last 75m, soon saw the boulder cluster. Lost 1:15.

2. Unable to read the detailed vegetation precisely, followed a rough bearing towards the pair of boulders just N of the control circle, hoping I’d see them in what was mapped as fairly open - and I did, from about 70m away. Ran to the lower one, took a careful bearing, soon saw the pair of boulders dead ahead.

3. Compass bearing uphill. Soon spotted a large boulder dead ahead, but it seemed much further away than it should have been. (Later, several other people said the same thing.) A bit worried as I struggled to get up the hill, but saw no other candidates anywhere else, so kept trudging. Sure enough, the bag was behind it.

4. Punched in at #3 without having learned much about the next leg, perhaps because on the way up to #3 I was still scanning around to see if there was another candidate boulder. Lost a few seconds making a plan, which was only to head for the path-ride junction 150m away. Fought through some close-together trees as I got near the path. I see now that there’s a patch of green there, but at the time I had given up on interpreting the vegetation, so it didn’t help me. Got to the path, saw the ride cutting uphill 20m ahead, so knew I was just a little to right of the junction. Compass bearing towards the control and soon saw the boulder.

5. Must not have read ahead at all on the previous leg, because after I punched I was surprised at which way I needed to go - and seemed like I had to turn my map around three times before getting things straight. Only plan I could think of was to get down to the two boulders a little to the right of the line and then take a careful bearing from there. Got to the bottom and saw one small boulder; unsure whether that one was big enough to be mapped. Probably should have looked for the other boulder and then gone from there, but just assumed that I was at the eastern one and took a bearing. Tried to spot the distinct tree just under the line between 5 and 6, and maybe I did but had no confidence in that. Pace count ran out, walked a little further, couldn’t really read the vegetation, but after half a minute or so spotted a bag about 30m below, next to a thicker stand of trees (just like the map shows, but I hadn’t identified that stand). Lost 0:45.

6. Must’ve glanced at the 6 to 7 leg before I punched #5 because I thought I was going to be headed straight downhill. Took a few seconds (again) to get myself headed in the right direction. Plan was to go straight (since I figured I wouldn’t be able to read the vegetation) and keep and eye on the bottom of the hill, as I should be getting steadily closer to the bottom but not less than a couple of contours up. But after 100m I already seemed to be as close to the bottom as the control would be, so from there I contoured. Thought I noticed that thicker patch of forest (mapped as green) just below me, though I wasn’t going to depend on that. Just about when my pace count was running out, spotted a boulder dead ahead and another one a little further on and lower down, figured that second should be it, and it was. Lost :10 (at the beginning).

7. Here I figured there were enough contour details across the way that I should be able to navigate by that, so just rough-compassed to the road. As I started to climb, thought I saw the mapped boulder to my right, but as I climbed the spur, I must have drifted to my right because I eventually spotted the control boulder about 30m to my left. Judging by the spits, I may have lost :30, though it seemed more like 10 or 15.

8. Over the spur, centered myself in the reentrant going down, and the boulder soon appeared dead ahead. Best leg of the day, so not surprised I had the best split on Brown (even decent compared to Red runners), though I did stop at #7 for a drink for :20 or :30. Guess everyone else did, too?

9. Didn’t have much of a plan except bearing and head for the big open field behind the control. (Perhaps should have looked for the boulders just across the stream.) Crossed a ride with a big bend, which doesn’t make sense according to the map (unless I was seeing the T-junction?) Could see the open field in the distance, so just ran hard for the near edge, aiming towards the right side. As I got to the edge, saw the control 30m to the left. Lost :10 though my split was only :01 behind the best on Brown.

10. Couldn’t think of anything to do here but take a careful bearing, pace count and look around. Proceeded cautiously. As my pace count started to run out, saw a bag maybe 60m away, up and to my right, looking like it was on the edge of a clearing. Went there and that was it. Lost :40.

11. Had my exit route planned for this one. Started running in that direction while I took a bearing, looked up and I could already see the bag.

12. As I came into #11, already knew all I had to do was follow the stream to the right. As I punched, looked in that direction, and saw the bag.

Finish. The map is a little wonky here. I checked it out carefully the next day. The road shown going to the NE is dug up and not readily apparent on the ground. The road shown going E actually goes NE for a few meters, then turns E. Now, as I ran to #12, a glance at the map told me to just get on the road and run, and it didn’t bother me that I had to make a left turn to do so. But later, as I monitored the Finish, I saw quite a few people go straight (towards the epunch tent, as it turned out), which is what the map shows, before realizing that that wasn’t where the Finish was.

Warm up: jog for about 6 mins on the dirt road then walk/jog uphill to start (about 4 mins).

Cool down: jog 6 mins on dirt road (with a stop to speak with Richard McBee at the bus pickup).

Brown #2 - Splits

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.