Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Lakeside Park, Oakland, at the north end of Lake Merritt. Run the first 15 (of 17) controls from a course set up by Rex on Aug 24, 2008.

Surprisingly, very warm. Didn't give myself much time after driving (I'd also stopped at the Saratoga Farmers' Market) and I didn't have much warm up, so I was a little sluggish at first and never really turned it on. Still, I was running somewhat hard, and the main thing was to get some navigation practice while running at speed. Venue is quite straight-forward, though a few things have changed since 2008 (rootstock at #7 is no longer there, tree at #13 is no longer there, a paved path between the start and #1 is now grass, etc.).

Met George there. He ran a different course while I ran this one, and then we switched.

I'd had a good run when I ran this in 2008, though then I made a few small mistakes that I didn't make today. Then, my time through #15 was 1419, nearly two minutes faster than today, despite the half-minute of mistakes back then. Part of that was I wasn't running as hard today as I was ten years ago, but part of it is definitely that I've become slower afoot.

[Orienteering Sprint practice]

Lakeside Park, Oakland, north end of Lake Merritt. Ran a few controls on a course from ~2009 (hadn't run this before - got the map from George).

Only ten minutes after finishing the earlier 2.5 km run; I was stiff and tired, so cut it short. Ran 3 - 4 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 5.

Made my only mistake of the day going to #7: lost track of where I was, after maybe 20 secs, found myself a bit WSW of the control.

Surprised this one was the same pace as the (better) earlier one. Maybe I was running faster (which is why I felt tired)?

[Orienteering Sprint practice]

500 warm up before first run
200 cool down
700 jog to second start
300 cool down

The usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises: stretching, strength and balance.

At home. Very light, upper body only. With the Nationals in a week, not going to try to ramp up on these again. Just getting a little movement in those muscles.

[Strength exercises]

Jeep trail next door. Was feeling antsy, but no time to do a workout before lunch, so just ran one lap (in hiking pants), in 229. Was running very easily, so surprised it was that fast.

Local terrain and jeep trail next door.

Took along the map of St.Patricks Park in South Bend, IN, site of the Middle Nationals in two weeks. The map they sent out include a score-O course.

Warm up (fairly fast) on jeep trail, reading the map:
438, 414 (Tot: 852) --second lap was 210, then started reading the map, which clearly slowed me down a little

To woods loop start: 37

Forest running:
3 x [1 x house + [2 x woods loop]]: 452, 503, 451 (Tot: 1447)
--kept reading the map all the way through, though at that speed could only take a glance now and then. Still, was able to see considerable detail and do a substantial amount of route planning.

DID 2 FOREST INTERVALS afterwards (see below)

[Orienteering Forest running w/map]

After 3 min recovery (logged with the cool down, below):

2 x spine interior to the loop: 49, [57 walk], 49 going back.

Ran pretty hard. Considerably faster than the other time I did this [8-20-2018].

[Orienteering Forest intervals]

After forest running w/map but before forest intervals:

200 recovery jog
(100 walk)

After intervals:

(130 walk)
600 jog

McLaren Park, San Francisco. Before meeting Rachel for dinner, and after an hour nap. It was a pleasant sunny day at Oracle, but by the time I got up from my nap in McLaren, it was chilly, overcast and very windy, which made it rather cold.

Ran some legs from a course Theo V set last summer. The courses were intended for the Summer Series, but the permit never came through, so no one ever ran the courses. I was glad to have something fresh to try. (Afterwards, I put the course I actually ran in the codes file with Theo's courses.)

Selected McLaren because the Sprint Nationals in 2.5 weeks will be in a park and I thought that this might be the closest thing we have to that. Of course, this was steep and the Nationals will be flat. Nevertheless, this session drove home the point that a forest sprint for me is way more difficult than a campus of old town sprint. Not that I didn't already know that, but I thought it would be good to feel it directly so I have the proper expectation when I get to Indiana.

Wore the new Speedcrosses, and they worked out pretty well.

[Orienteering Sprint practice]

Jeep trail next door. Spent a good part of the day cleaning up the yard after the wind storm over the weekend, so wasn't feeling that energetic, but managed a decent run.

Strong smell of ASHES on the corner of the loop next to where the forest fire was yesterday.

Splits (except the last) are for 2 laps at a time, 0.4 miles:
449, 433, 429, 426, 420, 414, 411, 200

[Easy distance]

Cool down

We woke up at the cabin to news that there was a FOREST FIRE near our Los Gatos home. We soon discovered that it was out, but that it had burned 1.5 acres less than 200m from our house!!

We cut short our stay and drove home. By the time we got there, all fire crews were gone and power had been restored. One edge of the burned area was right next to the jeep trail loop next door that I run on.

Plenty of smoke in the air, but it was from a big fire in Solano County, not our nearby fire.

C • Yikes! 2