Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Orienteering at Diamond Bay, 11.1 kms. 100% sunny, temps below freezing, air nearly dead calm. In contrast to yesterday, when many people were out and about in the National Forest--including a fair number of shooters, today I didn't hear a single shot or any motorized sound the entire time I was out.

Orienteering at Diamond Bay, 12.2 kms. Nicest day of the week with full sun, light breeze, and temps up into the 40s. Not good preparation for what will be the coldest day next week, but so what. Lots of folks were out shooting, but none of them had a people tag, so it was all good.

Ran an old 8.2 km course at Pelican Bay in backwards order. Several of the control sites were vaguely familiar but I didn't remember anything about the legs in between, and really the whole thing felt new to me. Running legs into the general direction of the sun was interesting, as it tends to be this time of year. Sunny days average warmer, but cloudy days make the navigation much easier!

Only the tiniest bit of snow in very scattered patches out in the forest.

Saw one quite large cow moose while I was warming down and on my way back to the truck. I made a noise to alert her before I got close, and when she raised her hackles and turned to watch me, I gave her some extra space and looked back several times to make sure all was well.

Had a vaguely Possum Trottish dream last night, but not one which was historically accurate because there were no thorns in the forest.

Was wavering between doing some orienteering or the traditional long T-day run. The temps were right around freezing with the sun out, and I vowed that if it was above freezing when I came back from riding, then it would be O'. But by the time I had got back home, the wind had come up, clouds had swept in, and that was that.

I picked the Double Black Diamond trail for the excursion; somehow it seems to have recently been renamed to the Wallis Trail. Same trail either way. 5/6ths of the way around and right before hitting Baxter's Arete, I ducked down to the east on what appeared to be a well beaten side trail that was new to me. It dwindled to nothing right before the road, but so what. 2:48 out in all, with snow falling lightly for the last 95 minutes or so of that. Saw exactly nobody the entire time.

A few days ago while foraying around out at Telephone Song, I spotted a large chunk of jasper sitting on top of a very large and old stump which probably dated back to the days of the transcontinental railroad going through this area. I decided to try to recover the jasper, but to leave the old stump in place for someone else to find in a few hundred years. It seemed to me that a helicopter would not be able to get the job done, and I didn't have ready access to a large dozer. That left only one option: grunting it out by foot.

Today was the chosen day, and so I strapped on a backpack and headed out from where I parked my truck. Luckily the sun was out, and even more luckily there was a stiff wind which would help me back up the hill I would have to climb after collecting the stone. I had guessed I would have to walk back with the stone, but in fact I did better than I thought I might, and was able to jog all the way back. Or maybe it was just the wind. It was probably the wind.

Back home, I weighed my prize, using the standard measurement that professional geologists use, which is of course the Teacup Chihuahua. Why they use this particular measurement I don't know, but I suppose it is the usual thing where the aim is to use various jargon and arcane measurement systems to make it as hard as possible for laypeople to horn their way into a given profession. At any rate, my jasper specimen came in at a hefty 6.2 Teacup Chihuahuas.

Tisdags Träning: 8 x 5 min. intervals, + two giganto bull moose.

Hard to believe that the average house costs $584K in Bozeman, as reported in the NY Times today. Not hard to believe it would be a very attractive place to live, however.

Checking the weather last night, it looked like I could find some decent weather with sun today if I could get out around midday or not too much after, so I set plans to head out to Granite Planite for another test run on the September training course. Of course at this point it's nearly entirely a physical test and not so much a navigation technique test, but you still have to pay attention to what you're doing if you think the seconds matter. (Tip: the seconds do matter.)

For some inspiration, last night I watched and listened to some of the Swedish Long Distance Championships. If you're not paying attention too much here, maybe there is some cognitive dissonance, because the date on the video shows it being from about a week or so ago, and then you're watching the runners in short sleeves running through a green forest full of grass and leaves and flowers and maybe somewhere in the back of your mind you're barely noting that it sure seems awfully green and warm for Sweden in November. And then there is not a mask in sight on anyone and it looks completely normal except for maybe the lack of any numbers of spectators. Maybe it finally clicks in that "oh, wait, this was back from a couple of months ago."

An aside--not really sure how I feel about reklam out in the skog. Kind of like the euro-flop, I mean...well, whatever.

Anyway, it was fun to watch, and I got a useful quote for today when Helena Karlsson said in a Finish interview: "It takes time to orienteer when you''re tired." I like that, and the logical conclusion I took from that as I approached running today was: don't get tired! ; )

When I got on site, I did a thorough warm up, decided on a long sleeved t-shirt for a top, and assessed my chances of running a better time than what I've done so far as not too good--a lot of wind was coming right down the pipe out of the SW, and my legs felt only so-so, not good, not bad, hard to guess how they might be once I got started. So to the start, and off I went.

I had good flow all the way around, never got stuck behind some fallen tree or anything like that on any of the micro-micro route choices, and even if I didn't feel fast on the uphills, I didn't bog down anywhere either. And I finally nailed the next last control--which is harder than it looks, even if you know where it's supposed to be. And at the finish, when I checked the time, I was dumbfounded: 32:37, about 1 1/2 minutes faster than I had done it before. I checked my shoes, and they were still a falling apart, old set of training O' shoes, and not any newfangled Vaporfly style O' shoes. Must have been psyched from watching the stuff out of Sweden.