Training Log Archive: Tundra/Desert

The format was quite messed-up. It was declared a "New Year's Resolution Tester" White course. The route was actually marked on the map, but we didn't know how many controls there were, or where. Due to the park restricitions, we couldn't go off-trail, and to add to the ranger's control-freakiness, she insisted on knowing the routes. So we had to follow the line, and to "punch" at the controls.
What would have been most interesting is if we'd had to point the controls on the map. Then, I would have actually maintained map contact. Even with the exercise as it was, I managed to miss two controls (pie plates). I was alerted to one of those by Steve Haas, who covered the pie plate as I was running by—inadvertently? This one cost me about 3:30, as he would only reveal the fact that he had found it after an interrogation while running up a hill. The second one missed was the last control—my fault as I didn't read the event notes. Another minute. Lost to Syd.

Bus.

This is a rest week, taken early. I was quite devoid of energy after the 50K. Also, my knees hurt a bit; does not feel like anything serious. I guess one thing I really need to start doing is twice-a-day runs; a morning or an early lunch run, and then a short 7- or 10-km in the evening.

The bus.

Baylands ×3: 25:30, 24:20, 22:59. Just a bit of mud.

A neighborhood shuffle around the block (Homestead, Grant, Fremont, Fallen Leaf), late in the evening.

Strides around the 330-m apartment complex drive; 30 seconds "on", 1:00 "off", and finished 6 laps in the end. Paces/min: 180 184 184 182 184 180. Does being tired improve the stride rate?

Warmup before the race. (No website for the race, no web results.) Was a little trashed from the night but not too much.
Stretching was 5:00.

Sea Breeze "5 mile", Berkeley Marina. 5th/about 61. The winner was 28:09. After an initial "out", very close to a mile by my and others' timing, the race made two laps around a just-under-1.5 mile trail, which had quarter-mile marks; very convenient, lap times. But after that, there was an add-on which clearly made the race longer than 5 miles; felt like about 400 m, which more than compensated for the laps being shorter than 1.5's. My best guess for the overall length is 8.2 km. Splits: 5:45 6:05 2:42 6:14 4:23 5:55; four of those are believed to be accurate miles.
The scaled time for a proper 5-mile would have been 30:29, which leaves me with Vdot = 55. There was no improvement or deterioration over the 110-km weeks and the rest weeks.

The celebration was a lot less ghetto this year than last year.

December 2001: 22.7 hours, 195 km.
December 2002: 29.4 hours, 303 km.
Hours: +30%; km: +56%.

"Not drinking at all [is] as bad for the heart as morbid obesity." That's the New York Times today.