Training Log Archive: maprunner

Worked at home, so I was able to track during a conference call.

Vetting control locations for Eric's Rockcrusher course. I was tired, so I took it slow and easy. Nice warm day, with enough snow left in the woods in order to see lots of cool animal tracks. Also saw a red-tailed hawk and one bald eagle.

C • Tracks 2

From time to time, people tell me they would like an OK top. Well, we are ordering some more OK tops (T shirt and singlets) right now. Let me know if you are interested in buying one.

Smithville Lake

Blair and I drove up to the PTOC event (Mike was sick and stayed home). It was above freezing at the start, and warming up as we ran, which was nice. Jason E set the courses (maybe his first time?). He did a reasonable job with a weird-shaped old map. But it was a runner's course, which is not my forte. (Course length was 5.8 k, but I ran 8.4k)

I debated doing the shorter intermediate course, but eventually went out on the longer course. In the beginning, I was really regretting it. My legs were tired from yesterday (and all week, actually). I was thinking too much about how I felt and messed up the 1st control. I saw the marker, but then decided it was not mine and hunted a bit more before coming back to it.

Laura E punched 1 just ahead of me and she motivated me to try to keep up with her (she's a fast runner). We saw each other off and on through the middle part of the course, and were together from 8 onward (she beat me by less than 2 minutes).

I did OK on route choice after 1, except for missing the obvious field option to 5.

From control 7 to the end, the "fields" on the map all contained 4-5 foot tall corn stalks, making them almost impassable. That affected route choice a lot.

I was ahead of Laura heading to 11 and I ran pretty hard on the road. Too hard, I think, because I made a mistake leaving 11. I had a plan and started towards the road. But then I took a face-plant on a ruined fence, and was all mixed up. I looked up and saw Laura running away on a trail, and I blindly followed her. It was long, weaving trail and totally not what I wanted to do.

(I will try to add my map later; DOMO is not working for me right now).

Nice conversation and company with Blair, glad he was able to come with me today.

Back with my trainer Eric.
Tonight's set:
20X walking lunge (body weight +24 lbs)
10X TRX row
15X squat thrust (50 lbs)
10x seated row (unknown weight)

One more vacation day, to unpack. And get a massage. She noted that my quads were tired, and my hip flexors really tight. She did a great job of loosening me up. I felt great; so glad I planned to do this after a week of skiing.

We had time for one last ski, so we went to Blacktail Plateau. This was our first sunny day, and also the coldest (-10c). Some other folks had been there before us to set some tracks in the fresh show. We didn't see any other people until we were on our way back.

We did have to pass close by two bison, which is always a bit dicey. But they were not interested in us and we passed right by.

We saw lots of fresh tracks (elk, bison, coyote, mouse) but no animals (other than the bison).

Back to Tower for another long uphill ski. Fresh snow had fallen overnight, so again, conditions were great. We stopped briefly at Tower on the way up. We continued up the hill. Mike wanted to go the full loop, and come down by the campground, since the snow was kind of slow and the steep section would not be too bad. But the week of skiing catching up to me, and I got tired and asked to turn around before we reached the junction.

Going back down was not as fast as usual (due to the fresh snow) which was a bummer. I like being able to slide down this hill.

We stopped at Tower again for a brief lunch, then stopped at Calcite for one last photo. Then the last stretch downhill. We saw some bison, but not as close as last time.

Back to Gardiner and we tried to eat at the Corral again but it was full. So we go an order to go and ate in the hotel room.

One last ski at Old Faithful. We went to Castle Geyser and back. Had to check out of the cabin by 11 am. Then we hiked around the geyser basin for an hour before our snow coach ride back to Mammoth. Our driver was Darla, who we have had many times over the years. She is really fond of dippers , and we did see one on the drive.

Ski to Lone Star Geyser. I was tired from yesterday, so I convinced Mike to get a ski drop to take us up the hill. We started at the road with 2 other groups: the first time we had seen other people while skiing on this trip.

Fresh snow had fallen and the trail was flat and groomed, so it was a fabulous day to ski. I also love the scenery along this route.

We made it to Lone Star in the middle of an eruption. That's 3 out of 4 times we have seen it erupt.

Then we explored a little bit past Lone Star, just to see what it was like. Another nice trail.

And finally left Lone Star, along the flat road, and stopped at Kepler Cascades. We had to wait for some snowmobilers to leave but then we had it to ourselves.

Then it was really fun to ski downhill on the road. When we hit the old forest road, we rejoined the trail and continued downhill to the lodge. Wheee!

We finally did it! We skied to Fairy Falls and back. We had tried in past years to ski from the lodge, but the Power Line trail has always done me in.

This time, I'm fitter, and we started at the drop point (road junction). The weather was good (just about 0c) and the snow was perfect. We were the first (and only) people on the trail. We went straight to Fairy Falls. They were half frozen and half flowing. It was beautiful.

On the way back, we stopped to walk up to the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook. It was amazing even under cloudy skies.

We saw some recent coyote tracks as we neared the road, and eventually, we saw the coyote himself. It was fun the track an animal!

Then we had to get back along the Power Line trail. It was not as bad as I remembered from past years, although there were a few hard uphills. Half way, we found a bison right next to the trail. He was not inclined to move, so we had to backtrack a bit and bushwhack to the road. This was through about 3 feet of soft powder and it was tough. Of course I fell, and then I had a really hard time getting back up.

We skied on the road for a bit, then cut back in again through the deep snow. I'm glad that Mike went first to break the trail.

We did a side trip to Black Sand Pool on the way back. Our snow coach driver had recommended lying down to better feel/hear the booming eruption, so I did. It was cool; I heard it before Mike did.(Check out Spike's log for some photos, including one of me lying on the ground :)

We finally made it back to the cabin. I was tired, but not wiped. I think 20k is the longest I have ever gone on my own legs.

Total time: 7 hrs

We got up early to take the snow coach down to Old Faithful. We had a small group in the van, which was nice. And there were new (to us) snow coaches with giant tires instead of treads: a much smoother ride.

At one of our stops, we were all looking at the Firehole River, and I noticed a small head sticking up. I asked our guide if it was an otter, and it was! This was our first river otter spotting in all our years in Yellowstone. We watched it swim downstream, undulating through the water. It was much longer than I expected.

After we got to Old Faithful and checked into our cabin, we headed right out for a ski around the geyser basin. We made it to Morning Glory and back. Ski conditions were not great: it was fairly warm and the snow was sticky and slow. Also, my right boot was a bit tight and I was getting a hot spot on my pinky toe. We went to the ski shop and exchanged for wider boots.

Total time 1:45

Then we went up toward's Mallard Lake. This is a steep up hill which has scared me in the past. But my technique has improved over the years. And the sticky snow made it pretty good for controlling the downhill speed (enough to glide, but able to stay in control). Mike filmed me going downhill; you can see the video on his log. This was a fun ski. And still no other people!

Total time: 1:15

Our first ski was at Tower. This is a good place to get back in the groove: it is an easy up and down on a road. We went to Calcite Springs overlook, where we take a picture on every trip.

We didn't see another person, which is rare on this route. But we did see a mini-stampede of about 20 bison just ahead of us in the road. That was cool.

The tracks are from Mike's GPS, so the HR is his, not mine. And he often tracked only one direction. I am logging moving time, not total time, for the whole trip.

Moving: 1 hr
Total 1.5 hr

After Tower, we drove through the Lamar Valley (lots of bison) to Pebble Creek (a total of 5 moose, including my first bull moose sighting) and the hill where we always see bighorn sheep. We went to Bannock trail. The snow was great this year and we were all alone the whole time.

I did OK on skiing technique in the beginning. As we got to some steep up and down mini hills near the end, I started to get tired and my herringbone technique fell apart. I got frustrated and started to fall. I was in a mood as we finished. Guess it was too long for the first day back on skis.

Once again, we didn't see another person. Amazing!

We stayed in Gardiner (Best Western) since the Mammoth Hotel in under renovation this winter. Had a fantastic hamburger at The Corral for dinner.

We saw little evidence of a government shut down. There was no entrance fee and the visitor's center was closed. But the bathrooms were all clean and stocked (volunteers were keeping things going).

total time: 2:30:00

We arrived in Yellowstone in time to get in a short hike around the Mammoth Terraces.

Sandy and I went for a hike at the Baker wetlands.

Possum Trot one hour score at Shawnee Mission Park.
I decided to take it easy today, mostly because of the fresh snow on the ground, which made for tough running.
The trail leaving 2 was a real mess, so I decided to go south to get to 7, but that was an even worse choice. Couldn't cut through the "white" woods and had to go way out of the way.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

See Spike's log for three pretty pictures of today's race

I ran the course that Mike drew for himself, and had run earlier. "Run" for me is not really true; the snow definitely impacted my pace. I also did not want to go down and up the second hill, so I skipped a bunch of controls.

He had warned me that the trail on the north side of the pond was a mess, and the trail leaving the last control was non-existent. So I took some different routes.

I had fun following Mike's tracks, and looking for animal tracks in the snow. I didn't see many. I think they were smarter than us and stayed in bed all day.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

My trainer couldn't meet me today, so I had to train on my own. I made up the set.

30X walking lunge (body weight + 20 lbs)
15X elevated push ups
15X hamstring slides
15X incline press (10lb each arm)

Drove home from St Louis this afternoon. Made it back in time to go for a short run on west campus. It felt really good to move around and be outside in the sun.

A crazy busy day at work followed by a relaxing dinner at Dressel's with my boss. Nice to go back to an old favorite restaurant from grad school days, but now on the company dime :)

some quick sprint drills and arm weight work in the hotel gym

On a work trip to St Louis, so I did a bit of exercise in the hotel gym.

I hated to waste today by driving. It was sunny and 20C. Every time I stopped at a rest stop for a break, I also ran around the building once just to feel like I had been outside for a bit.

Back out to Woodridge to pick up the mini-markers that had been put out as a practice course over the holidays. My body and brain were functioning much better today.

Mike drew me a nice long course at Rockcrusher. It was beautiful 15C day, and I was looking forward to orienteering. I deliberately went through the woods (which are really crappy) because I want the practice and the trails were a mess.

Unfortunately, I left my brain at home and had a terrible time executing this course.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

Tonight's set:

12X squat (body weight +25 lbs)
10X single arm press (on my back) (15 lbs)
10X RDL (body wight +30 lbs)
15X face pull (25 lbs)

Event: OK: Rockhaven New Year
 

2019 Goals

Overall: 263 hours of training
Orienteering: 90 hours
Races: Win a medal at both Master’s Champs :)

OK annual New Year's Day event. Mike set the courses at Rockhaven this year, and made a "dog bones" course.

I worked registration with Fritz and then changed clothes with just a few minutes to spare before the mass start.

Sandy, Bill and I started off in the same direction. I ran like hell because I was really cold (it was -6), especially my fingers. My mind was not into this. This seems to happen whenever I work registration. I get excited talking to all the newcomers (one of my Women in O from 12/23 came today) and I can't turn my brain back to O.

That's OK. I was fine with moving around in the woods today, and not being the best at O execution (or even training). Some days are just like that.

I enjoyed the challenge of the Dog Bone score format. I saw Sandy and Bill every so often, although they were running fast and I was walking and occasionally jogging. They both beat me, of course.

I had to really push it at the end, and I still was 30 seconds late. But I'm glad I pushed in to the finish, because I beat Paul by only 5 seconds.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...