Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Ellison Wetlands. Splendid day, way better than the forecast. Sunny, mid 50's. Trails in stellar condition, virtually no mud. From Empire to Old Browncroft, via the "long" way (white trail, which goes along the creek for a ways).

Went with Homer (the doggy) and Anne. Anne and I went at somewhat different paces, so I doubled back on multiple locations to regain contact with her.

Training session at Ellison Park, organized by Steve Tylock. The first exercise was to compare times when doing one particular leg, where the route choices were either relatively straight but over one (or two, depending on specific choices) very significant hills, or taking a flat but longer route.

My results:

Trial 1 (over): 0.18 miles, 5:15, about 45 meters of climb and the same amount of descent. Average pace: 29:21/mile. Of some significance: The downhill on the hill just before the control was extremely steep and thus tough to make good time (was going very slowly and cautiously). Also, it was indeed possible to go around the second hill instead of up and over, and it was certainly a better route choice. Richard Burgey went up and over the first hill, and I was making much better time than he was. For the second hill, he (and Rob S.) went around, which was alongside a swamp and with no mapped trail. Richard got to the next control and I was still struggling with the steep downhill.

Trial 2 (around): 0.29 miles, 2:32, essentially zero climb, 10 meters of descent, average pace: 8:47/mile

The lessons: (1) Significant climb is to be avoided, even if it looks a lot shorter. (2) What looked like a large difference in distance (over vs around), really wasn't all that significant (about 60% longer) when considering both the climb and steep descent, and that even w/o the climb and descent, you can go a lot faster on a trail than through woods.

The second exercise was an unofficial one that Rob S., Rob H., and I did, while waiting for others to finish the first exercise. It was to compare the left route with the right route for the 8-9 leg from last year's sprint. At a quick glance, the two routes looked pretty similar. And in fact, they were. My results:

Going right: 0.12 miles, 0:55
Going left: 0.13 miles, 0:59

Only 4 seconds difference -- and that's probably within experimental error (maybe I was just running a bit harder in one case than the other, for example). So maybe a lesson in this is that if you have a leg where it looks pretty similar going right vs left, if there aren't any big differences in runnability which there weren't in this case, just pick one, don't spend even 10 seconds pondering which one may be "ideal". (Rob and Rob had similar results to mine, I believe; not much difference between routes.)

Good turnout for the training session, which was nice, especially considering that the weather was less than ideal (mid to upper 30's, a bit windy, rain forecast).

Morning run, to beat the rain (I did). Urban run.

Rough route: From Park Ave. near Berkeley, ran west on Park just a few blocks, then to East, to Culver, to Clifford, to Goodman, to Main, to Alexander, to East, to a street just a little before Culver, to Park, and back to the car.

Mid to upper 60's, partly sunny, a bit of a breeze. Carried a water bottle and I was glad I had it (although I only drank about half of it).

Trip out to Webster to hit three areas that weren't sufficiently field checked previously.

This SHOULD wrap up the field checking for the Webster map.

Still more Webster field checking. This is the last planned day of field work. The intent is to complete the OCAD drafting tonight, which may well lead to some more field checking, if I encounter parts of the map during drafting where some more information is needed. Tomorrow (from morning until the rain is forecast, sometime mid afternoon) is allotted for final field work if needed.

Mapping at Webster Park. Mainly south central portion. Two trips total -- did some in the morning, then had a poorly planned 11:00 oil change appt. After that, went home for a bite to eat, then another stint in the early afternoon.

Warm up for intervals.

Intervals on Woodland Lane. 8x400 meters.

Average 1:38. Range: 1:30 to 1:42.

Webster mapping. Western part of park.