Training Log Archive: Spike

Short night course on the little 1:10,000 map of the nieghborhood and Holcom Park. I printed the map at 1:7500 to make it a bit easier for my eyes to see.

In the middle of a leg I spotted what looked like a handgun next to a fence in the park. The leg was a dogleg and when I passed by it again I stopped and took a closer look. It sure looked like a real handgun and not some sort of toy or replica. It had some writing on it and I memorized it. When I got home, I Googled it and, sure enough, it seemed to be a real 9 mm handgun.

I jogged back over to the rec center and borrowed their phone to call the PD. They arrived pretty quickly and I took the officer over to show her what I'd found (still not certain it was a real gun). She confirmed it was a real gun. So she took some info from me for her report and let me jog home (I was starting to get a bit cold).

I can't think of any good reason for a handgun to wind up next to a fence in the park.

So that was a small adventure.

3rd of 31.

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A post shared by @okansas on Jan 3, 2018 at 5:38pm PST

C • t-shirt 3

Some jogging.

Jogging on West Campus to/from the start and finish. I saw some sort of animal in the underbrush. At first I thought it was a deer, but on closer look it didn't seem to be a deer and when it moved away it didn't sound like a deer running away. I've no idea what it was.

I found a map with a short control picking sprint course through the science buildings. Mary set the course and ran it at some point. It looked just right for tonight. I ran it as a night sprint at a steady pace but not especially hard. The course was fun with lots of direction changes and a few places where avoiding out-of-bounds and uncrossable walls took a couple of looks. Fun.

2nd of 31.

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C • that would be a good O run 1

31 Day Challenge (modified) starts today.

The original 31 Day Challenge is to run (or bike or ski) an orienteering course every day in January. The modified challenge is to see how long it takes to do 31 days with some orienteering.

The idea of the modified 31 Day Challenge is to reach 31 days as soon as possible, but to allow for an occasional day off. If you are working all day, then catching a late flight to go to Atlanta for orienteering, you can take that day off. Under the original 31 Day Challenge, you can't take that day off.

Jogging on trails with Fritz at Rockhaven.

I went out to Rockhaven to be there in case anyone didn't get the word about the event being postponed. I'd also planned to meet Fritz. He knew the event was postponed, but wanted to do a run.

Fritz pulled in to the parking area together with a white pickup truck...Dan W. Dan didn't get word of the postponed event. I gave him a map from an old event at Rockhaven and suggested he do a map hike to make the trip worthwhile. He did. We spotted him while we ran and his truck was gone when we got back.

Fritz and I jogged through a course. Fun.

The most interesting part of the run was when we were near the shore and heard a strange sound from the ice on the lake. I can't really describe it, but it was loud and booming and a bit spacey. I guess it is from movement in the ice caused by wind?

Oh, speaking of wind, the wind died down in the time we were running and the temparture rose. It was 0F when we started and was up to 8F when we finished. The sun made it pretty comfortable for running, especially when the wind died down.

1st of 31

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Jogging to/from the start and finish on West Campus.

I ran a course on West Campus that included the West Campus portion of the 2013 Tour de KU. I added a bunch of extra markers to make it more like a control picking course.

It was chilly (9F) and a steady N wind blew...but I was dressed for it and was comfortable.

A day or two ago, Mary mentioned that she'd seen a coyote on West Campus. I don't ever recall seeing a coyote on West Campus, though I've seen them running across Clinton Parkway. Then today I saw 2 coyotes near the radio tower. Fun. I've heard that there was some sort of disease (canine distemper perhaps?) that was reducing the local coyote population. That was also an explanation for the booming rabbit population. Maybe the coyotes are coming back.

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I decided to postpone the New Year's Day orienteering at Rockhaven. The NWS issued a wind chill warning. The forecast is for cold temps (low around -8F and a high around 7 F). The wind would make those temps feel a good bit colder.

I kind of hate postponing an event. I think I'd manage those conditions without any trouble, but I don't think it is a good idea to put other people out there. Also, handling registration and results would be a chore (shelter with electricity, but no walls and exposed to some wind).

C • Probably the right call. 3

Shuffling around Woodridge. I checked on the permanent controls and replaced controls that were missing. I was surprised that the controls that are most visible from a trail were all in place, but some of those that were most off-the-beaten-path were gone. I last checked all of the controls almost 2 years ago, so some maintenance was overdue.

It was chilly (12F). In the beginning, I was a little cold when I was in the open area and heading into the wind, but after a few minutes, I was fine.

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Got off work a little early and had enough time to get in a bit of a daylight trail run at Clinton before heading over to Mom and Ron's for dinner. S, A, A and V are heading home tomorrow.

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A post shared by @okansas on Dec 29, 2017 at 2:44pm PST

Jogging over to Mom and Ron's for dinner.

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