Training Log Archive: Spike

I took another day off. Cristina isn't training enough to keep me motivated!

C • Training 4

Skipped a run tonight because I need to devote some time to getting organized for the Castlewood Adventure Race on Saturday. John Clausen asked if I'd be interested in being on a team. He reached me at just the right time and I decided it'd be fun. The team isn't too serious, the goal is to have fun and get around the course. I've done a few local adventure races as a solo (which I think I prefer) and the Sunflower Games with Fletcher and Sandy.

I think it'll be fun. They're using USGS maps from MyTopo (or something like that). That's what I'd expected, but it is a shame to be using USGS when there's good lidar all around St Louis.

A snowy run on West Campus. We're in a "blizzard warning." That's unusual around here. We have a few inches of snow. It was also windy (I'd say a 6-7 on the Beaufort scale). The temp must have been in the mid-20s. In the woods it was very nice. It was a little bit of a chore running into the wind and in open areas. I stopped at the Daisy Hill bridge to see how strong the wind felt. That's about the windiest spot around here and the wind was strong - gusts might have touched an 8 on the Beaufort scale.

1

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @okansas on Nov 25, 2018 at 2:35pm PST

I shoveled when I got home. The snow hadn't stopped, but it seemed like it was near the end.

The snow was kind of heavy.

My toes got a little cold by the time I was done.

1

Slough Creek update: In the morning I made a few changes - mostly adding ditches based on the lidar and tweaking some of the rocky ground based on notes I took the last time I ran at Slough Creek.

Mary and I ran at Slough Creek today and I took a few minutes to check out some of the stuff I'd drawn this morning. It looked good. I'm getting a better feel for when the lidar data is showing me something that should be drawn as a ditch versus an intermittent stream.

During the run I took a couple of notes. I've got a few new black X features to add (a junked car, and abandoned hiking trail bridge, and a roll of barbed wire). I also noted a large open area that needs to have vertical green slow run added.

I think we could use the map now - as is - and it would be fine.

I drew a control picking course for Mary and Slough Creek and then decided I'd run it too. I got sidetracked a couple of times when I saw something and thought, "hmmm, better check that out, might need to add that to the map."

Other than thinking about map changes, I was concentrating well and felt like I was orienteering well.

Fun and mostly through quite pleasant forest. Slough Creek is nicer than it was when we used it in the 1980s.

3

I jogged around a bit until Mary finished and then I jogged over to the boat ramp parking lot on the east end of the map. Mary drove over there and met me there. It took me about 10 minutes longer than I'd expected because I couldn't help but check out a couple of areas I was interested in. I also got stuck in some crappy vegetation.

1

I checked out control locations and hung tapes for the New Year's Day orienteering at Rockhaven. I had to move one control location and will need to make a couple of little map changes. One nice change is that an area that was an open area that was getting overgrown with thorny stuff has now been cleared.

The trails are rocky and covered with leaves. That wasn't so nice for running. We should get a little snow and that'll make it a little better.

3

Mary asked me to prepare a new 10K course at Clinton State Park. I think she's tired of the old one. I drew up a course that was fairly easy, but had a few route choice options.

The map is KP + trails and a few other features added.

I shuffled around the course. For the most part I felt good. I've got no strength to climb, but otherwise I felt ok running. I got tired around 80 minutes.

My navigation was so-so. I didn't really lose time, but I wasn't sharp or concentrated.

I stopped once to get a thorn out of my shoe. I took one pretty hard fall on a trail.

5