Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Bayfront. Brown course from June 15, 2014 (which I hadn't run before). 4.4 km, 84m climb. Grass was surprisingly high, From an inch or two to six inches, making running more difficult. Nevertheless, maintained a steady pace throughout, only occasionally walking a couple of steps in the most heavily vegetated parts. Didn't push it more than an ordinary run. Believe I nailed all the controls.

This is obvious, but it would be so much better if I could run most of my runs through terrain, reading a map. I felt very steady, reading the map only when necessary, and doing so on the run. Sure, the familiarity with this park helped, but I think just having run an O-race at Berkeley two days ago helped more. Doing something this two or three times a week would make a huge difference.

Bushes have expanded quite a bit since this event, making some of the control sites a bit inaccurate. Remapping needed before this park is used again.

On the day of the event, winning time was 4052 by Lauren Knight. Nick Corsano was third in 4453, Evan C 4th in 5016.

Lost :10 to :20 at the end of #9 and #17; might have been easier if there were controls out there. For #15, the lower route on the (unmapped) path would have been faster, but took the upper route for better training.

[Orienteering training]

Warm up: 8 min, .75 mi

Cool down: 6 min, 0.35 mi

Late in the afternoon, drove back from Berkeley after spending the night at George and Leslie's.

Event: BAOC: University of California Berkeley
 

UC Berkeley. Sprint A. Started 10:20. After two mistakes on #1, pretty steady, ran pretty hard. A distant second to Aron Walker, but several good runners ran this as part of a 3 loop motala so they weren't included.

Had stayed in SF the night before (and stayed up late). Got to Berkeley early, intending to take a nap, but meet organization was rather lacking, so jumped in and helped in several ways. No assigned start times, just go when you want, and I was a bit frazzled by then.

#1. Mistakenly thought that the sidewalk right next to the building didn't go through; think I misinterpreted the index contour as a barrier. Ran on the sidewalk along the street and cut up through the little patch of grass, so that only cost a few seconds. However, hadn't taken a look at the clue sheet prior to starting (ad hoc starts, as mentioned above), and when looking at it on the run, thought the first three controls were distinct trees. #1, though, was actually a monument, so when I got to the center of the circle and there was no tree, I was mighty confused. Took about 30 secs to double check that I was in the right place and then find the bag buried in the bushes. Mark P was coming up to the control by then, and Matej (running the individual motala) was right behind him.

#2, Perhaps going N of the building would have been shorter. Well, that would definitely have been shorter, but maybe not much quicker as it would have required more map reading.

#5. Matej passed me going to 4, and I could still see him going to 5, though he was well ahead. Trying not to be influenced by him, but didn't see him punch 5 and didn't read the map carefully, so I was at the underpass before I realized I'd already passed the control. Looked back, and there it was. Lost about :15.

#6. Didn't look at the clue sheet until halfway there, and that's when I realized that I needed to go under the deck I was on (that realization was helped by remembering that there'd been a control there a few years ago). Didn't hesitate, but the better route would've been going around the N side of the building and thus avoiding going up and down stairs, as I did. There was plenty of time to look ahead while going to #4, so I should have been able to avoid this mistake.

Rest of the course went well, felt strong running, and good advanced map reading on 7, 9 and 10, so I was charging all the way through.

[Orienteering Sprint Race]

Warm up: 8 min, ~0.7 miles. Felt pretty good physically, but harried and didn't have the patience for more warm up.

Cool down: 6 min, ~0.35.

All day strategic planning offsite with the BAOC Board.

Later, found out power finally came on at home; drove to SF, met Louise, Rachel and Allie for dinner, then stayed at the Tuscan in North Beach.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises: stretching, strength and balance.

Local terrain: old jeep trail loop. Just loosening up. Legs felt kind of heavy, but ran pretty smoothly.

452, 425, 403

[Easy distance]

Cool down. Just got a message from PG&E saying our power should be restored in two hours. (Note from later: it wasn't.)

Happy that our power is coming back (it didn't come back for another 27 hours), we go for a walk down George's road to MacKenzies, then up the trail behind our house. It's sunny, everything is beautiful and green, and there's even a little water fall trickling from the edge of our property down onto MacKenzie's road.

At home. All the upper body stuff, half to two-thirds the core, no adductors or glutes.

[Strength exercises]

Local terrain: old jeep trail loop on the property next door.

Finally, a sunny day! Once again, really like running on this loop. Feels like running through really open woods. L was out there, too, running easy distance.

Warm up: 3 x [2 x loop], 1.2 miles: 508, 421, 408 Total: 1337

(continuing from warmup without stopping...)

Intervals: 3 x [3 x loop], 1.8 miles:
529 [53], 526 [101], 523 Total: 1619 + 154 rest (Avg: 337 per 2 loops)

Excellent workout, feeling it at the end. Still could have pushed the last one harder, but stayed under control in deference to the Berkeley meet coming up Sunday, the only sprint race I have prior to WMOC in late April.

The intervals were actually at a slighter faster pace than two weeks ago even though today I did them for 3 laps instead of 2.

[Threshold Intervals]

Cool down. After walking for a minute, jogged on the loop in various directions for 10 minutes.

At home. Theraband interleaved with core, adductors, 12 bar dips, glute exercises with yellow band, weights. Full amount of everything.

Drove back from the cabin, leaving at 9:30am to try the beat the next storm. Got home at 3, and by then it was raining. By 4pm there were gale force winds, and very large tree cracked and fell across our driveway, trapping us in - not that we could've gone anywhere anyway since all the roads out were blocked, too.

Rainy day at the cabin. Got out for a short walk, mostly back and forth near Christy's.

Kortum Trail, Sonoma St Beach. From Blind Beach parking to Shell Beach parking and back. Howling wind from the north. Trail was wet and muddy, with streams running down the middle on the hills. Having run through stuff like that last week at Morgan Territory, just decided to plow through everything, and it was fun. Felt strong at the start and with the wind at my back, ran hard.

I. Blind Beach parking to Sunset Rocks: .52 mi, 6:33

Ran hard up the hill, in O2 debt well before the top. Coasted down. This is a fast split.

II. Sunset Rocks to Shell Beach parking: 1.26 mi, 11:24

Threshold pace. Had to push it by the end and was quite tired, but it was a good segment.

III. Jog in parking lot: 0.15 mi, 3:03

Waiting for Louise

IV. Back to Sunset Rocks: 1.27 mi, 14:22

Really tough running into the wind. Was trying to run at moderate pace, but it was hard, and hard to not get blown off the trail.

IV. Cool down. Mostly walking, a little jogging. Trying to skirt a puddle, wound up on the wrong trail. Tried to go cross-country to get back, wound up on the road, which was a better choice anyway.

[Running Threshold]

The usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises: stretching, strength and balance. Last weekend, didn't do the strength and balance exercises prior to pliates (Sat) or Morgan Territory (Sun).

Left for the cabin about 12:30. Nicer weather than we'd been having. After lunch in SF, rendezvoused with Rachel outside of Novato, taking a lovely alternative route to the packed 101. But near Valley Ford, we were forced onto detours twice due to road flooding, so wound up having dinner in Bodega Bay before finally getting to the cabin, and by then it was raining again.

JCCLG. Pushed everything. Moved up to 27.5 lbs for curls. 12 bar dips. Did glute exercises with the yellow band. Felt pretty strong.

[Strength exercises]

JCCLG. Actually did this as a warmup, before the strength exercises. Felt pretty fluid, even imagined my legs felt good (surprising after yesterday's hill running), but tried jumping a little and that's when I realized that my legs were indeed tired. Jogged outside for 20 seconds, which only confirmed that.

Local terrain and front of house. Nice day. Legs feel surprisingly good. Sunday's race made me feel like I need some hill work, so did some.

3 x (2 x old jeep trail loop): 458, 425, 359

Down to bottom of trail behind house (cutting across switchbacks): 154

Up the trail: 153

Down Skyline to beginning of usual long hill repeat: 545

Hill: 530(329)

Recovery jog (ending up at mailbox): 133

1 front of house loop: 457

Tough workout!

[Hill intervals]

Cool down:

329 Jog on Skyline
133 Walk, stretch
703 Jog half mile on Skyline

At home. Upper body only (because I was short on time and I'm doing plenty of core work in the morning). Full sets, reps and weights for all 6 exercises (3 with theraband, 2 with weights, bar dips).

Rest day. Legs don't feel too bad.

Event: BAOC: Morgan Territory
 

Morgan Territory. Brown 3.7 km, 130m. (I count the climb as 170.) Second, far behind a Red runner on Brown, well ahead of everyone else.

What fun! Sunny, cool and breezy, ground was soft, hills were green. Lots of muddy areas, but didn't cause me any problems. A little extra cautious on some rocky downhills (rocks were slippery), but that didn't cost me much.. Matej's courses made excellent use of the technical terrain, so even though I've been in those areas dozens of times, it was pretty much as if I'd never been there. Clearly not in the shape I was when the US Champs were here last March, but that's no surprise (e.g., I haven't run hill intervals in ages). Felt rusty, but still navigated very well and fairly aggressively. Lost 1:45 on #5, partly due to poor strategy, then mostly to over running it. Lost :30 on #4, but that was due to the control marker being improperly hidden behind a tree. Appear to have lost :30 on #7 even though I executed it well. I think that might have been because there were a lot of young people on the course who just were able to run the uphill parts faster than me; also, the road might have been a faster option, though I shied away from that because it was muddy. Otherwise, a few minor bobbles.

Afterwards, got really chilled working for an hour in the epunch tent. Of course, that chill in the air must've helped not over heat on the course - ran in a short sleeve O-top.

Note on GPS track: When I arrived at #2, I accidentally hit the pause button instead of the split button. Didn't discover that until after I left #3. So, the track is missing about 2:10 (my split on #3 was 1:57); #2 was where that straight line heading N is, and, starting with #4, the control numbers on the track are 2 less than the actual control numbers.

1. Familiarity with the area enabled me to head for the road after only a quick glance at the map. At the T-intersection, paused for a couple of seconds to make sure my plan was good. Aimed off a little to the right, visually spotted the hill a little further right; soon as I spotted the reentrant, veered to run along its left side until I spotted the control.

2. Knew my exit direction, so headed that way while I tried to make a plan. Didn't have a great one: just get over the ridge and hope I can identify features. Felt more tired than I expected getting up that ridge. Once over it, looked for the trail, and when I reached it, recognized that I was at the subtle saddle between the index contours, 40m to the right of the straight line, but at least in a definite spot. Bearing from there, soon spotted the small hill, then the snag, then the bag tucked in behind it.

3. Knew which way to turn, but hadn't examined the leg at all, so stood still for a few secs. My bearing had me headed down a fairly large reentrant, which I didn't want to do and could match up exactly to the map. So, headed instead to the subtle from whence I had come, which wasn't too far out of the way and had the advantage of being physically easy to get to and being a definite spot. From there headed on a bearing. Noticed I was running parallel to a rocky ridge on my right, which I hadn't noticed on the map - but I HAD noticed that the control should be on a hill sloping down to my right, so realized it was likely that I needed to be on the other side of those rocks. Quick stop to check, now saw the ridge; pace count was telling me that I was almost to the control already, so crossed the ridge, and there was the bag.

4. This one I had a fairly good look at beforehand. Realized the feature (a copse in front of a larger stand of trees) would be tough to recognize, but figured I could judge the location in relation to the jeep road beyond and the pond beyond that, so proceeded quickly (though distracted momentarily by noticing that my watch was in "resume?" mode, meaning I'd accidentally stopped it somewhere, and I had to think about which buttons to hit to get it going again). Got to where I had a good look at the stand of trees that I thought should be the desired copse, but couldn't see a bag, so kept going to the right. But looking at the rocks above, thought, "that MUST be the copse", so looked in that direction, and from this angle I could now see the bag, tucked inappropriately behind a random tree. Lost about :30 on that one (not my fault), though the splits didn't catch it, I guess because I'd run the first part of the leg so well. Later, when I pointed out to the course setter the inappropriateness of that placement, he said another very experienced orienteer had pointed that out, too.

5. First thought was to just rough compass towards the last hill before the road. But then chickened out a little and instead headed for that subtle saddle that I'd already been to twice. - a bit out of the way, but, again, at least a known point. However, once I struggled up and over the ridge, I didn't see that saddle; assumed I was off to the left, so went back to the original thought of just heading to the last hill. Spotted a snag that looked an awful lot like the one where #3 was, but there was no bag; probably should have paused to try to identify where I was, but didn't. Soon spotted what I figured must be the hill I wanted. Somehow, I expected the bag would be visible from my approach line (it was actually well over the ridge line) so when I didn't see it, got concerned that maybe this wasn't the last hill. So, kept going to the top of the hill, and from there I could see the road, so knew for sure that I was on the right hill and that I had to turn back. Now realized that the bag would be below the ridgeline, so kept my eyes there and soon saw it. Lost about 1:45.

6. Rough compass, rather cautiously descended over wet and slippery rocks. Expected to use the jeep trail as a handrail, keeping it on my road, but found myself heading straight towards it, and it was a big curve, which I wasn't expecting, so had to stop for a moment to check the map, make sense of what I was seeing, and then proceed directly to the control.

7. Had checked the left route before I got to #6, but it was clearly too long, so proceeded towards the right flank of the hill. It was tempting to just get on the road, but it had been so muddy walking to the start, that I decided to stay 30 m into the terrain. On the last hill, the mapped vegetation seems to have grown further up the hill, so I had to snake around a bit to get through, and finally had to drop a bit to get to the bag. Splits flagged me as losing :40; I'm guessing that many people ran the road and that that was faster.

8.Again stayed off the raod. Over the little terrace, then good job of reading map and terrain on the run, directly to the control.

9. Had looked this leg over in advance, so left #8 without looking at the map, but almost immediately saw a fence dead ahead - but I was supposed to be running uphill, parallel to the fence. Checked map and compass, made a 90 degree left, and now was on track. (Was a little lucky here: though the piece of fence I saw is clearly an extension of the ruined fence that's on the map, that particular piece is not on the map.) Legs felt tired, so made no attempt to run up the long hill. Walking gave me a chance to study the rest of the leg (as well as the first half of the leg to #10), so when I got up to the saddle, was able to run the rest of the leg with only a few glances at the map.

10. As indicated, I'd already worked out the first part of the leg, so wasted no time in getting up to the fire road (had to walk the last bit) and then took the right fork then the left, and headed for the T-junction. Trees obscured the view of the reentrant I wanted to go up, but without hesitating, used the features I could see to the right and left and nailed the reentrant. Also didn't let a big lake of mud and wet ground deter me. Remembered that at the top of this reentrant was where I made my big mistake last March, so was extra focused. This time everything made sense and I nailed it.

11. Had already planned this one out, deciding on going around the right side of the hill to make the next leg a dogleg. Managed to jog all the way up to the saddle, then kept jogging E along the contour. (At this point Steve Harrison came up behind me, moving much faster than I was, but he was headed for a control beyond mine.) When I got past the southern most part of the hill, could see the rocky ground above, so angled up and nailed it.

12. Back the way I came. Proceeded W across the saddle, then took a compromise route between going directly over the hill and contouring all around, angling up just as much as I could without having to walk. Started walking when I got to the edge of the forest to makes sure I could interpret what was ahead, and very quickly saw the bag ahead, so started jogging again, though it was slow going with rocks and deadfall. (Meanwhile Steve H was coming over the top of the hill to my right and got to the bag ahead of me.)

13. Continuing to contour was the first option, but it was very junky ahead, so climbed just a little into the clearing, took a rough bearing, saw that the terrain ahead was quite runnable, so proceeded. The big reentrant was obvious, knew I was headed for a smaller reentrant, stopped for a moment to make a quick check of the map, then continued and hit it right on.

14. Had worked this one out in advance, so got down the hill as quickly as I could (exercising caution on the slippery rocks), crossed the road, and pushed myself up and across the big open hillside. Used the distinct features on the hillside to align myself, and nailed it.

15. Straightforward, but didn't want to take a fall at this point on the steep downhill, so slalomed back and forth a bit.

F. Tough uphill run to the Finish. Allowed myself to walk a bit in the middle.

[Orienteering race]

Jog to the start (obviously, before the race).

Marcy's class in Los Gatos.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises: stretching, strength and balance.

Sure I still did over 4 hours this week, but tapered off a little on the strength exercises as the week wore on, so putting down 3:55:00 to indicate that.

Local terrain: old jeep trail loops. Mostly a warm up for Sunday.

Splits are for two loops at a time, 0.4 miles:

458, 425, 359

Really enjoying running on this loop. Ran the middle two-lapper in the opposite (clockwise) direction, just to see what that felt like. Took ~10 secs to turn around at the end of each segment (still running at the same speed), but didn't count that time or distance in the run.

Also, apparently hit "stop" instead of "split" after the first turnaround, so the split for the second two-loop is an educated guess.

[Easy distance]

Cool down.

At home. Full upper body workout, 2/3 the reps on core and adductors, only one set each for the glute exercises with the thera-ring (except 2 sets of fire hydrant).

[Strength exercises]

Local terrain. Old jeep trail loop on George's property. After more heavy rain, waited for the rain to taper off (as forecast), so didn't get out until Noon. Steady drizzle, though temp was in the 50's, so not too bad.

Wanted to do something more up tempo, so (for the first time) did some threshold intervals on the jeep trail loop. The loop is .2 miles; splits are for two laps (so .4 miles). First 6 laps were a warmup, last 6 (1.2 mi, 10:59) were at threshold pace - actually started getting in O2 debt on the last one. Pace may seem a little slow for threshold, but taking into account running in terrain, it's about right, at least for my current ability.

504, 429, 425 Total: 1358

(continuing from warmup without stopping...)

345 [102], 338 [105], 333 Total: 1059 (Avg: 340)

Could've pushed for one more interval, but given that I haven't done anything like this in a while and given that Morgan Territory is coming up Sunday - first orienteering in over two months - didn't want to over do it. Still, an excellent workout. Feels really good running in terrain, next to trees, and no cars.

Be nice to build this up to 5 2-lap intervals or 4 3-lap intervals.

[Threshold intervals]

Cool down. After walking for a minute, did 4 half-laps (the closer to the road side), back and forth.

At home. All the upper body exercises (theraband, weights, bar dips) at full sets, reps and weight. However, trying to give my legs a little more recovery, only did two-thirds the reps on the core exercises, and only one set each of the glute exercises, holding each one for about 80% of normal.

[Strength exercises]

A much needed rest day.

Skyline. Another storm is coming. Weather kept alternating between halfway decent and nasty. Unfortunately, we caught a nasty part.

Would've taken the day off (having worked my legs hard for several days in a row), but L wanted to run, so ran it her pace. Pretty clear from the beginning that my legs didn't have much, so just tried to make it an extended warmup. Of course, that's very hard to do with all the hills on this run, and at this pace, going up those hills feels like running in place. Not very satisfying.

-------- 141(1223)1404(104)1508
3114(----1502---)1613(105)

[Easy distance minus]

C • 1

C • Week of rain coming 2

Marcy's class in Los Gatos. Was really tired during the class. Maybe it was not enough sleep, maybe it was doing a full stretching/strength/balance session this morning.

JCCLG. Got a half-hour nap in after this morning's qigong class, so felt better for this session. Included 4 glute exercises plus one set of one-legged squats.

For the pull downs, muscles were a bit sore, but otherwise, felt good and really pushed everything.

[Strength exercises]

The usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises: stretching, strength and balance. Cut down a little on the core exercises (bridges, plank, pointer-dog) because the whole routing was taking so long. Now doing 70% of what I had been doing for those 3. Still over 4 hours for the week.

Front of house and local terrain (old jeep trail). Steady rain and significant wind, though both died down in the second half of the run. Very wet ground, lots of puddles. Because there were big and deep puddles on the side of the road, running the front of house loop meant much more running on pavement than usual, so switched over to the loop on George's property and finished the run there. It was pretty dark in the woods by the time I finished; would've been a little risky running more laps in there, even though I pretty much knew where all the obstacles I had to avoid were.

Had been feeling pretty energetic all day, and wanted to do the 5.66 mile to Black and back, so this at first seemed like it would be a disappointment. But given the conditions, felt fortunate to get in as much as I did, felt good running, and enjoyed it, especially the second half off the road.

3 x front of house: 619, 603, 604 (1826)
Transition to the jeep trail: 108
Ten loops on the trail, split every second loop: 434, 434, 434, 429, 422
Additional half-loop: 101 (pace counted 200m)

Overall, the part on the dirt road was pretty similar to 1-12-17, though that time I kept picking up the pace and this time I was staying steady.

[Easy distance]

Cool down. Back on the jeep trail the way I came (too dark to continue counterclockwise), then in the front yard.

JCCLG. Core interleaved with upper body exercises on machines; adductors; 10 bar dips; 4 glute exercises with the yellow thera-ring; wieghts. Pushed everything.

Note: been logging the glute ("physical therapy") exercises separately, but since these are now a regular part of my routine, I'll just incorporate them in the strength exercises.

This took a little less time than my routine at home, even though I did an extra set of pull-downs today.

[Strength exercises]

Local terrain. Hadn't planned to run today (and hadn't done back-to-back days in quite awhile), but a storm is due tonight, the sun came out around 11, and I'd add a frustrating morning, so getting outside seemed like a great idea, and it was. Temp in the 50's, but blustery and foreboding. Took my time, definitely got into O2 debt before the last lap - and the pace was actually fairly typical of these runs. So, excellent workout, plus, later in the day, my knees and hips amazingly felt better than they had this morning!

809 - Warmup, mostly on Skyline (3 x short loop)

4 loops of 1 x house followed by 2 x woods: 500, 454, 440, 426 Total: 1859

[Orienteering Forest running]

Cool down:

118 walk
256 jog in front yard
114 walk, stretch
620 jog half-mile on Skyline