Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Lake Ranch Reservoir. 47 degrees but overcast, feels really chilly. Legs felt decent.

Ran with L at her pace to near side of lake as warm up for intervals. On my own, I would've started more slowly and accelerated. With the steady pace and the chilly weather, didn't feel warmed up enough.

501(540)1041(506)1547

Lake Ranch Reservoir, continued. 30 sec rest, then 3xhalf-mile with i min rest. Couldn't get my legs to go fast enough to get as close to the O2-debt threshold as the work out intends.

346[58 jog]356[49]353

First one was the fourth half-mile of the usual 4.0, second one the fifth of half-mile. But instead of continuing on the sixth half-mile, headed back along the lake to allow Louise to catch up, turned at about 3 minutes, and ran until the time was between the times of the first two.

Last time I tried threshold intervals at the lake was Aug, 2014. The first one then was 341, over the fifth half-mile. Given the usual differences in the two directions, today was virtually the same as that one. Clearly my second rep today was a little slow. Wasn't breathing hard, just couldn't get my legs to go faster.

Cool down:

2:01 - 0.1 mi - recovery jog

(124)(455)(659) - 1.2 mi - "easy dist minus" pace; last two splits are the 6th and 7th "usual" half-miles

6:15 - .45 mi - eased off a little more, not quite to cool down pace

Total for this Lake Ranch Reservoir work out: 4.8 mi, 51:15, including 2+ min of slow recovery jog between intervals.

Stanford Inn, Mendocino. 4 sets of pulldowns in the exercise room. Wasn't very warmed up and it was quite cold in there. Neck rather sore for a few hours afterwards.

Drove home, 10:30 - 5:00, with a stop for groceries at Whole Foods.

Mendocino. Park at the lot on the western tip of the peninsula, run along the bluffs on the north part, back, then on the south part, aiming to go 4 miles in total. Spectacularly scenic. Temp was 36 at the Inn, but out on the bluffs and in the sun it felt very comfortable. Intentionally ran more slowly than usual; may do this more often to see if it avoids the soreness I've been feeling.

Garmin usually under-reports, but this was out in the open and we were going fairly slowly, so maybe the actual distance is more like 4.2.

Cool down.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises.

Mendocino, Russian Gulch. Hike through pretty canyon to small waterfall, then continue with a climb to complete the loop and then return. My legs felt awfully sore, especially my quads. I kept falling behind the others (Louise, Rachel, Ryan). Also, quite cold in the canyon, mid-30's.

Garmin clearly had trouble in the canyon. The loop actually completed by going from 5 back to 1, and then we followed the same path back as we'd taken on the way out. GPS tracks are quite different. Park maps say it's a seven and a quarter mile hike, so I'll go with that.

Jaccuzzi at the Stanford Inn. Had the place to myself. Used the jets to massage both quads, for a total of 20 minutes. This really helped with the soreness.

Mendocino, Stanford Inn. Very cold in their exercise room. They have a machine for pulldowns, did four sets of 8 with a weight that felt around 80 lbs. 8 bar dips, the usual curls and military presses with a free dumb bell. Interleaved these with stretching exercises rather than with core exercises.

Mendocino. Easy walk around the Stanford Inn property then along the bluffs across Hwy 1.

Drove into the town of Mendocino. Went for a more brisk walk along the bluffs. Air temperature was in the low 40's, but out in the open, the sun was very warm.

Another walk along the Mendocino bluffs, this time with Rachel and Ryan, to see the sunset. Very leisurely pace.

Long drive to Mendocino. Left home 10:30, got to the Stanford Inn By The Sea around 4:30, with a stop for lunch in Healdsburg.

Okay, reading Thierry's log and seeing that he orienteers in some way or another just about every day pushed me into coming up with some kind of orienteering training for today. Don't often run two days in a row, but with a long drive coming up tomorrow, decided to try to get something in this afternoon, on my way home from Redwood Shores. Noting that the Los Gatos JCC is not that far from Vasona, where we have an orienteering map and where permanent courses (which I've never tried) are available, I printed myself copies of the permanent Orange and Yellow and jogged over to the Vasona Dam from the JCC as a warmup, via the Creek Trail.

Without a break, continued running and turned over the map as I entered the park by the dam.

Vasona Park, Los Gatos. The GPS track for this entry includes the warm up entered above, which ended at split #2. The orienteering went from there until #12. The last split was just looking around the changed terrain to see if I could find the permanent marker (I couldn't). 4.49 km is the actual distance I ran while orienteering. Measured straight line, it would've been a 4.2 km course. If you zoom in several levels, the perspective changes and you get a nice look at the park.

Had the Yellow course in my map case facing one way, the Orange course facing the other. The idea was to make things a little more difficult by flipping back and forth and, on the fly, concocting a course made up of the permanent markers from the two courses. Wound up doing Orange 1 through 5 followed by Yellow 7, 2, 3, 6, 5. Ran at a nice comfortable pace. A little extra attention was required because the park is all set up with Christmas light displays, which meant I had to be sure not to trip over any unexpected wires. The late afternoon lack of light made it a little more difficult, too, but it's still pretty easy orienteering out there. Still, it was some sort of practice!

Carried neither compass nor magnifier. Could have used the magnifier; a compass was completely unnecessary.

Quite chilly. There's been considerable rain in the morning, but the ground wasn't all that wet.

I did not find permanent markers at Yellow 7 or Yellow 5. In the former case, there just wasn't any man-made object in the vicinity, except for a dumpster, and in the latter, it seems like a new garden has been put in and I'm guessing the marker has been removed. Lost maybe 30 seconds at both Orange 4 and Yellow 3 hunting for the marker.

Altogether, a fine outing. But where else can I do something like this?

Cool down. Jog from the last control on the Creek Trail to the Lark exit.

Don't usually log the walking I do after my jogging cool down, but today wanted to see how far it was back the JCC parking lot.

Running at 4pm, finishing in near darkness on a chilly day, changing in a locker room and being far from home when I'm done, all added up to evoking memories of college track practice 50 years ago. 50!!

JCCLG. Took about 15 minutes to change into dry exercise clothes and then did machines, bar dips (8) and weights. Good session on the pull down machine: 4 sets, 8 reps, 80 lbs, alternating front and back. By the time I got to the weights, though, I was pretty tired, so kept those to two sets each.

Instead of interleaving the machine exercises with core exercises, did the usual post-running stretching.

Just walking for a few seconds after weights, notice that the gym was open and a basketball was just lying there, so hoisted up a few shots. Arms were tired and so my first ten or so were short, even though I was shooting from only a three feet from the basket. Finally made a few, then tried one from 10 ft straight-away, swooshed it, and ended the session.

Lake Ranch Reservoir. Mid-50's, not much wind. Legs felt much better than expected. Louise started off faster than usual, which was good for me, and I maintained that pace and effort throughout. Kept the pace up, but never pushed. Felt I could have gone a good deal faster, but even this time was quite satisfying. One long loopback, at the end of the lake after coming down the hill.

455(534)1029(459)1529(443)2012
(708)2720 -- up to three trees
(419)3140 -- down
(433)(411)(532)(431)

Usual 4.0: 3901
Extra mile: 1128
Loopbacks: 315

Cool down

Los Gatos Recreation. I've done some Qigong (ancient Chinese movement exercises) over the last year put this was the first time I took a class. It was very challenging to do all these new movements, but it is clear that my body is very restricted and it would be good for me to continue with exercises like this.

JCCLG. Full slate of machines and weights, only about half the core exercises.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises. Didn't do the strength exercises Sat and Sun before the Pacheco races, nor Wed when I felt tired and wanted to save it for running.

Rancho San Antonio, apparently for the first time in the last 2.5 years and only the second time in the last 4. Wanted a change of scenery, and also to get out of the terrible wind we've been having up here. Wind chill at home was in the 40's. It was 73 at Rancho.

Idea today was to start extending my distance, which I hope to build up over the next couple of months. Intention was to run easy and stay away from big hills (though there is over 500 ft of climb on this run), so ran to the end of Rogues Valley and back, with an additional half mile at each end (by starting off towards the trailer parking lot and going over the bridge there). Ran at a comfortable pace, but in truth my legs (esp. quads) would've kept me from going any faster. Louise was able to stay with me for the first 4.5 miles, a far cry from Wednesday. Guess I'll have to be a little less aggressive in my ramping up.

Garmin has this as 6.2 miles, but I believe it's 6.5 (which is consistent with the Garmin's usual under-reporting).

About 5% slower than 11-9-2011 and 12-28-2006.

---------- 6535 --- E. side of parking lot
---------- (525)
606 --- 6011 --- "usual" start (just over bridge SW of parking lot)
(301) -- (252)
907 --- 5718 --- gate leaving county park
(819) -- (705)
1726 --- 5013 --- gate past farm
(357) -- (323)
2123 --- 4650 --- bottom of 7 switchbacks trail
(715) -- (609)
2835 --- 4041 --- dam
(635) -- (527)
----- 3513 -------- end of Rogues Valley (hairpin turn)

Walked around for 5 minutes for a cool down.

JCCLG. Relaxing. Felt fluid.

Good session. Lots of core. Pushed the weights. Almost no rest between exercises.

Lake Ranch Reservoir. Chilly. I ran in a short-sleeved shirt, Louise in a long-sleeved smart wool top with a windbreaker over it, a wool hat, and gloves. We were both happy with our choices. We ran out of time before lunch, so ran at 2:30 instead.

Early this morning, my legs felt very tired, much more so than yesterday. So, didn't do my morning strength exercises. By afternoon, legs felt a lot better, and on the run they felt surprisingly good. Stayed with L for the first mile, then picked it up considerably, especially on the way back. Two loop backs of 2 minutes each, one at the far end of the lake on the way back, the other at Fern Creek (one mile to go). Good run. Nevertheless, was running a lot better last winter, so aiming to get back to that.

512(547)1059(510)1609(444)2053
(315) -- up to third bridge
(212) -- back down
(433)(413)(545)(422)

Usual 4.0: 3947
Extra half-mile: 527
Loopbacks: 359

[Easy distance w/hills]

Cool down.

Oracle Gym. Used this as a warmup.

Oracle Gym. Pushed some of the weight exercises. Had to stop the interleaved core exercises about half way through because I jumped up to do a chin up and felt a shooting pain across my abdomen.

Theraband, core, weights, hips. All the exercises, two-thirds the sets, sometimes a few less reps.

Event: BAOC: Pacheco State Park
 

Pacheco SP, B-meet, Day 2. Brown 3.7Km, 210m climb (I calculate 225), 9 controls. Amazingly strong physically today after struggling yesterday - go figure. 1st place by 5 minutes. One error, losing about :30 on #7 when I didn't slow down enough to read the details. Lost maybe 10 secs on #8 hesitating at the end. Also lost maybe :20 on #5 when the wind blew my hat off and I had to chase it.

I apparently didn't take my split at #8, so the eighth split on the gps track should be broken into 5:51 - 1:39. The control location can be identified by the kink in the track.

It rained hard overnight. Forecasts showed that it would clear in the late morning, so I didn't go out there until 11:15, and started just before noon. Very high winds made it feel quite chilly. Ran with just my usual O-top, which on the way to the start seemed like it might be a mistake, but, as usual, once I got going it proved to be absolutely the right thing.

18 people ran Brown. Here are the top 8:
1. Dennis Wildfogel BAOC - 38:50
2. Gary Kraght BAOC ------- 43:48
3. Chuck Spalding BAOC -- 45:20
4. Dan Greene BAOC ------- 51:15
5. Rich Parker SDO ---------- 55:59
6. Leigh Bailey VICO -------- 57:45
7. Olga Kraght BAOC -------- 58:38
8. George Minarik BAOC - 1:06:29

1. Rough compass to identify the correct hillside. Could see there were plenty of features on that hill to navigate by, so ran quickly on a beeline down hill, across the ditch and 30m up the hill, figuring that once I started walking on the hill, I'd figure out the details. That was easy to do as I tried to stay relaxed and not wear out my climbing muscles. Also had time to take a good look at the next three legs. Gary K beat me by :05 on this leg, one of only two legs where I didn't have the fastest split. Had I known how much better I was going to be on hills today, would have pushed going up this one.

2. Had considered running along the ridge to #6 before going straight to #2, but by the time I reached #1 had decided that I didn't want to do the extra contour or two climb that that would cost. Angled down the hill, a little right of the straight line, consciously pushing my running pace. No trouble reading the features on the hillside W of #2, nailed it.

3. Briefly considered going across the dam by the lake to save a little climb, but decided that was too far out of the way and I was feeling strong. Went straight, but as I started up the next hill, encountered unmapped fight, so veered right and went up via the linear patch of forest. Aiming for the saddle between the two hilltops, but as I neared the top, saw the rocks on the straight line just below the hilltop a little to my left, so decided to just go over the top to get back on the straight line. (Looking at the gps track, realize I should've stayed on my route to the saddle - not only less climb, but less distance.) Once over the hill top, judged the spot on the spur I needed to go to by using the vegetation I could see, and ran at a good clip to that spot. Once I crested the spur, the control was dead ahead of me.

4. Had had a good look at this leg while climbing to #3, and had decided to go around the S end of the second hill rather than going through the saddle. Pushed the pace going around the first hillside, climbing a little. Noticed that I was well above the mapped patch of white, so changed my mind and decided to go through the saddle. Once on the second road, slowed down briefly to get a good look at the patches of forest on the next hillside, and picked out the one that should have the control. Ran at a good clip, angling downward but being careful not to drop too far. As I approached the control location, I couldn't see a flag, but could see one in the next little patch of white, so went there and it had the correct code. Dan Greene agreed that the flag was in the wrong patch. George also thought it was in the wrong place but that the map also was a bit wrong there. Looking at the areal photo under the gps track, map looks accurate, so I think it was just the bag being in the wrong place.

5. Heading for the saddle, figuring to climb a little and then contour. Soon saw that I was in fact pretty near the dirt road and headed directly for it, so continued on and hit at the top of the hill. Just then the fierce wind blew my had off, and I had to chase it NE. Took 20 - 30 sec to get back to where I'd been. Ran hard down the road, cut the corner to get on the indistinct trail (no hesitation because I was able to glance at the map while on the road) and continued at a good pace around the spur, through the first reentrant (cutting down and up a bit to save distance [I traded distance for climb - wow!]) and then around the next spur. Knew I'd have to drop but didn't want to do that too early. Could see people below moving up the reentrant, presumably to the control I was looking for, but took several seconds before I spotted the bag. I'd waited a bit too long; would've been better to angle down sooner. Punched in right behind Marie-Josee (the eventual Green winner).

6. Hadn't has a good look at this leg in advance, but knew I had to go down the reentrant. Left too hastily, probably because there were people around. At a glance thought I had to go to the left, so stayed on the left wall of the reentrant (canyon in this case) but took a better look at the map, realized I'd had it rotated 90 degrees and I needed to go around the spur to the east, so cut across the bottom of the reentrant and angled down that spur. (This all happened very quickly; probably only lost 5 seconds.) Ran across the bottom, up the next ridge, a little left of the rocks, rough compassing towards the trail junction. Hit the first trail left of the junction and pushed myself to keep running until I got to the next ridge. Paused briefly to pick out the correct patch of forest on the next ridge; to be safe, headed to the tree with the rock just below it - I'd passed that yesterday, and knew that identifying the rock would make it certain that that was the tree I thought it was. Probably should have cut more towards the control once I saw the rock (I was at about the same elevation as the rock at that point) but kept going to the tree, then ran along the edge of the ridge top to the control.

7. Lots of rocks underfoot around #6, so since I already knew my exit route, didn't look at the map but focused on moving quickly in and out of the control. Headed N over the ridge, identified the lone tree with the rootstock just NW of it. Could see that there was a great deal of vegetation detail ahead on the map, but even with my magnifier couldn't make it out very well, so planned to compass and pace count. As I started down, ran past a small patch of rocky ground. Could this be the mapped patch on the N side of the hill? Was pretty sure I wasn't that far E, but kept an open mind: headed down going due N, figuring the control was either dead ahead or a little to the right. Part way down, saw Vicki W coming from my right, seemingly looking for a control, so I thought "Well, the control must not be to my right." Foolish thought. Didn't even know if she was on my course (she wasn't - but WAS looking for the same control), plus we were too high, as I knew perfectly well, meaning she wouldn't have seen it anyway. Nevertheless, the mind plays tricks, and that's what I thought. So, looked left (though I'd previously ruled out that possibility), spotted a rock NW, so ran towards it. But as I got close, could see other rocks around and realized it was the set of rocks WSW of the control, so turned right, running along the contour, keeping my eyes downhill and soon saw a large rock feature. Felt quite certain it was the control location, so kept running down to it and there was the flag. Lost about :30, but still had the fastest split. Later, George told me he used the entrant on the next hillside to indicate where the control was on this side; very clever - hadn't thought of that.

8. Knew that I had to head generally NW and up the next hill, so went straight downhill (no vegetation in that direction), crossed the bottom, made a 45 degree left and started heading up. At this slower speed, I could work out the details of the rest of the leg. (Might have been a little shorter to contour W out of #7, but I executed what I did so quickly that looking at the map to find a shorter route would have resulted in a slower time.) Realized I should head for the saddle with the gate in the fence. Made the effort to keep running in that direction, mostly contouring with a little climbing. As I got near the saddle, could see there was a narrow gap in the fence E of the saddle, right by the fence junction. Since I was going to have to wind up there anyway, figured I would squeeze through that gap and save the distance. I did fit, though I snagged my shirt on barbed wire and lost a few seconds. Ran hard on the contour, knowing that the control would be just over the next spur. Focused on keeping up my speed over the broken ground. When I got to the top of the spur, there was the tree I expected dead ahead and down, but I couldn't see a flag from where I was - and I COULD see one to my right, a little up the spur. Stood there for ten seconds convincing myself that the one I could see was NOT mine before heading down to the tree and finding the proper control.

9. Without hesitation (because I'd already studied this leg), ran hard along the contour, over the next spur, right to the flag.

F. Steep down hill with uncertain footing. Given that this was a local meet, I would have picked my way carefully down. But as I punched #9, glanced at my watch and saw 38 minutes. Thought it would be nice after such a fine run to finish in under 40, so ran pretty recklessly down the hill. Obviously, I had a lot more time than I thought, as I actually finished under 39.

A very satisfying run. Very mysterious, though: why was I so much stronger today than yesterday?

Warm up by jogging to the start.

Pacheco SP, B-meet. Brown: 3.7km, 205m climb, 12c. Sunny, 60 degrees, cool breeze. Ground had been softened by recent rains, no tall grass, few stickers and thorns. In other words, conditions as good as they can possibly get at Pacheco.

(I get 235m climb on the ideal route; the Garmin got considerably less, though I incurred at least 20m extra climb.)

As expected, navigation was a bit too easy, physicality a bit too hard, but it was about as good a Brown as can be set at Pacheco.

Navigated well and reasonably efficiently (i.e., not a lot of stopping to figure things out) and good route choice on all legs but one (lost about 1:15 on #6). Actually, I see now that I also could've taken a better route on #3. Twice lost a little time in the circle trying to pick out the right tree (25 seconds on #2 and 10 secs on #10). Also lost 3 minutes on #5, but that was due to extenuating circumstances: (a) the boulder is a little lower and a little closer to the fence than mapped, and (b) the flag was on the NE side rather than the N side. I in fact went pretty directly to the N side, but didn't see the flag, so checked other possibilities before coming back 3 mins later and finding the flag a meter from where I'd been.

Didn't "peak" for this meet, and my legs clearly were feeling that. It was a struggle to get up the hills.

I was the first starter on Brown or Orange (those were the two most advanced courses). Saw Rex on his way back from hanging bags as I approached the start, and he asked me to help get things set up; I spent about 10 minutes doing that before I ran.

Top 10 of 17 on Brown:

1. 29:51 Francois Leonard (M40)
2. 39:28 Tori Borish (F21)
3. 43:52 Marie-Josee Parayre (F40)
4. 45:11 Carlo Giacometti (M21)
5. 50:31 me
6. 52:16 Johanna Karras (F16)
7. 52:26 Ann Marie Cody (F45)
8. 59:03 Leigh Bailey (M75)
9. 1:04:32 Johanna Merriss (F60)
10. 1:09:51 Rich Parker (M75)

Details:

1. As I climbed S to the saddle, debated whether to go to the pond and around the spur or go more directly, over the spur. Chose the latter; Mari-Josee chose the former and a nearly identical time. All the trees and white patches seemed very well mapped on this route, and I knew where I was the entire time and nailed the control.

2. SW up the spur to the saddle, then try to go on a careful compass bearing from there. Expected to see some rocks halfway, and I my bearing took me right to them. But when I got down to the what I thought was the correct tree, there was no flag. Looking around, I saw the flag 40m to my left, on the same contour. Did not do a good job with that final bearing. Lost :25.

3.Angled down to the reentrant bottom, and tried to run along there, but there were lots of little gullies and I couldn't go much faster than a walk. Stayed in that bottom until nearly where the next bottom came in from the left, then cut up and due S. Again, the trees and white patches were easy to read and I went directly (albeit slowly at the end when I climbed a contour or two) to the control. In retrospect, should've gotten out of that bottom much sooner, at the contour line of the control. Would've been better footing and also would've saved climb. So, suboptimal route choice, may have cost :30 - 1:00.

4. A little left of straight to the spur, then run down the other side following a bearing towards the rocks in the bottom NNE of the control. Soon as I could actually see those rocks, turned more to the left and went straight down and then directly up to the control. Easy to check off rock features on the way but mighty hard to get up that hill.

5. Climbed half a contour out of the control, then contoured to the boulders, then along the upper side of the green, and through the fence. Saw a rock spire downhill and to my right, but it appeared to be too far downhill and too close to the fence to be the control site. Thought maybe it was the mapped rock further down the hill. Took a few steps forward, didn't see anything straight ahead, so figured I'd better go down and check that rock after all. From where I was, came around the W side to the N side, and there was no flag. Unfortunately, the flag was actually on the NE side, tucked in very close to the rock face, and I couldn't see it from where I was though it was only a meter away. So, back up, hunted through the overgrown veg a bit, back to where I'd crossed the fence in the first place, out of ideas, figured I'd check the E side of the spire, and then found the flag, nearly 3 minutes later.

6. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson from my experience going to #3. Angled down to the bottom, tried running along there but the ground was broken and it was hard to maintain speed. Cut up when I saw the last row of trees ahead and to the left, and nailed the control, but it was a slog going up. Much better route to just contour (I'd been concerned about the green patches on the hillside). Lost about 1:15 on the route choice.

7. Downhill directly to the dam, then considered route choices as I crossed the dam. Seemed like routes going well to the left were too much extra distance with not much savings in climb, so took the indistinct trail (in fact quite distinct) up from the middle of the lake, into the saddle, around the N side of the patch of trees. From there spotted the lone tree with the rock below it near the top of the next ridge and made a beeline for that. On a bearing over the top, between the patches of tree, then down. Thought I recognized what was mapped as green, helped out by a control hanging on it, and I did, as it led me right down to the rock spire.

8. Contoured then headed slightly up to the gate at the fire road junction. Knew I had to bisect the two fire roads. Could see a control hanging from a tree, but it was too far to the right, so stuck to my bearing. Passed a small rock I hadn't noticed on the map, checked the map and saw it was right on the direct line, pressed on and nailed.

9. Had time to work out this route on the way up to #8, though it took a lot of concentration as I was getting pretty tired. Contoured W, angled up the spur, angled down the other side and very soon spotted the man-made object.

10. Down the center of the reentrant to the reentrant junction, then contoured, all at a good speed. Didn't try to identify all the lone trees and little patches of white; rather, just ran the contour until I'd gotten around the nose of the spur. Focused on a tree, no flag when I got there (the flags had been well-hidden all day), stopped, quick scan around, saw the flag 20m to my left. Lost at most :10 at the end, but executed the leg at good speed.

11. Fences had been hard to cross all day, so went for the gate on the road, which was easily visible as soon as I left #10. Stayed on the road up the next spur, turned to the right at the rootstock, picked out the correct tree top just over the next spur and then tried to push myself up that spur, walking the last part.

12. Felt like my best leg and it turned out to be my highest split ranking (second). Felt like a sprint leg: it was all laid out in front of me, lots of details, 3 flags visible. Did the fastest running I did all day, and read the map and made all the decisions without slowing down. Nice way to end.

[Orienteering race]

C • Leigh Bailey 6

Jog to start for a warmup. No cool down.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises. Didn't do the strength exercises this morning (soreness - from flu shot? - and lack of sleep).

JCCLG. Managed to get just about everything in only 25 minutes. Had a flu shot yesterday and my arm is a little sore, so cut back a little, but not much.

[Strength]

Lake Ranch Reservoir. Intend to run easy to give my legs a chance to recover. Planning to run to races this weekend at Pacheco, and though I think of them as training, need my legs to be somewhat fresh in order to get something out of training at some place as physically demanding as Pacheco. Louise went out fairly quickly; I turned around at the near side of the lake and ran back the half-mile to "fern creek" before going into a cool down.

501(534)1035(505)1540
------------ 2022(441)

[Easy distance]

Cool down. Alternated jogging and walking for the half-mile back to the first creek; jogged for 6 minutes worth.

Drive back from the cabin. Stop again at Greens for lunch.

Armstrong Redwoods SP. Legs feeling pretty tired from Saturday, take it pretty easy. Still, the Garmin must've come up pretty short, with all the twists and turns and the heavy redwood forest*. Guessing it was at least 4.1 miles, maybe even 4.3.

*Even though we ran the same loop twice, the tracks for the two loops are not very close to one another.

[Easy distance]

Monte Rio. From the cabin, leisurely walk around Redwood Dr, the street that goes around the Northwood Golf Course.

Kortum Trail, Sonoma Coast St Beach. Clear, sunny, chilly, though once over the first hill wish I had a short sleeve shirt on. Ran the whole thing: over the big hill coming and going, all the way to Wright's Beach Road. Couple of loopbacks early, then mostly by myself. Not pushing it, just trying to get in the distance.

[Long distance]

Goat Rock St Beach. Walk out to see the seals and back.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises. I've added a good many exercises to my routing over the last several months, and saw this week that it actually takes about 25 minutes for the whole session. So, 2.5 hours is still a bit less than I actually do (and intensity is probably a 2 rather than a 1), but going forward I'll use 2.5 hours to represent a full 7-day set of the whole routine and subtract from that if I miss some.

Stinson Beach. Leisurely walk with tide out. Gorgeous day. After lunch at Greens, on the way to the cabin.

Full workout with theraband, weights, bosu, squeeze ball and mat. Pretty much at full weight and reps for all the exercises.

[Strength]

Local terrain. Running in terrain is a great workout, and very tough.

825 - warm up mostly on Skyline (3xshort loop)

Then continue with 5 x (1 x round-the-house plus 2 x woods loop):
515, 503, 457, 441, 426

**Think I'm better off doing this in O-shoes; probably a good use for my old Integrators.

C • o-shoes 2

Cool down.

Lake Ranch Reservoir. 49 degrees, windy, sunny at the start. Usually that sort of chill gets my motor running, but the splits for the first two miles were pretty slow, partly because I stayed with Louise. I was OK with that since I was planning to go half a mile up the hill after the end of the lake, something I hadn't done in two months. Charged up the hill, then felt quite strong on the way back, much stronger than in the last three months.

Two loop backs, one (314) at the end of the lake with two miles to go, one (126) at "fern creek" with one mile to go.

511(554)1105(519)1624(509)2133
(717)2850 --- up to three trees
(424)3314 --- down
(437)(415)(534)(416)5637

Usual 4.0: 4016
Extra mile: 1141
Loopbacks: 440

Cool down.

Oracle gym. Machines, core, weights, hips, bosu. 6 bar dips. Pushed them all. Pretty intense.

Neck is a little sore from Sunday's workout but shoulder is good.

[Strength]

Front of house. Rained heavily last night and this morning, but the radar map showed a break was coming, so got out on wet ground but no rain. Sun even came out for a bit at the end.

Legs a bit creaky but surprisingly ok given the long hike yesterday. Had to push to get up to the speed of the last few laps (effort was more like "easy distance plus" or even "threshold"), but at least I was able to go that fast.

637, 608, 551, 544, 522, 521, 506

A bit extra on the cool down.

What to do with the extra hour from setting the clocks back? Exercise! After all the usual stretching and strength exercises, did a theraband-weights-core-hips session, pushing it pretty well.

[Strength]

Windy Hill. After decades of hearing about this hike, finally did it. Up to the Windy Hill summit, down Spring Ridge Trail (a fire road, really), up Hamms Gulch Trail. The latter was much prettier. Rigorous hike, but didn't push it.