Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

At home. Two-thirds workout. Full sets and full weight of everything, but two sets of the ones that are usually three sets. Theraband interleaved with core, adductors, weights. 9 pullups.

Glute exercises with yellow Thera-ring. Hadn't done these in a long time, so only one set of each: clam shells, scissors, fire hydrant, squats, monster walk.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises.

Local terrain. Jeep trail next door. 77 degrees, but not bad in the woods (cool breeze). Plan was to run easy but longer, did exactly that.

Trouble earlier in the day with headache and stomach ache, but felt OK on the run, but then bad later. Fortunately, much better by evening.

Splits are for 2 laps at a time, 0.4 miles:
459, 445, 436, 434, 431, 429, 423, 419, 419, 407

Cool down in shade.

At home. Light workout as, once again, hadn't done these in a while.

[Strength exercises]

Local terrain. Jeep trail next door. Out early to beat the heat, and also because I was a bit amped up. Got going quickly from the beginning. Originally planned for 3 miles, but by 1.5 miles it was clear I couldn't maintain that pace for that long. Decided to see if I could keep pushing through 2.4 miles, then see if I could keep running at a more modest pace for one lap (that's the 215 in parenthesis) and then pick it back up again - which is in fact what I did. Had to push, and it felt good.

Splits are for two laps at a time, 0.4 miles:
434, 418, 400, 357, 351, 346, 411 (215), 149

[Distance]

Cool down:
115 recovery jog (not logged)
145 walk, stretch
600 cool down jog, .35 mi

Stayed home today. From late morning to early evening was feeling like maybe I was coming down with something, but I think it was really just a reaction to yesterday's dental trauma. A long nap and a lot of food helped.

Another marathon session at the dentist, 3.5 hours. Not nearly as bad as a month ago, but still felt extremely worn out when it was over.

Calero B-meet. BrownY. Got the first start (9:56) in an attempt to beat the heat, but to no avail. Too warm, lots of stickers, ground slippery even with metal spikes. Glad I ran the shorter Brown. (Tapio, the course setter, assured me that the shorter Brown was technical, so that clinched it.) Navigated well, with just a few bobbles within the circle. Lost maybe 40 seconds overall. Wasn't pushing the pace, but kept moving steadily.

1. Hesitated in the start triangle, trying to decide whether to do down and around the forrest or contour through. Chose the latter. Had to climb some to find a place to cross the gully in the center of the reentrant, and wound up at the lower end of the clearing on the next spur. Decided to go up the clearing and then contour in the clearing to just above the control, and that worked out perfectly (though I wasn't clever enough to look for #4 as I was passing by - that would have helped later). NOTE: after the initial hesitation, executed my route pretty well. But Steve Haas (on Brown X but with the same first control) beat me 314 to 448. Turns out he took the other route I considered. Clearly staying out of the forest was the better choice even though it meant some extra climb.

2. Rough contour to the fire road, up, mostly walking, to where the clearing on the same contour as the control meets the road. Easy from there.

3. Had worked out this route while on the road to #2. Climbed as I headed back to the road, hitting it exactly where I wanted: at the boundary of the forest and the big clearing. Followed that boundary around, keeping careful track of where I was, until I reached the final reentrant. Even spotted the two (rather small) mapped fallen trees. Eschewed going straight to avoid the little bit of down and up; rather continued to contour around and nailed it.

4. Took :30 to take a drink before heading to #4. Had worked out this route, too, while on the road to #2. Aimed for the spot in the reentrant by the fire road 3 contours down. Had a hard time crossing the first reentrant as the sides were very steep, slipping a couple of times. Got to my spot in the big reentrant, angled up and hit the fire road perfectly, right at the junction with the trail. Took the fire road down for 50m, then took a bearing for #1, with the intent of using that as an attack point. Soon spotted #1 and turned before I got to it to contour through the clearing. There was a distinct tree a bit above me at the edge of the forest, and though I thought I shouldn't have to climb, I didn't see a tree ahead, so thought I'd better look. Had to scramble up the steep and heavily vegetated slope. No bag. From that vantage point, though, I could see the tree I hadn't been able to see earlier, about 25 m down and a little ahead, so went there quickly and there was the bag. Lost 10 - 15 secs.

5. Contoured, counting spurs and reentrants (not so easy with the 7.5m contours as some noticeable reentrants don't make it onto the map). Got to a the upper end of ditch that I thought should be the right one, but no bag. However, I had just seen a small terrace that I thought was probably the form line contour on the map, so that confirmed to me that I should be at the correct ditch. Peered down hill, and then spotted the bag 20m below. Lost maybe 10 secs.

6. Rough compass, tried running faster than I'd been running, knowing the final ditch would catch me. Probably should have aimed off to one side or the other, but didn't - and fortunately, nailed it.

7. Contour, trying to put a little oomph into it. Went above the first copse, easily spotted the one just W of the control, and went directly to the correct tree even though the bag was hidden by the tall (dead) grass.

8. Now really tried to run, and I did, and so didn't get a very good look at the map. Had the impression that the control was on the other side of the fire road, but when I got to the road and looked at the map, realized it wasn't, and also that it should be closer to the high point of the road, so looked in that direction and there it was, 25m away. Lost about :10.

F. Lost time on the 40m run to the Finish! A few moments earlier, when I'd been on the road, I saw a woman sitting on a folding chair, not apparently doing anything else, so I figured she must be the Finish. Punched the GO control and ran to where she was. It quickly became apparent that there was no punch unit there, so looked around and spotted the Finish further up the road. Duh! Good thing the race was over because my brain was clearly turning to jelly. Lost at least 5 secs.

(Note: a rarity: logged the details of my race on the same day as the race!)

[Orienteering race]

Mostly jogged to the Start, but walked the steepest parts.

Several minute cool down from the Finish back to the assembly area.

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

Local terrain. Jeep trail next door. Just loosening up in advance of Calero on Sunday.

Splits are for 2 laps at a time (0.4 miles):
500, 422, 401

[Easy distance]

Cool down

Mostly in SF and Fairfax.

Front of house. Out very late, but had a snack at 11 so felt OK. Low 60's, but a bit muggy so I was a little uncomfortable.

Not surprisingly, legs still a little tired from Big Basin on Sunday. Tried to treat this as long slow distance run (of course, I'll have to build back up to having "long" mean 7 miles or more), that is, just run at a pace that feels comfortable, no hard breathing. Definitely held back on the last lap.

638, 623, 609, 603, 559, 551, 537

[Easy distance]

Cool down

Big Basin B-meet. Brown. 4th of 31. (The three people ahead of me, Halliday, Ingulfsen, Cody, are all good orienteers aged 30 to 40.) 3:49 ahead of the next legit Brown runner.

Felt rusty, and distracted beforehand. Somewhat to my surprise, navigated extremely well, never wandered around, just a couple of minor bobbles. Also surprisingly strong given how little training I've had over the last few months. With the gnarly terrain, couldn't run that fast anyway, and intentionally didn't push it up hills, but kept moving steadily and ran pretty well on the many legs that had trail or road options. Split placings were clearly lower on the legs that had uphills in them.

Note: Salomons are definitely NOT the right shoes for dry weather orienteering in the Bay Area. I've concluded this before, but I wanted to wear them for the support and I thought maybe they'd be OK at Big Basin - but they definitely were not. Way too much slipping around on dry leaves.

Could feel a little pain in my right heel, but it didn't affect me in any way, and wasn't bad later.

1. Trivial.

2. The road would've been faster, but left #1 thinking 2 was in the upper part of the reentrant, and only discovered it was in the lower en route. When I came to what I thought was the correct reentrant (pace count, trail going over it's high point), peered down but didn't see it; moved a little further along the trail so I could see the other side of the reentrant, and there was the bag, way down.

3. Road. Got to what I thought was the correct reentrant, but the trail was closer to the road than I expected, so was a bit unsure. Dithered a bit, then realized I would know I was in the right place if there was a trail going down on the other side of the road (should have realized that in the first place); checked, there was, proceeded to the control. Lost about :30.

4. Well executed: trail to t-junction, follow ditch up.

5. Contouring looked nasty, so started down to the trail. Then thought "Gee, came out here for practice, should try the non-trail route." Well, the fight WAS nasty (so no more thoughts of doing that for the rest of today), plus I had to climb back up and beyond the amount I initially went down. But did a nice job of interpreting the contours on the spur and then the vegetation below, and spotted the bag about 30m to my right. Lost a minute or so, but that was only because of the decision to stay of the trail.

6. Well executed. Looked for an opportunity to leave the trail as soon as possible, but vegetation was thick, so stayed on the trail until I could see the bend, then followed a bearing, and got there as Mark Blair was punching in.

7. Thought about going directly up to the trail, but the big reentrant didn't look bad at all, so angled up across the reentrant to catch the trail further down. As I was clamboring up, saw Steph running on the trail, but I didn't think she was on my course. Ran down the trail, looked for the brown X above the trail, climbed up to that and use it as an attack point. As I was heading for the bag, saw Steph coming in from my right; she'd clearly taken a slightly longer route. Punched in several seconds behind her.

8. Left the bag ahead of Steph and just stayed a the edge of the flatter part, following a bearing, figuring the trail would catch me if I didn't see the bag. I didn't, it did: when I saw the trail ahead, turned around and there was the bag behind me, maybe 30m, slightly higher than where I'd just run. Climbed up to it, with Steph following. Lost :20.

9. To the trail, took a couple of steps towards the control, but realized the road would be faster and a better place to attack from, so did that. Looked for the long tree trunk laying between the road and the trail (had made note of that while heading to #7, so I knew what it looked like) and used its bottom end as an attackpoint. Nailed it. Second fastest split on this leg.

10. Fought my way up to the trail, took it to right before the highest bend. Bearing and looking at reentrants to the right, after a while identified the correct reentrant ahead, slowly walked up (legs feeling quite tired), nailed it.

11. Had plenty of time to plan this long leg while walking up to 10. Went straight down to the trail as quickly as I could (slowed by deadfall). Ran on trail until it was close to the road, then bashed down to the road. At the campground on the right, took the trail (lost a few seconds because the trailhead was closer to the road than the map indicated and I had run several meters past it). Kind of lost track of my pace count on the trail, so when I saw a gap in the vegetation above, thought it might be where the control is, and if not, I'd be better off on the upper road anyway. So went up there, no control (it was the mapped white east of the control), ran down the road until nearly the bend, and there was the bag a few meters to my left. Had third fastest split.

12. Went a little further down the road to be able to get up to the trail. Went to #1, took a bearing and had a good view of the spur, nailed it, though my tired legs took me up the spur very slowly.

13. A little indecisive about the route. After a few seconds, angled off the spur on a bearing toward the flatter part of the last reentrant. Then took a bearing toward the control, climbing slowly. Didn't have the energy to climb higher than the fight, so hoped I could get through it. Wasn't a problem at all, and I came out right below the bag.

14. Rough compass towards the bag, knowing the trail would catch me. Stumbled over a lot of deadfall in the first 50m, legs seemed to be very week. But then the woods opened up some, and I was able to run, feeling like I might be a little to the right, so kept my eyes left. A little before my pace count ran out, spotted the trail 25m below, with a bag on it, so went directly down, and it was in fact #14. Had the fastest split!

RouteGadget


[Orienteering race]

Warm up by jogging to the start with Marie-Josee.

Distance and time are approximate.

Big Basin. A bit frazzled at the start after helping several people at registration and generally running into people to talk to. Wound up picking up a Red map. #1 was the same for all courses, so it wasn't until I was approaching #2 that I realized something was wrong: clue said reentrant, no reentrants anywhere nearby. Ran past the control, found it coming back, but code was wrong. Theo punched in soon after me, I asked to look at his map, same circle as me, then realized what was wrong. Jogged back to the start and started over.

Cool down, jogging back towards the assembly area on a trail.

Right heel is hurting me some, more than it has been in a couple of weeks. Could it be from trying shoes on at Road Runner Sports on Thurs and then wearing them around for 3 hours?

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

Local terrain. Jeep trail next door. Mostly loosening up a bit, but also seeing if my plantar fasciitis can tolerate the Salomons, and they seemed OK.

457, 421, 159

[Easy distance]

Cool down

JCCLG. Two sets of everything instead of three, as I hadn't done these in a while. A little lower on reps and/or weight, too. Pretty sleepy, so not very explosive, but got the work in.

Wore the Brooks running shoes I just bought at Road Runner Sports.

[Strength exercises]

Local terrain. Jeep trail next door. Drizzle. Keep it nice and easy.

446, 424, 419, 416, 409, 404, 359, 349

[Easy distance]

Cool down

Kind of a hectic day, including a candidate interview and staff mtg at Oracle, and capped by a BAOC Board meeting.

Local terrain. Jeep trail next door. Crazy day. After thundershower. Earlier, drove home from the Russian River, and once home, spent two hours looking for a place for Thanksgiving.

453, 423, 411,358, 335

Cool down:
1 min recovery jog, 1 min walk (not logged)
530 cool down jog.

Monte Rio. On my own, walk down the hill, out to the road beyond the golf course, then back up via old Monte Rio Rd.

Drive to the cabin.

Kortum Trail, Sonoma St Beach. Overcast.

Start from Shell Beach because the road to Blind Beach is being repaired. Do a butterfly: to Sunset Rocks and back, then to the edge of Furlong Gulch and back. Very slowly at first, pick it up a bit over the last third.

1523, 1327, 548, 541

[Easy distance]

Cool down.

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

Local terrain. Jeep trail next door. Low 60's, nice breeze. Had a good nap beforehand. Ran easily until the last 1.2 miles, and then pushed a bit. Foot felt good.

Splits are for 2 laps at a time, 0.4 miles:
452, 435, 421, 411, 403, 355, 351, 339

[Easy distance]

Cool down
130 recovery jog for 0.1 mi
130 walk, stretch
610 cool down jog for .35 miles

Had planned to do a full workout, but there wasn't time. Just did two exercises intently, curls and kettle bell squats.

Kevin's. He had me run pretty fast on a treadmill - which was a bit of a strain. Painful deep tissue massage. Then some new stretches for calf and soleus.

Front of house. The heat wave broke last night. Today was much cooler, and also wildly windy. Still, the 72 degree temperature made it hotter than I'd like.

Hadn't run this in quite a while. Compared to running on the jeep trail next door, felt very sluggish though I was running at about the same pace. Maybe on the trail, running past all the trees makes one feel like you're moving faster. Or maybe the lack of sleep for the past several days (past three weeks, really) was a big factor.

Plantar fasciitis was not a problem while running, though it was a bit sore afterwards. So, for the first time in months, I'm not listing myself as injured. But I did feel terribly out of shape. Really couldn't have gone much faster.

630, 618, 619, 614, 610, 124

[Easy distance]

Cool down

Another super-hot day. Spent some time in the pool, but not much physical activity.

At home. Upper only. Full workout. 3 theraband (broke on last one!), 2 weights, bar dips. Weights: 3 x 12 w/25 lbs.

99 degrees out! Spent 20 minutes in the pool right before I did the exercises, and got so cooled off didn't even feel the heat while I was exercising.

[Strength exercises]

The usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises: stretching, strength and balance. Despite there being a couple of days where I ran in the morning and so didn't do all the strength exercises, think I probably was closer to 5 hours of morning exercises this week.

Local terrain. Jeep trail next door. Out at 6:30, 15 minutes before sunrise, and it's already 86 degrees. Wanted to run slow and long to give my foot a break, but (again) time constrained, plus the heat made me switch to short and fast. Didn't really set out for a threshold run, but got going quickly right of the bat so kept it up without straining. Definitely breathing harder than an "easy distance" run for the last 1.2 miles. Last mile in around 9:30, which is fast for this venue.

Foot was a little sore afterwards, but an ice massage really helped. If there's no further soreness later today or tomorrow morning, gonna take myself off the injured list, though I'm certainly not yet confident that running a hard race wouldn't massively irritate my foot.

Splits are for 2 laps (0.2 mi) at a time:
432, 402, 353, 343

[Running Threshold]

Cool down:

130 recovery jog (not logged)
100 walk, stretch
540 cool down jog