Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Monte Rio. In drizzle, walk with L with umbrellas. Old Monte Rio Rd, almost to the barrier, then back via Outlet Dr. Nice to be out.

Sonoma County State Beach, Goat Rock Area, Kortum Trail. From Blind Beach parking to edge of Furlong Gulch and then back to Sunset Rocks. Start at 11:40. It was under 40 at the cabin, but nearly 50 when we started. Wore a long sleeve shirt, but after ten minutes wished I hadn't.

Day after Thanksgiving. Start with Rachel and Louise. They got a head start, walked over the first hill, using the short cut; I jogged most of that (some walking on the way up), then looped back at Sunset Rocks. Started off with L but after a few minutes went chasing after R. Didn't catch up until nearly Shell Beach. Going a lot of faster than I've done in training runs for a while. Turned back at the edge of Furlong Gulch while R continued on. Tried to keep the pace on the way back, but several times had to slow down for a minute or two, so surprised that overall it was about the same as on the way out; must've been running pretty fast on the parts where I wasn't slowing down.

Also surprised that the first split was as fast as it was, given that I walked some going up the hill. Guess running up that hill isn't much faster (though I made up quite a bit of ground on R & L).

BB — 750 — SR — 1226 — SB — 513 — FG
......................SR — 1219 — SB — 522 — FG

34 secs of loop back; "usual" 4.14 in 4312

1226 SR -> SB was very fast, possibly best ever on the way out.
1219 SB -> SR was quite fast, though I've been under 12 a few times; fastest seems to be 1109 on 7-3-17.

[Easy distance]

Cool down. Walked back over the hill, with several stops - pretty tired from the run. Spectacularly clear day, so great views.

Monte Rio. Thanksgiving. Got out for a walk on my own before dinner. Old Monte Rio. Lots of tree canopy clearing was done here last summer, so found in much more pleasant than previously, with views to the river and the hills on the other side.

Busy for most of the day preparing for my work offsite Dec 6.

Phoenix Lake. Out at 11:40. Chilly; first big rain of the season is at most a couple of hours away. Harried from work, amped up, pushed it a little.

Just a tad slower than 10-1-19; last three splits were identical.

Out and back run. Read down the first column for splits on the way out, then up the second column for splits on the way back.

Phoenix Lake ----------------- start ---- 2605
----------------------------------- (558) ---- (455)
Jct with trail around lake --- 558 ---- 2110
----------------------------------- (119) ---- (116)
Phoenix Junction ------------ 717 ---- 1953
----------------------------------- (505) --- (350)
Hidden Meadow Trail ------ 1223 --- 1603
----------------------------------- (153) --- (147)
Second bridge -------------------- 1416

[Easy distance] though a bit more effort than that

Cool down

Brown - Splits

Event: BAOC: Bon Tempe
 

Bon Tempe, Brown 3.3km, 145m climb, 11 controls. Sunny, temp around 60, chilly in the shade, warm in the sun. Felt good warming up. Started at 11:08, behind Leslie and ~90 sec ahead of George.

Did well on the first four and very well on the last three, but lot of trouble on #5 - #8.

White hat kept falling off. I think the Velcro is shot. Cost more than a minuter overall trying to put it back on all those times.

#5: Couldn't face climbing over the spur so went around. That probably cost a minute, but I probably would have lost that minute by being tired on the next couple of legs. Also, once I decided to go around, should have gone straight W to the trail but instead I went NW to save some distance, but that was slow going (and had more to do with losing a minute than the idea of going around), and eventually dropped to the trail, but not until near the end. Coming up the last broad reentrant, thought I was reading the vegetation well, but maybe it's not mapped quite right. Wound up on a spur that doesn't show well on the map, just N of the correct one. Got up to where I could see the trail on the ridge, but thought I was E of the spur when I was W. Finally decide the only possibility was that the control was further E, and as I was crossing the correct spur, George was coming up and heading to #6. Lost 6 minutes. Probably a bit over confident (and hence not careful enough) after the success of the first four.

#6. Climbed out of #5, I guess because George had and I was too disgusted with myself to focus - I'd previously decided that I would contour out to get to the trail that started later on the same contour. Hillside was slippery, so after crossing the reentrant, dropped to the trail I wanted to get on in the first place. Probably cost half a minute. Came out a contour above what I thought was the correct tree (it was) but I couldn't see the bag. The tree had a very large, circular crown, the edges of which reached nearly to the ground, creating a dark interior. I peered in, reluctant to go down if in fact I need to climb up, but couldn't see the bag. So, climbed a bit, looked around, decided that the tree below must be the right tree after all, went down, and finally saw the bag.

#7. Careful bearing all the way, walking until the last 70m when I felt certain I could see the correct redwood circle. However, the clue said "northern part", so I wound up spending an unnecessary minute searching among the trees before finding the bag outside the N side.

#8. Lost 3 to 4 minutes. Even sat down in frustration for a while. [More to come]

[Orienteering race]

C • Control 8 problem 5

Usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises. Back to full amount of all the exercises.

Phoenix Lake.


Phoenix Lake ----------------- start ---- 1354
----------------------------------- (556) ---- (504)
Jct with trail around lake --- 556 ------ 850
----------------------------------- (120) ---- (122)
Phoenix Junction ------------ 717 ------ 728
------------------------------------------ (11)

[Easy distance]

Cool down

Jeep trail next door. Sunny but low 50's with a chilly wind. Body didn't have much, didn't push it.

456, 435, 425, 406

[Easy distance]

Cool down

Phoenix Lake. Had to wait maybe 5 minutes for parking. Was in the high 50's in the parking lot, but wisely wore shorts as it was warmer (quite pleasant) at the Lake.

First time for this hike: Left at the top of the dam, Allen Trail to Tucker Trail (I'd done some of this the other day), Tucker Trail all the way to the Bill Williams trail, then on that trail along the creek until the S end of the lake (just over an hour), around the backside of the lake and back to parking. Walking at a modest to leisurely pace. With L.

Tamaramcho. Nav-X. Only had a half hour.

[Orienteering training]

The usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises: stretching, strength and balance. Pretty good week of doing these.

Phoenix Lake. After sitting in the sun at the dam for a while, went for a casual walk. Up the Allen Trail (first time), then a little ways of the Tucker trail before turning back.

Oracle. After a (typically) long staff meeting, wasn't sure what my plan was for getting to Marin, went outside thinking I'd go to my car, but there was lovely light in the sky at dusk, so walked around the lagoon first, and that felt good.

Event: BAOC: Calero (rescheduled)
 

Calero B-meet. 1st of 26 on Brown 3.3 km, 165m climb, 8c. (Climb listed as 155, which I think didn't take into account the climb from the start of timing [on the road below the start triangle] up to the start triangle.) Start at 10:36. Sun was strong but temp only in the high 50's, so heat wasn't much of a factor. (I'd pushed myself to leave Greenfield early enough to get here in time to go out early to beat the heat, and I met that objective. However, the early wake up, the long drive [hour and a quarter] and driving too fast left me a bit frazzled and not as focussed at the start as I should have been.)

Very physical, not only because of the steepness, but because there is so much dry, slippery vegetation on the ground.

Made one significant error, at least 3.5 mins, near the circle at #1. Otherwise, only a few small bobbles and hesitations. Mostly good route choices.

First time I wore Salomon Spikecross shoes. They just arrived in the mail yesterday and I took a chance and wore them without breaking them in. No problems with my feet at all, so that was a good gamble, and the spikes definitely helped.

SI Air definitely helped at #3 and #4. In both cases I would have had to scramble down in order to punch and then scramble back up, but I was able to just reach over and get the punch recorded.

RouteGadget

[Orienteering race]

Brown - Splits

Armstrong Woods. Walk the usual loop with L. A bit chilly and getting dark, but a fine walk. Earlier, on the drive up, was feeling a sore throat and headache coming on, but slept for an hour when I got to the cabin and felt a good deal better, and then even better after the walk.

C • Sonoma County retreat 2

Bon Tempe Lake. From the Lake Lagunitas Parking Lot, at about 11:30. First day of Standard Time, so had hoped to get up with the sun as I had been doing for weeks, and so get an early start to the day, but wound up not able to sleep for a long period in the middle of the night, and then finally slept until 7:30 PST.

Sunny and chilly at our place in San Anselmo, but much warmer (mid-70's) up at Bon Tempe.

305 with L, walk and jog from the bridge up to the high point above the platform at the W end of the dam
1831 around Lake Lagunitas, plus 105 for two loop backs
115 down to parking lot
155 bathroom and drink break
1819 L takes the trail around the peninsula, while I get in about 12 minutes of forest running, stopping where one would make the left over the bridge to continue around the lake (I was coming from the other direction as L got there.

I found the forest running extremely difficult. Just emphasizes that running on trails is NOT training for orienteering.

[Forest running]

Cool down, back to parking lot.

Not really a rest day, but rather a non-training day. Drove to Skyline, lots of physical work in the yard, drove back.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises.

Phoenix Lake. Out too late for me, after errands, but tried not to let that bother me. Chilly at home and in the parking lot, but warm in the sun up at the lake. Ran the first part with L, legs still feeling like I ran a hard race yesterday. Felt better on the Hidden Meadow Trail, and good on the downhill on Shaver Grade, but legs still felt lousy on the run back along the lake (though it turned out I was a few secs faster than last time). Don't know what else to do but keep doing easy runs until I start feeling better.

Out and back run. Read down the first column for splits on the way out, then up the second column for splits on the way back.

Phoenix Lake ----------------- start ---- 2906
----------------------------------- (623) ---- (544)
Jct with trail around lake --- 623 ---- 2321
----------------------------------- (130) ---- (126)
Phoenix Junction ------------ 753 ---- 2154
----------------------------------- (542) --- (418)
Hidden Meadow Trail ------ 1335 --- 1736
----------------------------------- (202) --- (158)
Second bridge -------------------- 1537

[Easy distance]

Warm up, up from the parking lot to the dam, a little jogging but mostly walking.

Cool down, mostly on the dam.