Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Half of the usual exercises.

The other half.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching.

Sunol. Vet Brown course. Had originally hoped to do a test run, but the course I was sent had way too much climb, so designed one of my own, hung some ribbons, etc. The course is 2.8 km, 140m climb, though I covered quite a bit more ground, checking alternative routes and such. Was out there for a total of about 80 mins, but that included some standing and some walking around. Gorgeous time of year at Sunol, but that place sure is steep.

Most of the usual strength exercises.

A very busy day, including visiting George and starting our income taxes - not to mention half a dozen other errands.

Front of house: 618, 600, 558, 554, 543, 538, 517. Legs felt decent after two days off, but Achilles was very sore. Limped for the first couple of miles, all the while wondering if I should really be doing this. Tried to keep my stride short and the pace slow, especially on the uphills. Started to loosen up a bit midway, though it still hurt. Finally felt OK over the last half-lap.

Not a good sign for 3 days of orienteering starting 9 days from now. Gotta hope that ibuprofen (which I've hardly taken over the last 4 months) will help me get through.

The rest of the strength exercises (i.e., the ones I didn't do yesterday).

Half of my strength exercises.

NOTE: Legs felt quite good for the day after orienteering, so I was thinking about going for a jog, but working on my script for Ted-Ed took a lot of time and energy, and there wasn't enough of either left for running.

Pt. Pinole "Thomass Course". 13 control, 2.9km, mass start course with a twist: between #4 and #5, you had to get a certain number of controls on a 10-control score-O course. That number of controls was sex/age dependent. For me it was only 2; for the M21's it was all 10. Francois Leonard, who turns 40 this month, needed only 8. Penny DeMoss, F60, needed only 2, like me.

Just followed the crowd for the first 4. As I came in to #4, saw that Penny was maybe 50m ahead. Caught her at the first score-O control by going through the woods while she went around. Got ahead of her immediately after, stayed in the lead to the end of the score-O; as I anticipated, I now was in front of the entire pack! This was great: navigated under pressure, staying ahead of Penny for the next 5 controls. As we headed uphill for #11, I was starting to feel weary (my awful night's sleep might have had something to do with that); got locked in heading for the wrong bush. Realized that near the end, but that allowed Penny to catch up and punch in right in front of me. Too much of a hurry towards #12; we were stumped and side by side for a few secs. Both headed east; I spotted a hill, looked for it on the map (should have seen it earlier but didn't - would've saved the :20 error), found it, but meanwhile Penny was headed for the control, so she opened up a 7 sec lead. Could see she was headed for #13 via the trail, so figured my best chance was to take a straighter route. Beat her by a sec, but it wasn't enough to make up the difference, so then coasted in to the finish. A bit surprised when Francois finished only 9 secs later; he must've made up a lot of ground over the last couple of controls.

This was really fun, and I got what I hoped out of it: practice navigating at high speed and under pressure. Mostly pleased with what I did, though lack of conditioning got me at the end.

Warm up: .75mi, 10 mins. Mostly going in circles while Steve Gregg explained the rules. Not a great warm up.

Cool down: .4 mi, 6 mins.