Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Big Basin B-meet. Brown 3.9 km, 235m climb. 1st by 20 minutes. More than half the people DNF'd. Took my time, took trails whenever I could (most of the first half), actually did better on the off-trail parts (using big features and redwood circles) until #13, the last difficult control. There I made a 5 min error on what should have been a sub-two-minute leg (though I heard some Green runners made 15 minute errors).

Hot day, so get out there fairly early. Left for the start at 10:00, 1 km uphill walk/jog. Started at 10:18. Got to #2 (#1 was essentially a remote start triangle) and it had the wrong code. After some head scratching, realized I'd picked up an Orange map, so had to go back (uphill) and start again. (The map trays weren't labeled; the brown maps were in a silver tray, and I'd mistook the orange colored tray for brown.)

Wandered some on #4, unsure whether to go up further or go back down a bit (tried the latter and then the former, which worked). On #12, did a very good job getting to the correct hillside, but then was unsure whether to go left or right. An educated guess said go right, and that was correct.

You can see my route on QuickRoute. I made many adjustments to the gps track, but it's still off (relative to the map) in many places. Rather than "fix" all that, I left it as is to show how the map is lacking in precision. Almost all the features on the map are there, but not necessarily in the relative locations shown on the map. And there are quite a few contour features out there that are not on the map. One has to proceed very carefully, keeping a very open mind.

Details:

1. Trivial. But map problems already in evidence: there’s a major switchback on the trail before getting to the top, but it’s not shown on the map.

2. Along the lower road, pace counting, checking the road bends, planning to cut up about the time I see the cliff. Pass Nancy Lindeman. Pace count runs out, but I still don’t see a cliff. Suddenly realize that the big earthbank on my right must be mapped as a cliff. Have to back track about 25m to find a way up into the woods. See a large shallow depression ahead, get into it but no bag. Not unusual for there to be unmapped depressions at Big Basin, so no panic. Steep hillside to my right, so go left, and there’s another large shallow depression, and there’s the bag.

3. Run back out to the road, looking for the path of least resistance (the vegetation is mighty thick to be mapped as white). Long run on the road to the corner SSW of #3. Run for about 30m up into the seasonal stream bed, but from there can’t really make sense of anything: lots of fallen trees, rootstocks and knolls, more contour detail than the map shows. Try to stay on a bearing, difficult with all the fallen trees. Start thinking maybe I’ve gone too far, so hook back for a minute and look around. Then decide to try higher, and soon spot a bag up and to my right; fortunately, that was mine. A little lucky on this one.

4. Thought about going NNE to the road and using the trail junction as an attack point, but then figured I’m out here for training, so let me try going through the woods. After 100m, can’t make sense of anything, so bail NE to the road, having to fight through considerable vegetation to get there. Turn left and run to the junction, then into the woods on a bearing and pace count. A nice animal path allows me to move fairly quickly. Come to a flatish area with a lot of subtle detail; looks like the area within the circle, so look around, but no bag. Hmm. Figure I must be in the reentrant ESE of the circle, so go left and up, and there’s another flatish area. Still don’t see the bag, but spot an oval shaped stand of redwoods, see it on the map, and that leads me to the bag. Quick drink before heading off to #5.

5. Had long since decided I wasn’t going to go straight on this one: wanted to avoid climb and have a better attack point. So headed back to the road-trail junction, but couldn’t find anything close to a clear path, so soon turned left and climbed to the road. Ran down to the junction, then down the trail for about 100m, then turned N into the woods. (Too careless about where I left the trail.) Spot a bag on a rootstock a bit ahead and to the right, figure it must be the one at the edge of the fight SW of the circle. A bit tough getting around the fight and then down towards the creek, but spot the bag on the other side of the creek, so bash my way down and then up to it.

6. Going up the spur seemed like the logical route, but it was such slow going through the woods decided to go S back to the little trail and then take the road NW. Had to walk for a good part of the road as it was a pretty big hill. Once I got to the corner, jogged around the dark green, into the reentrant, and soon spotted the redwood circle. Keeping that on my left, slowly down the treacherous hillside and then on a bearing up the next spur. Look eft for the redwood oval, and saw it, a little further away than planned, but went there and found the bag.

7. Bearing towards #7, up the little hill. But after that, there was a lot more contour detail than the map shows. Stayed on bearing and pace count, and came to what appeared to be the two mapped knolls, but no bag on the W side of the northern one. Spotted a red dot on the clue sheet, and realized it was trying to tell me that the bag was on the E side, so went around and there it was.

8. Had planned this leg while on the road to #6. NE over the spur and up the reentrant mapped as light green, praying that, after a decade, it still was light green, and it was. (Many people went up the next reentrant S, mapped as dark green, and had a real tough time crawling under manzanita.) The reentrant split before the road (not shown on the map), so kept going straight and soon hit the road. Closer to the road bend on the left than I expected. Went a few meters straight into the woods, to just over the lip of the hill, then turned right and jogged along the contour. After a bit, spotted the bag dead ahead. NOTE: We warned in advance that the printed circle for #8 was in the wrong place and that the correct circle would be drawn in by hand.

9. Thought this was my best leg of the day, and that was confirmed when I saw the splits: my first #1 of the course, over 2 minutes faster than anyone else (despite having stopped for :30 to pee midway through the leg - though I didn’t stop to drink at #8). Same leg was on Green, and my time would have been 3rd (though I’m amazed that Swiss F21 Nadja Rutz ran 5:30 to my 7:59). Scary looking leg, with no trails and mostly subtle contour features. Took a bearing from #8 and spotted the hilltop across the basin, jogged around to the right to get there, stopping on the SW side of the green hatching. Used my compass to get my into the broad reentrant, double checking that I was actually there. Ran down the reentrant, and, a bit sooner than I expected, spotted the form-line hill on the spur. Thought about checking for the black X, but, really, there couldn’t be an unmapped feature this big, could there? So went along the left side of the top, then took a bearing towards #9. Didn’t see the clearings, but soon spotted the redwood circle dead ahead, and then the 8-meter snag, and then the bag. Nice.

10. Carefully down alongside the mapped fallen tree, then look ahead to the right and spot the redwood circle. Through that, see the 5-meter snag, and then the bag. Surprised WinSplits flagged this as an error for me, but I guess that’s because Olga had such a fast time. (Given her previous split, I suspect she’d found #10 before #9 and then was able to hurry back to #10.)

11. Back through the redwood circle, bearing up the spur, see the 3-meter snag and then the bag.

12. Had noticed earlier that this would be a scary leg. I mean, if one had full confidence in the map, it wouldn’t be so bad, but given this map, the potential for a large error was significant. Carefully over the hilltop with the fallen tree across it, down in to the broad reentrant looking for the black X; see a sign 25m to my right, figure that must be it. S along the W edge of the spur, then cut up and over the spur. Standing at the edge of the next N-S reentrant, see a small reentrant on the other side running SW-NE, but don’t see it on the map. Now, I see it, partially hidden by the line from #11 to #12 and by a fallen tree. Confidence a bit low, so proceed on a bearing. See something that might be the mapped depression (it wasn’t) and hit up the hill to what I think is the right height, but, though there are plenty of fallen trees, none has the orientation of the mapped one in the control circle. See that the curve of the hillside is fairly close to me on the left, so figure I’m too far N and head to the right. Just when it’s starting to seem that I must’ve gone too far, spot a fallen tree ahead in the correct orientation, and then see the control (on a “boulder” that is a about a foot high) on the other side. Whew.

13. Obviously the last challenging leg, but so short it should be easy. Head S, but don’t see the boulder near the S edge of the circle. Given that the cliff and the boulder cluster are mapped as over the lip of the terrace, figure I might miss it if I stay on top, so cut to the right a bit and down and contour along the hillside. Never really came to a corner, though I did see an unmapped rocky area. Decided I’d gone too far, so turn east and climb up to the top. There I found another sign; hoping that it’s the black X on the S edge of the circle. (“Hoping” because it’s in a very flat area, unlike the X on the map.) See a pink ribbon hanging a bit to the E, and for some reason go over to it to see if it had any writing on it, like a vetting ribbon might. (It didn’t.) OK, I’ll guess that the sign is the black X I think it is, so take a bearing from there, and soon see a cluster of very small rocks with a flag, but not on the corner of a hillside. Fortunately, though, that was it. 5 mins lost on this leg, by far the biggest loss of the day.

14. This leg is easy if you can find the trail head (some people didn’t). Had the sudden realization that that pink ribbon I’d seen might mark the trail head, so proceeded quickly back there (could see it from a distance). Didn’t look much like a trail, but soon saw another pink ribbon, so figured this was indeed the trail. More ribbons and the trail started looking like a trail, but didn’t run fast because the downhill was starting to hurt my toes. Expected to hit the bigger trail and turn left, but when I got there, I unexpectedly saw another trail below, so stopped to check the map; saw that in fact it was just a switchback that I had noticed on the map, so I was OK. Went along the main trail until it bent back to the right, at which point it was easy to see the hill I wanted. Found a fairly runnable way up the hill, leading a bit to the right of the top. Once I got up, looked left and saw the flag. Surprised later that I had the fastest split on this one, since I was jogging when I could’ve been running, but I guess it’s because I was able to get to the trailhead so fast.

15. Just jog along the trail because the downhill is hurting my toes.

Jog/walk up big hill to the start.

Mistakenly grabbed an Orange map (the Brown maps were in a silver tray and I mistook the orange colored tray for brown - none of the trays were labelled). Figured out something was wrong when I got to the second control and the code was wrong (all courses had the same first control).

Brown - Splits

JCC. About 20 "long range jump shots). No running or actual jumping.

4 upper body exercises (7 sets), 1 set of core. Don't want to do too much with Big Basin tomorrow.

One lap (two lengths) of the pool (total 50m) freestyle, no stopping or touching. Then do it again with the backstroke.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching.

Front of house. Quads still tired, and it's nearly 90 degrees out, so stay on the southern part (shade, flatter) of the loop. An easy 4+ laps in 10 minutes, then finish with a full southern half (mailbox to mailbox) in 2:14, probably about 510 pace for a full loop. Felt halfway decent during those last couple of minutes.

Cool down

JCC. Furiously paced workout. Core exercises interspersed between weight machines, 5 sets in all. Then 7 bad dips, then free weights, 6 sets with almost no rest.

2 laps in the JCC pool. Happened to run into Christy as I got into the pool, and she gave me a flotation device to put between my legs so I didn't have to kick. Was able to swim freestyle with appropriate breathing the full length of the pool, and then did it again on the way back. Quite surprised how quickly it went, though I certainly need to get better at getting more air in my lungs, and at swallowing less water.

Front of house loops: 654, 642, 640

Bit of a discombulated morning, as I drove down to Los Gatos to pick up our CSA veggie box then had to wait 15 mins for the delivery truck to show up. By the time I got back, was too hungry to run, so had a snack. But waited to long to go out, and I was hungry again, plus it was 85 degrees out. But none of that mattered, probably, because my thighs just didn't want to move, so I slowed down until they didn't hurt much (pitiful pace) and managed to get through 3 loops. Disappointing after the good workouts on Su and Mon - guess I over did it. Will try to take it easy for the next few days.

C • Just one of those days 4

Pretty good day shooting from "outside" (10 ft). Legs pretty tired from last two days, so didn't run or jump much.

JCC. Bar exercises: 2-3-7. 3 x pulldowns (70 lbs). Curls, presses.

Skyline and front-of-house. Started with two loops to just-past-Gist and back, the first very slowly with Louise, then much faster on my own. Finished with 3.5 front of house loops. Felt pretty good through 6 miles, but the last mile my quads and hamstrings started giving out a bit.

First time to past-Gist: 3057
-------------- 142(1227)1409(102)1511
3057(130)2927(1314)1614(103)

Second time: 2803
-------------- 131(1104)1235(55)1330
2803(122)2640(1213)1427(57)

Front of house: 614, 603, 556, 247

Cool down