Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

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.