Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Theraband and weights only, one set each of the five exercises.

Neck was quite sore soon after.

Earlier, legs didn't feel that great walking up the driveway. Sure hope they're feeling better tomorrow.

[Strength exercises]

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises.

For the record, the routine goes something like this (though I don't know the names of all of these):

5 standing arm stretches (mostly learned from Qi Gong)
3 arm stretches on a foam roller (learned from Pilates)
Walk down the driveway and then up walking backwards
4 standing leg stretches
2 balancing exercises on one leg (just on the ground; bosu is still too hard)
plank
warrior pose
2 stretches while sitting on the ground (learned from yoga)
reverse bridges
crunches (2 sets)
"hundreds" (core exercise from Pilates; I do more like 120)
2 calf stretching exercises against the wall (actually intersperse these with the previous three exercises)
push-ups

Front of house. Feels like a spring day. Nice and easy, reading a sprint map.

639, 609, 552, 231

Last lap in 534 (last two-thirds of that w/out reading the map)

[Easy distance w/map]

Cool down.

Theraband interleaved with core, hips, adductors, bosu balancing, weights. Two sets of everything rather than three.

[Strength exercises]

Front of house. Sunny, upper 40's. Given how I felt on Sunday at the Presidio, namely, that I didn't really have a top gear, thought it was time to do some speed work.

Ran the first 4 laps reading an O-map.

Times in brackets are for recovery jogs.

623, 545, 528, 514 [45], 446 [122], 438 [134], 502

The 5th and 6th laps were faster than my current threshold pace - they were more like (real) intervals. Knew before starting the 6th lap that I wouldn't be able to do a third one at that pace, so intentionally ran the last lap at a manageable pace (probably the correct threshold pace given my current conditioning and ability, plus the fact that I'd run quite hard on the previous two laps), so pleased that it came out as fast as it did.

[Threshold intervals w/map]

Cool down, part 1.

:45 walk
3:17 recovery jog
1:25 walk and stretch

Cool down, part 2, including 3 short loops on Skyline (usually call this 3/4 mi.)

JCCLG. Two sets each (rather than three) of machines, core and weights. Tried bar dips but stopped at three because my left tricep is sore.

[Strength exercises]

Lake Ranch Reservoir. Sunny but 40 degrees with a strong wind. Didn't expect to run today after yesterday's race, but didn't feel too bad so decided a little exercise would be nice.

No major repercussions from yesterday's fall. Outside of left thigh is a bit sore, and so is my left tricep (yesterday hadn't even realized that that area had suffered), but all minor.

----------------- 511(535)1046(511(1557)
3127(448)2639(605)2034(436)

[Easy distance]

Cool down.

Event: BAOC: Presidio
 

Warming up for the Presidio Sprint. Mostly on the grass on the big field near registration. Felt a little sluggish at first, but pretty good by the end, though it didn't seem like I had my top gear.

L and I had an event to attend at the Zen Center in the early afternoon, so I got out here shortly after 9 and as soon as the start was open, grabbed the 10:00 start slot.

Presidio. Sprint-O 1.7km, 25m climb. Official time: 13:12. Sunny, cool. A few very minor blips, but overall, did very well. Navigation and even hesitation errors were no more than 3 seconds each, though I lost 20 seconds on #7 when I came to the correct feature but didn't see the control, moved on a little and had to come back. Also, took a nasty fall but fortunately it didn't do much damage. Consciously pushed the pace several times, but never felt like I really got going fast.

Hadn't been to the Presidio in many years, certainly not since Fort Scott became the "usual" assembly area, so the terrain was very fresh and this made for good orienteering practice. The sprint had a high density of controls and the map is reasonably feature rich; only things missing were covered passageways and surprisingly located uncrossable features.

Finished 7th of 20. Matej and Francois ran just a little under 9 minutes, Tapio was 3rd in 1044, Lubo 1137, Tori 1144, Steve Gregg 1251. Pleased to be that close to Steve. I finished ahead of Steve Harrison, Marie-Jose, Greg E, and Gavin W-M.

When course setter Janne Peltola came back from hanging the controls, he crossed off #6 from the Sprint, so starting with #7 on the map, the numbers on the map were one more than the number of the control on the course.

1. With so many deep colors on the map, the course overlay doesn't stand out very well, so it took a few seconds to find the start triangle. Then I quickly realized that I needed to go left, between the buildings and it was a short and straight shot from there.

2. As I headed for the bag for #1, determined that I'd have to make a 90 degree right to head for #2. Once I took a few steps in that direction, I could already see the bag. That gave me some time to look at the (more complicated) next two legs.

3. Carefully crossed the busy street. Didn't want to slow down to take a careful compass bearing, so aimed at what appeared to be a slight rise more or less the correct distance from the building I could see. This was in fact the correct location, but as I approached, there was a low stone wall in my way, so I had to veer left a bit to get around it. Looking at the map now, I see that the contour line marking the knoll, the control circle, the parts of the stone wall, and a path all formed concentric circles around the control, with the wall covered up by the control circle. Not gonna blame myself for not being able to pick out the wall on the map while on the run.

4. Complicated little area could use finer resolution map symbols, but I had it pretty well figured out before I punched 3. I chose to stay on the low path down the center, but when I got to the far end of the little building, there was an unmapped fence in my way. Had to go an additional 10m (and then 10m back) to get around it, costing me a few seconds, but, again, that was more of a map issue.

5. Plan was to continue in the same direction, go up over the knoll and then get on the path. The slope of the knoll facing me was mapped as white, but when I got closer I could see the ground was covered with vines - should've been mapped with vertical green lines. Consequently, had to make a sharp left to get on the path, costing me several seconds. I must have hesitated a bit here, as well, since it appears from the splits that I lost about 15 secs.

6. Though the original #6 was no longer part of the course, looked like the best way to get to the new #6 (that is, #7 on my map) would be to go right through the original #6. However, as I approached the street crossing, I could see ahead that the mapped-as-yellow field was in fact choked with vegetation, so I veered left to head for the N side of the building (where #1 was) instead. Had to wait a few seconds for cars before I could cross the road. Ran E along the S edge of the parking lot, past #1, down the stairs, and turned right on the alley way. Got to the edge of the building on the left, looked around the corner expecting to see the control right there, but there was nothing. Quickly checked the map and realized that my expectation was based on the relation of where I was to #6 on the map, which was not in fact where I was coming from, so realized immediately that I had to go to the end of the next building. Lost may 4 to 5 seconds, my first actual mistake. Surprisingly, even with those two bobbles, this was my highest ranking leg split (6th) to this point.

7. Thought about continuing down the alley I'd been on, but instead cut between the buildings so I could run on a straight line across the edge of the field, saving some distance (and getting a look at #13, aka #12). Past #13, left at the next straight, round the corner formed by the fight, and just as expected, there was a lone tree in a small clearing - but no bag. Since the control description had no "side of" modifier, I had expected the bag to be plainly visible, plus the tree seemed too skinny to hide a bag behind. Without hesitation, continued S on the path, thinking maybe it was just a little ways more, but it quickly became apparent that there was no other clearing. Stopped and checked the map; only thing to do was go back, and now the bag was plainly visible - it had in fact been hidden from view by the tree. Grr - annoying loss of 20 secs. Obviously, I must have taken my eyes off the tree too soon as I ran by it.

8. Knew my exit route, but hadn't had a good look at the rest of the leg. Fortunately, the first 15 secs of the leg was on very good footing, so I was able to read the map without slowing down and figure out the rest of the leg. Coming down the slope in the little patch of woods, I could see the tennis court so ran the rest of the way by picking a good route by what I could see on the ground rather than on the map. Went around the left side to the back corner. This was my highest ranking split, 5th (equaled two legs later).

9. Had this leg all figured out in advance, so dashed along the back side of the tennis court, quick right, quick left... yikes! As I turned the corner, my right foot landed on a brick patio that was very slick and it slipped out from under me and I crashed hard on my left side. My left thigh seemed to bear the brunt of it, but also scrapped my left knee and the finger tips of my right hand stung (and my magnifier went flying). Much later I discovered scrapes on my right ankle and the next day my left tricep was sore. But I got up quickly, grabbed my magnifier, and continued up the steps right to the control. Lost less than ten secs, but felt a bit shaken.

10. Up the stairs, along the road, chose to go around the left side of the building so I could save a few steps by cutting diagonally to the back, However, though the map didn't show it, there was a lot of vegetation in the back so it would have been better to go around the right side. Somehow, though, I wound up with the fifth fastest split, tied for my highest rank of the day. Seems odd because (1) it was a straight forward leg so I didn't have my usual advantage in quick decision making, (2) as I already said, going around the back side of the building was slow, (3) the leg was uphill, not my forte, and (4) I was still shaken from the fall. Hmm.

11. Had plenty of time to figure out this leg while running on the road to the previous control, which was good because the "forest" on the left side of the little parking area was full of bushes and deadfall, so if I'd had to read the map there, it would have really slowed me down - and one had to run through that because the mapped paved area was fenced off (not indicated on the map).

12. Worked this leg out as I was leaving 10, so ran it very efficiently. Also helped that I had intentionally passed right by this control earlier.

F. Didn't feel a need to really push it, but ran at a good pace. Someone was there with a large unleashed dog, who proceeded to nip at my heels. Almost lost my balance, but probably didn't lose more than a second.

Very enjoyable run!

[Orienteering race]

Presidio. Had about 6 minutes of rest then grabbed a map and did the first 5 controls of the 3.8 km Medium course. I measure 1.4 km (straight line) for this portion of the course. My splits and their ranks among the 41 people who did the course:

32 (5)
402 (13)
218 (2)
225 (4)
200 (4)

The low rank on #2 was because I saw that the fastest route was to run out on Lincoln Blvd and take the road all the way to the control, but decided not to go that way because it was too boring.

Total after 5 controls was 11:18, which would've been 3rd place at that point, 10 secs behind Derek Maclean.

Interestingly, I forgot that the map scale for this course was 1:10,000 rather than the 1:5,000 for the sprint. Clearly, I never measured any distances nor pace counted, but I kept noticing that things were further away than I was expecting them to be. Duh.

Glad I got in the extra bit of work, but with the controls so far apart this wasn't nearly as interesting as the Sprint.

Note: Pretty sure there's an erroneous data point on the gps track coming out of the start. I noticed right away that the first control was the same as it had been for the sprint; I didn't start off in the wrong direction.

[Orienteering training]

Presidio. Cool down. Faster pace than my usual cool down, reading the map to take a good route from #5 back to the Fort Scott field.