Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Kortum Trail, Sonoma St Beach. From Blind Beach parking to Shell Beach parking and back. Howling wind from the north. Trail was wet and muddy, with streams running down the middle on the hills. Having run through stuff like that last week at Morgan Territory, just decided to plow through everything, and it was fun. Felt strong at the start and with the wind at my back, ran hard.

I. Blind Beach parking to Sunset Rocks: .52 mi, 6:33

Ran hard up the hill, in O2 debt well before the top. Coasted down. This is a fast split.

II. Sunset Rocks to Shell Beach parking: 1.26 mi, 11:24

Threshold pace. Had to push it by the end and was quite tired, but it was a good segment.

III. Jog in parking lot: 0.15 mi, 3:03

Waiting for Louise

IV. Back to Sunset Rocks: 1.27 mi, 14:22

Really tough running into the wind. Was trying to run at moderate pace, but it was hard, and hard to not get blown off the trail.

IV. Cool down. Mostly walking, a little jogging. Trying to skirt a puddle, wound up on the wrong trail. Tried to go cross-country to get back, wound up on the road, which was a better choice anyway.

[Running Threshold]

The usual weekly accumulation of morning exercises: stretching, strength and balance. Last weekend, didn't do the strength and balance exercises prior to pliates (Sat) or Morgan Territory (Sun).

Left for the cabin about 12:30. Nicer weather than we'd been having. After lunch in SF, rendezvoused with Rachel outside of Novato, taking a lovely alternative route to the packed 101. But near Valley Ford, we were forced onto detours twice due to road flooding, so wound up having dinner in Bodega Bay before finally getting to the cabin, and by then it was raining again.

JCCLG. Pushed everything. Moved up to 27.5 lbs for curls. 12 bar dips. Did glute exercises with the yellow band. Felt pretty strong.

[Strength exercises]

JCCLG. Actually did this as a warmup, before the strength exercises. Felt pretty fluid, even imagined my legs felt good (surprising after yesterday's hill running), but tried jumping a little and that's when I realized that my legs were indeed tired. Jogged outside for 20 seconds, which only confirmed that.

Local terrain and front of house. Nice day. Legs feel surprisingly good. Sunday's race made me feel like I need some hill work, so did some.

3 x (2 x old jeep trail loop): 458, 425, 359

Down to bottom of trail behind house (cutting across switchbacks): 154

Up the trail: 153

Down Skyline to beginning of usual long hill repeat: 545

Hill: 530(329)

Recovery jog (ending up at mailbox): 133

1 front of house loop: 457

Tough workout!

[Hill intervals]

Cool down:

329 Jog on Skyline
133 Walk, stretch
703 Jog half mile on Skyline

At home. Upper body only (because I was short on time and I'm doing plenty of core work in the morning). Full sets, reps and weights for all 6 exercises (3 with theraband, 2 with weights, bar dips).

Rest day. Legs don't feel too bad.

Event: BAOC: Morgan Territory
 

Morgan Territory. Brown 3.7 km, 130m. (I count the climb as 170.) Second, far behind a Red runner on Brown, well ahead of everyone else.

What fun! Sunny, cool and breezy, ground was soft, hills were green. Lots of muddy areas, but didn't cause me any problems. A little extra cautious on some rocky downhills (rocks were slippery), but that didn't cost me much.. Matej's courses made excellent use of the technical terrain, so even though I've been in those areas dozens of times, it was pretty much as if I'd never been there. Clearly not in the shape I was when the US Champs were here last March, but that's no surprise (e.g., I haven't run hill intervals in ages). Felt rusty, but still navigated very well and fairly aggressively. Lost 1:45 on #5, partly due to poor strategy, then mostly to over running it. Lost :30 on #4, but that was due to the control marker being improperly hidden behind a tree. Appear to have lost :30 on #7 even though I executed it well. I think that might have been because there were a lot of young people on the course who just were able to run the uphill parts faster than me; also, the road might have been a faster option, though I shied away from that because it was muddy. Otherwise, a few minor bobbles.

Afterwards, got really chilled working for an hour in the epunch tent. Of course, that chill in the air must've helped not over heat on the course - ran in a short sleeve O-top.

Note on GPS track: When I arrived at #2, I accidentally hit the pause button instead of the split button. Didn't discover that until after I left #3. So, the track is missing about 2:10 (my split on #3 was 1:57); #2 was where that straight line heading N is, and, starting with #4, the control numbers on the track are 2 less than the actual control numbers.

1. Familiarity with the area enabled me to head for the road after only a quick glance at the map. At the T-intersection, paused for a couple of seconds to make sure my plan was good. Aimed off a little to the right, visually spotted the hill a little further right; soon as I spotted the reentrant, veered to run along its left side until I spotted the control.

2. Knew my exit direction, so headed that way while I tried to make a plan. Didn't have a great one: just get over the ridge and hope I can identify features. Felt more tired than I expected getting up that ridge. Once over it, looked for the trail, and when I reached it, recognized that I was at the subtle saddle between the index contours, 40m to the right of the straight line, but at least in a definite spot. Bearing from there, soon spotted the small hill, then the snag, then the bag tucked in behind it.

3. Knew which way to turn, but hadn't examined the leg at all, so stood still for a few secs. My bearing had me headed down a fairly large reentrant, which I didn't want to do and could match up exactly to the map. So, headed instead to the subtle from whence I had come, which wasn't too far out of the way and had the advantage of being physically easy to get to and being a definite spot. From there headed on a bearing. Noticed I was running parallel to a rocky ridge on my right, which I hadn't noticed on the map - but I HAD noticed that the control should be on a hill sloping down to my right, so realized it was likely that I needed to be on the other side of those rocks. Quick stop to check, now saw the ridge; pace count was telling me that I was almost to the control already, so crossed the ridge, and there was the bag.

4. This one I had a fairly good look at beforehand. Realized the feature (a copse in front of a larger stand of trees) would be tough to recognize, but figured I could judge the location in relation to the jeep road beyond and the pond beyond that, so proceeded quickly (though distracted momentarily by noticing that my watch was in "resume?" mode, meaning I'd accidentally stopped it somewhere, and I had to think about which buttons to hit to get it going again). Got to where I had a good look at the stand of trees that I thought should be the desired copse, but couldn't see a bag, so kept going to the right. But looking at the rocks above, thought, "that MUST be the copse", so looked in that direction, and from this angle I could now see the bag, tucked inappropriately behind a random tree. Lost about :30 on that one (not my fault), though the splits didn't catch it, I guess because I'd run the first part of the leg so well. Later, when I pointed out to the course setter the inappropriateness of that placement, he said another very experienced orienteer had pointed that out, too.

5. First thought was to just rough compass towards the last hill before the road. But then chickened out a little and instead headed for that subtle saddle that I'd already been to twice. - a bit out of the way, but, again, at least a known point. However, once I struggled up and over the ridge, I didn't see that saddle; assumed I was off to the left, so went back to the original thought of just heading to the last hill. Spotted a snag that looked an awful lot like the one where #3 was, but there was no bag; probably should have paused to try to identify where I was, but didn't. Soon spotted what I figured must be the hill I wanted. Somehow, I expected the bag would be visible from my approach line (it was actually well over the ridge line) so when I didn't see it, got concerned that maybe this wasn't the last hill. So, kept going to the top of the hill, and from there I could see the road, so knew for sure that I was on the right hill and that I had to turn back. Now realized that the bag would be below the ridgeline, so kept my eyes there and soon saw it. Lost about 1:45.

6. Rough compass, rather cautiously descended over wet and slippery rocks. Expected to use the jeep trail as a handrail, keeping it on my road, but found myself heading straight towards it, and it was a big curve, which I wasn't expecting, so had to stop for a moment to check the map, make sense of what I was seeing, and then proceed directly to the control.

7. Had checked the left route before I got to #6, but it was clearly too long, so proceeded towards the right flank of the hill. It was tempting to just get on the road, but it had been so muddy walking to the start, that I decided to stay 30 m into the terrain. On the last hill, the mapped vegetation seems to have grown further up the hill, so I had to snake around a bit to get through, and finally had to drop a bit to get to the bag. Splits flagged me as losing :40; I'm guessing that many people ran the road and that that was faster.

8.Again stayed off the raod. Over the little terrace, then good job of reading map and terrain on the run, directly to the control.

9. Had looked this leg over in advance, so left #8 without looking at the map, but almost immediately saw a fence dead ahead - but I was supposed to be running uphill, parallel to the fence. Checked map and compass, made a 90 degree left, and now was on track. (Was a little lucky here: though the piece of fence I saw is clearly an extension of the ruined fence that's on the map, that particular piece is not on the map.) Legs felt tired, so made no attempt to run up the long hill. Walking gave me a chance to study the rest of the leg (as well as the first half of the leg to #10), so when I got up to the saddle, was able to run the rest of the leg with only a few glances at the map.

10. As indicated, I'd already worked out the first part of the leg, so wasted no time in getting up to the fire road (had to walk the last bit) and then took the right fork then the left, and headed for the T-junction. Trees obscured the view of the reentrant I wanted to go up, but without hesitating, used the features I could see to the right and left and nailed the reentrant. Also didn't let a big lake of mud and wet ground deter me. Remembered that at the top of this reentrant was where I made my big mistake last March, so was extra focused. This time everything made sense and I nailed it.

11. Had already planned this one out, deciding on going around the right side of the hill to make the next leg a dogleg. Managed to jog all the way up to the saddle, then kept jogging E along the contour. (At this point Steve Harrison came up behind me, moving much faster than I was, but he was headed for a control beyond mine.) When I got past the southern most part of the hill, could see the rocky ground above, so angled up and nailed it.

12. Back the way I came. Proceeded W across the saddle, then took a compromise route between going directly over the hill and contouring all around, angling up just as much as I could without having to walk. Started walking when I got to the edge of the forest to makes sure I could interpret what was ahead, and very quickly saw the bag ahead, so started jogging again, though it was slow going with rocks and deadfall. (Meanwhile Steve H was coming over the top of the hill to my right and got to the bag ahead of me.)

13. Continuing to contour was the first option, but it was very junky ahead, so climbed just a little into the clearing, took a rough bearing, saw that the terrain ahead was quite runnable, so proceeded. The big reentrant was obvious, knew I was headed for a smaller reentrant, stopped for a moment to make a quick check of the map, then continued and hit it right on.

14. Had worked this one out in advance, so got down the hill as quickly as I could (exercising caution on the slippery rocks), crossed the road, and pushed myself up and across the big open hillside. Used the distinct features on the hillside to align myself, and nailed it.

15. Straightforward, but didn't want to take a fall at this point on the steep downhill, so slalomed back and forth a bit.

F. Tough uphill run to the Finish. Allowed myself to walk a bit in the middle.

[Orienteering race]

Jog to the start (obviously, before the race).