Training Log Archive: JanetT

Trivia (multiple choice) O in historic Bisbee, home of the Copper Queen mine (which you could tour if interested). Fun, two hour limit. Many staircases, not all of them indicated on the aerial photo we used as our map. Thanks to Mark Parson for organizing and coming up with the questions. Upper 40s and mostly sunny.

After I dropped my marking pen (no backup) I started to take photos at controls to jog my memory when I finished. May post them later (or a link).

Some memorables:

Bumper sticker on a car (presumably a local's): BZB We're here because we're not all there

On Laundry Hill Rd, an old fashioned laundry tub in a parking lot

All the staircases! They run a race here every October that climbs 1034 steps of various staircases.

Houses practically on top of each other except for the steep hillside they are on

Old Bisbee Brewing's Sterling Saison in Brewery Gulch

C • Bumper Stickers 3

After a restless night with lots of coughing and nose dripping/wiping (half the time I slept in a semi-upright position), and more nose dripping this morning, I decided not to do the mass-start event at Catalina today. I've had the privilege of running through the rocks and saguaros and prickly pears here before, so I wasn't missing much (except for the fun of finding control points). Instead I went in search of a Safeway to purchase our third box of tissues this trip.... Maybe it'll stop soon?

We'll take a day off from training tomorrow and figure out some sightseeing to do.

To the start of the NRE classic

Brown NRE at Box Canyon, Coronado State Forest south of Tucson. 4.27 km, 190m climb

Temps yesterday got into the low 60s but it was more overcast today with threats of sprinkles so didn't make it out of the 50s. Chest cold continues to bother especially on any climbs.

Started a few minutes behind Eileen and didn't really expect to see her out there (once she was out of sight for the climb to #1), but she had a mistake at 3 (I saw her coming from the opposite direction as I left it), I overran 4, then I saw her at 5 (the cliff) where she got ahead again. Certainly didn't expect to see her coming down the reentrant to #8 when I was coming up, but we both missed it by a little bit (and I think either mapping or control placement is a bit off there) and eventually spied it in a flatter area of the reentrant on a lone tree rather than on the side of a spur in a forested area.

I think she spent more time on errors than I did; she only had a couple minutes on me for the course. I would have been happy heading back toward the finish after #5 but plugged away. 6 crossings of barbed wire fences, some easier than others (most I went under; one between 5&6 seemed to be gathered and was easy to get through).

Hoarse from coughing at the finsh and I could barely talk, but my voice has come back a bit since. Hope this cold clears up soon!!!

C • Tough when you're sick! 2

2018-02-18 Box Canyon - Brown - Splits

Event: Southwest Spring Week
 

EDITED - added FIT file via computer. Still can't get the Garmin to talk to my phone, though it did fine on Wednesday....

Brown course at Kentucky Camp in Coronado Nat'l Forest south of Tucson. 1:10000/5m map. Map seems to have a lot of contour lines on it, but many of those are form lines (including a double form line hill just east of #5...). That's why it seemed a lot steeper than it actually was. In fact I originally thought it was 2.5m interval until I double-checked on the map, and noticed the hard-to-see gaps in some of the lines.

Brown was a reasonable 3.3 km with stated 115 m climb.

Spurs and reentrants with not a whole lot of ground cover except for grasses (which weren't *too* seedy), and some scattered trees. Map is mostly yellow with patches of open/scattered trees areas.

I was able to jog a bit most of the way to 1 and the last bit to 8 and the Go control, but mostly walked, and couldn't push the pace. I had a head cold in early February, and it was done by the time we left home to fly here on Tuesday, but on Wednesday I developed chest cold symptoms and when I breathe too deeply I need to cough, and that's not fun. I was behind Eileen B for several legs but could not catch her despite her hobbling a bit from a recent hamstring injury. Still, I was happy to find everything where I was looking for it, though I find this type of navigation easy...it's just a matter of reading the terrain. (To practice that, they had a 3k contour-only course that we could have done later but decided not to.)

Eileen picked up a Green map instead of Brown, and decided to finish it after she realized (we had legs 2-3 and 5-6 in common); Mary Jo did a speedy 43 minutes. we chatted later about places to visit in the Tucson area. Lots of good choices...we've done many of the top options on previous trips. Now enjoying sunshine and low 70s!

2018-02-17 Kentucky Camp - Brown - Splits

Various hikes and walks in Petrified Forest N.P. to look at the scenery and rock-logs. Very neat, though I could have used a bit more sunshine. Low 50s

We hit some snow between Sedona and Flagstaff last night but it ended by the time we got to Flagstaff, so no snow to clean off the car.