Training Archive: Swampfox

biking 2:18:00 [3]

Classic summer day. Rode south as far as The Buttes. Turned around before I hit Texas.

Orienteering 40:00 [2]

Note

Fun Wyoming fact: exactly one person has been killed by an elephant in Wyoming history.

It is not believed that elephants will present any danger to competitors at the coming US Classic Championships in a few weeks.

biking 1:36:00 [3]

Couldn't have been nicer out for this late afternoon ride out to the airport and back. There's a new office building going up out at the airport that is nearing completion; I have no idea what it's for, but maybe it is going to be the Wyoming regional office for some large Texas BBQ outfit. Downtown was bustling with Farmer's Market, and some really good runner I had never seen before was crossing over the viaduct while I was going over it too, going in the opposite direction. Maybe a new UW runner? Whatever, seeing him flashed my mind to the upcoming Olympics (which I don't expect to see much of) and that in turn made me wonder why in the world the Olympics doesn't have XC running. I'd never thought of that before, and it would seem to be such an obvious sport...but at least there's Synch Swimming and horsy jumping and stuff like that! ; )

C • Hey now 7

run 1:00:00 [2]

Ran up on the west rim up top, for a change of pace. There were still some mosquitos up there--quite a few, in fact, if you stopped in the wrong spot.

Note

Feeling slightly unbalanced while at work today, I wondered if it was that darned unsecret mountain biking training causing problems again! But it turned out to be nothing more than my chair having developed a slight list to one side.

Close call.

Orienteering 1:40:00 [4]

Test ran Day 2 Blue in the early evening, after light showers went through up in the hills. It was cool and quite pleasant.

Now I've test ran a Brown, and a Red, Green, and the Blue for both days, so I have a good sense for how the terrain runs, the course flows, and the usability of the maps. I've made several small tweaks, and otherwise things look pretty well set now.

And--oh, yeah--the Day 2 area is the real deal. I was taking it at race pace most of the way around tonight, and it's as good as orienteering gets anywhere. I remember long ago Eric Weyman writing prior to the 1979 US Championships at Silvermine that the second day there would be as good as anything US orienteering had ever seen, or words to that effect, and that's about how I feel about the Day 2 area here. It's flat out exceptional.

It's also super clean. No use trying to find even a single briar cane or poison ivy leaf, because you'll come up empty. If anyone takes even a second step into any "high frustration" vegetation areas, it will be their own fault. It sure didn't happen to me anywhere.

Note

Whew--none of the 13 Starbucks outlets in Laramie were on the hit list!

unsecret mtn bike training 1:11:00 [3]

Did an inspection tour of a new road going in on the north side of town.

Orienteering 37:00 [2]

Note

Flowers are fading fast now up in the hills, as the lushness of spring goes over to those familiar mid-summer brown-yellowish greens of the curing grasses. This year's pink locos (and the meadow flowers in general) were exceptional--the best I've ever seen--but there will be no hint of them whatsoever on our lower map areas in just another few days. Mosquitos are fading fast too, and no tears are being shed over that un-sad development.

The cattle have been diligent and hard at work at clipping the annual growths in the Day 1 US Champs area down to racing height, and truly deserve praise for the outstanding work they have been putting in. But that would include praise for their cowpies too, and it's harder to muster the proper amount of enthusiasm for that, unless you are a manure loving fly.

Hopefully a few herds will be rounded up and moved over to the Day 2 area soon.

biking 1:00:00 [3]

Down to the river and back through campus. Finally, the bike path is completely dry from end to end. It's fun to see the new crops of sandbars emerging out of the dropping river.

Orienteering 1:14:00 [2]

By the end of the day, it had gone dead calm, and a few passing ATVs left dust hanging in the air long after their sounds from their noisy engines had faded into the distance.

The cattle get a little antsy when ATVers come through. They can never be sure it isn't going to be some cowboys with some branding irons.

But it's nothing compared to how they react to the approach of pajama clad runners. They take one look, they stand right up, and then....they are *gone*! Anyone who says cattle can't run hasn't spent any time around cattle. There's a reason why cattle are specifically banned from the greyhound tracks, and it's because the dogs wouldn't stand a chance and would be so humiliated they would be worthless for racing ever again.

biking 51:00 [3]

Orienteering 1:50:00 [4]

Test ran the Day 1 Blue course. Maybe others will want to allow for possible biases, but I thought it was super fun, so much so that when I finished, it seemed like such a shame that I wouldn't get to do tha actual race! I'm sure the feeling was helped by the fact that my legs were juiced, and it was easy to go faster, almost without even trying. Usually it takes some real effort for a slow-poke like me. Then, too, cattle were all around, and while it's hard to say why it should be so, it's always more fun to go running when the cattle are out in the woods. I guess because it gives the thing a little "twang", almost like you're down in the hot state of Texas!

Anyway, I just thought the course was a total blast, and it will be interesting to see what the actual racers think. It's anything but a "typical" course, so at any rate I'm not expecting uniformity of opinion. But you never know. Maybe everyone will hate it with equal measures of disgust. ; )

biking 1:23:00 [3]

Another classic summer day! Water is *still* over the bikepath at the underpass on the greenbelt; I'm sure it's the latest I've ever seen water that high.

Orienteering 39:00 [3]

This finished up my "Tour de Daze". Now I've seen and streamered all the control locations, and hopefully a few of them jive with the correct spot in the terrain. But you never know. There are so many details you can get wrong when you're planning an O' race, and if you've never made any mistakes, then you probably haven't done much course setting. I nearly left a streamer in the wrong spot yesterday, but caught the mistake as I was headed off for the next control!

secret mtn bike training 52:00 [2]

Came home to find out that the King of Beers has agreed to become the ImBev of Beers. All hail the new ImBev! But I already knew it was going to happen, because last night god to me in a dream as a Bud Lite can, and told me it was his will.