Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Race at Round Mountain (Colorado). Likely to be the only race I end up doing this year; couldn't pass up the chance to go down to Round Mountain and run a course where someone else has taken the trouble to design a course and set out controls, as it remains one of my all time favorite areas.

And extra nice that a Blue course was offered, otherwise I probably would have opted to draw up my own Blue course and run that instead of the Red.

One small moment of hesitation on one control, and on another control I either drifted off my compass or else it was the magnetic north lines (don't think they have been updated since the original work on the map) that led me just far enough to make me wonder what was going on. Otherwise it was a clean run. No reason not to be running nearly as hard as you can nearly all the time at Round Mountain and anyway that was the way it was on this course; I could note that I didn't have much power on the several little climbs we had, so it's something that some more attention to should yield a payoff.

C • Only race? 3

Blue - Splits

Biked for 2+ hours in the county, and took a break from running today to rest up my legs some.

An unusual weather day for these part--totally gray from sunrise to sunset, and it was hard to tell which part was clouds, haze, smoke form nearby fires, and smoke form distant fires. It looked the whole time like rain was eminent and yet I never felt anything more than about 5 tiny drops very late in the day while biking. And I could have as well imagined that.

I ran an O' course at Pelican Bay in the morning--quite nice, with temps about 20 degrees cooler than the day before, somewhere in the mid or low 60s. Not really summer temps, but I did not complain. ; )

Saw the first turkey I've seen this year (as far as I remember) and it was unusual in that it was running solo in the bitterbrush. You almost only see turkeys in groups around here and never solo.

While I was driving out from Pelican Bay I noticed that marker elves had been busy while I was running, and paint on the ground and direction signs had popped up to mark a portion of the Enduro mtn bike race course (the race is Saturday.)

After a vicious and hard fought battle, I overcame and removed another hedge plant, the first of the year. It was a pretty good test for my shoulder, which passed with flying colors.

It goes the same way each time: you dig and hack and struggle, and for the most part there doesn't seem to be much progress, other than a widening and deepening hole around the hedge plant object, which invariably is equipped with a massive and nearly impenetrable tap root/trunk. And then, if you keep struggling, you hit it with another mattock blow and there is almost magic as you can feel the thing start to give way at last. Then a few wrenches and twists, and the root snaps and it is free.

Ran some hills in some unanticipated occasional rain sprinkles. Didn't really get wet, but didn't stay dry, either. I went by some climbers at the Beehive, and was surprised to see they were still trying to climb on the wet rock. But they may have well been surprised to see someone was running at the Beehive instead of climbing while it was sprinkling.

If you do much O' training in the woods (though where else would you do much O' training--ha!), you go through a lot of socks--or at least I do. In light of that observation, it was a shock several days ago to discover that a reserve supply of 7 identical pairs socks have gone missing. Several searches have not turned up the socks, therefore the overwhelming odds are that somehow a sockosaurus was able to enter my house, consume the socks, and exit undetected. Quite alarming. Or even more alarming: it is somewhere still in my house, ready to spring out at most any time and consume more socks...

C • Sockosaurus 4

Ran an old Red course at West Medicine Bow in the afternoon. The course line took me into an area that underwent fire treatment by the Forest Service earlier in the year, which was interesting--it looks like they were targeting ground juniper. I could show them a lot more of that elsewhere (like up at Happy Jack)!

More recent beaver activity in the main drainage on the map made the crossing there somewhat, ummm, adventurous--yes, that's the word I want. ; )

Besides one big heron and several deer, it seemed I had the place to myself. Certainly there were no other orienteers.

Ran jeep trails at Remarkable Flats, picking up an unremarkable two beer cans along the way.

Rode out to Herrick Lane and as far as the underpass at I-80, and turned back from there. Good for 2 1/2 hours; steady strong wind out of the west, which is why I decided to head west first.

The underpass has served as a nesting spot for a colony of mud swallows for as long as I can remember, but I only saw one today and some of the nests didn't look to be in good shape, which makes me wonder if something ha happened to this particular colony.

There was a conspicuous, dark plume of smoke coming from the fire to the SW by early afternoon. Light haze more or less everywhere, just as it has been for most of July.

Ran late in the day to close out the month, up at Happy Jack. As usual, saw many mountain bikers, and no runners. Never could figure out the skies to the west--whether they were dark clouds of rain that never rained, or dark mixtures of clouds plus forest fire smoke. Now no meaningful rain at my house since July 4, and may have to uproot everything and prepare a conversion to cacti and yucca soon.