Training Log Archive: Swampfox

I was so demoralized upon learning bubo would not be joining me (from a distance) in a long night run and an even longer fast, that I completely revised my plans. Instead of fasting, I had dinner, consisting of two delicious bagels toasted to perfection, plus some salad and fruit. Besides, I was hungry.

And, in truth, it's one thing to run the "Long Night" in Tiomila, and quite another to run a long time here at night, alone, except for the mountain lions all around.

It was perfectly gorgeous spring day, blue skies from horizon to horizon, very mild temps--even almost warm--and the mildest of breezes. I linked up with Tyler and Matt at midday for what turned out to be a two hour bike ride through the country side, mostly on dirt county roads.

Then I finally got out mapping for the first time this year, resuming work on the map we will be using for the Middle day of the O' Fest. I mapped a few more pieces of rock, and since there are several million pieces of mappable rock out there, I may have to institute a rock lottery system to see which rocks get mapped from here on.

And I concluded the outdoor activities with some easy running at Happy Jack, where a vigorous snow melt had been underway all day long. It's going fast now.

C • Happy 60th birthday! Sounds... 5

Woke up early and saw snow falling and a layer of snow on houses and such. So winter, but now the sun is out and is striving to recapture spring.

Normally Laramie is a pretty quiet town of little note and does not draw much attention. Today, however, is an exception, because a Wyoming athlete (Josh Allen) will get picked in the NFL draft, and probably pretty high. Maybe even extremely, extremely high, depending on what decision the Cleveland Browns have made. Allen was a completely overlooked beanpole coming out of high school and was ignored by all Div 1 schools, and was only spotted by Wyoming while he was playing at a small Div 2 school out in California, where he's from. It would be quite of an arc of a career if he should go to the Browns, help lead this historically utterly hapless team to a turnaround and ultimately a Superbowl win. It would be a fairy tale come true. But, that's probably not how it will work out.

In the meantime, ground zero her in Laramie for seeing what happens is the historic Buckhorn Bar; word is if you're not already in line, it's too late to get in.

C • Buffalo 2

C • Have you... 3

Before running, I took a quick tour around town on my bike in the afternoon, with a swing through downtown. The block that the Buckhorn Bar is on was closed off, and festivities were in full swing, with music, food trucks, I believe some folks from ESPN, and lots and lots of cowboy fans already in place, and I encountered many more people later on walking towards downtown. All in all, a good bit more activity downtown than you usually see on a Thursday in April in downtown Laramie.

Bright and sunny today, and back to spring. It was a nearly perfect spring day.

I rode some after work, and then headed out to Remarkable Flats to hang out streamers for future training. You can only train in the present though, and I aimed to run at close to race pace in between streamer locations, concentrating on running as efficiently as possible.

Things started out well, but ended disastrously. Right as I got going good towards the first control, a moose crashed out of some aspen and ran off at a sharp angle from my direction. Very cool, in especially right there because moose sightings at Remarkable Flats are rare. So far so good, and nothing else of note happened as I got the streamers all places. But then...oh, no...right after the last streamer I headed downhill towards a stream, when it happened: I scared up another moose, completing the incredibly dreaded moose bracket, which is defined as seeing a moose at both the beginning and end of a run. It's way worse than walking under a ladder or having a black cat cross a road in front of you or waking up and finding out the new president elect is Trump.

When I got home I quickly threw a few pounds of salt over my shoulder, rubbed raw garlic all over my chest, walked around my house three times making the sign of the cross, and then remembered I was supposed to be on a call to talk about some details pertaining to the Rocky Mountain O' Festival, and as I rushed to get on the call, I completely forgot about incredibly dreaded moose bracket.

The best part of running out at Remarkable Flats today was all the blooming Pasque flowers. A neat thing about Pasque flowers is how they are cloaked in fur, which helps keep them warm, just like puppy fir keeps puppies warm.

There was a raw feel to the day all day long, with very light snow at both the beginning and end of the day, with solidly gray skies at all points in between, and temps that never got out of the 30s.

Ran trails up top. I had planned to run easy and ended up running even easier as all the frozen surfaces were either trending towards slippery or else outright treacherous. I wish I had taken up a pair of O' shoes instead of the running shoes I had, which didn't have the necessary amount of traction. Avoided all falls, but that was probably only because I was being so careful.

It wasn't that outright cold, but still, snow in April and gray skies = winter.

O' at Remarkable Flats, 9 kms, no manimals or animals, just straight up orientering hela vägen hela tiden.

C • Orientering hela vägen hela tiden 2

Complete presto -chango from yesterday, with blue skies from start to finish, and temps that bordered on summer-like. Lots of people were walking, running, and riding around showing vast expanses of winter bleached skin. Even dogs seemed to be having fun.

Met a new neighbor, applied sun screen, and then I hopped on my bike and joined the throngs. Later ran snow (diminishing) trails at Happy Jack, where the sun had registered a really good day. I didn't kick up any actual dust anywhere, but I did find a few small stretches of dry trail here and there. And lots of muddy sections, which is what I had been hoping for. Mud season doesn't last long around here, so you have to take full advantage of it while it's here. I'm pretty sure that's what Mark Knopfler would do in similar circumstances.

Woke up in the morning. Looked outside. Winter.