Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Linked up with Tyler for a bike ride around town, including a swing into West Laramie, taking advantage of expansive views of the still snowy Snowies.

After that, a presto chango, and drove up to the Laramie Range for a planned long run, with the aim to scout areas of northern portion of Diamond Bay. Exactly 7 minutes in, I approached a new beaver dam which I needed to get across, and the choice was to cross on the iced over pond, or the dam itself. The ice looked rotten in places, so the choice was easy. I was coming down a steep slope, and in order to get onto the dam, there was one conveniently located shelf of snow right at the bottom of the slope. When I stepped on the shelf, it instantly collapsed, and both legs ended up in knee deep, icy cold water. Ha!

It didn't matter, because there was so much snow everywhere my feet were going to be somewhere between wet and damp (mostly wet) the whole time anyway.

I ended up going for 3+ hours at a very easy pace, and didn't see a single person or game animal--or even any fresh animal tracks--the whole time, despite covering a good bit of ground. Maybe everything up there is sheltering in place, just as in so many other places? Maybe not.

Had planned to being exercise activities with some biking, and changed into the appropriate clothes, rolled the bike outside to warm up (bikes like to warm up, too), and even that brief step outside was enough to make me reconsider--there was enough wind and enough clouds to make me think no amount of warming us was likely anytime soon.

So, change of plans. Rolled the bike back inside, changed clothes, and headed up top for a long run in the snow, and put in 2 1/2 hrs before I was through. Interesting was that despite covering a lot of ground and fresh snow on the ground, I didn't see a single fresh (wild) animal track. Just people and dog tracks.

Fittingly to the first day of Spring yesterday, all the snow on the golf course finished melting off, making it perfect for Classic Distance orienteering (aka Real Orienteering) training. Just as fittingly, overnight the snow storm of Spring arrived, and now all the snow is back in ample measure, making it once again, perfect for Classic Distance orienteering training. Not bad for skiing, either.

C • "Classic Distance" 3

The Forest Service and the local nordic group decided sometime today that due to Coronavirus transmission concerns, today would be the last day of trail grooming this season. I have no idea what trail grooming has to do with Coronavirus transmission, and I will put it down with all the other things I don't know. But the season had to come to an end sometime, and if today was the day, I was going to ski. Which I did. Ironically, by late afternoon you could not possibly have guessed that any grooming had taken place within the last century or so, thanks to 8" of fresh snow that fell after grooming.

I skied very carefully, partly because you could tell the snow was laden with Coronavirus, but mostly because beyond being 8" of new snow, it was also very dense snow, and with my spaghetti arms my skate technique quickly dissolved into a flounder that sometimes made some amount of forward progress. It was fun being out with all the new snow anyway, especially after what has been a mostly dry March. And lots of other people were out late in the day, where more normally by now there might be 2 or 3 other folks out. I guess word about the grooming got around fast.

118 days of skiing this season, which isn't so bad for a kid from Carolina.

Now that skiing is over, how will I fill in the hours? Perhaps with dreams of pasque flowers, or maybe idle reveries of the possibility of a future president who could get through a few sentences without saying something that wasn't wrong or a lie.

Woke up in the pre-dawn hours and looked out to see that snow had fallen during the night, as predicted. Only to take a better look, realizing it wasn't snow at all, but rime everywhere, with very dense fog lingering but dissipating over at the golf course. It was very ghostly looking.

I persevered anyway, figuring if it was going to be the demons or me, it better be me. Afterwards the coffee was really good, and I drank it all quickly, in case a line should form up outside, full of the virused and the to-be virused.

Surveyed the ski trails in the afternoon after work, and ran some, too. By this time the day had turned sunny and much milder than forecast. It was pretty near to being awesome. Very, very near.

After weighing all the evidence, I decided yesterday was the last day of late winter and therefore today was the first day of spring.

Went up to ski, and met Mark as he was coming off the trail and I was stepping up the head snowdrift to get to it. We discussed Annapurna briefly and he warned me it was dangerous and the trails weren't all that good either.

Luckily, the trails were much better than advertised.

My legs were surprisingly sore today from yesterday's run. I ran long, but I didn't run hard, so I wasn't expecting any after effects. But running off trail is much different from running on trails, and this was the first time I've run long off trail for a few months. I reckon that being sore is some sign of having done something useful yesterday.

With that in mind, I skied longer today (after skipping yesterday) and did just a very short run after that--enough to pick up a few choice aluminum cans from along the highway. For the time being, this CV is putting a real dink into my metals recycling business, but once Boeing gets going again, they will need my aluminum and will come calling.

For dinner I had Poor Man's Macaroni, as fitting for this special time. When I was in the grocery store a week ago and saw that all the pasta shelves had been swept clean, it made me think about the fair amount of pasta I had at home, and some it for quite a long time without using it. So resolved I would take this coronavirus moment to do something about that. Thus Poor Man's Macaroni. It couldn't be simpler and almost not quicker: cook the pasta, stir in some fiesta cheese (also been around for a long time, in the freezer), and eat. It's not just satisfactory. If you've been out running for 2 1/2 hours across the prairie and through the sage and bitterbrush like I was today, by the time you get home, Poor Man's Macaroni really hits the spot.

Despite running for that length of time, I didn't spot a single larger animal, or even see any fresh tracks (and there was lots of snow to hold them). Just some birds and a couple of rabbits.