Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Conditions today are straight out of "Dr. Zhivago", though windier. Normally that would mean the interstate is closed--which of course it is, and it looks like it will be closed the rest of the day. Trying to think about exercise outdoors today, and one possibility is biking south of town on 287, which would be completely exposed to crosswinds and offer challenging (for a road bike) snow drifting! I can hardly wait.

So much for the old record low (6F vs 3F right now) for the date.

Indoor exercise was some indoor cycling. Outdoor exercise was some very fine Yowsa!--extra nice because the hard surfaces were still too warm and were melting the snow from underneath, leaving it heavy and sticky, pretty much ideal Yowsa! conditions. Did the sidewalks and some of the driveway today, being careful to save some so that there would be something to look forward to tomorrow.

On a side note, sometimes sports can be such a bummer for the athlete when they get injured. Last year, Wyoming's starting quarterback was injured in game 8 (I think it was), requiring season ending knee surgery. This after breaking his leg as a freshman the previous year.

This year, recovered, fit, better than ever, and ready to go, he didn't take nearly so long, breaking his *other* leg on play 3 of the first game (yesterday) of this season. And it happened on a rushing play by him, ironic considering after last year's injury the plan had been to be more protective of him and not have him running with the ball as much this season. So, hopefully, in about 10 months time, he will be out there on the field, recovered, fit, better than ever, and ready to go again.

Though it was overcast and windy, at midday conditions were not yet cold, so I got out on my bike for a spin around town, and then wasted no time changing into running clothes and heading out for an O' run at Pitcher Hill.

By the time I got out there the already decent winds had picked up, and there were occasional snowflakes in the air. But it still wasn't cold and I was fine running in a long sleeved t-shirt and no gloves--though I did have a knit cap on (a baseball cap would have blown off immediately.) I was happy about getting another O' run in because it definitely won't happen over the next couple of days.

Did a short run at Happy Jack hoping to run into Randy, but he wasn't up there (or at least his truck wasn't), and so I continued on downhill to the day's main running venue--Crow Creek behind Vedauwoo.

When I started out it was gray with a raw feel that made it feel colder than it was. There was breeze out of the east, straight into my face. After getting started, gradually I warmed up, and after a while it began to lighten up as well, without there ever being any actual blue sky with sun. In all I ran just under 2 hours, and didn't see a person or animal (not counting fishies) the whole time, though I did hear voices from a trail on the east side of Vedauwoo at one point.

So far I haven't seen a single hunter hunting or even driving around, and still have no idea what season(s) are in effect. Nor have I heard any elk bugle, and at this point in the game it's getting late for that.

On Tuesday while running I stopped to take a look south at the Cameron Peak fire area to see what the smoke plume looked like. There was still a plume from about where the SE edge of the fire should have been, but there was also a decent sized plume coming from somewhere off the west side of the burn area. That really didn't make sense given the winds out of the west/NW, but maybe it could have been some unburned area that the fire had passed by, and which was now burning. But when I looked closer, I could see distinctly it was coming from somewhere on the other side of the Medicine Bow Mountains, and the Cameron Peak Fire had been entirely on the east side as far as I knew.

When I went home, I looked for information about some new fire in the North Park area, but couldn't find anything. Curious, but sometimes it takes a while for fire information to find its way online, and many times with our local fire (Mullen Fire) 24 hours or more could go by without any updates even when the fire was very active.

By yesterday afternoon when I was running, the unidentified smoke plume had become *huge*, far dwarfing any other visible smoke sources. So again when I went home I searched to see what I could find, and at first I couldn't find anything about any new fire, etc. Until I got to a fire map of northern Colorado, and there was a fire shown somewhere west of Granby that I hadn't known about. At first it seemed too far west and south for the smoke plume I had seen, but distances can be tricky, and after thinking about it a little more it seemed clear enough that was in fact where the smoke plume I had seen was coming from. As news coverage this morning has made clear and confirmed.

So that makes five big fires in this greater area in the past two months or so, none of which can be attributed to lightning or other natural causes, with no other information other than presumably they were human caused.

C • East Troublesome fire 10

Sun before noon followed by totally overcast with low clouds and fog and much colder air after noon, followed by some snow commencing in the early evening. Windy day streak ended today, giving all the windmill operators a chance to get up into their machines to administer maintenance and fine tuning of the blades.

Took an easy day and ran trails at very low intensity. The parking lots were jammed yesterday and in contrast today they were empty. Didn't see a soul the whole time I was out, though maybe the fog helped with that.

My crazy dream was Clint Morse came out to explore the flora on some of my local maps, and he especially wanted to check out a tiny blob of dark green (fight) on one of the maps. I couldn't remember anything about it and was shocked when it turned out to be a clump of impenetrable rhododendron about 20' high because I couldn't remember ever seeing any rhodo within about 1000 miles or so from here. Clint was ecstatic over the discovery and while he was thinking about what to name this new species, I was more concerned about the state of the leaves, which were all curled up--indicating a looming change in climate.

And a change in climate is coming soon!

But first, there was today, a sterling sunny day after three nearly sunless days, a high of 66F, and more wind (Day 11?).

I did some biking around town midday, and then headed out to Granite Planite as soon as I could, to take another crack at the course I have been running out there. And so what if it was windy--there is some chance today could be the last nice *warmer* day of the year (as opposed to a nice colder day, good for skiing, etc.)

After warming up, I went to the start and tried to steady myself against the wind by holding onto several trees at once, and just managed, and then I was off, resolute!

The first half of the course was all down wind and the last half all upwind, with the last 3 legs pretty well fully exposed. I busted my way through the wind over those last legs like a cowboy hellbent on a sip of whiskey before the bar closed, and staggered across the finish in time to nip 12 seconds off my previous best time. That was satisfying, but by far and away the best part was that neither my compass nor shoes blew off me.

C • Fool's Huckleberry is a Rho... 2

The Mountain West will begin the football season this week. Wyoming will open up against Nevada at Nevada. There will be no fans in attendance. That will probably be a lot like orienteering in a race usually is, where you're off in the forest by yourself, and if you want some energy, you have to generate it yourself. Probably this week the football team is doing a lot of orienteering in the forest, to simulate what it will be like in Reno.

They are probably also spending a lot of time listening to and studying "All the Way to Reno" by REM, to find out even more what the trip will be like.

Wyoming will have 4 home games, and it looks like they may have won on front, though fans will not have: all 4 games will be night games (well, one starts at 4pm but effectively that will be a night game, too.) It will not be warm for any of these games. It may be quite cold for any or all of these games, Wind will be a given. The stadium here in Laramie will feature the harshest conditions in Division 1 football. The opponents will suffer.

Opponent #1 at home will be Hawaii. How could Hawaii possibly hope to properly prepare for the conditions they are likely to face at night in Laramie on the last day of October? The answer is they can't. They will just have to do the best they can to prepare to suffer.

Holy cow, UMass has done the impossible!

And, completely unrelated to the above, bye-bye Pooka.

C • KU Football 2

Day 10 of the Winds. Maybe the streak ends tomorrow, maybe not. Either way, there will be more wind down the road, sooner or later. Probably sooner.

I snuck out for a quick loop in the School Yard, and was happy to come back intact, not having dashed (or been dashed, by the wind) myself against the waiting rocks. The rocks are patient.

The day was supposed to be partly cloudy, implying partial sun as well, but as it developed, the parts that weren't partly cloudy were also partly cloudy. There was no sun to speak of, and the afternoon ended prematurely.

While it was ending, I was running intervals at Happy Jack: 6 x 5 min cruise intervals. It is time to re-orient the day, because the Day of Doom will be here too soon.

Looking over to the mountains in the west, there is a lot of white over there this morning that I don't remember seeing yesterday. Maybe it's just the ripening high altitude mountain cotton fields.

C • LLR 3

As expected, the sign on the interstate after the on ramp was flashing warnings: Big Kahuna Wind. Day 9.

But that's okay--after two days of virtually no sun, the clouds parted at around noon, and I had a course ready to go and I was out the door. Even with the wind, the sun made things mild enough for running in short sleeved O' top. It felt like summer, or at least it did if you had any imagination at all. The dose was a middle style course of 6.3 kms in the northernmost portion of Diamond Bay, which somehow I hadn't run on even once this year until today. Funny year. I think I used a copy of the map with ancient mag north lines, and hit everything squarely anyway. The course was run with the wind at my back nearly the whole way, and some might think that was by design. Well, it was by design, but the design in mind was to set a course so I didn't have to run any legs with the sun in my eyes, and it just so happened to work out that also put the wind behind me.

I didn't see any hunters and I'm not even sure which of many hunting seasons might be in effect; you practically have to have a PhD in hunting to keep track of what is on and what is off and where. I just simplify it all and assume that if I am running away from any hunters that their bullet will never catch me. (hopefully not famous last words)