Training Log Archive: JanetT

Apparently, running "fast" (for me...Mills College and Sierra College sprints) is something my left hamstring doesn't like, especially when I don't warm up much. Not really super sore, but noticeable, especially when I just get up after sitting. More strengthening/stretching will be in store this week. This is the one I pulled near the end of a snowshoe race ~7 years ago, which isn't a problem unless I'm doing "faster" running than my normal.

One more day. Control count for the week is 107, with ~16 more coming tomorrow.

Today's WinSplits (all courses). Watch / Garmin Connect / phone did not give me a problem today.

Hints to myself:
Phone Bluetooth off
Be sure of good wifi or cell connection first
Put watch in Run mode
Turn phone Bluetooth on
Transfer?!

Brown Long at Deer Creek Hills south of Folsom, CA, an open space preserve managed by Sacramento Valley Conservancy. Car needed to ford a stream on the drive in; less "adventurous" folks parked before the ford and crossed on a wooden bridge. Nissan Rogue did fine even though water was a bit deeper on the way out. Low 50s and intermittent lght rain showers.

Nominally 4.5km, 95m climb (1:10000/5m map); lots of open areas with mature oak trees and not much undergrowth (and no poison oak!!). It's been wet so mapped ditches had water in them (and some mapped trails did too). The map was huge, printed on 11x17" paper although our course covered an area about 4x7", so I spent the time running to the common first control to fold my map to a more manageable size.

I had speedy Brown runners starting ahead of me whom I could see off in the distance so the first few controls were easy. #4 was the first one I navigated on my own, and did okay. To 5, I wanted to cut through the wide saddle leaving 4 but was a bit left and ended up farther up the first spur. There were so many of what they like to refer to as "tombstone rocks" there, in rows, that it looked like a cemetery...it was neat to see.

Made my way to the trail as Geraint receded into the distance, then left it too early and mistook one spur for another and hesitated (on seeing the rock with flag) before realizing yes, that was my control. Sari, the Finn who's been fastest woman on the course most days, punched and flew away here, but not so fast as to not help on the short leg to 6.

To 7 I climbed the reentrant and purposely found the trail junction but then hesitated in one tiny (unmapped) reentrant before correcting. To 8 it was just "cross the trail and climb the hill", and 9 I could see from a distance once pointed in the right direction. I heard steps and huffing as I neared the flag and let Geraint (!?!) punch a second ahead of me. Partway to 10 I could see a group (and Geraint) on a hilltop NW of the cliff, checked my map and saw my cliff was on the near side of the ditch (whereas the hill was beyond the ditch) so kept going my way as Geraint corrected and again took off.

10-11 was through the wide clearing I remembered from 3-4. 12 was "cross two small spurs, a stream and a trail, and it's a big tree behind a hill." With people heading into it. 13 was a slog/run/walk across open land to rocks on a spur I could see from 400m away...and 14 and the finish were easy from there.

Fun course. Top times on Brown were in the 35-39 minute range so the course was too short for a Long (but I wasn't complaining).

Behind Hilary A, Christin L, and Penny DeMoss, and I'm not sure about Marg Ellis in F65.

Long - Brown - Splits

Event: GCO: California Orienteering Week (COW), Part 2
 

Today's WinSplits

Had GarminConnect/Bluetooth problems again. It's a nuisance uninstalling/reinstalling the app to get the devices to talk to each other.

COW Stage 5, Brown sprint at Sierra College in Rocklin, CA (north of Folsom). Map is 1:4000, 2.5m contours (but features look awfully tiny for 1:4000). Nominally 1.9 km. Temps were in the mid 50s, sunny.

No trouble with the navigation, though in discussing routes afterward a different one from 9-10 would likely have been faster, being more straightforward. I worked my way between buildings, and read the description for 10 (SE inside corner) and used that to inform my route choice to pass the building to the north. Going wider right would have been simpler to execute and most likely faster. Not that it would have moved me up any places, just made my differential (4 minutes!!!) behind Hilary Anderson a bit smaller. I was hoping for a time under 20 minutes and am happy being under 19. 3rd F65 since Christin Lundgren is also here and was faster.

The same bird I disturbed going into the vegetated area at 1 was disturbed by a different runner as I passed by on my route from 11-12 (which took me close to 1). Poor thing probably has a nest in there.

Sprint - Brown - Splits

Today's results

Hilary Anderson from GVOC ran F65 so I'm in second for the day. Penny DeMoss vetted and didn't run.

Brown "spriddle" on 1:4000/2.5m sprint map at Mills College in Oakland.
Nominally 2.9 km, 80m climb. Great course by George Minarik.

Temps were in the low 60s, and we didn't start until after most of the showers had ended for the day (may return this evening).

We had looked at the "sample map" linked from the BAOC site, and I didn't see any major traps or potential problems, so it was just a matter of quick decision making and execution. The only one I missed was 19-20 where I needed to exit down a short flight of stairs to the ENE. I ended up along a different road and buildings weren't in the "right place" so I figured I'd ended up one road over and corrected. I seem to have lost about 40 seconds (based on time differential comparing with Glen's splits).

I'm wondering if there's also a stairway under the canopy at the N end of the building SE of 19? I was just looking for "stairs" and descended the ones I saw. Shoulda known they also needed to be in the open. EDITED: No, I went down the correct stairs but missed the left turn at the bottom (knew I didn't want the sharp left).

I took the right-hand route from 10-11, and the left route from 14-15.

14th(?) of 28, first F65 unless Penny DeMoss ran (we saw her helping pack equipment up, so I'm not sure). Guess I'll find out later. Not that far behind the fast runners either...Sue K was 3:30 ahead; Clare less than a minute (but still recovering from the flu); and ahead of the Finnish woman, Sari Jetsonen (who has beat me the other days). :-)

Urban Middle - Brown - Splits

Walking at Redwoods Regional Park and then Pinole Regional Park.

At the first one we were warned about breakins (from a park worker trimming branches). At Pinole (to save us a trip across a bay bridge on a rainy day), we saw bluebirds, dark eyed juncoes, ducks, and some robin-type bird. Poppies didn't like the rain and were mostly closed up.

Forerunner and Garmin Connect aren't speaking to each other this afternoon, so I'll try to download and write up my race later.

Suffice it to say that at ~46:30 I was 20 minutes behind the leader :-O :-)

Nominal stats: 3.2 km, 70 m climb; 1:7500 map with 2.5m contour interval

12 minutes behind the fastest woman (Sue Kuestner ... this map favored runners by a large margin); 6th woman on Brown, 19th overall of about 33 or 34; first F65 since Penny wasn't there.

To start at Point Pinole Regional Park, from the assembly area (which was about a 5 minute walk from parking). Temp was in the 50s, and it was sunny, which made it a considerably nicer day than yesterday.

I was able to get a start time a few minutes earlier than my assigned (when another Brown runner came up and requested one, as hers was almost an hour later).

COW Stage 3 at Point Pinole, 1:7500 map and courses by Steve Gregg.

Fast park with not much climb, especially the first half or so; lots of open land (mapped as rough open) with varying lengths of grass.

Steve Tarry passed me on the way into 3 (he saw me punch) and led the way to 4 which came up sooner than I expected (then he disappeared). Passed several slower Brown competitors on the way to 13 and 14, and was passed by Tori Campbell and someone from BAOC to the penultimate control which made it easier to find. Navigated the rest of them by myself, mostly with good results.

Coming out of the woods from 1, I could see a flag in the distance and thought it was mine but when I was halfway across the field (after crossing the ditch) I realized that it was on a thicketed ruin and I was looking for a ditch so I corrected.

Coming out of 7 I looped around to the left and had more of a detour than I expected from the map; apparently a patch of poison oak had sprung up in the last two weeks which affected route choice. Those who looped around to the right had no problem; so that cost me a bit of time although I had no trouble finding control 8 (just getting to it without getting tangled in either poison oak or a downed tree).

As I was crossing the grassy field after 8, my toe caught on a poison oak vine and I fell (fortunately just landed in a grassy area, not more P.O.). I got up and dusted myself off and again headed to 9, which I found with no problem. I didn't do the right type of navigation to 10 through featureless woods (bearing and pace counting!) but just headed off in the mostly right direction and eventually found it (sloppily). Didn't take water because I was carrying a water bottle waist belt. 11 was a short leg to a distinct tree--easy.

As I reached for my water bottle I realized it wasn't there, but I wasn't about to go looking for it; I thought it might have fallen out between 10 and 11 but that wasn't a sure thing, so I finished the race with no more problems.

Then I went looking for my bottle (Camelbak brand so a very nice one).

After maps had been handed out (meaning all starters had started), I checked with Vicki and headed out up the park road to see if I could recover my water bottle, thinking I'd check between 10 and 11 where I thought I'd dropped it.

As I was walking/jogging on the road I remembered that I fell coming out of 8, which could very well have launched the bottle out of the belt, so I started looking there (didn't see it, but wasn't sure exactly where I'd crossed the field...there were a lot of elephant tracks in the grass). Tried to follow my path through 11 but didn't see it anywhere. Then I decided to give the field after 8 one more try, found the vine that tripped me up, and a few feet beyond it was my water bottle, nose down in the grass. Yay!!

The walk out to that area (about as far from finish as it could be since 8-9 was where the course turned and we headed back toward the finish area) was nice as there were several thickets with birds flitting around (think I saw a western bluebird), and areas of California poppies starting to pop us as well. I'm hoping we'll see hillsides full of them sometime this week, but I'll take patches here and there. They really need the rain they've been getting this week.

Saw a group of folks near one of the large eucalyptus near the finish (6-7' diameter) and thought it was a birder group we'd seen near parking, but it was Peter Goodwin's mapping session. :-)

Middle - Brown - Splits

To start of Stage 2 at Morgan Territory

COW day/Stage 2 at Morgan Territory near Livermore, CA. Upper 40s to ~50F. Nominal stats 3.2 km, 120 m climb
Good courses both days by Matej Sebo.

Solid bearing to first and map reading to 2 and 3, with tricky navigation (and some confused gentlemen finding the wrong flags). I thought I was doing well to 4 attacking off the trail junction but was too far downhill; I saw several other Brown course competitors uphill from me (1 min). Partly it was because I couldn't quite see what was in the center of the circle (still can't now as I look at the map with just reading glasses but no magnifier). Passed those Brown runners on the way to 5, and another on the way to 6 (a copse? Really? Mapped as--I think--a tiny green dot among yellow and rocky ground, I noted only one tree stem on the vegetation with the flag).

Glen, and Sharon on Green, passed me as I was sliding under the barbed wire fence en route to 7. Good and steady through 10, then I stood near the road/trail junction SW that we'd passed on the way to start, trying to determine which side of the steep, massive reentrant I needed to be on to find 11, the water control. Eventually figured it out and followed intermittent trails, then dropped through area mapped as yellow to where I thought it should be, but looked downhill and saw a flag and several water jugs. Had to be mine so I worked my way down the steep hill to the flag (2 min, between the confusion about which side of reentrant, and then being too high on hillside), then took a less steep angle to climb back toward 12.

Good to 13, careful to 14 to avoid dropping until I was past the worst dark green; followed cow path most of the way to 15 and climbed at the end when I could see the two boulders near the tree.

16 was a short (~100m?) leg, across a field, path, rocky area, and over the rocky ledge to a large boulder (1.5m/3.5m). I was off to one side and turned the wrong way before reaching the trail where I turned back towards the correct boulder (2:20 min lost). I was extremely careful (albeit slow) to 17 to be sure I didn't go too far down the steep hill to the wrong boulder.

I had seen folks heading to a distinct tree which I though was my 18 (also a distinct tree) and I punched there, but the control number didn't match mine which was a distinct tree among dead/fallen ones (a green circle w/2 green x's), so I punched at the next tree too. Okay to 19 but then had to be careful on the descent to 20 so my time is slow compared to others on the course.

Most of my problems might have been lessened if I could have read the map better, in the areas near controls. Dennis noted on the shuttle ride back that the last time they'd used the area for a national meet the Brown maps were printed at 1:7500; we used 1:10000.

2nd F65 again (Penny was ~48 min). 19/37 on Brown when we left; fastest time was 36-37 min.

To shuttle pickup from finish, talking with Peter Goodwin.

Narrow, windy road and lack of turnaround space meant they had to hire small vans. They were party vans from a limo service (14-passenger), complete with drivers in white shirts and ties. I was impressed!

Middle - Brown - Splits