Training Log Archive: X8A7

Around the neighborhood.

Red course at Cherry Creek in 6 inches of snow on the ground and driving snow in the air. I wore gators, and with the gore tex o-shoes, my feet stayed dry. I also wore a buff with my Bell's running hat, which was good to keep the snow out of my eyes. Cherry Creek is certainly the least challenging of the three Denver parks for orienteering, and its quality is decreasing (i.e. growing campground). Its a small area with so few control locations that the courses always end up being about the same and on the short side. That said, I never not enjoy running there, its just that prior knowledge plays a big role. The snow made it difficult running, and going hard produced very small speed gains. A bigger challenge is that topography and some vegetation features were very difficult to pick out or looked very different then in a snow free landscape. This was evident leaving the start, going to 4 and the finish. Going to 8 there's a whole new loop to the campground not depicted, which made me a bit confused and pushed me way farther north. To 9 I decided I didn't want to roll the dice through the green area and stuck to the earthen dam, which appeared to be the slower way. But the upshot might have been it that this gave me a direct view of the control that was, according to my GPS, on the wrong cluster of trees. Going to 14, the clue was re-enterant, but the circle was centered on a spur -- the circle being a bit off. Overall, the snow actually made a good course much better because of the added challenge.

quickroute: https://www.flickr.com/photos/98725947@N05/3397674...
results: http://www.rmoc.org/index.php?option=com_content&v...

C • New campsite loop 2

C • Good run 1

warmup

Red - Splits

warmupcooldown

Running club, last week at Heath for a while. Lane wasn't there and Dr. Dave had a knee problem, so it was just me. This was fine because my afternoon snack was too big so I felt a little full. 6, 3, 6, 3, 6min. Ran reasonably well, gps paces were all 5:46-5:59 range, but the pace on the track were much better, the mile splits were all in the 5:40s.