Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

Carter Caves, KY. U.S. Long Champs. Brown (everyone under 70): 3.9 km, 120m climb, 9c. 4th in M65 (6th overall on the course). Missed 3rd (D.Hunter) by 1:03, 2nd (B.Cheatum) by 1:33. Walter was 4:21 ahead in first.

Low 30's at the start, but the cold never bothered me; indeed, overheated a bit with a long sleeve shirt on.

Plan was to take my time, learn something about these woods, maybe be in a better position to do well in Sunday's Middle. But after taking trails for most of the first 3 legs, realized there were trail options on almost every leg (#7 was the exception) and took them every chance I could - which was a good move in some cases, not so good in others. The strategy might have gotten me a silver medal, but leaving #5, I never found the trail I was looking for, got very befuddled, and squandered two minutes feeling lost before finding my way to another trail. Also lost a minute on #1 when I apparently went right to where I thought the control should be, and it was there, but I didn't see it.

Ran pretty hard from #5 on - a lot of energy spent for just missing a medal.

Two copies of the course, one with my route and one without, are here.

Wasn’t sure what to wear given the near-freezing temperature - had to stay somewhat warm, but it’s so easy for me to overheat. Wore my long sleeve, turtle neck running top under an O-shirt, had smart wool tights under my O-pants, rubberized booties over a pair of short Thurlows and my golf gloves. All of that was good, except the long sleeve top was a little much: by the time I left #1, wished I had something lighter on.

For the 2nd day in a row, failed to think about starting my Garmin until less than two minutes to my actual start, and once again it failed to get a signal.

1. Hadn’t thought to look to see which way Brown runners ahead of me went, but figured out quickly I needed to go NW on the trail. First thought was to follow the trail all the way to behind the control but then realized it would save distance and climb to go through the parking lot. Spotting the building at the far end meant I could relax through the lot, plan the rest of the leg and also the next one. Past the building, straight, jump on the trail, realize that it would be pretty safe to save distance by leaving the trail and contouring W, which I did. Counted reentrants, pace counted, got right to what I thought would be the correct reentrant (and someone was slowly walking up it from below), but no bag. Could see another reentrant not far ahead, went to that one, no bag. Looking at the reentrant running W below and to the left, definitely had gone to far, but there wasn’t a bag in the first reentrant, so what to do? After a few seconds, went back, but a little higher - and there was the bag below me. How could I have missed it the first time??? Note: After the race, Paul Clatterbuck told me he got into the correct reentrant, couldn’t see the bag, then saw it only 2m away. Later, I read Mary Jo’s log and she said the bag was hidden from her view by a large tree until she was 2m away from it. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t see it the first time. Lost one minute.

2. Had worked this leg out earlier, so without hesitation, went up the reentrant, crossed the first trail, turned left at the second. Followed the trail (dirt road, really) around the bend, but didn’t see the junction. Quickly arrived at the junction I wanted, but my pace count was way short, so I stopped and double checked the map before proceeding. (I think what happened is that, having not seen the previous junction, I misjudged the middle of the bend and started my pace count too late.) On this trail to the cutoff under the red line and then left to the W tip of the curve. Took a careful bearing and went downhill. Saw a bag ahead but well to the left. Couldn’t see a ditch there so couldn’t be sure it was mine, so figured I’d better go a little further straight to see if there is another bag ahead, but pretty soon veered left and the one I’d seen from a distance was indeed it. Probably lost :10 - :12 between the hesitation at the junction, the stop for a careful bearing and the extra distance veering to the left. But had the 2nd best split, :13 behind Walter.

3. Straight looked too scary. While on trails going to #2, considered the trail, but after punching #2, felt like maybe that was too far out of the way. But after a couple of seconds, decided it would be much easier for me to take the trail. The uphill part was tough and muddy and I had to walk some. Easily identified the bend I wanted, contoured and saw people dead ahead at the control. Had the fastest split.

4. Considered going straight, but lots of medium green plus had no confidence I’d know where I was when I got to the final trail. Plus, trails seemed to have worked fine so far, so decided to take trails as much as I could. Contoured back, took the trail down, cut off a little of the corner and ran the trail. No problem identifying the ditch crossing. Pace counted from there, also looking for the little trail siding on the left. At the point the pace count ran out, thought I saw the side trail (Mary Jo used the reentrant on that side), so headed straight up hill at a walk. Could see I was between reentrants, so kept my eye on the left one and eventually saw the depression and the bag. Thought I did all of this pretty well, but it appears I lost about 1:15 to some of the other leaders. I believe they went straighter, but that wouldn’t have worked for me. However, instead of going down the first trail, I could have gone straight N, saved 100m (perhaps half a minute) and still known where I was when I arrived at the trail.

5. Planned this while climbing to #4. Contoured to the trail, turned right, to the third bend (the trail was hard to see in places; George M said he missed it entirely). The mapped light green patch was pretty thick, so continued on a few meters before taking a bearing towards the control. Down, then looked up the hill on my bearing but couldn’t see any rocks so hesitated a bit. Not much else to do, so started up and finally saw some rocks, but still bothered that I couldn’t see the 2m boulder. Persevered, finally saw it, kept pushing up the hill, meanwhile examining the next, very long leg. Lost :05.

6. Once again, opted for the trail route. Had I executed it well, might have finished 2nd overall on the course. Contoured S towards the trail. Saw a bag in what looked like one of the two mapped reentrants. Got well beyond my pace count, but still hadn’t seen the trail. Should have just kept going S, at worst hitting the ditch and then going to the trail (which actually would have been the optimal route), but I was just dumbfounded and didn’t know what to do. I think what happened was that I’d unknowingly angled down the hill some and actually hadn’t gotten as far as the trail. Found myself in a flattish area but I guess my brain was panicking and I couldn’t identify the area. Moving very slowly, not sure what to do, finally saw a ditch and beyond that someone looking like they were running on a trail, realized where I was, went S and hit the trail-ditch junction I’d crossed on the way to #4, and then ran the trails all the way around to SSW of #6. Contoured into the reentrant, went along the left side of the bottom, soon saw the reentrant on the left. Surprised how high up the bag was (wonder if it was misplaced a bit). Peggy, who took the route I wanted to take, ran almost as fast as Walter, who went ”straight”. Lost at least 2:15, possibly as much as 2:40.

7. Straight down the hill (after punching in just ahead of Lou Pataki), contour on the other side, climbing a little, and come out just above the rocks I was aiming for. Compass and contour, staying in the broken ground. A tall sleek guy went by me early, but then I saw him pull up a bit short and start looking. He turned and looked at me and I saw it’s Brian Ellis. As I approached him, I saw directly beyond him, where I expected the bag to be, a few people congregating, and then I saw the bag, and Brian did too. Leslie aws there when I punch in. Natalia was :30 ahead of me on this leg, but also :17 ahead of the next fastest (Cheatum & Peggy). I was 4th. Peter and Brian (on the other Brown) were a few seconds behind Natalia.

8. Again, didn’t want to go through the green (but it was light green) or climb (but only 2 contours and I had plenty left, and the trails had been working, so wanted to drop to the road, but that seemed so far out of the way. But then noticed the indistinct trail, which would cut off a good chunk, so opted for that, and ran hard. Coming to the junction in the road, couldn’t read the trails heading towards #9 well enough, so just decided to go straight, crossing the little canyon. Had enough strength to get up the other side, so this was a good choice. Went to the corner of the parking lot SSW of #8, took a careful bearing, nailed it. However, 1:10 behind Natalia and :49 behind Walter. Going straight would have worked for me since all I needed to do was get down the other side anywhere near the road bend. So, lost :45 or maybe a drop more.

9. Really couldn’t see any details of the second half of the leg, and there could’ve easily been a trap, but lots of people were running that way, so just headed off hoping for the best. Without much ado, saw the bag on the bridge and ran hard for it.

Took the shuttle from the lodge to near the start.

Warm up: jogged for about 6 mins, maybe .5 mi, mostly trying to keep warm and one trip to the restroom.

Cool down: Walked from the Finish (I was very cold after waiting to see results and eating my Junior Team sandwich) with Tapio and Cornelia back to their cabin. Roughly .65 mi with 100m climb (not an ideal cool down!) in 15 min.

Long - 5 Brown -69 - Splits

Event: Flying Pig XIX - U.S. Individual Champs - Sprint-Middle-Long
 

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching and strength exercises. Eased off on the core exercises and pushups this week.

Morehead St. Univ, KY. U.S. Sprint Champs. Brown 1.9km, 40m climb, 15 controls. 2nd in M65, :30 behind Walter, 5th of 71 overall on the course. Temp in the low 40's with a cold, biting wind.

Two copies of the course, one with my route and one without, are here.

Got in to the lodge at Carter Caves at 2pm this morning. Not much sleep.

Ran very well with one exception: on #8, there were several tempting narrow passageways that, even with glasses and magnifier, I had a hard time seeing well. I dithered for about :45, eliminating a couple of choices but unsure whether two others would work (they would have) and finally decided to run all the way around the W building, costing me another minute. Eliminate #8 and I was only :11 behind PG.

Also lost :15 - :20 total over #1 and #2 because of incorrect mapping (and control description) of the feature for #1.

It was an excellent venue and a very good course, and it was really fun despite the disappointment of flubbing #8.

Warmed up for about 10 minutes on the model area map. Legs felt good, mind was mostly on what to wear in the cold. Despite the cold, wore just a short-sleeve O-top, no gloves, and that was fine. Got very chilly afterwards hanging around the results.

Wore my rubber-cleated Speedcrosses. Course was mostly pavement, some lawn; shoes were fine.

Forgot to start the Garmin until about 1.5 mins before the start, and it never got the signal.

1. Hesitant as I got near #1 because the clue said paved area but the circle was next to a big parking lot but I could see nothing on the map in the circle that looked like a paved area. Turns out there was a tiny brown square in the center of the circle. And when I got to the edge of the lawn where the circle was, all I saw was some sort of vent: 5’x5’, low concrete walls, metal grating on top. Went behind it and there was the bag. Clearly mis-mapped: should have been a black X. Seems that most people didn’t even look at the clue - just went to the center of the circle - but George Walker was also thrown off a bit. Lost about :10 on this leg but also another :05 on the next leg because I couldn’t do any advanced planning.

2. Around to the right or left looked about the same, but chose left because I still needed to evaluate the possibility of going through the gate. Determined that there was no way out, but maybe I was running a little slowly. No problem with the rest of the leg. As I rounded the SW corner of the field and spotted the control exactly where I expected, felt like I settled down and ready to do well. My next three splits ranked 1st, 2nd and 1st.

3. Headed immediately NNW up the street (cutting W on the N side of the fenced in out of bounds area would’ve been slightly better, but never saw that), turned left, avoided cutting across the out-of-bounds lawn. Had planned initially to go around the final building to the right, but then thought the walls and maybe hill might be slow plus going left would create a dogleg, so went left. Started to skirt around the depression in front of the building to avoid climb (1 meter!), realized that was ridiculous and cut across the W part. Nailed it from there. Fastest split.

4. Had planned the first part of the leg in advance, so quickly headed along the red line. Found it hard to pick out the details around #4; actually came to a stop to make sure there wasn’t a trap. Still wasn’t completely sure I could get through as I approached, but wound up with the best route - along the N side of the final building - whipped around the final corner and knew exactly where the control would be. 2nd fastest split, though Peter was :08 ahead.

5. Though I’d looked for an exit route on the map before getting to #4, I wasn’t sure, but as I left #4 could see in the terrain how to get out. Picked up the pace crossing the street, ran on the grass on the other side of the street, hugged the corner, ran hard to the building. Clue said SE corner, though center of circle seems a little further SW; surprised when I turned the corner that the bag wasn’t right there, but spotted it immediately on the next building corner (clue is definitely wrong, or the bag placement is) and didn’t lose any time. Fastest split.

6. Don’t recall whether I went NW or W then NW, but knew I had to get out in the street and turn left, and did that quickly. Passed Sharon C here (she’d started 2 mins ahead). Had a hard time reconciling the clue with the map; clue is definitely wrong - should have been building/wall junction (junction was missing), S side (clue had inside N corner). Must’ve slowed trying to work this out, and had some trepidation as I turned the corner that the bag would be on the other side of the wall, but there it was. Lost :04.

7. Because I was busy puzzling out the clue for #6, didn’t plan 7 carefully, but it looked about the same going around either side, so without heistation went up the stairs. By the time I got to the top, knew the lower route would have been better, but too late to turn back. Nailed it from there. Lost :05.

8. Lost the race here. Headed immediately for the gap between the buildings SW of 8. At first thought I saw a path through there but then realized it was blocked off. Came to a complete stop. The gaps to the left all had stuff in them I couldn’t make out clearly. Thought I’d play it safe and go through the courtyard SW of #9 and headed that way. But then couldn’t see on the map whether I could get into that courtyard or out, so stopped again. Looking back, saw Sharon headed into a gap, so thought I’d chase after her. But when I ran for a bit, thought she went up the gap that I knew wouldn’t work, so didn’t go that way (she actually had gone up the correct gap further SW). Flustered, I just ran all the way to the left around the building. Lost close to a minute dithering around and another minute running so far out of the way, approximately 1:50 all together (though Paul Clatterbuck was 2:08 ahead, :14 better than 2nd place PG). Had I stayed with going through the courtyard towards #9, probably would have been about :45 faster.

9. Still not sure I could get between the buildings N of #9, but had to chance it. There was a stairway I hadn’t been able to see on the map, so no problem. Sharon was coming up as I headed down. Looked left at the bottom, there was a bag a little further away than I expected, but that had to be it, and it was. Didn’t think I lost time on this short leg, but Peter was :06 faster.

10. Probably because I’d seen Sharon going up the stairs and because I’d already seen that one could get to #10 from the top of the stairs, went that way with no hesitation, never looking to see that going around the SE side of the building was a better route. Did not see until later in the weekend that there was an even better route: between the wall and the NW side of the building - wonder if anyone had the nerve to go that way. Spotted the bag well before I got to it, and started working out #11. Lost :10, though a couple of those seconds might be because I slowed at the end while examining the next leg.

11. By the time I punched #10, realized that the initial plan to #11 would have left me on the wrong side of the wall and had identified the correct route. So executed the route to #11 perfectly, pushing the pace some. Saw Sharon punching as I got close, so kept pushing hoping to keep her in sight.

12. Knew I had to go around the round building, but wasn’t sure I could get between the next two buildings: the red line was covering a key space. Thought about going all the way around to the left, but then I saw Sharon heading for the gap with the red line so went that way (correctly). As I jumped off the stairs on the long, was trying to work out exactly where the bag was going to be. Noticed the “upper” part of the clue, and looking up towards the building, realized that the bag would be on the covered terrace and that Sharon was heading the wrong way. Put on the brakes, veered sharply right to the ramp entrance, 40m away. Nailed it from there. Lost about :20, 10 for the extra distance, 6 or 7 hesitating early in the leg, 3 or 4 hesitating while working out the bag location.

13. When I arrived at #12, wasn’t completely sure I could get of the balcony on the E side of the building, but glanced over there and saw the stairs, so off I went. Left turn, confirmed who the rest of the leg, tried to run harder.Approaching the bag, having already planned the next leg, stayed a little left of the direct line to the bag so that I could make (the mirror image of) a turn like a baseball player rounding first and trying for a double. Think I punched without coming to a full stop. Had fastest split.

14. Totally nailed this, second fastest split. Maybe I slowed a bit looking at the next leg, because the clue was puzzling.

15. Between the cars in the parking lot, nailed it, fastest split. But the clue is wrong: NW end of the wall? There’s no wall near the center of the circle.

F. Push it. Second fastest split.

C • Sprint clues 1

Warm up: jog about a mile in 12 minutes, using the warm up map.

Cool down: after standing around for a quite a while at the Finish/Results area, jogged back to the parking lot with Tapio and Cornelia, about half a mile in 6 minutes.

Sprint - 4 5 Brown - Splits

Long travel day, leaving home at 8:45am PDT and not getting to Carter Caves SP Park until 2am EDT. But everything went very smoothly, and I had good travel companions in Tapio and Cornelia.

Front of house. Just a warm up. Legs feel OK but not great. No point pushing 48 hours before the Champs.

Event: BAOC: Sunol
 

Sunol B-meet. Brown: 4.1 km, 40m climb. Official time: 54:52. The hills were green and the ground was soft. Light mist early in the course made it tough to use my magnifier.

Note: 180m climb to the start, and the finish was near the parking area, so this course had 220m of downhill (nicely spaced out though, so it wasn't a killer).

Note 2: The course was printed at 1:7500, but at the start Lubo told me they made a few 1:10,000 maps for those going to the US Champs next week, so, even though I can certainly see things better at 1:7500, I took the 1:10K for better training.

Note 3: Garmin display went a little haywire towards the end, so though the track is correct, the split markers after #16 don't correspond to the control locations. Control 17 is at the corner between markers 16 and 17; Control 18 is at marker 17. Control 19 is a little beyond marker 18, and the Finish is at marker 19.

Plan was to not push, indeed, just get in some training at a good speed and then take it easy the last part (or at whatever point my legs or toes started to feel like they'd had enough). Wore my old Integrators because I didn't want to subject my new O-shoes to the stress of the Sunol hills - and the stresses won: As I was coming into #8, I realized the front and left side of the sole of my right shoe had separated from the upper! By the time I got to #9, I was actually running with only my socks between me and the (fortunately quite soft) ground! Sat there and tried to adjust the shoe so my foot would be inside, but after a few steps, I was running in my socks again. Of course, the most important objective for today was not to get hurt, so I thought maybe I just walk back to the finish. Since #10 was along the best route to the finish, figured I'd might as well go there, but at that point I was obviously rather discombobulated and lost my place on the map, and made a three minute error. Started on a trail towards the finish, but the rest of the course looked like fun so figured, what the hell, the ground is soft, I'll just walk and jog it. Worked OK until I got down to a gravel road going to #13. At that point, got the clever idea (that I should have had 20 minutes earlier) to take my shoe completely off, put all the pieces back together, and tie everything up with my shoelace, That worked surprisingly well, and I was able to jog the rest of the course (which would have been great sprint training if I could have run it hard).

1. With a little rise immediately ahead and a lot of open terrain beyond, it was hard to get a perspective about what I was seeing in the distance until I got over the rise. Then everything was clear: I was heading a little off to the right, so quickly corrected and nailed, maybe losing a couple of seconds.

2. Knew I had to get to the other side of the dark green patch, but had to use my magnifier to see where the mapped rootstock was, and realized immediately I should go around the right side, and nailed it.

3. Surprised by the creek in front of me as I couldn't see it on the map, and my magnifier was too misty now to be of use. (Later I saw the 1:7500 map and had no trouble seeing the creek, even without glasses.) After some hesitation, decided to just follow my compass bearing for a while, and soon became clear that I was in good position on the hillside. Saw the bag dead ahead from 60 or so meters away.

4. My best leg of the day. Rounded the ridge and had a good view of the terrain ahead. Saw immediately that the proper route was to not loose elevation, so went right through the start, E around the broad reentrant, and then across the dirt road picked up a cow path that would keep me above the small patch of woods. Once around the next spur, could see the knoll on top of the ridge I needed to get over, ran right between the two mapped lone trees and nailed it.

5. Easy navigation on this short leg, but I was having a devil of time moving on the contour on this steep hill (maybe my shoe was already starting to come apart), so dropped a little to where it was flatter. Caught up to Rory as I came into 5.

6. Over the ridge. Good view from there. The question was how much to deviate from the straight line in order to avoid elevation loss. Took sort of a middle route; Rory went straight and I got ahead of him as he slowed climbing up the next ridge. As I neared the ridge line, could see two sets of rocks to my left. Having only noticed one such rock on the map (there were in fact two), headed for the rightmost one thinking it was the top of the cliff I wanted. But as I approached and saw that it wasn't a cliff, looked to the right and saw the cliff 50m away - and the bag at the base. 20 sec error.

7. Contour to the dirt road, NNE to the bend, could see the bag from there. Then it was just a matter of skirting around the upper ends of a couple of reentrants.

8. A little slow on this leg due to uncertainty. For one thing, tried to get down to the lower trail, mapped as intermittent, and though I was on a pretty clear trail heading in the right direction, there was a distinct trail higher on the hillside and another one lower on the hillside. Secondly, I was expecting to have to go down a bit to #8, but ahead of me was a big hill. Soon realized that the hill was further away than it appeared, so, relying on bearing and pace count, got to the control without much navigational difficulty. As I came into the control, it felt like my right shoe was awfully loose; looked down expecting maybe an untied shoe lace, only discover that the front of my foot was sticking out of the shoe. Lost about a minute due to hesitations.

9. Contoured all the way, nailed it. But I stopped a couple of times to try to get my foot back in the shoe, costing about :30.

10. Sat down at #9 and tried to pull the shoe back around my foot. Seemed to work, but after a few steps my foot was back out. When I had come into the control, I was thinking I needed to exit to the S, but now I looked again (possibly at #8) and thought I had to go W. Another check after a few steps told me that S was correct after all, so I tried to adjust and headed down to the tree line. I was really thinking I should just walk back to the finish and not take a chance on hurting my foot; when I didn't see a control, I realized I hadn't been paying enough attention and didn't know which way to go. Tried a little to the right, then over to the left, and saw it a bit higher up. Lost 3 minutes.

11. Took the trail SW to the main dirt road that I'd walked up to the start. But when I got to the junction, figured I might as well get in some more practice so decided to try to complete the course, or, at least, go until my foot started feeling sore. From the trail junction, angled up the nose of the spur and then towards the lone tree amongst the big boulders. After going just under that, stayed over the rocky patch of white, and swung around to the E with the hillside, contouring towards the rocks. As I bent around the broad spur, felt I'd gone too far, so started back and a little down and saw the bag 50m away. Lost :30.

12. Slow going down the hillside in my ruined shoe. Sat at the trail bend getting my foot back in the shoe (and tucking all the pieces of the shoe back in), but of course everything came out again after a few steps. Followed the trail to the bend, could see the lone tree, down slowly to the rootstock.

13. The hillside was too steep to go down with my socks-only foot, so contoured to the dirt road and followed that down towards the fence, stopping briefly to chat with Marie-Josee and Francois who were making their way up to the start. Once I got out to the main road and saw that it was covered with gravel, knew I didn't want to walk on that without a shoe, finally go the obvious idea to tie up my shoe with the shoe lace, so sat there and did that - and, amazingly, I could actually jog reasonably well! Wanted to cut towards the control, but saw a planted area that looked like I shouldn't be crossing, then saw the out-of-bounds markings on the map. So went to the beginning of the next bridge, squeezed down to the creek bed and followed that until I saw the control (though I see now that I'd actually switched from the creek bed to the ditch without realizing, not able to see the map detail well enough, just heading for the center of the circle).

Was able to move reasonably well the rest of the way, but didn't see any point in really pushing in (and saw a lot of point in not wearing myself out).

14. Seemed to be a trail paralleling the river, so took that until I got on the mapped trail. Ran to the junction with the trail coming in from the left, then took a 45 degree angle and soon saw the bag.

15. Bearing to the road. Seemed to be a lot of obstacles dead ahead so took the dirt road to the next paved road and then the little trail to the control. Lost maybe :20 with the detour.

16. Straight on a bearing, right past the big standing dead tree, nailed it.

17. Straight until I saw the cliff, but with my broken shoe, had to go very cautiously down to it.

18. Had scoped out the next leg before getting to 17, so efficiently got out into the open field, saw the black X and the thicket beyond, nailed it.

19. Followed a bearing to the road, then through the parking lot, right to it, though not running hard.

F. Had seen the Finish on the way to the start, so no problem, but only jogged.