Training Log Archive: runninghils

Ran at Pine haven - 3 loops of each hill circuit. Felt better than last week. HR was much lower average indicating I'm finally recovered. Rained hard for about middle 30 minutes. At least the mosquitos weren't biting me! I can't remember the last real downpour run I had, but it wasn't so bad once the bug spray was washed off my face.

Was a little worried about weather, but it ended up nice. Tail wind to start, but not too much slower on the way back. The local "3D Book Club" ladies were having an outing and caught me to take their pics both before and after my paddle. They loved it and also had to take a pic of me as well asking if they could post it on Facebook. Super nice ladies.

Got wrapped up in stuff around the house until I realized it was getting late. Oops. Time to run. Hamstrings/calves felt much better for this than the other day, but I still took it easy. Temp was a bit warm to start, but got very nice as the run went on.

Rode out at race pace/hard right after the run. Actually felt really good about this ride, but cut back early because I was racing the sun. I won by a hair, but I did have my rear red blinker on because I was definitely pushing darkness.

Hamstrings are just not recovering even though all I did yesterday was a paddle. Figured I'd better not keep piling on to them. Family reunion this afternoon. Woo Hoo!!! :-D

Well, my thoughts on Tuesday that I was getting better at getting my HR up on paddle workouts were wrong. My HR was higher because I'd just finished a run. Oh. Getting much more comfortable in the chop. Pretty windy at times today, but Sanford lake is small enough that it doesn't get that bad. Did 20 mins steady followed by 10 minutes tempo/race pace. I see this reflected in HR, but not so much speed. Speed by GPS seems very bouncy and uneven anyway. Hamstrings felt tight, but I did stretch in the morning. Got uncomfortable after about an hour and ten minutes in the boat. May need to fine tune foot brace placement?

W/U - Run 400, 30/20/30

Workout:
Ladder, for time:
run 100
10 push ups
run 200
20 ball slams (20 lb)
run 300
30 Russian KB (35)
run 400
40 sit ups
run 300
30 Russian KB
run 200
20 ball slams
run 100
10 push ups
14:42

Extra: row 5000m (just to complete)
time: 23:44

C • Pyramid 3

Tried running the first 15 minutes thinking that the legs would loosen up in the hamstrings/calves. It didn't happen and I was just tired, so I decided to go with the "power walk" option the rest of the time. Much better. Mosquitos weren't too bad since I covered myself head to toe in DEET (100%) Apparently, 100% DEET is not allowed for sale in Canada. I offered it to my teammates last year at UNE, but they wanted nothing to do with it.

C • We just tough it out ;) 3

WU - bb complex

Strength: Deadlift 5x3
200*210*215*220*220

Workout: AMRAP 12
12 power snatch (75 lb)
10 Overhead squat
200m run
Rounds - Almost 3 (- 1/2 run)

Extra
25m farmer carry (40 lb dumbbells)
50m run
AMRAP5

Warm-up 20 min
3 sets of 4x 1 minute hill climbs in a big gear
then, after last recovery, 30 minutes at tempo pace

It was a nice evening - a bit warm at first, but I started late enough that it was already a bit cooler than when I left work.
I used to have a hard time getting my HR into higher zones, but I was hitting about 150 during the tempo time, so that's an improvement

Run at Sanford - 3 laps on each of the two "hill loops". Due to thick woods, I lost signal a couple times. Legs were tired going in - especially the hamstrings and calves were still sore from Nitrogaine. I did warm up eventually, which helped.

Due to extreme weather Monday, this got pushed out to Tuesday. Wind died down throughout the evening. LOTS of boats out there - A couple big HR spikes when they seemed to be coming a bit too close to me (several times in a row!) HR was much higher today - maybe because I'd just finished a run. OR maybe I'm getting better at paddling and using the whole body? I determined on the way back that I wasn't reaching far enough forward, which shortened my stroke. Focused on that for the last 20 mins. That seemed to cause an upward trend in pace.

Nitrogaine

I was a bit worried that I wasn't going to be able to race, but everything was looking good today, and I felt fine so I went ahead with the idea that I was going to take it easy. Well, I didn't exactly sprint, but I did a fair amount of running - all the flats and downhills on the trails/roads. Dumb moment - I realized 2 minutes before the start that I didn't have my e-punch! Frantic search around the car, and I found it 30 seconds after the start. D'oh! Started with the cluster on the southeast section. Had a few where I missed my attack and hit the backstop and on 62 I tried to go cross-country and missed it, but then made a bit of a square as I decided to reattack and found it. Whoo!
I hit 4 hours at about point 58 and had something of a panic about trying to get all the southern points, so I started skipping. By the time I got to my cut-across point to go back, I had tons more time than I thought (probably due to a lot of trail running.) So, I did the northern loop. I started to go for 76, which was dumb, but I couldn't find an attack, so I abandoned. I KNOW I was in the right area for 66, but I missed it and decided that I'd better call it. Was going to get 70, but went the safe route and ran it in. Good call! I got 3rd overall, same points as 4th, but faster time. First female. It was an MRA sweep of the top 3!
Big thanks to Mr. Wonderful for putting on an awesome race. It was very fun and the rain even held out. Quality point locations, lots of route choices, good times!
Maybe I'll download quick route and figure out how to add my track to it...

C • 70 can be confusing...during the day! 4

Took an easy bike around sunset (to avoid the sun exposure) and to see how it went. The infection site was a bit more swollen afterward, it seemed, but not significant. No pain. It was a 360 degree sunset kind of evening.

Man, I need to get my shit together... I have an infection (cellulitis) on my ankle. It seems like there's always something. Doctor ordered up 10 days of strong antibiotics and at least 1 day of rest and elevating my leg today. Probably going into the lake yesterday after I noticed it developing wasn't the best move ever. Sanford Lake is DIRTY! Told the doc about it, and he decided to go with the strongest antibiotic that would even treat MRSA just in case. Apparently, this can get serious. He said if I get a fever or it continues to spread/get worse, I'll need to go to the ER. I'm sure it will turn around in a day or two.

Fun Fact: Turns out that the doctor I saw at the Urgent Care was into orienteering when he was in college and even competed in the regional championship race! We talked orienteering a bit and he was super happy to meet someone who orienteers.

C • Oh no! 10

Another perfect evening. There was actually some wind, so the lake was a bit choppy and I had a big headwind on the way out. That combo definitely slowed me down. I have to remember that I AM still pretty new with this boat, though I am getting much more confident. I was just expecting to be hitting 5+ mph right out the bat. I think my technique is decent - mostly straight arms, rotating the core. Maybe less successful at the whole pushing with the legs part. I think I did get the foot brace dialed in to the right spot today, though.

After we all said goodbye (after a huge lunch) I headed over to the Vasa trail. It was cool to bike on something that I usually ski. There were quite a few familiar areas to me. Not least of which was "the wall." Yeah, I pushed my bike up that since it was true to its name. Rain had pretty much stopped, but it was super humid and warm, but not excessively so. Fun ride!

C • I don't think I am ever goi... 4

Set out to do the 10K trail. Found an unopened small bottle of gatorade about 4K from the finish. Opened and drank it. Muggy and sweaty, but felt good overall. Toward the end got confused by the 1K trail marker and ran back to the last intersection to find out that I was indeed going the right way. The first and last 1.5K or so are the same section of trail. Oops. Oh well, a little extra distance.

Nice Run with Veronica in the morning along the paved bike path. Due to the schedule imposed by the hotel, our plans to do more got squashed, but at least we got this short run in before breakfast. Fun to run with someone and chat! Best average cadence I've seen since I got this watch. Cool!

Got to Crossfit only to find out that there isn't a 12:15 class on Fridays. I assumed it was every day. Went back to the company gym to do some training so I could at least get something in.
5 min warm up treadmill run (.5 miles)

Strength: Back Squat 5x5 every 3 min
115*125*135*145*155 (Our gym has no smaller weights than 5 pounds!)

Workout: 5 rounds for time of:
15 DB Push press (17.5)
15 Push ups
15 Sit ups
Time- 11:07
(Started with 20 pound dumbbells, but they were rubbing my wrist, so I went to the different shaped ones that maxed at 17.5)

Extra:
Lat pull-down slow reps - really focus on engaging the lats.
5x50
5x60
5x75

Did my 3 sets of 3 hill climbs on the overpass. Put it in highest gear I could to make the hill seem bigger. Last minute change of plans on TP, so didn't plan enough to get the full time in. (Had to mow the lawn first.) Work was super stressful today, which is very atypical. My normal response to that kind of thing is to want to just zone out on the couch with a book or something. Finally got my butt out the door, but I was pushing it with remaining daylight toward the end. (Busted out the red flasher)

Another perfect day for a ride around Auburn. Per HR data, I pushed the effort more into the wind and then once I got it on my back, I lazed out and let the wind do the effort.

Every 5 minutes did a 30-second high cadence pick up. Getting better at these as I get more used to the boat. Some jerk seemed to want to buzz by me a few times. Didn't ruffle me, though I did turn to face the waves each time. I thought it was illegal to make a wake within a certain distance of a non-motorized boat, but I guess not. It's just common courtesy.

Phil and I set out to go hard on this race, as usual. Started out on 3 foot points. We ran this section with Mike and Tony sort of as a 4-person. We changed our route and went with the conservative easy route choice, but not the shortest, which allowed Cooper and Michelle to get a 5-min lead on us, despite a clean execution.
Short bike over to the lake where we did a short stand up paddle board. Fortunately, there was no wait, which I was worried about. We did a lap around Silver Lake, and I apparently needed a minute to get things figured out with my new paddle. Not sure if the balance was off in the boat, but the slight cross-wind on the far side made it really hard for me, and I had to paddle on the left side for that whole section.
Back on the bikes for a short trip to the second foot O section. While it wasn't bad, it wasn't the most efficient or clean orienteering we've ever done, and those little things add up - especially in a short race. Changed into bike shoes for a bike orienteering and trip up to the single track section. The bike orienteering had a LOT of off-bike travel. We lost any possibility of the win on checkpoint 23, where we spent maybe 30 minutes looking for it after we went right past it. DARN!!! Were headed back to reattack when I noticed that things looked right and we looked a little closer... and there it was. We'd been looking on the ridge (clue: ridge) when it was more in a saddle at the base of the ridge. Marked right on the map, though.
At this point, I had pretty much worn a hole in my left heel from running in my new bike shoes. So, on the way to the next point, while we bobbled on that one as well, I changed back to running shoes. Much better. The next few went well, but we couldn't really make up for what happened except maybe with strategy. We went north to the bike points thinking that there were fewer bail points, so if people did the dune trek first, they may not be able to go out and get those points.
After clearing the bike points, we got to the dunes with 55 minutes remaining on the race clock. We planned on 5 points, and I set the turn-around time at 4:15 pm. 4:15 arrived, and we were so close to the next point, that we rationalized that we did a lot of zig-zagging on the way there. We got that one and the other was basically on the way back, so we ran as much as possible there. Shit! we only had 10 minutes to get back to the finish!!! We ran as much as possible on the dunes and then hammered the bike back, and arrived just short of 3 minutes past the cut off. At least it was a penalty and not a DQ, but we still lost second place because of it. We stand behind the decision. Our philosophy was to take risks and push it. We knew it was our only chance - win or go down in flames. Looking forward to results to see how close we were.

C • Go Big or Go Home 4

Easy ride. Perfect temps. No wind. Resting up for Saturday's race.

Midland City Forest Trail run with the Run Midland crew. National Running Day! At the end of the first loop (3 miles) my watch read 2.5 miles. This twisty trail really loses a lot of distance for you. Fun time running with a group!

Paddled out onto Sanford Lake. It's warm, so I determined that I don't really need a farmer John or anything. Did 5 sets of 30-second pick ups/intervals. Felt a little less stable on some of these depending on the wind/boat waves around me. On the way back, some boaters started yelling at me. I looked over and they were waving their arms, so I waved back. Then, I thought I heard them yell "Help!" so I went over there and they needed someone to call for a tow because their starter was out on their boat. Paddler to the rescue +1 for human-powered boats! Made a quick finish and transition to the car so I could inform the gate attendant. I must say that if you have a surf ski or a narrow kayak, the Goodboy V-Bars are SO awesome and easy to load. Highly recommended!