Training Log Archive: runninghils

Went out on the Saginaw Bay! Woo hoo! Fun times. Did 10 min steady and 5 minutes hard, alternating. Not sure if it's just that my kayak is slow (because it is) or if Strava is just not very accurate, but I can never see the harder sessions reflected in my pace. It was a very nice day with a gentle breeze that kept me cool and made small, rocking waves. There is an island straight out past the mouth of the river that I should go around some time, but that would also require me to brave the "regular" boat traffic to get to it. I think I'm up to the task... or maybe I should get a faster boat first. :)

Seriously, I need to figure out how to choose weights right now so I'm not stupid sore the next day. Slow start, but ended up adding in a bit of running toward the end (not much and not fast) Mosquitos weren't overly bad and I got to hit almost all the 2-tracks in two hours. Achilles felt good, though a bit of tingle on the heel.

Good warmup and stretching
Workout:
12 Min AMRAP
12 Slam Balls (20 lb)
12 Wall Balls (14 lb)
12 Kettlebell Swings - Russian (35#)

Score 6 rounds+6 reps

Strength:
Deadlift: 5x5 Every 3 min
155*165*175*175*175

West Branch hill repeats
Ride out to the hill:
2x extended hill (with small dip in the middle)
6x 2 min standing, 3 min seated climb on the main hill

On the way out, one whole block smelled like a catbox explosion. Then, just after the second extended climb, some guy pulled over to the side of the road and got out of his car to talk to me about biking and trails. He actually gave me a good tip on how to find Lenny's NOFAST trail (the fact that he knew Lenny made it much less weird/creepy than it was at first.) Still, I was thinking, umm... I need to get going on my next climb here... Daylight is limited! On the way home, the catbox smell was gone.

Easy recovery spin. Beautiful evening.

Event: Thunder Rolls 12/24hr AR
 

Finally back at racing after my achilles injury. Woo hoo!

Started out with a river trek for 1.5 miles. We didn't kill ourselves to be out front and came out towerd the front, but with a number of teams in front of us. We quickly started picking them off on the bike. Tony is a beast with the acceleration/hill climbs. We took the northeast route when the choice came. I was getting some tows, but feeling like the back tire was squirrely. Finally stopped to check it... yep, flat! Darn! It must have been a puncture that didn't stick in the tire because it stayed inflated the rest of the race.

Despite this, nobody passed us and we were third on the paddle. It was super foggy on the river, and Tony's light was making it hard for him to see in the front, so I was the eyes from the middle. We finally got to the take out for 9, and we were off to the 4-point O-course. We spent some time before the race really verifying which part of the water CP10 was located. It paid off. We saw Alpine Shop coming back toward us as we headed out to it. We got to the point and tried to get our headlamps to low profile in first place. It was thick getting to 11, but we hit it. However, 12 was another story. We hit the desired reentrant and headed down it. Nothing. We checked where we were when we hit the river and it seemed to be the right one. Went back up, went up a side reentrant a bit, nothing. Maybe the right one, but not far enough up. It didn't look like it was that far up. Eventually, we attacked from the ridge and found it. Grrr... lost a lot of time here. Got the other points and headed back to the boat in 4th place.

We quickly recovered back into second and finished out the paddle. We found the channel, which was moving decently enough. Just as we were getting close to the take out, the clouds got crazy dark and it opened up with horizontal rain just as we took out. We needed to flip the map and hadn't laminated them, so we had to go to into one of the outhouses to try to get the maps in order while we were dripping wet. It worked and we headed out. At the top of the hill, we were supposed to turn left to get to the bike drop, but we thought it was just a park road and bombed down the hill... which we then had to climb back up. Oops.

Started the O-course at 11:45 am. After 1:30, we had 7 points and I was sure we'd be done in 6 or 7 hours. Too bad the rest of the points were longer. This stuff was brutal - tons of unfriendly plants everywhere - nettles, thorns, poison ivy, etc. After a while, we realized that the spurs were much better than the reentrants which helped make the going a bit easier. With 3 points to go, we had an hour to get back to the TA and the next point was pretty far out. We may have been able to do it if we hit them all perfectly, but it would have been tight and we didn't want to risk missing the cutoff. Plus, we were pretty sure no other teams in our division were close enough to us to get more points, so we called it.

Ride back was a bit slower since our place was set. Got back to the final TA and went through the motions on the last 5 points going around with a combination of bike and foot to do the rappel, a few points on the river, and the luge. Luge was actually a bit scary, but pretty cool - I FLEW out of the end.

We were really hoping to clear the coarse, but the little things added up and it just wasn't going to happen. After the race, we were all sitting around talking and I backhanded Emily in the face to the surprise of everyone at the table. (I looked around at all the shocked faces.) It was a mosquito - not the fact that she likes lemon Lara bars. The mosquito was dead and an all-out brawl did not ensue.

C • If you can't beat Alpine Shop.. 5

Power walk down to the park, looped around, and back home. Perfect evening

Did a half yoga, half stretching session as I felt/needed. Heels were nowhere near the ground at my first down dog, and by the end, they were pretty close. Should really start adding more of this back in.

C • Yeah 5

Pine haven - easy recovery ride on the 2-tracks. Surprisingly not very many mosquitos. Maybe because it rained earlier?

Kayak paddle on the Tittabawassee. 10 min steady, 5 min race pace, repeat. Very nice evening for a paddle. Whoo!

Felt pretty tired and blah.

Lap 2. No bw

Hike on poto. Did a little running but not much. Heel was a problem a bit today so cut it from the planned 2 hours.

C • Heel lifts 5

Uphill for 1:40 6-8%
Downhill for 0:50 at -2%
The pain of living in a flat area... even on a beautiful summer day if you need to train a long up hill, it's on the treadmill.

Warmup - JJ, squat, MC, JS, then planks

Workout:
3 Rounds for time:
Run 400m
15 Toes to bar
10 ring dips (purple)
Time:14:22

Wow, still a bit tight/sore from Monday. I shouldn't have caved into going heavier than planned. At least I could tie my shoes today. The toes to bar were rough though because I was so tight and my hands were tender after not doing anything with the bar for about 2 months.

West Branch

2x long climbs - 8 min each with a slight dip in the middle

6x 2 min standing climb, 3 minutes seated climb, 5 min recovery
The first of these was ridiculously hard because I was not at all relaxed on the standing and didn't really let the bike move much side to side. On subsequent climbs, I was able to relax a bit more into it and actually got faster on every one. 6th climb was actually broken into two parts because I did it on a different hill on my route back, and it wasn't quite long enough.

Note: Arm warmer kind of evening. Not sure I'm ready for summer to be winding down yet! Actually, the biggest complaint is that I don't have as many hours of daylight. I'm going to start spending winters in the southern hemisphere. Let's see if work lets me do that.

Super sore from Monday - just putting my socks on was an ordeal. Darn. 5 minute walking warm-up.Then, 10 min run, 2 min walk for the rest of the time. Run was very slow because I just couldn't get my muscles relaxed enough to get a good stride.

Quick recovery ride after work and before going to the Loons game for work networking.

Waited out the rain, but it got pretty dark at the end. I don't care what people say... I don't enjoy riding in the rain. (Running is OK) I just cut the rest periods down by 1 minute between the intervals. 4x12 min. Wind was out of the west-northwest and pretty high, so ride back toward the east was fun. That never seems to make up the average for the slower time into the wind, though. Was fairly sore from day 2 back at cross fit, but not ridiculously so. Actually noticed it more as I got off the bike. Last 10 minutes to finish the 4th interval + 3 min cool down were a mini-crit though my neighborhood. I only had my "be seen" lights on so I couldn't get the full night riding effect on out on the roads.

W/U - 500m Row, 20-20-20 Squat, SPT, OHS

Strength: E2M, 5x2
55*60*65*70*75

Workout:
3 Rounds for time:
9 hang power snatch (65#)
12 overhead squat (65#)
15 burpee box jumps 20"
17:43

Accessory:
EMOTM10
10 wall balls (14#)

Started on state land trails by my parents' place, but due to the recent dry weather, the sandy two-tracks were pretty much unridable in many parts and super slow in others. (Hey, good practice riding on sand and pushing up sand hills, right?) After about 30 mins, I'd had enough, so I turned it into a mostly gravel (and a little paved) road ride. Feeling pretty tired toward the end and not looking forward to another 2 hours of training.

After the bike. Started out a little slow... just doing a trek/hike (with pack) but once I got warmed up, I started to add in running down the hills and some of the flats. Glad I brought my DEET. It got a lot better once I was warmed up a bit. No heel/achilles pain.

W/U - JJ/Squat/MC/JS, stretching/LaX ball rolling

Strength: 5x3 Front Squat every 3 min
Supposed to be heavy as possible, but having been away from crossfit for almost 2 months and nursing an injury meant that I couldn't go that heavy. Even my light weight felt heavy. I'm sure the strength will come back quickly, though.
95*105*105*105*105

Workout: 7 min AMRAP
7 slam balls
7 burpees
7 pull ups (red band)
Exactly 5 rounds completed

Accessory:
Box Jumps - 5 EMOTM 12
A bit worried about an explosive movement for my achilles, so took it easy with a 12" box. It felt ridiculous, but better to test the waters slowly with movements than to take myself out with 2 weeks before the next race.

Completely made up distance. Run 4 min, walk 2. The achilles itself feels fine, but the heel area is a bit tingly still.

Gotta get back into my routine/schedule. Came home and found that the cedar chest in my bedroom had been cleared off, so of course I started going through it and found a bunch of interesting things (It was my Grandma's) Next thing I knew, it was starting to get late, so I rushed out and at least got a VERY short ride in.

Squeezed in a ride on the poto before my cousin's wedding. It was nice getting away for the day. It felt really good to ride, though I wish I had more time. I took the shortcut. I alternately loved and was annoyed at this trail. It is so eroded in some places, which can be fun sometimes, but I guess I'm not good enough to just fly down massively erroded/washed out hills. It's good practice though. I have to go back and ride when I actually have time to ride the whole thing.