Training Log Archive: ebuckley

Stayed at S-F overnight and went for a sunrise jog. Heel hurting a lot from standing around at the start yesterday in my O-shoes. Dumb, I should have changed out of them as soon as I was finished setting. By the end of the jog it felt fine, but I'm sure some bigger adjustments will be needed to keep this under control.

Gateway Grunt III at S-F (1:10). Distance and climb are a guess because I haven't looked closely at how much my skips (10, 31) took off.

Nice course by Bill - good mix of technical and physical. Pack stayed together through 5. As I hadn't warmed up, I lagged a bit, just making sure they didn't get out of sight. Things broke up going to 6. Hooked back up with David & Jeff briefly around 8, then split with them when they went for 10 and I skipped. Met Maricel Olarlu on the way to 13 and punched first (I was winning!) Fell back a bit going to 14 and then boomed 15. Never saw Maricel again after that. David & Jeff came into the map exchange just as I was leaving. Frederick must have really stuggled in the trashy NE section (7-12) because nobody had seen him since 6. Ran the second half well to take second place. Death match now 2-1 in favor of David.

Excellent run from a fitness perspective - had good pace even through the thick stuff all the way. Nav was a bit rough, but that's to be expected given how little woods training I've done this year. I don't think there's much point in going to the Pig even for just Saturday - I'll get my ass kicked and I've got a lot of other stuff on my plate right now.

Splits, maps, and full report for the weekend to follow.

Control pickup at a very mellow pace. Got all the NE controls and took the time to check the map a bit. It's not as bad as it seemed during the meet. The vegetation boundaries are pretty close; it's just that a lot of the rough open is now a mix of cedar and undergrowth. Contours and water features are fine.

Event: Gateway Grunt III
 

Putting out the e-punch units for MOJO finals at S-F East (1:10) and also a quick run through white/yellow to make sure they were still good after last week's storms.

Perimeter run on the east side of the White course as part of the search for the girls that got lost. Picked up a couple controls along the way. After half an hour I met up with the party covering the north of the course and they had just recieved word that the girls were found. Picked up some more controls coming back in.

I will never, ever, let a child under age 8 out alone on one of my courses again. I don't care how sure their parent is about their skills.

Discovered an odd mechanical on the Felt while taking it down off the hook. Didn't have time to mess with it, so I rode in on the SUV instead. Probably just as well since I wanted it to be a really mellow pace and shifters help in that regard.

More or less easy spin into work, though not as much cadence as I'd like with the wind out of the SE again - I'm going to have to reduce the gear on this bike if this keeps up.

The G has responded to the warmer temps in typical fashion. Nice to be on target a full six weeks ahead of the marathon. I do need to remember to start bringing my summer hat as I was getting sweat in my eyes yesterday.

In less happy news, something had to go and it's the Pig that went. I haven't been putting in the training in the woods to justify a 3-day weekend and I really need to use the time for our own A-meet. I might be able to slide in a day trip just for the Ultra champs. We'll see.

Easy distance home from work. Crossed over to St. Charles at 370. Back on Page and through CC Lake park. Need to put a water bottle on this bike. All the parks still have their fountains shut off. Finally stopped at a QT for a 32oz Gatorade.

4x3K@11:45 2:00R

Drove in to work (yes, again). Ran all the way home via a fairly direct route, adding tempo intervals about halfway through. First was a touch fast (11:20), seems I still had the 5-mile pace dialed in. The remaining three were spot on, at least within the accuracy one could expect from a route measured on MapMyRun.

That's a wrap for the quality phase of marathon prep. Still a some tough workouts to go, but I have to say this program was much less horrible this time around. It was still brutal, but the colder temps make a big difference when running tempo. I think I'm going to make a habit of doing marathon-type training in the winter and use the summers just to work on VO2max. Of course, I'll do continue to do long stuff year round, cuz that's the way I roll.

Still pretty crappy this morning (38F, rain), so I drove in again. Things improved by lunch so I went for an easy run around the Theater district and back through SLU (which must be on spring break because the place was deserted).

Easy spin after work, mostly on the flood plain.

If there was ever a day to wake up to the happy knowledge that an off day is due, this would be it. After letting Spring have it's say over the past week, Winter has mustered another offensive and is making a pretty good show of it with a most unpleasant mix of snow, ice, and rain.

In happier news, it appears that getting back on the icing regimen was all that was needed for the heel. No pain this morning. As long as it's treatable without medication, I'm not worried about it. If I have to go to NSAID's, then I'll start modifying my training volume as well.