Training Log Archive: ebuckley

Jason Eads is back in town, so a bunch of the SLUGs got together for a 25-miler on the Greenrock. I didn't have time for the whole run because I had to get to Beaumont to help with Scout Champs. Still, it was great to see him again. We'll try to hook up again when I'm in Florida in June.

SLOC Red at Beaumont (1:10). No warmup because I was giving beginner breifings to the scouts. No biggie as I was still loose from the SLUG run.

The original plan was to run this easy since David is off doing an Adventure Race in Arkansas. However, I was feeling just a touch in the heel and decided to run it hard in case it's not up to running hard tomorrow. Besides, Bill was there and staying in front of him is certainly not automatic, especially in terrain like this where fitness counts as much as nav.

So, I ran it hard. Turns out, this was pretty much just what the heel wanted. Felt better almost immediately and didn't bug me the whole run. Legs weren't really ready to blast over the hills of Beaumont, but Fisher's courses did a lot of traversing, so climb wasn't as severe as it usually is. Did manage to get Bill for the win, but not by much.

Control pickup. Snow showed up just as I started. Coming down pretty heavy by the end.

Red - Splits

Only marginally worse weather than yesterday, but the presence of ice pellets was enough to make me glad this is a rest day. Took the Metro from Olive/Delmar/CWE (Grand station is closed for bridge repairs) and ran the grass down Forest Park Parkway, SLU, and Harris Stowe.

C • Hope I'm not using up my ye... 4

Temperature dropped 40 degrees overnight from yesterday's high. A light mist and near freezing is generally my least favorite conditions and while my feet were frostified by the time I got to work, I found the ride in strangely pleasant.

4x1250@5:00 1:00R.

Better late than never on this one, I suppose. Tempo intervals around Lafayette Park. Shortened it from 6 to 4 since it's so late in the week; should be sufficiently recovered for Q1 on Sunday. While the heel is doing well, I ran on the grass between the sidewalk and the fence; a gesture I hope it appreciates when I ask it to bang out 40 miles on trail this weekend.

Had a late (OK, late for me) meeting, so by the time I was out the door I knew all the westward corridors would be heavy. Decided to head through South City instead. Plan worked well; just a bit of congestion through Bevo, but otherwise light traffic. Got to Grant's trail just before 5 and obviously traffic wasn't a concern after that.

As usual, putting on an O-meet has completely turned my life upside down. That's not a complaint; I think a little chaos to bring about something you care about is a fair trade. The specific upshot in this case is that the Felt is still disabled, so it was back into work on the SUV.

Really nice morning; would have loved to go further, but I'm already not sure I'll have the legs for this afternoon's session, so I just did the slightly longer route through Forest Park and left it at that.

I've ridden 325,000 miles, but I've never battled a wind this strong for this long. Most of the ride was under 10mph. A good bit was more like 5 or 6. I had already decided to postpone the quality running until tomorrow before I even started, but I wouldn't have had a choice as it took over 2 hours to cover what would normally be under 90 minutes, so I had no extra time to run.

C • You were heading right into... 8

Heel felt much better this morning which I took as an endorsement of yesterday's easy soft-surface run. So, I did it again.

Home from work on the SUV via a very circuitous route because it looked like it might start raining and I didn't feel like riding long in the rain. I figured as long as the rain held off, I'd keep adding distance. Turned out to be a pretty nice ride after the first set of sprinkles passed. Lots of wind, but it didn't bug me.

Midday (well, midday for someone who starts work before 6AM) jog around the Arch. There and back via the plaza along Market to make nearly the whole run soft surface.

No surprise that the heel was not happy upon waking this morning. Running (easy and short) still makes it feel better rather than worse, so I'm continuing to treat it as normal high-volume mitigation rather than an actual injury. Probably only 1 mistake away from going over the edge, though.

As a defense against that, I am making some subtle adjustments to the training plan. I had already planned on moving the bulk of the volume to the bike (as is my custom every year when things get warmer). I'm going to cut the hard-surface running to one quality workout a week. Daniel's plan calls for a second Q workout; I'll do that on trail. It's getting warm enough in the mornings to put the barefoot on grass runs back in, too. Those seem to help a lot.

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.