Training Log Archive: Sandy

Decided to do my normal 3 miles on the Drive to see where things stood: would I be totally sluggardly slow or just my normal slow? Haven't done any running to speak of for several weeks. And the surprise answer was that I did pretty well.

hike/jog down and up

Venture Quest AR with Brad Whitmore and Mike Ball. Lots of fun. 41st overall out of ~110 teams; 9th coed. (Jon Torrance raced solo and took 2nd overall.) Short road run, mtn. bike loop, couple mile trail run, long paddle, 2nd bike loop, short paddle, long trek. Wasn't sure I'd hold up for the whole thing and there were times near the end that I wanted to sit and rest but kept plugging. Brad towed me on the trails and through the woods the last two hours where we moved up 20 places by taking short cuts through the woods. Picked up a couple tag-alongs when we left the trail - they knew good orienteering when they saw it! The challenges were fun - Mike got to do a zip-line and I did a tyrolean traverse.

Venture Quest, AR

A quick run on the trails to loosen up a bit for Sunday's race. Felt okay but apprehensive about all the running in the AR.

Walk to the bus stop. The Wissahickon was particularly nice this morning.

Walked about 4 miles to get the bus this morning.

Biked out towards Valley Forge on the paved bike-trail. Turned around at Conshohocken Rd. On the way home decided to go for it and do the shorter steeper hill; managed to get up Port Royal Rd. for the first time ever without having to stop. I think they must have cleaned it up some since the cobblestones and asphalt patches seemed less trashy so I didn't slip and spin out in spots where I usually would.

Yard work to warm up (seriously - oddly enough it seems to loosen up my knees and hips better than anything else I've tried) and then some stretching and situps afterwards.

Short loop on the trails on this side of the valley followed by some situps and pushups. Although the loop was short I was pleased that I kept moving as well as I did given the lack of recent training.

Walked home from school from Walnut Lane; about 4 miles down in the Wissahickon. Amazing how the laptop gains weight while walking! :)

Ankle is not quite 100%, but close.

The Mega. Went out at 7:45am and had the woods to myself for the first 100 or so controls. Then the speedy guys that started at 9am caught me and I saw a dozen or so people until about #180 when suddenly I had lots of company. Wonder if I would have gone faster if there had been people around me from the beginning. Only bobbled about 3 controls to the point where I had to stop and think where I was (instead of knowing I was too far left or too far right or not remembering if I was looking for the boulder or the re-entrant). Judged how much water to carry just right - ran out at #190. I figured I could do it in 6 hours so was very happy. Have to thank Spike for that - for some reason when he came trotting by me in the woods and said hello it inspired me to pick up my pace by quite a bit. Thanks JJ; it was a blast.

C • 1

Event: 2005 Sprint Series Finals
 

Hanging controls for the sprint finals. Hung the final course in order which was fun since then I knew how the course went.

Ankle more sore than I would like so two more days off.

Took yesterday off and today as well. Will try some hiking tomorrow...

Ankle surprisingly sore, swollen and stiff. Didn't think it was that bad yesterday but even just walking was uncomfortable today.

DVOA Long course champs. 2nd to Angelica who took about 2:01. Probably 20 minutes of errors; continuing my sloppy navigating. Towards the end was really, really tired so I can attribute the last error to fatigue. The others were due to just not concentrating. Need to get out of these bad habits!

Rolled my ankle near the end - that was no fun. Had absolutely nothing left at the end and was vowing never to do such a long course again. Oh, but wait, the Mega and HH are coming up...

Scouting out a way home from work where I could take one bus (not have to transfer) but not have a 6-7 mile walk home. I think I've got a single bus ride and a 4 mile walk - I'll try it next week. The trails ran the gamut from really nice single track that was mostly dirt and so very friendly (even though it was up and down and twisting amongst the trees) to extremely rocky with loose dirt and rocks and roots. Was concentrating mostly on scoping out the trails and not on riding so didn't push anything. One of the trails home though has had some serious renovation and I was able to ride up the whole thing. It's a good hill, but when it was all rutted out and rocky I would always slip at some point and have to get off. They've carted in enough dirt and gravel that it's level enough that even though it's steep, I was able to handle it.