Training Log Archive: Sandy

Ugh. Woke up with what turned out to be a bad cold. But I felt bad enough that I postponed my dentist appointment until Friday as I wasn't sure if I was coming down with the flu or not. And decided not running was a good idea.

What? Oh yeah, I did this at 6am starting in the dark with a headlamp. Felt pretty good running just couldn't go particularly fast.

TNT - with Sandy A at the Ahlswedes.

Small class; lots of handstands and backbends, both of which I can sort of do but neither of which I'm very good at.

The studio will be in a new place starting Thursday and it was weird to be there with only the very bare necessities left. We had the lights on really low though, partly to make it seem a little less barren, so we were almost practicing in the dark. Kind of nice.

C • yoga 1

Local DVOA event at Brandywine; did the green course.

Good enough for second. There was a lot of trail running possible and I seem to have chosen well in terms of when to go around, even way around. Two annoying errors - one when I deliberately did not barrel down to the main thoroughfare trail thinking I would be clever and attack a reentrant from the trails above only to find more trails than on the map and so got confused and then the control was 5 feet from the big trail anyway, and one when I couldn't read the map (it was very wet and humid and my magnifier was all fogged over) and I was momentarily thrown even though I was right where I wanted to be and should have read some other surrounding features to realize it and keep moving right to the control. Not a good per km time but I felt like I was moving well when the terrain allowed. It's a pretty green and rocky park.

C • Very nice! 1

I'm not always as observant as I think I am! I've only just realized that the funny grey highlights on the main page mean a thread with a post that I haven't yet read. I kept thinking something was weird with my browser but it wasn't that annoying so I didn't care. Ah well...

C • gray 8

C • power cube 5

Yard work.

I don't dislike yard work. In fact I like it a lot more than many other things. But it does take up time and today it took up a lot of time and so I did not run like I had planned.

Despite not having done it in a while, it wasn't too bad.

4 miles on the drive this afternoon:
538, 525, 1024, 535, 459, 538, 513

Hiked home by cutting straight up the hill instead of using the switchback trail that comes out by the horse ring; that was hard enough that my ears were ringing for a bit.

Sweated off 3 pounds! But put it back on again right away - just didn't know I could lose that much. I guess it was humid. :)

Another day of feeling really slow and the time is pretty fast. I'd rather that than the other way around!

If there's just me, does it count as tnt? Ran early before it got dark.

C • Of course!! 20

A pretty good class. I was worried my knees might not do too well but they felt pretty good as long as I moved slowly in to and out of a few of the poses. Did quite a bit of basic strength and stretching stuff and not so much of the handstand and tricky balance stuff.

A good way to help the recovery from Sunday.

I was a little worried about this race; I wanted to do well but wasn't sure how I'd hold up. I held up pretty well, but I only navigated okay and not great so I'm feeling both very good about the race and a little disappointed.

I had four 1:30-2:00 errors in the first 3 controls (two route choice and two being sloppy). After that I settled down and did a bit better although probably lost another 2 minutes from hesitating and drifting a bit. I also lost over a minute to Mary Jo on the last two controls which were basically running in the fields. I'm working on getting my overall fitness up but it shows I still have a ways to go.

I looked at the splits and I'm not sure I can get much information other than I'm relatively slow downhill (which I knew) and I don't always see the best route choices particularly when they involve trails. I think of myself as so slow a runner that I figure straight has got to be faster, but not when straight goes through scuzzy woods. Need to remember that.

UltraLong: Brown - Splits

Event: US Sprint & UltraLong champs
 

So I finished this race thinking I had done pretty well only to find that on just about every control someone (different someones for different controls) that I know I can run with went faster by 15-20 seconds. So I'm either fooling myself that I can keep up with these people or I wasn't doing a very good job of being efficient and/or pushing myself.

I had a little trouble reading the map in a few places - but my new magnifier that twists out of the way was great - and I'm sure I slowed down to try and figure out exactly what I was looking for.

Middle: Brown - Splits

A great day hanging out at the Leonard farm. Took a leisurely walk just to shake out the legs after the drive.

Short hill loop. Surprised by the time - I felt like I was really tentative going downhill and really sluggish the rest of the time. But I'll definitely take it!

TNT - 4 miles on the drive with Jim (back from the PCT) plus the down and up. Bob stayed with us for the first mile then took off and Karl took off right away. Sandy once again had dinner well underway when we returned after she did some ab work in the basement.

1/2 mile splits:
502, 504, 508, 512, 546, 509, 549, 526. I was definitely struggling on the way back! Not sure if I was a bit dehydrated or not; I know I haven't had enough sleep the last few days. And I think this is only the third time I've tried to go this far since Scotland.

A big class with lots of beginners so we didn't really push it. Good stretching at least. I haven't stretched much the last few days or maybe even a week now - I've probably lost most of the gains I made in getting my knees to bend. I'll just have to start over again.

Checking out a different section of the new map. Completely different feel to the terrain. It will be two totally different orienteering days. Very cool.

Checking out the new terrain. Some really nice stuff where I was today.

Advanced night-o course at HR. Did it with Hugh. Felt amazingly good running in the woods! I really felt like I was flying. Made several silly errors - I was just having too good a time running to pay attention to my compass and pace count.

C • Thanks! 2

I really get lazy orienteering at HR. I know the park so well that I just sort of go and if I don't end up where I want to be I know where I am anyway and so can get to where I need to be. I probably can't go more than 100 m without running into a feature I recognize. It was a little harder at night, but not much. I really shouldn't train there - I'll get into bad habits.

Control hanging for the sprints

C • Thank you! 3

My latest orienteering project:
http://www.karenkavett.com/poster_4_small.tif

Well, really, my niece Karen's latest project, since I hired her to do it.

Full resolution here (but it takes a really long time to download):
http://www.karenkavett.com/poster_4.tif

C • Very nice set of pictures! ... 5

TNT - running on the drive. Started and ended with Bob but he took off after a mile. Did 4 miles - sort of. At 3 miles I made a pit stop - I needed to eat something before running this evening since I hadn't eaten since about 11:45 and I guess I either ate too much or not the best stuff (crackers and some peanuts which doesn't seem like a bad choice). Anyway, had to stop at Valley Green on the way back, and then it was really tough to get going again. Walked/jogged the half and then ran the last half mile at a decent clip.
4:59, 5:08, 5:08, 5:08, 5:24, 4:48, 8:57 (includes the stop), 5:03.

The rest of the time is the down and up - and my watch really does say 1:11:11.

Sandy and Karl came too. Dinner was waiting for us when I finished. Thanks Sandy!

Very tight after being on my feet so much this week, so all the stretching felt really good. Somehow it's just better in yoga class than anything I can do on my own. My arms were pretty dead though which is weird - can't think of anything I did that would have tired them out.

Part one of hiking around the new mapped area just getting myself familiar with things.

Part two (after getting back to the car and getting some lunch) of hiking around on the new map.

A quick jog from the likely start area of the long courses - down a trail, up a trail and then through the terrain back to the car. Just wanted to do a little something faster after all the slogging.

Decided I needed to run. Felt good on the downhills for a change - more stable somehow.

Hour and a half to hang all the controls for today's event. But I'm sure I was standing still for half of it. Really nice in the park early this morning with the birds going strong.

Had to get up really early to hang all the controls, but on the flip side, the controls were all picked up and I was home before 3! Ran out of sprint maps early but someone chipped in and drew and people were willing to leave their map for someone else to use.

The poster my niece is working on is almost done. It is so cool.

All of my recent emails to the deciders have not netted a single response. Very odd.

C • ? 5

short hill loop
:)

4 miles on the drive plus the down and up. Not pretty but the farthest I've run in a quite a while.
521
538
524
527
547
519
1129

Taught again without the knee brace. Not at all bad during class but a little sore afterward. Felt better a few hours later. Knee was a bit sore while running this evening towards the end - not sure if there's any one thing or just a combination of longer run, serious twisting and stretching in yoga and pt exercises, and teaching. I'm certainly working it harder without the brace than I have in a while and it doesn't hurt any more than it has recently and probably actually less.

Will test it some more the next few weekends as I start to do some serious woods time at HR and at events coming up.

Weight loss plan is still on track. Should have made a bet with someone...