Training Log Archive: jfredrickson

Event: Boston Area Training: Boojum
 

Another night with not nearly enough sleep, and this time there was no excuse for it. I knew I had to get up early for training, but I just couldn't seem to get to bed.

Barb had set up a really nice training course with some line-o and window-o controls mixed in. She had also taken most of the trails off the map which was a really good exercise in using the terrain to navigate despite trail presence.

I ended up feeling really good physically, and most of the time mentally as well. Technically I was perfect for almost all of the course, but I still had 6 controls with lost time, amounting to almost 7 minutes lost. A good portion of this time lost was due to the special nature of the training though (the semi-mapping of trails in some parts made it harder to know when to trust a trail and when to ignore it), and I still felt as if it was a good run in terms of my technique.

I pushed hard physically at the appropriate times, and never once felt that I was losing time due to fitness. It was nice to be feeling so good physically especially after the tough week I have been having. I did notice that my Orienteering did feel a bit behind my running at some points. As long as I don't hit any extra-technical areas though I am fine. I'll have to keep this in mind in the upcoming races though.

Despite feeling really great during the Orienteering, I just didn't feel up to doing the trail run afterwards. I was just too tired from lack of sleep, and even though I knew it would probably be really good for my legs, I couldn't get myself to do it.

At this point I just don't feel like fighting myself. I figure if my body is as tired as it is there is no need to try to push the training. Hopefully this bout of fatigue will pass soon so that I can get in a bit of good training before a small taper before the Pig. I would really like to be able to put in a lot of time at the Training Camp next weekend, so I have to make sure I am feeling strong enough for that. I know that I am in good enough shape, I just have to make sure that I plan carefully now and prepare my body in the best way for the upcoming races.

Priority number 1 is to get more sleep. Lack of sleep is probably the main cause for this recent exhaustion.

Long - Splits

I got a decent night's sleep last night, but I still felt pretty exhausted from the lack of sleep yesterday. I decided to try to do some easy hill intervals for an hour, but I just couldn't seem to stay with it. It wasn't so much that it was too tough or that I was too tired, I just couldn't seem to get into it.

I decided to hit the bike for the rest of the session. My whole body was just feeling really crappy, and then my legs started to hurt real bad after about 20 minutes, so I ended up cutting this one short too.

It was just an awful night for training. I would have hoped to be full of energy for running given the low number of hours that I have trained since injuring my leg last Friday, but I guess a tough week at school and not enough sleep has taken a toll on my body. Hopefully I will be able to come back with a good week next week so that I will be well prepared for the Pig.

Just a short spin on the bike while waiting for a treadmill to open up. My legs have been extremely tight since yesterday, but they didn't bother me at all on the bike, and it probably helped to loosen them up a bit before the run. The bruise on my right quad seems to be all better, so it is just the stiffness from Wednesday's intervals that is bothering me.

The goal was to do a level 3 intensity run since I didn't have time for a longer run. My legs actually felt decent, despite being so stiff the past two days, and they seemed to loosen up as I ran.

Got another good nights sleep last night and I am definitely feeling much better than earlier in the week, although hints of a coming sickness are still lingering. Unfortunately the spot where I got hit just above my right knee stiffened up over night so that it has been a bit awkward walking around today. My legs are also very stiff from the intervals yesterday, so that didn't help either. I put off running until the evening since my leg wasn't feeling quite ready to put too much stress on it, but then I had too much work to do and couldn't make it to the gym. It is really hard to take a day off at this point given the bad week that I have been having, but I think that it is probably best to make sure that my leg has recovered completely from the bang it took yesterday. Although I really would have liked to try stretching out my legs on the treadmill, it just didn't work out today. I'll aim for a long run tomorrow and see how everything feels. The main priority is to stay healthy at this point as much as I would have liked for this to be a tough week. I have an Orienteering training coming up on Sunday and I need to make sure that I am ready for that since I need to work on my technique more than I need to work on my fitness at this point. Anyway, we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

I got a good 8 hours of sleep last night which definitely felt nice, but it still wasn't enough to recover from my lack of sleep the past two nights. Anyway, this was just a jog up to Holy Cross for a track workout with T-Mac and some friend of his from High School who apparently runs Cross-Country at Syracuse. I felt pretty good, although my head and neck feel a little funny like I am getting sick.

The indoor track was being used, so we decided to head up to the outdoor track despite the snowstorm. Coach wanted me to run 200m intervals while T-Mac and his friend ran 400m. He started me 5 seconds behind them each time so that I could pass them on the back straightaway. It ended up being way too much rest waiting for them every time. It was snowing so hard that I ran with my eyes closed and peeked out a small slit in one of them.

Here are my splits with average and max HR:

1.) 0:32.5 - 127 - 171
r.) 1:55 - 153 - 171
2.) 0:29.1 - 140 - 157
r.) 1:53 - 156 - 174
3.) 0:31.2 - 150 - 174
r.) 2:02 - 155 - 175
4.) 0:30.6 - 143 - 174
r.) 2:03 - 154 - 174
5.) 0:29.2 - 147 - 174

We were planning on doing 15, but we stopped after 5 to see if we could get on the indoor track. The snow was just coming down too hard.

I did some stretching while we were waiting for the indoor track to open up.

It felt nice to get inside out of the snowstorm, and I actually felt really good running on the indoor track despite the tight turns. It was funny because I couldn't run very fast on the turns so I would speed up to a full sprint on the straightaways and then coast through the turns again. It turned out that I was faster indoors even though it felt slower. I guess I wasn't running them that fast outdoors since I was planning on doing 15 and I figured that pace would get pretty tough by the end.

Anyway, here are my splits. The first one was 240m since my coach miscalculated how far the 200 was on the indoor.

1.) 0:41.0 - 138 - 163
r.) 2:03 - 138 - 165
2.) 0:31.9 - 137 - 167
r.) 2:37 - 143 - 169
3.) 0:29.8 - 144 - 168
r.) 2:14 - 146 - 172
4.) 0:29.1 - 140 - 165
r.) 2:31 - 148 - 174
5.) 0:28.3 - 142 - 162

For some reason we stopped after 5 even though I felt like I wasn't even getting a workout yet. I guess this is supposed to build speed, but it felt pretty wimpy. Maybe it could be a lot better with a shorter rest. Perhaps 1 minute in between? I think I will stick to longer intervals in the future though. I am not training for sprints (at least in the track sense).

Run back from Holy Cross.

My final two basketball games were tonight, but unfortunately at the same time so I had to run between them. I was pretty tired too from the workout this afternoon, so it was tough. I took a knee to the leg just above my knee, but fortunately not on the main muscle so it shouldn't affect my running. It is pretty stiff now though, so it may give me some problems tomorrow, but I don't think it will last very long.

I wasn't able to get to the gym in time tonight to do some running before my basketball game which was unfortunate since I was really hoping to get in a long run today. Anyway, the game was good exercise.

I spun the standing bike for 55 minutes tonight before my intramural basketball games. My legs felt a little tired at first, much like yesterday, but it wasn't too much effort to work through it. I stayed at a pretty easy pace while reading my Intro to Java textbook, and I didn't feel any sign of my bruise in my right quad so I guess the injury is officially recovered.

Intramural basketball game.

The other team didn't show up for my second game, so we played a pickup game for about a 25 minutes, and then I played 21 with two friends for another 20 minutes. I was pretty tired by this point so I wasn't pushing too hard, but it was a good workout nonetheless.