Training Log Archive: Lori

Golden Goat with Presto at Sunol Regional Park! Woohoo! First woman and first dog! It was pretty cold for the Bay Area today. There was frost on the ground and the puddles were frozen and everything. Luckily the maps were about safety blanket-sized, so we were all good to go!

The first 8 controls were all pretty close together, which was kind of a fun way to start the Goat, but also made it difficult to get a nice chance to figure out which side of the fork I was going to take and what my skip would be. I slowed down a bit on the way to 7 and decided on the right side of the fork, and narrowed the skip down to 3 controls.

Sam had been hanging back at the beginning and caught up to us around control 8, so we were together more or less to 9. Sam is undeniably better on uphills than I am, and this course did not lack for uphills. It turns out 7.5m contours make steepness much more difficult for me to estimate. Anyway, Sam started getting ahead of me, and Presto thought that Sam was going a more fun speed, so they took off. I was a bit worried about getting Presto back, since I a) had his epunch and b) had his leash, so I probably ran 9-10 a bit faster than I would otherwise have :-). Luckily, there was a bit of a dog leg from 10-11, so I scooped Presto back up as Sam headed off to 11.

I took a gu at 10, and headed off towards 11. I still wasn't sure what skip I was going to take - the best options looked like 14 and 18. I was still feeling quite good, and the route to 14 was basically all on trails, while the route to 18 required a lot of sidehilling in lots of little reentrants, so I decided I'd skip 18 when a skip would have more psychological benefit.

The leg from 14-15 was 3.5km straight-line, which required opening the map up all the way, which was somewhat of a challenge for a short person... There was a pretty nice route choice, though, so I headed off. I'd caught Marie-Jose by now and took another gu at the water stop between 14 and 15, which gave me another sugar boost. Apparently all those hill runs with Sam and Presto were paying off because I was feeling good on the uphills and left the pack I'd been with on and off since the beginning behind me.

From here on in, Presto and I were completely on our own, but Presto was having a blast chasing ground squirrels, I was feeling good, the sun was shining, and we had beautiful views from the tops of the (extremely large) hills, so we were having a great time. I did *not* want to overshoot 15, so when I got to the top of the hill, I slowed way down. I still managed to slip in a cow patty, which kind of tweaked my left knee. It felt more or less ok, though, so we continued on. We spiked 15 (where I took another gu), 16, and 17, and then being able to skip 18 was indeed wonderful. The mapping of the fences into 19 was a bit out of date, so we slowed down a bit for that, but it turned out to be fine. It was all trail running from here on in, which of course meant I headed off on a 180... Luckily I figured it out after about 100m, so we didn't lose too much time and then it was just 20, 21, and into the finish. Super fun day!

I will be sore... My knee is a bit sore (a different kind of sore than the muscles), but hopefully it will heal quickly.

Goat - Splits

Running with Presto at the Berkeley Marina! Presto needed more dog food, so since we had to go down nearly to the Marina anyway, I figured we'd run there. It was sunny and clear and gorgeous today, and running felt great. Although, to be fair I was taking it pretty easy because of the Golden Goat tomorrow. Presto prepped for tomorrow by keeping a close eye on all the ground squirrels :-).

Normal stretching.

Easy-peasy run with Sam and Presto after lab! My legs are still a bit tired from the weekend, but it was good to get out. Presto was quite thrilled with all the deer, especially when they decided to jog along with us for a while. The deer here are weird :-).

Normal abs.

Normal stretching. My left hip flexor is acting up a bit. I need to keep an eye on that leg...