Training Log Archive: Linear Ice

w Chris and Arah. They finished up the 20k, I quit a bit early due to feeling I've run enough this week and feeling achilles twinge.
Normal for Afton... beautiful, hilly, breezy, nice morning run and good conversation.

Event: MNOC - Cleary Lake Regional Park
 

I like MNOC members day; seems like we don't get enough time to sit around during our normal events. Doug had multiple runs, a Score-O, sprints.... so plenty of time to hang around and chat.
Hot day, really humid and my run started off miserable but fortunately it started pouring after a bit which felt soo good and lifted my spirits.
Right before (and during) the rain, I got tripped up at control 221 and instead of letting it just go, I was stubborn about it. There just wasn't much else around, so I really wanted to find it.... attacked from a couple of angles. My first attack point was perfect (from the road side where the stream turns into a pond) and easy but I just did NOT find the control and got stuck in brambles instead as I tried this, then that. Learned later that BP bailed on it too so didn't feel as pathetic after that. Except he bailed after 5 minutes.
Andrei said the control was hung "high", so unless you were looking up you couldn't see it. Odd. I think I wasted a good 20 minutes there (plus the time to get to it!) and rest of run was just trying to figure out how to get back and maybe pick up a control or two.
Although I did have a nice chat with Georgia, as I ran into her near a control that was just giving HER a heck of a time; and then it was fun to see everyone streaming in with just a few minutes to go. Julia blew past me at a crazy pace near the end... took me by surprise and I don't think I could have kept up anyway. (And with my wee points, it really wouldn't have mattered!)
Ended up with 70 or 80. Molly and Pete up ahead steady steady and in control, and then BP right behind me but pausing to upchuck 50 meters from the end so he could make an elegant finish.
My first time at Cleary; I liked the water features, but the open areas were high and hard to run, green areas were dark green. Maybe better for a Spring or Winter event.

I was permitted to join the "elite" sprinters due to the fact that not enough people ahead of me on the first course wanted to sprint. (Was this "elitist" policy because we didn't have enough maps? )
It was a mass sprint, like SLOC had a few weekends ago.
Mass Sprint is not a good format for someone at the back of the pack; I think SLOC had 3 separate courses but this was a blue highway. Good workout though because I had no excuse to slow down to figure out where I was going. So I'm sure that even though I was slower than most everyone else, I was faster than normal for me.
I have no idea of my time or distance; will fill it in later.

I skipped the team sprint event, but really enjoyed picking up 4 controls instead. Contour lines at Clearly are 2 meter, and with all the vegetation in some spots, and the trails, it was easy to ignore some of the subtle shifts in the landscape (maybe was part of my problem!). So I paid special attention to that. Peaceful.

Poor Alice was MISERABLE when I woke up this morning. And she couldn't even really walk straight. Daughter Kels took her to the vet for me.

It turns out ALice has not one but TWO tick-borne diseases. Lyme Disease and anaplasmosis - which apparently is particularly hard on German Shepherds. "During the acute phase, the dog develops fever, depression, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, enlarged lymph nodes, and occasionally signs of encephalitis." And it gets worse from there, but I'm hoping we caught it in time. She's on multiple antibiotics. And painkillers. At least she'll look at me with sad pained eyes now; she wouldn't even do that before.

Check yourself AND YOUR DOGS for ticks.

at hotel. Achilles break and didn't feel like rousting up an adventure.

Wanted a flat run (no hills, please), and it doesn't get much flatter than running on a wetlands trail on the bay.
Run was good, but I am having trouble keeping my achilles from hurting. Tiny choppy steps seems to work the best. Since rest, exercise, and ignoration didn't cure this, I may have to look at other options. But not until after this summer. Winter is a better time for recovery.

Still don't have my Garmin software on PC. Hope I can find it somewhere at home, 'cause downloading from the web didn't seem to work too well.

Went a bit off-plan again today; original plan was a long slow mindless run on flat Guadalupe Trail right by my hotel, but after reading through the running trail running magazine on airplane I got inspired and wanted to do a long interesting trail run; Joseph D. Grant County park is only 10 (windy, steep) miles from my hotel, so I thought I'd aim for that.
I should have looked more carefully at the trail map. This wasn't going to be a run, not for me! Gentle jogs on the steep downhills but the uphills ended up being plenty of exercise at the walk. I took the Hotel Trail to the Foothil Trail to Yerba Buena Trail back. At times I was sure it was Escher inspired; the loop seemed to be heavy on the uphill with very little down.
Because the trail entrance warned "We have mountain lions" and the first "BE SAFE" advice was, "do not hike alone", I decided I'd have to stay alert, not use my iPod, and pay special attention to the other tips of making noise, looking big, not running away, etc. etc. And I found a pointy stick. I sang a good bit of the way, degenerating into made ups songs involving mountain lions and idle threats.
Never saw any other people in this park. No rangers, no cars. Some footprints (people, dogs?), lots of prairie dogs, birds, no mountain lions but lots of cat scat. No mountain cows either... and I was plenty ready for them too!
I get to spend the next couple of days in a DOE event on LED manufacturing technology so I expect I'll be an expert on that by the end of the week.

w Alice
Got a late start. Spent the evening out w my girls since I'll be out of town until Friday.
We went to Mall of America, a rare event for me but we needed to visit Apple store. While at MOA, we also tried the ropes course at Nikolodeon Amusement park.. I'd had advice from a friend that it would be fun... and it was! Definitely the best "ride" out there. Almost loggable fun, but not much effort other than balancing and gathering up a bit of nerve- especially as the ropes got higher and shakier. Fun too, to have my girls encourage me along the way. It sure doesn't seem long ago that it was the other way around! Then, some dinner, home and my run in the cool, dark evening air.
I think Alice has some DOMS from our longer run. Seems to be dragging.