Training Log Archive: Wyatt

1st run of day in VF park. Ran between creek and train tracks for a bit on a trail that usually has some narrow spots. Got a bit exciting when the narrow 'flat' part became invisible under the hard-crust snow, and, despite the O-spikes, I slid about 1/3 of the way down the diagonal toward the Schuykill River. It was ~30 out & windy, I'd seen plenty of ice along the edge of the river, and there was nothing between me and the river where I was sliding, except for 10 more feet of steep, hard-snow-crust. At the bottom of that, there wasn't even any ice on the river, just water, with the bottom sloping off at the same sharp rate as the hill I was sliding down. I realized that my swimming skills weren't going to be much help, as I'd likely black out in 10's of seconds... So, I turned around.

And realized that the 'trail' I'd be on was about the same as the part I'd just be sliding down. A brief bit of panic set it, but there was nothing to do but try to get back to the nearest tree, so I dashed back there, and the footsteps held. From there it was stomp and climb straight up the slope, knowning that if I slipped, I'd slam into a tree instead of the freezing water... There were some other dents in the snow here, apparently another hiker or runner had climbed out of here at the same point in previous days. Or possibly it was a crazy cyclist - there had been tire marks in the snow up to just about that point, with the number of marks steadily decreasing over the last km, sometimes with impressive crash indents in the snow where they'd bailed. Come to think of it, there was no evidence of a bike going up that hill. I wonder if the rider had bailed, lost their bike into the river, and then crawled up to safety...

Not hills, but similar effect - had a really fun 'run', hauling the kids around in the sled.

Attached a rubber cord (water balloon launcher) to the rope at the front on the sled, and then took the kids for a run around the greater Heuser park next door - consisting of lots of little trails winding through the park, along a ridgeline, on really, really hard snow - only breaking through the 1-2" of nearly solid crust on a few steps. O'spikes for grip, taking turns with my arms to avoid one side getting too hosed.

At one point we came out to some football fields - also covered with the super hard snow, and I had fun running in circles, with the sled whipping around behind me, dumping one kid out then running in circles while they tried to jump back into the sled.

At another point, in a fairly open section of the condo assoc. lands of the development next door, I got stuck with the kids slid sideways down a short steep hill, with me on the top. I couldn't pull them up, for fear of breaking the rope (or my arm :) so I asked AJ climb out. He did so, and, on his belly, slid down the rest of the hill. That started 10 minutes of entertainment with the kids sliding forward, backward, face first, etc, down a short, but steep hill - never breaking through. Lots of fun. I even went down once...

Ambler Frostbite 5-miler. Decided to do this last night, as I should race this weekend, and this was only ~30 mintues drive. Turned out to be a darn fast crowd, as my 3212, on a not-flat 5-mile, was about 60th of ~400 people, and I was beating by at least one woman. (Fought past 2 women at about the halfway point only to have 1 other woman pass me for good just after mile 3 - one of only two people to pass me after the 1-mile mark.)

About the same climb-adjusted pace as the 5-mile-loop at VF park on Jan. 5. Not a great result in that regard, but I did do some (weak) intervals yesterday, so maybe I wasn't quite as rested? Still, a good workout - no way I would push to that level of discomfort alone.

We'll see how I do next week on trails at the Ugly Mudder - hopefully a lot better, relatively.

R-achilles inside a bit sore in early warmup. Rubbed that out and then was sore inside back of R-knee, and felt that in the first mile of the race too.

After the race, all that was okay, with R-quad the most sore and (the good-old) L-hamstring feeling just a bit sore. The downhill finish was probably quite hard - supposedly 2:50/km pace for the last 100m.

Apparently I didn't get my a** kicked as much as I originally thought - 38th of over 500 isn't quite as bad. Still 3 guys were under 26:30, and one woman was ~29, so 32 shows significant signs of room for improvement. I just noticed the Racing-Running AP feature (new?) and saw that Kristin beat this time last year... Hmmm.

15% faster would put me in 4th, which would be lot nicer. I wonder if I can get that fast ever. I'm working on it...

6x800m Intervals on 1.5 inches of crusty snow. Broke through toes on ~10-20% of steps so I was slow

70 crunches, 100e ankle rotations, 20 1-leg pushups, 80e clock squats

Half marathon, painting streets near home. W/Angelica the first 35 minutes. Really tired (legs, motivation) by end.

Wimpy little run in the new snow. 50 minutes scheduled... Did a lot of shovelling of very tough snow/frozen-rain mix instead of running.

To at least partially make up for my running lapse, I did 20 1 leg pushups, and 40e clock squats, 100e ankles

Hill intervals in the snow - standard hills much slower than normal due to slippery conditions + bad shoes. Plus I was doing 10x to make up for last week's slack off...

& intra interval. 1 in. snow, snowing while running