Training Log Archive: jtorranc

Warmup/cooldown.

Silly walks and 8 uphill sprints (walking back down circuitously for recovery).

Running errands by bicycle. Some kind of big police happening on the block of 14th St between U and V Sts early in the afternoon - no idea what was going on but there were a lot of police and police vehicles, a notable absence of anyone other than police inside the block passers by were excluded from (so if some kind of mass arrest event was taking place, everyone must have already been put behind tinted glass in the police vehicles), and a great many people in the surrounding crowd taking cellphone video, on general principle, I guess. Maybe I just missed a more exciting phase of the action. Will have to check local news online.

Went for a not too hard, not too long (I thought) run in Rock Creek Park late in the afternoon, thinking I'd go to the Crawlers track workout on Wednesday morning but, while things felt okay during the run, something in the vicinity of my right hip flexor was unhappy later in the evening so skipping another track workout. Maybe next week.

Still have a large ruddy with inflammation patch on my right thigh but it has stopped, so far as I can tell, exuding yellow fluid.

Warmup/cooldown.

Silly walks and a few uphill sprints.

Cycling home after returning car. Early enough in morning cherry blossom visitors around the Tidal Basin were but a minor annoyance.

Cycling to airport to pick up rental car.

Yoga class at the library.

A big meh for my physical performance at the US champs over the weekend - not sure how much to blame lingering illness versus the preceding month of illness interfering with training. Anyway, I took a 12 oz bottle of Tecnu with me for the weekend and used at least 10oz of it but apparently that wasn't enough. Everything seemed fine after applying it prophylactically before the middle, then washing with it, and washing with it after the long and sprint. But sometime on Tuesday it became clear that in addition to a couple of small patches on my right forearm, a somewhat more than palm-sized part of the front of my right thigh had got a good dose. The forearm patches seem inclined to crust up - I just need to leave them undisturbed by washing or anything else and they aren't much bother but the thigh patch has been weeping yellow fluid for a few days now. It's not as hideous as the area behind my right knee was after the 2009 US Team Trials, which I attended with not notion that poison oak would affect me worse than poison ivy, but it's pretty bad.

On a sort of positive note, I can probably stop beating myself up over not using Tecnu for the sprint races at Mills College in 2014. Ever since I've assumed that I managed to find some poison oak on the campus but this time I know damn well I covered my whole body with a Tecnu scrub followed by a rinse within an hour or so of sprinting at Mills College and it didn't save me. Quite likely in both cases the actual exposure to poison oak that did the damage occurred the preceding day in the forest.

I guess from now on I either stay away from the Bay Area no matter what event they hold or I secure more than 12 oz of Tecnu and apply it both prophylactically and post-race.

Warmup/cooldown.

Silly walks.

Blue Sprint - Splits

Blue Long - Splits

Event: US Individual Championships (M/L/S)
 

Blue Middle - Splits

Warmup/cooldown.

Silly walks.

Event: QOC Lake Needwood
 

Cycled to the O meet mostly along Beach Dr and Rock Creek Park mixed used trail, with a shortcut through Kensington to cut off the big loop where Beach Dr almost kisses Rockville Pike. Then cycling home in the rain after the meet, but only from Forest Glen Metro, Mary having driven me there from Lake Needwood.

QOC Lake Needwood Blue - sadly I'm either not in shape overall or not in cycling shape to bike for 80 minutes plus a few to an O meet and then turn in a full bore physical effort. Lingering traces of illness not helping either. Messed up 1 a bit thinking either knoll or control would be more visible from below - should have just navigated to the reentrant and then gone straight up the middle of it until I hit the flag. Otherwise basically clean. This is certainly the time of year to run at Lake Needwood - almost all the thicker vegetation is noticeably less thick than mapped. Map could use an update for new rootstocks and removal of decayed ones but the course notes warned us about that up front so not a problem today.

Blue - Splits

Yoga class, a little slower-paced than usual by the instructor's choice. Hope it will do the sore torso muscles some good; at least doesn't currently feel as though it disagreed with them. They are generally improving so I'm hoping to stop ticking the sick box before next weekend's races.

Cycling to the National Gallery and back - saw a screening of recording of the Bolshoi Ballet dancing Shostakovich's The Bolt. Now 2 for 3 on Shostakovich ballets - The Bolt being much more memorable than The Bright Stream (aka The Limpid Stream).

Event: North American and US SkiO Championships
 

Warmup/cooldown.

Silly walks.

Run in Rock Creek Park, basic out and back to the park police station along the east side of the creek outbound, west returning. Felt okay barring some coughing and continuing soreness of muscles surrounding the ribs.

Warmup/cooldown.

Silly walks. This plus warmup/cooldown probably the sum total of exercise today, unless walking on errands and/or housework count. With luck, that's about the right amount. Still baffled at just how sore my upper back manages to be when it doesn't feel as though I've been doing anything to it - the coughing doesn't feel good but it's vastly less than it was for the first week and a bit of this.

Round trip for grocery shopping in Takoma Park. Still with the cough, mucus at back of throat, and sore muscles all around ribs, particularly the upper back, but nowhere near sick enough anymore to sleep the day away and I'm pretty sure I feel better the rest of the time with at least a little exercise sometime during the day. This wasn't specially intense cycling but it wasn't crawling either - hopefully that hits a sweet spot.

Event: QOC Wheaton
 

QOC Wheaton Blue - a short blue course in a small and very familiar park - neither Ken nor I made any errors noticeable to AP split analysis, though I was certainly a little sloppy about direction here and there and had one notable instance of standing within meters of a control feature (a small concrete pad, all that was left of a one time latrine) looking in all directions trying to spot it. Still suffering from the cold or whatever started just over two weeks previously, with slight sluggishness and still some coughing and obstruction of breathing passages, but based on the result I guess I must be at 90% or more of normal physical capabilities. Would still be really nice to stop coughing - hope it happens in the next day or so.

Blue - Splits