Training Log Archive: jtorranc

Picked up the keys to my new apartment, got my rear derailleur cable replaced and went to Takoma for a swim.

Similar workout to last time though a bit longer - all told, 12 widths of the pool breaststroke, 12 backstroke, 12 flutterkicking, 20 front crawl and 6 butterfly.

Dan and I went to a piano recital at the National Gallery. On request, I brought a map and compass and continued her grounding in compass theory, previously only covering how to orient the map, with the basics of taking a bearing. Reinforcement at Wheaton before she runs will no doubt be a good idea.

I tried to line up a ride but few people were in so I eventually decided to skate out to Leesburg on the W&OD trail from the end of the Metro line. Called Nadim and verified that the entire trail was paved first. A very nice skate on flat or gently rolling pavement with relatively few other trail users. Raised the beginnings of blood blisters on both my feet just ahead of the ankle where my skates tend to chafe me - good thing picking up rides back from meets is easy.

One of the A qualifying sprints at Balls Bluff - the system of which one you were supposed to do to qualify for the A final broke down somewhat. I ran this at less than full effort, was also afflicted with some of that lack of coordination in the running muscles you have in the first several hundred meters of the run leg of a triathlon, and screwed up the first control hugely due to not being quite mentally oriented and the mapped trails not appearing to do quite what the map said they ought to (whether, under the leaves, they actually were doing approximately what they were supposed to is harder to say. Still comfortably under the qualifying standard.

Balls Bluff A final - still not quite the intensity usual for a sprint, partly because of the footing and partly because of what the day up to this had taken out of me but I ran this one cleanly.

Some crunches, bicycle, etc. while watching "The Rock" on TV - had never seen any of it before they start sneaking into the prison before.

Final A - Splits

Cycling in all bundled up - now that I'm at the office the NWS says it's -2 Celsius out there (windy too) so I'm not feeling too wimpy about the amount of protection from the cold I donned. Snapped my rear derailleur cable on the way home, forcing the rapid creation of a plan B for how to get to QOC's Balls Bluff meet the next day.

A day of blissfully doing nothing more physical than some walking when I finally left home to go see a Louis Malle film at the AFI. Spent a chunk of the afternoon cleaning my room while Dan napped and went through my highly disorganised photographic archive.

Commute in on a colder morning than I'd realised - I should have gone with my next warmer pair of gloves. Going home again with the wind much easier.

I finally got annoyed enough to do some research and conclude that my bruise probably qualifies as a hematoma. Apparently I should have rushed to either my doctor or an emergency room and let them decide whether they ought to drain the pooled blood out of it with a needle. Not sure now whether I ought to call my doctor or give anti-inflammatories and ice a chance first.

C • Quad bruise 5

Commute.

My second swim in two weeks. Assuming the pool is 25m across, 300 meters of breast stroke, 450 of front crawl, 225 of back stroke, 75 of butterfly and 300 of flutterkick with a kickboard. Prettty much continuous but the relative intensities of the different strokes lends the workout something of an interval/fartlek quality.

C • Pool measurements 3

Commute - raining on the way home so I confined my grocery shopping to places pretty much on the way directly home. Got a late season watermelon in consequence.

Crunches, bicycle, back extensions, etc. - been a while but it's definitely the time of year, particularly if I'm laying off running.