Training Log Archive: j-man

DVOA Myrick Relays.

Team j-man.

So, it was Randy, Vadim, and I who were doing the solo relay, with Greg A, and Joby H thrown into the mix on the first leg(s) to spice things up.

Leg order: white, yellow, advanced.

My strategy going into this was to run the first two legs at a moderate pace, and then, somehow to push the speed on the thicker, harder legs on the advanced to try to shake Vadim. I knew running head to head with Speedy would be a challenging proposition.

Anyway, the first legs started briskly. I had trouble reading the complexities of the (white!) course, and Vadim, Greg, and I made a costly error getting on the wrong side of some green. I plowed through, but they wisely went around eventually. At that point, it was Randy, Greg and Vadim, and me, with decent sized gaps between the three groups.

Somehow, I managed to pull back Greg and Vadim going up the hill through the high crappy field, and then somehow caught up Randy on an uphill grass trail. But, that was a lot of work, as Randy was acting the goat and pushing the pace hard.

Anyway, finished in first, and on to yellow.

I then made one of my classic geometry-based mistakes (tangent vs. orthoganal off a curve) and led people off on a 90 degree error.

Then ran most of remainder of yellow with Vadim. It started to get tougher.

I led into the advanced course, and for better or worse, had a small gap over Vadim. From that point on, I did my own race. It was a slog! First, I was anticipating a winning time of 60 minutes. No dice. It was also quite warm, and the vegetation quite crappy.

Anyway, it was a fun time.

Control pickup

Very slow.

Ran around DC -- first to locate a pospective Sushi place, east, south, lost, to mall, east, west, back to the WaterGate.

I love that place. It seems even nicer now than last time I was there in the summer.

One observation -- Americans like games with balls that don't extol athleticism. So many 20 somethings playing kickball and softball.

My run started very energetically -- I did some strides during the first 20 minutes and the legs felt so very, very light. But, then I hit the wall, so to speak. Probably a consequence of no sleep, no lunch, and boring meeting all afternoon.

level 8 on the Precor

level 8 hills, 7 mph

Who would have thought you could do intervals on a recumbent stationary bike? These things are that good. In fact, they have earned a place in my Pantheon of awesome gym equipment, along with Precor cross trainers and Concept II ergometers. These devices are just nonpareil at what they do.

About 15 intervals at ~40? seconds each.

No running today, bummer. They scheduled a "networking" event in the evening, and despite no open bar, I felt compelled to go. So, I fit my workouts in during the day. It looks like I may not have the chance to see if I can endure running in the desert heat.

On a different note, I've really enjoyed the time here. I feel quite energetic and productive. It struck me how nice being a student is. Although I felt pretty burdened when I was doing 6 x 3 while in school, now that I know how hard it is to do 1 hour per day when working, I now appreciate the undergrad life big time.

Compared to working, attending training from 8 to 5 is so refreshing. There are no appearances to maintain, people you have to talk to, etc... instead, I feel like I am just learning for learning's sake (although if that were really the case I'd be learning something else) and that is just an energizing experience.

Upper and lower

On a new to me machine -- something like Tectrix? Really nice; much better than LifeFitness. No slack in the drive train when you crank and the resistance came on smoothly and convincingly. Got HR upto 159 which is tough on a recumbent. But couldn't get it up on the 2nd interval because the legs realized how hard I was pushing.

More sweet Precor.

Going to try to run after dinner tomorrow. There is a narrow window to run here... it gets dark early -- not much after 8. But with temps to reach 114 tomorrow, running before 8 would be crazy. I really do want to get out on the golf course. I suppose I'll try to get dinner as close to 6 as possible and run at 7:30 ish. Intention is 45 minutes slow -- should be survivable.

So it looks like I'll be running middle and long at WOC.

I'm very happy to have the chance to run 2 races. These are not the 2 I might have thought were best, but that's debatable. I definitely feel physically and technically equipped to realize my potential in the long. So, that's fine.

But the middle. It has been my foe for years. Occasionally tantalizing me with promise, but more often mocking my dilletantish efforts. However, I do feel physically equipped to do that as well; for the technical side of things I think I need to extend my sprint focus for 35 minutes.

As for the sprint. Not slated to do that one. For this one, in many terrain types, I feel very confident in all aspects of the orienteering. But, I don't know if I am equipped physically. I haven't done speed work -- but was planning to -- so I suppose I can now instead concentrate on refining the approach that has gotten me to where I am (for better or worse.) Some speed work will be involved, but maybe more tempo/fartlek instead.

Quail Hill

Jug Bay (QOC)

852 calories
Precor EFX456
first at level 4, then level 7
HR between 135 and 145 generally

2/3 upper body, 1/3 lower

2%, 7 mph.

After dinner.