Training Log Archive: Samantha

Short warmup for the long as I didn't have too much time when I got off the bus. Jogged to the start with Corinne and she was nice enough to take my jacket from me as I was frantically getting everything ready :)

C • Congratulations! 4

C • TT 1

Knew that the ankle held up well yesterday and so attacked today more aggressively. I went faster, but it did result in more tweaks that the previous day. Still, overall just fine and I think it will recover soon. I'm favoring it a bit as I run, though, and my right leg is extra tired because of it!

Again, another solid race, if nothing extra special. I'm still waiting for the day when my speed and navigation slick together! Then I'll just be unstoppable ;)

Again, 1 and 2 went quite well. 3 was going well until I messed up in the circle. Yesterday I was blaming the rain for missing in the circle because I couldn't use my beloved magnifying glass, but today I have no excuse. Ran to some cliffs too close to the wall, paused to figure it out and ran right back to the control. Another very slight miss on 4 when I looked left as I came over the hill and it was on my right. 5 was fine. 6 was a near disaster, as I just couldn't tell where I came off the last trail. Slowly walking in the right general direction trying to match something up when a control appears in front of me. Ran over really hoping it was mine, but not really believing it was. Sigh of relief. No attackpoint almost got me into big trouble there. Learned my lesson and decided to go right of the line to 7 so that I could attack from the swamp. Read ahead and planned the long leg as I was running along the swamp. Attacked in well, but couldn't find the right boulders in the green. Then went one reentrant too far and ended up too close to the trail. Again, paused to relocated, turned and almost immediately saw the control. Straight along the reentrants and past #16 to 8. 9-11 went well as I checked off big features along the way. 12 started well, but then I thought I was further left as I cut off the trail. Things weren't quite matching up and I thought that maybe I went in further right when I suddenly hit the mountain bike trail and then knew where I was. 13 was worse, as I went straight and hesitated my way through the green. Went to the first trail intersection and then cut through. But the next trail seemed to come too early and I was worried there was an extra trail.... slowly kept on going and eventually came to the long row of cliffs right about the trail and knew exactly where I was. I just wish I had really run confidently through the mountain laurel. Would have saved me about 40 seconds. 14 into the finish went well, as I continued to check features off along the way.

My two maps from the weekend are on my DOMA:
http://sprintseries.org/doma/index.php?user=samant...

Logging an arbitrary amount of time and distance for shadowing Ethan. About how much was actually spent running, I would guess.

Then I got to go out and shadow Ethan Hall. It was really quite fun and informative. I've forgotten what it's like to have a white course be really challenging. It's just like a challenging red course for me now. Ethan talks through everything out loud and it was so interesting to hear his thinking. I thought this was a really hard white course as there was one control you could not see from the trail (I was convinced Ethan was in the wrong spot!) and one you could see if you happened to be looking at the right time (unfortunately, Ethan was not). Plus, the mountain bike trails are super windy and sometimes fork and come back together, but it looks like a trail intersection. I will also say that I didn't know there was so much off trail navigation on a white course. Ethan and I climbed up a cliff (I imagined trying to come up with an explanation of why Ethan was returning with 8 broken bones), waded through swamps and hacked our way through mountain laurel on a compass bearing (his Dad taught him how). I was really impressed with his map reading skills and the fact that he was always pushing forward. Running behind him was a good interval workout as he would take off at a sprint and I would go all out trying to catch and keep up. And then he would come to a dead stop and I would try not to run him over. All in all, lots of fun and very informative. As Ethan pointed out to me, "Who needs control descriptions? You can just look at the map and see what's in the middle of the circle!" As I pointed out to him, he has been eye sight than us old people.

C • Shadowing 9

Red Day 2: Long - Splits

Event: WCOC / US Team A-Meet/WRE
 

Warm up for WCOC middle distance.

I still didn't know whether I was going to run when I arrived in the parking lot. But I suited up and starting jogging to the start. I wore an active ankle, which was actually quite comfortable in my shoe. Last time I wore it with the mudclaw 330s, and I got a bad blister. The 270s are softer and there was no rubbing. Jogging to and around the start area felt good. Ankle was a bit stiff and when it bent a bit on the uphills I could feel it squishing, but I judged it ok to run on. The skies opened up as I was warming up and everyone standing around got drenched.

WCOC Middle.

I did more worrying about my ankle than I needed to, as it held up more or less fine. I was most cautious than usual and ran a bit slower because if it. The trail running was the worst, as I just couldn't push off of it.

Overall a good race for me again, which is really nice. I started well and nailed 1 and 2. Hesitations causing only a little lost time on 3-6. Ran well to 7 and then made my first real mistake going to 8. Ran on my compass bearing and the felt like I was running right into the rocky ground. Turned left, but must have turned too sharply. Kept my head up and was scanning the terrain, but didn't see anything useful. Ran over to something that looked like a cairn, but no control. Finally turned more to my right and saw the control sitting in plain sight. Probably if I hadn't veered off my compass bearing then I would have hit it right on. I did well on the long leg, except at the end when I thought I was looking for the boulder and I expected to to be right on the edge of the march. Ended up having to climb straight up the cliff. Careful on 10 and I missed 11 a bit to the left, but saw the flag (didn't see the bare rock though). Hesitant on 12 because I had just botched 11 slightly, but found it fine. Going strong to 13 but then ran through the wrong two marshes. Took me a little bit to figure out what I did and get myself back on track. That was my largest mistake, losing a little under a minute.

No major twists or turns to the ankle, though it was a bit sore when I finished.

Red X Day 1: Middle - Splits

Iced at work and tried to put my foot up when I remembered. Now that I have had a day to walk on it, I can tell that it's a less severe sprain than when I twisted it during the WOC relay 2 years ago. There is no pain when walking on flat ground. The swelling is located only around the ankle bone and isn't that bad. Hopefully all the ibuprofen, wrapping, elevating and icing is helping! Got home and wanted to try out the active ankle to see if it even fit in my shoes. Last time I wore one I got bad blisters on my heal from my shoe. I wore my softer Inov8s (mudclaw 270s) and my foot fit in quite well and was comfortable. I jogged out the door and over to the trail. It took concentrated effort not to limp, but it was more that I was afraid of hurting it, as there was no sharp pain. I realized quickly that running fast was not going to happen because flexing my toes and pushing off the balls of my feet stretched it out too much and hurt. The ankle felt stable, but as soon as something on the trail caused the ball of my foot to move upwards, it squished it and hurt. The pain then didn't go immediately away but lingered around, only to have it be squished again if my foot didn't land flat. Ran for about 7 minutes and decided that I had enough information. The active ankle fits fine and feels fine. If I decide to race, then I'll tape my heals to avoid blisters. On the other hand, the foot was not too happy with moving around and after only 2 slight squishes, it was throbbing with dull pain. So the magic fairy didn't quite heal it completely last night. Maybe tonight she will finish the job.

C • Magic fairy! 7

So this was fun...

Skyline day. Drank lots of water. Ate a good lunch. Starting off at a normal pace with Dad. 11 minutes into it, we're running downhill and I go over on my left ankle. I heard and felt it pop and then intense pain. I knew it was over then and I limped back up the hill with Dad. Feels like summer 2 years ago when I had this great summer planned and I rolled my ankle. I have been training so well, raced well last weekend and was looking forward to this weekend....

Been RICEing all evening and I hope that the magic fairy will come overnight and make me all better. Somehow I doubt it.

C • Chin up 8

C • Oh no!!!! 3

Warm up, 6 hills (about 2 minutes each), cool down. With Alex and Ross. Alex was a champ and planned a fun training where we studied the map on the way up the hill and then drew in the routes or control circles at the top. Then yummy dinner with Alex and Ed!

Running with Dad around Lost Pond and then 10x15 seconds up a steep grassy hill. They can get hard, especially when the rest if only the 30 second jog down the hill.