Training Log Archive: kissy

QOC meet at Hemlock Overlook; Blue course. Today was a good run, except for one parallel error. I felt like I was running strongly, not trying to avoid the hills and just running up them. I also didn't make many navigational errors either, except for #8. The leg was along the side of a long hilltop, cutting across the tops of reentrants until you ran down a steep embankment to a largish stream valley. From there, you ran up a tributary stream on the other side and it was in the first reentrant off that stream. Well, I got to the embankment and ran down without assessing the situation on the other side, so when I got to the bottom, I was facing the end of a spur, and was not 100% sure which way to head for the correct tributary stream. Of course, I chose the incorrect way and started heading up a stream that looked perfect. I got to the first reentrant and nothing was there, but at least I knew right away what had happened and just took off for the correct stream. I felt like I lost about 5 mins., but I'll wait for the splits to see for sure.

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Event: Sprint Series Final & US Relay Champs
 

I did some interval training today at the middle school track. It was a bit challenging in that there was a PeeWee football game going on in the infield and the parents and fans were scattered on the track. I ran in the outside lane, which kept me out of most of the crowd, but made my split times a little longer. I parked at the pool, which is about 1.25 miles away, so I would have a good warm up and cool down. So I ran to the track, ran 5 x 400 with a recovery lap between each one, and then back to the car.

THE DVD.

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In honor of Charlie's Art Sweeton loop, I'm going to name my neighborhood route the Hood Loop so it will be easier to identify in AP. And that's a very appropriate name since on my run today I saw a gang on the Hood Loop...a gang of cats. Six cats were just walking down the road, all together, and at one point the lead cat turned, almost to make sure everyone was still together, and then they all crossed the road. It was a little too Stephen King-like.

I was not quite as fast today, but I think I could have been if I hadn't have stopped to walk a bit with a neighbor whom I haven't seen in months. She was out power walking so I fell into step with her just to catch up on news of her family. They were in a horrible car accident last summer when their Suburban, which was towing a camper, was side-swiped by a semi, causing the camper to go out of control, flipping the Suburban over 2 times. Everyone survived, but her youngest son sustained severe burns and is about to go into surgery to try to cut away some more scar tissue. Poor guy.

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I thought it was weird when I checked AP this morning and saw that my overall hours hadn't changed since yesterday, even though I had added a run and dropped a run. What are the odds that it would stay *exactly* the same? So after a little research, I discovered I had entered the time from my last neighborhood run again and not yesterday's, and when I checked that time on my watch...it was the fastest I've done that run in a long, long time! Under 9:00 minutes a mile.

I thought I was going faster, but I often think that and then just get disappointed when I'm not really. So, that was a really good run after all!

AOWN: I've been running this neighborhood loop for about 17 years now, and yesterday was the first time I realized that there is an apricot tree growing next to the road. I saw some squished fruit on the ground, and when I ran back by it I realized they were apricots. I looked up, and the tree was full of them. The powers of observation are sometimes elusive.