Training Log Archive: jtorranc

Event: Hudson Highlander
 

Hudson Highlander - 6th overall, won King of the Mountain and the trail run it was part of. A satisfactory first Highlander despite my ankles clearly not being up to that much running in Harriman terrain. Was surprised by the start without much attempt to position myself well for the initial sprint so was well back of the lead after the initual crush was done. Clawed some of that back but was still somewhere around 100m behind when I clued in that we must have run past the junction with the smaller trail heading up to the control. Ended up more or less level with John F. after we all went off trail to the left and, since he wasn't pushing hard, reached the hilltop the control was on ahead of everyone. Got sucked a little ways further north by one of the streamers leading off to control 2 but realised and headed for control 1 in time to beat Eddie to it. Heading to 2, couldn't quite keep up with John F. but he didn't see the control on the left (looking at the map now, I can't see how the control was right on that trail bend) so I punched that first as well. Managed the same trick at 3 by picking a good time to slow down and read the map. Mostly followed people around the rest of that loop on Silvermine, including in bobbles, though I managed to screw up 6 independently and fall slightly behind. I think I should have then headed as directly as possible to the trail south of us but I headed more southwest and no doubt lost some time in all the blueberry. Hit the trail with Clem in sight ahead and slowly pulled him in over the course of the trail run, also encountering Eddie emerging from the woods. Took a long time at the map exchange eating, drinking and retying my shoelaces. Felt slow and less motivated to push running alone thereafter. Greg Balter caught me at 11 and got to witness my big fall of the day, which fortunately didn't do any additional serious damage to my strained rib muscles or whatever. This was somewhat painful given the amount of pulling my legs through blueberry bushes on the course but overall it stood up pretty well to a hard day. More than I can say for my ankles - I was slowing down in large part because they were getting too tired to permit aggressive running over the rocky terrain. Also, my left achilles tendon was feeling fragile. Must have got ahead of Greg without seeing him on the way to 12. Caught Clem at 14 and ran with him (I agree, not cleanly - we were very much at sea in our approaches to 17) through to 17. Clem tried to go fairly directly to 18 while I headed to the trail left of the line and took it to the bend due south of the control. Got a bit ahead there and managed to maybe widen the gap a bit going to the map exhange. Took longer again and had to catch him up at 21. Then we both somehow got sucked into trying to cross the green to get to 22B too early and got bogged down. Clem presumably did a better job at heading consistently north despite the vegetation and got out first. I think I heard him leaving the vicinity of the control but never saw him again after we crossed paths in the green. Eventually found the control after stupidly navigating to the boulder rather than the knoll first. Jogged uneventfully the rest of the way to the finish without seeing another soul. Will definitely have to do more Highlanders but I may have to consider either an ankle strengthening program beyond running in the terrain I live close to or some kind of external ankle support if I want to be competitive.

Candy Cane City 5K? - Rock Creek park just outside DC. Seems unlikely with my strained torso muscle still bothering me and the Highlander the next day. Lying motionless in bed another couple of hours probably better for my recovery.

Some miscellaneous purposeful cycling finding out that REI apparently sells the item I wanted only online, crossing the particularly unpleasantly suburban section of the Maryland suburbs between College Park and downtown Silver Spring to see a Chris Marker film at the AFI, and then to the office.

Strained rib muscle felt qualitatively better this morning. Hope it's not an illusion - I may be able to run normally tomorrow, which was beginning to look questionable.

Work commute. Found out on the way home that I hadn't looked at the AFI web site carefully enough and it was tomorrow's screening of "Ivresse de Pouvoir" that was at 7:30 - no film for me tonight.

Work commute including dropping by PCRM on the way home. They had vegan pizza with agave nectar rather than tomato sauce - I didn't even know there were food uses of agave.

Work commute, including going by the Avalon in the evening to see "One Night in Mongkok". Leg aches resolving themselves. The strained whatever in the torso still hurts if I sneeze, blow my nose too hard or otherwise move in an inadvisable way. Good thing the Highlander is four days away.

Heading home to do laundry and collapse into either sofa or bed.

Wine-O - ran from control one of the second loop to control 3 and put myself behind, then ran off in the wrong direction to 4 (finding 5 first) to put myself definitely out of contention for the top few spots. Lovely area with the nicest running of the weekend excluding the McMaster campus, as promised.

Strained torso muscle or whatever didn't affect me running that I noticed but I'm glad I didn't fall on it again.

Did a marathon session (a couple of hours?) of playing various forms of tag with my nieces with occasional sandbox and swingset breaks but I can't quite see logging it as training despite the physical stress involved. Thought my body had stood up to the weekend with little in the way of lasting consequences until my left knee gave me a twinge walking up some stairs late in the evening. Probably still nothing to worry about long term but another reason to give my body a rest now that the important fall races are over. Though going to APOC does complicate planning my training this winter.

C • Important Races 2