Training Log Archive: Orunner

FASTO #7 Course 1 - Miami University, Western College.

I don't think I was up for this as much as I would have liked to have been. I am still suffering from a mild groin pull. So the speed was not going to be there. On top of that I wasn't feeling so good in the stomach. Nonetheless, I got myself psyched up pretty good. The big external factor was the heat and humidity. Wow!

I really didn't want to get buggy. I was going to go out of my way to avoid any vegetation. I wore my jogging shorts and selected my routes accordingly. Pretty much predestined some oversights on my part.

Controls
1 - 2 - 3:
The climb took its toll on me. By the time I was leaving 3, I was tuckered out.

4 - 5 : I went wide left around everything. Like I said I had predetermined to avoid green stuff. In addition, I had crossed that ravine last winter, and it was not fun then; it surely wasn't looking attractive today. Unfortunately, I never did check it out, and therefore do not know if straight or right were viable alternatives.

6 - 7: I went left to 6 and then left to 7. I was pleased to find the big bridge open and runnable. However, after reviewing the courses and the route choices of others, I can see that I completely overlooked the reasonable possibility of going straight. I believe I was thinking that there was a deep ravine in them there bushes. Drat. Poor route choice, but excellent execution was the theme of the day.

8 - F: I stand corrected, I wandered a little to the right on the way to 8, running just past the short bridge midway. That may have cost me 3 or 4 seconds, but it definitely affected my approach to the control. The map around 8 is not exactly right. Running south from the edge of the bridge puts you in the woods west of the control and at the bottom of a set of stairs. Although mapped, they went unnoticed until I had to climb them. This took time, and required recovery at the top before the run-in to the finish.

Joseph Burkhead beat me. I'm OK with that, he should beat me. However, he only got me by 25 seconds. I would have had his rear-end if I had not made that last error requiring the climbing of stairs. So I missed a glory moment. dagnabit.

Although it looked like it could rain, it did not, yet I was soaked through and through. A bit of time to recover before the next course was in order. And so, I ate a slice of melon.

FASTO #7 Course 2 - Miami University, Western College.

Controls
1 - 2 - 3: presented a lot of options. I even took time before going out to study the map and possible routes. But apparently, I was not at top analytical capacity. the fist control was tricky, because I didn't know where the darn bag was. It flustered me it moment while hunted for the control. I began to feel rather sick. I ran to 2, but completely overlooked the drop and wasted climb using the trail to the south. Darn. Coming out of 2 I looked north through the vegetation for a clear path to the northern trail. It looked doable and I was soon on the trail and did not repeat the error coming into 2.

All the way to 3 I looked for a place to stop. I get to 3 and it is down in the reentrant with some physical climb involved. By the time I get back up my insides are churning. I immediately search for and find and old log and spend a moment as god intends us to.

4 - 5 - 6: Back on the course, I am a new man. yet I make the same route choice mistakes to 5 and 6; losing time and distance due to sloppy map reading.

7 - 8: Having learned my lesson on number 7, I executed it perfectly this time, but am feeling squeamish again, and slow considerably. I am unsure whether right or left would be faster to 8, so I split the difference and go CCW to 8 and then the finish, using both routes.

Course 2 - Splits

Course 1 - Splits

I sent Molly & Sophie out on a three mile run; assignment: steady pace under 30 minutes total. Steve and I paced them the first mile or so, then inched ahead. It wasn't that we were burning up the road. We both felt like taking it slow. Me, for soreness, he, for stomach pain. We both struggled with the last three miles. My guess is that either of us would have baled on this run if we were alone. But together, we pushed on.

I felt a sharp twinge in the left groin at mile 5. I relaxed my stride and waited for it to fade. No go. I adjusted my gate. No change. I told Steve what I was experiencing. We went another 200 meters. No relief. He suggested a stop and some high knees. I tried it, then started back up at an even slower pace. At first there was no change. Then, very oddly, the pain moved. It went down my leg to the upper thigh. The groin was still aching, but not sharply. The pain then moved to the lower thigh, the upper calf, the lower calf, and finally settled in the ball of my foot. I thought I was imagining it. Steve jokingly said "You should be good when we see it pop out of your toes." After 3/4's of a mile of "Oh my god pain" it was a non issue - a residual memory of soreness. I was able to finish with dignity.

The run was slow, but successful.

9:21
9:12
9:05
9:59
10:10
10:37

I ran with Molly today. We did three miles. I wanted to teach pace. She has been starting out respectable and then slowing a bit each mile after. I gave her two goals: stay under 10 minutes per mile, and keep the pace even.

She really struggled with the even pace. But she followed my instruction and kept up with this old man. We averaged under 10 minutes per mile.

9:46
9:59
10:05

As I suspected (and feared) I had a residual twinge in my left knee, due to pressing the speed of yesterday's final mile. I don't regret pushing it bit. Not all all. It is good to set some milestones. Otherwise the entire trek may be lost. And then what do I have?

So any way, as a precaution, I elected to sit today out; give the knee a rest. We shall see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully I can go for a distance run Tuesday, shorter on Wednesday, then the Sprint-O Thursday...

C • Sprint course ready by 4:00 2

C • rogain 3

As I walked to the front door this morning, I reached down to garb my running shoes, as I normally do, and was quickly reminded of the downpour Molly and I were caught in yesterday. Oh my. The shoes were still wet through and through. Jeez. Putting wet shoes on dry feet is always a bit repulsive. 'Oh well. I must remember to dry them when I get home', I think to myself.

Steve is already halfway to my house as I walk out the door. Good, we will no doubt get in another 6 miler today. No one is expected from the team today. Jessica is recovering from Wisdom Teeth removal, Sophie is on vacation, Molly is working, and the others never come on Sundays.

We head out as usual, conversation spontaneously ignites. He mentions many songs, usually blue grass, I refer to movies and books. Suddenly, sitting in the middle of the bike path is a brilliant little bird. Solid blue. At the time I believe it can not be the Indigo Bunting; because it's blue is just not deep and metallic enough as I have come accustomed to seeing.

Instead of flying immediately into the woods it flutters in mid air. Lands a few feet away. Then hovers again before finally darting away. I thought perhaps it was something else. And being ignorant, I suspect it may be a Bluebird. Alas a check of Sibley's later educates me to the fact that an eastern Bluebird is not solid blue at all but rather has a Orange under part. It looked a lot like the Mountain Bluebird, but they live out west. It really seamed to be a different type of bird than what I have grown accustomed to calling the Indigo.





So now I wonder if this bird is the Mountain Bluebird, or perhaps the bird I have been seeing for two months was a instead a Blue Bunting, found in Texas, and allowing the new bird to be an Indigo. Or, as my friends will agree, I am completely wrong and it has been the same bird all along. What the heck do they know.

Mostly the rest of the run was uneventful. We did note our splits at each mile. I was pleased with the times. At least I believe that we are faster today for a six miler than any time this season. So improvement is measured. Hoorah. We did see Vince & Carol Mick out for a bike ride as we approach Mile three, and then again on the return at about Mile 5.

Steve and I both note our time at the 5 mile mark. I immediately wonder if I can increase the pace just a tad to break the 9 minute mark. Steve thinks a similar thing only he wants to break 8 minutes. I tell him to take off. "I got your six", I holler. We both press the pace. Right away I feel a twinge in the knees. I keep it monitored for change. It seems steady but it seems risky. It feels like the edge of injury. But i really want to do this. So I keep it steady. Steve crosses the finish maybe a 100 meters ahead of me. I finish steady and sore.

9:30
9:11
9:16
9:04
9:09
8:25

Ordinarily I will check the weather forecast both the night before and morning of a run. At the very least this entails clicking on my Weather Watcher icon at the bottom right of my laptop display. The current weather and hourly forecasts fill the screen. I become enlightened to the probabilities of particular temperatures, winds, and precipitation.

My recollection of last night is a morning of mid 70°s and partly cloudy, later in the morning, possible scattered showers. I did a cursory check this morning and noted nothing different, perhaps mistakenly. Furthermore, suspecting no precipitation, I did not bother going the next level, and actually looking at radar images in motion. I love these and have been using them for seven years now: http://orunner.net/ebv/weather.html So this morning I walk out the door suspecting nothing unusual or in particular. However, that soon changed.

As soon as I walked out of my front door there was something overwhelming odd and unusual in the works. At 6:15 AM the sky was as bright as mid morning. It could have been 11, or at least 10. Except, it wasn't, and the sky was an eerie red. As I walked to the car I began to realize that it was impossible to tell from where the sunlight was coming. I looked at the horizon where I should detect a brighter edge, one where the orange orb would soon surface. There was nothing. Every direction the same. Bright and redish.

I noticed some peripheral flashing, what we sometimes call heat lightening. That was my first clue that weather was in the works. I didn't overly concern myself with it, discounting along with the peculiar atmospheric conditions manifesting themselves with odd bright light and a distant electrical discharge. Then I turned onto the drive into the park. For the first time this morning I could see something other than an even omnidirectional red cloudy glow. Off to the Southwest was a tall dark rolling wall. It was coming at me and facing me directly. 'What the heck', I'm thinking. I park, get out, and scan the skies. Directly overhead I see a tiny plane, a jumbo jet, no doubt miles above. It is small, but clear. The clouds, bright and red, are well above it; several if not half a dozen miles up. So now I realize that from the Southwest a storm is literally rolling in and under what is a gorgeous morning sky. Oh vey.

Molly and her mother are there at the park, waiting as I pull up. Connie, the mom, says, "looks like its going to rain." I'm thinking the same but hoping that we can beat it and reply with a silly and soon to be proven wrong, "Forecast is for partly cloudy".

I tell Molly, who is expecting a three mile run, that we will do a quick two. She is delighted. Connie takes off on her bike, heading North on the path. Molly and I jog South. With just a couple minutes a breeze which had already manifested itself, picked up with a pre-storm attitude. At 7/8 of a mile I felt a drop hit my arm. By the mile, a sprinkle, We turned and my hopes to get back before the storm were diminishing. With in a minute it was raining full strength. Thunder is heard off to our left, the SW. Under the canopy of the river forest I am able to drop my head and keep my glasses dry. Seconds later, there is no hope. we are under the center of a full strength summer pop up thunderstorm. Lightning cracks, glass are wet, I am blind, off they come. I grasp my glasses and squint to see, imaging that I could have had my cap. Molly and I exchange comments on the pleasantness of running in a summer shower. We are both soon both drenched.

We return to the fountain, stretch, and go home. How delightful

9:41
9:02

C • Weather Map 2

We did six today. Slow and sweet. About the same as Wednesday.

9:30
9:32
9:28
9:22
9:20
9:19