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Attackpoint AR - performance and training tools for adventure athletes

Training Log Archive: Bash

In the 7 days ending Apr 1, 2006:

activity # timemileskm+m
  Orienteering2 1:44:27 4.72 7.6
  Strength & Mobility3 1:25:00
  Mountain Biking2 1:18:00
  Running3 1:15:00
  Other1 22:00
  Total6 6:04:27 4.72 7.6

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Saturday Apr 1, 2006 #

Orienteering race 20:39 [5] ***

Flying Pig Sprint

It's not often that I say this, but I was pleased with my speed in this race. Too bad about the navigation. I had over 2 minutes of errors, which should be almost impossible in a sprint! All the same, I can't complain too much about my time. I was the 4th woman of 23 on the Green/Brown/Orange sprint course, and 24th out of 85 racers on the course, including men. That's good news for my North American Sprint Series rank. Sprint Finals Weekend, here I come! ;-)

Other good news is that my knee didn't hurt TOO much, and the injured foot wasn't a factor.

MrPither smoked his sprint course, finishing over 20 seconds ahead of 2nd place - who happened to be another GHO member, Hammer. Awesome!

Orienteering 48:01 [4] *** 4.2 km (11:26 / km)
(injured)

Flying Pig Relay (U.S. Relay Championships)

So finally we got to the race that had given me butterflies for the past few days. It's one thing to screw up my own races, but I really, REALLY didn't want to be the one to ruin things for my highly competent teammates - Sudden, Griz and Hammer. Yikes, could there be more pressure than that? Racing with a Swede and two guys with a zillion North Am Champs medals between them?

Sudden led off with a good leg. This afternoon's race was the opposite of this morning. I navigated well to each control (with one poor route choice that cost me a couple of minutes), but I went slowly. Just as well - it was a very physical race, with lots of scrambling up and down steep, muddy sides of valleys. (As a result of today, Sudden has convinced me that I should at least try orienteering shoes.)

About 2/3 of the way through the race, I turned my right ankle, and my foot pain returned with a vengeance. EEYYOWWW!! I hobbled up a big, mucky hill, gasping in pain the whole way, then gritted my teeth for the rest of my run. I was too sore to cool down.

Meanwhile, Griz went out and had a great leg, followed by Hammer, who anchored our team with a stellar performance. (An honourable mention is due to MrPither for his cooperative response to our calls of "Slide, Patrick, slide!" at the muddy finish chute.)

Result - we were 1st overall, but not eligible to become the U.S. Relay Champions, so that honour went to the 2nd place team. Still, our Pig medals are pretty cool! Looking at the results for the race leg that I did, there were two F21 women ahead of my time, and I was 7th of 14 runners overall. I was extremely relieved to finish without doing anything TOO embarrassing.

Running warm up/down 30:00 [1]

Friday Mar 31, 2006 #

Orienteering race 35:47 [4] *** 3.4 km (10:31 / km)
(injured)

Flying Pig Middle Distance

A good race (for me), although a bit on the slow side. Not much time lost to navigation errors, and minimal regret over route choice when I reviewed it later. Based on unofficial results, it looks like I was 1st woman of any age (out of 11 women) on the Green course, and in the top 25% of all Green course racers (11th of 46).

Sudden got us off to a good start by winning this race, with Griz taking the silver medal, and Hammer and MrPither close on their heels.

I always think that I should have my best results in Long Distance O races because I train for multi-day adventure racing, but Hammer keeps telling me that I'm a Middle Distance specialist. I don't know - maybe he's right, and if so, I should do more speed training before all the big O races later this year. My Long Distance O race results have never been too impressive, in spite of my belief that they should go well.

After 10 days of taking it easy, I was afraid that this race would aggravate my foot injury and possibly end my weekend of racing. Well, I was focused so hard on my foot that I forgot to wear my knee brace - so guess what hurts! I was limping by dinnertime, and spent awhile icing my knee later on.

Running warm up/down 20:00 [1]

Wednesday Mar 29, 2006 #

Strength & Mobility (Legs) 30:00 [1]
(injured)

While watching the Daily Show. (Laughing out loud is good for the abs.) It's time to add weights to increase the difficulty of some of the exercises.

Mountain Biking 43:00 [2]

Such a beautiful spring day! I wanted to get my heart rate up without putting any stress on my injured foot, so I rode Duffy's Lane to the rail trail. The rail trail was nice and dry - great for pushing hard, but the portion of Duffy's Lane that is closed in winter still has big sections of slick ice and soft snow, with some goopy mud for variety. I got covered in mud from head to toe - good practice for The Pig. There was so much water that I stopped to look for our local beaver family in their favourite area beside the road, but they didn't seem to be out yet.

Tuesday Mar 28, 2006 #

Note

Here's that article on the relationship between core (including hip) strength/flexibility and running injuries.

Running 25:00 [1]
(injured)

Light trail run with ThunderDog. This was a test to see if I'll be able to go to the Flying Pig this weekend. I stretched and warmed up much better than usual, then ran with a cautious almost-flat foot for the first half. My foot hurt, but didn't progress to the knife-sharp pain I was getting that felt like I was ripping it apart. So in the last 10 minutes, I tried running off-trail up hills (I remember the odd hill in Ohio), and it went OK except for some weird stiffness around the upper back of my heel by the end. Anyway, since it doesn't feel like I'm causing damage, I'm off to the Pig - yay! It may not be my best-ever performance, but it's better than missing it entirely. The longest race is last, so I can always skip it if my foot isn't feeling good.

Monday Mar 27, 2006 #

Strength & Mobility (Core) 40:00 [2]
(injured)

No rest for the weary! I hadn't even been home from Calgary for an hour before 'Bent reminded me it was Hard Core Monday. I'd read an article on the plane about the significant role of core and hip strength in preventing running injuries, so I was keen.

After a week off running, I plan to test my injured foot tomorrow with a short jog. As I travelled home today, I realized that I was carrying more than 50% of my body weight in luggage last Monday when my foot began to hurt. I had to walk much more distance with luggage than I'd expected that day, which was likely an exacerbating factor, in addition to the hard-soled shoes and the 21 km run the previous day. Still, walking around airports is a dumb way to develop a foot injury. If it goes on much longer, I'm going to come up with some story about banging my foot on a rock while saving a drowning child.

Sunday Mar 26, 2006 #

Mountain Biking hills (Stationary Bike) 35:00 [3]
(injured)

Hill intervals on the LifeCycle at the Talisman Centre. I was so absorbed in Impact Magazine, published by the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary, that I didn't stop after half an hour, even though I'd planned to. Great article on strength exercises done by the national speed skating team, with emphasis on movement and velocity specificity. One-legged squats (holding a bar with weights across the shoulders behind the neck) were a featured exercise.

Other (Swim, Deep Water Run) 22:00 [3]

Back to the pool for more deep water exercises. It wasn't nearly as inspiring without the horrible music and amusing instructor, but I kept going for awhile. My favourite is the deep water XC skiing (classic style).

Note

My stupid foot hurt more this morning again. Could this really be the result of just 25 calf lifts last night? I've been walking on eggshells most of the week, trying not to bend my foot when I walk, so I suppose my right calf has had an easy time until I put some stress on it. Today's non-weight-bearing workout at the Talisman Centre had no effect on my foot, fortunately, and it got my heart rate up nicely. But I really wish I could RUN, darn it.

Strength & Mobility (Legs, Core) 15:00 [1]

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