Training Log Archive: Traut

Felt compelled to run a second day in a row. I expected to not feel great, but I might feel OK and there was no reason to stress the run. I had moments I found my stride, butI was much tighter in my calves and feet today. Not as good as yesterday, but glad I got out. Last mile or two it was way too dark to be on the trails, especially with a foot-strike I wasn't confident in. I slowed down a lot.


Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/220436968

Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/635204394

We were down at Trax Farm so I got a chance to run down in the South Hills. I planned to just take it easy on the Montour trail but I noticed a spur that they made that seemed to be built right over the old trail that I used to connect the Montour trail to the Sleepy Hollow portion of South Park. I got then lured off that to the single track I used to explore all the time before we moved to the North Hills. 5 years + though since I have run on the trails left it feeling new to explore. I knew the park layout, but had lost track of all the subtle connections. I remembered that the trails on the west ridge above the hollow would run into dead ends on private property. I don't remember ever getting all the way as far north as to run up to the houses off of Stewert north of the camp in the hollow. Maybe the trails didn't get that far before or maybe I just saw how far I got with the leaves off the trees. It was a dead end today, but leaves covered everything if there were any trails down to Sleepy Hollow run. The fight at the bottom made it not worth making my own trail. Maybe I had already been through and down a trail that had been covered...

I backtracked and went down the gas line. This ended the slower part of my run as I was stopping a lot to decide how I wanted to proceed and had to walk down the gas line. The run was just a getting back going kind of run, so I was fine with that. I thought I might just run down the hollow and connect back to the Montour trail for my easy rail trail run, but I got lured back up the other side of the hollow on a steep pipeline just to do something really steep and see how I feel. I then crossed the old wood-road trail I used to use to go down the east ridge of the hollow and it had been converted to the same gravel manicured trail I had come into the hollow on. I realized it must connect all the way into the park, maybe to the RC plane field. At that point I just crossed it because continuing up the powerline the steepest way to the top was just more fun. I connected that on old trails I vaguely remember around the RC plane field and saw the gravel path continue around it. I used old trails I used to come up from the track. Then swung around on a trail that was just cut, must have been this fall by the look of it, to the start of the gravel trail connector. On the connector I did elevate my effort here.

My knee didn't feel real great the whole run. It didn't get worse and it did get better when I could loosen my back and feel my foot-strike, even when I pushed the downhills on the connector. I would have liked my pace to be faster since I thought I felt some good freedom in my stride, but just as the trail portion of the run was really slow, so was the smooth connector portion. It took a consistent downhill to get to 6:46 pace. The last half mile was a bit better. I wasn't fast, but I felt a run and that felt nice. I definitely did not feel this on the trails though, just like at Sweat for Vets.

A few old South Park runs through the area that I could dig up:

http://www.strava.com/activities/1008930 here you see the trails that got swallowed up by the gravel trails (necessitating some new trail construction) along Sesqui road and the remote control plane access road (Brackenridge) as well as the wood road down the east ridge of the hollow. I remembered that you could connect to the trails behind the track from the trail off of the access rd. and looked for it this time but didn't see it. Here you also see steep routes up and down the ridges of the hollow similar to my run today. This one covers alot of my old South Park action in one run.

http://www.strava.com/activities/1008920 This shows the access trail off of the Montour trail well, as well as the trails down by the track. It's funny, I was down there today and I swore it felt different, like the trails had changed and I wasn't getting as far out on the bottom south of the track. Well, comparing today to this run, the trail is exactly the same in that area... exactly the same. Hazy memories... Of course how I went up from there is different. I know I went up similar to how I went down today many times, but I don't have the data...

http://www.strava.com/activities/1011838 - more just a tour of the Montour trail and what was around it, including the trail connector into the west ridge of the hollow.

http://www.strava.com/activities/1011860 - interestingly enough this one shoes me going exactly into the neighborhood I didn't remember getting too... Clearly the trails were there and my exploration took me right through the private property (there was a house there today (just north of the open field where I do the little horseshoe action. The wood-road/ trail goes right next to its fence which must border the park- was that there before? There was clearly no obvious way today to do what I did in this older run... were leaves covering it up or is it not there anymore? Wish I had a better memory of the day...) and by road down to the hollow. I assume I found no trail leading through the fight then either. When you explore as much as I did then, you forget so much. I do remember taking an interesting trail off of Sleepy Hollow road to go up the east ridge from this run however. That was one distinct memory that came up on the run today...

http://www.strava.com/activities/1011852 - I also remember using this wood road/ gas line to move out of the east ridge as well as hitting the highpoint on the east ridge by fu steep means.


http://www.strava.com/activities/1008921 - not in the hollow, but South Park.

http://www.strava.com/activities/1008923 - same

http://www.strava.com/activities/1008926 - sunny slopes, but no hollow action.

http://www.strava.com/activities/1008930 - long run

unfortunately, most of my South Park data is lost to before I had a GPS watch and before I kept any data online when I did have a watch. For several years it looks like I only kept unique data from cool places. Oh well.

Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/220436969

Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/635204403

Event: QOC Long Day's Night
 

Day off, just need to heal

40 minutes aqua-jogging at Y. Spent whole time being really tight in different places starting from upper back and neck down to edema in right calf. Were moments where I felt a stride though.

No exercise at all today as I had an appointment with Dr. Ed after work. I want to not do anything afterword to see if my back handles the appointment much better. I also let him know that my upper back had reacted so much to the last few appointments so he worked on a few adjustments and some release in my neck and back, which were pretty tight in the rotators of course... He suggested walking after appointments but not running. I am going to work on rolling my back more and stretching out that intercostal (side) that is still not healed. We also had the usual great talks about the nature of the body in and out of motion. He had just been at a talk on knee arthritis that talked about how things are dealt with using herbs first in countries like Australia. The herbs are regulated for potency and only sold over the counter there. Interesting as that seems to make a big difference in the way society looks at their use medically versus ours.

Ran the first mile+ up to the top of North ridge from the Ice rink on the North Ridge Trail and then walked the rest of the hour.... Just not ready to run yet. Felt swelling and tightness all around knee as I ran.