Training Log Archive: ernst

"Dress rehearsal" for next Sunday's marathon. Mostly just testing if my feet are going to hold up. I used two inserts per shoe on my running flats plus an extra foam pad under the arch to alleviate my lingering pains in the right heel and under the left ball. It seem to work.

The plan was to run "slowly" and relaxed so as to not incur too much soreness and/or injury. But then, as usual, I just got into my "swift recreational" pace which is within 1/2 min/mile of my race pace. I just can't help it. O well - I made sure to treat myself properly post-training with lots of grape juice, egg-bake, seeded rye bread with cheese, and a cappuccino and brownie afterwards. Also a bit of stretching and massaging on the stairs first, then legs up (recliner) and icing the foot bottoms.

I did it all on about 13 oz of water. Temps from 50 to 65. Very sunny for the last 8 miles or so. Felt that I could have easily maintained another 6 miles on the flats, but the hills started to pull the energy out of me.
A gu after around mile 14 would have been beneficial. Surprisingly, the home stretch via Wednesday Hill did not bother me too much, and the slow-down on the uphills was not worse than usual.

More or less I feel good about the effort, and I think I will be able to handle an afternoon of yardwork that I had promised Nancy.

C • Great run! 3

Run to work. Usual route.

Running home. A total of 4 hill tempo runs. The usual (mini hills), but they do get my heartbeat up to around 160/min. Otherwise I felt sluggish. The 2 pizza slices for lunch (at a talk) did not energize me.

Run to work after being at home in the morning. Warm today (70 F !) but nice and dry.

I liked yesterday's route via W Foss Farm, so repeated but did first three hill sprints at the main hill in CW. Then back the same way as yesterday. At the end I did a loop down to VW field and back for another hill sprint. Arrived again in the dark, even a bit darker than yesterday - had to be careful in the "not quite trails' section of the last 300 m.

Run to work.

Running home with first looping around CW with a detour to athletic fields, then back to dam and via W Foss Farm and shelter to Spruce Wood and home. Arriving in the dark.

Running around the Wednesday Hill - Packers Falls loop. Testing my road running capabilities, and shoes in prep for the Newmarket Marathon.

Then a quicky around the trail using my old minimals, that are near ripping apart in the uppers, with double inserts. Seemed to work ok. I hit a couple of hills.

Run to work.

Running home. A bit tired.

Waking up a bunch of Day 2 controls. Just a bit after dawn, so I decided not to bring the headlamp along. It was still darkish in the woods, so needed to select open spots for reading the map detail. Since I had 14 controls over 2 km, this was an exercise in control picking. I found that exact compass and pace counting got me to most of the controls. I did however try to read as much detail as I could, since I did not want to take risks of getting lost. I found all of them without problems.

One e-punch unit, upon waking it, did not want to stop beeping. The continuous beep was loud - the "torturous control". I buried it deep into my fanny pack and replaced it with the spare. I had been wondering for several years now when the first time would be to actually encounter a faulty unit. There we go!

Collecting controls. This time the NW loop around the lake and back. I had my Garmin turned on. I stopped the timer while packing in the controls. But then occasionally I forgot to do that, or once I forgot to turn it back on. The time listed is more or less the traveling time.
It turned out to be a very warm day with temps in the low 70's. I had 2 water stops to pack in, so I drank plenty!

I expected to have to go out for more, but apparently all controls were accounted for since we had plenty of help for the collection. So it was time to sit back, have a drink (to share with the yellow jackets), and relax with a happy crew of event workers.

Another successful BD! No major hickups, no injuries, and the weather was superb in spite of a slightly iffy forecast.
The only downside was the light turnout. We could have without incurring much more work accommodated 300+ orienteers - well perhaps a couple of extra helpers for parking, road crossing, and snack provision would have been needed.

As Lex said: Now we can wind down for another 2 years. Yes, but where will the next one be?