Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

Joined Gina and Patrick, plus special guest Mr. Nevin French (!) for the Green Lake Running Group's Wednesday evening run. Afterward we drank some beers and discussed sports in general, specifically the surpassing Sisyphean angst concomitant with involvement in higher-level North American orienteering.

Pink Socks and Nev-Monster attended this game this afternoon. I stupidly elected not to skip out on work, which reinforces the life lesson that you'll never be sorry you decided to do something fun instead of go to work.

Morning commute. Forgot my watch but I think I may have finally broke 40 min! I left at 7:16 and arrived at 7:56. Of course, I had to run some red lights and a bunch of stop signs to do it, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Evening commute. Fighting headwinds and traffic, then got stuck behind six or eight 737 fuselages on final approach.

If you had a time machine that could only go backward in time or forward in time, which would you choose?

Some interesting ideas here:
http://blog.strava.com/run-weekly-workout/

"One key to improving in running is building confidence in your ability to endure."

C • hmm 1

A good week of training. Got an interval workout in, some higher-intensity runs, and some cycling of various types and speed. If I could train this well every week maybe I could actually get faster instead of not improving ever.

5x1k

3:21
3:27
3:25
3:20
3:17

First time on a track in awhile; it wasn't too horrible. When I'm at the track and other people show up I like to play the game of "How allergic is his shirt?" (generally this game only works with dudes). For example, today a guy showed up and took off his shirt immediately, then did nothing for over half an hour but walk/jog around a couple times and do some dynamic stretches. If we aggregate the data points I've collected over time into a graph, whereby our Y-axis is "% time @ track w/out shirt" and our X-axis is "Upper body muscle volume" the result would be something approximating an inverted bell curve. While it's well-established that dudes with huge arms/chest hate wearing shirts at all times and will avoid doing so in nearly any halfway-socially-acceptable situation, what's also become apparent is that the wearing of shirts while exercising is anathema to dudes at the opposite end of the spectrum (those with very little upper body muscle, AKA legit runners). The rest of track-going humanity (or, "people who are normal") are somewhere in the middle.

Easy ride w/dad ---> Luther Burbs to do some mappy updating for the next Wednesday meet.

Burbs ---> home

Bridle Trails run. Getting attacked by the nightfliers. At one point I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye, then a bat flashed directly across my face about four inches from my nose. Time to get out of the forest!

Gettin my Hasselhoff on #KnightRider

Will's WOC Long team:

Men:
Gustav Bergman (SWE)
Will Critchley (CAN)
Timo Sild (EST)
Frederic Tranchand (FRA)
Ionut Zinca (ROU)

Women:
Mari Fasting (NOR)
Ane Linde (DEN)
Merja Rantanen (FIN)
Laura Vike (LAT)
Claire Ward (GBR)

C • WOC Draft Tips 2

15th and 20th in the world will be battling it out in Seattle in September...come one come all

C • Pressure.... 2

Grass Lawn Park 5k. I discovered a low-key summer series of races in a park by my house - hard to beat ten bucks for a 5k these days. Unfortunately there are only three left, and I can only attend one of them. Not too good of a run but I wasn't expecting much or pushing extremely hard. Not all that fast of a course - a double loop around the park with a number of twists and sharp turns on a combo of paved and forested trails. I got passed by a guy around the halfway point but didn't lose to the college XC gal.

Ride to the library to pay my debt to society so they'll let me take their stuff again.

Morning commute.

http://attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_3737/perio...

How it's done, boys and girls.

Evening commute. Watch died, so time is estimated. The benefits of riding to work are multifarious. Firstly, it supersedes the less pleasant parts of my commute. Secondly, it cuts my vehicle time disproportionately in relation to distance, e.g. I drive half the distance, park, then ride half the distance, but my time spent in vehicle is cut by some 60-65%. Thirdly, it means I don't have to train when I get home, which means I have more time for bettering myself in a wide variety of ways so that I become a more well-rounded and valuable member of society laying on the floor.

My WOC relay teams:

Men:
Denmark
Russia

Women:
Czech Republic
Ukraine

I was "randomly" assigned the last (9th) pick in the draft, but feel good about the Russian men and Czech women falling to me.

C • Draft rules 3

Loop through BT, then Watershed. I ran into Jeff Grove and ran with him for a bit, then he tagged off to his son Devon, who is a future WOC Sprint finalist in at least half of the infinite parallel universes that exist. It's rare that I get to run with anyone, rarer that I get to run with anyone faster than I am, rarer still that I get to run with anyone substantially faster than I am. Luckily he took it easy on me.

I've gotten over my weird non-PF foot pain, then I had some calf issues going on after the Ragnar weekend, but felt good today so hopefully that's behind me and I can start doing some worthwhile training again for the first time in at least a month.

Here's my Middle squad for Ian "Saari I'm Not Saari (or Collings)" Smith's fledgling WOC fantasy league:

Men:
Hannu Airila (FIN)
Edgars Bertuks (LAT)
Hector Haines (GBR)
Vojtech Kral (CZE)
Olav Lundanes (NOR)

Women:
Isia Basset (FRA)
Sarina Jenzer (SUI)
Minna Kauppi (FIN)
Jana Knapova (CZE)
Merja Rantanen (FIN)

C • 3 more years... 2

After Ali, pulling for Yannick Michiels and one-time Seattle resident and Cascade event attendee Elise Egseth in the sprint final. Watching WOC live is pretty awesome but it's literally killing a little piece of my soul not to be there supporting friends who've put so much of themselves into preparing for these few days.

C • In the fridge... 5