Training Log Archive: possum

Weekly workout with Jared. Since no one else was in the gym this morning, I got to push the sled back and forth with weights, and also do the ropes and planks with passing the ball back and forth. Then I went and got my allergy shot, and have very sore arms.

Course setting at Weston Bend for the March meet. Today's goal was to do the revised white and yellow courses, add some controls for the more advanced courses that are encompassed in that area, and remove the flagging put up earlier when I thought I could have a flagged path for the white and yellow courses. The associated trails were so overgrown I had to abandon that idea, and redo the beginner courses.

All of the trails were still snow and ice-covered. I didn't fall, but had a bad encounter with an 8"-high piece of barb wire that required first aid. And nothing beats having the backup shoes and dry socks. It was a glorious day in the woods--mid-fifties after lots of cold weather and more to come tomorrow.

After recycling, took ElRay across the street to the Riverfront trail, which starts by the high school tennis courts. Since school is not in session, it was still snow- and ice-covered, and pretty slow going. We ended up taking a side track between the high school and another school. There were tons of geese on the school property, but ElRay is only interested in squirrels. There were two metal cutouts of coyotes on the JV football field, apparently to scare geese, since the Kearney mascot is a bulldog. Anyway, the field with the coyotes was covered in geese.

Workout with Jared

My weekly workout with Jared. We finished up with doing planks. I got in plank position and he put a 12-lb sandbag on my back. We did four sets of this. I have a well-conditioned core tonight.

OCIN_Armco_Middle_Dec_2013_Brown - Splits

Ran the Yellow leg of the Relay Champs at Camp Friedlander. We had cold rain on top of ice and snow, and some places were very slick. I took too long between 5 and 6, because I couldn't see the trail. It seemed to be going down a cliff, and I couldn't see the other side, so I took a long way around on the road. Then I mispunched at 9. I'm pretty sure I was there, and I know at one of the other controls, I had to punch twice to make sure it registered, but I was pretty bummed about letting the team down. Except for these two controls, my route choice was pretty good, and I ran quite a bit, only walking when I needed to catch a breath, or in icy or really steep areas.

OCIN_US_Relay_2013_Yellow - Splits

Event: OCIN - US Night and Relay Championships
 

Tried about eight controls on the model, which was the permanent orienteering course at Hueston Woods, site of the Night-O. It was helpful because of about four inches of snow on the ground to try climbing up and down the reentrants. I had planned to check my pacing, but was too busy just getting up and down, and crossing the ice on a fairly good size creek.

National Night-O Championships. A very technical course, much more difficult than last year's, the first time I had completed a Night-O. There was about four inches of snow on the ground, and it snowed pretty heavily, but for only a short time, during the race.

The map distance between 5 and 6 was about a kilometer, and although I went right to it, my route choice could have been much better and more direct. Instead of trusting my navigation, I took a road to a trail into the disc golf area, which was the shrubbiest part of the course, and couldn't find trails out. Finally, I got to the road again, walked down to where I thought the control would be directly south, and walked right to it. All was good, except for stepping into water up to my ankle, until I got to control 9 back in the disc golf area. A medium mistake. The short, but obvious, mistake was to the last control. I was in the parking lot with lots of cars coming and going, and went almost to the flagging before running back to it, and then in.

Despite the weather, it was fun, and I felt really good about completing such a difficult technical course in bad weather.

OCIN_US_Night_2013_Brown - Splits

My weekly workout with Jared. The planks with left-right transfer were a little easier this week, but we did slow, high ropes, and that was a killer.

My other good news is that I went to the allergist for my weekly shot I couldn't get last week. After flunking the breathing test last Wednesday, I stopped taking all my steroid drugs, and today was my best breathing since I started the shots. Yeah for me!

Putting out controls for tomorrow's Score-O event at Landahl. Very cold, but registration tomorrow will probably start in the single digits.

Sore and tired, and I had a lot of PTOC business to attend to. Skipped working out and had my first massage in two months. Feeling much better.

After yesterday's all-day project and climbing very steep hills, I thought my breathing was good. Not so. I went to the allergist this morning, and they wouldn't give me an allergy shot because my air flow was much lower than normal. Try again Monday.

Then I went to see Jared tonight, and I had sore glutes and quads from the hills yesterday. I was really sweating during the workout. A new type of plank workout. In plank position, I reach with my right arm under my body and pick up an 8-lb sandbag from my left side and place it on the right. Then reverse. Four sets of eight repetitions. Wow!

So happy to have gone to Weston Bend yesterday. Really cold wind and falling temps all day.

Went to Weston Bend to put up flagging. Talked with the person-in-charge for almost an hour, then spent about 4.5 out in the woods, climbing up and down hills and rocks. Everything went well, except for the white course. I couldn't find a couple of the trails I had planned to use, and got into lots of gnarly stuff like multiflora. I'm too tired to put it in the map tonight, but happy about being out there when the weather is great.

Nice day, but it will be cold later this week, for 2-3 weeks. Also, since I'm in the relay the end of next week, I need to practice a little running for my teammates. Twenty-one runs down the driveway, and twenty-one walks back up the driveway. That's what I counted, but then I took ElRay out and walked her down the driveway a few times, and ran back up. Lots of good heavy breathing to clean out my lungs.