Training Log Archive: kweinmann

I actually felt really good running today, despite the fact that it was at the end of a very long week. I felt like I was going a pretty good pace most of the time, although I could tell I was slowing down on the stretch of uphill in the last mile. I did almost get hit by a taxi (and I actually had the right of way this time, no jaywalking), but such are the dangers of city running and traffic I suppose. I feel like I'm exhausting every possible running route around my apartment, since there's only so many different variations I can do of the few basic routes. I kind of want to expand my running radius, but at the same time I'm hesitant about venturing into some sketchier areas. I've also decided I need to live closer to a park that I can run in (maybe Frick Park would be nice) - too bad I already re-signed my lease.

Stayed late at work today finishing up stuff since it's my last week - didn't end up getting home until around 8 and by that point I was exhausted. On the bright side, maybe an extra day off will help heal my leg.

Nice, relaxed run. My left leg is still hurting - mainly at the beginning, but I could feel it slightly for the entire run. I'm not quite sure what is going on with that, but hopefully it goes away soon.

Well, it is my last week at work - and I still can't believe the semester has gone by so fast. My boss gave me an entirely new project at the end of last week so I've been really busy trying to finish that in a week, plus finishing up another project I was working on. Hopefully once I start classes, I will be able to get into a new routine that still involves running and working out. I feel like I have been in a good place as far as that goes with my regular schedule, but since I have mostly evening classes I will probably end up running either in the mornings or evenings, seeing as me and heat and exercise don't seem to like to mix. I'm going home next week though, so I'm looking forward to that!

This was a painful run, and I mean that in the sense that my legs hurt. It started out with a nice pain in my left thigh when I first started running, that subsided into a dull, not too obvious pain after a few minutes. However, by about 3 miles in, both of my legs were hurting, and it didn't really seem like it was in an 'I'm tired' way. I think this may be the result of walking several miles on my last 'day off,' and needing a rest day, which I will assuredly be taking tomorrow. I don't think this is anything serious, but just a case of my body needing a break.

It was a really nice day for a run though, and I enjoyed it for the most part. It was such a nice day, in fact, that I decided to go for a longer cool down walk because I was quite hot when I got home. However, about 5 minutes into this longer cool down walk, the weather decided it no longer wanted to be nice, but instead wanted to start raining. At this point I had committed to the longer cool down walk, and decided to just enjoy the rain - something I should be pretty good at after growing up in Washington where, according to the rest of the world, it is always raining.

A beautiful day for some orienteering training out at Deer Lakes Park - unfortunately not such a beautiful training run for me. I was doing pretty good for about the first 30 seconds - when I was running across a nice, open grassy field. That all started going downhill when I promptly face-planted upon running into the woods. Thankfully, I don't think anyone witnessed this incredibly graceful moment, and in my defense, the ground was completely covered in slippery, dead leaves. Once I was back on my feet again, I was doing pretty good for the first four controls - not great map contact, but enough that I found the controls without much difficulty. On control number 5, things didn't go so smoothly. I got very off from my compass bearing and ended up in a re-entrant quite a bit north of the one I was looking for, which coincidentally, I saw but convinced myself was a different one that I wasn't looking for. Once I realized my control wasn't where I thought it would be, I was able to relocate pretty quickly and find the control without much difficulty. The rest of the course went fairly smoothly except for control 7, which I believe may have been placed incorrectly. Talking with some people after finishing, they agreed that it was hard to find, and we came to a consensus on where we thought it should have been, which is the place I first ended up.

I think my biggest takeaway from this training is that I need to work on staying in contact with my map while running cross-country through the woods. I did this course almost completely off-trail, since there were no trails on the map, and it really brought to light how much I rely on running on trails as an opportunity to read my map. The woods here were not super open, so I found myself getting distracted with trying to stay on my feet and not get caught in pricker bushes, and forgetting that I still needed to be reading my map to make sure I was going the right way.

Although it would be nice, a donut-O is not an orienteering course where there are donuts at every control. Instead, the map is whited out around each control circle, forcing you to have a good attackpoint going into the control circle - clearly a comparable treat in my opinion. I actually did fairly well on this exercise. Besides getting really turned around leaving control 2 (I blame the frisbee golfers), this course was much less of a struggle for me. I did spend probably 30 seconds awkwardly stumbling around after finding control 2 because I skipped ahead on my map thinking I was at control 3. I probably looked really weird to the people playing frisbee golf running to and fro, looking at a map, and keeping changing my mind about which direction I wanted to go. Other than this brief setback though, I was able to complete the course without too much trouble, and actually had decent attackpoints heading into the 'donut' area of most of the controls.

I will note that on this course I seriously regretted my choice not to wear my orienteering shoes and just wear my normal running shoes. The excess of dead leaves on the ground made going up and down hills very slippery and slightly dangerous, but I managed to stay on my feet (barely) the whole time.

By this point in time I was kind of tired and hungry, and wanted to focus on my actual map reading, rather than the struggle of running through the woods. I decided to just walk the corridor - O to make sure that I stayed within the corridor, and was really focusing on my map reading skills. This worked out quite well for me, and I'm pretty sure I stayed in the corridor the entire time. I also saw some deer (fancy that at Deer Lakes Park), and it was overall a nice, pleasant walk through the woods, with some precise navigation thrown in as an added bonus.

Well I have to say that, after running through Frick Park today, it is definitely spring here. It was incredibly green - an enormous difference from the monotonous brown that was everywhere there just a few weeks ago. This was a nice way to unwind from a long week - and enjoy Earth Day! The way home that I thought was going to be all flat and downhill turned out to be quite a lot of uphill, but it was nice weather for running and the rain seemed to have scared everyone away so the part through the park was nice and people-free - just the way I like my trail running. My ankle has been sore while walking for the past two days from when I rolled it trying to cross the street last time I was running, but I didn't feel it at all during this run, thankfully. I'm pretty exhausted after this week at work (I did a lot of weight testing), but I only have one more week, and orienteering to look forward to this weekend!

Despite my legs being somewhat tired, this was a mostly pleasant run. Well, at least until the hill, that is. Hills are never fun and this one is no different. At first, it wasn't too bad - I reached the top actually feeling slightly better than I had anticipated. Except for the fact that I completely forgot that that wasn't the top of the hill and there was, in fact, a large portion of the hill left after the deceiving downhill break in the middle. Another 2 minutes of unanticipated uphill later, the sweet relief of the perfect grade of downhill on the next road was just made that much sweeter. After surviving the cruel surprise of the extra hill, the rest of my run was quite pleasant since it was all flat and downhill. Here's to not forgetting about that second stretch of uphill next time I run up that road.

3X through each set:

Set 1
10 push ups
15 bicycle abs
10 lunge with knee up (each side)
10 rounds of walking plank (up/down)

Set 2
10 dips
10 single leg bridges (each side)
15 squats
15 plank spider (per side)

Set 3
10 pike push ups
10 lemon squeezers
10 side lunges (per side)
10 side plank leg lifts (per side)

Only took me til 8pm to get motivated to run haha. It was probably better running later in the day anyway since it was quite warm today - honestly loving this weather though.

I was mostly recovered from the soreness earlier in the week at this point. It was a beautiful day and this felt good to destress from what was a very long week at work. I can't believe I only have 2 weeks left though and then back to school!

Literally like every part of my body was sore so running was an interesting experience. The first couple of minutes were the worst and then it was just slightly painful for the rest of the run, although my legs were definitely tired.

5 min warm up then tabata for 32 min:

2X through:

4X (mountain climbers, plank twists)
4X (lunges, pushups)
4X (side shuffle, single leg deadlifts)
4X (frog jumps, jump lunges)

I definitely did not intend to run this far today. I just went out without a plan and wanted to keep running and somehow ended up running the farthest I have in a long time. There's something to say for running in the rain though - I actually usually enjoy it once I start/ I started feeling my hip a little towards the end - hopefully just because I'm not used to running this far. It feels good to be back in decent shape though!

2X through:

15 squats
1 min plank
10 lunges (each leg)
15 side crunches (each side)
10 push ups
20 russian twists
15 squats
10 leg lifts
10 dips
15 mountain climbers

What a fun course! There was a lot of open, runnable woods which made off-trail route choice a decent option for many of the legs. I navigated fairly cleanly, but definitely lost a couple of minutes in a few places. Didn't push very hard physically, but I think that led to a cleaner race overall. I did feel good physically, and I definitely think I could have gone faster - I'm still working on finding the balance between speed and navigation again. Overall though, I'm happy with my race!

Gotta love when it snows in April. I guess the whole warm spring thing was too good to be true. I'm glad I got out and ran, since the cold wasn't too bad once I was moving.