Training Log Archive: matzah ball

nursing home, road bike. gross motor muscles ok, but fine cycling specific muscles sore from yesterday. 1 week layoff.

slow to Carondolet park and back

the most basic of bouldering, to try to restore some tone to fingers, wrists forearms and top and back shoulder. tried bear pits first, but restroom walls were better. (tip: north side is uss. more heavily weathered for larger holds)

C • climbing 9

church

slept 12 hours last night. 14 hour nonstop drive to DC took more out of me than i thought, i guess.

errands, various pack weights

to friends house in neighborhood

to wilmore park and around.

Cross bike to nursing home via muddy gravel path. Back via grocery.

low volume day at nursing home.

exercises while driving, and 2 very short bouldering sessions on rest area walls, nice sandstone, one with projecting pieces as if inviting to use for climbing.

up and down two hills behind rest areas

Running on map at Great Falls, with interludes for bouldering and map-hiking/jogging on rock strewn Billy Goat trail. Very good agility training. Decided to obey signage about staying on trail.

indeterminable museum walking in the afternoon. there is no more grueling training for me than 'slow museum'. Hopper and Turner at National Gallery.

long slow run/walk with sister at great falls, 1/2 woods, 1/2 fine gravel canal path

run by bike path to georgetown that sister and i ran on previously

easy run with sister, w/ 5 x 30 sec hill sprints interspersed

pulling and pushing using steering wheel, and stretches

errand - enough to realize i want to keep biking regardless of weather or schedule, to maintain base level, and experiment w/ form

C • hey! 1

Shopping to REI, whole foods etc. Back w/ full sadlebags, hitting it hard to beat the sunset, qualifies as tempo. Not ready for off-season!

neighbors house

Ran to track fairly strongly, buoyed by the warmer temp and late afternoon sun, then was wondering what to do, 400's? same ole smane old? then saw that the track was still covered in snow on the south side where its shaded by pine trees.

So, 200's, 11 x 200 @ 41-42 w/ about 1:35 walk/jog recovery between. This is just 2 200's short of the windsprints workout the speedwork groups do, that adds up to 5k total. Then jogged home.

to nursing home and back, park, then des peres trail. drifting snow pretty deep in places, hard work. Too many layers initially, worked up a good sweat. took several easy spills, mostly caught by putting my leg down, or at least breaking the fall with the leg, I think because i put the saddle bags on the bike and that threw off the balance

ar the nursing home

Cross bike with 35mm tires. Like Ned Overend said at Cross Nationals this weekend, stay light on the handlebars and follow the bikes lead. To church, then after church, just seemed like a little detour to the park was in order, through slush, ice, thick (8") and thin snow, rolling terrain. Then home to shed a layer, didn't want to stop though, so started back into the neighborhood, then realized I had some neighbors I could help with shoveling, then home.
No crashes!

lets log this, though it was surely more. Felt it in the lower back, need to step up core exercises.

sledding - 8 x 30 sec run ups

C • sledding 2

very carefully on dark icy streets

since my achilles and lower calves were so sore i was hobbling up and down the stairs, i put me in sleep mode, and skipped the frostbite run.
the crash running-tune-up program was a bit too accelarated.

C • smart thinking 2

to nursing home and back on road bike. winter gear and sore legs seem to be slowing me down - kept looking down and seeing 13 on the speedo.

logging the walking before Mass but its the standing in the back waiting for stragglers thats the killer.

minor errands to bank, grocery,neighborhood bike shop, and office supply store. it does stretch the legs and get them ready for the next whatever.

to friend's house thru wilmore park and back.

post run

18 min warmup cool down running to track direct alley way. then 6 x 400 @ 1:30. rest untimed, walking, just until hard breathing subsided, in the 2-3 minute range

before, during and after intervals

walking in circles at food pantry filling grocery bags and carrying presents, dodging other volunteers:). definetely felt the total body involvement even though it was low intensity

what doesnt appear in my training log: the frequent/daily naps i have been taking uss. early afternoon on top of 8-9 hours night sleep. I figure it just goes with the territory. Of the two choices, rest days, or lots of extra sleep, but continued activity, i think generally i prefer the latter if its doable. Sore legs or overwhelming fatigue require full rest days and extra sleep!

I am lucky to work for myself and have the flexibility to tailor my lifestyle and workouts to my direct needs, and I think this is what has kept me in relatively good health and mostly free of overuse/stress type injuries. But if i had a 9-5, i think i would do stuff like do workouts at lunch to clear my head, and eat frequent small meals so i didnt bonk on food processing.

2 almost tempo runs in the cold mist seperated by a scrabble game and tea. Last ditch effort to get some kind of running legs for Frostbite series:

tues- 2 short tempo runs of distance
wed- speedwork
thurs - medium medium run to work out kinks
fri-bike rest
sat-3k 'race'

cross bike to nursing home. treated myself to leaving the race tires on, they sure roll well! this ride almost promised to be more exciting than this weekends races, as i stepped out the door slipped on the ice and crashed down the steps. most of the impact was absorbed by the left glut. Its sore but doesnt seem to be interfering w/ loco-motion.

Tried to wash the bike off but the hose was frozen solid again, so splashed hot water on the drive train, then doused with chain lube, and then off. then went down on some icy acorns u-turning the sidewalk into the park without apparent damage. but fun riding staying mostly off streets.

C • "Its sore but" - shouldn't... 7

Wheelchair rolling.

Day 2 race, same course, except one stretch had been re-routed to avoid a ice-water lake that had formed over night, much muddier and wetter and therefore percieved as colder. Finishers looked like creatures from the black lagoon splattered with mud from head to toe, and immmediately ran to the bathroom to strip and try to warm their frozen hands and toes in hot water. Classic Cyclocross! The masters race had some of the best (35, 40+) racers line up with some of the 'worst', and though it didn't really change the basic reality of trying to outlast the finish before your hands froze solid, it was still fun to be in a race with that wide a range of ability. 4 racers over 50 showed up, second place earned me another 'glorious' bottle of wine, a red this time!

C • Sounds like 3

Here I'll just collectively log walking up and down the steep steep hills of hemann with (at times) a pack and a bicycle.

breaking this out seperately: 15 x 20s hill repeats, during the race, the stair climb and the steep hill run up

Hermann is our world in a nutshell. Beautiful buildings, great views from the cozy and inviting restaurants and B&B's, holiday displays in the rectory and the church and a holiday sale in the Market downtown, hills in all directions away from the river, wreathed in clouds and mist, glistening ice on the trees and a frosting of white on the ground on day 2....and everybody drives a monster truck.

Oh, the training log...great cyclocross weather, 33 degrees and a light rain/sleet. Since it was the first race, mud gradually developed in the turns, but was not in full force until the middle of the next race. Can't remember much other than my typical slow start, and subsequent race pace -alternating frenetic activity w/ tempo. After a bit found myself in third a short stretch behind a skilled and persistent rider who had a mechanical and dropped way back (but she finished the race). After that, was far back off the leader and even futher out in front of the rest. I thought i was gaining on the leader, but I think he was just conserving their energy for the next days race.

The course for both days was the same, quite long - 1.75 miles, and quite excellent and challenging, with a 15 meter stair run up, a very steep 8 meter hill which was apparently a run up for everyone but the best racer in the Cat 1/2 whom I was lucky enough to see ride it later on, sandpit, fun s-curves up and down an embankment, etc.

It being Hermann there were bottles of wine for placers. Fun for those of us that never win anything. The weather and the course were so demanding that the cliche 'all finishers are winners' really rang true here.

couple of warmup laps

breaking this out seperately: 15 x 20s hill repeats, during the race, the stair climb and the steep hill run up

cross bike to nursing home and back. was hoping for snow, but there was just a minimal dusting of flakes.

ride to Mark G's house and back

help hang controls for saturdays event that i will be unable to attend.
clean map reading.

running, a little dowtown, to lunch, from jury duty. and then back from metro station to home w/ medium pack.

stretching in jury room. mostly lateral standing.

nursing home, tri bike since the other was caked w/ mud, and the hose was frozen solid, and the third still had a flat i was too much in a hurry to fix. Incongruous though, winter gear and tri bike. Legs felt heavy, and sore on the little hills.

pushing the folks around.

warmup

Cyclocross race. lined up last in the slowest race with no expectations. halfway into the first lap, 2 of the women who started 30 seconds behind had caught me. then rode w/ my friend Rick trying to cheer him on, but when it didn't seem like i was doing him any good, something clicked and i was in race mode and off. Caught up with a few more before the end.

In the middle of the race, a sudden downpour turned a lot of the corners and grassy section into a mudfest. Fun stuff.

After race jogging around the course, and cheering some friends in the next race on.

bike to church

Event: Castlewood 8 Hour
 

good team, good training both physical, mental and team dynamic, and fun to be moving through the old stomping grounds, that in general seems quite remote or wild considering all the development all around. Its a great conglomeration of parks and reserved use lands along the river with a wonderful variety of hills, meadows, streams, floodplain. we had our setbacks but no severe injuries, illnesses or mechanicals, and that alone is worth a lot.

much improved course from last year, since the bike never went into the the most burby part of the burbs, but skirted the burbs and was on the way to a wild area, also earlier in the race when there was less traffic. Heavy on mountain biking, which is ok but more orienteering would have been nice (of course:))

the time is for transitions

C • ooooh! 2

rode cross bike home from bike shop with pack, after returning moutain bike

running from the picnic shelter, under the railroad bridge to the wooded flats, then along the river, through the tunnel, up the steps, along the ridge and back down along the rangers house to the transition are where we got our o maps

this might have been our best segment. we were moving well, working together well, did run out of steam a little at the end. scary moment personally, at the end i felt really hypothermic and wondered if i was going to bonk out. addition of a fleece and turning the pedals helped a lot.

mountain biking on the roads, flattish to start, then up some very pronounced hills on St. Paul Rd. back over to the river. Some leg difficulties 'cramped' our style here. we encouraged each other, and tried to be helpful, but we weren't really effective at moving as a team. more expertise and willingness to use tow and drafting capabilities would have helped us. still, at the river checkpoint they told us we were 'just' a half hour off the leaders.

then checkpoints on trails, again first flat, then up and down steep terrain. we tried cutting the trail pushing our bikes, and found that we did theoretically make up ground, but the whole team wasn't comfortable bushwhacking and it probably took more out of us than it was worth.

the mountain bike terrain was very rugged. on a personal note, i was very glad that i had had multiple mb practices w/ Bill and others, and felt gratified by my confidence and skill level. It was easy to see how these trails could be very intimidating to someone unfamiliar w/ them.

finally some real paddling!!! i did find that the leaf raking was actually not a bad tune-up for this. it was cold and windy on the river, and the paddle seemed to drag on. many seemed to have more power in their strokes and would pass without any apparent exertion.

the final bike segment on rugged mountain bike trails around the main park valley. we were feeling tired and a little demoralized i think, walking bikes quite a bit, but kept pushing within our capabilities, and hung in there, happy to finish.