Training Log Archive: maprunner

It was a perfect day to ride the Lawrence Loop: cool and overcast.
I was worried that I might not feel good so I started at the Arboretum, and went uphill first. That way, I could easily turn around and go downhill if necessary.

I enjoyed this ride. I saw lots of people out and about, but funny, no one passed me from behind. I went clockwise this time, which I thought was the way most people usually go. However, I started relatively late in the day.

My legs did get tired, especially heading uphill into the wind on the road past Martin Park. I had to stop a few times. And I got off the bike to walk in Constant park and near the Baker wetlands, to give my legs a break.

After I crossed Iowa, I looked at my watch and thought, I might be able to make it under 2:30. So I started to push it. My quads were really complaining now, and every little rise felt like a big effort. I got stuck at the light crossing K10 and ended up sprinting the last section, but I made it with 15 seconds to spare!

As soon as I stopped, my legs started screaming at me . They were very sore. Got home, took ibuprofen and rolled my muscles. Starting to recover now. I'll probably be really sore tomorrow and Tuesday.

Edit: legs did not get very sore the next few days. So pain on Sunday may have been lactic acid or lack of food.

C • Now one passed you because 2

I had to orienteer sometime today, so I went to the Overlook for a short run. My goal was to keep moving, never stop. I only stopped and stepped aside after leaving 1 to make room for some hikers.

My head felt like it was in a fog and my body had no energy. So I stopped at 11.

I got outside at lunch time just to test how it felt to run again. It felt fine. Time to stop being a slug.

Manned a table for OK at the 38 North Fest tonight. This was the inaugural event, and it went very well. Goal is to highlight adventures in Kansas, self propelled and self financed. Blair helped too, which was needed. We were busy the whole time. Lots of folks seemed interested, many loved the maps. About 20 signed up for our mailing list. Too bad our first (Lawrence) event isn't until January 1st.

I've been getting better every day, but my brain is still a bit foggy. I've been working at home the last two days, but have not gotten dressed or out of the house. So it was good to finally take a shower today and go work out with my trainer. He took it pretty easy on me, and I survived. Guess I'll go into the office tomorrow, since the contagious phase seems to have passed.

Definitely sick, probably a norovirus infection. Felt miserable all day yesterday and couldn't keep anything in my stomach. Stayed home from work today. Was able to eat a little bit. And by 4 pm my brain began to clear.

Sandy and I went to Clinton for a trail run. She pushes me to move a little bit faster, and the conversation makes the time fly by.

But today I started feeling a bit weird in my stomach, like my breakfast was still there (3 hours later). That started to get distracting so I suggested we walk the last bit.

When I got home, all I could think about was my stomach. It hurt. I lay down for a while and eventually, as I suspected, I threw it all up. I rarely throw up, so this very weird. But my stomach felt better immediately. Now I just feel dehydrated and head-achy. Maybe it is from the Chipotle I ate yesterday?

Checking out the Park University map for my pre-Possum courses

And then I went and moved around at PNS since i was in the neighborhood. I hadn't been here since we moved to Lawrence in 2009. I'd forgotten how nice it is. The parking lot was full and I was afraid I would be pushing past people, but as soon I started up the big hill, I didn't see anyone (I did see two groups on the way down the hill on the other side). A beautiful day in the beautiful woods; I had fun.

This evening, Mike and I saw Trevor Noah at the Lied Center. He was great. Topical and funny.

A little bit of movement around the neighborhood after a long drive home from St Louis

lunchtime workout on a park bench

in the hotel room after dinner

My training class ended early, so I had time to get out to Tower Grove Park to run a short sprint. The park was crowded and hot, but it was fun. I set my first O course in this park, so it has a special place in my heart.

After, I decided it was time for another installment of Nostalgia Summer, and I drove past my old apartments and haunts in the Central West End.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

Exercising in the hotel gym after driving to St Louis. It was too hot outside.

KS Senior Games 100m=17.3
3rd in F55

I had no expectations for this race, since I haven't been training for sprints lately. All I needed to do was finish in the top 3, to qualify for the National Senior Games next year. It was a hot day (low 30s; up to mid 30s by afternoon) so I took it easy in the warm up. I had a good start, then faded around 80 meters, as has happened to me a lot lately. Still, this was my best time in 2018.

I was smoked by the two other women in my age class/heat. They finished in 15.01 and 15.69. We talked afterwards about going to Nationals next year, and maybe finding an older KS woman to join us in a relay team. That would be fun.

My plan this year was to hang out in my car between races, read my book, eat lunch, maybe take a nap. But even with all the windows open, it was just too hot in the car. I needed to cool off.

So I decided to get my oil changed (it was due, and I'm driving to St Louis tomorrow). That was a good decision.

KS Senior Games 50m=8.83
3rd in F55

When I got back to the track, it was really hot and the track and artificial turf were just radiating heat. It was awful. So I sat in the shade for a bit and watched some 200m heats and listened to a blowhard elite competitor from Oklahoma (who was sitting near me) go on and on about how good he was.

When it was time to start warming up for my race, I went and found some shady grass to run on instead of the infield. Glad I did that. It was super hot even standing around for a few minutes before the race.

I finished third again, but I was much closer to number 2 this time. I peeked at the timer's computer to see my time, but didn't see the other times (and I went home before they were posted). This was my first 50m race that was electronically timed, so it was a PR by default. I was happy to be under 9 seconds. And when I put this time into an age-adjusted calculator, it says I am "national class" in this distance for F55. That's pretty cool.

It's fun to go to these senior track events. People take them very seriously, so you see lots of very fit older people. Cracks me up that the leanest men always take off their shirts, and the leanest women always wear sports bras and shorts that reveal their amazing abs. I notice this because I am very jealous of people older than me who manage to stay so lean!

I'm also inspired by the 91 year old woman who ran the 100 with us; and the injured competitors who walk their distance so they can qualify for next year.

C • National class! 4

Short shuffle on west campus in the heat. I saw no animals and only one pedestrian.

Got outside at lunchtime on this beautiful day for a short ride to the movie theater and back. So fine!

Well, now I understand why I was unmotivated and lazy since last Wednesday. My tooth really was infected and dying, and I ended up getting a root canal today. So I guess my body was fighting off the infection and I didn't know it.

I know it is weird, but I decided to go orienteering after the procedure, mostly because my mouth and face were still numb. I also wanted to run on Mike's latest mini-map. And it was a stellar, picture perfect fall day (why is that always true on 9/11??)

Course #1 (I faked the time of day to make them appear in the order that I wanted them to).

Started by walking, to see how my mouth felt, and to deal with all the folks on campus. This was just after 5 (so I could park on campus) but the place was still very busy. I didn't want to run someone over while jogging and reading the map! I was fairly clean in navigating this course.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

Course #2: starting to jog once or twice, where I could see that the path was clear. Another clean run (although it took me 10X longer than the run to adjust my track on the map. I guess the close buildings really messed up the GPS).

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

Course #3

Well, I decided things were going pretty well so I might as well jog the next one. And of course, I messed up big time, To be fair, the markers aren't numbered on the map, and the markers were close together. But I still out-ran my navigational abilities on this one. I skipped two controls on the west side (at first) and was on my way back up the hill before I figured it out. After I correctly went to the markers in order, I decided to stop (there was one more course planned) because I was clearly fried.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

Clinton trails

Like Mike, I passed several people doing the Hawk 100 How impressive, to still be running after 24 hours. They were all walking and had a pacer. But they were still moving., How amazing! I always stepped out of their way and gave them some encouragement.

I felt pretty good, which was a surprise. I'm nursing a sore tooth and I've had no energy for the past few days. However, my waking resting HR has been steadily dropping since I left Laramie, and today was the first time it was below 60 in a few weeks. So maybe that was it.

I was sleepy and grumpy and didn't want to go out. But it was overcast and cool, so I made myself get out the door for a shuffle around west campus. Legs felt dead, head was not in it, but just kept moving. Felt a little bit OK the last few minutes running downhill. And then I was walked the last bit home and was done.

I was totally not in the mood to do this tonight. but my trainer was expecting me, so off I went.

Laramie RMOF Day 4, Superfly Marsh

My navigation was a better today. Turned off my brain at 3 but after that I was pretty steady, with some minor confusions at 9 and 11. I was pleased that I wasn't distracted by others (Gene at 2; David Yee from 4 to 7). It was also easier when you could see some of the markers from very far away.

But that also meant that this was a runner's course. And I was walking most of the time. So, my navigation was steady but my time was lousy.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

Fun visiting with folks afterwards, then an easy trip to DIA and a nice dinner at Timberline (free, thanks to a credit card perk). Very good trip with MeanGene and Fritz.

Western States Day 3 Green - Splits

Laramie RMOF day 3 at Twin Boulders

My brain functioned a little bit better today, but still not as good as I would like.

Picked a bad route choice to 2 and my brain was still not turned on, so I wasted some time looking around at features I didn't need to visit. Fritz passed me in here.

Settled down for 3, 4 and 5. Caught up with Fritz and Paul here. Paul and I were together for the next few legs, which was kind of fun. We never said a word to each other, but we were often only a few steps apart.

Control 11 is my biggest disappointment today. I was so tired by then, and I was just trying to keep a rough compass bearing until I got up the hill. So I missed the control and walked right past it and hit the road. I was surprised, thought I had been careful on my compass work, but I doubted myself. So I ran along the road until I saw a marker down below, which seemed off, but of course I went to it anyway. As I was heading back up to the road to relocate, I saw my marker, hung low in the shadows. I should have had more confidence in where I was when I hit the road, and just turned right around there.

I was sloppy getting to 12, definitely getting tired and losing it mentally. I saw Fritz again at 12, and I incorrectly relocated off some bare rock. Took a minute to correct.

I was happy that today went a little bit better than yesterday, but I'm still disappointed inthe types of mistakes I made.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

We got a good group photo of OK and PTOC folks after today's run. Then a nice drive to the Snowy Range with Tom and Lisa, and dinner with the OKers at Crowbar Grill.

Forgot to mention this: yesterday I was talking to a young kid (Martin) near the finish. He saw my OK jersey and asked me if I was from Croatia :)

C • FYI... 1

C • Chex 1

Western States Day 2 Green - Splits

Laramie RMOF day 2, Pelican Bay

A bad day.

At 2, I messed up and stopped too soon, then ran to another control that was not mine. I was just telling myself to stop, think about where I was and not wander. Then Mike came running by (he started ahead of me). I get flustered when I see Mike usually, so I stopped watching him and tried to focus again. Then a minute later, Fritz came by. He started 2 minutes after me! Now I was really flustered. So I deliberately turned my back on him and looked at my map. If I had actually watched either of them, I would have seen them punch the control. Doh!

Instead, I convinced myself I was on the wrong hill, wandered down, wandered some more, saw the road was too close, and decided to finally go back up through the reentrant. From this angle, it was easy to see the marker. As I was on my way to 3, I passed a woman who asked if she was heading back to the start. She was looking for 2 but was bailing. I reassured her that she was close to 2. This made me feel a little bit better that I was not the only one who had messed up this control.

After this mistake, I made sure I took a very safe route to 3, which turned out to be a very good route (the reentrant to the north that led right to the marker).

The rest of the course was a slog, and I had a hard time keeping focus. Also, it was sometimes hard to find the marker even if you got into the circle. I wonder if the course setter picked locations they wanted to use, rather than designing the legs to be navigated?

The most frustrating was 9, where there were lots of rocks and cliffs on the hillside. I checked out one or two possible locations before I decided that the best strategy would be to go down and look up to see the marker.

The most frustrating, personally, was 11 to 12. I very carefully checked off minor features along the straight line and thought I was concentrating well. But I still missed it!

We had a nice dinner with Peggy, Paul and Reta at Sweet Melissa tonight. This made me feel better. After all, tomorrow is another day....

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

Western States Day 1 Green - Splits