Training Log Archive: maprunner

Dave and Bethany left early this morning, and it was a beautiful day. Perfect for some outdoors activity. Yet all I did was take a 2-hour nap and sit around watching TV all day. Guess I needed a break. Or I'm getting lazy.

My old grad school friends came for a visit this weekend. Spent the day giving Dave and Bethany a tour of Lawrence. Only counting a bit of the time.

Drove around campus and went to the DeBruce Center, which I had never seen. Cool to see The Rules but the overall building is weird and a waste of space.

Also walked along the river, went to Free State Brewery, walked around down town, drove around Old West Lawrence and finally went to Sander's Mound. It was cool to play tourist in my own town and to watch other folks reactions.

Working at home gives me the opportunity to run in the morning.
One minute as fast as I can repeats

Went to Topeka today and ran the Sunflower Games course. It was 2 pm on a hot day, so this was not the best plan. Weather app said it felt like 44C. I felt really bad by the end.

Started off pretty badly, too. Thought I had found 1, but when I tried to go to 2, nothing made sense. came to a complete stop and took way too long to figure it out.

Did OK after that, in terms of navigation. Kept moving, too, although I felt really slow by the end.

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

Sunflower State Games O Race. A nice day at Washburn University. Fritz's course and Gene's map were well received. We had 8 day-of entries, which was a huge increase over past years. We had 28 pre-registered. 36 entries: another record!

The site was great, indoor plumbing and AC. Hope we can use it again next year. Lots of help from Dick, Paul, Reta, Mike, Gene, and Fritz. Plus Blair, George, and Pat helped pick up markers. We all went to Tortilla Jacks for lunch after. A good day.

But still very tiring. Felt wiped out for the rest of the day.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...
Had to do some O this week, so I did a bit of trail O at Clinton

then added some more trail work at a decent pace. Until it got too hot and I got too tired and slowed down and finally just walked it in.

No way was I going to exercise outdoors today

Back to the Clinton trails. This was easier this week since I took more walk breaks. And I started earlier in the day. But the spider webs were a 3, since the "pre-runners" didn't cover the area where I ran (after the beach)

Sunflower State Games Track event
100m
17.47

Ugg. This was bad.
It's so hard to know how to warm and up and be ready, at just the right moment, to sprint. And I messed it up today.
I started to warm up way too soon, but I didn't know that. Plus it was so hot. Who runs races in the afternoon in July in Kansas? There were so many kids running the 100, and they took so long between classes. So I ended up running/walking around for twice as long as I usually do. And I like to do one full on 100-meter sprint about 8-10 minutes before my race. But today, I ended up doing it about 4 minutes before my race.

Must remember that everyone is very chatty on the line (which made it hard for me to get into the right frame of mind). Re-introduced myself to Stacy Riggins. Three women in my heat, each of us the only one in our age class. So guaranteed first place.

I muffed up the start: took a short hop before my first step.
Then, I got so tired near the end, that I lost form and actually wandered toward the next lane. Uggg!

While I did not enjoy my race, I always enjoy watching the differences at track meets. This one was filled with kids (8 and under was the first age class). Also, lots of black athletes, which are unfortunately very rare at all other athletic events I attend (whether master's track or orienteering). Some very good athletes, who are fun to watch.

Worked at home today, so I got out for some quick O before it got too hot.
I drew a course on West Campus. Made it a bit more challenging ("short but intense") by running as fast as I could on every other leg. I also tried to jog the other legs, and not stop at all. I ran out of oxygen for the brain by leg 7.

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

Planned a 90-minute trail run early in the morning. But I slept in and watched TdF. Got on the trail around 10:30, and it was starting to heat up. Just walked and jogged as I felt like it. Started to stumble around 1 hour, so I cut it short to 75 minutes. Need to get back into trail running shape this summer.

Mike and I drove up to Clyde MO to visit my aunt (who is a nun in a monastery there). She had fallen and broken her hip while we were in ID. We wanted to see how she was recovering. She was doing very well, PT is working, she is already tired of using the walker.

Nice dinner at Malay Cafe on the way home.

Ad Astra Moonlight Track Meet
100m = 16.74 (hand timed)

A local running shop held a track meet at Free State High tonight (under the full moon). This was a fun event for me, since most of the participants were young, fit athletes. Maybe 75 participants in total? They had 100, 200, 400 and mile races. Plus 4X800 relay and long jump.

Saw Gene, chatted a bit and then started my warm up. I imagined a tweak or two in my calf, so I decided to put on my compression sock, if only to make me forget about my calf (that worked).

Only three women running the 100: me, a twenty-something and a 3-year-old girl (really!). I think they recruited the last two just so I wouldn't be the only one. The 3-year old and her dad were in the lane next to me and I was nervous about what she might do, wander into my lane or something. (In the end, her dad held her back until we started).

I felt like I got a good start, and then when I looked up, the 20-something was moving into my lane! I was only a step or so behind her, so this threw me a bit. But then she took off and I was left to run my own race. Felt OK but not as strong as would like. Pushed a bit at the end and leaned into the finish.

Stayed to watch Gene run his 100 race next, then chatted with some others until they announced the results. My time was 16.74 (hand timed).

Decided to stay and watch the mile races and I'm glad I did. It was fun to watch the other athletes, from super fast, to amazing kids (an 8 yo boy ran 7:15) to an older woman who was thrilled to break 10 minutes. It was a fun event. I'm glad they did it.

Mike and I drove down to Fort Scott to check out Gunn Park. The original plan was to bike and run, but we ditched the bike idea and just ran. I drew a short course to make it more interesting for me. It was a nice area, on the flood plain, with lots of bends in the trail. Also very humid with flies and spider webs. My legs were tired from yesterday so I did a lot of walking. I tried to keep up the concentration by turning the map with each bend in the trail.

The trails were a little wonky around 4 and 5. New trails added, and some trails blocked off with tape (they have a race next weekend). Saw a few deer (including a fawn) and heard a very strange animal, swear it sounded like a snoring pig...) Ran into one person, on a bike, who stopped me to ask about trail conditions.

When I was approaching 5, they had a trail map posted. First, it wasn't oriented, which was annoying. Second, it said "I was here" on the trail leading to 6. That seemed wrong to me, but I was confused already and didn't want to be late, so I turned around. Went through the open areas around 7-9 but seemed to have missed 9. This was a fun day, glad we went.

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

Nice picnic dinner at Mom and Ron's tonight with MeanGene, Dee, Damon, Sandy, and others.

It was not too hot and not too windy today, so I decided to try the Lawrence Loop again. Started from Burroughs Trail, so I could cross the traffic areas during a quiet Sunday morning. Also, the hills would come sooner, rather than later, which killed my last attempt. I went counter-clockwise (seems like most other cyclists were going clockwise?)

Got a little mixed up on 3rd/2nd Street around the hospital, and took an inexplicable detour on Kasold for a few blocks. The junction by Haskell and 31st (which I missed last time) is now marked with a nice sign. So, I eventually completed the whole official loop! This is a PR for me in terms of distance and time on the bike.

This was a nice tour of Lawrence. I saw lovely remodeled old homes, derelict homes, very modern new homes, trailer parks and a few million dollar homes (rare in Lawrence). I passed industrial buildings, highways, birding wetlands, and cornfields. I rode on country roads and bike paths. I saw one deer and no cows. I saw Haskell Univ but not KU.

I stopped at the ball diamonds for a rest break, and at Walmart for a food break. Actually, I wasn't really hungry, this was more an excuse to move my legs in a different way and give my butt a break. Legs are really tired and heavy now, but I'm so glad I did this!

Watched the Sprint WOC, then went out for a bike ride. Stopped at one of the two fireworks tents along Kasold to get a few things for tomorrow night.

Then did a short outing around Holcom to get my calf moving again. My masseuse felt there was more tightness in the Achilles, not the calf. My Achilles did get a bit stiff during the run but feels fine now.

Now relaxing and watching the TdF time trial.