Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Event: ROC - Powder Mills Park [2011 Series #6]
 

Powder Mills Red course. Straight-line distance was 7.2 km, with 325 m of climb (AP analysis of my GPS track said I climbed 375 m).

I was on the fence about whether to do this meet or not, for a couple of reasons. I've been having some issues with my left knee lately, which seem to be aggravated by going uphill or downhill (and I know there'd be plenty of both at Powder Mills). Because of the knee issues, I've backed way off on my running lately, so I'm not in the greatest shape. And I've had a nagging cough for the last 4-5 days, and I didn't know if exerting myself would be the best thing in terms of trying to shake it.

In the end, I decided it was too nice of a day not to orienteer. I decided to do the Red course, with the intent of walking almost the whole course, but trying to orienteer as cleanly as possible. I didn't quite succeed on either goal, but I came close. I did a little more running than I had planned on, but a lot less than if I wasn't hindered by the various issues. I didn't have any major mistakes but more bobbles and (in hindsight, of course) non-optimum route choices than I would have liked.

Possibly some comments on specifics about how I did later ...

C • Grad splits please;-) 1

Red - Splits

Pickleball at Webster Rec center, with an informal group that was initiated out of the Tues morning group I play with.

The level of play was a bit higher than the Tues morning group due to a couple of the weaker players not being there today, and Cheryl (my spouse) playing. It was Cheryl's first experience playing actual games, or playing doubles at all, but she used to play a lot of tennis, so her game quickly became better than the weaker Tues morning players. Plus one fairly experienced player, who doesn't play on Tues mornings, was there. We had 8 people for quite a while, then it gradually dwindled to 4 by the time we were ready to quit.

Late morning walk with Homer, over to Finn Park.

Easy run on the Hojack Trail with trailsnail. My first run in a while; my knee has been feeling fine the last few days (no discomfort going up or down stairs). It felt totally fine for the first 2 miles of this run, but then started to show a little discomfort for the next half mile, but strangely enough, was then fine for the last half mile. So I'll see what it's like tomorrow, before concluding whether running does or doesn't seem to aggravate it.

The elevation trace looks very bizarre for a place like the Hojack Trail, and says I climbed 197 feet which is tough to believe. So I over-rode what AP said, and changed it to 60 feet, much more realistic I think.

Late morning dog walk on a cool, dark, drizzly day.

Tuesday morning pickleball group. Definitely lower level of play than Monday evening, but still enjoyable. One newcomer was there who had never played before, but she is a tennis player and in decent physical shape; she picked many aspects of the game pretty quickly, and I would think if she keeps playing, which she said she will, she'll easily be one of the best people in the group. She and I wound up teamed up for one game, and beat the opponents 11-0.

C • happy pills 2

I also joined the Monday evening pickleball group at the Webster Rec Center. Far different from the Tuesday morning -- certainly a higher level of play. There were 6 there tonight (usually there are more, I was told) -- 4 men and two women. One guy was definitely older than me but way more experienced and better. The other guys seemed a bit younger than me; the two ladies looked like they could be around 50 (WAY younger than me). I was by no means the best in this group; maybe around the median, if I want to be generous to myself.

Dropped off some picture files to get printed at Wal-Mart, then went for a walk while the pics were getting printed.