Training Log Archive: acjospe

Event: Blue Hills Traverse
 

To the Bermans, to buy a new compass!

Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Not so much the orienteering, although that was hardly great, but just sort of all the little things that were adding up and I couldn't get my head past them so all these little things built into an awful blur of miserableness, and all sorts of little things that normally wouldn't bother me were just too much. My body felt frail out there, wobbly ankles, tired legs, being whipped by branches stung more than it should have. The pointy rocks were particularly hard to deal with today, and for the effort I was putting out, I just wasn't moving at all. Brief second wind (although you can't really have a second wind if you never had a first one) when Bob L caught up, and I was like, shit, I better start running again. But then the downward spiral of self pity over nothings started up again, and I just couldn't kick my head back into cheery-land, by control 23 I was sobbing, what caused that was a particularly stingy whack to the face of a white pine branch, something that I normally wouldn't even notice, and I stumbled down the hill towards 24 unable to see much for tears and hiccuping and all that, no real reason for it. So then I went ahead and spent 15 minutes on #24, just sort of whining to the world in a pathetic little way about how much I was hating life and hating rocks and hating the terrain and hating the park and hating the map and hating the course and hating the sport. Luckily Bob caught back up at that point, so I started orienteering again instead of wandering in circles at a quarter-Sharon mumbling to myself and sniffling.

Going to take a break from orienteering for a bit until I can have fun in the woods again. It was fun once, right?

Also going to get my shit back together in the rest of life; I suspect stress played a role today.

C • stress 6

C • spent 15 minutes on #24... 2

Traverse - Splits

Foam roller. I woke up three separate times last night with awful charliehorses in my upper calves, worse on the right than the left. The sort of cramp that just doesn't end, and when it does you're gasping for breath. Not sure what brought that on, but I hope it doesn't happen again. Right knee also felt really funny when waking up, sore on the outside, not sure if its related to the charliehorses or what.

Littleton, with Ali. We got there just as the CSU crowd was finishing up, but it was super nice to sleep in a bit and not get up at the crack of dawn for once. I managed to forget my helmet; luckily John L had an extra one, but the price was 25 pushups! Once skiing I was having a super fun time, I just love that skiing motion.

Coaching Corey. Quite tired. Could have used a nap instead.

Finishing up some deliverables. With those done - deep sigh. Time for a busy day, but at least its light on thinking!

Ali quote of today: "I looked at long underwear today. I don't really need new long underwear, but its really fun!"

C • Long underwear 3

Around Mt. Toby, hiking the uphills, moving slow, easy. Got to the top just as the sun crested, it was absolutely beautiful. Good way to start an otherwise hectic day.

Quick core with Ali, then dinner with a visiting dignitary at Peter and Gail's!

C • dinner 2

Specific strength with Ali, on the river road hill. The elbow felt fine for all of this, woot! It was fun to ski together, but we definitely were pushing each other more than we would have without someone else - the 4x1 V2 repeats were hard. Also, eating breakfast #1 before the ski vastly improved my mood. I felt good though, looking forward to winter races!

C • #2 ? 2

Missed the last bus home by over three hours, but it felt good to stretch my legs. The list of impending doom is growing shorter, but that just means I'm leaving the bigger things on the list for later...

Went over to Mt. Toby to explore. Found a good hill to bound on, doubletrack, steep, fairly consistent grade. Did 3x~7min ski walking, took a while to convince the body to get going but it was a fairly pleasant morning for it. Went from where the stream crossed the trail up to where the trail flattened out by the rock and the fork. Times were ?, 6:50, 7:06, with 4-5min rest back to the bottom. Garmin was being poopy, kept turning off and wouldn't read HR. I was a bit stiff from strength last night, and this helped loosen the legs up.

Corridor training with Phil at Norwottuck. It was damp and misty, but not raining. I had a lot of trouble actually running - I did a lot of trudging. I wasn't actually having that much fun. Only huge mistake was on the way to #1 - lost about 4 minutes to Phil there, maybe a minute on the one by the little lake, and 30-60s bumbling around the last one. Lesson: when there are two people, do something partner-like. Its more fun. Also, I don't really like my baseplate, the needle is way too sensitive, so it wobbles around a lot if you're trying to look at it while running. The thumb compass went missing a few weeks ago. I should buy a new one, preferably before the Traverse...

Whee! Endorphins!

I needed that.

Stretching, and some balance after strength.

Core stuff with Ali. Much fun! The day was much better after training and hanging out and eating dinner. Happy now.

C • Ski-O 5