Training Log Archive: Spike

Some easy jogging to warm up. I would have done more but I realized I was running late - the last start was supposed to be 12:00 and I just made it.

My normal warm up routine includes double checking the tightness of my laces. I didn't do that and it turned out the laces on the right shoe were a bit loose. The shoe slid a little on my foot during the course and I began to get a blister. I had to stop and fix the shoe during the course.

PTOC red at Longview.

I felt like a dog on a hot day. My tongue was hanging out and I was panting. Taking a deep breath was uncomfortable. But taking short breaths was ok. I ended up taking lots of really short breaths. I think that was why my heart rate was abnormally high despite not actually moving so fast.

The course was fun - simple controls points and lots of trails and paved bike paths. I think that was the best way to make use of the map and area - thanks, Kelly.

Ankle felt ok, a bit stiff now but not bad. Ribs felt ok. Fell once and that was uncomfortable and made me feel like I should be more cautious. Ribs are quite uncomfortable now. Hope that doesn't linger.

Sunny and mid 60s. Freakin mid 60s in January.

And last, I did an experiment. I ran with compression socks. I'd been intrigued by compression socks for airplane travel for a long time (since we flew KC - Chicago - Seoull - Ulan Bator). I picked up a pair at Garry Gribbles as an impulse purchase a month or so ago. I've used them the flights to/from Georgia. No idea if they helped. I read something on the web about using them while running and decided to give it a try.

http://okansas.blogspot.com/2009/01/todays-race-fu...

Easy jogging after work. I went through Burcham Park and circled the canoe team club house (very impressive building...or boathouse...or canoe shed...or whatever).

Ribs felt no worse after than before. Running in the forest is going to be less than comfortable but possible. So, I'm set for tomorrow's O' meet at Longview.

C • It's a shame. 3

A little rowing. The movement felt ok, but if I pushed the effort a bit I'd breath a bit hard and that would feel uncomfortable. I'd say that the effort was quite easy and no more uncomfortable than getting out of bed. I certainly felt a bit more comfortable going through my day today than i did yesterday.

Two nights of bruised-rib-sleep have left me feeling jet lagged. I'm hoping (and expecting) to get some decent sleep tonight.

Some good, some bad. The good was that my ankle felt pretty good. The swelling is down from yesterday. That bad was that after about 20 minutes I tripped on something (maybe a root?) and took a pretty hard fall. Sore all over - both knees, right palm, back of left hand, upper left arm, and left side of my chest.

C • You'd better start taking care of yourself... 3

Jogging on the cross country course at PHHS (mostly grass and some wood chips). I wore an Active Ankle and kept the pace easy (even for me!).

I guess it felt ok. I had some breathing problems and was conscious of my left ankle the entire time. But, I didn't feel like I was limping and it feels better now (after 20 minutes of jogging) than it did yesterday (after 10 minutes of jogging).

If I had a pair of work boots, I'd try Eric's suggestion. Instead, I'll just rely on the feeling that the swelling isn't any worse than it was yesterday.

C • cross training 7

30 on the land boat while watching some cycling on TV.

I jogged a little bit. It felt a little awkward. I can tell I'm favoring my ankle a little bit. But the ankle doesn't feel any worse after running than it did before.

It'd be nice if there were a simple way to measure swelling and inflamation. Is my ankle more swollen after running? How does the swelling compare to yesterday or the day before? When my leg/knee was trashed, I could measure the swelling with a tape measure and was able to track improvement. The ankle isn't as easy to measure.

An option might be to come up with a simple measure of how much I can move my ankle (range of motion) that would be easy to repeat.

C • High tops 3

Felt a little stiff, but otherwise ok. I'm also not limping for the first time since Sunday.

I stuck my foot in front of Mary for a second opinion. She said that the swelling was down (but still clear) and the black and blue was less.

Might try a bit of easy jogging tomorrow.

Maybe something tomorrow.

The 31 Day Challenge officially ends today. My ankle is swollen and sore enough that it'd be stupid to train today.

C • Bummer 1

Warm up jogging.

The main thing to say about today's run is that a couple of K from the finish I turned my left ankle/foot. It hurt a bit. I walked/shuffled to the finish. I wrapped it soon after finishing and took pretty good care of it.

On the flight home the ankle swelled a bit and it is worse now than it was before I got on the plane.

I am still holding out hope that it'll feel better tomorrow and I'll be able to keep up the 31-day challenge. Hope.

C • and that's why... 2

Red Day 2 - Splits

Event: GA Nav. Cup
 

A bit of jogging to warm up.

GAOC red course at Pine Mountain. My QR track:

http://okansas.blogspot.com/2009/01/todays-race-in...

Mostly I ran pretty well. Slow up the hills but otherwise I felt like I was moving pretty well.

Mary had the same start time as I did and she says that I laughed when I turned over the map and saw the first leg (I don't remember laughing, but I guess I remember thinking - of course, climb right away).

Some aches and pains - left foot and right ankle. Both feel reasonable right now.

It was cool to see a bunch of Barretts in the results lists.

It was also cool to finish ahead of Michael Norris on red.

Red Day 1 - Splits

I walked around a course that Mary designed on the downtown sprint map. I probably would have walked briskly except the footing was sketchy (slippery snow). I found a few things I need to fix on the map.

Fun.

Easy jogging on the map at Wyandotte - some line O' and then a few short legs with lots of direction changes.

Cold out there -- minus 3 in the a.m., warmed up to maybe 12 during the day, dropped down (quickly) to about 5 when I ran. But, no wind so it really didn't feel cold.

I was crossing the road at one point and a women in a car stopped to make sure I was ok. I told her I was fine, "just out for a jog." She seemed puzzled. I thanked her for stopping and checking on me on such a cold night.

No O' training tonight. I was on my way to the park when I realized I didn't have any shoes (I guess I could have run in my work shoes...that would have been comical). I didn't feel super motivated tonight. I felt sleepy. My foot has been getting better but still feels a bit off. It didn't help that it was about 15 degrees and howling wind. Anyway, I decided to take the day off.

I guess I've failed the 31 Day Challenge. But, I still plan to stick with lots of O' technique through the rest of January. I'll be happy if I can get a "30 of 31 Day Challenge" completed.

C • Actually I think you ought ... 4

Warming up and various jogging. I looked at the map now and then, but this wouldn't count as an O' session...

...I ran a route choice test on a leg of about 1 km. Simple orienteering, but I paid attention enough that this counts as an O' session. The wind made it a bit cold and the temp seemed to drop quickly was the sun was down.

Some easy O' practice on the Mt O' map. I ran after work and without a light. I had to stop under a few street lights to pick routes and memorize what I'd see because it was dark enough that reading on the run was difficult (dependent on being under a light when I needed to read the map).

My right foot has been hurting since yesterday after the run at SMP. It felt better as the day went along. If it weren't for the 31 day challenge, I wouldn't have run today.

Some jogging to warm up.

60-minute score O' at SMP. Ran early so we could get home and watch the Giants. Thanks Nick.

I ran pretty well. I started a bit easy and settled into a good pace. I pushed a bit over the last 10-15 minutes, hoping to get an extra control or 2. In the end, I got all but 4 - the 4 I didn't get were controls 1, 2, 5 and 6. I might have had a shot at picking up 6, but I was close to being over time (my final time was 59:40).

Felt good moving through the forest and the orienteering was working well.

Map with h.r quickroute:

http://okansas.blogspot.com/2009/01/todays-score-o...

Scary story about Jon Tvedt (who ran the WOC in 1993 for Norway):

http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?ar...

He died on a training run - got caught in bad weather and must have had some other problems. He was with 2 others, but died before he could be rescued. Sad story. A reminder about how cold, wet weather can cause problems even for a super-strong athlete.

I jogged around a sprint course at JCC (not to be confused with JCCC) and then did the even numbered controls and then explored the map a bit.

It was fun to run on a map I'd never been on before.

I think the back-to-back easy days was a good idea. Tomorrow I'll run the SMP 1-hour score course in the morning before the regular meet time (Mary arranged to run early so we can be home in time to watch the Giants game).

C • SET THE GOAL HIGH 4

60 and sunny - Loose Park was full of people. I shuffled around a sprint course, gradually picking up the pace as I went.

I was at audit training most of the day, but we got out a bit early (a little after 4). I went out to SMP and started with enough light to run without a lamp. After about 40 minutes, I had to turn on the lamp to read the map and after about another 10 minutes I needed the lamp to see in the terrain.

I did the odd numbered controls from Mary's SMP test loop. I kept the pace easy. My map reading and concentration were good with one exception - a minute + boom when I got lazy for just a few seconds. Same thing happened at Wyandotte two nights ago.

Lots of deer in the park as usual.

Fun stuff.

Easy effort on a night O' course at Wyandotte. The course was mostly in the open and on trails (and a bit on roads). I ran Pasi-style. Really fun and my legs felt good.

A bit of a warm up and then some jogging back to the car.

Fibonacci intervals on a night O' course (3 km) at Wyandotte.

I ran through some nice spots and a couple of really crappy sections.

Home just after the KU game started.

A low intensity night O' session on a contours only map of Bonner Park (1:5000 and 1 meter contours). Fun.

I realize that a difficulty with my January plan is that running in the terrain can lead to annoying aches and pains that would do better with a day off.

The run felt good and I realized that I'd been stressing a bit for the last day and a half. I spoke to a Rotary club about my job. I like talking to other auditors about my job, but I stress when I have to talk to non-auditors. I've no idea how it went. I ended on time. They had a few questions. I didn't get sick (yet).

I had to go to Lawrence because Ideree needed a lift from the airport to Lawrence. I decided to do some training at Clinton.

I jogged through a course at Rockcrusher. It felt ok, but I spent some time in rough (thick) forest that wasn't much fun. I warmed up on the way to the first control. I shouldn't do that. I seem to concentrate a lot better if I spend 10 minutes or so jogging around to warm up.

I spotted several eagles but didn't see any people out in the forest today.

I spent about 90+ minutes doing something like fieldchecking. I began fieldchecking. After about 20-25 minutes, my hands were cold and I couldn't get them comfortable. I thought about going back to the car and adding some clothing. But that didn't seem worth it. Instead, I put away the pencils and just walked around checking out the basemap and Eddie's "unsharp" Lidar images.

The Lidar stuff from Eddie lets you pick out some really small stuff - like calf deep ditches and remnants of long gone trails. Great stuff.

The temp was around 25 and the wind was blowing from the north. I don't normally fieldcheck when it is that cold. I guess that is why I under-dressed. I should have carried an extra jacket.

O' intervals at Wyandotte. I used the course Mary had as a hilly test loop last year (or maybe the year before). I was a little bit overdressed - didn't realize how warm it was until I started running.

After the O' intervals, I did some low pace stuff using the map of the winding trails on the east side of the lake. The map scale must have been around 1:2500 or so.

Fun stuff and I finished in time to arrive in front of the TV right at tip-off for the KU-Tenn game.

O' session on the not-yet-finished downtown sprint map. My plan was to keep a high LAM rate. But with all the traffic (people and cars) to worry about it was a bit difficult.

Warm weather - ran in shorts and felt perfectly comfortable.

Row, row, row...but only for 20 minutes.

Jogging at Woodridge with Lidar-based contours and DEM. I explored a bit, trying to make sense of some of the details I could see on the DEM. The data show a lot of stuff - some very shallow ditches and small depressions, for example. Really interesting. I think that with some practice, I'll be able to interpret a lot more from the DEM.

Some of the time was just running along, reading the details on the map.

We had a good group - Patrick, Marv, Pete, Gene, Dick, Nancy, Tracy, Fritz, Paul, Mary, and I. We stopped for a meal at 23rd St Brewery afterward. I was at the opposite end of the table from Pete, so I didn't here his experience of doing a brown course with Michael Commons first hand.

C • unsharp? 5