Training Log Archive: Sandy

TNT - 5 miles on the Drive with Sandy and Dasha, plus jog down and walk home. Felt reasonable for 4 doing a little under 10 min. pace, then legs suddenly felt like they had lead weights on them. First time I've just walked the whole way home in a long while.

GreenY course at FLO event. Good race but got sloppy leaving two controls. One was minor, hitting a trail further south than I intended so I took the trail route to the spectator control instead of going straight. But the other could have been disastrous. I crossed a trail, checked for the bend which I could see and continued on. And hit another trail which I was definitely not expecting. Totally flummoxed I slowed down and realized I had been heading at right angles to my intended direction and the trail went the way I wanted to be going. So I started running down the trail. I had been pretty much just going straight to every control and had never even noticed that this trail was there since it wasn't the most direct route and the trails in general didn't give you any better running than through the woods. I figured out what I had done pretty quickly though and the trail was actually pretty good footing and I knew where I was when I left the trail and went right into the control. So a small time loss but not too bad and pretty much nailed everything else. Woods were a bit thicker and my legs were a bit more tired so harder to run.

Excellent time in Florida. Fun terrain, good courses, good people.

C • welcome back to the tundra! 2

Green Y - Splits

Green course at the FLO event. Good race. A little tentative to the first control and an unintentional curvy route to #3 (hmm...why is there a reentrant over to my right...it should be in front of me...guess I need to be over there...) but pretty solid otherwise; it helped having been out on the sprint course. Lost a little steam near the end but was able to make myself keep pushing. Found the terrain really, really friendly - the lack of rocks and climb meant I could push the running without worrying about my knees or ankles.

Green - Splits

Event: US Team Fundraiser
 

Sprint at the FLO event. Sloppy in places - had several "hook" routes. Never out of contact, just couldn't seem to run straight! Went out after most people were done: the advantage was that I didn't get distracted by anyone but I didn't get any of the advantages of seeing other people either.

Sprint - Splits

TNT. Ran with Dasha. Made her do all the talking so I could keep up.

Jogged down to the drive and then walked/jogged back up. I guess it adds another mile and a half total.

A short trail run after school today. It is soooo nice to get home and still have enough daylight to run if I want. Felt reasonable so I think I'm over my cold. Did some nice stretching when I got back plus some ab work and arm stuff. My knees and hips have been achey for a few days but better today - perhaps it was related to the cold?

Did 4 miles on the drive. I'm still feeling the lingering effects of a cold, but felt good enough to head out this afternoon for more than just another walk. I was planning to just take it real easy but after getting down to the drive and doing about 3/4 of a mile I realized I was pretty stiff and tight so I walked the rest of that mile. And then I ran another half. And then I walked about 1/4 and ran the other 1/4 for another half mile. And then walked some more and then ran about 3/4 of a mile and so on. So I'm really walking a good bit but running a good bit too although not trying to push it or anything. But it truns out that when I was running, I was going at a decent pace since all the miles were at about 10:45 pace. And I've been known to run at that pace without walking a step!

C • run/walk speed 4

Walked for about 90 minutes down in the Wissahickon and then to the grocery store. I'm fighting a cold though so I was just strolling to get some fresh air. It seemed like Dennis was going through a box of tissues a day this week so I'm not surprised I finally succumbed to it.

A long trail "run". Too much chocolate, too little training and still lots of snow in places meant I just couldn't keep up a jog no matter how slowly I went!

C • Thanks! 14

TNT - Jim, Lou, Karl, Bob, Anne, Sandy and me. With the snow and icy spots on the drive we decided on just an easy jog with different groups going different distances.

Good to get out. I haven't felt particularly motivated to do too much lately. I'm really angry about the whole relay debacle. Unfortunately, I don't run any faster when I'm angry - I generally don't run at all.

We were finally getting some club spirit going and had grand plans for fielding about eight relay teams with most of them having shots at medals in the various categories. With the points changes, we have to completely redesign the teams and much of the enthusiasm has just fizzled. To the point where I don't even want to go anymore. We'll see.

C • Hi Sandy. I was very sad that ... 2

Lots of snow shoveling!

C • How much snow? 2

A very easy jog on a short but hilly loop.

Woohoo!!! Planned to do 5 miles down on the drive but my legs felt good, better than usual, on the jog down the hill to the creek. Once on the drive, cranked out the first half in a little over 4:45 (usually 5+ minutes since I'm warming up really), then the next in just over 4:30 and still felt really good. So I said, what the heck, now's as good a time as any, let's see what I can do. And here's what I did: 4:49, 4:34, 4:22, 4:14, 4:44, 4:21 for a grand total of 27:04 for three miles. (There's a hill, very small but still a hill, at the end of the second to last half which always slows me down; I had to really concentrate to pick it back up again on the last half.)

Now you might think that I'd be disappointed to be so close to my goal of doing 3 miles at an average of 9 minute pace and not quite doing it but you'd be wrong. I am absolutely thrilled. This last month I've felt like I'd never ever get under 9:30 pace and even that was going to be tough. So to crank this out is wonderful. I have no idea why I ran so well today - different shoes, lower training volume for a couple weeks, killer days at school building up my endurance ;), TNT, stars aligned, whatever. And I've had two really fun weekends of orienteering as well.

C • Excellent!! 5

Short loop on the trails.

TNT - Bob, Jim, Anne, Lou, Karl, Sandy and me. 5 miles on the drive at an easy pace.

C • sorry we missed it... 1

jog down to the drive and back up the hill home

Very nice training course complete with flags set by Mark Cornish on French Creek East. Lots of climb (good training for thinking when tired - or at least that's what I was telling myself), but lots of great legs as well keeping out of the worst of the rocks. Wide open woods with super running in places.

Plan to run a revised course with the same controls next weekend; if I can drum up interest might try to make a training day of it.

C • Time in the woods... 4

Jogging after finishing until the others got back.

Along the drive.

Down to the drive and back home. The plan was for something easy on the knees in the gym or pool at school today, but with 60 degrees and sun that plan went out the window.

A little over 5 miles on the trails. Some good hills (Tecumseh statue), the mountain goat trail, long hill home.

C • Elevation 1