Training Log Archive: Sandy

TNT - extended Indian loop with Sandy. Going down to the drive by the horse stables and not just straight down Cathedral makes it a little easier on my knees and adds a little to the loop. Karl, Jose and Bob ran the loop and measured it (with Garmin or something equivalent). It's not quite 4 miles.

3 miles on the drive

Was planning on 4 but was getting light-headed again. Definitely dehydrated.

C • Nice pace for such heat. 1

The walk down to the drive (about 12 minutes), the mile at the end that I walked instead of jogging (about 15 minutes), the walk up the hill (about 13 minutes - jogged the part on Cathedral).

Run/walk on the beach in the sand in my bare feet. Walked for 4 minutes, jogged for 5, walked 2, jogged 5, walked 2, jogged 2. Slightly better than the planned walk 5, jog 5 and repeat. I just knew that running in the sand would be really hard for more than a few minutes at a time and this seemed doable. I went early enough in the morning that it wasn't crowded or even that hot.

Yoga. Had to stop because I was getting light headed. Every time I stood up I would get the vision closing in routine and after 20 minutes it hadn't stopped so I figured I shouldn't push it. Probably should have eaten something or drank more before running and then doing this.

Core DVD.

C • Nice! 1

The extended Indian loop. I went down to the drive the longer way - less pavement, less steep, less poison ivy which added a little bit to the time. However, I totally died at 40 minutes and walked a good bit more of the last part than usual and that's probably the source of most of the extra minutes over last week's time.

Note to self: look into plastic safety glasses with a bifocal insert
(Thanks Charlie!)

http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/safreadglas.html

C • Choices 4

First part of the Yoga DVD. Worked up a good sweat. Stopped when he got to the stuff requiring bending your knees all the way. Should have started earlier - didn't have the energy to think about what to do instead.

TNT on my own. Short hill loop watching my feet the whole way.

Was going to do the longer Indian loop but my ankle is still a little tender and I was on my own so I figured why push it.

Core DVD.

C • Show off! 1

DVOA event, Phone-O at SCEE. We had to stay on trails so a good use of a small park with thick vegetation. Teamed up with Vadim who navigated me perfectly and then we switched. We had one near mess up when there were more trails than mapped and then I got careless at the very last control and he went around instead of straight. Lots and lots of fun. In retrospect, I probably could have run a bit more than I did.

A Rodney Yee yoga DVD. I like this a lot better than the Blue Dog Yoga one. There was a bunch of stuff near the end that I had to modify - some backbends (I just did bridges) and then a bunch of stuff requiring bent knees beyond where mine bend. But the first 40 minutes was excellent and a great workout.

Plan to run tomorrow but will tape my ankle.

Core DVD. Thanks, Valerie, for motivating me!

C • No! Thank you! 2

(*&%%$# rolled my ankle again. Was running along on the short hill loop feeling pretty good, thinking about some work stuff, the trail was flat and wide and mostly dirt and boom, I was down and have no idea what happened. Icing now; it hurts a lot.

C • oh no! 5

Reserve room for COCs.

TNT - same loop as last week; took a little longer since Sandy wasn't there to push the pace. With Jim. Nice crowd: Chris, Clem, Greg, Jose and Karl as well as me and Jim.

Register for COCs.

Red course at Hibernia.

Phooey on Eddie! My goal was to finish in under double the winner's time and he was the only one that "lapped" me. I probably had 5 minutes of small bobbles and poor route choices though, so it was doable.

I actually had a lot of fun despite all the green and all the rocks. The course was set much like a middle course - my favorite - so lots of short legs and, while the trails were useful in lots of places, there weren't many really long trail options. My knees were shot by the end unfortunately so while I had the energy to run, it was too painful so I didn't.

Tons of poison ivy everywhere. I tried to be careful and tried to wash everything very carefully, but I'll be really surprised if I escape unscathed.

Red - Splits

4 miles on Forbidden Drive plus the down and up.
4139 for the 4 miles
Major improvement over last weekend.

Since I walked down the trail to the drive I was looking a little more carefully at the vegetation along the edge. It it pretty much solid poison ivy for the first 50 meters of the trail we usually take on Tuesdays into the park.

C • yikes! 1

Short hill loop. It's a little longer than what I was doing a month ago so I'm quite happy with this time. I know I started out pretty slowly - my good knee was pretty bad and it didn't loosen up until the first uphill - so I must have kept up a good pace on the back end of the loop.

Lots of things blooming now - astilbe, several types of day lilies, a couple of lilies, lamb's ear and even the prickly pear sent out one bloom already.

Core DVD plus a few additional yoga poses to stretch some muscles that were feeling tight.

Found that I could do the side planks much more easily if the forearm of my supporting arm pointed a different way. So instead of having it pointing in front of me, perpendicular to the rest of my body, I have it pointing straight away from my feet, parallel to the rest of me. In this position there is no pain in my shoulder and I was able to work on really doing the side lifts. It was harder to keep my balance but overall much, much better. I know my shoulders are sort of messed up, but it didn't occur to me to try different positions for this exercise. I can't remember what prompted me to try this, but about a week ago I was doing something and it occurred to me that I should try this the next time I did the dvd.

C • arm positioning 2

TNT - ran the Indian loop plus an extra loop added on with Jim and Sandy. Ran more of the uphills and felt reasonable. Bob, Ben, Greg and Jose were also there. Great dinner after.

(I swear I entered this yesterday; I wonder what happened to the entry. Must have forgotten to hit Submit.)

Hike in the Wissahickon. Knees felt pretty good. Maybe new shoes helped. Did some of the race route from yesterday.

Walked down to the drive, ran 4 miles at a ridiculously slow pace (11:30/mi) and walked back up the hill to home. Totally wiped me out. Time includes about 2 minutes of stretching down on the drive.

Wissahickon Trail Race - went and cheered the Ahlswedes. Also saw Chris Gross up near the front.

Fun to watch how well Sandra Z. is doing in Bulgaria. Can't wait to see how the US does at JWOC and WOC and WUOC. I so wish I was going along to one of these. Maybe next summer.

short hill loop; not a great time but at least I didn't walk any of it. Might have something to do with the amount I've eaten in the last few days.

TNT - Indian loop. A bit better than last week but not much. I think all the yard work I've been doing tired me out a bit.

Big crowd again: Sandy, Jim, Bob, Karl, Ben, Greg, Dennis, Jose, Clem and me.