Training Log Archive: Sandy

Walking along the Boulder multi-use trail before catching my ride to the airport. Lots of reminders of the flooding with some underpasses still closed. Turned around when the sign said the trail further up the canyon was closed. Checked out the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House which looked really cool but it didn't open for another hour.

Hike up Mt. Parnassus.

About a mile in Bennett wondered if I'd be interested in going up a different way than normal and he pointed out a route that went sort of straight up as opposed to around the big bowl and up the ridge on the trail. I said sure, sounded good to me. So off we went. It was pretty open so easy to see where we were going. I suggested contouring around just a bit so we didn't have to climb down from where we were to get across the reentrant and that's what we did (right around 11,000 feet). The next 1000 feet of climb were fine, zigzagging a bit but mostly heading up the nose. We were above tree line but the ground was mostly grass and the footing good.

And then it got interesting. We started hitting all these rock screes. Some were made of biggish rocks, others were more like loose gravel. At first we tried to go around or quickly across them and find the grassy bits. Then it got really steep and I found that I actually liked the biggish rocks better because by that point I was climbing using my hands and the big rocks gave me something to grab on to. So I got used to walking tilted in to the mountain with one hand grabbing on to the rocks to steady myself. I'm not leaning in a whole lot - things were that steep that just putting my arm out I'm practically touching the side - and I was still pretty much upright. And then it got steeper. So I decide to climb on all fours. This actually made it so I could go faster because I just went straight up instead of zigzagging. And so I climbed another 1000 feet scrambling up rocks for the most part. And after lots of huffing and puffing - and being glad of all the double stair workouts I've been doing - made it up the steep part. The last little bit to the very top was a stroll which was good because the views were phenomenal and I could look around and appreciate it. On the way up I had to focus entirely on where I was putting my hands and feet and didn't look around much.

It turns out that the way we went up was shielded from the wind. Once up top though, it was blowing pretty hard. I started to get cold fast and so we only stayed on the summit for a few minutes. We went down the way most people go up and the wind was just crazy. I wanted to stop and eat but there was no place to stop that was sheltered so we went down quite a ways before I felt like I'd be warm enough. I finally just lay down in the open grass with the sun shining on me and felt warm enough to stop and eat and enjoy the views some more.

And then it was just hard work to get down without destroying my knees. My arms were very tired from putting so much weight on the trekking poles but without them I'd probably have taken three times as long to get down.

All in all a very successful weekend. I had no trouble with altitude that I could tell - no headache, dizziness, shortness of breath. I was huffing and puffing while climbing, but any time I would stop to rest, I would recover quickly. Granted Kilimanjaro is another 6000 feet up, but the only way I'll find out how I do there is to go!

C • Super - what's the altitude there? 10

Hiking at around 9000 feet to see if it had any affects on me. No headache or anything. Knees held up fine too. Again, forgot to start the watch right away.

A quick afternoon hike to stretch my legs after the plane ride and to get acquainted with the guide, Bennett, and I suppose for him to suss out my fitness level, etc. He was a pretty cool guy, had lots of interesting information and inspired confidence.

It was raining lightly and everything was fogged in. Could have been anywhere. Forgot to start the Garmin until we got up on top of the mesa.

Another day of putting out stakes. About 2 hours in I realized I wasn't having fun. First time that's happened while working on this event. Guess I need a break. About 3 hours in I decided that was enough and just headed in instead of finishing the intended loop.

The woods are opening up nicely. Should be pretty fast come November.

It is hard to stay positive sometimes. I just had to cancel a credit card because someone had obtained the information and was making fraudulent charges and then I get a very real looking email saying there was a problem with my bank account and asking me to call a number to resolve it. At first I was worried it was somehow related to my credit card issue but luckily bells went off and I checked on-line and it was a scam. At least I had the smarts not to open the attachment. Sooner or later though I'm sure I won't be careful enough. It's depressing.

C • Glad the CC companies cooperate 5

I stayed on my own property today!

Stair repeats plus all the arm strength parts of the RTP. Was listening to an audiobook and the time went fast.

Putting out stakes at FCN, collecting streamers of controls that did not end up getting used, doing some trail maintenance, etc. Didn't realize the time and had to cut short the planned route to get back before it started getting dark. I could have stayed out another half hour or so but not much more than that. Need to get an earlier start from now on!

The good news is that my feet feel great and my legs aren't really tired from yesterday. The bad news is the bugs are still bad and I got bit by some little gnatty thing on my ear and under my eye both of which are now puffy and swollen. Yuck. I thought the coolish weather today would make a difference - it did on feeling great out in the woods but not on the bugs. Guess we need a frost before they go away.

Event: Hudson Highlander XVII
 

Lowlander with Sandy A. No real errors - always executed the plan. The plan may not always have been the best but it worked for us. Hiked the whole thing (other than 50m near the end when it felt good just to use different muscles for a minute). Used trails for many routes as the legs without trail options tended to be through very thick blueberry and there were some very physical legs climbing up and over cliffs and ridges so the restful trail legs were welcome.

The first leg was about 4.5km straight across the Silvermine map. (We took trails around to about 300m from the control.) Then 2 through the Finish wound it's way back across the map for 13.2km total.

Sandy's Garmin says over 10 miles actual distance.

It was fun to have the leaders of the Highlander come through as we went through the last few kilometers of the course - about a dozen or so finished the High before we finished the Low.

Great day to be in the woods of Harriman. One control was on top of some mountain (I forget the name) and the views south were stunning; you could even see the NYC skyline in the distance.

C • Great work! 7

Lowlander - Splits

FCN work; just bits and pieces. I felt a significant lack of pep.

TNT - walking around the track with Dash. Still not much energy.

Wonderful dinner with Clem and Dasha who are just back from Russia, Jim who is back from his myriad hikes most recently across Spain, Marion who has come to do some mapping for DVOA, and members of Dasha's family who stopped by to hear all about the trip to Russia. Edit: And Vadim! How did I forget Vadim!

C • TNT 1

Hiked over to Chestnut Hill to catch the train downtown for a meeting. Not really dressed well for either the meeting or the hike.

Sandy A did the first half with me.

And the hike back home. Got off one station earlier which was a little closer, but that station doesn't have a ticket office so I hiked to the further one in the morning since the tickets are more expensive if you have to buy them on the train.

After two days of being a total couch potato, got myself out the door this morning.

RTP - and a quick strength session before heading in to school.

Event: DVOA Hickory Run Sand Spring Lake
 

Brown course. Had planned on Green but I was pretty tired and decided Brown would be more fun. A couple of hesitations but no real problems. I really do know the park really well and know that I save a lot of time by just knowing where things are. For instance, it's hard to see one of the trails on the map but I know it's there so I just run for it whereas if I didn't know I'd have to spend time figuring out how to get down the hill. And the contours in one area are really confusing but I've already spent time sorting it out so I don't have to during the course. Anyway, had a good time. Didn't run much though. Packing a few too many extra pounds again.

Got stuck at the park doing epunch until 4pm. Long day.

C • Thanks for the instruction on Sat 3

Brown - Splits

Event: DVOA Hickory Run Sand Spring Lake (training)
 

Event: DVOA Hickory Run Sand Spring Lake (night-o)
 

Also organized a little relay at the end of the day using one of the exercises that people enjoyed.

All in all, I think the advanced training went well. I had streamered 4 exercises and gave everyone the maps and talked about what each exercise was designed to work on. About 15 people took off and just did them on their own, another 15 or so (mostly cadets with some other fast runners thrown in) went with Mark Cornish who would start them on exercises and then regroup with them afterwards and go over things. That left another dozen or so and Corrine Porter and I split them into a group that wanted to just walk and go as a big group and those that wanted to jog a bit and do things more solo. I took the walkers as a group and Corrine took the others. For the first time that I've done training, the groups were homogenous enough to work well and I think everyone got something out of it.

Night-O with Anne Fitch. Nice course but I was really beat by the end. Had a great time with Anne. One miss for a few minutes but mostly just slow.

Advanced Training: Took a group out on the route planning exercise and talked about using big features to navigate along and thinking about what you want to see in front of you and not just trying to figure out where you are. Several really seemed to get the idea.

Advanced Training: Took the same group out on the O-terval course. It was good practice on a different part of the map with slightly different terrain but we didn't really do the course as intervals. I walked behind everyone collecting streamers and shepherding those that were getting off course. Again, tried to get them to think about what they should be seeing and not just after they got there.

Advanced - Splits

Hanging streamers for the 4 advanced training exercises. Nice day out but I was slow.

Fine tuning courses at FCN after getting some feedback from test runners.

Very hot and humid and my battery died on the fan half way through so buggy for a bit as well. Luckily the wind picked up near the end and kept things bearable.

Was going to drive to a far section of the map but then decided the 25 contour line climb back to the car would be good for me. Drenched by the time I got done. And to think it's supposed to be in the 40's at HR overnight this weekend.

Just checked - it's actually supposed to be in the 30's!!

TNT - Core DVD with Sandy while Karl ran.

Pre-TNT hike with Sandy.

Stair repeats: (5 minutes double stairs, 5 mins single) x 4 plus a little warm up and cool down.

I like the way garmin shows me visiting my neighbor.

C • haha 2

Training up at the Water Gap. Did part of the NAOC Blue Long course. Got bogged down trying to be sure we were in the right place occasionally. Then we were about 2/3 of the way to 13 (one of the long legs) and decided to just go to 18 instead and skip 13-17 and then didn't bother with the little loop after the spectator control. A nice day in the woods and good to get more time on my feet and some hill climbing.

Forgot to bring my Garmin. :(

Went back to look at the creek crossing from Monday's hike and we did miss a turn. The trail we should have been on crosses the creek a little lower down the reentrant than we were but you still have to rock hop your way across. I looked at where we did hit the creek and it would have been easily crossable today, too. So I'm thinking we wouldn't have wanted to cross in the correct place anyway.

Used both poles today and got in an easy rhythm pretty quickly.

Have a couple bad blisters on the two littlest toes of my left foot, but bandaged them up and they were okay. I'll blame the slow(ish) pace on stepping a little gingerly.

Core DVD

TNT at the Ahlswedes. Forgot to start my watch right away. I just hiked down to the drive and back up again while Sandy and Bob ran the meadow loop and Karl and Greg ran other trails. I've decided to not run for several weeks at least and perhaps not until after Kilimanjaro.

Great dinner afterwards; Karl and Sandy went all out for Greg's last dinner in Philadelphia before heading back to Spain.

C • running abatement 1

Sandy's Garmin said 15.15 for the mileage.

Oh, yeah! We rock! Did the southern half of the 4-corners Wissahickon loop. With a few miles extra to get to where we cut off yesterday. In the rain. And then in the pouring rain. And then with thunder and lightning - with one so close I freaked and screamed. And then with trails that were little streams. And then finally with a huge detour since the small creek crossing that you could rock hop had turned into a raging torrent that looked unsafe. (Or maybe we missed a turn and hit the creek at the wrong spot. Not sure.) And Sandy needed to get back for something so we had to book it the last two miles.

I hurt less than yesterday. Loaded up on vitamin I and took a hiking pole.

C • kicking butt as usual 5

Half of Karl's 4 corner run in the Wissahickon with Sandy. Her Garmin says 11.4 miles and if anything, I went a bit further from my house to our meeting spot. So a little unsure about how far it really is.

This was tougher than I expected.

C • Cool 4