Training Log Archive: Sandy

Short hill loop.

An effort to get into better habits.

TNT - power yoga dvd with Sandy. We wimped out and didn't go hike in the rain. I wimped out even more and drove over to their house instead of walking over. Karl's mushroom soup made it all worthwhile.

C • TNT next week? 7

Core DVD

MoboGoGlobo - navigating Eric around the course. Eric was awesome getting to where he needed to be faster than I could believe especially the downhills. It takes me about the same going up as down but he was flying down the downhills and would be asking for information before I could imagine he was where he needed to get to. Only a couple of small hesitations, we messed up a bit to #1 because I had no idea what the feature was and then we lost the phone connection as well, then #14 must have been hard to spot because he got where he needed to be and didn't see a flag. Momentary panic as I couldn't imagine where else he could be but then he spotted it And then at the end I couldn't read the map since there was a lot of details but luckily the controls were out in the open and I headed him in the right direction and he would spot the control and just run to it.

Very fun and interesting too. A little strange to just hang up the phone at the end though.

C • congrats 8

short hill loop

Surprised at the time since my legs felt really dead. Was trying to rationalize why I was going to be so slow the whole last bit through the meadow and hill home.

Nice hike with Sandy. Thank goodness for peer pressure. ;)

New short hill loop. Still pretty slow but improving! Pretty good effort up the last hill in the park and the final hill to my house.

I was thinking about my pace and whether I am running what I always see referred to as "junk miles". But, if I went any slower I'd pretty much be walking and I can't go any faster for that distance at the moment so it seems like that's the only pace that makes any sense. Perhaps there is no such thing as junk miles until after you can run at some reasonably fast pace so that there's a significant difference between jogging and running.

C • junk 3

TNT - hike with Sandy, Jim and Bob.

I was unable to exert even an ounce of willpower and so what started as a quick snack turned into a full dinner before heading over to Sandy's. Good thing we were hiking and not running!

Several hours up at HR checking things out; I'll count an hour of it.

Foolishly didn't take water with me when I went out and I was parched by the time I got back to my car.

Built myself a little log bridge to cross one of the creeks. Hopefully it will last through the spring so I don't have to get my feet wet when working in that section.

Event: QOC - Little Bennett Night O
 

Almost the same route as Wednesday but took one of the pink trails early on. Went by some interesting terrain actually.

The new short hill loop. Just slightly longer than the old one since they've rerouted some of the trails. Hopefully it's 3 miles since otherwise I am even slower than I thought.

The activity in the park is mind-boggling. There is a wood chip/shredded wood pile that looks to be about as big as my house at one end of one of the logged areas and my assumption is that they will use that for trails. There are now little pink wire flags in the ground in lots of places that say TRAIL on them presumably marking out where some new trails will go. There are also some posts marking what I believe will be larger main trails so it looks as if there is quite a network planned - some through the new meadows and some through the woods. I will probably be able to add some loops to make the run longer without ever running the same trail twice. And this is all between my reentrant and the Ahlswede's spur and not even going all the way down to the drive.

C • Sandy's reentrant 5

TNT - hiking with Sandy. Dennis and Karl ran. We went a little early - about 6 probably - and didn't need headlamps. Yay for DST.

Afterwards, Karl grilled some bok choy and chicken. Yum.

So this started out as a hike but as soon as I got to the sidewalk in front of my house I felt like jogging and so I took a "walk if I feel like it" attitude and ending up jogging more than half, maybe 3/4 of it. Sort of the second half of the loop I did earlier in the week - cut down to the side-hill trail near where I've been cutting up and then continued on. The new detour trail was very nice footing since it still has ground cover as opposed to being mostly dirt.

The trails were in surprisingly good shape. The Wissahickon, though not over its banks in the section where I could see it, is running very high and fast.

A most remarkable thing happened today as I was putting groceries in my car in the pouring rain. A woman walked up to me and handed me a bouquet of flowers from the store and said "I want you to have these." Dumbfounded, I thanked her a few times and she said "On a day like today, we could all use something to brighten things up." And then she walked over to her minivan and got in and drove away.

Every time I glance at the flowers on my counter, I get a big smile on my face. I wonder if I will have the inspiration to do this myself some day.

C • That's awesome 9

Core DVD

Had some weird muscle/ligament thing going on making it hard to straighten my right leg. Loosened up after a while but it was very painful and never quite went completely away. I wonder what I did.

Same as Tuesday. I think wearing shorts took a minute off my time! :)

So 20 minutes is not very much, and the loop is probably only a mile and a half, but I was dreading running at all and I've at least gotten myself out the door twice this week. Gotta start somewhere.

C • You should be pleased! 1

core DVD

HR - met with the rangers to discuss some logistics and tramped around a while looking for places to cross creeks. Found several - not sure whether I was more adventuresome today than last fall or if the streams were running a lot higher last fall but crossed back and forth one of the creeks two or three times today when I couldn't find a single place last fall. Got permission to build temporary "bridges" if we want.

Still a bunch of snow on the ground - 6-12 inches in the non-sunny spots - so didn't feel like doing very much today.

A very short loop in the Wissahickon. The trails are in great shape. Didn't want to be out very long and it was really, really slow going so cut up the hillside after a bit and came on home. Was pleased that I didn't have to stop and walk. It was more than a mile, less than two and I don't want to know how much less.

Brown course at the QOC Happyland event after working epunch in the morning for Valerie.

An okay outing - a bit of drifting on a couple of controls, a lot of drifting on one but corrected reasonably fast, and lots of hesitation. Knees were pretty sore so not a whole lot of running. Did manage to jog up the entire hill from the go control to the finish though. Still think a couple of the controls were bogus - they were at the US Champs and they still are now.

Brown - Splits

Did most of the green course - completely different area than the brown that I did for real on Sunday. There was a mishung control (hung where the course setter intended but the maps had a different ditch circled) about 2/3 of the way and after that I just lost all incentive. My knees were aching pretty badly by the end. Had a huge error early on - was not making sense of the contours and in trying to figure it out drifted way to the right and then didn't follow my compass and ended up much further to the right. Finally realized I was on high ground and would be going down to my control instead of up and then it all made sense but I still wasn't exactly sure where I was. Had enough sense to turn left and after crossing the second reentrant and standing on a spur figured it out and then went right to the control. Guess I need some more O training with maps.

Also pretty tired so need some running training too.

Event: A-meet and 2nd Annual Gateway Grunt & Runt - Hawn
 

I want to do another 24 hour rogaine. I haven't been training though - this time last year I had done 6 hours, 8 hours and 12 hours I think. (Too lazy to check when Valerie and I did the FH O Marathon test but it was early March I think.) This year I've done squat. I will shortly begin long days in the woods at HR but not sure if that will be sufficient to get me ready for anything this spring. But I really would love to do the Big Muddy. But that also means finding a partner. Hmm....

C • Lining up 4

The first part of the core dvd plus some yoga.

TNT - hike with Jim and Sandy on the slushy, muddy trails in a misting rain. A fabulous evening.