Training Log Archive: cporter

Core Workout Class - typical variety of ab, back, hip exercises. Susan taught the class today which means we got her nice long cool down/stretching session afterward. It was greatly appreciated after feeling a little tight from the Highlander (although no nearly as sore as I expected to be!)

Event: Hudson Highlander
 

My 1st Hudson Highlander - I now belong to the select number in the orienteering community that have completed the Hudson Highlander. It was a great race and I had a great time, but it was not without its trials and tribulations. To begin (literally,) I realized at the start the the sole of my orienteering shoe was completely separated from the shoe at my arch and was only connected by about an inch at both my toe and heel. In any race this is problematic, but especially so when running something as long as the Highlander at Harriman - I had a sinking feeling that after coming so far I wasn't going to get the chance to complete the Highlander after all. After a unsucessful search for some duct tape at the start I was able to beg a volunteer, Liz (aka my savior) to make sure a roll got placed in the 1st aid station box. Good thing too because although my shoe made it to the aid station, by the end of the race it was only attached at the toe. I'm not happy about this at all since I just bought them at the Team Trials last spring. Oh well.

The second "pain" of the race was the numerous bee swarms that I encountered - twice on the way to #3 which resulted in 3 different stings and then again on the way to #22 where I counted at least 4 stings, but may have suffered more, not like it mattered after the first 7. I'm just so thankful that Hilly, Sam and I were together because even after the bees had stopped stinging we realized that they were still hanging on to our clothing (Sam came up behind me and said I had about 8 on my back and very nicely swatted them off for me and still apologized for hitting me.) What a sight we must have been at that point just running helter-skelter through the woods swatting away and then swatting at each other. At least the up side of getting stung is the adrenaline rush afterward, we all felt pretty good on our way to the next control and the pain of the stings helped keep my mind off how tired I was.

So the course itself went well too. I was really excited when I figured out that we'd be running the 1993 men's WOC classic race. It was challenging, of course, but very doable. After the inital chaos of the mass start (and mass following) started to dissipate (on the way to control #3 for me) Kseniya and I decided to stick together and did so until she finished the Lowlander (not that I didn't try to convince her to do the whole thing with me!) To be honest we made some mistakes and a really bad route choice to #8 which involved some crawling through thick green in a swamp, but we had a really great time. It felt like we had only been out in the woods for an hour and a half when really it had been over 3! On our way to #13 we caught up Sam, Hilly, and a ton of cadets and the 4 of us girls stuck together and tried to ditch the cadets. Fortunately, we were able to (but we also lost Kseniya at the end of the Lowlander). Not wanting to also latch onto the Saeger girls without pulling my own weight I decided to stick with them (because I really do enjoy their company!) only as long as I was navigating with them. I thought I might lose them on the trail run because my legs were really starting to tighten up, but we once again set off together onto the last loop. I was ready to get left in the dust at any moment (another reason that I tried to stay on top of my navigation), but to my surprise I was able to keep pace with them (of course until we were finishing). The last loop was interesting - not great at points - but still fun with each other's company. I actually quite enjoyed the collaborative effort. Its always interesting to share each other's route choices after a race, but its another thing to watch other people work in the terrain, to see what jumps out at them as they navigate to the control. I think for how late in the race it was and considering other unfortunte events such as bee swarms we did reasonably well on the loop. We took a chance on the way to #25 that a trail in the middle of some pretty thick green would be findable (not sure that's really a word) and then also useable. We kinda-sorta found the trail, but it most definetly was not useable. I personally had one of my biggest map reading problems in that green (i couldn't make sense of a thing, I actually thought we were on a compeletely different hill) so I was especially glad at that point to be with Sam and Hilly. The way to #26 wasn't particularly plesant either through some more green that you just had to push your way through, but we got through. The rest was pretty smooth sailing, except when Hilly lost her epunch just as we were about to hit the trail when we were leaving #28, but after a little over a min of searching we found it. (Could you imagine if she had really lost it after virtually completing the whole coures?!?!?!) Then I just had to survive the final run in, not that bad really, but man was I tired.

I'm already looking forward to next year's Highlander!

C • yay 2

Kickboxing - sparring and the usual abs afterward.

NW Branch Trail starting at Colesville Rd up on the east side of the NW Branch almost to Wheaton Regional Park and back on the western side. Good run, the weather was fantastic today! Also, I ran the run about 8 min faster than I did the last time I ran it about 3 weeks ago (although a lot of that excess time is probably due to hesitation since it was the first time I ran the trail.) Took my new running shoes out for their innagural run and so far I'm not terribly impressed (fortunately I have the word of the Chevy Chase Running Co. that I could come in and exchange them for another pair if they don't work out.) I went for a top of the line cushion shoe because of all of the shin pain I've been experiencing, but since I ran on trails today I can't for sure say that the shoes did the trick. My shins felt pretty good today, but in place of the pain I've been having with them, I had a stabing paing in my left hip and glute. It was bad enough that I actually stopped to stretch them out - it helped, but the pain was def. still there. I'd plan to pick up a pair of arch supports to see if they help so lets hope for the best. If not though I'm not going to hesitate to bring the shoes back this time.

C • piriformis? 6

Of course it had to thunderstorm today precisely during the 2 hour window of time that I had to get out and run...instead I used the opportunity to go to Chevy Chase for new running shoes, so it wasn't a total loss. Hopefully now my shins will like me more.

C • Shopping & Kickboxing? 3

Kickboxing - today's class was by far one of the toughest classes I have had. There was a ton of intense cardio today and very little rest so my heart rate was probably quite hight for most of the class - I was bright red, dripping sweat and at points I actually struggled to keep myself from hyperventilating. We didn't do so much stregnth training today(which is usually our "rest") but the little that we did do was pretty tough so still little reprieve was gained there. Despite my exhaustion it was a good class with some pretty interesting new exercises and much to my shins' delight little jumping jacks/jump roping so hopefully my legs will be OK on my run later.