Training Log Archive: W

Well, a little bit more recovered today, so headed out for some speedy intervals. Mostly on road, there was definitely some parts that were covered in... well, water. There's quite a bit of flooding in the UK! Felt pretty fast on the road. Road is fast. I'd forgotten since I'm not running up a mountain.

I really, really wanted to go for a run to keep me awake from the jetlag, but then I fell asleep.

Quick jaunt around Canmore before my flight headed out to the UK. Kinda wet out there!

Ran the highline trail in Canmore at a very pleasant trial. The highline trail is grrrrrreat!

More mountain running! This time, up sulphur mountain in Banff. This was much more of a jog, though in the last 10 minutes ADrian picked up the pace and we started dropping the rest of those namby pamby runners.

They're pretty quick on the flats but I really felt like I put the hurt on when the climbing started in earnest.

We hoped to take the tram back down but they've started charging for the ride down as well, and hell no, so we ran back down too.

Re-ran the Banff Centre sprint that never happened. 'tis a shame, because it was pretty good. Also did it in the pouring rain and didnt' have a bag, so my map was a bit more flexible than when I started. Folding was more delicate than usual because of it.

Should've taken it a bit slower to number 1 since I briefly found things coming up on me too fast. Although its a sprint, I definitely need to make sure that number is one is calm, cool and collected.

Hiked up Mount Lady Macdonald. Round trip was probably 4 hours ish, but I'll just count the climb. Took it very leisurely. Planned to hit the top and consider the knife edge, but then we noted that a couple people's longer hair was sticking straight up thanks to the grey clouds above (static electricity), so we immediately turned around.

Better safe than dead, I always say.

Unexpected Time Trial'd up Ha-Ling!

I can't believe I actually briefly considered not going with the guys to do the post k-100 mountain climb because I wanted to watch the soccer game instead. Common sense won out and I slaughtered that mountain. I'm honestly not sure if they wanted to hammer it, but they started out running, and as they got ahead I stayed at a steady pace. But, as we got further up I started gaining on them, and by the tree-line, they were gassed and I was still pleasantly motoring up. Far more power walking than running this time, which was very effective.

Climbed it in 37:52, which I'm sure must be a PB. Last time I was 40-something. Adrian's best is around 31:00. I negative split'd the second half of the climb, going through half way in about 20:30, so that was good. I think I could maybe do somewhere in the 36's with a bit faster first half.

Really speaks to the possibility of powering up big climbs in a walk rather than a run. I think it really depends on the steepness.

K-100 time! After a few days of rest, headed down to Kananaskis for the classic relay race. Since injury stopped pretty much all running fitness tests since January, this was the big show before the big shows, to see how fast and how fit I felt.

The verdict? Speed good, endurance questionable, muscles grumpy.

I drew leg 4, 14.1 km, with about 200 metres net gain, spaced out with a some flat in the middle, and two larger climbs at the end, with a bit of downhill here and there. Tagged in 4th place, with 3rd place a solid 2 or so minutes up.

Headed out somewhat quicker than I probably should've, but I actually was pretty pleased that I settled down well and probably accelerated as my legs caught up to my brain. Unfortunately about 6k my leg calf that's been bothering lately got immediately very tight and bothersome, which I felt really messed with my form, I don't think I was getting the push-off I wanted, and caused me to drop my hips to compensate. It was really noticeable in the climbs, I really felt inefficient on the climbs, not being able to comfortably push-off and drive through.

Nevertheless, I caught 3rd about half way through. We ran together briefly, until he attempted to surge a bit, I closed that, and then passed him. He held on briefly until disappearing. That felt good. Channeled my desperate desire to make another sprint final during the last mile, which was generally downhill, so there was some overspeed effort. I don't think I pushed as hard as I would've liked. The stitch in my side really kicked in then, and my right trap which often cramps, did, despite my persistant attempts to keep my whole upper body really relaxed. I tend to scrunch up when I'm in a hurry.

Anyhow, had the 3rd best time on the leg, in 53:56, which works out to 3:49/km pace. Not that they're comparable, but last year I ran leg 5 in 4:12/km pace. So one hopes that there's at least some fitness improvement over last year.

C • K-100 3

Wednesday night orienteering, re-running the corporate challenge from a few weeks. Not the most riveting-ly planned relay courses I've ever experienced. But, to be fair, its a pretty un-experienced crowd that was doing it. Case in point: I tempo-d all three courses in 54 minutes, fixing a few controls, replacing some ribbons where they were gone. The fastest team did it in an hour and 25 minutes. So... yeah, maybe it was too hard. Still, I think its possible to make something manageable for beginners and interesting.

Track-tervals! 5 x 1000m at 10k-ish pace, with a crisp jog of 400m recovery. I did a quick calculation of what I thought was appropriate pace, and as Jack said you typically add 5-6 seconds /km for the loss of pace in a gravel track. So, I conservatively thought about running about 3:30, which at 3:25 pace is like a 34 minute 10k, which seems adequate.

Then Jack comes blowing by after 400m and takes off at what seems like a rocket fast 10k pace. I asked him afterwards what he was running and he said about 3:15, which, if we add the correction, is like....a 31:40 10k. And... that seems a tad.... faster than I think Jack runs. I don't know. I didn't think he was that fast.

Anyhow, I felt fairly comfortable for 10k pace. Heavy breathing, but not suffering. Legs felt a tad heavy, couldn't quite get the drive I'd like. Hopefully I could chalk that up to the gravel track.

Just a brisk run, 'tis all. Everything up the right side is all still a bit sore. Need to have it all right as rain for the K-100 this weekend!

Headed out for some intervals in the morning. We started with 7 people saying they'd come, and ended up with only two showing. Terrible.

Anyway, opted for intensive trail intervals, so I bet they were a tad slower, but much more dynamic. 7 x 4 minutes at 10k-ish pace, though a solid 3-4 of them were full on dynamic single track. Lots of turns, mud, etc. I hope that doing a bit of speed in twisty terrain will improve my rough terrain speed and agility. When those Euros (and Carol) bomb down hills like nobody's business without a care in the world, I slow down out of fear of smashing my face. And we just can't let that happen.

Faced with a really tough decision today, should my new sprint shoes be the:
Asics Gel-Tarther
Mizuno Musha
inov-8 F-lite 190 (last year's choice)

or something completely different. Thing is that both the tarther and musha are heavier than the f-lites, but I think the f-lites really strain my calves and I want a bit of stiffness for propulsion. The Musha's have a light amount of stability that might help my PF, but the Tarther seem a bit gripper, though the heel retention seems quesiton.

I suppose the Saucony A5 is also a possiblity. Decisions, decisions....

Verry busy day, working all day, then helping out at the ultra, then picking up all the bloody flags, which took a long time by myself. Worked up quite a sweat, but wasn't a workout, per se.

Headed out for a light jaunt. Calf still feeling a tad on the stiff side. Well, not calf, but distal from the calf. It really feels and acts like a bruise, but the soreness seems to migrate around my leg. Its a little weird, and entirely located on my right leg, which is the site of all my other injuries.

Didn't get enraged by a single off-leash dog today. Its a minor miracle!

Took the day off to let everything recover.

Stepped off the plane and drove straight to St. Albert for Wednesday night orienteering. This is really, really, not a great map. Its just way too green, emblematic of most of Edmonton, but this has no side trails or anything to jazz it up. Mostly a trail jog, and admittedly, I wasn't paying attention for much of the time. Bad me.

Re-ran another course, from Tahoe City. Really wide open forest, which actually made it quite difficult because it was also kinda flat.... on the long featureless leg I was pleased that I, with quite a bit of slow moving, generally figured out where I was relative to the control, made the right decision, and eventually found what I think was the right location. I followed that up by botching one a few controls later. I really didn't have any semblance of plan so when I left the trail I was on, I couldn't really tell where I was. It actually turns out if I'd just continued on the route I was going directly before crossing the trail, rather than running along the trail for a while, I would've gone straight to it, pretty much directly under the line. Almost on the possibility that my compass was leading me in the correct direction. Did that just happen?

Joined the Truckee running club (Which consists of 3 people :), for some hill-tervals. 12 reps of approximately 30-40 seconds uphill. The uphill was good because at first it was steep, then levelled out for the last 10 seconds, which allowed you to keep your speed despite your legs turning to lead. Channeled my inner desire to make the sprint final again, and powered through the last half.

Times were 39, 37, 37, 36, 35, 32, 34, 35, 35, 34, 34, 33, and my heart rate maxed out at around 169. I suppose the intervals weren't long enough to get really really high.

After a lengthy weekend of training at altitude, I went for a simple run. The right calf has been feeling quite stretched, or tight, or something, so it was a tad on the sore side. The single track trails I found up in Tahoe - Donner are really, really awesome for running. Also briefly got lost when I came upon an unexpected pen full of horses. I'm generally conditioned that jogging past horses = enraged landowners. Turns out the nordic ski club is also an equestrian centre. Seems like an odd combination to me.

Another middle-post-long morning training, at Spooner Lake. A whole ton of climb and lots of sidehilling. I was generally... bad. Particularly a colossal mistake at 5 when I was trying to save contours by, you know, not going to the control. Clever.

More quickroute. If anyone has ideas on how to spend 15-20 hours per week analyzing this stuff, I'm all ears.

C • I ran this exact... 1

Long training at Spooner Lake. A whole ton of climb, and a whole ton of side-hilling. I was responsible for putting out the flags, so I spent extra time being extremely certain of where I was. In many cases the mistakes were again due to not adequately judging the amount of climb or descent I needed to do, often going too high out of fear of having to climb back up. Still, it was a relatively successful endeavor, except for the solid mistake on 12, because I had thought I was lower than I was.

Holy smokes, this guy's on fire with the quickroute.

Awright, time for Tahoe! I've been looking forward to this for a while. A bit more altitude, particularly. Shame that my calf has been really tight lately, I assume its because the whole ton of climbing I've been doing in the last week.

First up was the "little truckee" long, from last year, I think? 12.4k, 465 metres of climb. I did the long course, while everyone else did something a bit shorter, so there were mostly flags out. I actually expected this to be easier than it turned out to be. In general route choice was simple, but it was super hard to distinguish between open, rough open, and forest, and the contours were very gentle and broad.

The vast majority of my wasted time was right around the control, I was often very close (save for 20-21). Probably goes to show that I perpetually eschew finding an attackpoint, meaning I'm blinding running in the general direction of the control in the hopes of locating it. Kind of a sprint mentality, I'd say.

Here's a Quickroute. Now featuring *fixed*!

C • Looks suspiciously like... 2

More training at Little Truckee summit. After a several hour lunchbreak, we headed out to do a little middle training below where we were in the morning. My legs have been solidly roasted for a week now, so I was pretty winded down the hill to number one. I thought I kept it together somewhat well, my bearings were straight-ish, and I was generally able to find something worthwhile to navigate on, though it was relatively easy terrain.

Not really a confidence booster, rather, hopefully a competence booster. That'll need some empirical measurement, though.

More quickroute!.

Well, day in San Francisco to catch up on some sprints in San Francisco. I gotta tell ya, San Francisco is pretty overgrown in June. I'm a big fan of coming back in mid-winter when maybe there's less grass/thistles. Also I was pretty slow, given there were no flags or anything. Still, good to get out, plenty of running.

Also, I really don't like running on the road in F-lite 190s. Sorry inov-8. This year if WOC sprint is mostly urban, its going to be either the Asics Tarther or the Mizuno Musha.

More travelling, more orienteering. Headed to San Francisco for the now cancelled sprint races. However, Rex-thorian was nice enough to still let me crash at his place and spur the rest of the San Fran crew to do some training. So, Thursday night, after a bit of mis-communication and late-ness, everything worked out and we headed to Joaquin Miller Park for some somewhat thick bushes followed by sweet sweet forest underneath the redwoods. The second part was obviously the good part. I actually did some pretty good navigating in the mid-tricky part, and then totally screwed the pooch on the last two controls that were relatively easy. I couldn't figure out which was up and which was down, and then took a godawful bearing out of the control, since I was in a hurry.

Went out for the classic Canmore 45 minute jog during a lull in the rain. The rain then decided to come back with a vengeance at about 30 minutes, and torrential downpour had us soaked and freezing for the last 15. I don't spent much time in Canmore, but I don't think I've experienced quite that heavy a rain storm, or that sustained. It had rained all night and all morning first!

Annual HPP fundraiser race at Argyll. Basically people who want to participate get a head start, then I chase after them. This year they had a twenty minute headstart on a 5.5k course.

I actually felt really fit. I was quite pleased, and I was able to hammer out a good pace. I couldn't find several controls, which turns out to be a crucial part of this sport. In one case, I'm certain it wasn't there, and in several other cases, they were white ribbons and those really don't pop in the forest. Two guys managed to escape, and they even took a smaller head start (15 minutes). Overall it took me 39:23, where it probably should've taken around 35.

Jogged up to the Nordic Centre to do the permanent course there for the spring. Got to Trail Sports, and discovered that they don't have the maps yet. Doh! I probably should have sent an inquisitive e-mail to the powers that be ahead of time to check. So, I continued on for a jog about the trails. I probably should have gone longer, but it would seem my right calf has gotten indignant that it doesn't receive the TLC my foot and hamstring does, so it's been a little sore. Its a little weird jsut because my other calf is totally fine. Eh, well, I'm sure its fine.

Famous last words.

Brisk trip up Mount Lady MacDonald. We almost got to the top, but then our "expert" leader who has been up it many times couldn't find the top. Granted, we were totally shrouded in cloud to the point where we couldn't see 10 metres in front of us which meant side-hilling along the scree slope. So... we were really close to the top, but couldn't find it. It was out there somewhere.

Round trip two hours, let's call it... 1:15.

We did a morning workout, but it was a somewhat skeptical workout.... we jogged over to the outdoor quasi-weight set up they have in Canmore and did some quasi arm exercises. So... although my arms were unfortunately kinda sore, this doesn't really count as training.

Anyway, in the afternoon, we climbed Ha-Ling. Well, we jogged it, well, I jogged it. Those other boys, they were getting pretty gassed, and that pleased me so much I had to keep attacking. :) I didn't hammer, per se, but I tried to keep a running stride the whole time, even if walking was probably faster. Adrian's PB is somewhere around 31, and I felt very comfortable running about 41. Its always hard to say on a 100% climb whether you could have actually gone faster, but I know that I definitely could have felt way more tired.

Back in Canmore, woot! My friend flew in to Toronto for a week of hanging out in the mountains with some running buddies. Kicked up off by running the Skyline trail at a pleasant pace. Not too slow, not too hard. Hamstring still a little twinge-y in places, but I'm sure to keep it taped up. Weirdly enough, its almost like its make my calf really stiff. I don't know if they're related, but it was really noticable today, and only in the right leg. Mysterious....

Another afternoon run with more of Adrian's friends. Just booted around the nordic center. Nice to get in a double day, though. Felt hungry, so a little weak.

Oof, I'm way behind on logging! Fast Trax intervals, 10 x 3 minutes at 10k -ish pace. Graham Nishikawa showed up, and gave me a solid schooling. Technically I could keep up with him, but he frequently pointed out that he's not in "running shape", which I'm sure he's not, and he's also carrying like 20 extra upper body pounds so he can kick my ass up and down the ski course. Still, he's an uber-elite athlete, so its always nice to train with those kinda guys.