Training Log Archive: W

O+! Meghan designed an o-terval session to be had at Queen Elizabeth Park instead of going to the "map-that-shall-not-be-named". I had thought that maybe the homeless camps wouldn't quite be out yet, but, no. Homeless camps, everywhere. Seriously everywhere. Its getting out of hand. Meanwhile, my navigation was questionable at best, but this map is quite tough as its very thick and scratchy and fairly detailed. Add to that no controls or flags, and its pretty darn tough.

But seriously, it was a lot of homeless camps. Honestly, if all I had in my life was this tent to live in, I'd still want my area to be vaguely free of gross debris.

One had a bird feeder though. That was weird.

C • Question 3

Well, eventually it stopped snowing and actually turned out to be a mildly nice evening, so I went out for another little spin through Hawrelak and the University. I wore my new marathon club jacket which, I swear, is "sunny orange". Definitely not pink. I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to pink, but it says so right on the label. Sunny Orange.

Hills! And more hills! 2014 edition of Steep, steeper, steepest. Mad props to Nevin for actually showing up and doing the workout with me. No one else has had the balls to join in. I actually felt pretty good, which made me think maybe I could have fun faster. Although I've done this workout several times now, I don't seem to have many of the splits, although I have vague recollections of doing the laps (there are three of them) in about 11:00, 11:20, and 11:40.

Its hard to necessarily compare because I can't entirely remember the speed at which I go back down the stairs, but thanks to Strava and some segments that other people made, I can get some sense of my speed on the uphills. In particular, the "whitemud park uphill" segment, which is part one, I did in 3:48, 3:54, and 3:55, which in my previous time last year, was 4:13, 4:14, and 4:16, which just about the same HR. So, that's very promising! It suggests to me that my full lap times of 10:39, 10:50, and 10:42 are probably not just because of going downhill faster.

And that's a good thing.

A mighty pleasant evening run on the trails to Hawrelak and back. Considering my morning effort, the legs felt fine just fine. The trails are almost entirely dry and presumably will stay dry.

SPOILER ALERT: IT SNOWS.

An easy run in the morning. Although I intended to go for another one in the evening, well, sometimes things happen. I'm not going to live and die by every missed day.

Oops, I got to the shop a little late and this run wasn't quite as long as I might've liked. No matter, still a really nice evening, and got to wear the new club kit. Why is it, being 6'3" and 185 pounds, that I now fit into a medium t-shirt? The Asics large is just all-around too baggy. What is wrong with the world? Seriously. And these pants I ordered from Salomon? 32 waist, way too short. They're like capris. But 34 waists basically fall down. I must be anorexic or something. Nope, wait, according to BMI, I'm almost overweight. So many mixed signals! What's a guy to do! Train my balls off, and then gorge on chocolate. That sounds about right.

But, I also found out I'm now on the shop marathon team! What does this mean? Well, absolutely nothing. But I got the jacket that says "Fast Trax Marathon Team" on it. How many marathons are in my immediate future? Approximately zero.

Hmm.... I'm not really sure how to clock this one out.

First, Frank's XC race at Rundle Park. 4.5k mostly just lightly rolling with one big climb at maybe 3/4 through the course. Naturally, the name of the game is how long a guy can stay with Francois (hereby, Frank the Beef). He's wickedly fast, won the Police Half last weekend (so not exactly fresh), and pretty consistently always wins these races. A very nice guy and great to try and hang with. In the past, I've hung with him for almost 30 seconds or so, but this time I bore down and hung with him for around 60 seconds.

Actually, not really, I got on his tail and held on for maybe 2.5k. At that point there was a climb that he just blazed so well, really no slowdown at all, and he turned his 6 second lead into about 15 seconds, which just never got any bigger or smaller once we got to the bottom of the hill. However, losing by 15 seconds to Mr. the Beef is actually a really good run. I don't think I can beat him, but these other races are just going to be a project in trying to run hard and just hang on for a bit longer each time. I'm really looking forward to next week to try again. And again. And again.

Afterwards, though, I did a very short cooldown and hustled off to orienteering at Kinsmen! In retrospect, I had time to do more of a cool-down. But, hustled anyway, and did a 6k-ish course around the University. Not exactly riveting or route-choice-y, but I added on 2 x 2 minutes at pretty hard to do a bit of sharpening because cruising the rest of the way through the course. Afterwards, a bunch of lunges and drills, and probably a few too many cookies.

Tough day. But great day. It was a... grough day.

However! All was not lost, since I did yesterday's intended workout today, and got in my 5 (though actually 6 peaks). Felt much, much better than yesterday, and instead just cruised the hills at a nice comfortable pace. Most of the trails are almost entirely dry, particularly those on my uber-brutal hill workout, which I'm thinking of doing next weekend if I can maybe coax other people to do it with me. Actually, even if they don't, I think I'll do it anyway. Just have to choose whether it'll be Saturday or Sunday, depending on which day I'll be able to get in some O+ training. And that'll depend on whether some O+ training actually gets planned! *cough* *cough*

Wow. This did not go well. The stomach was in real real bad shape. I'm not quite sure what it was, but something was not sitting well, and I was reduced to walking for some (not included in time), and the rest of it was a very painful struggle. Then I lay in the basement and didn't move for a while. Obviously what I ate before this run, will not be eaten again. Yikes.