Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Right knee was a little swollen and slightly sore when I first got up in the morning, and felt better during the day.

Biking turned out to be okay--I could just feel the knee a tiny amount at the maximum amount of knee bend. Since that went okay, I did some easy running on the trails, and that was no problem with a smaller amount of knee bend angle.

Time for some more orienteering, and up today was an outing at Remarkable Flats. There was some decent breeze, enough to make it feel cooler than it actually was, but once the sun emerged it was pretty comfortable. Lots of snow drifts and some snow fields were still out there, and running through some amount of snow was unavoidable.

I ran a 10 km course at a decent pace. Everything went well except the part where running across some easy prairie and map reading, a rock snake struck at one foot and down I went. Both knees struck some rock square on; I can't remember ever getting both knees in one fall, but I guess if you're going to go, go big.

After laying on the ground for a minute or so, I sat up and assessed the damage. The knee that hurt the worst was the one that lost the most skin, but it was the other knee that took the biggest blow and which I figured would probably have the most swelling later. Nice holes in the both knee areas of my O' pants, and these very old pants might have reached the point where they are beyond any further sewing.

I got up and tried a few tentative steps and then some light jogging, and I couldn't feel anything that felt structurally bad, so I got going again. I wasn't able to go quite as fast, but considering knees-on-rock, I was happy to be running at all.

Both knees were sore in the evening with some decent swelling in one knee, but nothing that shouldn't clear up pretty quickly, and maybe I'll be able to do some easier running tomorrow, or at least some biking.

I thought about watching some basketball, but did some OCAD work instead.

All the new snow had transformed on the trails and the resulting surface after grooming was well drained and fast. Lots of thinning spots though, and once again one more sunny day will probably take care of things for me.

Ran after skiing. Total number of people seen during the skiing + running = 0 (besides me.)

Based on how the trails looked and ran yesterday, I decided that ski season wasn't quite done yet, and mixed in some skiing with running today. There was a little new snow, enough to slow things down a tad, but otherwise it was nice enough. Back at the parking lot to change over, I met another runner who was finishing up that I had never seen before, and we chatted some before going separate ways.

Unusually for this time of year, it rained/drizzled all morning and into the early afternoon, before changing over to wet snow. It stopped late in the day. I definitely wasn't looking forward to running in cold rain, and even the wet snow didn't look all that inviting--being blown in by strong wind. But late in the day it finally stopped, and so I headed up to run trails.

It had been cold enough that the trails had firmed up and with about an inch of new snow on them, offered surprisingly good running. Yesterday they had been really soft.

Noting some decent breeze out of the west, I biked out of town to 7 Mile Lake to examine the landscape for black swans. I'm not really sure most people are up for black swans, but if they're out there, it's always good to know.

I didn't see any swans of any color, but there were quite a few newly arrived gulls. They must have been confused, being new to the area and all that, because otherwise why would they have been clustered on a (still) frozen lake rather than enjoying some nice lunch over at the dump?

I was aghast when I got home and checked my watch to see how long I had been out. Most unfortunately, I had worn it upside down and therefore the timer was counting down rather than counting up. Negative training time never advanced anything. Oh, well.

Also made the command decision that yesterday was going to be my last ski day of the season. Barring some incredible, snow restoring spring blizzard, which I guess could be considered some kind of a weak black swan.