Training Log Archive: kissy

Last one out of high school!

C • CONGRATULATIONS! 1

Today, I went running on the Lake McDonald Trail, opting for the flat lands, while SF chose a hillier route. It was a beautiful day today, no humidity, a nice breeze, and plenty of sunshine. It goes down as a 10 in my book.

Before our run, we hiked the Trail of Cedars. It was all boardwalk and pavement, but it was still interesting.

Went for a hike on the Flat Top Mountain trail in Glacier NP. The woods were thick and slightly prehistoric looking, perfect environs to hide a grizzly bear, as I was reminded by several people who were at the trailhead and were concerned that I was entering "bear country" on my own. So, I was on high alert, making lots of noise along the way. I didn't see any bears, but I did see a very large moose, with very, very large antlers. He was impressive, standing in a mass of greenery, chomping away.

Not a moose, but so irresistably cute.

Between seeing the photos from Yosemite and being in Glacier, how can anyone say that National Parks are not worth their money??





The seasons hadn't quite changed yet at Logan's Pass.

C • Beautiful! 3

We made a side trip to the Bison Range NWR, the oldest refuge in the U.S.

US Sprint Champs. Spokane, WA. Forerunner = 2.6k

I will reiterate that sprints are not my thing, but I still usually enjoy them. Today, I got hung up on the deadly #6, at the foot of the cliff, which I will argue with anyone was not at the foot of any cliff. Otherwise, it was okay. Not as challenging as others I've run. I think I like them best when they are around buildings, like on a campus.

Green Sprint - Splits

US Long Distance Champs. Fishtrap Lake, WA. 9.43k on the Forerunner.

Today went much better than yesterday. I walked to #1 (which was in sight of the Start) and took that time to look around to make sure I had some understanding of the map. The course went well except for a parallel error on #13...I was on an open high area to the north of where I wanted to be. It didn't take me too long to figure it out; it was just frustrating. The most frustrating part of the day, though, was the fact that I still have to go so slowly down the rocky hillsides out of fear of falling on my bad knee. I hope that gets better over time.

I did take two bad falls: one where I bent my knee beyond it's bending capacity. I felt nauseous for a few minutes, but then my knee almost felt a little more flexible after that. The second fall was on the way to #13, where, in trying to protect my knee, I landed hard on my hipbone. It didn't hurt much after that, but I think there's going to be a massive bruise.

Green X Long - Splits

Event: US Sprint/Middle/Long Championships
 

US Middle Champs, Moses Lake, WA. Green X. Forerunner distance = 6.3k

This was the tale of two halves. The first half of the race I felt good, was moving well, and just made a few little errant veerings.

By the time I hit the water control, which was roughly half-way (or a little less than halfway) through the course, I was done. It was way too hot for me, and I began to feel the effects of it. I made very stupid route choices, couldn't make sense of the terrain, and was very hesitant.

AOWN: On my way to #2, I saw a Great Horned Owl swooping down near me. I didn't know what type of owl it was at first, but I looked it up when I got back. It was very large.

Green X Middle - Splits

A side trip to the Grand Coulee dam on the way to Moses Lake.

An easy run checking out the model event. It was kind of mosquitoey, kind of sandy, kind of full of prickly grasses, and very hot!

Went running with Mikell at the Turnbull NWR. It was such a beautiful place, and I saw a coyote! I think my first one ever. And some elk, snakes, turtles, and plenty of birds. It felt good to get out after a day of travel.

A morning run at Jockey Hollow before I was supposed to go in to NYC, but that trip fell through. One of the people I was going with now has shingles.

The run was fine except I stepped on a snake! I was on a grass-covered single-track trail, so I could only see the trail sporadically. There were sticks and roots on it, and as I was running, at the last second, I saw a darker-than-usual stick. As I stepped on it, it didn't feel hard...it was squishy! I looked back just in time to see it slithering away. Ick, ick, ick.

C • ooh 15

A little faster.

A little morning pick me up. This was the strongest I've felt on this loop. I decided that I wouldn't stop on any hills until I felt like I was going to throw up, and that only happened on the very worst one. And even then, I only walked for three houses.

A nice run at Jockey Hollow except that my right calf started cramping up around mile 3.

Rest day today. Well, rest day from training. Not from grocery shopping, laundry, bill paying, e-mail answering, etc. The price one pays for going away for the weekend.

Here are some pictures of the barberry eradication efforts at Jockey Hollow:

C • Barberry 5

On my way home today, I stopped at Gettysburg for a run. I had already decided that I wanted to run on trails today instead of the auto tour. And, when I got to Visitor's Center, I'm glad I had made that decision. It was packed with people! And the auto tour had many cars and busses on it.

I had planned to run 30 minutes, maybe 45. The first problem was that my Forerunner was dead. I had forgotten to shut it off after the Beer Chase. I looked at the park map, guesstimated that the loop trail was about 4 miles and thought that would be a good length.

I parked at a picnic area in the southern part of the park, near Warfield Ridge. (A picnic area that turned out to be...another pick up/hang out spot for gay guys! Why do I keep finding these spots??) Anyway, I ran the loop counter clockwise, so my first big landmarks were going over Big and Little Round Tops. It was pretty cool going over them on the "back side" versus the normal front that looks over Devil's Den. The trail continued north on Cemetary Ridge, and then headed west toward the Peach Orchard.

By now, I had ascertained that this was more of a horse trail than a running trail, as the trail up until now was pocked marked with areas of deep, deep muckety mud. At one point, my choice was to slip, slide, and slosh through the mud, or skirt around it through stinging nettles. I chose the mud. Despite the fact that I might offend some horse riders, I have to say that horses should be banned from mixed-use trails. There were prominent signs all along the trail that no bikes were allowed, but I would have welcomed bike tracks over the total devastation of the trail that these horses were causing. It was ridiculous.

Once I hit the Peach Orchard, though, it got better because the ground was firmer and out in the open. Eventually, I passed the group of horse riders, which made me very happy because the freshness of the horse poop as I got closer to the group got a little overwhelming.

I crossed over Emmitsburg Road and headed across the fields towards Warfield Ridge. At one point, I turned around to look at the High Water Mark and tried to imagine what all of those soldiers must have felt like as they tried to get across those fields. It was kind of creepy to know so many people had died right where I was running.

I got across the fields, looked at the map, and finally accepted the fact that this was indeed longer than 4 miles, and I had been running for quite a while longer than 45 minutes. Past the amphitheater (where there were water fountains!!), the observation tower, back on Confederate Ave., and back to the car...where there were more creepy guys hanging out. Jumped in the car and drove to a nearby restroom to change and clean off all of the mud from my legs.

When I got home, I roughly measured the course, and it looks to be about 6.5 miles. My time wasn't that bad considering how slow the first part was due to the chewed up trails.

The maddening event of the day happened first thing. I went out to my car, in my sister's driveway!!, this morning only to find someone had rifled through it in the night and had stolen my iPod. :-( Luckily, I didn't have anything else worth stealing. Stupid people.

C • oh no! 4

Event: QOC: Jug Bay
 

Today's event turned out to be a fee-free event, so I set up a US Team donation box at registration, thinking people were ready to pay, so maybe they'd make a donation. We raised $212 for the Team!!

C • Wow 2

Beer Chase in QOC land. I had come down for an orthodontist appointment on Monday, and was so happy to be able fit in the Beer Chase. This is always a very fun event, and this year was no exception. The only bad part was the weather. It was so hot and humid that I was a little conncerned on the first of the three loops. I stopped sweating for a while and felt a little light headed. I hosed down before heading out for the second loop, and that seemed to help. Even though I had thought that I would only run the first two loops, I ended up running all three. I ran a lot of the race with Sam and Don, but then managed to pull ahead on the third loop.

After the race, I hung around, visited with some QOC'ers and ate some food...including a BBQ'ed goose leg thanks to Dan Quinn...it wasn't too bad. It did not taste like chicken.

10.6 kms. from my Forerunner

Long - Splits

A morning run in Jockey Hollow before heading south for the weekend. It was hot, hot, hot...and sticky. By the time I was finished, I was sweating as much as nadim and Sam Listwak, combined...and that's a lot of sweat!

Just a short run in the evening around the hood.