Training Log Archive: wombat

After 10 hours of driving, I have our new little guy. WIll post pics as soon as I can see straight.

He's a little skittish. At first he scooched as far away as possible from me in his carrier, turned his back on me and gave me dirty looks. I put my hand in the door. Not too long after, I had a paw resting on mine. Then a kitten wrapped around my hand.

I picked him up and put him in my lap. I have never seen a cat so affectionate. He immediately lay on his back, put his head into the crook of my arm and asked for a belly rub. For the next hour, he was not interested in exploring, he just wanted love. Desperately and passionately. I feel like "but cat, we only just met!"

Now he's upstairs with the Man-Child. He's still skittish, but the magic bag of cat psychotropic drugs fixes everything.

C • Sweet 1

Hands are sore today from yesterday's ride. I was having trouble with the left one yesterday and today the right one is complaining.

Feet are the same ol' grumpy things from yesterday. No change. This is good. My run didn't seem to make them worse.

Our news is that our kitten is ready for pickup. Seems he is allergic to cat shampoo and his ears have dermatitis. Poor thing. In this household, we are eczema experts, so we will take him as is. I have to drive to Columbus GA to go get him. Pics to come.





Today I paced Aaron to repeat yesterday's failed attempt. He did an easy mile at 8.5 - 9.0 mph, then a consistent 10 for the remainder. I have him a 11 stint, and then he 10.5 then to 15 on the home stretch.

Know any good coaches to keep him conditioned over the winter for track?

C • Kitten 2

3 laps around the new trail. It's 6.4ish miles around which makes that 30 fun kilometers. I'm really enjoying it. It's just fun. Nothing tough to get up, no hills, no tricky roots, just swoopy flat trail. And a turtle that almost got smoked.

There is one ditch that I have now opted out of 5 times. I tried it on the last attempt and almost did it. It's so doable, I've just psyched myself out. It's a little down, then a short steep up. I have a thing about breaking teeth lately. Think it stems from the pipsqueaks future dental issues of missing 6-8 adult teeth, and pending procedures since the sinus being very low that they aren't sure if the upper maxilla is going to support an implant for three sequential missing teeth. Anyway, I fear knocking my teeth out on the sharp "up" on the other side. Some people fear critters. I have teeth falling out bad dreams.

Next time I'm going to do it.

Forgot to time this. Felt like elephant lead legs. My feet have been feeling better. It's been a rough ol' run. Or lack thereoff. Wanted to see how they'd react.

I took the Man-child to the rec centre to do some pacing. Of course he insisted that he had to eat first, which since he won't eat 4 hours before a race, I knew it would be bad. But he's a teen and sometimes it's just easier to let him figure that out on his own.

So the run was a bust. He did an easy mile at 9.5 - 10mph. I bumped up the pace to 10.5 - 11mph and he lasted 1/2 mile. So to punish him, I made him do sprints, and some pylometrics until his legs burned and he looked exhausted. I thought it was kind of fun personally :) Made him jump up on and do step ups on the animals in the kids' playground.

The good news, he managed that mile and a half in his xc spikes. He's a big pronator (that sounds so much like a dirty word). His first race of the season was a disaster running in them and he ran in regular running shoes after that. He's running in North Carolina on Nov 26. Since the terrain will be different and he's competing against stiff competition, he wanted to try again. We've ordered some Nike zoom victory XC spikes - his feet better not grow for next season. I keep thinking that this is peanuts compared to if he were playing hockey.

Anyway, no need for spikes in this local terrain - it's just sand. Next summer I hope to take him and his buddies for beach runs. Just getting them to the beach that early will kinda suck. Have to be on the beach by 5am as it gets too hot. Perhaps that's a good Laidback father-son bonding time.

After a miscommunication with Laidback regarding timing, I went solo for a fast paced ride today around the "new" trail. I waited all morning for him but he was taking the Man-Child driving. Yes, we have a new driver in our house. The age for a permit here is 15. His Canadian friends are all jealous as heck.
He's doing OK. The Man-child that is, not LaidBack, after I beat him for not using the word "then" in the sentence ..."go to the store, and take the man-child driving and go for a ride." Now who's going to put off a keener teen wanting to hit the road for the second time in his life. The man-child is doing well and I sure am glad that Laidback is taking over that job.

And just in case you're thinking it, no he's not driving the new wheels.

Speaking of which, the Element is kind of like sitting in an aquarium. No, it's not full of "stunned mullets" (Aussie expression for stupid person), just has lots of big windows.

And it doesn't fit a recumbent mountain bike. Just in case anybody else needs to know that.