Training Log Archive: AndrewM

going pretty easy

these double rides remind me of summer since I was doing them quite a bit then. Paths were nice and empty so only had to slow down for two people. Stomach not feeling so good with going right after dinner. Kinda crazy how much of the snow/ice had melted since this morining.

bike to NH

First forest session in a while at NH, bit of a struggle at times and pretty slow but I think it went pretty well for what it was.

Physically, I was pretty slow and the hills both up and down were a little slow with my quads being tired from all the biking. Definitely felt like I was landing harder than usual at times.

1 - pretty straight forward just following the trail
2 - A combination of print quality, wind in my eyes, and my eyes not being used to map reading recently led to making a parrel error that could have easily been avoided if I could have seen the contours better. The bearing wasn't too good either but I probably dragged myself of it a bit going to where I thought the control was.
3 - Pretty easy just running to the group of trees and around to the left. Veg was a little scuffed by the control so I wasn't 100% sure I was in the right place but used the contours to verify.
4 - good
5 - With how I printed the map it was basically impossible to see contours on dark yellow so the hills to my right kinda concerned me, but just trusted my bearing and the contours to my left. This was also the wettest part of the course, if I didn't have a map bag my map would have been ruined.
6 - Accidentally went perfectly straight on this one since the hill I was looking for was covered by the line and I thought I was further left than I was. Messed up in the circle a little bit but pretty minor
7 - Didn't check off the bush by the path even though I ran right by it. Probably would have messed this control up and would have needed to relocate off the bend in the trail if I didn't know this control location so well.
8 - Another parrel error, veg looked as dense as what I was looking for and was as similar to the actual location as possible.
9 - Noticed I didn't go to 8 pretty quickly and had to cut further right than I anticipated but the only real issue with this is that I went a bit further and could have taken a more direct route if I started from 8.
10 - Again with the contours being practically invisible this would have been a little bit of a challenge if I didn't remember this control location from planning it yesterday. Slowed down when I saw the huge clearing to my left that I wasn't anticipating for some reason.
11 - Perfect execution, the only issue was that the "cliff" I thought I placed it on was actually a tiny part of a trail. Caused a bit of confusion but I just decided to move on.
12 - Good, but didn't go as straight from the path to the knoll as I would have wanted and had to circle back a little.
13 - easy, mostly just trail
14 - easy, just running across an open field to a tree you could spot a mile away
15 - pretty solid, noticed I was going to far left with the help of the three inline bushed and recentered myself.
16 - Went to an unmapped boulder. should have checked my bearing more just as I was leaving the trail and should have noticed the two bushed I was going to check off were not there.
17 - good
18 - good
19 - left foot was starting to hurt from running on the same side hill so a little slow down mid-leg. used the bend in the trail but couldn't see any knoll so continued on.
20 - confused an erosion gully for an indistinct path and was off from the cup depression a little bit but relocated and got it.
21 - good.

Overall, need to focus on reading ahead, trusting and setting solid bearings, reading more detail.

home, hit 55kph with the wind to my back and a nice long steep downhill

speedy

To Shannon Terrance and back. Quite swollen and sore on the areas I landed on but doesn't seem like I injured and muscles or tendons. Weaslehead path almost has a strip of bare pavement going the entire way but not yet complete.

did a nice flip/barrel roll in the middle of the road within the first few minutes of my ride after my chain decided to switch gears mid-stroke. Luckily only got a few small cuts and bruises as well as a broken water bottle holder. Definitely going to need to do some maintenance on the gears before my next ride since it almost happened again towards the end of the ride.

testing how my shin is doing, felt good, no pain. pretty fast for being the first run in a few weeks, legs definitely feeling slow and not used to the running motion.

focusing calves core and glutes

Quick hike up mesa grind. Pretty chill till the last 800m on the way up where it was an average of 15 degrees incline. Super nice weather, it always kinda amusing to be hiking over snow in shorts. Shin was feeling fine on the way up and down so I'll probably do a test run tomorrow or something.

out and back to Shannon terrace. Pretty strong wind coming from the south so the sections between south Glenmore and fish creek was a little slow but on the way back it was incredibly fast. Smashed many of my strava segment prs but didn't make it to any leaderboards.