Training Log Archive: Kat

I was feeling a bit sick yesterday morning and it only got worse as the day progressed. Now I just feel like total crap. Fever, chills, really sore throat, and headache. Absolutely no training possible. I'm taking several days off, the entire week if I have to. Next week will be incredibly busy and I need to be relatively healthy by then.

Since I can't do anything physical, I will instead try to do some map-reading each day. I drew my routes for the Trossachs map on routegadget last night and will do the 5th routegadget exercise sometime today.

Running around University Parks and meadows. I meant to go out for an easy run, around 45 minutes long, but didn't feel great as I was running. Then, as I was jogging easily down a paved ramp, I felt a sharp pain in my left knee all of a sudden. So I began to walk. I tried running again a few times, but the knee pain came back. I've never felt this type of pain before. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm sick and therefore feel sore all over. My shoulders hurt too and I've certainly not been doing anything recently to cause this.

Since I always try to look for the positives, I'll say that at least now I know to take it easy this week (whereas this morning, I wasn't sure). Also, I almost finished reading through the entire IOF control descriptions manual during my run/walk. The examples at the end are cute.

C • Have you heard from Boris in S... 3

Warm-up running.

Today was the Varsity Match! After rolling out of bed at 7AM quite sleep-deprived (but not hungover), I put on my running stuff again (I feel as if I've been living in it this weekend, since we spent most of yesterday in our O-clothes). Then we drove to Leith Hill and the VM commenced.

COURSE: Women's A, 5.63 km, 175 meters climb, 20 controls.

DESCRIPTION: There was some snow at Leith Hill left over from previous nights, but there were flurries this morning as well as we were running through the woods. Once I was running though, I didn't feel cold.

I learned my lesson the first time I ran at Leith Hill so I started off tentatively this time. I can't say I spiked any of the first few controls, but I also didn't really make any big mistakes, just a lot of hesitation and uncertainty. I had four bad legs (#9, #11, #12, #13) and the rest were alright.

I can honestly say that I did the best I could with this Leith Hill terrain. I did not sprint without thinking and I tried to be careful and cautious. Nonetheless, mistakes happen. #9 was a water pit. I had this same exact spot as a control last year and I messed it up quite badly then as well. Once you get to the technical spot, there are little hills and depressions all over the place. So I ended up just searching for the damn control in this intricate little area. Nothing on the map really seemed to be of use to me. I knew it was around there somewhere, so I searched and finally found it. This was a 3 minute mistake, at least.

Then I found #10 without too much problem, and went on to screw up #11 quite badly. I was totally confused, and looking at the map now, I'm still not sure what I did. It all comes down to the fact that the terrain is so complicated that not every little (and sometimes even decent-sized) squiggle in the contours can be mapped. I was looking for a reentrant and I saw many, many reentrants around the area. It took some relocation, but I finally found it. This was a 5 minute mistake.

#12 was the only control I felt I should have been more careful on. I started searching for it too early, not thinking clearly. Should have realized, really, that the big black path would be more distinct than the smaller trail I crossed and took to be the big one on the map. This was a 7 minute mistake.

#13 was a control really close to #12 and should have taken under a minute. But even going decently slowly toward it, looking at my compass, I still missed it and had to come back. I didn't see the control in the reentrant and was again confused by all of the reentrant-like features I seemed to see. A 2 minute mistake.

C • Congrats on being a counting m... 2

Last year I did a 7.8 km course on Leith Hill. I had some major mistakes and was quite knackered by the time I finished, but I was happy with the 12:25 min/km pace. This time, the course was shorter, but tougher, and I did it with 12:11/km pace. So, just comparing the times, it may not seem all that different. But there is a difference. This time most of the controls were in the southern technical half of the map, making this a very tough course (hence the 5 stars for technical difficulty). There were only four controls, really, that were in the more open northern half and these were perhaps my best four. I ran fast and sure and hit the controls pretty much straight on, which was not the case last time I ran at Leith Hill. I was less certain of the long legs then. So I've definitely gotten better with open areas and big features, but there's still much technical progress to be made.

Even though Cambridge won the VM by a very close margin (by about 12 minutes spread out among 6 people), Oxford won the most important race of the weekend: the boat race. Basically, 9 people each from Oxford, Cambridge, and JOK (the Oxford alumni club) lined up in three rows. One person on each team drank half a pint and the rest drank a whole pint each. But the fun part is that this is done as a relay event: when the first person finishes his/her beer, the second person starts, and so on down the line. The first team to finish wins. The other Kat graciously allowed me to do the half-pint for the Oxford team (it's been her position for two years now, but we decided we could take turns from now on). So she took splits instead! I drank my half-pint in 5.81 seconds and the fastest guy (SGB) drank a whole pint in under 9 seconds. Very impressive.

Event: 35th Oxford v Cambridge Varsity Match
 

Originally, Saturday was supposed to be the actual Varsity Match (Oxford versus Cambridge event) and Sunday was supposed to be a relay day, which we would run hungover from the previous night. Unfortunately, the Cambridge minibus got stuck in several hours of traffic, so the Leith Hill event had to be moved to Sunday and the relay event to Saturday. Also, we didn't actually race the relays or have timed starts. We just jogged around the courses, using them as practice and enjoying the very nice weather. It was dry, reasonably warm (while running), and late-afternoon sunny. This was actually some of the best weather I've experienced while orienteering.

The relay event was held at Holmbury Hill, which gave me a chance to practice 1:15,000 scale. I made a few slips while adjusting to the map. Distance did throw me off a few times, as did the really shallow ditches. But it was a very enjoyable time out in the woods. After not running for two days, I felt awesome! Could have run up all of the hills (and as it was, I skipped around through the heather/bracken parts quite happily), but I did force myself to take it relatively easy.

I went to the pool with a friend to work on his technique a bit. Then I did some swimming on my own. Did several 50s with fly going out and backstroke coming back, as well as some 100s of freestyle. Just as I was getting out of the pool to leave, I saw Zoe (from the XC team). She said that Peter (XC coach) was doing a short introductory session to aquajogging. I have been interested in trying aquajogging for a while, so I decided to join the 8 or so other people who were doing this. The session was short, perhaps 15 minutes or so, but I got the basic gist of what it feels like to run in the water. I had no problem keeping good posture and I got used to the arm motion, but the leg motion was the hard part. Perhaps I'll practice it a bit in the future.

It is interesting that on land, I feel like I move forward by placing my foot down, knee bent, and then extending the leg and pushing forward off that foot. In the water, the most important motion for forward progress seems to be bringing the leg back (in other words, pushing water back with my leg). So it is different. I wonder if aquajogging can improve running technique...

I was actually in the pool for over an hour, but I figure the actual training time would be about half of that. It was nice to feel so relaxed in the water.

I was debating whether or not to do something easy today, but it's been raining miserably all day and I'd rather rest at home and do some math.

A longish run with Helen. We basically did the same route I did last Friday - straight through University Parks, a loop around the meadows, then a loop south through South Park, then back through University Parks and home. I did 2x30-second strides on the grass at Merton at the end.

While running, Helen and I discussed specificity of training. We are both doing a decent amount of running these days, but most of it is on flat footpaths and grass. There are so many meadows close to University Parks. Certainly, if we constructed a sizable steep hill on one of them to do hill reps and if we planted some heather in another to practice running through it, and if we scattered logs in another to practice hopping over them, we would become much faster orienteers.

Now, building a hill isn't as easy as it sounds. But planting heather might be doable. Ian, is it legal to take heather from Ash Ranges, say, and plant it in the meadows?

C • Ash Ranges Heather... 7

Warm-up, cool-down, and jogging between intervals.

XC grass reps session at University Parks.
4 x {45 sec hard, 30 sec jog, 1:30 min hard, 30 sec jog, 45 sec hard, 3 min jog} (28 minutes total)

I felt quite tired on the third one, but managed to do 4 sets. Unfortunately, lots of hard running today on the University Parks paths. Normally, I will try to run alongside the paths on the grass, but because of the rain, there were puddles and mud on the sides, so I had to run in the middle. So now my shins hurt a bit, but not too bad. And since I won't be doing any more hard running on paths for a week, I should have time to recover.

The weather was interesting today, to say the least. It began to snow as Helen and I were walking to University Parks. But it wasn't *real* snow, it was wet snow (more like sleet) that felt heavy and immediately turned to water upon impact. Then, just as we were approaching the bench in the middle of the field where the XC people leave their stuff, it began to hail on us. Really, we saw the hail coming when it was about 50 meters away, and then within seconds the cloud had reached us. So it hailed for a few minutes, and then it was even sunny for a while during the intervals! And then it became cloudy and rainy again as I was walking home...Interesting weather.

C • Route gadget 1

Easy run around University Parks and meadows. I looked at the Leith Hill map for 10 minutes at the beginning, then put it away and allowed my thoughts to wander. The last five minutes were 30 seconds stride, 30 seconds jog.

Today when I got up, I felt tired. Not that muscle-soreness type of tired, or even that lack-of-sleep-is-catching-up-to-me tired. Instead, it's the overall tiredness one feels after several weeks of good training. The last few weeks have been pretty solid, but this week is, without a doubt, going to be an easy week. Even if the Varsity Match wasn't this upcoming weekend, I'd still take it easy.

Event: HH Regional Event @ Burnham Beeches
 

Warm-up run to the start and then around a bit.

EVENT: HH Regional Event
COURSE: W21L, 8.6 km, 170 meters climb, 19 controls
WOODS: Egypt Woods and Burnham Beeches. Very nice and runnable in some places, and quite green (mostly holly) in others. There were some trails here and there and some people walking their dogs on the south part of the map. As promised in the final details, there were several uncrossable pheasant pens. I didn't see any pheasants though...

RESULTS: I was not concentrating well when I started. I had seen the direction in which CJ and Helen headed (since I was one of the last OUOC people to start) and jogged in that direction after I got my map, trying to locate the start on it and fold it. This took me more time than it should and I veered off to the right while doing it. Not a disaster, since the first leg was relatively short, but I was still 50 meters east of where I should have been when I crossed the clearing. I ran west, got the control, and then headed off in the wrong direction to number 2. Almost immediately realized what I was doing wrong and headed back up the hill again. I was pretty much straight on with number 3 and had a good split, then went on to screw up 4 by 3 minutes, even though it was a very easy attack. Basically, 3 and 4 were located close to the edges of a grassy clearing. I ran across the clearing, saw the big depression, but didn't see the control in it (which was there, but hidden from my view). So when I saw other people heading west , I thought that perhaps I had just gone a bit too far east. However, after I had passed another huge depression and climbed a couple of contour lines up a hill, I began to doubt. Then, when I saw the big reentrant, I realized where I was and went back down and then back east, straight to my control.

I messed up #5 a bit too, ended up 30-40 meters east of the control, even though I attacked it from close-by on a bearing. This wasn't a huge mistake though, since I realized what happened and found it soon enough.

6,7,8 were all good. Number 9 went well but had some potential for a mistake. I was about 15 meters east of the control and although I knew I was close, I wasn't sure how close, and I probably would have kept running a bit further, had I not seen two other people bounding west and punching.

Number 10 was a really long leg - over 1.5 km. It took me over a minute to unfold the map and refold it, during which time I drifted off west. Finally, after I got my map together, I then headed in the general right direction, and I am still trying to figure out exactly where I went and what I did. I ticked off the major things: crossing the stream, crossing the fence, big trails, and knew for certain where I was once I was running south along a small trail, surrounded by green. But I left the trail too early to try to attack, wrongfully inspired to do so by another orienteer. I made my way back to the trail through the green and sure enough, about 10 seconds further out, was the area I was looking for.

11 and 12 went well, and although I messed up a bit (20-30 seconds) on 13, that was sort of understandable. It looked like there were several small trails going through this grass area, which weren't mapped. Once I saw the road, I realized I needed to cut east through the green, and found my control. So, there was some hesitation and the route choice wasn't spectacular, but wasn't a disaster either.

13-14 was another long leg. I was feeling tired by this point and got confused by a fence towards the beginning of the leg. But, although I would have chosen a different route choice for the first half of the leg, the rest I did fine.

14-15 was the worst leg today. I had a route choice and began to execute it, then feared I might be drifting too far west (which in reality was impossible since I would have crossed a stream then, which would have been obvious, but I was tired). So I headed north and ended up being too far east of the control. I was confused and spent several minutes relocating (which I did, successfully, but which took me some time). This was a 7 minute mistake.

The rest of the course, I am happy to say, went very well. I beat Helen's splits for 16,17,18,19, and tied for the finish split. :)

C • I wonder if your 4 was the sam... 3

Rest day (as well as laundry day, food-shopping day, and math day).

Ran through University Parks, did a loop through the meadows, then went along the river, close to Magdalen College, then uphill on a foot/bike path, through (or near) Brookes University, then a loop around South Parks, and then back to University Parks along the river again. I took a black-and-white printout of the local area so I basically had an idea of where I was and where I was heading the entire time. I discovered a few dead-ends and had a few moments of uncertainty (since the map scale was less than 1:25,000, I think), but for the most part, I knew where I was. It was cool to do some map-reading and also to run on roads a bit without feeling knee pain.

C • nice 1

Easy running before, between, and after intervals. Didn't have much time to do warm-up running today because Peter asked me to help with the guys' time trials, but I did about 11 minutes cool-down running.

Today we did 1 minute time trials before the start of the session. First the guys, then the girls. Basically, Peter started the watch and we ran as far as we could get in exactly 1 minute. Then we rested for 3 minutes and did it again. Bystanders marked off the spots we finished each time using cones and flags and then estimated the distances we ran. I was told that I ran 328 meters the first minute, then 314 the second. (Obviously, these distances were approximated, so they might be off by a few meters, but they seem about right.)

It has been raining a bit the last few days, including today, so the track was wet and during the first 100 meters I felt like my sneakers were sliding out from under me, but it certainly wasn't as bad as trying to run fast on mud.

I stayed with the other girls for the first 150 meters or so, then they got away from me. I think the fastest one running today did about 345 meters out.

C • Sneakers? 6

4x500 meter intervals. Unfortunately, I felt too disorganized today to try and time these.

Perhaps because I was still a bit out of sorts from doing the sprints earlier, I somehow translated 500 meters as over 2 laps of the 400-meter track. So we started the first one and I thought we were going to go at a slower pace since I thought we were going longer distances. But the other girls started off quickly and i just didn't feel like struggling to keep up. My stomach felt really full (since I ate curry and rice for lunch) and I was just not motivated to run fast. So I ran at a brisk pace, but definitely not interval pace. And I ran about 800 meters before i was stopped. While I was running that extra loop, the others had rested and therefore I got no rest between the first and second interval. I didn't feel I needed it though, since I wasn't going fast on the first one anyway. (I would have rated it a level 3 effort).

After the first slow interval, I did the next three at a good pace and did the appropriate distance. It was harder mentally than normal because there was no one to pace with - the other two girls who were doing the 500s were significantly faster than me.

I got about 1-2 minutes rest between the second, third, and fourth intervals. Then did cool-down.

Running through Oxford and around Boars Hill with Helen. We had to run on pavement a bit, but for the most part we were running around on muddy trails and fields. While going up one of the hills, a bunch of mud got stuck to both of my shoes, making it significantly harder to raise my feet, but once I got to the top there was more dry ground and the mud came off eventually.

It is so much easier to go running with some company! Since Helen and I are about the same speed, we went at a nice relaxed pace that was good for both of us and talked the whole way. Good stuff.

4x(30 second stride, 30 second jog) on the grass right next to Rose Lane after the long run.

Nice, relaxed session, tapering for the Varsity Match this weekend (which I am not going to). Lots of easy swimming along with sprints and some practice starts. Actual session lasted an hour, but I figured that I would put it down as 45 minutes since there were breaks in between the sprints. I did several 25-meter fly sprints. One was 16.7, the other 16.3. If I got off the block faster, these times would drop by at least a second.

Intervals with XC team on the dirt paths at University Parks. It was sunny and warm again, so I wore shorts! It was also a bit windy, which slowed me down some. Intervals took effort, as always, but felt mentally easier today.

2 minutes on
30 seconds recovery
2 minutes on
1:30 recovery
2 minutes on
30 seconds recovery
2 minutes on
3 minutes recovery
2 minutes on
30 seconds recovery
2 minutes on
Cool-down

Running before, during, and after intervals. It's a bit hard to do warm-up running on Tuesdays since the XC session starts shortly after my lectures end and the XC people don't like to do more than 3-5 minutes of warm-up, but at least I can do proper cool-down (about 15 minutes today).

I have gone running/orienteering 13 out of the 14 days of February so far. That's a personal record and absolutely awesome!

Running in University Parks and meadows by myself. I took along a Leith Hill brown course from last term and lazily looked at it on and off throughout the run, visualizing what different sections look like and debating certain route choices. Nice, easy run. The last six minutes were 30 seconds stride, 30 seconds jog.

I was debating whether to take today off, but decided to go out for an easy run just to get the legs moving. The plan is to train this week as usual and then make next week my easy week, so I can rest up for the varsity match.

OUOC training day at Black Down!

While Ian was hanging controls for the first exercise, Boris and I took a short (10-minute) run through the woods. It was raining, but not too cold, and the interesting terrain made me happy.

When Ian got back, we started off by doing a contouring exercise along a very steep hill. The vegetation boundaries seemed a bit off on #2 and I found number 7 instead of number 3 (they were relatively close to each other), but I got the rest of the controls just fine. In general, I did not try to head on a bearing or stay at the same height level while going around the hill, but used obvious features such as earthbanks and gullies. Definitely a tough course, but fun.

The second exercise was relocation. We split into two groups of about 4-5 people for this. One person in each group would lead the way to within a certain distance of the control while the rest just followed, not looking at maps or compasses. Then, when the leader decided he'd found a good spot to stop, everybody else was allowed to look at their maps and try to figure out where they were and where the control was. I was the first leader in my group and unfortunately lead the others too close to the control, so it was found within seconds. Then Boris, Luke W, and Kat all took turns leading and didn't repeat the same mistake. The last two especially were difficult since there were pits and depressions all over the place, but definitely good training for Leith Hill.

The last exercise was titled "change of pace" and I certainly did feel there was a change of pace - from *slow* to *really slow* to *crawling.* Basically, this was a 4.1 km course which included some very short technical legs and some longer legs, one of which had us run across a big reentrant and another which had us go down the side of a very, very steep hill to find a control in the green. Even though I was feeling quite tired from climbing hills and falling in the mud (I wore sneakers), this was a very enjoyable course. Ian did a great job with it, making it tough, but also fun and very relevant training for the varsity match.

C • that hill... 3

Running around Shotover with Boris. Basically, we did the first two exercises from the last OUOC training day. Since I didn't have any maps with the same courses drawn on them, we took turns leading. First Boris ran a course with me following along on the other map, trying to keep track of where he was going. Then I did a course and he used his map to follow along. It was a bit muddy at times and we both fell at least once, but not as bad as it could have been. Nice and hilly day.

6 strides on the grass.

Running to and from University Parks with Boris, and doing 3 permanent O-courses while there. It was absolutely hilarious seeing Boris in his tights, hat, and US top running around taking the courses seriously =) We both had fun - him sprinting and me "shadowing" him. I didn't completely follow him around since he was running much faster than I could or wanted to, but I did keep my eye on him all of the time. He made a couple of funny mistakes at the end of the last course, but overall I was impressed with how smooth his orienteering was. In and out of the controls without pausing and always heading off in the right direction.

Warm-up, cool-down, plus jogging between intervals.

Track session with XC team.

3:00
100 meter jog recovery at decent pace (probably around 30 seconds)
1:30
2 minutes rest
1:30
100 meter jog recovery
3:00
2-3 minutes rest (don't remember)
3:00
100 meter jog recovery
1:30
Cool-down

A very easy long run by myself through the meadows and University Parks. The last six minutes of the run were 30 second stride, 30 second jog. I felt very low on energy because I was hungry even before I started the run. I should bring more food with me to lectures...

The weather in Oxford is absolutely ridiculous. It was so sunny and warm today that I was hot wearing a long-sleeve shirt while doing a very easy run. And it's supposed to be winter!

C • Enjoy it!! 2

About 3 minutes warm-up and the rest cool-down running.

Fun intervals with the XC club. Basically, we all ran around on the grass in University Parks around a rectangular sports field. We were instructed to partner up and take turns running the loop. One person would run it, then tag the second person. While the second person was running the loop, the first one could recover. We were supposed to keep doing this for exactly 30 minutes, at which point the session would end.

I was partners with a girl called Emily, who was faster than me, but not by a ridiculous amount, so we both got about the same amount of rest. Basically, my times for the loop were around 1:12 and Emily's times were around 1:05. She went first and did 13 fast loops in total. I went second and did 12.5 (the 30 minute mark came in the middle of my last loop). After that, I jogged to the end and did cool-down.

I am not entirely sure how to log this. During my breaks, (when Emily was running the loop) I wasn't running, just walking around a bit and stretching, getting my breathing back to normal again. Since the loop wasn't that big and there wasn't that much time for rest, this was what everybody else was doing too. (While recovering, people would stand by the beginning of the loop and wait for their partners to finish and tag them.) I certainly can't *not* log the resting time because my heart rate was still up then and it made the session different from doing just 15-16 minutes of fast running. So I'm putting this down as a 30-minute session.

C • I count times when I'm pausing... 4

Really easy running in University Park and meadows while trying to read a Harriman map.

6x25 second strides with jogging in between.

While I was stretching my hip, I discovered that I had a tick latched on to the bottom of my second biggest toe. Yikes! I've been bitten by ticks in the US before, but it seemed to be more common there and people weren't so worried about it. I've never seen or heard of any ticks in England before, so this is a bit unnerving. But also understandable, since New Forest (where I ran yesterday) has so many animals.

I pulled the tick out and he's still alive (although not for long), so I think the removal went fine. But he has been on my body for over 24 hours and he's one of those tiny ones that seem to be worse than the bigger ones. Should I be worried?

C • ticks 3

Warm-up running before the race.

EVENT: WIM Regional Event, New Forest

COURSE: JW5L, 7.0 km, 135 meter climb, 16 controls, map was two-sided.

WOODS: Parts of the map were very nice runnable woods (a lot like Epping), and other parts were very clear and open with heather everywhere (like Ash Ranges), and yet other parts were hilly with tall grass that made me trip a lot (like Leith Hill). So basically, there was variety on the map. And there were marshes too in the open bits! And a stream that I would surely have fallen into (because grass and bracken were hiding it from view) had I not looked at the map and expected it to be there.

Another reason this is a really cool area is that there are ponies and cows roaming the land and grazing freely. I saw many by the road (and a few on the road) and I almost stumbled into a pony while running around in the woods before the start, but I didn't see any while orienteering.

RESULTS: I started out easily to #1 and found it. From there on, I was going decently fast for the remainder of the course. Not sprinting, and I did pause a few times if I couldn't read some finer details on the map while running, but I kept a decent pace.

I had one major mistake going from 10 to 11. I had my route planned out (which was basically to go straight) and I knew what to expect along it: trail, wide reentrant, then uphill, looking for a pit next to big green bushes. But this area was the one with the tall grasses which makes finding and seeing controls difficult. So once I was up on the hill, when I didn't see the control after running around for a bit, I began to doubt myself. I felt really confused when I looked to the north at the edge of the hill, and instead of seeing a wide strip of grass shown on the map, I saw a grey narrow road (or what looked like a road). When I actually came down to it, it turned out to be a horse trail. So then I began to understand where I was, but I spent time relocating by going around the hill to make sure I knew where I was, then matching up features as I left the grass strip (horse trail) and went up the hill yet again. This time, I knew where I was, with total confidence, and I did find the control. I couldn't believe this took me 15:50! It really should have taken 3 minutes, 4 if I went slowly.

And a small glitch from 15-16 as well. The control descriptions had "Turn map to side A" written between #15 and #16, and after getting #15, I started heading toward the finish, then realized there was one more control. This wasn't a big mistake, perhaps no more than 30 seconds, but it could have been worse!

I noticed that while running downhill or on flat, I did a pretty decent job of going through heather and jumping over things. My legs are fit enough for that type of thing. But going uphill is tiring and really something I need to work on...

All in all, I'm quite happy with today's run. It was exactly the right length and exactly the type of course I felt like doing. Fun day!

Swim sessions will be easy the next couple of weeks since Roger is having the team taper for the Varsity Match. Even though I am not going to compete, I definitely welcome the easier workouts. =)

4x150 easy (100 free, 50 choice)
8x25 swim/drill
200 IM drills

100 easy choice
2x25 sprint on 45 seconds
100 easy
2x50 sprint on 90 seconds
100 pull easy
2x25 sprint
100 easy

4x50 pull
2x100 pull
8x25 pull
200 pull

8x50 alternating drill/kick

After this main session, we practiced some starts over at the deep end. Thus, the entire pool session lasted about 1:30, but I'm putting it down as 1:15 because there was several minutes of waiting between the sprints.

5 mid-pool sprints (about 6.1 for free, 6.5 for fly)
1x25 meter sprint (I did freestyle, 15.2)

100 easy

total: ~ 3,000 meters (I did 2,900 - cut off some of the pulling)

Easy run by myself after lectures. Through the meadows and then two permanent O-courses around University Parks. On some days, I feel quite happy to just run by myself and feel like I could keep going forever. Then there are days like today, when I was bored and making a mental list of all of the things I would do when I got home. I need to find somebody to run with on Fridays.

C • i'll come.. 17

Easy running before, during, and after intervals. Also includes about 5 minutes of drills with XC team at the beginning of the session. I took Boris' advice and did about 15 minutes of warm-up and cool-down each. It definitely made me feel warmer and more ready to run intervals. Too bad there was nobody to cool down with though, since most of the XC people only do a loop or two around the track, then leave.

3.5 x {1:30 hard, 100 meters jogging recovery (had to be done in about 30 seconds), 1:30 hard, 2 minutes rest}

(I did two such sets, then did one of the 1:30s and jogged until the start of the fourth set because I felt I needed more rest.)

Running through University Parks, doing some loops through the meadows, and back.

Stretching calves.

Doing a second loop around park and meadows after stretching. I took along the map from last weekend and a compass and ran around one of the biggest (and closest) meadows with it. Basically, I was trying to practice staying on a bearing and also quickly and accurately change direction while looking at the map. So I wasn't really studying routes or anything, just looking at the pink lines from one control to the next, running a leg by going straight along the pink line for 20-25 seconds, then changing direction and going to the next imaginary control.

I am not sure how useful this was, but it kept me entertained for 10-15 minutes and a group of horses standing in the middle of the meadow looked at me curiously as I ran in weird directions.

Crunches and push-ups.

Right calf still sore/tight, but feeling better than yesterday afternoon. Keeping it warm overnight seemed to help. And the easy run today seemed to help as well. Even though it felt tight throughout the first half hour of the run, it felt better and looser in the second half after I stopped to stretch it for a few minutes.

C • theory on tight muscules 5