Training Log Archive: Kat

4x150 (swim, pull, kick, swim)
2x50 scull/swim

6x { 150 (100 free, 50 choice), 150 (100 IM, 50 free) }
200 easy
6x125 kick

6x50 easy

total: 3,750 (I did 3,450 - cut out a few 25s on the kicking and a few 50s in the main set)

I felt sore, but quite good today. Could even cruise on some of the 150s. But my feelings of "cruise" and "fast" seem so subjective at times that I'm not sure if I'm actually improving or just feel good on a particular day. If I were to do a practice session with my former high school team, then I would probably feel reasonably fast because I would be among the fastest people there. But at Oxford, no matter how hard I work, I am still going to be slower than pretty much everybody else because a lot of the swimmers on the team have strong backgrounds. We even have one girl who used to be a New Zealand national swimmer! So, even though I've certainly improved my swimming since start of the year (and start of term), it's hard to notice sometimes because I'm surrounded by speed. But I try to keep things in perspective.

Easy running before, during, and after intervals.

Intervals with XC team in University Parks.

2 minutes
(1 minute rest/jog)
4 minutes
(1 minute rest/jog)
4 minutes
(3 minutes rest/jog)
1 minute
(1 minute rest/jog)
1 minute
At this point, I just did a few minutes easy running. The rest of the XC folks did 3 more 1-minute runs with decreasing rest by 15 seconds each time.

I felt quite good doing intervals. Stayed behind Helen the entire time, except for on the last (second) 1-minute run, where I kicked pace up a notch and was actually in the lead of our little group. The funny thing was, after I went faster on that one (not sprinting, but faster), I actually felt quite good! I wanted to continue, but decided not to push it. Before we started, I had decided I would do 12 minutes of hard running and that's exactly what I did. If I continue to feel fine, then perhaps in two weeks or so I can do more.

I felt great during intervals, but when I was doing easy running before (and especially after) my calves and shins felt tight. My right calf has felt very tight ever since I woke up yesterday morning, actually, and even though the rest of my legs are fine now, it continues to bother me when I walk. It feels on the verge of a cramp and I'm not quite sure what to do about it now. Should I try massaging the knot? Keep it warm? Keep it cold?

C • Keep it warm 2

One slightly extended Christ Church loop while looking over yesterday's map. Even though I could have taken safer route choices (rather than going straight), there really were no good attackpoints for most of the controls. I felt in the mood for more running, but I decided to make today a very easy day instead. Why is it that my knees don't hurt after interval sessions on grass/track but they hurt during/after easy runs on the grass? That makes no sense to me.

C • Attack Points 2

Right calf feels quite sore for some reason.

Event: BKO Concorde Chase National Event
 

Warm-up before orienteering race.

RACE: Concorde Chase at Cold Ash. I did W21 Long. 9 km, 200 meters climb, 23 controls, 1:15,000 map, EMIT

TERRAIN: For the most part, the woods were quite runnable. Some of the trails were quite muddy and there were areas with bracken and areas with thorns, but nothing special overall. I had several controls on distinct clearings, which I personally thought were not distinct (or even clearings) at all, but otherwise everything was ok with the map.

RESULTS: Disaster! Absolute, horrible disaster! It was unbelievable how many mistakes were made. In fact, there were only 4 legs (out of 23) that I thought were relatively mistake-free and 0 legs that I thought were great. I won't even bother going over each and every mistake I made. But I will mention some of the highlights. Despite starting out relatively slowly toward control 1, I was soon overwhelmed by the number of controls out in the woods, so close to each other. I found at least 3 before finding the one I wanted, in the same small area. And once I was in the control circle, I had a very good idea of where I was - I had found the small pond and also saw the big hill to the west of me. But yet, try as I might, I couldn't find the first control. After some shuffling about in circles, I saw one in between a few trees and went over to check it out. It was mine. This didn't make sense to me at all because my control was supposed to be in a distinct clearing/open area and these trees and woods didn't seem distinct or clear at all, but I moved on. Then on number 2, I thought the control should be closer than it was and again ran to a control that wasn't mine first. And perhaps most memorable, after I got #9, I started heading west, thinking I was doing leg 11-12. I caught myself, but only after I had already gone several hundred meters in the wrong direction. Then I spent almost 16 minutes on #15 until I realized I was looking east of where I should have been looking. And not just east, but across a distinct thick black trail, which I shouldn't have crossed to begin with. Then I spent ages circling around #18 (another 10 minutes, to be exact) because it was yet again supposed to be in a "distinct" open area, but was actually in a clump of trees.

I clearly wasn't concentrating today, and there are several reasons for why this might be. For one, I didn't realize this was a 1:15000 map till after the race and perhaps realizing this earlier would have helped me understand why certain things didn't seem to match up with the map. Second, this was a tough place compared to the last few i've been to. Although the map looks simple enough, things just seemed vague and unclear (such as vegetation) and there were controls all over the place, which threw me off. Third, despite my attempts to wear thicker socks, use plaster (band-aids), and soften up the O-shoes, I still got bad blisters, which were hard to ignore. I think I'm going to wear sneakers to the next meet and try to buy myself a different pair of O-shoes.

C • Hey 8

Planned rest days are the best! This way I don't feel guilty for not swimming/running. Instead, I'm spending the day relaxing, wearing my O-shoes in an attempt to soften them up before tomorrow's race, and eating good food =)

C • You listened! 2

Felt very tired today. Arms are sore from doing strength exercises and legs are a bit sore from doing intervals. Workout relatively short today.

350 easy choice
4x50 build
8x25 drill/swim

1x200 free
7x150 free

450 kick
75 easy
4x25 sprint
150 easy

Total: 2,775 meters

C • Too many interval workouts 1

Running through University Parks and around the meadows with Henry. Nice, easy pace. Not too slow, but definitely comfortable.

C • UK Mapping Resources 2

Nice easy set today. The coach wasn't there, but he left a workout for us on the board. I followed it about 3/5 of the way, then decided to cut it short today because the rest was more kicking, using fins, and some sprints, which I didn't feel would be beneficial for me to do whatsoever.

400 SPKD (Swim, Pull, Kick, Drill by the 100s)
200 IM drills
6x25 scull, swim

30x50 free (12 on 55 sec, 10 on 50, 8 on 55)
4x100 kick (I did 100 free, 100 dolphin kick/backstroke kick)
300 easy (free/back) cool-down (Nice and leisurely.)

Total: 2,950 meters

Running before, during, and after intervals. Also includes a few minutes of doing various running drills before the set.

Intervals with the XC Club.

We did 3 x {2 minutes hard, 100 meters active easy (about 30-35 seconds easy jogging), then another 2 minutes hard, then 2-3 minutes rest/easy, (forgot exact time) }

The coach (Peter) set us up so we were a certain set distance away from the finish line, based on the results of a six minute time trial that happened last week. (Since I'm just about Helen's speed, I decided to just stick with her, which worked out fine.) So we all started at various locations around the track, and were trying to match last week's time-trial pace during these intervals. If we were right on target with the pace, then we would end right at the finish line when 2 minutes were up.

I felt good during the first two sets, then got a bit tired on the last one. It didn't help that I stopped during the 100 meter easy jog to ask Zoe if she was ok (because she said something about stomach pain) and then had to hurry to catch up to the others. I didn't realize how short 30 seconds really is!

I decided I really like intervals! So I'm going to try to go to the Tuesday and Thursday XC sessions and do the easy and long runs on my own in the other days, because the XC team usually does these types of runs on paved roads (which I don't like).

I walked over to University Parks right after lectures and went for an easy run by myself on the grass there. I did one easy orienteering loop on a small map of University Parks, using permanent orienteering posts for controls, then ran across the bridge and around the meadows for a bit. Then I crossed back over and did two more orienteering loops, doing one control fast, one control easy. And then I did a big loop of the park easy as cool-down.

The navigation might be quite simple when doing these permanent courses, but it still gives me something to think about. And the one on, one off approach made it even more interesting.

I wanted to go back over the bridge and do some more running because I felt really good and it was a gorgeous sunny day, but my knees hurt a bit and I decided against it. Damn running injuries...

Crunches and dips.

C • cool 5

Interval session with the Oxford XC Club. I didn't really get a chance to warm up - we did one pretty fast two-minute jog on the grass, then began the session. (I should remember to run around a bit before we start next time...).

We did 3 minutes race-pace, 30 seconds easy jogging, 1 minute faster than race-pace, 30 seconds easy, 2 minutes race pace, 2 minutes easy. The coach (who seems like a very friendly and knowledgable man) told me before the start to do 2 of these sets, so I stopped earlier than the others. Meanwhile, the guys and the faster girls did 3-4 sets. I was pretty much at the back of the group. The XC people are fast!

I definitely felt like I was working during the intervals, but recovered quite decently during the breaks and didn't feel tired or sore afterward. Even though I am not used to speed, I think there's hope for me yet =)

Running before and after session.

Crunches and push-ups.

Two Christ Church loops while looking at a Leith Hill map and trying to make sense of the technical areas on the map. On the second loop, I tried to mimic yesterday's first training exercise and think about which features I would draw if I were forced to copy the course onto blank paper. I am excited about running on this map again in a few weeks!

OUOC training day!

Ian set up three nice exercises for us at Shotover Park. The first was a simplification exercise. We copied a course onto a blank sheet of white paper and then attempted to use only that piece of paper to navigate to 10 different controls. As I copied the course, I thought about what details I would use to help me get to the next control. So in some cases, I put contours, in others I just put trails. I also included any important fences, clearings, and thickets. I found controls 1 and 2 easily enough, and navigated to 3 fine as well (although the control was not there), then messed up 4 very badly. I circled around the control circle for 15-20 minutes, trying to figure it out. The problem was that I was expecting a grassy clearing, whereas in reality the control was on some tall yellow grassy bit. I found myself wishing I'd put contours on this part of the paper as well as the trails, because there were some very obvious contours - mainly huge uphill, that I would have used. The rest of the controls were mostly ok. This was a good exercise in that it showed me what details I actually use to navigate.

The second was a route choice exercise, very similar to the one I did at the Denmark training camp in November. But in Denmark, there were choices such as go over the hill or around the hill, whereas here climb could not really be avoided. Here, our route choices often ended up being: (1) work your way through a network of small trails to the control (2) take the big trails and then attack the control when you get close. I usually ended up doing the first option, while Kat did the second. We concluded that the small trails might be faster in the sense that they are closer to the straight line, but oftentimes they end up being slower because it takes time to read the map and make sure you are following the right trail, whereas on the big trails, you don't have to concentrate as much - just run for it.

The third exercise was a mass start sprint, which was forked into two slightly different courses. Unlike the previous exercises, this one was fast! I stayed with the others till about #6, then found 7 right before Helen did, and ran off to number 8. Unfortunately, I got quite a bit lost trying to find #9 and number 10 was not at the control site, so the end was not as great as the beginning. But it was still very enjoyable to run *fast* for a change. I love mass starts =) Afterward, I went back to collect the #9 control and this time found it. It was much easier to attack from the finish than from where I was wandering before...

Overall, a very fun day. Huge thanks to Ian for organizing this!

Crunches and push-ups.

No matter how I try, no matter what I do, I still get blisters on my feet, especially in muddy and hilly areas. By the time I did the first Shotover exercise, I was already feeling the pain on the backs of both feet. And by the time I finished all three, it *really* hurt. Perhaps next time I will try to soften up the O-shoes somehow before putting them on...

C • blisters and shoes 3

I decided to not do any actual runs today since my knee was bothering me yesterday, so I walked over to University Park, where OUOC was putting on a CATI (Come and Try It) event. I met Henry on the way to the park and ended up "shadowing" him for two short courses (each about 10 minutes long) around the park. This was technically very easy since the park is mostly grass with distinct paths, distinct trees, and distinct benches. Henry did pretty well for a novice. He also ran as fast as he could both times, which forced me to keep up a good pace as well.

400 easy
8x25 build
50 easy

400 swim
8x50 free
2x200 pull
8x50 free
(I pushed on the 50s and it felt good. I felt like I was cruising along the water for the first time in a *long* while.)
3x100 kick

75 easy

3x{dive, sprint till middle of pool, kick and scull, three strokes and turn, sprint back to wall, turn, easy all the way down, sprint last few strokes to the wall}

2x25 sprint (16.1, then 15.3 for 25 meters freestyle)
(It really takes practice knowing how to do sprints and since I haven't done them in ages, I feel uncomfortable with the speed - uncontrolled.)

200 easy

Total: 3,000 meters

Running with Henry around Oxford. We followed the river all the way from Rose Lane, past the train station, and only turned back at Port Meadow. Unfortunately, although there were earth paths next to the river, they were not continuous (meaning we had to go over bridges and run along stretches of road every few minutes to get back to the river). So I did more running on pavement than I cared to do...But on the bright side, I learned more about Oxford! Henry pointed out some important buildings and the train station. He was a good person to run with.

When I got back to college, I wanted to do strides on the grass right next to my building, but my knees hurt and I decided to go inside instead. I think that at least for the next week or two, I will not do any running on pavement at all. I will walk to the parks and then run on the grass *only.* Perhaps this will help my knees...

C • A "classic" circuit is the Por... 2

I'm taking a day off today to give my right knee a break. It hasn't gotten worse, but it's also not getting any better.

7.5 minutes of crunches and some push-ups.

Very nice rest day today. Got work done, stretched, ate four bagels and 13 clementines for dinner, and looked at maps of the JK areas. The first map has more consecutive contour lines than I think I've ever seen on a British map. And granted, I haven't seen that many, but that's still a lot of climb! I imagine the organizers had a hard time trying to make the course not too ridiculously hilly. It also looks like the first map is very open. Which means fast running, which I usually like, except that I haven't discovered how to run uphill fast yet. Hmm. Boris says that when I come to Sweden in March he will run me up and down the steep backbana there a few times. I'm not sure whether to feel grateful for the offer...

Course: "B" course, 6 km, (not much climb), 14 controls

I skipped lectures today to go to an army orienteering event in Greenham Woods with Luke W. Unlike the last army event I went to, I actually enjoyed this one! The course went through nature this time - no running around on paved streets - and it was sunny!

The course had some running through white woods, but also had a lot of running through open areas with big patches of green bushes that reminded me of the heather at Ash Ranges. It was more technically difficult than last weekend's course, but I still felt in control of the navigation (for the most part).

I started off running quite slowly, then sped up a bit. I got very close to number 3, but then misread the map by being careless and wound up running a loop on a field across the road from where I should have been looking. I did a very similar thing with #12. I had a nice route choice and executed it well, but then messed up once near the circle and wound up going about 200 meters further east than I should have. This allowed some old men (some in their 70s!) who I had passed before to beat me. Grrr. I'll get those old people one of these days!

Overall, it was a very fun course. Very muddy in areas and very thorny in others, but I ran straight across marshes, through the spiky bushes, across thorny pits, and even through some of the small ponds that had formed in the sandy yellow open areas from the rain.

I noted today that I again had better flow going from one control to another. A part of this has to do with there being other people running ahead of me, so I could see in which direction they left the controls, but I also think I'm just getting a bit better at planning ahead. Progress!

C • skipping lections? 2

Crunches.

7 AM Swim practice:

300 choice easy
2x200 IM drills
25 scull, 25 swim

BIG SET: 2 x {3x200 free, 6x100 free, 8x50 free}.
(This set was 3,200 meters and took an hour to do.)

200 easy

Total: 4,150 meters
My total: 3,700 meters

I cut off some 50s off the 200s and off of the second round of 100s because I didn't want to risk overtraining. Even so, by the end, I felt absolutely drained. As that big set wore on, I could feel myself having less and less energy. By the time it was done, all I could think about was food. Some sets are fast and leave me feeling super-powerful, and others (like these) are long and require good endurance (mental as well as physical). So I didn't push too hard on this set, except for some of the last 50s.

Running to Shotover Park (and a bit around it, actually). The way was mostly uphill and included running through South Park, then continuing east. I ran quite slowly because I didn't want to pound on the pavement anymore than I had to (and also because I didn't want to tire myself out on hills before I even got to Shotover).

Once at Shotover, I stopped to eat a Gu and figure out where I was on the orienteering map. Then, I did a line-O (drawn by Boris) on an old map of Shotover (provided by Ian). It was a bit tough to do the line-O because (a) the map is a bit outdated and I could only print it in black and white (b) I neglected to warn Boris that Shotover has lots of ugly thorny patches. In fact, with the exception of a few clearings, it is quite rare that one can go off the trails there.
So at times, I had to take the nearest trail to the line. Sometimes, I would try to make my way through some of the thorny areas to follow the line, but then end up backing out because it was just too ugly. A thorny vine or two is ok. A stand of thorny bushes taller than I am is not.

Despite having a tough time trying to follow the line (and being confused a few times), today was fun. I got to do some map-reading and I got to do hills, although I didn't push hard on any of them. In fact, some were so muddy that I had to walk and be careful not to fall. Luckily, I only slipped 4-5 times and never actually fell.

C • Shotover 2

Running from Shotover to the bottom of South Park.

From there, I decided to walk home the rest of the way (about 10 minutes) to give my knees a break and also as a type of cool-down.

Crunches.

Stretching. Felt good.

Today's sets:

400 easy choice
4x50 build
8x25 stroke drill

2 x {3 x 100 free descending 1-3 on 1:50, 3x100 IM on 2:00, 3x100 No.1 on 2:00}

100 easy
6x50 drill on 1:10
2x{broken 100, rest 15 seconds at each 25} - FAST
200 easy cool-down - SLOW

Total: 3,400 meters (I did 3,250 because I skipped out on a bit of breastroke to save my knees)

Decided to go for a very short and very easy run. I did one slightly extended Christ Church loop while looking over an old course I did in Sweden in September. The course looks deceptively easy - 1:10,000 scale, 3 km, 11 controls. But it was actually extremely hard to find some of these controls. The map looks simple enough, but trying to line it up with reality was quite difficult because there seemed to be so many features that weren't on the map or weren't mapped the way I'd expect them to be. So while studying the course today, I looked for safest route choices and tried to read the contours (which I barely used in September).

5 minutes of crunches and some pushup sets.

Stretching. Hamstrings no longer feel sore/tight, but calves do!

Warm-up before the O-race. There was really no good place to warm up since I didn't want to run on the rocky, muddy road in my spikes. Instead, I wound up running through the thorns on the sides of the roads.

Race: NWO District Event, held in West Woods

Course: Blue, 6.97 km, 165 meters climb, 15 controls

Woods: For the most part, the woods were quite open, so fast runners could do quite well here. There were only a handful of rocks and only one tiny pond. Features included lots of earthbanks, earthwalls, gullies, pits, and depressions of all sizes. There were also trails (which were quite muddy today) and some vegetation boundaries, which proved useful. Although visibility was quite good, controls were almost always hidden in depressions, which could not be seen from far away, so being able to run on a compass bearing was quite important here. Also, although the woods were decently open, there was a lot of junk on the ground - deadfall all over the place, wet leaves covering the soil everywhere, and patches of brambles.

Description: Today was actually one of my best races as far as consistency goes. I did make some mistakes, but caught myself before any of them turned into real disasters. I pretty much went straight on each leg, looking at the compass often to check that I wasn't veering off in the wrong direction. And on several controls, I did find that I was a bit left or right of the control, but I knew it even as I was approaching the control, and adjusted accordingly.

The first sizable mistake was from control 2 to 3. The control was on a small rock close to a vertex of a rectangular shaped green area. There was a trail running right along the green, parallel to the side closest to the rock. I ran on the trail, thinking that it shouldn't be difficult to see where the green ended and the white began. Then I would simply run along the edge of the green till I was at the vertex and look for the rock. What actually happened was that I didn't manage to tell green apart from white, so I ended up running too far along the trail and when I crossed over to the other side of the green, I had to backtrack to the rock.

The other bad leg was from 8 to 9, when I was reasonably close to the control. And what's worse, I knew exactly where I was because there was a hunter's stand nearby and I saw it on the map as well. But then, since I had seen Chris and Ian running off down the hill and because I did not take the time to line up the map with the compass and head straight for the control, I bounded off happily downhill, hit the trail there, immediately realized my mistake, and then went slowly back up the hill, this time in the right direction.

My legs felt dead today, especially my calves. It probably has something to do with not getting enough sleep this week and perhaps with never fully recovering from last weekend. But I didn't feel especially sore today at all before I started! Which is why I was so surprised when my leg muscles were killing me and I had to stop to walk a few times during the course. I was ok on the downhills/flats, but did not do steep/prolonged uphills well.

I believe this is the first orienteering race in which I actually could afford to run faster, since I knew exactly where I was going, but did not have the energy to do so. Even when I saw the controls (such as number 9), I couldn't always sprint for them because I was so tired. What is wrong with me!?! Usually, I prance around like a goat until I spot the control, then prance around some more to the proximity of the next one.

Results: I was 14th out of 92 people, 7:39 behind the winning time of 49:07. http://www.emituk.com/results/2006/060115_NWO/0601...

C • Looks to have been a fast area... 6

Crunches.

Stretching after a long day. I feel much better now =)

I did 3 Christ Church loops today (in reverse order from the way I ran them yesterday). I studied a short course I drew for myself on a Harriman map on loops 1 and 2 - looked at route choices, tried to visualize what I'd see along the way, etc. Then I put the map away for the third loop and was surprised by how much easier it felt to just run and not have to concentrate!

first loop: 10:26
second loop: 9:56
third loop: 9:12

It was raining today so there were puddles everywhere. There was also a group of about 15 punk twelve-year-olds who were standing around by the river who I unfortunately had to pass three times today during my run. A couple of them wondered why I was running so much. One was so bold as to proclaim that "America sucks" (after having seen USA written on my jacket). It's interesting that this statement was offensive coming from British punks, whereas I've never been bothered by hearing American punks ranting on and on about how terrible the US of A is.

6 Strides.

4 on the earth path, 2 on the grass. About 25 seconds each. Then 40 seconds to jog back to the start.

5 minutes of crunches and some bench dips.

First swimming session of Hilary Term for me.

600 choice (I did 100 free, 100 back)
4x150 free
2x{3x100 free, 1x50 free}
8x50 free on 55 seconds
200 cool-down (25 free, 25 back)

Of course, the actual session included more swimming than this and faster swimming, but I am trying to start easy this term. The coach is not starting with anything too difficult for most of the team, but for the slower people like me, the lengths and paces he sets are sometimes just completely unrealistic. It's difficult for me (with my stubborn nature) to force myself to cut down (for example, to do 150s instead of 200s), but I know what type of workouts are right for me and which will lead to overtraining, so I do it. It is good practice for me to do my own thing instead of following what others are doing =)

Very easy run by myself. I ran two Christ Church loops while trying to figure out contours on a very hilly map that Boris gave me. There were hills on the hills of the sides of hills on that map!! There were no controls drawn on the map so I studied things like which hill was higher and what the climb would be like if I followed a certain trail. I definitely have trouble with contours sometimes, but this map is especially difficult because there are so many lines and they are all really thin. I think my vision is pretty good when I'm wearing my contacts, but even still I can't make out some of the small features unless I stand still. Does running with maps actually help my ability to *see* the features or do I have to get a magnifying glass?

C • The practice helps. One of the... 4

Running drills after the run.

Crunches.

OUOC Club Run. I was dressed in tights, underarmour longsleeve shirt, light jacket, and a hat. The four guys that were there wore shorts and half of them wore short sleeves. But at least I was definitely warm! I'm going to be extra extra safe this term to stay warm, even if the precautions seem unnecessary.

The first part of the run was about 25 minutes long, just a loop on pavement. Then I convinced two guys to hop over the fence to the Christ Church grounds and run another loop there, which was on a nice wide earth path.

C • Wooooo! Running on forbidden c... 2

6 strides right outside the Christ Church field gate. Each one took about 22 seconds, then I jogged back to the gate in about 35. I counted my paces to see what my turnover rate was. About 34 (each leg) per stride.

Crunches.

I got into Oxford around 3 PM and actually really felt like going for an easy jog, but I was starving and had lots of things to do. By the time I ate and unpacked and got myself mostly settled in, it was already dark.

C • Settle down 8

Did a long line-O with Boris in the snow. It was quite hard to run through relatively deep snow across a field with wind coming right at us! Once we got into the woods, it felt easier. There were still a few sections of running through snow, marsh, and green that were a level 3 effort, but overall it was an easy run.

Boris led for most of the run and I led for the last 40 minutes or so. It was a bit confusing at times to determine what was a trail and what was just some animal tracks or crazy skiier's tracks.

I felt very warm and happy today. My feet were fine due to neoprene socks. My legs felt awesomely warm because of the new insulated tights I have. And I was wearing the USA sport jacket that Greg gave me. I think I will be using it a lot, actually. It is quite light and also keeps snow from sticking to my shirt. [And I had a lot of snow falling on top of me because Boris would run ahead of me and hit all of the branches, shaking the snow onto me.]

Jogging in Central Park before and after the road race with Greg and Aleksey.

Fred Lebow Classic 5-mile race in Central Park. Nice weather, 38 degrees F.

Overall place was 317 out of 2892 people entered. I was also the 48th female and the 2nd place 15-19 year-old female. (The first place female went 28:02, which is extremely impressive, especially given that she's 37 years old. The first place 15-19 female beat me by 11 seconds.) Just for the record, Aleksey beat me by 22 seconds.

Mile splits and heart rate: time, average HR, then max HR.

1 - 7:24 - 172, 179
2 - 7:22 - 176, 178
3 - 7:23 - 176, 178
4 - 7:25 - 177, 179
5 - 6:47 - 180, 185

Average mile pace was 7:16.

I think I was definitely a bit conservative with my pace at times (especially on the second and third miles today). I certainly could have pushed more, but I didn't want to die in the beginning (or even worse, the middle), so I aimed for a controlled pace. It's definitely easier to run faster surrounded by so many other folks!

This was a really fun race! And Greg did an awesome job of running with me. He didn't really pace me so much as provide company, which made me feel more stable. But I never felt that I had to run faster/slower because of him. I sped up when I felt I could/should and slowed down when I needed to and he followed me. I finished the race feeling quite good about life in general. And now i'm totally psyched to train and beat Aleksey next time we race!

Crunches.

To Forest Park and back.

Running a course in Forest Park set by Greg. 25 controls, quite close together. I made some mistakes, mostly due to losing my place on the map. (I'd glance up for a second, then have to spend time figuring out where I was on the map. I have to work on that...) I was also thrown off a bit on one control because Kseniya went too far left and even though I went right at first, I hesitated (not enough confidence) and then thought maybe she found the control there, so went left too. We ended up finishing in right about the same time, taking turns holding the lead.

6 strides in Pine Grove with Greg and Kseniya after the course.

Crunches.

Crunches.

C • Sunday's Race 2

It's a bit hard to log only minor strength training, but I figure that it's a good thing for me to take a break now before starting another intense and crazy term at Oxford.

It's been a while since i've looked at a map (or at least it feels this way), so I spent some time analyzing old maps on the subway. I guess I was so focused on figuring out the contour detail that I missed my stop and wound up in the Bronx instead of Manhattan. This made me remember all of the countless other times I have missed my stop because of reading, sleeping, or just zoning out. New York has that effect on me.

Crunches, push-ups, dips, and some other stuff

Crunches

Crunches.

Weights and 5 minutes of crunches.

I decided today to do a test run in Fort Tryon Park for speed so Aleksey and I ran to the park and did an easy loop, then stretched and did a fast loop for time. Then we did one more easy loop and ran home.

11:23 easy running
6:40 fast loop
12 minutes easy running

The conditions for running weren't perfect since it was dark, it was raining, my legs weren't fresh because of hills yesterday (although they weren't particularly sore either), and because we had to watch out for cars (so we couldn't completely focus on just running). Nonetheless, since I decided before I left the house that I would do a test loop around the park today, I was determined to follow through. The first section was pretty much all downhill and the last section was pretty much all uphill, so I never felt comfortable. I felt uneasy running downhill hard and tired running uphill. But as crazy as it sounds, I enjoyed the uphill. I was tired, for sure, and I was definitely going at a pace above my comfort level, but I also wasn't sprinting and I felt in control of my breathing. I actually felt quite strong the entire way.

Although I certainly ran downhill almost as fast as I could, I saved some energy on the uphill so I could sprint the last 15 meters or so. So I ended the loop thinking that I still had energy left and could have gone faster.

Aleksey did the loop 20 seconds faster than I did. I was right behind him for 2 minutes of the way, but then fell back a bit. I always saw him ahead of me though, which motivated me to keep going.

My legs felt quite tired after the run. Amazing that only 6:40 minutes of running can bring about such an effect!

It was dark and raining when Aleksey and I left the house, but after Sweden, I feel much tougher when it comes to weather conditions. I feel I can run through just about any crap, at any time of day, in a variety of temperatures. The only way I wouldn't go out to run now would be for safety reasons (for instance, I wouldn't go run in the park late at night by myself).

C • Good 1

Running at a very easy pace with Jamal. We did one long loop of Fort Tryon Park (about 15 minutes)and then ran around throwing snowballs at each other.

Crunches and stretching.

A fartlek session with Aleksey:

7 minutes warm-up running (flat and downhill, the first half of the Fort Tryon park loop)

3 minutes of [10 second strides, 10 second sprint, 10 second jog, then 20-second ones, then 30 second ones, and so on] (mostly uphill, second half of Fort Tryon loop)

Rest - stretch

2 minutes jog to usual hill near dog area

8 x hill repeats, then jog slowly downhill the long way around (continuous motion, the jog downhill took over 1 minute). The repeats were in the low 40s, with the last one being 40 seconds. (In the summer, I did a couple of workouts where I did 4xhill repeats on the same hill and had times of 40, 39, and even 37. So it looks like although I definitely used to be better at hills, I haven't lost all ability yet.)

Rest (walk back to the start of park)

Do another loop around the park: 5-6 minutes easy the first half, then {10 steps stride, 10 steps jog, 20 steps stride, 20 steps jog, and then 30,40,50,60}. Total loop took about 8:30.

2:30 jog home

C • hmm 2