Training Log Archive: Traut

Event: WPOC - Yellow Creek State Park Night-O
 

My first night-O! My calf that had cramped the day before was killing me all day, so I knew I would struggle physically. I was also extremely hesitant about handling the terrain in my current physical state, especially in the dark. I decided I would not run much and just work on navigation skills, which are rough enough in the daylight. I was more then hesitant about my ability to avoid mistakes in the dark.

I started off with ligt jogging on the trails and roads and walking off trail. My navigation concerns meant not only walking but constantly checking the map and the compass almost every few strides. This kept my big mistakes mostly to overrunning attack points on the roads as I started to push more later in the night.

I did run pretty hard in the last hour or so where I spent more time on the roads and I did not feel natural at all. My left knee throbbed in the car on the way home and my right knee and calf bothered me pretty good getting out of bed the next day (today).

Don't have access to a PC these days, so not sure when I will get a quickroute out there.

I followed a similar route with some changes. I ran on roads (more toward the end) and some on trails. I was really cautious and extremely cautious off trail with my footing and navigation.

I went straight up to 23 first then down to the wood-road and used the trail and vegetation boundary to hit 18, then the lower trail to hit 13. Then cut across the clearing and a little green stuff to get over the trail and down to #16. About now it was getting dark enough to turn on my headlamp. I had been fairly confident with the light still giving me vision over distance. Now I was very hesitant about going off trail.

I went back up to the road and headed south to 37. I made an error here and went into the woods to early thinking I as seeing the clearings in the dark (this is where I now see the beauty of night-o as training. While inside the control circle the reflectors give you the control- you now have to use only the features within your light range to guide you confidently to the circle. I need that kind of confidence and skill. This is where night-O can help me). I wasn't and just found nasty fight. I came back out and headed down to the actual clearings and that is where I first ran into Alex.

I then went back up to the road and up to the trail and around to #24. Then trail to 17. Here I made a mistake as I took trail south of the ride out of the clearing instead of the ride. I figured out my mistake when I saw clearings south of the trail that matched up with the trail and not the ride, so I went back a little and headed north to the control. I then took the trail around to a shorter attack point for number 33 (from the west). This was my first control off trail in the dark and I was very hesitant. A slow walk with constant checking. I ended up heading right too it (which I was extremely proud of) and hit it just before alex shoed up from the longer attack point to the east.

I made a big mistake here as I decided to chase 22 at this time instead of realizing I would need to come back right through it again. I didn't take a good route through the green and it took a while. I after #22 I cut to the road west (from the southern trail corner - a quicker route) and attacked 36 from the trail. I was definitely starting to gain confidence on my off-trail navigation in the dark. I was hitting controls perfectly, but I was very slow. Not racing always improves my navigation. This was no exception. But it was nice to se I could do it.

I then used the streams as a handrail to attack #26.I headed due west through the clearing to the trail and attacked 30.Then I took the trail out to the road to the west (somehow never noticing that 10 was so close on the map...). After grabbing 20 I made the plan here to use my running more ( I was feeling OK to start pushing a bit harder and I was realizing how slow I was in the woods) to grab 34 and a few controls in the 20s on the way back and then hit the more accessible controls in the 30s back near the start (#35, #31, and #32 were all right off trails and roads and not far from the start. If I could ru well- they were easy controls to snag). I headed out to 34 and then decided it was dumb not to hit 38, so I did and then contoured around to the stream to hit 21. This took time out of my final plan on the east side of the map. It also showed how slow I was moving compared to Alex, who I can move much faster then on the road (when moving confidently and uninjured). At the trail head to head off the road to #34 we met again (he had moved a bit ahead of me by snagging 39 and 40 which I had deemed I did not have time for and would be better off running to the higher point controls further out). As I headed out for #4 he went in for 21 and then out to #34. So I had that time on him. He basically caught me by the time I hit #38. I could see his light behind me. That is the cost of hesitation, but it is what I need right now to hit the control. As he headed out to #19 I headed up to #21 to get back to the road and my plan (which was now shot)

I grabbed 28 and 25 on the way back (overshot both a little bit in the dark as you just can't see the streams). Then cut back up to 22 (which I should have waited to this point to get) and then around and back to get 35 before heading in. There was no time left to hit #31 and #32. I had seven minutes left at #5, so I could pick up a few 10 pointers, but I was sloppy heading out of #35 and hit horrible fight that meant I just made it back with 11 seconds to spare. You hit the fight and you say, well- I'll just push through... that did not go well.

Another note: in looking at Nate ohrwaschel's log: http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_5563/p... , I noticed that we covered the same amount of distance although he outscored me by 200 points or so. I usually look at that as planning issues on my part, but our plans weren't that different (I did have planning issues concerning 22 and 21 etc and I should have hit more of the easy big points on the east side of the map - but I wanted the challenge of the west... The best move might have actually been to (not do 22 the first time) go back after 20 and hit 28 and 25 and work on quick big points east. I would have a lot more points if I could run fast enough- all easy pickins'). The reality is that he was covering distance in the woods so much quicker then I was and I made up for it on road and trail. A great example is when he did 39 and 40 and I opted out (because I knew how slow I would be in the woods) to run to 34 and 38. His distance in gathering 39 and 40 was no greater then me running around on the road, but the time made all the difference. He could be quick enough to leave the time that I needed. So could Alex.

All in all, I enjoyed night-O a lot more then I thought I would and see great training value in it. I will need to do more of these. I was happy with my navigation. When I made mistakes I was able to realize them and adjust and that is a success right now. I stuck with my hunches when I made mistakes and they always led me where I thought I was.

Hand-drawn route until I get to a PC and use Quickroute:

From Pictures for log

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/F9ioA7Tp7M7F...

results: http://www.wpoc.org/

C • 21 twice? 4

Event: 2013 U.S. Individual Championships/Team Trials
 

ran out of time after work to get on the bike due to thunderstorms. Got on the nordic track after Claire went to bed. I actually continued the trend of feeling my left leg extension and contraction of my quads and knee. didn't feel great, but felt that. Kept it to 30 minutes so I didn't lose it. I was then surprised to wake up at 1:00am this morning with a raging calf cramp in my right leg... Oh well.

Forgot my watch, so mileage and time are estimated. I headed over to the last section of the Capitol Greenway in Harrisburg that I hadn't run yet (I did drive a little residential road part on the way out after the run to finish the entire thing. The last part included Wildwood park and H.A.C.C. I didn't go into the farm show complex, maybe another time... Wildwood park was actually nice. It had a cinder trail on the west side of the lake and paved on the east side with single track path dodging in and out. I explored it thoroughly including a little side-trek out to Crooked Hill road which I thought had a cool enough name to check out and maybe work into another run someday - it wasn't - just residential. I also explored HACC, including a wood rd. leading out toward 81 that ended up having police on it due to the huge semi-truck that caught fire on the 322 ramp above 81 that was still burning and I had passed under driving to the run and could see the plume the entire run (ends up that it shut down the park and 81 the rest of the day and caused havoc on people getting to our meeting. Appears that that nobody was hurt though!

Felt OK early in the run and felt extension and contraction on my left leg similar to the elliptical last night, but as I got tired things did deteriorate over the course of the run and my right knee actually felt a bit irritated at the end of the run. That was disheartening because I felt like my form was coming together today a bit more.

I had to eneter a new type of exercise... the elliptical. I thought I would never...

We got a late start heading out of the office to get together for the full staff meeting on Thursday so we had dinner as soon as we arrived and no time for a run. So after getting back to the hotel and calling Gail I headed down to the exercise room. For some reason I was drawn to giving an elliptical a chance.

I know ellipticals are designed for about a 4 foot tall runner's stride, but what the hell. it has probably been 15 years since I got on one. My calves had the most trouble adjusting and by the end of the 40 minutes I was so awkward I couldn't keep my feet on the platforms, but for a little bit it actually seemed to isolate and encourage my left knee to extend and contract my quads meaningfully. I have no idea why... I am sure it was just in my head or coincidence of moment, but there you go.

My heart-rate went from 100-150 over the course of the session. Wasn't a terrible workout actually.

All I had time for was 30 minutes on the Nordic Track. Felt awkward but any of the 'pull' from my right quad on my T.A. dissipated with time. I felt awkward and was in and out, but got through. Still not sure if my quads or my calves are teh heart of my problem right now.

Tried an easy run over at Sewickley Heights park. First 2.5 miles were terrible. I felt like every major muscle group was fighting me. My calves may have held together yesterday, but my right calf was feeling "broken' today. It felt like so much effort just to slog through and my body was taking too much impact. I couldn't run any degree of downhill. At about 2.5 miles in, I loosened up a little bit. Now I could slog without feeling like I was being resisted at every contraction, but I had no freedom of movement and was constrained to said slog. The good thing: I found a piece of trail I had not ever seen before. Right at the beginning of the 5th mile I was out by the ruin in that reentrant out by the main trail climbing up the southern side of the park. The trail peters out there (I remember coming across that once before) but I bushwhacked a little bit and caught sight of an old stone stairs that I had never seen. I went to it and it was a nice long step up the hillside. Neat old part of the park off the beaten path. This isn't a park I hit as much so nice to find an unknown.

after run, calf and knees are really tight.

light on calf-raises

Since Gail was at work all day and I was with Claire, it didn't leave much time to get out before I had to be back home to get things ready for work tomorrow. That was probably for the best. A ride just to get my body back out there is what I wanted to do anyway. I tried to adjust my front derailleur over the weekend to get it moving onto my big chain ring better, that was an absolute failure- it may have even been worse. I also moved the seat down a bit top see if that had any effect on my calves. That was more interesting. My calves did seem to do better. They were tight, but they were tight all day. They did not do any moving toward cramping and that has always been before 40 minutes or so into a ride!. Possible extraneous variables include the days off though... On the flip-side, my left quad felt a bit irritated during the ride. It is possible that lowering the seat decreased the strain on my calves, but increased the angle and therefor strain on my quad. For both, there are extraneous variables. Time will tell.

I had planned to stay flat (hence the crappy loop around the lake with hundreds of my fellow Pittsburghers...) and easy. My heart rate was up pretty good, so I did push a little bit more, and I did. I didn't feel great, but I did get into a grove and wanted to pass people. In order to test my calves, I needed to climb something decently steep (I was afraid to get out of the saddle (that is for another day's test- the level of the seat won't effect that damage- if it is still there), so nothing that steep). I took it decently easy up north ridge from the Dog Park. My heart rate still got up and I still worked, but I definitely wasn't attacking. The good thing is that my calves were fine.

As far as my sickness. My mouth was really dry and I hacked and hacked afterwords. I am not out of the woods yet, but time will tell if I tried some exercise too early.

It will be nice when my body finds some normalcy and I can get longer runs and rides in. The good thing about my calves today is that I may not have to fear cramping if I climb. That will open things up for me.

strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/52594036#

just quick stretching and wall squats before bed.