Training Log Archive: hamlet

I was at the Czech Embassy's Christmas bazaar all day (from 9 am to 6:30pm), so I didn't really have much chance to go running. Yeah, I could've gone beforehand, but last night I went to sleep late because of Czech school.
Anyways, I was outside in the freezing cold for about 5 hours, so that just sucked the energy out of me (and for one of the hours I was in a folklore costume because of the performance, which means 1. knee length skirt with no tights underneath it and 2. thin-fabric blouse and 3. that's it. At least I had gloves on (I had a good excuse, I was playing the piano and if my hands were too cold I wouldn't have been able to)).

I was aiming for an average pace of 5:15 to 5:30 per km, but I kept on accidentally going faster, and it was kind of alright since it felt good for me to know that I don't need to worry about the pace too much, since if I slow down a bit I'll still be within the planned range of pace.

I also did the first November technical training exercise. I wanted to do the easiest one I could find, since I was worried about how I'd be able to keep up the pace and map (in the end it was fine). So, I did the spur/reentrant map exercise.

I'm surprised that my heart rate was so high, because this was after stopping for a few minutes after the tempo run to breathe.
I'm glad I was able to jog up the hill, even though it was killing me. I tried to run lightly, but I was exhausted and ouch.

I was gonna go for a run but like I'm just feeling quite crappy today. So, I'll use my rest day today and do a tempo run followed by some hills tomorrow. Yeah, instead of 3 workouts I'll just be doing 2 this week, but I have a half day at school tomorrow and I think it would be better to not be rushed.
Plus, today's a really bad day and I just need the rest time. Like, yeah, I've been trying to rest, but I needed one day where I really do nothing, because man today was rough.

10 sets of 10x 65lb squat (we were gonna do 12 but ran out of time)
Core
1 min heel touches
30 sec per side single legged v-ups
30 sec per side bow and arrows
1 min bicycles
2 min plank

It really hurt a lot today, especially since during bow and arrows my quads started cramping. It was just great.

I'm super sore today, so I'm glad it was just deadlift day. Even though that also was hard :D
12 sets of 10x 65lb deadlift
3 sets of 10x 25lb tricep pull-over

Easy run. I feel bad for not putting more training hours in today, but I'm just too sore to do more.

I was rushing since I left my house later than usual because I reeeaaaally did not want to get out of bed

12 sets of 10x 65lb bench press

5x 100m strides
Then some basic drills, none of the workout type, just to get ready for intervals

So I was doing 400s. I did 6x 400m on (aiming for 100 seconds), and 200m rest
Here are the splits:
1. 99 sec
2. 100 sec
3. 101 sec
4. 98 sec
5. 99 sec
6. 100 sec
I'm really happy with the time consistency. I think I'm finally getting the hang of keeping the same pace throughout the entire interval.
After my 5th interval, I wasn't sure if I wasnted to do a 6th or not. But I figured that is I'm considering it, I might as well do it, since apparently I had enough energy, I just kind of didn't feel like doing it. So I pushed myself and did it, and man it was torture (especially the last 100m), but I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I was able to push myself.

How is my heart rate higher when I'm cooling down that when I'm working out?

Ouch
Bow and arrows - 30 sec per side
leg lifts
side planks - 30 sec per side
dead bugs
plank

It was really cold! I genuinely wore almost exactly what I would normally wear for cross country skiing, minus the ski pants. I had on gloves, a buff, thick socks, my ski undershirt and jacket, and a ski headband. And my feet and hands were still cold! I really need to get used to these temperatures soon.

12 sets of 10x 60lb RDLs
2 sets of 10x hanging leg crunches (I have no clue what it's called)

This run made me angry. Or maybe I was already angry before, I'm not sure.
So I was pushing the pace a lot for a lot of the run, because of how frustrated I was. I was really really frustrated about forgetting about the team call that I was looking forward to, and I was frustrated about eating a lot of crap when I came home again. I was also really frustrated that I feel like I'm not improving at all in my running. I just want to be able to run well for once.
So since I was pushing the pace, and it was dark (I had a headlamp but it wasn't very bright), about 2.25 km into the run I tripped over something. It caught me off guard, since I was running on a trail I know very well, and I landed hard on my palms and a bit on my knees. I stayed on the ground for like 15 seconds, because it hurt (after all, it was a bit chilly and the trail had gravel on it), but then I got up because I was angry at myself for being such a baby and actually being in pain and stuff. Yeah, I was really angry at myself.
Then the last bit of the run was even worse. When I got to the last hill in rock creek park, and the biggest one, that I usually jog up lightly and still suffer on no matter what, I tried to run up it hard. On the first part of the hill (the less steep one) I slowed down for like 3 seconds to a walk, but then I got angry that I was chickening out of the running, so I pushed again, but at the end of the second part (the steep part) I couldn't, so I slowed down to a walk. This made me really angry, because the last time I walked up that hill was maybe last spring, if not even earlier.

First 10 mins: skill drill (traverse, crossing arm and leg over on each move)
The next hour: bouldering exercise (perfect repeats - improve efficiency on each try of a climb)

MY PALMS OW
Yeah I really fell hard, because my palms hurt when climbing quite a bit. But on the other hand, I was still able to climb pretty well (maybe because I was still angry at myself?)
V1
V2
V0
V2 2x
V3 2.5x (I failed one try)
V2 2x
V3 (not completed, got halfway up)

1 min pank
20x windshield wipers
20x pushups (on fists, b/c of palms), but the easier version
20x I.Y.T's
20x DB rows
20x Rear delt raises
20x high knees

Event: SVO Mid Atlantic Championships & NRE at Pine Grove Furnace State Park
 

I feel like this was a somewhat harder orange course, mostly because of the unfamiliar terrain (since it was in the side of a hill for the most part). I had hoped to do a bit better than I did, but I'm not too disappointed.
I did a few mistakes, but just small ones that cost me about 4 mins total (not including the legs that I was just slow on).

First, on the first control I lost maybe 30 seconds or less by overshooting the correct trail and going an extra ~30 meters before cutting into the woods and turning back.
Then, on the second one, I just slowed down a bit when attacking the control, because I shot off the trail and didn't know exactly where I was, but thankfully after getting a rough estimate of my location and making a few steps I saw the control.
On the third leg I was quite slow, because I shot off into the correct direction, but without a specific plan of how to navigate, nor following the bearing I had set up (mainly just to keep me in the general correct direction, because I really need to practice more of following bearings). Thankfully, I kept on the correct spur, but I was afraid I was overshooting the control. However, I know that on some courses before I felt like that and in reality I wasn't nearly far enough, so I (thankfully) kept going and I found the control.
For the 4th control I followed the line of root stocks up. I had poor micro route choices, since I couldn't decide if I wanted to go on the left or right of the root stocks, so for the most part I just went through them. It wasn't horrible, but I could've saved some time and energy if I had been more decisive and made better micro route choices.
Then to 5, I drifted a bit too north/up, and I found a charcoal furnace that was northwest of my control. I didn't want to try and cut straight to the control, so I contoured over, trying to see the control, but I hit the trail and just decided to run down it.
To 6, oh god that hill. I really ought to run more hills, I have no endurance up hills. I ran a bit up it, then I just couldn't any more. I saw the charcoal furnace to the left of the trail, so I figured I would turn off of the trail when I get there and contour over to the control. That worked, but man I was slow. That hill killed me.
Then I wanted to contour over to the trail and take that down, but I kept drifting down and ended up right at the beginning of the driveway to the northernmost cabin (so I wasn't our of bounds, thankfully). I should practice contouring, though, it could have really helped me. But thankfully this didn't cost me too much time, so I ran down the road, then took a left and ran up the road in the re-entrant. Another hill that killed me. And it wasn't even steep at all! I guess I was just trying hard to run it fast, but that certainly didn't feel fast at all. But after all I convinced myself to keep at it and I ran up till the end of the road. I turned into the woods and had a slow attack to my 7th control because I was so tired from that hill. Yeah, I really should do more hills.
So here I decided to run back out of the woods the same way I came, and turn left to go south on that road. It was downhill, but a bit twisty. It was fine for running, but afterwards while comparing route choices with Max he showed me that another (in my opinion better) route choice was to go all the way back down the same way I came up, and then turn left to go around the other side of the lake than I did. But after all, I don't think I lost too much time with my route choice, I don't think it was too much longer.

The course went okay. But it was good that Greg gave me some advice during the warm up, and I tried to stick with it. It was to use a lot of compass (I tried, but I didn't want to trust it too much since I know that that's something i really need to practice a lot more), keep my head up (that saved me a few times), and to not run diagonally down, but to contour over and go straight down or vice-versa (I did this with #5, and I think it worked well). So that helped quite a lot.

I feel a bit bad that I didn't run red as I had planned, but I am so glad that I didn't, it was really nice to have a short course again.

I hope I didn't let my team down too much :)
So I started but man I should have warmed up better somehow because my legs just didn't want to work. I was kind of alright to the first control, but that hill to the second control killed me, and I almost ran around the wrong side of the fence. I really couldn't push up that hill, and then I realized Kirsten was right behind me and I was like "oh crap" but that still didn't help me up the hill much. I tried to run as lightly as possible, as my dad tells me to do up hills, but I just really couldn't.
Granted, I have been slightly neglecting hills recently on my runs, and oh how I regret that.
To the third control I was navigationally okay, but again, poor micro route choices. I cut through the woods in what was probably the greenest strip there was. It just seemed like it had the most deadfall. I tried to get around it but that didn't work too well. But once I made it out of the woods it was fine.
The rest of the course was clean, and I really felt good. Since the rest was flat, I could run more easily (not that I was super fast, but at least I wasn't dying). And I'm really happy with my finish. I really extended my stride, so that's good.

C • Good job! 1

Orange - Splits

Relay Leg 2 - Splits