Training Log Archive: hkleaf

Event: OLOU Night-O and Sprint
 

80F and rising, partly cloudy - 7:30a run with the group from the Spot. More details later.
74:28, 51:03

Afterwards, while listening on the World Record's holder of 100mi run talk about ultra marathon racing.

Quick warm up by the start/registration before the sprint. This included 4 strides.

OLOU Sprint - E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park, Louisville, Kentucky.

Pretty straight forward and flat. I pretty much just followed the redline to every control. Because the whole course was out in the open grass, I didn't have any trouble reading the map on the run. The only problem was hitting my head on a tree branch right after punching #6.

Night O - We were given the map ahead of time so I was able to study it in detail and pre-plan my routes. The location and distribution of the controls made it so that there can be many different route options. I decided to go in a general cw direction and tackle the open controls first. Surprisingly, I was in the minority. But I was confident in my choice and decided to plough onwards. In general, I had a very clean run. Most of the time lost occured inside the circle, as there were no reflectors on the flags. My headlamp bounced a lot and made it more difficult to read map on the run. On several occasions, I had to slow to a complete stop just to read clearly. Since I had planned out my route ahead of time, the running was pretty simple, and I managed to sweep the course with time to spare. When I had finished, I was drenched in sweat. The temps were comfortable, but the air was practically saturated with water vapour. It was as if I had taken a shower in my own sweat... gross! All in all, it was a fun event, a good night-o practice. I was a bit surprised by how well I was moving, considering the 17mi run in the morning. :)

A bit of stretching at the park. Then some more in the hotel room before bed. An exhausting day!

Sprint - Splits

Level 11, Hills, 547c.
Didn't feel like doing battle with the sun and heat outside, so just rode at the gym. Still sweated a ton anyhow.

Searched without success for a replacement bulb on my Priceton Tec flash light. It seems no local stores sell this. I may have to try my luck online... meanwhile, I'll have to survive tomorrow's night-o without a backup. There's a 1hr time limit, so I should be fine.

C • Bulb for the Surge! 2

Warm up and cool down run between car and trailhead.

99F, sunny, light (hot) breeze, @7:15p - After Tuesday's debacle, I decided to get in another attempt at speedwork. Instead of the track, I went to the woods to counter the weather. Thought about going to Mt. Airy, but decided on England-Idlewild instead since it's much closer. EI has an abundance of MTB trails, and conveniently there's a half mile Beginner's loop on relatively flat clean surface - a perfect setup for my intervals. Before that, however, I ran on the Intermediate loop (1.7mi) to loosen up a bit first. Scared up a bunch of deers who were hanging by the creek enjoying dinner. The woods look pretty green all along the trail here, but visibility is getting better with all the shrivelled leaves from the dry spell.

This was my first attempt at trail intervals, so I wasn't sure what kind of time to expect. As it turns out, there's barely any climb or turns in the loop, so I was able to maintain a good speed throughout. The only real problems were running in the heat, and some kamikaze squirrels who kept dodging out right in front of me! That happened 4 times. For all I know it could've been the same one, on a mission to trip me up! Other than that, the intervals went well. I decided to stop after 4 (instead of the original plan of 6) just to play it safe.

Afterwards, I hopped onto the Technical loop (2.5mi) to finish out the run. Boy were there plenty of twists and turns in this loop! At one point I thought I was getting dizzy from following all the switchbacks. Overall, I felt really good. I tried focusing on my forms mostly, nice easy effort, and staying in control. It seems running on trails is getting to be more comfortable now. :)

The interval portion of the run.
4x 0.5mi loop (w/ rest):
3:02.16 (1:30.40)
3:03.50 (1:30.25)
2:59.11 (1:30.24) *faster b/c I was chasing a MTB!
3:02.16 (1:59.83)

Post-run stretch near the baseball field.

Ankles, some planks, plus push-ups and sit-ups.

80s, clear - Spent the early part of the evening teaching Kit how to drive. She's doing ok, but it was a bit nerve-wrecking at times, even if we were only in an empty parking lot! Anyway, to salvage some training out of the day, I opted for a late night ride. Over to the library first to drop off a book, then did some loops around the neighbourhood block. Breathing was much better tonight, thank goodness.

80s, overcast, humid - Fall Mara group run from Crossroads. The original plan was to do Yasso 800s at the Norwood track, but a soccer game was underway when we got there. So a change of plans to a tempo run instead. I tried keeping up the pace with Craig, but only lasted 16mins. It wasn't very hot, but the humidity was almost unbearable. It seems the air was so heavy I could hardly breath. Since I wasn't feeling well, I backed off the pace a bit to run with Heather the rest of the way. At the end, I was soaked thru top to bottom. Don't remember sweating this much in a while.

C • the not breathing part might b... 3

The "tempo" portion of the run, though now it seems I wasn't actually going very fast.

Scheduled rest day.

Late afternoon ride around the neighbourhood. Checked out some newer roads/houses. Fairly low intensity, just wanted some active recovery for my legs.