Training Log Archive: Becks

An entire day of revision for my Viva. Feeling a bit less scared about the whole thing now.

Putting out the other half of the controls at Osbornedale. Got a bit stuck when a mapped trail totally disappeared. Ooops.

Despite having visited all the control sites over the last 48 hours, a pretty poor "race" round the prologue. Nothing in the legs and scrappy acround the circle. Just totally exhausted from a stressful week and the prospect of a more stressful couple to come.

Despite having visited all the control sites over the last 48 hours, a pretty poor "race" round the prologue. Nothing in the legs and scrappy acround the circle. Just totally exhausted from a stressful week and the prospect of a more stressful couple to come.

Decided not to race the chase and helped Boris do the grand control switch. Very tough to run in the open, grass higher than me and beating sun!

Helping Boris out by hanging some controls at Osbornedale for tomorrow. Cute little woods! To my great disappointment, there were no turtles, but there was a flock of very small geese with some angry parents. That was pretty cute. Good to stretch the legs after a week spent hunched over the computer!

"So...err...I got an extension on the grant deadline...it has to be in on Tuesday morning"

Well this is going to be a fun "holiday" weekend. As if having to revise for my Viva wasn't sufficient.

C • Bleurgggggh 2

Today I felt sick all afternoon and was in the lab until 9.30 reading through the grant. The grammar was so bad that corrections on 16 pages took almost 6 hours. Crikey. Tired!

Back into the gym after their Spring Clean. Did:

Shrugs 4 x 5 75lb
Lunges 4 x 10 55lb
Squats 4 x 5 105lb
OH Press 4 x 8 (2 x 45lb, 2 x 35lb (weakling!)
DB Row 4 x 8 20lb
Assisted dips 4 x 8 -45lb (couldn't be bothered to change what was on there, was in a rush by then!)

Jog to the track and strides. Boris turned up to, yey! Hot. I knew I was going to suffer.

Oh my god. Becky and heat do not mix. Attempted 3 x 800m at 3.04 pace. At the first hit 3.07 and then had to dash behind a bush while Boris did his second. Then 3.05, then a 3.08 which felt awful. So sat out Boris's next one and then set off with him chasing me, to pull off a slightly more respectable 3.02. I know that I will start to at least get a bit used to it eventually, but that was hard. It was fun laughing at Boris running the gauntlet of small children on bikes on number 5 though!

C • its your 'ologies 1

Gap between the reps and the plod home. It really was a plod, I actually had to walk for a bit three times. Heck.

As Ali would describe, a quick morning joggeroo round the neighbourhood. Science Hill would be awesome sprint race territory!

C • Joggeroo 3

Bah - the gym is open again but the membership guy isn't working today - how useful! No strength for me today - would have run for longer if I had known!

Bleurgh! Today is muggy as hell! Set out for a nice East Rock based long run, but it quickly became apparent that that was not going to happen, so switched plans. Did 40 mins of 90 x 30s going up and down and around hills, and they were pretty tough (breathing was pretty difficult, the air felt thick) but more fun than a slow slog. I may have only done three sessions this week, but at least they've all been good ones.

So much for back to it today. I am thoroughly exhausted, dunno what's up with me. No energy at all.

"So, our 2pm meeting this afternoon has been moved to 5pm. I hope that's not a problem for anyone."

Grrrr.

C • Presumably on the same basi... 6

Managed to get home by 7 and went on a gorgeous evening walk round East Rock with Rob, then grabbed a beer at Archie Moore's. Great evening - training gets back on track tomorrow. Yey!

Okay, so screw what I said yesterday! I felt fat and rubbish and wasn't tired enough to sleep yesterday evening, so I made myself get up to run this morning. I figured that if I was going to wait around for Rob to have his extremely long morning shower, I may as well run during it, and then it doesn't matter if I stay late in the lab.

So headed up to East Rock, and when I got there did 6 x 3 mins undulating intervals on trails, with one minute walk in between, getting tired on the last one. Much more fun than track intervals, and it's a gorgeous day today - no fun to be in the lab!

So my plan worked well...except when I returned, a certain young chap is still in bed wearing nothing but a massive grin. So I still had to sit through the shower. It's a good job he's cute :)

I did get the time to make poached eggs on toast though, so that was a definite win.

This week is clearly going to be a hectic one in the lab. I think I will just take it as a rest week from exercise - give my leg time to sort itself and try not to feel guilty for not getting out there. Sometimes other things just have to take precedence. And my hamstring will definitely appreciate the break.

C • Good luck with lab stuff! 1

It was raining today and I was just rubbish. Working pretty hard in the lab as we have a grant application due on Friday.

Running up to East Rock and back again.

Payne Whitney is closed for a Spring Clean this week, so have to get my strength kicks elsewhere. Ran fast uphill for one minute, then did 30 (or a min if timed) of a specific exercise, then jogged back down. Repeat ten times. It was great fun until I got home and realised I was covered in mosquito bites. Itchy as hell now!

Press ups, crunches, obliques, Russian Twists, Suitcase Crunches, The sit against a tree thing, split squats, 45 degree plyo press ups, dips, and a minute's plank to finish. Fun!

C • fun session 13

Jogging back down the hill

New York here I come!

C • Yaaaaay! 5

Strength session number one - last one for 10 days as the gym closes down for its summer clean. Went to "very heavy" for which I am a shadow of my former self, but still much improved on three weeks ago! I am starting to look like an athlete again. Well, as much as I ever do!

Shrug 4 x 5 85lb
BB Lunges 4 x 10 65lb
Squat 4 x 5 115lb
OH Disc rotations 2 x 16 25lb (Next one up is 45lb - not ready for that yet!)
DB Row 4 x 8 27.5lb
Assisted Dips -25lb to failure. Poor show there!

Easy run round West Rock with Boris and Marie for a bit. My legs felt surprisingly strong, my stomach felt dreadful. I need to stop eating take out and cook my own food! The problem is that take out here is so big that it feeds me for 4 meals, and it's a waste to throw it away...

Trying out the variety of hamstring and lower back stretches. Kitch, we can't get that first one to work - is there a picture online? The second one is great! The sunshine is back too, which is a definite plus.

Warm up and jog back after 3km. Rainy and very cold - back to thermal and trackie top. At least I feel vindicated in my packing choices whenever this happens!

Okay, so to prevent me running my intervals too fast and further aggravating this hamstring, I ran a 3km time trial to give myself a baseline. Not sure quite what I expected, my forest strength and speed is returning but haven't done enough road stuff to feel too quick. And in fact, I felt strong the whole way, but didn't ever hit that light, fast cruisey feeling that I had when I was marathon training or doing plenty of intervals. 11.17 is not particularly good, but not ridiculously bad either. Something to work on now!

C • 2 things 3

Short O course at Osbornedale, courtesy of Boris. Was orienteering a bit lazily tonight, and moving really well for the first ten minutes, then tired significantly. That's what you get for getting up early and running a 3km time trial I guess. Another beautiful but compact wood, but the contour detail was much more subtle than other places I've been so far. It was very dark in the overcast evening too! Saw a white tailed deer and tried to scare it off so I could see it better, but I fear my bird noises were far from threatening enough.

Nice long stretch while we waited for Boris to get back. Hamstring is tight, but not painful. Felt good to stretch out.

Just got back from the lab and am super sleepy - think the weekend knocked me out a little. Going to get to bed early and try and shift tonight's training to tomorrow morning.

This weekend's races were my best ever none World Cup WREs as far as points goes. Ace. They felt better than any of those tedious JK Classic races too!

Left my house full of Canadians and went to the gym pre work. 5 mins on the bike, warm up moves, then set 3 with light weights again, as they're quite intensive moves for the hamstring. 4 x 8 of everything.

OH Squats 35lb
SLDL 55lb
Step ups with controlled descent 35lb
Press ups with pull 10lb
Landmines 45lb

5 mins on the treadmill at a slow 10 mins per mile. No pain or tightness in the hamstring.

Sleepy tired today, but after the warm up limbs etc felt tired but strong.

No Team Trials for me - Rob arrives on Friday.

YEY Yey yey yey YEY!

C • super exciting! though we'l... 6

For the Brits who want to see what the fuss is about, Route Gadget is also up for the weekend - the "Mad Hatters Return" event.

http://www.vmeyer.net/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi

Jogging about on the warm up map. Stomach complaining so nothing too fast. Figured it would be fine once I started though, as was right.

Long race at Huntington State Park. A really, really excellent course, leaving me physically and mentally exhausted a good 2km from the end. In an 8km course, on a map with load of trails, I ran on trails for 500m. The long leg was brilliant, macro and micro route choice, constantly having to be on your guard. Beautiful woods and some good competition. Managed to grab 2nd again today, but Sam's time was really great, almost three minutes ahead. I guess I lost this when my faculties started to deteriorate at the end! I was fighting Erin the whole way for 2nd, and a late mistake from her just got me in there. Again, really brilliant fun.

Start-1 - Took the left trail which was windier than I would have liked, hesitated up the wide rentrant, over the hill with more hesitation until I saw the wall junction, and then spiked with more confidence. Note to self, either learn how to type hesitation or better, stop doing it!

1-2 Down the spur to the wall corner, across the flat hill to the pond and up.

2-3 Wanted to go pretty much straight, but hit the pond so slightly right in the end. No wasted time thinking about it though, and line into control good.

3-4 Chose to go straight across the swamp. On comparing splits, this was definitely not the right choice! Totally nailed the control though.

4-5 Round the contour of the hill, not sure where I am, saw the same wall junction and still not confident enough across and down to the control. Damn it girl, you're alright...trust yourself!

5-6 Round the green marsh to the right, then down the trail to the control.

6-7 Took the right route, up the white, then over from the middle of the marsh.

7-8 Uber leg! Planned well and executed well. Virtually straight but with the contours of the hills, so slightly to right of line then switch midway to slightly to left.

8-9 Caught Erin at 8 and we raced hard round this bit. Rough bearing to the trail, in from the trail junction reading the contours.

9-10 Straight with the rock features on the right. Hills so clear.

10-11 Across the stream to the rocky reentrant, then in from the big boulders.

11-12 Starting to get tired now. Hesitated dropping into the marsh running north south, the stayed on the big trail not wanting to fight the mountain laurel. Could'nt for the life of me figure out which boulder my control descriptions stated the control was on, luckily Erin helped me out with that one. The arrow just meant nothing to me! Brain pain!

12-13 Out to the wiggly trail which I foolishly tried to follow. Then decided to cut across to it's next wiggle, but was confused by the direction when I hit it. Finally figured it out and followed it round to my marsh AP, but I should have seen the brain ache coming and gone out to the marsh to the north, or trail to the south. Erin dropped me here.

13-14 Straight but veered a little low, corrected very quickly though.

14-15 Through the marsh, cut through to the northern pond, through the next col and in.

15-16 Rough bearing up hill, and luckily hit the flat valley to the north. Only just hanging in there now, super tired. No real plan, could have gone horribly wrong. Caught Erin again here...almost in!

16-17 Failed to see the large fence and had to go back on myself ot cross it. Then failed to see that the small trail led right to the control, and cut across. I feel better that Mr Peel also did exactly the same thing here.


At the end my hamstring was sore - didn't notice anything at all while running but seized almost instantly on finishing. I can't remember the last time I pushed that hard, and enjoyed racing so much. To almost lose control of my faculties is not something that's really happened before.

I am getting the bug again :)

C • Great description 4

Short jog with Marie. Was surprised to feel that on moving, there was no pain whatsoever in the hamstring. Ibuprofen and ice tonight!

Red Day 2: Long - Splits

Event: WCOC / US Team A-Meet/WRE
 

Jog to the start and around the warm up map.

WRE Middle Race at Ansonia. Really fun. As Ross and I stood in the start box the skies went dark, the heavens opened, and the thunder started. Turns out the course was so good that 20 seconds into my race I had ceased to notice, and proceeded to have fun. In detail:

Start-1 Confused at the start triangle. Checked path directions with bearings, crossed the stream, then cut up crossed the trail above the clearing and along the spur to the control.

1-2 I just couldn't figure out a plan, so I ran terrified and hoped. Turns out it worked, but I was scared shitless. Should have stayed high, a plan suggested by Sam. Maybe not faster, but certainly way more secure. I was lucky.

2-3 Low to the trail, then off at the clearing. No sweat.

3-4 Back to the trail, hit it a little high. Off at the junction. Sweet into the re-entrant.

4-5 Straight ish but just above the rocks. Stopped too early on the control on the identical (but larger) boulders. Finally convinced myself I needed to go further. Not impressed with self here, knew they were wrong really but couldn't quite get the confidence up not to check. And double check. And triple check.

5-6 Tick off trail bend, rounded open re-entrant, cross the trail above the double boulders either side, and in. Great.

6-7 Started planning my route for the long leg, looked up and realised I had no idea where I was in a totally flat and featureless bit of forest. Went out to the trail but that didn't help as had no concept of how far I had gone. Eventually saw Cristina get it and legged after her. Not good at all.

7-8 Straight, ticking off the rocky re-entrant below. Very visible site.

8-9 Went low and round the hill, then attacked the control from directly below. Lost an incredible amount of time to Sam here, about 90 seconds. Hesitated a bit, but not 90 seconds worth. Straight is great guys! Can;t believe I made such a poor choice after messing up the previous one finding it!

9-10 Control pick, fine.

10-11 Between the spur end on the clearing, then over the hill on compass. Nice.

11-12 Dropped too low and found myself in a featureless flat bit. Pushed on to what I thought was the green, and found the rocky features. Dropped into the crag. Almost a disaster here.

12-13 BEautiful, across the wide hill, down by the stream, cross the marsh, bang.

13-14 Down the col, across to the trail, bang.

And in. Overall really pleased, could see where I lost the time to Sam, and could have been up to 3 mins faster I think. Feels really, really great to be racing hard again, after so long. And my confidence is returning too. I love these woods!

9-10

Red X Day 1: Middle - Splits

I made it to the gym! I actually felt fine too - going to force myself to get up when I'm sleepy from now on. Started with 15 mins random on the treadmill at 8.34 a mile - no pain or stiffness in the hamstring! So maybe being a lazy sod for two days was a good plan.

Upper body/core strength session 2. USed 12.5lb for all the stuff, then level 4 on the twists. Only did 2 of the planks at the end as realised I was going to be late for my 8.45 seminar. Just made it. Score. Looking forward to tomorrow now!

Short laundry run. No tightness or pain in hamstring at all - got to the top of the southern hill top no problem at all! Excellent! Lovely evening, bit of a breeze.

Today I couldn't get up again. So I stayed in bed until 9.30ish, but that didn't make me feel any better. I think I am too hot overnight, and not getting as much restful sleep as I should be. Need to sort out some kind of air con for the apartment. Tomorrow I will force myself to get up whatever, do my missed gym session, and go for a short run in the evening while my laundry goes again. At least being rubbish means my leg is getting a rest!

The gym is looking less and less likely tomorrow. This election is looking like a car crash, and I can't stop watching. Go to bed Becky!

Have been up nearly an hur now and am tired and achey. Really have no motivation for gym or lab. So going to have a rest day. Just from the gym unfortunately!

10 mins jog out to East Rock, 8 x 90 (30) going not all out but accelerating significantly, 10 mins jog back. Hamstring is tight but not painful even on very gradual inclines. Totally fine on the flat and downhills. Looks like I should manage the weekend, even if I have to walk up all the hills!

Tomorrow's plan - no running, morning upper body strength session. Last proper rest day for the leg before the weekend.

20 mins of the random program on the treadmill at a slow 10 min mile pace. Hamstring is totally fine running flat, slightly tight on an incline, but no enduring discomfort when returning to flat. Looking good for the weekend! Going to try some trail 90 x 30s tomorrow - not many, maybe 8.

Pretty quick strength session as I had to get back in time for my grocery delivery. Just about whizzed through session 1:

Shrug mid thigh 75lb 4 x 5
BB lunges 55lb 4 x 5
Squat 105lb 4 x 5
OH Disc rotations 25lb 2 x 16
DB Row 25lb 4 x 8 each side
Assisted dips 4 x 8 -30lb

Had to tell two guys doing the worst bench presses ever some technique points so that they didn't seriously screw their backs. They were amazed at how much more weight they could lift with their feet planted on the floor. Some guy was doing World's Strongest man style dashes with 100lb in each hand. Awesome. I was the only girl in the weights side of the gym today!

C • Hahahaha. 2

Stretching whilst waiting for the grocery man, who came bang on 7pm. Score!

Jogged 1 min walked 1min into the lab, transformed some E coli, did some active icing of the leg, then jogged 1 min walked 1 min back home again. No pain, a little tightness. Will definitely do strength tomorrow but see how it feels when I wake up before deciding whether to attempt a 20 min continuous jog in the evening.

Event: USMA West Point A-Meet 2010
 

Cycling a cross country program on the machines down at the gym. Poor way to spend a very very sunny Saturday. On the upside, no pain in the leg at all, even if resistance is high.

Strength session with very light weights, trying to load the hamstring a little but in a very controlled fashion. Again, no pain during any of the moves. Weights were very light though! All sets 3 x 8.

OH Squat 25lb
SLDL 45lb
Step ups 25lb
Press ups with row 8lb each hand
Landmines 45lb

Yale gym is not a cool place on a sunny Saturday lunch time. Gurning work out men and anorexic girls staring vacantly at the wall. Eurgh.

C • Anorexic girls? 2

I have entered and paid for next weekend's A meet. I hope this isn't wishful thinking.

Also - does anyone need a place to stay? As I still don't really have any furniture, I have plenty of floor space!

C • CSU 7