Training Log Archive: maprunner

Traffic was insane driving home tonight. Took me awhile to remember it was the first KU home basketball game. Really impacts my commute.

Tennis was much better tonight, because I actually got some individual instruction. Wish they had told me these hints a few weeks ago; I would've enjoyed the class a lot more. Trying to decide if I will sign up for another class (starting in Jan) so I don't forget what I've learned, or give up and move on to learn something else.

Mike rowed, rowed in prep for the Giants game. My preparation: two beers.

C • Would've been better... 2

Last bit at SMP. I like vetting, to see the Trot locations, and visit ALL parts of the park. Today was colder and windy, and I was in more public parts of the park. At one point, I passed three dogs off leash within 100 meters. I bit my tongue and didn't say anything to the owners, but I thought about it :)

Also had time to make two pairs of pants this weekend. What a great four days, including lots of visits with family and friends. Can we do it again this week ?

C • do it again 5

More vetting at SMP. Wore my old HR strap, which works better than the new flexible strap. 40s and overcast, and the grass was wet, so I got soaked. Hard to get going on the second round, but I needed to check some more before heading back to Lawrence for a great lunch with Pete, Madelaine, Clementine, Patrick, Gina and Mike. Nice to see everyone again, and to get P&G's feedback on the KS Champs course. Thanks guys!

After my weight training, Mike and I checked out the KS champs course. I just walked a few minutes to review a couple of points.

Vetting some PT controls. Beautiful day, 65 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Fun to be moving through the woods, although I took it slow.

Followed Janet's advice, and read up on sports nutrition. Decided to follow some USDA recommendations, and drank more concentrated Gatorade, in larger volumes, every 20 minutes. Finished and ate some protein, and 0.65 g of carbs/per pound of body weight. We'll see how I recover. (Although it's not a good test, since I will over eat and over indulge in alcohol in the next few hours :)

Still having problems with my HR strap. One time it said my HR was 105 while I was jogging. Not possible. So, I am sure this outing included some training in HR zone 4, but, I'm too lazy to adjust the numbers.

Local event at Wyandotte Lake. I tried to push hard on the downhills, and keep moving on the uphills. My fitness is improving, so I did OK to start, but I still tend to get brain dead around 1 hour. Drifted off the line at 10, but relocated quickly. Drifted off the line again leaving 11, which forced me into more climb than I wanted. Once again, I had the fastest time on the course. I'm beginning to like this trend :) My route.

C • Brain dead 2

First test of the KS Champs course. Some parts are good, some parts need improvement. Easy enough to fix. Fabulous day, sunny and 70. Wish it would be like this on Dec 10th!

C • Trot weather 7

We had an event on campus tonight, as part of Geography Awareness Week (which is a national, annual event). Since most of our membership growth (over the past 30 years or so) came out of an affiliation with the geo dept, we have decided to focus our recruitment efforts here. Thanks to some coercion (extra credit from the profs) we had 45 students participate tonight (which is HUGE for us). I ran out of maps, but George quickly made extra copies. Even better, the student TV station was there filming the whole thing. Don't know that anyone was bitten by the O bug, but the publicity will be great.

And now we only need 16 people to attend the KS Champs (traditionally our biggest event of the year) in order to meet our goal of increasing starts by 10% this year :)

this class is not the best for a complete beginner like myself, because there is very little one-on-one instruction. Plus we're a mix of beginners and intermediates, so they try to keep the pace moving for the more advanced players. I expected to be bad at this (never had good hand to eye coordination) and I am. So I definitely need to practice on my own between classes.

re-ran the 2010 KS champs course. I tried to push it but I was pretty lazy until near the end.

Still having difficulties with my new HR strap. I have to wear it high, and it's a bit uncomfortable under my arms. And the HR still seems really low, especially at the end, when I was pushing hard into the finish. Unless I'm finally getting into shape?

Mike left for a week-long business trip today, and it's the start of my short training week. I'm hoping to get a lot of sewing done this week. I need to make new pants; all my old ones are literally falling off me :)

Test ran the Geography Awareness Week course. Lots of fun, and challenging. I made a mistake when I ran too far down hill. Re-ran a few legs as Mike filmed a PR video

learned to serve tonight. I think I managed to get one or two over the net.

Could only squeeze in a 30 minute session this week. Glad I don't do these regularly; we moved at a very quick pace from one exercise to another. I think it might almost have been tougher than an hour workout!

Time for my annual winter "10K" course. I had a 10K course, but realized that being out for ~2 hours was enough, so I cut it short. I think I'll keep running the shorter version.

This is a course that Mike drew a while ago, but I had never run it. There were no tapes, because most of the points are very obvious. The map is >10 years old, so vegetation and trails are sometimes very different. I took some funny routes through the "yellow" to either stay in mowed areas, or avoid the worst of the very tall grasses.

I took it pretty slow, because I was out so long yesterday. Still doesn't explain some mistakes.

3: the trails are different now, and I should have realized I was too far away from the lake, but I was drawn to the nice new bridge at this point. (Grass from 2 to 3 is mowed)

4: there is a frisbee golf course here, with lots of mowed trails. Which is nice for running, but can pull one off the navigation. Vegetation is very different now. (Grass from woods to road is knee high and sparse. Grass after the dump station is impassable, except on mowed trails)

5: leaving 4 is really tricky, obviously. Too many new trails. Should just look at my compass. After cresting the hill, there is a strong headwind. This leg will be miserable later in the winter. Obviously went to the wrong reentrant here. (Grass up and over the hill is impassable. But there is a mowed section next to the road)

6: new trails lead right to the pond. Yeah!

Stopped three times here to try different ways to wear my HR strap. Sometimes it works fine, other times it's way too high or low. Frustrating.

7: the woods right around the control are really crappy. Think I'll just wave at this marker on future runs.

10: Grass around the roads is waist high to begin, but gets shorter and less dense as you head south. After crossing the road, the grass is high and annoying, but there is little choice.

11: Outer edge of campground is mowed, so I had to go around the edge. After leaving 12, I scared up a coyote. Never saw one in the woods at Clinton before (although I knew they were there. Plenty of scat around). Decided to cut the course short at this point.

15: the trail is very different now. I "punched" at the current trail bend.

My plan is to run this course once a month, to get time on my feet and practice moving though the woods. Although the nav isn't difficult, it's hard to stay on track when one is tired. Good practice.

My route.

C • Good for you! 2

Long - Splits

PTOC event at Kill Creek, green course. We used Valerie's epunch equipment, for our first use at a local meet. We only used it on red and green, but several people ran up from orange, just to be able to try the epunch. Everything went very smoothly, with only two minor glitches, which were easily fixed. I think we're all set for using epunch at the Trot this year!!

I started late, and had the advantage of knowing the other finish times. But I was still not able to be 4 seconds faster to beat Marv :( Easy course, mostly a trail run. I felt pretty good.
my route

C • epunch 2

Maps from the weekend:
Night O Green
Middle Green
Relay Green

There were fewer people in class tonight, so I got more practice time. Learned how to shorten my back swing, so that I actually make contact with the ball (rather than a complete woof).