Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Walk with Homer, to Finn Park, around the big field, and back via a slightly longer way.

Actually, not really lawn mowing since there is no longer anything that resembles a lawn in our back yard. I'd call it "yard mowing". Basically trimming down the weeds and some weed trees (some of which were almost a foot tall) so that yard (not lawn) looks a bit less scraggly.

Indoor pickleball at the Rec Center. 10 people in attendance. To support my observations about people in general seeming to play worse outdoors, I felt like the people I observed today, as well as myself, were playing a lot better indoors. Still not totally sure why that is.

The bad news is that the fairly small amount of right-handed pickleball playing yesterday, even though I almost totally avoided hitting any backhands, did aggravate my elbow, evidence that I am nowhere near ready to return to even limited right handed playing. Kind of discouraging. But very slightly offsetting that discouragement is that I do think I'm gradually getting a bit better playing left handed. So maybe any pickleball future I have is as a lefty, if I'm unable to get past the tennis elbow problem with my right arm.

3-person pickleball -- Cheryl, trailsnail, and I. Some reasonably worthwhile play, though.

I tried some right-handed playing (maybe about half the time, I was playing right handed), for the first time in a long time. I used my light-weight paddle with the larger-diameter grip, and attempted to hit any shot on the left side with a left-handed forehand rather than a right-handed backhand. No pain or even discomfort while playing, but the key will be how it feels later today and tomorrow.

Pickleball at Webster Park. There were 8 players, 3 of whom were totally new to pickleball, but they all picked up the game reasonably well.

Couple of pickleball videos:

Nice mixed doubles game from the Villages in FL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2DbxU_OnP8

From the Rochester Picklefest, one point shown, but an impressive one (in a singles game; most pickleball is doubles but there was a singles division in this tournament):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUUOHIJ9iZM

More Cobb's Hill mapping.

Aborted dog walk attempt with Hugo. I decided that maybe he would consider it positive to go on a long walk with me, with no Homer along. My intent was to take him to Bay Rd, then the 104 path to Maple, then into Finn Park, and back home. He certainly was not on board with that plan. It was a chore to get him to walk even a half mile away from home; sniffing like mad, looking a bit scared to go any further in scary unfamiliar territory, etc. So finally I gave up and turned around to head home at the 0.5 mile walk.

I know that his owner has walked him over to Finn Park and back, but via the more direct route, so maybe that's where I should have taken him.

Walk/run to test out a couple of injuries from the last O meet. I hurt my ribs in a fall while running on a trail, when I tripped over a root that had to be all of about half an inch high, stumbled for a few steps, realized I was going down, and tried a tuck and roll. I rolled onto my left arm which was propelled into the side of my chest. I was a bit shaken up but not in any great pain, so I continued on. Later that day, it didn't feel bad, but the next day, it was more uncomfortable. No real pain 95% of the time, only when I move in certain ways. It bothered me a little while running today but not that much.

A more worrisome issue was that my right knee was bothering me most of the O courses, and later that day when I moved in a certain way. Today, it was only very slightly noticeable while running. So I'll cross my fingers that I didn't do any major damage to it (or even minor damage) by doing the O courses.

Temperature was only 94 at our house (I heard it is 97 downtown), with a fairly modest dew point of 66 so not real high humidity, and a very brisk wind, making it actually very tolerable. I'm guessing it would have been less so if I was running steadily rather than mixing walking with running.

My initial target was my usual 30 seconds running, 90 seconds walking, but I felt more energetic than my previous outings, so the runs were more like 40-45 seconds, with the walks being correspondingly shorter.

C • Way to HTFU 4

Walk with Homer to Finn Park and back. He and I needed a walk, and he and I also needed a break from Hugo, the 4-month old Wheaten Terrier whose owner (who lives across the street from us) is spending a week in Cape Cod.

After the first few hours with Hugo (which was by mid Saturday morning), we have very definitely eliminated Wheaten Terriers from any consideration we may have given as far as a future dog acquisition. He is very high maintenance, much more work than Hershey and Joey (combined) were when we were sitting for them.