Training Log Archive: ebuckley

As usual, putting on an O-meet has completely turned my life upside down. That's not a complaint; I think a little chaos to bring about something you care about is a fair trade. The specific upshot in this case is that the Felt is still disabled, so it was back into work on the SUV.

Really nice morning; would have loved to go further, but I'm already not sure I'll have the legs for this afternoon's session, so I just did the slightly longer route through Forest Park and left it at that.

I've ridden 325,000 miles, but I've never battled a wind this strong for this long. Most of the ride was under 10mph. A good bit was more like 5 or 6. I had already decided to postpone the quality running until tomorrow before I even started, but I wouldn't have had a choice as it took over 2 hours to cover what would normally be under 90 minutes, so I had no extra time to run.

C • You were heading right into... 8

Heel felt much better this morning which I took as an endorsement of yesterday's easy soft-surface run. So, I did it again.

Home from work on the SUV via a very circuitous route because it looked like it might start raining and I didn't feel like riding long in the rain. I figured as long as the rain held off, I'd keep adding distance. Turned out to be a pretty nice ride after the first set of sprinkles passed. Lots of wind, but it didn't bug me.

Midday (well, midday for someone who starts work before 6AM) jog around the Arch. There and back via the plaza along Market to make nearly the whole run soft surface.

No surprise that the heel was not happy upon waking this morning. Running (easy and short) still makes it feel better rather than worse, so I'm continuing to treat it as normal high-volume mitigation rather than an actual injury. Probably only 1 mistake away from going over the edge, though.

As a defense against that, I am making some subtle adjustments to the training plan. I had already planned on moving the bulk of the volume to the bike (as is my custom every year when things get warmer). I'm going to cut the hard-surface running to one quality workout a week. Daniel's plan calls for a second Q workout; I'll do that on trail. It's getting warm enough in the mornings to put the barefoot on grass runs back in, too. Those seem to help a lot.

Stayed at S-F overnight and went for a sunrise jog. Heel hurting a lot from standing around at the start yesterday in my O-shoes. Dumb, I should have changed out of them as soon as I was finished setting. By the end of the jog it felt fine, but I'm sure some bigger adjustments will be needed to keep this under control.

Gateway Grunt III at S-F (1:10). Distance and climb are a guess because I haven't looked closely at how much my skips (10, 31) took off.

Nice course by Bill - good mix of technical and physical. Pack stayed together through 5. As I hadn't warmed up, I lagged a bit, just making sure they didn't get out of sight. Things broke up going to 6. Hooked back up with David & Jeff briefly around 8, then split with them when they went for 10 and I skipped. Met Maricel Olarlu on the way to 13 and punched first (I was winning!) Fell back a bit going to 14 and then boomed 15. Never saw Maricel again after that. David & Jeff came into the map exchange just as I was leaving. Frederick must have really stuggled in the trashy NE section (7-12) because nobody had seen him since 6. Ran the second half well to take second place. Death match now 2-1 in favor of David.

Excellent run from a fitness perspective - had good pace even through the thick stuff all the way. Nav was a bit rough, but that's to be expected given how little woods training I've done this year. I don't think there's much point in going to the Pig even for just Saturday - I'll get my ass kicked and I've got a lot of other stuff on my plate right now.

Splits, maps, and full report for the weekend to follow.

Control pickup at a very mellow pace. Got all the NE controls and took the time to check the map a bit. It's not as bad as it seemed during the meet. The vegetation boundaries are pretty close; it's just that a lot of the rough open is now a mix of cedar and undergrowth. Contours and water features are fine.

Event: Gateway Grunt III
 

Putting out the e-punch units for MOJO finals at S-F East (1:10) and also a quick run through white/yellow to make sure they were still good after last week's storms.

Perimeter run on the east side of the White course as part of the search for the girls that got lost. Picked up a couple controls along the way. After half an hour I met up with the party covering the north of the course and they had just recieved word that the girls were found. Picked up some more controls coming back in.

I will never, ever, let a child under age 8 out alone on one of my courses again. I don't care how sure their parent is about their skills.

Discovered an odd mechanical on the Felt while taking it down off the hook. Didn't have time to mess with it, so I rode in on the SUV instead. Probably just as well since I wanted it to be a really mellow pace and shifters help in that regard.

More or less easy spin into work, though not as much cadence as I'd like with the wind out of the SE again - I'm going to have to reduce the gear on this bike if this keeps up.

The G has responded to the warmer temps in typical fashion. Nice to be on target a full six weeks ahead of the marathon. I do need to remember to start bringing my summer hat as I was getting sweat in my eyes yesterday.

In less happy news, something had to go and it's the Pig that went. I haven't been putting in the training in the woods to justify a 3-day weekend and I really need to use the time for our own A-meet. I might be able to slide in a day trip just for the Ultra champs. We'll see.

Easy distance home from work. Crossed over to St. Charles at 370. Back on Page and through CC Lake park. Need to put a water bottle on this bike. All the parks still have their fountains shut off. Finally stopped at a QT for a 32oz Gatorade.