Training Log Archive: Sandy

Well, heck. Where did that come from? Don't think I've hiked the loop that fast before without jogging at least some of it. There must be something to taking a few rest days now and then!

Decided to hike the meadow loop in the shoes I would wear to do the HH (my rogaine shoes which have a bit more support, cushioning and protection than my regular O shoes but still have studs) and see how my ankle felt both during the hike and then afterwards. It started out sore and I thought this might have been a bad idea, but then it seemed to loosen up and be fine the rest of the way. I tried to jog a few steps but that didn't feel so great. I know it's foolish to go but I was really looking forward to it and the weather looks absolutely perfect.

C • Hope to see you there 2

C • Zowie . . . 1

Most of the Core DVD. Planks were hurting my ankle so I stopped there. Probably a good indication that I shouldn't attempt the Lowlander. So bummed.

This was way harder than it's ever been before. Guess I'm not staying in as good shape as I imagined I was. Not a good feeling.

Really don't know what to do about the Highlander this weekend, or rather the Lowlander. My ankle is still pretty sore but I'm sure I could get through the course. Just not sure if it's the right thing to do long-term. I'm leaning towards skipping it, but feel like a wuss.

C • Skip it 8

Met with the trainer despite a pretty swollen ankle, but since it was less than 24 hours I couldn't change the session. We did a lot of arm stuff that didn't involve moving my ankle but it still probably wasn't the smartest move.

Some last minute adjustments for the FCC ScoreO.

I need to seriously downgrade some trails in this section.

I rarely go to Warwick but it was on the way home from French Creek so I stopped by intending to help pick up controls. I got talked into doing the brown course. Granted they didn't have to work too hard to convince me, but I should have stuck to the plan.

I take a really bad route out of the first control, should have turned around but I wasn't wearing the best glasses - poor planning on my part - and couldn't see that there really wasn't a nice way to get to the trail if I didn't turn around. But pushed through crap and eventually got where I wanted to be. So I head down the trails and am figuring out what I can use to tell me when to leave the trail when I notice my thumb compass has no compass - the whole housing was gone. I decided I would use the day as practice in reading features and pacing and see how much of a difference not having a compass made.

And I was nailing everything. I was feeling really good and got to the far end of the course, and took a very deliberate route on the next leg since not having a compass meant I really wanted to know exactly where I was coming out on the trail and I guess I was looking too hard at the map and not my feet because I went over on my ankle and was down on the ground. It hurt! I lay there for a bit, shook it off and got to my feet. It still hurt. I continued to the trail intending to just walk it in. But then the next control wasn't that far off the trail so I thought I might as well get it. Muffed it up a bit because no compass, and I had gone past where I would have gone off the trail and had to sort of angle back and I didn't angle quite enough so missed it and wandered a bit. Sorted it out and then decided the next one wasn't too far and it was on the way back to the finish anyway and nailed that. I had looked ahead a while ago and planned to go down to the trail for the next one which I did and I thought I should just go straight to the finish. I tried to jog - I mean why else would I be torturing myself trying to run during the week - but after one step I could tell my ankle was not going to like that so I just walked. And then the last three were really close to the trail so I just got them.

Really bummed since if I hadn't twisted my ankle I think I would have nailed the rest of the course and I would have made myself run the trail and the finish chute and would have had a really good result.

Got to download and told my tale of woe and Meg said "Oh, I found a compass housing, do you think it could be yours?" and it was! And then realized I must have hid my forehead when I went down since I have a nice lump and bruise over my eye to go with my swollen ankle.

Just looked at my track - the spike in heart rate is where I turned my ankle.

Oh, and Lena set a really, really nice Brown course.

C • Zowie . . . 3

Brown - Splits