Training Log Archive: cporter

Event: US Middle Distance and Relay Champs
 

I don't know how many people actually follow my log, but you may have noticed that its been rather sporadic in the past couple weeks. While I will l always try to post my training (even if it takes me 2 days to get to it), there's a lot going on at work AND its the end of the semester, so things are going to be pretty crazy in the next couple of weeks so its going to be a struggle just to find the time to train. I cannot wait for the summer!

C • Me too! 1

With the beautiful weather and rising gas prices, it is definetly time to get my bike out of the garage once again. Since I've never biked to the Archives, I decided to bike there and then go for a run. Now I know how much time to leave to get to work by bike. Ironically, it seems like it will take me about the same amount of time that it takes me to drive - less when compared with days that the traffic is particularly miserable (which is most of them).

Run around the Archives property and the University of Maryland Golf Course. One loop around the Archives building is exacly a kilometer (it occured to me during my run that I probably walk a couple kilometers a day during work since I am constanly walking from one end of the building to another and up or down four floors - i should wear a pedometer haha!) and I began and ended my run with a loop. I don't know how far I ran on the golf course, I usually run on it after 5pm on weekdays as opposed to running today at 11am. I try to be as respectful to the golfers as possible so I was constantly changing direction to avoid fairways, groups of golfers, mowers, etc. I rarely ran in a straigh line so it is very hard to judge how far I went. I'd be willing to wager that it was shorter than I would have liked - the UMD Golf Course is pretty hilly and I definetly used muslces that haven't been used in about 5 months on my bike ride so I felt every step - I was also preoccupied with watching for golfers (esp. flying golf balls) so I was constanly catching myself running at too slow of a pace. Still, it was nice to have a change of scenery and I'm really glad that I took the time to clock my time to bike to the Archives.

Took a slightly different route on the way home. It's shorter, but there isn't a side walk for part of it so I have to bike through several non-contiguous parking lots that have nice, high curbs that separate them. I guess it will be nice to have options to bike to and from work. I am most relieved that biking to work will only involve minimal risk - I have to cross a 4 lane highway, twice, but at least there is an access road that paralells the highway so that I don't have to bike along Rt. 193 (if I did it would only be a question of time before I was hit). Oh how I hate College Park, nothing is convienent, not even when you drive....

Greenbelt Park. Ran the perimeter trail plus the Dogwood trail which I believe is 1.1 mi. It has been a long and frustrating week so it was nice to have that time to clear my head. My legs were still pretty tight for at least the first half of the run, but at least they loosened up today after about 30 min. It was also nice to run in such beautiful weather, althought I'm not quite ready for running in 80+ degrees everyday.

Ran the perimeter trail again, but this time in reverse - longer hills, but at less of an incline in this direction. It was definetly tougher to complete the run today. My legs were very tight and didn't loosen up as I had hoped they would later in the run. The result was I had to shorten my stride and just didn't run as fast in general so it took me a couple minutes longer than I had wanted. Before I started my run I had planned to add a mile loop to my run and wanted to do it in under an hour, but axed the loop and just ran my typical run (which I need to stop doing). No strides either today since I was so tight (I suspect that my strides from a couple days ago may have been the culprit).

I finally managed to take all of the correct turns and actually completed the full perimeter trail around Greenbelt Park. I was a little disappointed that it took me 50min to do the whole thing (I was hoping to be closer to 45min), but the trail is rather hilly with a couple that are quite long so that accounts for some of the added time it took me. Just the same, I NEED to start working on my hills and speed!

Set of 6 strides today. I ran the last mile of my run pretty hard so I was already feeling quite tired and even a little nauseous. As much as I did not want to run any strides I told myself to do at least 4. After 4, I felt even worse (every time I stopped I got an instant side sticker that doubled me over), but my times stayed consistent (only varried by tenths of the same second on all of them) so I forced 2 more. It paid off too. My times were actually faster for those last two by a whole second. Just the mental boost I needed.

I should note that I don't typically time my strides, but since I was so tired to begin with, I wanted to keep myself focused to get the highest benefit out off the few I planned to do.