Training Log Archive: DWildfogel

San Francisco Night and Day Challenge. Louise and I went considerably further than planned. (Distance is what we ran, not the straight line distance between controls.) Mostly running slowly, a little bit of walking. Way too much pavement. Quite chilly, especially when running into the brisk W wind.

We scored 420 points for 1st place in the 3-hour Veterans Mixed division. Our route was 22-36-74-34-75-43-76-21-23-35-26. Route was rather inefficient as we improvised on the fly since we were covering more ground than expected. With a good route, probably could've picked up another 120 points (54, 52, 27 - we actually ran right by 27 but at that point we were only concerned with how to get across the Hwy 101 construction and get to the finish).

We had a considerable number of objectives in mind before starting, some of which were in conflict with one another:
1. Get in a 12 mile run as Louise's final long run before her half-marathon in 2 weeks.
2. Run on part of the half-marathon course, most particularly the part with the big hill up to the Presidio.
3. Keep our running to two hours (i.e., not overdo it by running for 3 hours).
4. Stay off pavement as much as possible (which the half-marathon course purports to do).

Once we started, two other objectives were added:
5. Get out of the wind.
6. Get as many controls as possible. (We avoided some temptations here, but it wound up playing a bigger role than we meant it to.)

What became apparent going to the first two controls was that the map was not very accurate regarding off-road terrain. The street map was fine. Alas, the trails in Golden Gate Park are not shown, so we wound up on pavement even there.

We definitely over did it. I was never anywhere near oxygen debt, but my legs started wearing out. Both of us had sore knees and very tight calves and hamstrings by the end. Hopefully, we'll recover after a few days rest.

The usual weekly accumulation of morning stretching.

All the exercises but only two sets each. Still feeling a bit tired, and tomorrow is the 3-hour SF Night & Day Challenge.

Skyline, with Louise. Quite warm (78 deg). I woke up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep - bit of a sore throat and ear ache. With that and the heat - and probably soreness from yesterday's track workout - I had a real tough time on the hills today. Felt decent in the middle of the run (where it's relatively flat), but when I started hitting the hills with 1.5 mi to go, I totally faded; Louise beat me by over a minute on that last stretch as I had to slow to a jog - I was totally out of energy. The first 5 miles were quite similar to what we did two weeks ago; even with the terrible finish, today was still faster than we did a month ago.

++++++++++++++++|---------(1205)----------|--------(1019)----------|
--------------129(1141)1310(448)1758(717)2515(639)3154(340)3534(222)3756
7423(93)7250(1310)5940(422)5517(557)4920(618)4302(312)3949(153)
++++++++++++++++|---------(1020)----------|---------(931)----------|


Note: Louise tried her "shoe pod" in conjunction with her GPS watch; now it registered 20% too many miles!

Warm up: jogging around waiting for Louise (we actually started at 9:45 though we intended to start at 9:30)
No cool down. Stretched a little, then went in and took a nap (!)

Los Gatos HS Track, mostly with Louise. Sunny and warm. Turned ankle from Monday bothered me a little when I first hit the track, but then wasn't a problem. Left hip a little sore afterwards, but not bad. Overall, this felt pretty good and wasn't that hard. Definitely could go considerably faster, though I'm not sure it would be wise to do so (given how many parts of my body could get hurt). Nevertheless, it's pretty clear to me that I could run a mile in under 7:00 - which is nice to know.

Warmup: 1.5 mi in 15:26
Extended warm up (waiting for Louise): 4:19, mostly jogging but also 1x110 yds
3 x 1 km: 4:56 [1:15 rest] 4:48 [:59] 4:39
Cool down: .7 mi in 10:44


Note: Louise's GPS watch got only .57 miles for the .625 mile 2.5 lap intervals. No tree cover on the track, so no reason it shouldn't be accurate. Confirms my suspicion that it has been coming up short.

C • 7 min mile a good goal 5

Details above

Core, hips, theraband, weights - the whole shebang. Tiring, as usual.

Sonoma Coast: Kortum Trail from Blind Beach to Wrights Beach and back, with Louise. Ran to about 50m past the gate at the top of the road leading down to Wrights Beach. Louise slowed a little into the wind on the way back; I had two loopbacks totaling 1:48 (so the run itself was 7.24). Also took :45 piddle stops at Shell Beach both coming and going (didn't count those in the elapsed time). Split at turnaround was just over 41 (looked at watch), which means I ran about the same total time in each direction. Heel hurt most of the way, especially on the hills (and there's a big one right in the beginning, and you have to go back over it at the end). Nevertheless, felt pretty good running from mile 4 to mile 6.

Trail was rocky and rough in spots. Turned my ankle pretty badly with a mile to go, but was able to run it off and didn't think about it again until several hours later when it really started aching on the drive home.

The scenery along the coast was spectacular!

C • You seem animated 6

Armstrong Redwoods, with Louise. Casual walk up to picnic area, then back by way of the cutoff to the amphitheater. Lovely evening stroll through majestic redwoods.