Training Log Archive: Lori

ARDF 2m Classic at Parrie Haynes Park! Oof! Why is it always pouring rain for 2m? I was very happy that I went to the trouble of putting the rain cover on my receiver. A few people had their receivers die out there.

I think I ran about 50% more than I needed to today even though I took the transmitters in the best order. I definitely did not lack in the overrunning department. After I finished, one of the Russians(?)/Ukrainians(?) told me that I have "too much health", which I guess is a nicer way of saying "too little brains". I did a lot of running back into the transmitters as he ran towards them. Sigh.

I don't know if it was my receiver or the rain or the transmitters or just me but the controls just never sounded very close even when I was right on top of them. I did eventually find them all, but there was much running WAY past the transmitter, realizing I'd run past it and then running past it in the opposite direction, and so on. I did still have a lot of fun out there, and with all the hill training I've been doing, I definitely felt nice and strong out there, which was nice :-).

To make the day more Texasly, I nearly got run over by 3 stampeding horses *and* I got to see a jackrabbit *and* in the evening there was someone playing slide guitar! Fun, fun!

C • 2m 3

Dynamic stretching before the race and then static stretching before and after dinner.

ARDF 80m Sprint at Parrie Haynes Park! SUPER FUN!!! After my disaster with the vegetation yesterday, I gave myself a firm rule of only running on trails today, which made for a much more fun experience. I definitely lost some time at one point when I wasn't sure whether something was a trail or just a seductive break in the trees and ended up going much further around than I needed to, but I was totally ok with that considering that people without my firm no-vegetation rule ended up doing a disturbing amount of crawling today. I also took the controls in the best order, which was nice :-).

The only thing I really could have improved (aside from just running faster) was a cycle or two lost on 5 Fast when I kept thinking I was closer to it than I really was. Apparently this was a common problem, though, so maybe the transmitter was just a bit stronger than the others or maybe I need to get back into the habit of overrunning? Anyway, super pleased with this!

Dynamic stretching before the race and then static stretching before and after dinner.

Fox-Oring at Dana Peak Park in TX! Another new state! This went pretty well for the first half (by which I mean the first 8 controls) and then kind of miserably for the second half (by which I mean the last control)...

The big take away from this is that white and green here is basically filled with these tree/bush things that like to keep hold of their branches even after they're done using them for useful things like leaves. This can either lead to unpleasant, pokey running or unpleasant, pokey realizing that the sunk cost fallacy really is indeed a fallacy and it is now time to turn around. To make things additionally confusing the bush/tree things leave open these inviting spaces between them that sort of look like trails but are not, in fact, trails.

Anyway, it was still quite fun, and I'm going to treat "shortcuts" through the forest here with a lot more caution for the rest of the races!

Normal stretching. The calf is feeling pretty good!

Running with Presto at Morgan Territory while Sam set transmitters! Easy-peasy trail run just to get out and enjoy the day while waiting for Sam to put out ARDF transmitters for me. I love CA when it's all green and gorgeous!

ARDF training at Morgan Territory with Presto! This was WAYYYY better than last week, which isn't saying much, but is good news :-). Morgan Territory is still really steep, but it's doesn't have anything on Briones. Anyway, things got of to a bit of an ignominious start. The map I was using didn't have the parking lot on it, so I was just generally running towards the edge of the map, and took a wrong turn, which I didn't really realize until I had actually made it onto the map about 200m below and a kilometer away from where I had intended to get onto the map. Sigh. We turned around and climbed and eventually got to the point we had intended to go to, and then things went pretty well. We had one minor issue with a control being too close to a fence, so the signal was all wacky once we were close, so we lost a few cycles there, and just general issues with getting into the vicinity and then losing a cycle while we aimlessly wandered knowing we were within 100m-200m at just about every control, but it was still super fun.

The only issue was that my left calf has decided that wearing trail shoes is all very well when the ground is soft and muddy, but now that it is returning to its more normal hard-as-a-rock state, road shoes would probably be a better choice. I was pretty uncomfortable on the second half of this.

Stretching back at home with lots of extra calf stretching and some calf massage. I seem to have a disturbingly painful knot about 2/3rds of the way up my calf on the inside. Hopefully it will be a passing phenomenon. I decided to wear Das Boot for sleeping.