Training Archive: CristinaIn the 31 days ending 2006-05-31:
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| M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wednesday May 31 | ||
| Orienteering 2:00:00 [3] ***** | |
| 14c shoes: Integrators (Red) | ||
| Tatyana's Marathon:
I did not enjoy this. This was supposed to be a very "technical" course, and it was quite "technical", especially if hunting around on your hands and knees in the middle of a thicket for a control smooshed between two boulders (that look like one boulder) is considered "technical". To be fair, most of the controls were findable if you were paying close attention and navigating well, which is the whole point. But there was one in particular that was rough for someone as stubborn as I am, and it took me a very long time to find it. I got that one and ran a few more controls, then called it a day. I just wasn't having fun, and certainly couldn't fathom doing 2 more hours of it. | ||
| C • Insane 1 | ||
| Orienteering 50:00 [2] *** | |
| 10c shoes: Integrators (Red) | ||
| Memory-O:
This was a rough orienteering exercise for the advanced + elite, a real memory-O, and a fine orienteering exercise for the intermediates, who were allowed a map but no compass. It was a good exercise for me, because sometimes I try to read too much detail. I started after all the kids and sort of observed as I went. I'm amazed at how much they can screw up and still make it to the control in a decent amount of time. Often they screw up but they don't hesitate to correct the way the think they should. A very handy skill indeed. I'm also amazed at how far off they can get before realizing that something is wrong, but I still do that, so it shouldn't really be that surprising. | ||
| Strength/Core 10:00 [1] | |
| Streching in the evening before bed. Earplugs again! | ||
Tuesday May 30 | ||
| Note | |
| I spent the rest of the week at TJOC (Texas Junior Orienteering Camp), which was a pretty neat experience. I was there as an adult volunteer, but that also gave me the opportunity to run a lot of courses myself. We were all mentors for a student or two, and we'd go over their courses after each run, and talk about about techniques to improve, etc. My mentee, Joel, was actually quite good, especially considering this was his first year, so I felt a little inadequate in the mentoring arena. I did get him to start drawing his routes in after each run, which I think I helped him realize where he could be more efficient, and how badly he would overrun controls (the few times that he did). Even so, I think I'd have more fun helping the kids who can barely read a map, because at least I feel confident in basic skills. Anyhoo, I've recorded all the courses/training that I did, and it will probably seem like *I* was a camper, with the amount I got to go out on courses. ;-) | ||
| Orienteering 34:40 [3] 2.9 km (11:57 / km) +40m 11:11 / km | |
| spiked:4/6c shoes: Integrators (Red) | ||
| Elite 6pt:
First TJOC event. I don't think that I realized that I'd be running these courses with everyone else. Kind of neat. This wasn't a very tricky course, but I still managed to goof up control 4 pretty badly - no plan, contoured when I should have hopped up and attacked from some very obvious features. Overall, not disastrous given that I was totally beat from the weekend. | ||
| Orienteering 50:00 [1] *** | |
| 10c rhr: shoes: Integrators (Red) | ||
| Lans-O:
This was the perfect exercise given the morning's courses. Lans designed a course with illustrations of aiming off to handrails to attack-points. The routes were drawn on the map as they should be executed, with streamers on the attackpoints. I took the rear to make sure everyone got through, and I think I was taking it more seriously than most - some of the kids were like, "well, it's over there, I don't feel like going down there, I'll just go to the next one," which is kind of funny. | ||
| Orienteering 1:01:30 [3] | |
| spiked:9/13c shoes: Integrators (Red) | ||
| Team Score-O:
This was pretty fun, but it was a bit hot and I was quite tired. Each mentor/mentee pair received two maps with all the controls on them - some designated as mentee, and some as mentor. We then had a few minutes to develop a strategy. Ours was pretty simply - we decided there was no need to go together, and we'd both do a clockwise loop. Joel went for all his controls, and I had a few places where I could stop if it got close to one hour. At 50 minutes I decided to gun it for two more controls, which I got, but I hadn't considered the climb on the way back to the start...he got all his with 15 minutes to spare, so I was a bad role model, coming in late and all. ;-) Got 13/16, which meant that we had one of the better combined totals, snagged a medal and all. | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 10:00 [1] | |
| Evening stretch before bed. | ||
Monday May 29 | ||
| Note | |
| Capital of Texas Triathlon
Total time: 93:55. Transitions: 3:20 and 2:54 Harder than I expected it to be. Sort of fun, in a sadistic kind of way. Basically proof that one has to train at something in order to be good at it. Or at least, true for most people, certainly including me. | ||
| Swimming race (open water) 17:24 [3] 0.75 km (23:12 / km) | |
| Swim was in Town Lake, which the organizers kept assuring us was perfectly safe. I didn't have any doubts until I read all the assurances, at which point I wondered if maybe there was something to worry about. I made sure not to swallow the water. Before my wave started we kept hearing the announcer talk about how brave the people were who were swimming without wetsuits, which also worried me a bit, but it actually was a fine temperature for swimming - 73, which sounds cold to me, and it was a bit of a shock when I jumped in, but not bad while swimming. And I was swimming for a very long time. I knew that I'd be a little slower without walls to push off of and having to look ahead and what not (and the lack of swim training), but I didn't expect to be quite this slow. Even so, I was about in the middle of females for the swim.
| ||
| Cycling race (road) 44:26 [4] 12.2 mi (3:38 / mi) | |
| The bike leg was two loops up by the capitol and back over the 1st St bridge. Painful for me, and also slower than I expected. Right off the bat I could tell that my legs didn't like riding hard on no warmup, and they were sore a quarter of the way through the first loop. Bike split: back of the female pack.
| ||
| Running race (road) 25:51 [4] 5 km (5:10 / km) vdot: 36.8 | |
| shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| I was all wobbly legged for the run, but that's typical. It was hot by now, and I felt like a real idiot, waking up early after a wedding party to basically go do three time trials. But I like running now, so I just pushed, and I knew that I wasn't going to be as fast as I felt like I was going, maybe 9 min/mi. I was passing a lot of people, though, and it turns out that I wasn't quite that slow, which is good. Run split: top 1/6 of the female pack.
| ||
Sunday May 28 | ||
| Running (trail) 41:00 [1] 3.15 mi (13:00 / mi) | |
| shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| Super chill run with Joe early in the morning. No idea how slowly we were actually running, that's his guess for pace. I was impressed that he made it the whole time, and didn't seem to be struggling too much. He claims that I kept creeping a little faster, but I thought I was just matching him. Oh well. A lot of people out in Austin this morning.
Knee irritated but, strangely enough, not while running. Wedding of the decade tonight (or rather, a wedding 10 years, 5 months and 28 days in the making), triathlon tomorrow morning, then off to TJOC. I think I'll sleep really well Monday night. I have no idea what to expect for tomorrow's tri, as it's been so long since I've raced one. Never done an open water swim, plus I haven't been swimming or riding much, so I can't really predict those times, nor do I know how much the riding will drain me for the run. And, it's threatening to be hot by the time my swim wave goes. So, can't really hope for anything except less than 90 minutes. It'll be an experience... | ||
| C • Good luck!! 2 | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 10:00 [1] | |
| 10 min stretching in joe's room so as not to wake up the lovebirds in my room. (Or, worse, interrupt them. Ick.)
| ||
Saturday May 27 | ||
| Running (trail) 18:30 [3] 2.0 mi (9:15 / mi) | |
| shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| Got to Austin with just enough time to drop off my bag and go for a quick run. It was hot - 4:30pm is not ideal. Left knee still irritated. | ||
Friday May 26 | ||
| Cycling (road) 10:00 [1] | |
| (rest day) | ||
| C • Good luck 1 | ||
Thursday May 25 | ||
| Cycling (road) 10:00 [1] | |
| Cycling (road) 49:00 [3] 12.2 mi (4:01 / mi) | |
| ahr:147 max:171 | ||
| Tour de Randolph. Waited as long as possible for the temp to get below 90, but it wasn't going to happen before sunset so I headed out at 7:30, about 92F, with 15mph SSE winds. Ugh. That's what the official wx says for KRND, but it sure seemed like it was a lot faster most of the time. Took advantage of the tailwinds to get my legs cranking some bigger gears. These short rides seem to be productive - feels better each time. | ||
| Running (grass) 21:00 [2] 2.0 mi (10:29 / mi) | |
| ahr:156 max:169 shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| Took a short break and then headed out for an easy run. Ran to the grassy area and did a loop around. Inside of left knee was bothering me a bit today, but the grass seemed to be the perfect answer. Legs felt like lead. Monday is going to be fun. Not. | ||
Wednesday May 24 | ||
| Cycling (road) 15:00 [1] | |
| C • Burns Park map :-) 5 | ||
| Running intervals (road) 9:00 [4] 1.25 mi (7:11 / mi) | |
| ahr:173 max:188 slept:7.0 weight:147lbs shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| 1/4 mile tune-up intervals w/ 1 min rest on the east perimeter road. It's really, really hard to see the 1/4 mile marks on the road when there's almost no moon (5% illumination tonight). Because of the wind, I ran these on effort, figuring they'd be roughly around 7 min/mi pace. First two are into the 20(+/-5) mph winds...last three with a tailwind, of course.
Time, start/avg/finish (=max) 1:53, 155/172/181 1:56, 156/171/183 1:48, 165/175/182 1:41, 166/176/186 1:42, 164/178/188 | ||
| Running warm up/down (road) 32:00 [2] 2.9 mi (11:01 / mi) | |
| shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| 15 min warm up, 1 min rests, and then the run home, about 13 minutes. 82F, windy. Legs a little stiff, but don't notice the blisters with those nifty blister pads on. | ||
| Note | |
| I feel a wee bit ashamed of the fact that it is Wed and I am just now discovering a small creature imbedded in my stomach. It's so small and I have so many scratches, scars and scabs that I didn't pay attention to it before. But now that I know what to look for, I have found a couple others on my legs that I thought were tiny scabs. Figuring out how to remove these suckers is exactly what I wanted to be doing tonight. | ||
| C • Deceptive little suckers 2 | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 12:00 [1] | |
Tuesday May 23 | ||
| Note | |
| Time for some comments about the weekend. Short lunch break, so this may be a bit of a stream of consciousness effort.
Though I didn't express it here, I went in to the event with a goal of coming out just behind the WOC-hopefuls. In other words, perform well enough to prove to myself that I have improved and that I have the potential to move up into that group within the next few years. Before turning 30 would be nice. ;-) Friday's sprint was good in that respect. Looking back at the course again I can see plenty of places where I could improve, but they're pretty minor hesitations or goofs (like almost running right past the trail to 1, having to stop and check the map, maybe 5 seconds). Of course, 5 seconds on every control would be a big deal in a sprint. But, on the very positive side, I ran fairly fast (especially on control 7, apparently...check the split...must've been Josh yelling my name from the spectator section). Seems like getting better at sprints is mostly a matter of doing what I did, just faster. Or a lot faster. Which means lots of speed training and running sprints. The speed training part is easy (relatively). Running sprints is a little more difficult, but I'll take the opportunities as they come. Saturday and Sunday were not up to my expectations. The only reason this doesn't depress me is that I realize that my expectations are much higher than they used to be. I've come to expect that I will hit every control more or less right on, rather than being pleasantly surprised when it does happen. So, though Sat and Sun were disasters of concentration and execution, at least I know that the baseline for comparison has much improved. In other words, I sucked for 2006, but that would have been great in 2003. Small consolation, I guess, but I try to stay positive. So the question is what to do to prevent the mistakes I made on Sat and Sun. Much of it could have been prevented simply by concentrating more, but there are also discrete skills that I can work on, like pace counting. I realize now that pace counting would probably have prevented the 20 min error to 12 on Sunday (thanks, kissy, for a very good example!). I do remember pace counting once on Sunday, but only for a half a leg, and I screwed up after I'd already stopped counting. And getting into the habit of counting is something that I can work on any time I run. I should also pay a little more attention to compass/map orientation. I might try using a baseplate. I also need to work on looking at more than just one feature or aspect of the map as I run, but I'm not sure how to practice that. Any suggestions? Outisde of my personal orienteering, I was hoping that the weekend would be motivating, just seeing the best Americans out there, giving it their all. And it was. And they're also all great people personally, which makes it that much more fun. The final thought to come out of this weekend is that I can train my butt off and be good, but I know that I work best with really specific guidance. I'm willing to train hard, I just don't always know how much I should do (I think I'm too conservative - fear of injury), and what I should focus on. Often I'm all over the place (triathlons?!). So I'm looking for someone who would be willing to act as a coach/advisor, and able to offer pretty specific weekly workout guidance (such as, 'x intervals in x time mon, get your ass to a map sat for control picking', etc). If anyone reading this has any ideas or suggestions (or would be interested in doing so) please email me. Well, lunch is way over. Leg comments and a revised list of 2006 goals this evening. | ||
| C • Kristin Hall has been giving m... 2 | ||
| Cycling (road) 15:00 [1] | |
| Swimming 40:00 [2] 1.6 km (25:00 / km) | |
| When I got to the gym there was a water resistance training class going on. Grrr. At least I found my swimsuit.
100 EZ, 800 steady, 100 scull 2x(200 pull, 50 kick) 100 EZ | ||
| Running (road) 38:30 [2] 4.0 mi (9:37 / mi) | |
| ahr:165 max:182 shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| After swimming, ate a snack and played some CF before heading out for a late night run. Warm and feels muggier than the wx report says - 83F, dewpoint 63.
Headed out super easy for 21 minutes, planning to come back a wee bit faster for a 40 min total. Worked pretty well, though "wee bit" is something I'll have to work on. | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 10:00 [1] | |
Monday May 22 | ||
| Juggling 5:00 [3] | |
| If other people are going to log cafe time and pizza sumption, I'm certainly going to log juggling.
Of course, it is in my best interest to keep juggling to a minimum these days and focus on more O-related training. I'm sure some kind of connection exists between juggling and O, I'm just not sure what yet. Did some club work tonight. Wrists sore now (to add to the blistered feet and sore connecting tendoms on the outside of my feet.) | ||
| C • juggling 6 | ||
Sunday May 21 | ||
| Orienteering race 2:14:00 [3] *** 9.3 km (14:25 / km) +210m 12:57 / km | |
| ahr:178 max:196 15c slept:7.0 shoes: Jalas | ||
| So, I haven't done any complex analysis yet, but I think this was less disastrous than yesterday. At least, I think I succeeded in being slow and careful on a higher percentage of controls. The problem is that the few that I missed were pretty ginormous misses. I was off the map (as best as I can tell now) on the way to 12 and was so hopelessly lost that I figured it was best for my safety to call it a day and DNF (which was a horrifying thought, but I really thought I was lost lost). Luckily I did eventually figure out where I was, and it turned out that at that point it was easy enough to get 12, so I un-decided to DNF and went on to finish the course. At least there's a triumph of sorts there.
All of my major booms today (6, 9, 12...good thing 15 was trivial) were similar. I was looking ahead on the map and ticking things off as I passed them. Each time I felt great about the progress I'd made on the leg and was absolutely certain that I knew exactly where I was and that the control was right.... nope, no control. All three were basically monstrous parallel errors, where features basically lined up, and I was just in the wrong place. So, obviously, I wasn't paying attention to the right set of features, or I needed to expand my view to be more "big picture", or follow a better line/bearing. And pace counting wouldn't hurt, either. Overall, the meet was a very positive experience for me, despite two crappy runs. I have a lot of things to say about the weekend, hopefully I can get a chance to really write about it before I head back and maybe forget. | ||
Red - Splits | ||
Saturday May 20 | ||
| Running warm up/down 10:00 [2] 1.0 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
| shoes: Jalas | ||
| A little prancing around in the new shoes before my start. Felt pretty good this morning. | ||
| Orienteering race 1:01:10 [3] *** 4.6 km (13:18 / km) | |
| ahr:185 max:203 14c slept:7.5 shoes: Jalas | ||
| Okay, so I guess I deserved an unmitigated disaster today. I went out at full bore, sprint style, and the result was basically a finely executed series of moderate booms. Probably 15-20 minutes of mistakes (!). Tomorrow the focus will be on paying attention to the map and ignoring speed. Somehow I think that if I can actually manage to do that, I'll be a lot faster overall than I was today... | ||
Red - Splits | ||
Friday May 19 | ||
| Event: US Team Trials | ||
| Running warm up/down 15:00 [2] 1.5 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
| shoes: Asics Trail | ||
| Somewhere between 5-10 minutes each before and after the sprint. | ||
| Orienteering race 20:30 [5] *** 2.62 km (7:49 / km) +75m 6:51 / km | |
| ahr:194 max:203 17c slept:5.0 shoes: Asics Trail | ||
| Sprint at UMSL, Team Trials. I'm very happy about today's run. I ran hard (check out the HRs...), maybe harder than I ever have while orienteering. In fact, started out a bit too hard, I think, but that might be a little bit a matter of developing more of a gut for pain at the end of a race.
No significant mistakes that I can really point out, though I'm sure there exists 20-30 seconds (maybe 31 seconds!) of hesitation or unecessary slowing. What that means is that this is definitely a case (perhaps a first) where raw speed, rather than navigational error, was the most important factor separating me from the winner. And, for some reason, that's motivating. Maybe because I know that I can get a whole lot faster with more training. I'm pretty sure I can also get a lot better navigationally, but it's harder to be sure about that. For some reason I feel that playing CF helped me today. Probably a lot of practice making quick decisions with quick "glances" at the map. Cool. | ||
| C • Routes 9 | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 5:00 [1] | |
| After the run. | ||
Sprint - Splits | ||
Thursday May 18 | ||
| Running (road) 22:20 [2] 2.0 mi (11:09 / mi) | |
| ahr:163 max:179 slept:6.0 shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| Really easy early morning run. Everything is tired and quads a little sore. Not much sleep lately + not enough water last night, which is probably the cause of the ridiculous HRs - just standing up was apparently a real strain on the ticker, instead of 50-70 range, it was screaming up in the 90's-100's. Crazy stuff, this heart rate monitoring business. | ||
| Cycling (road) 15:00 [1] | |
Wednesday May 17 | ||
| Cycling (road) 10:00 [1] | |
| Swimming 40:00 [2] 1.5 km (26:40 / km) | |
| Ended up going much later than planned because I couldn't figure out the combination to my padlock (still don't know, bought a new one) and then I couldn't find my swimsuit. (Still can't find it.)
As best as I can remember: 200 EZ 50 kick 50 pull 450 steady 50 scull 100 kick 100 (4x25 hard) 200 ez + drills 100 pull Quite a mish mosh, didn't really have a plan, still just getting used to the pool. | ||
| C • Swimsuit 2 | ||
Tuesday May 16 | ||
| Cycling (road) 15:00 [1] | |
| Cycling (road) 45:30 [2] 12.2 mi (3:43 / mi) | |
| ahr:164 max:183 slept:6.0 weight:147lbs | ||
| Tour de Randolph, not quite as hot and windy as last time, but I like to think that that's not the only reason it was easier to go faster without working too hard.
Legs still pretty sore from the Billygoat. And to think, had I been running really hard it still probably would have taken me the same amount of time (maybe longer) due to shoddy navigation, which would mean even worse legs today! | ||
| Note | |
| Got some O-related stuff done today. Arrangements for St. Louis arranged (getting in Thur night, leaving Monday afternoon, plus a car if anyone reading needs a ride), plus put in paperwork to take uncharged leave for TJOC... and put some serious thought into how long I can go Europe surrounding WOC. | ||
| C • TJOC 4 | ||
Sunday May 14 | ||
| Event: 28th Annual Billygoat Run | ||
| Orienteering race 2:57:00 [3] *** 12.8 km (13:50 / km) +450m 11:46 / km | |
| ahr:177 max:193 25c slept:6.0 shoes: Integrators (Red) | ||
| My first Billygoat! I had a good time today, took it easy, for the most part, just trying to get through without much hastle. At the Possum Trot and the Dillo Goat I managed to start off by neither reading the map well, nor following well, trying to do both too fast. So, having learned from that, I ran mostly with a group moving at a chill pace that allowed me to read the map a lot. I definitely felt rusty. There's something to be said for actually getting out on a map frequently.
I was with the same basic group of people from about control 3 until 9, at which point I picked up the pace to 10, then boomed 11, only to meet up with them all again a few controls later. Turns out that they all skipped 10, which put me in a good coasting position. Shared the ride all the way to 24, then said, "see ya!" and skipped 25. I took a nasty spill on the trail on the way to 24, and I thought for a moment that my first Billygoat would also be the site of my first real (acute) injury. But I was fine. I was looking up at a cairn off the side of the trail and as I looked down at the map I ended up landing on my left foot with a completely locked leg. The result was a beautiful pole vault over my left leg to a nice 10.0 face plant. I wish I had video! I had fun, but I also learned just how much I slow down to look at the map. Okay, so I haven't quantified it, but it was really obvious today that even though I'm not a very fast runner, my orienteering speed is wicked slow in comparison. | ||
- Splits | ||
Thursday May 11 | ||
| Swimming 30:00 [2] 1.2 km (25:00 / km) | |
| slept:5.0 | ||
| Swimming! Yay! And they're open 24 hours a day!
Short and easy today as I let myself get into it again. | ||
| Cycling (road) 10:00 [1] | |
| I bother to log this because if I didn't I'd probably drive instead. | ||
Wednesday May 10 | ||
| Running (road) 28:00 [3] 2.9 mi (9:39 / mi) | |
| ahr:164 max:180 slept:5.0 shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| Water tower and back. Killer north wind, making the return hard work. But it was a really nice night, upper 70's, not too humid. And dark. ;-) Ran easy the first few minutes with Melissa, then pushed harder than easy for a change. | ||
| Cycling (road) 15:00 [1] | |
Tuesday May 9 | ||
| Running (trail) 40:00 [2] 3.64 mi (10:59 / mi) +40m 6:36 / km | |
| ahr:166 max:185 shoes: Asics Trail | ||
| At McAllister with Melissa after work. Very hot, pretty sticky. About 93F, dp about 72. Yum. Ran the first 15 min with Melissa and then she turned back to walk and I decided not to do the whole loop. I'll have to work up to long runs in this soup. | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 10:00 [1] | |
| Right after the run. | ||
| Cycling (road) 15:00 [1] | |
Monday May 8 | ||
| Cycling (road) 15:00 [1] | |
Sunday May 7 | ||
| Running (road) 34:05 [2] 3.1 mi (10:59 / mi) +20m 6:42 / km | |
| ahr:157 max:178 slept:7.0 shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| Paced Seabass to a goal-meeting finish in the Cornyval 5k in Helotes. She was shooting for 11 min/mi pace, which she met despite the two nasty hills on the course. We tried to hike in Gov't Canyon afterwards but that only lasted 30 min because I wussed out. Guess yesterday (plus today) took a toll on my body. (psst...don't forget to congratulate Seabass on her run, she'll post soon!) | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 5:00 [1] | |
Saturday May 6 | ||
| Note | |
| Prickly Pear 10 Miler - Goal: 1:30:00 (Last year: 1:34:14) | ||
| Running race (trail) 1:47:30 [4] 10.0 mi (10:45 / mi) +250m 6:12 / km | |
| ahr:187 slept:7.0 shoes: Integrators (Red) | ||
| Torrential rain, menstrual cramps, and diarrhea. Overall, quite an awesome trail racing experience. (Seriously!)
To be fair, the digestive disturbances were only a problem before the race, and I don't think that the cramp pain actually slowed me down, it just beat on me a little mentally. The really fun part was the mud and rain and the numerous waist-deep stream crossings. The trails at McAlister are usually really fast. Hard packed dirt and not much climb. It's possible to run almost as fast as road, maybe 20s/mi slower for me. When it's dry. Last year I ran 1:34, and figured I could break 1:30 this year. I think I had a dry 1:30 in me today, with the effort that I expended, which should give an idea of just how muddy and wet it was. There were some T-storms last night, so I knew it would be wet. The forecast this morning had a flash flood warning until noon. The race was to be held rain or shine, unless the park had to be closed for flooding, which seemed like a distinct possibility. Nevertheless, I headed out with my loyal cheering section (Seabass) and we drove from morning daylight into the creepiest darkness. The torrential rain and hail began just as we pulled in to the park. But, as the 50k runners had already started, they were holding out not to have to cancel the 10 mile. Seabass was ---->this<---- close to entering the race, too but she wanted to save her energy for tomorrow's 5k. We started a few minutes late to let the first line of storms pass, and I think everyone's goal was to finish before the next line passed through (sitting over Bandera when we started). The start line was on a paved road that had about 6 inches of water in it, and all these people crowded over on the side of the road so as not to get their feet wet. Silly road runners. I didn't bother, knowing that the streams would not be dry like they usually are. Sure enough, 3 minutes into the race we reached our first waist-deep stream crossing, with two more in the first mile alone. I lost count of how many times I got wet up to my shorts or waded in knee-deep water, but I figure we covered at least 1/4 mile that way. One wade was about 200m long. That definitely made it all worth it. The second line of storms came through just after I passed mile 6, which also happens to be about when the first guy finished, so he was basically the only one to beat it. I have to admit, at that point, I felt kinda hardcore. Running a trail race, covered in mud, in a thunderstorm. My mom (aka, madame "I do not perspire") would definitely not approve. I kept a pretty good rhythm going and I think my effort was solid all the way through. Most of the usually packed dirt was either 2-5 inches of water, mud, or a combination of both. It was quite a workout, and that certainly made this the hardest run I've ever done. I wore my O shoes and was very glad of it. Some poor souls were in road running shoes and having a pretty rough time of it. Unlike last year, I didn't crash out around mile 8, but instead steadily caught and passed about 9-10 people in the last couple of miles. That felt pretty good (especially since all but one were men). The winning female today ran 1:22. Last year's winning female ran a smokin' 1:06. Last year's male winner ran a 1:08, compared to a 58. Overall, definitely glad I ran this morning. Awesome experience, good times, great workout. Plus the t-shirt was better than last year's. ;-) Mile splits: 10:43, 9:44, 9:28, 10:24, 11:24, 12:43, 10:42, 10:44, 10:57, 10:50 | ||
| C • wow- that sounds really intens... 3 | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 15:00 [1] | |
| 5 minutes right after the race, 10 minutes in the evening. | ||
Friday May 5 | ||
| Cycling (road) 10:00 [1] | |
Thursday May 4 | ||
| Cycling (road) 15:00 [1] | |
| "Commute" and running errands around base. It's hardly a continuous or noteworthy amount of riding, but I figure getting in 5 to 10 miles each day is better than driving (today I did about 5). It's a good habit to get into, too, before moving to where I'll need to cover more significant distance each day. | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 10:00 [1] | |
Wednesday May 3 | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 10:00 [1] | |
| At least I got this in. First full day of work (my first actual day of *work* in my 2+ years in the AF) and it looks like I'm going to have to be creative to fit in lots of productive training. (I know, boohoo, Cristina's actually doing some work. Tragic.) | ||
Tuesday May 2 | ||
| Note | |
| Pictures from the last two weeks and all my videos from Senegal are now here. | ||
| C • Colors/Pics 2 | ||
| Running (road) 30:00 [2] 3.0 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
| shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| Water tower! at 10:30pm. Only 75°F! Would have run earlier had I known that water would prevent me from going swimming. Tried to go swimming at Ft. Sam this afternoon during a big T-storm, but the roads were flooding and people were being Texans and freaking out and it took me 25 minutes to go 3 miles, at which point I had no choice but to turn around in order to make it to dinner on time. Oy. Looking for swimming options closer to base, because it's a long drive even without the traffic. | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 12:00 [1] | |
Monday May 1 | ||
| Cycling (road) 50:00 [2] 12.2 mi (4:06 / mi) | |
| Tour de Randolph - home to S gate and E flightline, up the inside of the base back to the golf course, and then around the W flightline back home. Pretty strong wind from the South, and still 92 degrees at 6pm. Yikes!
Felt good to be on a bike, and I'm (once again) tempted to buy a new one. I'm sort of emotionally attached to it (7 years!) but it's really never been a good fit. I keep hesitating to do so because I don't really ride very much... but maybe that's because it doesn't fit well... | ||
| Running (road) 29:00 [2] 3.0 mi (9:39 / mi) | |
| shoes: Kayano XI - grey | ||
| Much cooler at 10pm - around 80. Pretty pleasant, and my legs felt great despite a bit of complaint from my not-used-in-a-while cycling muscles. To the water tower... and back! | ||
| Strength/Core (stretching) 10:00 [1] | |
| I'm going to make a mini-goal of stretching (and/or yoga) for at least 10 minutes each day this week. Day 1 - check! | ||