Training Log Archive: Trav

Easy trot around the baby loop with Trix. Ginger on the hamstring, but I think it just needs to cool down a bit.

Monster workout with the TNT crowd. 20 (20!) x 1 minute sprints. 1 minute between. Then 3 Nancies. Serious stuff. Might have tweaked something at the insertion point of my right lower hamstring.

C • You should convince the cre... 7

With Dang Turbo and Paul. XC boyz pace. Which is a bit of a push for me. Felt good for most of the run, but definitely had to do it on purpose toward the end. Trix had ANOTHER run in with a stinging insect of some sort. Had to drop her off at the hottage half way she was so wigged out. She's under the bed and has decided to never again come out. It's just too risky.

Trix and I out on a solo SMT. Poor little thing got bit by another bee or wasp just as we were coming in. She's now hiding under the bed and is inconsolable. The world is a harsh place.

Artaban x 5 with Balogna. Trix fetched up a bit lame so we brought her in after 2 (the benefits of living next to the perfect hill-repeat hill). Will epsom salt the snarf out of her paw and see if that gets rid of the irritation or she won't be doing no SMT on Saturday. And she's gonna want to what with PH being back and all.

C • smt 2

Beer. The answer is beer. We knew it in our hearts, but here it is:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/nonalcoho...

C • beer 3

Main loop intervals with T Rix. Felt good on the first one. Then up K2 on the "easy" side. According the newish rule about running from this side, the effort isn't finished at the top of the ascent; you have to keep going along the top until you get to the poem tree. Course there are these branch overhangs along the top that you have to be careful to duck under, especially if you're going at speed. Done it a hundred times--no hundreds of times. Then BAM, out of nowhere comes this branch to the head and it is lights out. Not sure if I actually got knocked out, but I don't remember hitting the ground and I sure saw stars. Real stars.

I got up and started jogging down the "hard" side trying to shake off that sickly feeling you get when you take a hard blow and immediately go over my ankle. WTF? All this just because I missed TNT last night. Hey, I was WORKING. I had no choice.

I soldiered on, seemed to run both hits off and still managed a 5:36 up K2 from sea level.

Course now Balogna will have to stay up overnight with me just to make sure I don't slip into a coma.

C • sonny bono 4

Pokey run out to the rail trail and up to past km 11.

Gunned it back home. Took 12 minutes off my out time. Which says more about how pokey I was on the out time than about how fast I was on the back time. Still, it felt good to do some sustained speed so that I can get to a place where I can credibly run with the xcountry guys.

Kept the home fires burning. All the SMT runners have skipped town cept me. Trixefer and I went out anyway and put the fear of god into the forest mammals.

Hotel acceleration. 5 minute warm up at 6mph at 1.5% then up .3 every minute to 9 minutes. Hold for 6 minutes at 9, then up to 10 mph for 1 minute. Then down .5% each minute until back to 6.

Hotel hills, but on a machine that actually has a 3% decline setting. Good fun that. 6 x 3 minutes at 6mph, increasing speed by .1 mph each set. The first 3 at 9% the 2nd 3 at 9.5. Bonus extra set at 10% for 4.5 minutes pushing it to 7mph for the last 45 seconds, which was pretty much all I had.

Trail intervals. 7 of 'em. Ranging from 3 to 6.5 minutes. K2 twice. Still not running as fast as I was before Spain. All I could manage was 5:50 on K2 from sea level. Time just before Spain was 5:30. Getting' there though.

Realizing that Trixy might be a wanted dog and that there might even be a bounty on her head for running in the deeve off leash, we set her up with a clever disguise before hitting the trail.

From K2Survivor

Given that Turbo was an unindicted co-conspirator, it was obvious that he needed to pursue the same strategy.

From K2Survivor

I can report that we ran without any interference from the federales. So the disguises work. We even surprised the cross country guys and so ran with them for 45 minutes, which certainly kicked the pace up a bit. Hard for me because I was struggling with an adverse reaction to the martinis I had consumed the evening before.

After some years away from genuine trail riding, and looking to put the tall boy through some real stuff, Baloney and I had a terrific ride with friend and seasoned rider, Steve Johnston. Fantastic good fun. The 29er seems to roll over stuff that I had always been a bit tentative with. Had a blast.

On our way back down, stopped at the Shed in Belfountain. Lots of changes at that busy corner. Have to say the coffee was not up to Domestique standards and the general atmosphere is a downgrade from yesteryear. Too bad.

5 times artiban. The last of Spain malingering seems to be dissipating.

TNT with Turbo, Sudden, Adrian. 4,5,6,6,5,4. Thems long intervals. But hey if coach Turbo says they're good for me then I'm all in.

Cycle to and from work.

With Trix. Turbo didn't run with me and there were no deer flies. Hmmmm.

Another tough run in the valley with Turbo and Trix and the pestilential FDF zomby monsters from hell--although Turbo is much more attractive FDF bait and so it wasn't that much of a problem for me. I thought I had warned him about how certain kinds of hair products drive FDFs into a blood thirsty swoon, but noooo...

It was an effort level 4 for me although the actual speed was by any measure almost certainly a level 3. Turbo was being polite even though he was running with a cold.

tnt intervals with...Sudden! And Andrew and Trix and Felicia's friend whose hame I always forget. Good to see Hans again. 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1. Not too fast, not too slow, but juuust right.

C • SMT'ing tomorrow? 5

It's like someone found the secret life force animating all the deer flies and destroyed it. They're gone. From one day to the next they're just gone. The deeve is no longer a hostile place.

Sloggy run, but managed two k2s

C • FDFs 8