Monday Jun 30 |
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| Whitewater rafting on the Payette River. I went on the gentle ("wimpy") ride with Nancy Neuburger & her sisters, while the others (Mike & Mary, Dan, Dick, Nadim) went on the rougher ride. We still enjoyed some rapids, including a couple Class 3s. But mostly it was a pleasant, gentle float. We did get soaked; happily, it was a warm day and the cold water felt good. Not enough paddling to put in as training, but a fun diversion. |
Sunday Jun 29 |
| Hiking 2:33:15 [2] | |
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| Duck and Hum Lakes trail near McCall, Idaho. Because the relay ran a bit later than expected, and we of course had to eat lunch, we didn't get started until nearly 5 pm. Not a big deal since there's plenty of light and it was plenty warm. The trailhead was over 6000' so it didn't take much climbing to get up into neat mountain stuff. The first part, to Duck lake, was easier, but the part to the ridge above Hum was much more interesting. Climbing all the time but not steeply; it went through some areas that Nadim and I thought would be great for orienteering if it were only accessible (trees had been burned in a fire 9 years before; they were widely spaced anyway so the visibility was fantastic and the ground was pretty good -- some rocks and small downed trees -- and there were boulders of various sizes throughout the terrain. Gentle contours, bare rock ridges; it was great!). We'd decided, due mostly to time but also energy, that we'd just hike to the top of the ridge on the way to Hum, not down to the lake and back up. When we reached the ridge top, we found snow on the downside to Hum. The trail was under the snow and it was steep -- I wouldn't have wanted to "hike" that. The views were great. Nadim hiked further up to the top of a rocky knoll nearby while I waited and swatted away bees and gnats. Much faster downhill of course. A really nice hike. |
| Orienteering 36:02 [5] 3.45 mi (10:26 / mi) | |
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| US Relay Champs, leg 2 ("yellowish-orangish" but we all thought it was more "orangish-brownish"), Ponderosa State Park, McCall. Ran for OK's classic 4 point team, with our standard order of Snorkel, me, Spike, Mook. Dan came in in 6th after a run with a few minutes of errors early. I moved us up to 5th but only because Lauren Wolfe of BAOC had a large error & I passed her. I had 3 min of errors; during my 2-min error Jennifer Knowles of COC appeared, and then at #7 she was right with me. We drifted together through the green and into the marsh, losing probably another 2 minutes on the poorly-executed route. In the end, I made the better micro-route choice to the final control to manage to stay ahead of her for the course. Mike was thrown off by a poorly-mapped area at a control, where the control feature was mapped incorrectly and there was another boulder, unmapped, in the area. He was ready to come in to say the control was missing when Wyatt Riley found it and yelled to him. He was still mad and that threw him off for the next control so he lost some more time. He was NOT a happy orienteer. He dropped us to 7th; Mook almost moved us up to 6th with a fine run. Well, better luck next year! We all agreed that much of the area was unpleasant (woods, anyway) & wondered why it was used. The trails were nice, anyway. |
Saturday Jun 28 |
| Orienteering 1:02:45 [4] 5.3 mi (11:49 / mi) | |
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| Huckleberry Hillside Hunt, McCall. Green course. I seem to have a problem with this kind of western terrain, and I think negatively about my chances of orienteering well in it, so I didn't start out in a positive frame of mind. Didn't help that the map notes warned us of a not great map. Did okay at first but then I missed #3 badly and had a hard time relocating. I think the map was a bit funny in my approach & it led me to think I was higher than I was. By the time I decided to head high to relocate, Clare Durand -- 8 min behind me -- caught me at the control. Ack, run hard now. Still had a few small errors but the rest of the race went much better. Some of the terrain was quite delightful.
Despite my problems, I finished 1st on F40 by 10 minutes -- but first woman on Green was Jennifer Knowles, about 5 minutes ahead of me. Not a great run. Beautiful day, lovely views, great smells. |
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Green - Splits |
Wednesday Jun 25 |
| Nordic Track 43:03 [2] | |
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| Before work. |
Tuesday Jun 24 |
| Track (Warm-up etc) 45:02 [3] | |
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| Includes warm-up, cool-down, interval recovery, and 6 laps (c. 1/5 miles) of straightaway pickups (4 laps before intervals, 2 laps afterwards). |
| Track (Intervals) 6:04 [5] 1.4 km (4:20 / km) | |
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| "Speed" work on the track -- 800, 400, 200. Each was followed by a "full" recovery, ie 800 m after the 800, 400 after the 400. Probably the worst time to start doing speedwork again: still sore from the Rogaine; haven't done speedwork at least since January probably last fall; warmest day since October; air quality index poor. Various body parts hurt a bit but it wasn't too bad -- better than last week. So, though I was running "fast," my times are pretty pathetic. A starting point. Splits: 3:32, 1:44, 48. |
Sunday Jun 22 |
| Hiking (city hiker/biker trail) 30:00 [1] | |
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| From Bob & Ben's to downtown Bethesda (where we had a fine dinner and took in a movie) & back. Very sore from the rogaine, & my shoes, which I had chosen because they were backless & thus wouldn't bother my heal blister, rubbed my feet raw in several places... Blister looks nasty. |
Saturday Jun 21 |
| Orienteering 7:57:33 [3] 27.8 km (17:11 / km) | |
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| DVOA's "mini Rogaine" on the three French Creek maps (not including Central). Teamed up with Nadim. We had lots of difficulties, including neither of us remembering to clear our e-punches before starting (Nadim realized he hadn't done his soon after starting and ran back; while he was gone I realized I hadn't cleared mine, either... his was the primary punch so that was okay for a while but then we had to change our plan to go back to the start to clear mine. While we were there, I tried to do something for my heal blister & also changed my sock. Then right at our last control I discovered I had lost our punch card, which they were using as a back-up to the e-punches. Ack!) We started on FCWest, which I was glad about because the vegetation, especially in the south, was very overgrown with stickers & was quite unpleasant. From there we detoured back to start/finish & hit a couple controls on FCNorth while on that map, before heading over to FCEast. We went to all of the controls there. We optimistically thought we could go to several controls on North on the way back to the finish but it quickly became obvious that we didn't have time, so we just went to two.The cloud cover was making it dim in the woods and I was having a hard time reading my map. Several body parts were unhappy, too; besides my heal blister, we had to stop twice for thorns in my feet (from West), and my knees by the end were so trashed I was almost in tears running down the rocky eroded trail to the finish. I was very whiny throughout the day, but moreso in the early hours when the vegetation was unpleasant. Nadim was a trooper and took it all, which is why our team name is so apt, "We're Still Married." We won Masters Co-ed but were about 9th overall. Could have caught about three of those teams easily without the "technical difficulties" we had. Cool, great running temp, very little rain (what did fall was light), but sopping wet woods so we all got soaked anyway. Rocky in places, thorny in others. |
Tuesday Jun 17 |
| Track 17:25 [2] | |
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| Cool, rainy; had the track to myself (Nadim hadn't arrived yet & the others wimped out and ran in the fieldhouse). Hamstring bothering me, not getting better on successive laps, so I just quit. Apparently not too much later someone was kicking people off the track anyway. Depressing -- when will this hamstring heal? (perhaps when I quit running on it?) |
Monday Jun 16 |
| Nordic Track 50:08 [3] | |
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| Before Nadim got home from work. :-) |
Sunday Jun 15 |
| Road run 1:50:56 [3] | |
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| Long run with folks from PGRC; I ran alone as my pace was somewhere between the guys' and the other womens'. Met at Greenbelt Youth Center, ran around old G'belt on Ridge Road to Research Rd & into BARC ("Ag Center"). Down Research Rd to Beaver Dam, east to the new (not yet open, still lots of mud) bridge, then, instead of staying on the roads, I went north on the jeep trail that parallels the BW Parkway. Turned into a muddy morass and my clean shoes quickly got filthy. Trail dead-ended in a corn field. Ran along the field edge to a gravel road which lead to Powder Mill Rd. Another gravel road beckoned across Powder Mill... it led to a fenced-in group of buildings but there was a jeep trail heading west. That dead-ended in an overgrown clearing so I ran through the open woods & came to another jeep trail. That led to another field fenced in. I noticed a sign that said "video surveillance" and I saw the camera. Didn't want to be seen -- off the main roads, all of the Ag Center is off limits to trespassers -- so I headed up a very overgrown jeep trail which led to high grass along a field. A vehicle had obviously been through there; the tire tracks were a bit easier to run in. That led to a gravel road that went from the water tower back to Powder Mill. West on PM to Biocontrol Road & back to Beaver Dam (and no more trespassing). Back to Research Rd, right on Ridge to Listner to Buddy Attick Park & took the trail around the lake back to the rec center & the cars. Left knee a bit achy; hamstring was okay at this pace but noticeable. Felt pretty strong otherwise, even on the Research Road hill. Warm but overcast, high humidity. |
Saturday Jun 14 |
| Trail 1:02:19 [3] | |
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| Greenbelt Park, Azalea Trail to Perimeter Trail. Same course as last week, similar time. Not as wet but lots of muddy parts, and the added obstacle of many downed tree trunks & limbs. That probably happened during Thursday evening's storms, though it could have been during Wednesday's storms or Friday's storms... it's been wet and wild. Dry during run, though the woods were wet and the detours through the woods around the downed trees got my feet/legs wet, and of course my shoes got very muddy. I guess ultrarunners live for this crap (at least according to half the articles in UltraRunning) but I, for one, don't care for it at all. Almost ready to bug out to the road. Well, some areas were pleasant anyway, and we had our club picnic to look forward to. Around 70 degrees (nice) and very humid (not nice). Better than rain. Hamstring back to aching. |
Friday Jun 13 |
| Nordic Track 21:16 [2] | |
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| Before work. |
Wednesday Jun 11 |
| Nordic Track 30:03 [2] | |
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| Before work. |
Tuesday Jun 10 |
| Nordic Track 48:08 [2] | |
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| Morning workout. |
Sunday Jun 8 |
| Orienteering 21:55 [2] | |
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| Putting out controls (8) for the Beer Chase (I was course setter). I took the "far" controls and left the 13 closer-in ones for Dave L. to put out, since I was doing this before the race vs. Saturday (the pouring rain dissuaded me from that idea). Woods are wet but I managed to stay pretty dry. Nice, dry, single-track trails! Envious of Peggy B, who runs here daily. Cool & humid for the race, but at least, NO RAIN. |
Saturday Jun 7 |
| Trail 1:01:06 [3] | |
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| WET. Ratin started a bit earlier than forecast. The trails were more like streams or ponds. Soaking wet within 10 minutes but it wasn't cold so it was okay. Saving grace was my hat, which kept the rain off my face and able to see the foggy, beautiful woods. Ran steadily but trying to avoid the wettest parts of the trail did slow me down by at least 5 minutes compared to normal. Hamstring back to hurting a bit. :-( We were supposed to have our club picnic following the run but it was postponed and most people just went home. |
Wednesday Jun 4 |
| Nordic Track 31:53 [2] | |
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| Before work. |
Tuesday Jun 3 |
| Nordic Track 25:01 [2] | |
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| In the morning. Was planned as the first of two workouts today, as Tuesday is track day, but the weather got me down (yes I am a wimp), raining AGAIN and none-too-warm, plus my left knee is bothering me again (weather-related?). Stayed home and cleaned my computer room instead. I can finally see my desk again. |
Monday Jun 2 |
| Road run 1:06:12 [3] | |
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| Felt rather stiff & out of it starting out. Thought my hamstring was nearly healed but it bothered me again on this run, as did my left knee. Ack. Nice run through Glenn Dale (Prospect Hill through the old neighborhoods (3 deadends) (delightful -- eclectic architecture, lots of mature trees, large lots) and then the new neighborhoods (yuck, just like all the rest -- big colonials on top of each other with tiny yards and hardly any trees left up). Back to Glendale Road to Daisy Lane to ? to the WB&A trail to Hillmeade. About 70 degrees, sunny (finally). By the middle I was feeling fairly strong despite the aches & pains. Still hurts to breathe deeply. |