Sunday Oct 1 |
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| Event: Susquehanna Stumble IX
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 | Orienteering race 2:30:01 [4]*** 15.75 km (9:31 / km) +410m 8:26 / km | |
| shoes: VJ Falcon |
| 9th Annual Susquehanna Stumble (Long), Fair Hill, MD. This is a fast area, with all the trails and fields. Not feeling particularly fast these days, but I figured I'd see how it went. Went pretty well, though I found way more thorny areas than I would have liked! Biggest error was on B (the first control I went to in the first window); lost maybe 2 minutes. Otherwise, anything I lost was due to route choice, of which there were many options. In general I am pleased with my window-order selection and most of my routes, as well as my running & everything else. It was a good race for me. Came into #18 (last control on the Short) with Tim & Tom Strat; we were faster than all but 2 of the Short Stumblers (Chris Gross & Wyatt). I lost T&T after the next window & finished ahead of them. Caught Dave O in the final window; we were together for a short while, but he made a route choice I didn't want to make & mine ended up better.
Finished 6th overall, 1st F (maybe only F in the Long? That's too bad but I am pleased with my overall finish), behind Ken Jr., Clem, Eddie, Nadim, & Ted. About 18 min behind Ted (and gained on him on the last 4 or so controls ... another 10 k & I would have had him!). Felt strong the whole way. Nice race. Liked Randy's course! |
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| C • Nice race. 8 |
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Long - Splits |
Saturday Sep 30 |
| Road run 46:29 [2] | |
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| With Max in the BabyJogger, I ran from home, the long way to the G'town Branch trail, then down that (past Max's "school;" he was interested in seeing it from that vantage) and through downtown Bethesda to the Capital Crescent Trail. While still outbound, I passed our old real estate agent (actually our young real estate agent); she noticed us first and we stopped to chat briefly. I don't think I'd seen her since closing. She was strolling with her husband & dog, so introductions all around. I told her we've been planning on calling her ... have to do something about this house. :-(
Turned around at the Little Falls road crossing & returned via downtown streets, which Max found intriguing with all the various things to look at.
Chilly, not quite 50, but was dressed appropriately for it. Not raining yet. Nice run. Went a bit easier/shorter because of the Stumble tomorrow. Felt great. |
Friday Sep 29 |
| Trail 45:23 [3] | |
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| Parked at Lock 10 on the C&O Canal. Headed upstream to the Plummer's Island trail (2 min), then ran the trail to Plummer's Island. The water was low enough to get across to the island. Unfortuately the trail is a bit overgrown right now. Back to the mainland and continued on the trail. Near the towpath is a small area of nice open woods (might start doing my woods intervals there; don't really want to take the time to get to Great Falls, my "usual" training area, these days). It's not very big and not uniformly nice, but there are interesting rock outcrops and knolls & things. I'd planned on turning around at the towpath and running the trail backwards, but it was unpleasant enough that I decided to skip that & run on the towpath instead. Headed downstream for enough minutes to get me to 45 minutes when I got back to Lock 10.
Like Wednesday, I ran into a bit of stinging nettles. I don't recall ever running into any of that annoying thing on these trails before. Could it be that this year the conditions have been just right for a bumper crop? I read that the poison ivy has gone crazy this year and is more potent to boot, so it's possible I think.
I should mention that I felt *great.* And I mean it! |
Thursday Sep 28 |
| Cross training (elliptical trainer) 31:00 [2] | |
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| Managed to snag one of the few open ellipticals. Unfortunately it's one of the squeaky ones. :-( At least I remembered to bring my own reading material (Running Times, newest one).
At lunchtime. |
| Stretching 12:00 [2] | |
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| Mostly the same as the other day: core, legs, arms, plus a hamstring stretch I'd just read about in RT. Since my right hamstring has been bothering me again, I figured I should do something about it. Hope I didn't make it worse. |
Wednesday Sep 27 |
| Trail warm up/down 31:23 [2] | |
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| Parked at Lock 10 on the C&O Canal. Ran upstream on the towpath to the Billygoat Trail Section C. Out-&-back; warm-up, cool-down, recovery. A picture-perfect day ("chamber of commerce" day :-). Just delightful to be out running. |
| Trail tempo 25:00 [4] | |
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| 5x5 min tempo; mostly on the Billygoat Trail ... hilly, rocky, and rooty -- sometimes all three at once. So it felt good to be running at a tough pace on such a surface. This may have been more like a cross between tempo & intervals, but I'm going to stick with tempo.
I felt pretty good -- no, I mean, I felt *great*! |
Tuesday Sep 26 |
| Cross training (recumbent ex. bike) 31:00 [2] | |
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| At the "new" gym at work during lunchtime. Once again had to read a mag from the rack, this time an old Outside. I really must remember to bring one from my own growing pile. I have trouble keeping up with my magazines.
A sign said the new gym was going to be getting new equipment soon (good thing, as half the elliptical trainers--which I was going to use--were broken & the other half being used & squeaking), including VersaClimbers. The gym used to have those & I liked using them; felt like the best training for hills outside of actually running hills. |
| Stretching 11:00 [2] | |
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| Legs, core, some arms. |