Training Log Archive: kissy

This run felt really good, even though half-way through I met a big, shaggy black dog on the trail. I saw him (her?) a ways down the trail, so I slowed to a walk. I was hoping his people would come around the bend in the trail, but they never did. As I got closer, the dog noticed me, stopped wagging its tail, and pulled his ears back. Great! So, I slowly backed up and turned to go back the way I came. The big bummer is that on the other side of the dog was my favorite part of this run...the fast downhill on smooth trail. Oh, well, I went back down on the rocky part and then added on another little piece so it would be at least 3 miles.

The good part, though, was that even with that walking for the dog, my time was pretty good...for me.

Event: WCOC Pond Mountain
 

WCOC local event at Pond Mt. Green course. Forerunner distance was 5.5K.

I decided to head to the WCOC meet today because I was a little tired of training by myself, and I'm glad I went. This is such a nice area to run in, and without the steep climb to the start, like we had at the A meet here, it was even more enjoyable. I saw some old friends...the Muffati's and Daniel Schaublin, and missed some others...the Gagarin's and Charlie, who has all of my good thoughts going out to him and Rhonda in Asheville.

My run was a mix of good and bad. Good because I was very worried about my knee since it's been acting up, but it felt great out there. There were even a few times...a very few times...where I felt like my old self running through the woods. Bad because I totally screwed up #4. It was like I entered a land of nothing but rock faces and could not make heads or tails of them. I had to relocate twice off the trail before I finally found the control. Argh!

The other bad news is that I think I might have come in extensive contact with poison ivy. George W. said that it was only by the roadside, but about halfway through my course, I realized that I kept seeing lots of it!! So, I've Tecnu washed and Zanafelled, but I don't think that I stopped it in time. :-(

The courses were set remotely by Boris, who is in Sweden, and I can say that the Green course was tons of fun! Thanks, Boris.

Since I ran Green instead of Red, and my knee felt fine, I went back out to pick up some controls. This was really mostly a trail run since it was the White, Yellow, and Orange controls, but there was some navigating involved.

A new class, Fitness Pilates, since all afternoon classes, including Strictly Strength, were cancelled for the holiday weekend. This was a good class, but not as difficult as the strength class.

This was a dismal run. I had intended to run around 4 miles, but kept chopping off pieces until all I wanted to do was get back to my car.

My knee hurt from the get-go, almost to the point where it kind of felt like I was limping a little. I stopped at about 1 mile to stretch to see if that would help, and that's when I saw a big, dark bruise behind my knee. Now, I can't remember ever having a bruise *behind* my knee, so I started wondering if maybe my fall last weekend was so bad (because it really hurt a lot) that I did some kind of internal damage. Which would explain the pain and stiffness last Sunday while orienteering, and the swelling that I've had all week. I don't know, but tonight my knee hurt the most it's hurt in a very long time. Bummer.

warm up on the treadmill before class

Strictly Strength class