Training Log Archive: bishop22

Decided to give the calf a break today, so I didn't go out at lunch.

4:11/8:30
1:34,37,35,35,34
3:32,31

Shoulder again very painful at first, but either I got used to it, or the pain abated a bit, so I was able to complete the workout.

Random Hills-11. Biking did not make the leg feel any worse.

Since I am still considering the O-Marathon (but at a significantly slower pace that I originally intended), I figured I'd better get some more work done. So, I hopped on a Precor trainer and did a 25 minute interval workout. I ended up getting the machine to switch between 4/8 and 10/10 (crossramp/resistance) and that seemed to keep my heart rate mostly between 125 and 137. I haven't figured out proper angles/posture/etc. and no one else was on one of the machines to give me any hints. But keeping my foot flat on the pedal seemed to cause no strain on my calf, and the hamstring was fine.

No run today. Had a presentation scheduled for 4pm, that I still needed to prepare for, but at 12:45 I found out it was postponed, too late to get out for a run (I had already eaten a couple of RB melts).

Calf pain seems to have radiated up to my hamstring, which feels sort of numb (almost asleep), and as if it needs to be stretched constantly.

Boss made me meet at 1, after I had another meeting that was scheduled to 12:30, so no time to try out the leg.

4:14/8:35
1:35,39,36,35,36
3:30,29

OK, time to really get back in the pool. Shoulder was very sore at the start, but became just an ache later in the workout. Incredibly slow and inefficient thru the water.

Calf still sore, but hopping on the recumbent at the Y didn't seem to aggravate it, so that's what I did.

Yet another day off. Didn't dare run on the calf.

Foot Locker Regionals at Van Cortlandt Park.

I did an easy 10 min w/up with our lone Freshman, to keep him company and see whether I could make it through the day on my calf. It was sore and felt vulnerable, especially with the sub-freezing AM temperature, but nothing drastic happened, so I was optimistic.

Ran 13 minutes during the races where I hit the woods (Soph, Jr Boys and Soph, Sr GIrls) and about 8 minutes during the others that I actively watched (Fr, Sr, seeded Boys and Jr girls). This included some fairly hard running to get from the 2.2 mile mark to the 2.7 mile mark, which was almost 1/2 mile of running. Probably over 20 minutes of jogging between races, but I'll count 10.

The calf held up (no sharp pain), but not sure if I'll be able to run the next few days. I really had to battle thru, since Chelsea's last high school XC race was the last race of the day.

Couldn't even think about running today, due to the calf injury. There is a good chance the O-Marathon is out, but I'm withholding final judgment for a couple more days.

Delaware Y Turkey Trot - Buffalo

Buffalo Turkey Trot (17th consecutive - I last missed in 1990 when we brought 5-month-old Chelsea down to her grandparents' place outside of Philly.

What a disaster. I blew my calf out exactly halfway thru the race. Not sure how much was due to dehydration and how much was the chilly weather, which I have been able to avoid all fall. Since we had a family team going, I tried to tough it out. When it happened, I was just behind Tim, who finished in 32:17, so I was probably on target to break 33. My 2.5 minute time loss was nothing compared to our star's problems. Dan was coming off a XC season at Edinboro where he was putting up 32-minute 10Ks, but a late night after attending the Sabres game last night led to a couple of unplanned pit stops, and he ended up running 37+, so once again we captured 2nd in the family competition (30:00 would have won it for us) - this could have been our year, since Nate ran 30:59, and he'll probably have to sit out next year (unless we skip Foot Locker).

C • trot injuries 1

Laziness, plus skipping out of work to catch Chelsea's hoop scrimmage at East High, meant no run today.

Mostly easy run around Schroeder, after seeing if any non-track runners wanted to get in a last pre-NYC tune-up. Tossed in a sub-7 mile on the track in the middle, just to get out of the rut I was running in.

Legs were still a little sore from Sunday; I hope they'll be ready for Thursday.

Took today off while mourning the Bills miserable performance last night. I couldn't even get myself to work in the AM (stayed overnight in EA).

Event: CNYO Highland Forest
 

CNYO Turkey-O at Highland Falls - Blue course.

Time not exact because I don't see my splits and CNYO likes to build the suspense for a while before posting results.

Course was 2 loops, with the shorter loop (3.5K) first. Have I mentioned that I hate 1:15 maps? I attempted to cut into the "White" woods just after the open, fenced area on the way to C1, but all of the junk pushed me down to the stream. The Sprint map makes it clear what the stream and its branches and the contours do, but it was just a smudge on the 1:15 map, so it took some extra time to spot the pond. Got thru the Green, which was no tougher than the White had been, and it was trail the rest of the way to C2. Bounced back and forth across the stream to get to C3.

Got out to the trail on the way to C4 - I think this is where Gil caught me - and didn't see the indistinct trail through the few inches of snow that would have led straight to the bag, so I wound up drifting right and had to climb up to the control. It was slow going out to the trail on the way to C5. Lots of deadfall in this "White" area, and I was nervous about what the snow might be covering up after a couple of poor foot placements. I knew where I left the trail, but still wound up higher than the flag at the second stream. I was using Nate's thumb compass instead of my baseplate (which had a magnifier...).

I drifted left on the way to C6, so I climbed up one stream too early, but that allowed for some fast running on the trail. Climbed directly up C6, and thought I could read the vegetation boundary, but I was wrong and got hung up in some nasty green for a bit. I think Rob caught me at the flag. I left the control uphill, intending to hit the very distinct trail which was inside the circle, but found nothing and had to run thru the White, which was a fair amount cleaner here. Finally hit the road, and managed to get to the bend about the time Rob did, and bore off for C8. I think I stayed ahead of Rob to the Split control, which Mark D had just moved on us.

Flipping the map over, I saw a road option, to the next C1, so I took it immediately, while Rob went left. I pace counted and left the road at the correct spot, but no sign of the indistinct trail in the snow and I drifted right to the wrong rough open area, which meant I had to head a ways back uphill to the flag. C2 was easy enough, but could have been even easier - I did not realize it was C4 from the first loop until I looked the route to the new C3 and saw it looked remarkably similar to a leg I had already done. This meant I still had to climb over and through various annoying "White" woods impediments again, and Rob caught back up to punch right behind me.

I lost sight of Rob right away after needlessly crossing the stream and coming back, and I chose to exercise caution since the circle was inside some green, but I did manage to get directly to the flag. Leaving for C5 required crossing the creek again, and this time I did manage to get my feet wet, but then I got to do some trail running, until having to climb up a slightly crappy reentrant to the bag. I was hoping to find the indistinct trail leading up towards the top of the ridge, and hit a nice level area which must have been the path, but deadfall immediately kicked in and I had to climb above it, so I went on a more direct route to the ridge trail, which meant I got to do some quick trail running down the spur, and even saw the junction with the indistinct trail on the left to signal to cut in to the right.

C7 was a pain. I aimed to the right, finding the tip of the swamp, but still had rough going (not White like mapped, once again). So, I gave up the high road and just drifted back towards the creek, so I'd easily see the small streams going down to it, which worked. I guess C7 wasn't such a pain after all, I can say with hindsight after C8. Nothing but White on the map (right of the line), but plenty to slow me down to less than a jog, in the terrain. I had no problem finding the swamps just before the trail - I did have a problem in following the compass north, so I popped out on the trail at the bend. After jogging up the hill, it was time to run again and the bag was visible just after leaving the trail. The route to C9 turned out to be Whiter than mapped - a pleasant surprise, and it was over.

Mostly jogged around the Sprint course, especially after I couldn't break thru the Green on the way from 3 to 4. My splits didn't print out, so I don't have my time.

Unintended rest day. Had to catch the parent-teacher conference for Luke at lunchtime, then had to leave at 4:45 to go home, grab Zach, drive to EA, pick up tickets, then head into Buffalo for the Sabres game. The Sabres made it well worth the trip, scoring first after 14 straight games of giving up the first goal - something that should only happen every 200 years or so - and going on to a fun 4-1 win over the Habs.

This is no way to train for an O-Marathon.

Easy run over to Zach's hockey game. Here's the route. Did a few 1-minute quick strides and got the rate up to 170 for the last one. I was barely above 150 when I was plodding along.

11:46 at Plank (8:24 pace)
23:52 at Ridge (8:03 leg)
34:14 under 104 on Gravel (7:55 leg)
8:20 pace to the rink

Zach's team gave the opponents from Buffalo a good spanking. 3 quick goals in the first period were followed by a lull, but they scored 6 in the 3rd, including 5 in the last 2 minutes.

Planned to run with the serious Foot Locker runners, over to Willink for about 3 x woods loop (~1/2 mile), but Chelsea locked her keys in her car at a gas pump. So, the kids and I ran by the gas station, and I took over waiting for help (the store had called 911 for Chelsea), so she could head to Willink with the team.

I didn't want to stray too far from the station (corner of Ridge and 5 Mile Line), so I jogged down the little hill on 5 Mile for just over a minute, and ran hard back up, then jogged east on Ridge for just over a minute, and back. I did 6 of these before getting too bored, so I stopped and waited for the kids to come back.

I had seen 4 police cars on Phillips in the village, manning a serious-looking roadblock, so they were clearly too busy to help a lockout, so I went home and found the spare keys that Chris and Chelsea couldn't find a few weeks ago, and Chelsea was back in business.

We were playing the first-place team tonight, and we're 2 games out of a playoff spot with 2 weeks to go, so 3 of us were encouraged to play all 4 games. We lost a tough one first, but rallied to win the other 3, including a very strong 4th game.

Easy run around the city - haven't done that in quite some time. Light rain, but the temp was just warm enough (well, not cold enough) to keep it pleasant in a t-shirt.

Went North/Hudson - Clifford - St. Paul - Andrews/University - Scio and in.
10:46 at Cliiford (1.24)
21:34 at St. Paul (2.52)
38:05 at Y (4.44)

I didn't realize I was going THAT easy (8:35 per mile), but my legs were pretty sore from the track yesterday on the heels of the RTH.

Took the 10 runners that showed up to train for Foot Locker thru a nice little rep workout.

10 min w/up

3-person x 6 x 200m relay. I ran behind the middle group, averaging about 42 (jogged a bit over 100m between each).

4 x 400m, averaged about 86, 200m jog after each.

3000m relay: same 3 teams of 3, each person had to run 1x400m, 1x300m, 1x200m and 1x100m, in any order. They were responsible for deciding when to run what and making sure the right people got to the right starting locations. It was fun watching some kids sprint diagonally across the field while their partners each ran 100m, before they had to run again. Kept up roughly the same pace (42-43 per 200m).

Alex almost caught Megan at the end, making an exciting finish to a fun workout. Gotta find a way to manage something like this with more kids around.

11:30 w/dn

Had no intention of taking today off, but I had to cut out articles for the XC yearbook over lunch, and couldn't make it to the pool.

Event: Raid the Hammer
 

Raid The Hammer, with Nate and David Levine. A surprising 15th overall, given that our top speed was somewhat limited. Most of the navigation was pretty clean, but we did make a few avoidable mistakes.

Nate decided to change into shorts, since it seemed to be warming up nicely by start time. The problem was that our e-punch unit was in his sweatpants. I asked if he had it about a minute for the start, and he didn't so he ran to the school to get the keys and I ran to the car to be ready to open it. They started the race on time, when we were about halfway back to the starting line. The biggest problem with that was that there was a logjam crossing a tiny stream embedded in some thick junk just after the start, so we wound up near the back of the queue. Once we hit the roads, I had to keep reeling Nate back - he was ready to fly, but we expected to be out at least 5 hours, and we didn't want to press David into going too quick. After the road, we came off the trail earlier than most people, but that did not prevent us from following the SW reentrant briefly before looking at the compass and correcting. Then we had a bit of a delay near the flag as well. I almost panicked, thinking of my usual mass start disasters, but calmed down.

We got out to the trail and followed it NE to the road, cut in at the driveway to the parking lot and into the trails. We decided to stay all the way left, which totally simplified the navigating. So, we saw Wil and Patrick already coming out of 3 while we were headed down to 2 - and there were some youngsters following them, who must have been doing the 10K, and were moving quite quickly.

In the first matrix, David took the closest control (D), I took the furthest (C), and we let Nate do the extra running to grab B and A - he beat me back to C3 by about 30 seconds, which I had given away by heading N, instead of NW out of 2C. C4 was all trail running, and David kept pushing along, so we did well.

After the fun climb down the escarpment, thru a crevice (my camelbak almost made me too fat), we managed to stumble across the trail heading S, out to the main trail and then took the first left. Nate spotted the opening on the right and I went on compass from there, which had the nasty side effect of taking us thru some brush, when the map had made it look like it was clearing all the way. I decided to punch thru one more section, and popped out right at the bag.

C6 involved a line-o, which started by following a power line trail. We lost some time figuring out that we were indeed at the right point to leave the trail, which also had the effect of putting other teams on our tail. We faithfully followed the line, mostly walking since I didn't know exactly what to expect. And the first bag wasn't until a hilltop shortly before the next CP. That meant the second line-o bag was going to be on the top of the next hill, which it was.

Into the second matrix - there were really only 2 sets of controls: a nearby single flag (6A), which David took, and three others in a long dead-end area. I took the one near the neck of the area (6B), while Nate hustled along the top of the escarpment to 6D. I was off on a bearing towards 6C, to serve as a backup, in case Nate had trouble. The corridor had high visibility, so I knew I wouldn't miss him coming out. We saw each other as we were converging on 6C, but nothing there. After checking around and being unable to relocate in this featureless terrain, I sent Nate back to 6D with my compass set to the correct bearing. He wound up back at the same (empty) pit we had first tried. By this point, many people were milling about, including Eugene M, and just before I went back to pace count from 6D, a few people stumbled on the "correct" pit. Nate and I flew out of there and back to David, so we could continue on to CP7. It was too bad we had to meet at the intermediate point - David had to wait 8 minutes for us, which probably would have been more like 2 minutes by CP7, where he could have refueled, instead of standing around. We were then inefficient at the CP, Nate and I not knowing what all we had to do exactly (and we took the time to mix up some gatorade).

The next map was a sight for sore eyes! A good, old 1:10 map; after the 1:20 map, this seemed like a sprint map. We crossed the stream before the line to C8, which meant shorter distance, but more time on the hillside. C9 was fun. A nice stretch along the RR tracks, which had the gaps between ties nicely filled, to make the running (ok jogging / walking) easy. We decided to not follow the line, but stay on the tracks another 200m or so. This meant less trouble reading the contour-only section, and would send us in to the control at the angle folks were coming out. We saw a couple of groups leaving, but not close enough to the flag to be useful, and we missed left and had to come back over one spur. On the way out, Nate and David remembered the trail that we had seen people coming out our way (the area didn't look familiar to me, although we had been there less than 5 minutes earlier), so we did some trails on the way out that we knew from our trip in (when we were reluctant to follow them).

C10 was easy enough, then we took the trail from the road towards C11. I never saw the trail split for the first time, but we had gone far enough for the second split, and the compass said that's where we were, so we went just left of straight off the trail at the bend near the flag, but made it to the edge of an open field. I was trying to figure out whether we were at the corner of the field, or the corner of the OB area, when we turned around and saw the bag very close. We continued E on the trail loop, and at the intersection we wanted to contour to the next trail, but the sidehill was tough and the trail was right there, so we went down to it and back up. At the sharp bend we went down into the creek area, which wasn't nearly as tough as it had looked. We crossed over and found the trail on the other side which led us to C12.

Now it was time for the E=MC-squared section. Everyone had to do at least 2 of the 3 legs (1 "M"ud, 1 "C"limb, and another "C"limb). David and I decided that Nate wanted to do 2 climbs, so we took the Mud control, which was just water, since we took the trail past the marsh. Then I rested while they did the first climb, which was up a trail. Nate and I then tackled the second climb (each was about 12 contours high). A pair left about 2 minutes ahead of us, and Nate seemed to be on a mission to catch them, which he did. I had to work awfully hard to get by them as well, going thru some brush to get around them. By the time we made the top, there is no doubt I was at Max HR. We then hustled down the hill, and could still see them descending when we were just about back.

We angled up to C13, but not sharply enough and overshot it. Still, we beat the teams that were near us by a fair amount. But we were walked down on the trail run back to C14 (which was the same as C7), as David was starting to fade just a bit, so we mostly walked the trail, which had a bit of climb.

Again we spent too long at the CP. The next stretch was almost all road. We were alternating jogging and walking, which actually allowed us to stay fairly close to a group that was jogging almost the whole time. When the road ended, it was pretty dark to our left, towards the flag, so we stayed on the trail to the intersection, then stayed on it some more. I think we got down to the bag pretty cleanly. We aimed for the trail that led out of the stream, and at the top, the woods looked mighty inviting! So, we went straight and spiked it. I think this was the stretch where David said the woods were crying to be run through, despite his declining energy.

I lost track of where we were on the way to C17, but the others knew precisely where we were (I miscounted trails, which threw me off). The OB had a fence alongside, so it was easy going to the flag. We cut over to the trail after leaving C17, and followed that to a nice field, and all the way to the fence line. Here we mostly stayed right at the fence line, to make the easiest reentrant crossings. Two reentrants were filled with junk, but that actually helped at the second one. One other reentrant required a small leap to cross, but David almost slipped his landing in the mud, so I climbed down and up instead. I had to call Nate back to punch, since he must have forgotten that he had pointed out that the flag was just before the end of the field, not level with it. We sent Nate down the last 20m to punch and made him come back up, since, from our vantage point, it was easier to take the power line trail to the road. David alternated cramping and jogging, while I nervously watched behind us. As it turns out, I should have been looking in front, because we ended up only about 2.5 minutes behind a team, then it was a 10 minute gap after us. We took a bit of a shortcut past the dog-walking area (?) and then left the road again just after the OB, for a climb down and back up, a rough open patch, and a final climb to the school grounds.

Didn't see GTA after the finish - it turns out they were a full hour ahead of us. The Kempster's team also beat us by that margin (and almost beat GTA!).

The event was a lot of fun, even though the navigation wasn't too tough. It's a very nice change of pace from the Highlander. I think both have to be done on an annual basis, Bills schedule permitting.

C • Nice write-up 2

Event: ROC - Annual Mendon Trail Run
 

Went to the ROC Trail Run, since I had volunteered to work registration, but it seems I wasn't really needed, except for a couple of random tasks. Once the race started, I ran on the Mendon map, visiting part of the Mendon West XC course before doing a few controls on the old map (southeast of the beach area), and then a couple of control picking legs on the way back.

Knee/calf was fine - should be ready to handle the longer event tomorrow.

4:14/8:46
1:35,39,38,40,39
3:40,39

Knee/calf sore enough that I couldn't run, and definitely couldn't hop on the bike, since that may have triggered the problem and I couldn't take another day off, so I made my first trip to the pool in ages.

Didn't push anything, since my shoulder and back have been sore from VB the last couple of weeks, so I was VERY slow. But didn't seem to experience any ill effects.

Foolishly played VB tonight, but my team needed me - we were 2 games behind the team we were playing, battling for the last playoff spot. My knee/calf felt OK before the game, but it didn't take long for it to get sore - limited my mobility and we lost a game I played as well as the one I sat out. So, still 2 games out with 2 weeks to go.

Knee not bad enough to mark as an injury, yet. So, I am optimistic that I can successfully Raid the Hammer.

Took the day off, hoping the back of my knee (top of my calf?) would have a chance to recover.

Easy run from Schroeder with Chelsea, trailing behind Nate and Megan. The turnout for the first NYC practice was 3. It turns out that no one heard Coach Klehr announce the practices.

Cut thru from Five Mile to Scribner and back via Armtale Luster, then thru the Friar Tuck hood and finished with a loop around Summit Knolls.

Developed a pain in the back of my knee and/or top of my calf, which is now limiting my mobility a bit. I'm hoping ice, vitamin I and an overnight can clear it up.

Back to the downtown Y at lunchtime for the first time since August.

Did Random Hills-11 @ 93rpm

Hopped on the treadmill for a mini-brick. 7.5 most of the way, but worked up to 8 and back down during the second half. More to stave off boredom than anything else.

Event: ROC - Oatka Creek Park
 

Ran the Fahrenholz loop alone before the Bills game, since we got into town late. Fastest Fahrenholz loop in quite some time: 20:37 (10:51 at the corner, 9:45 back home). Especially quick given yesterday's activity, but I want to start doing some of my easier runs at a better pace (well, not sub-7 in general), especially if I only have time for a short run.

Running around Marcus-Whitman during XC Sectionals. Got there early so I could catch Tim's races. His boys ran OK, but only managed 3rd in Class C. His girls ran quite well, for the most part, but ended up losing by one point. His niece won by 14 seconds, after smartly remaining 17 seconds off the pace at the mile mark. Served as a great example for our team, who had arrived before her race.

Our boys went out conservatively and were near the back of the pack, despite going thru the mile in 5:25 to 5:37. They almost all moved up steadily during the second mile, and some continued advancing during the 3rd mile, resulting in some excellent performances and scoring 21 points fewer than expected. With the 7th man being our only senior, the boys are excited about their chances for a big improvement next year.

The girls also went out in a conservative position - after almost a half-mile, Megan was not in the top 30, and the rest of the girls were ahead of only 2 girls from the other teams. Despite the conservative position, the mile splits were quite fast: 6:10 for Megan, 6:36-6:47 for the next 4 and 7:05 for the rookies. Megan had a great run, moving up to 14th, and within about 20 seconds of a state meet berth, before fading just a bit; Chelsea had a fantastic finish, to move up to 32nd place, and Clare had an outstanding run, winding up as our 4th finisher

Event: US Champs
 

From Schroeder during XC practice - ran over to pick up my car from the dealer, then got back in time to run with Chelsea and Clare for 6 minutes, then did 1.5 miles on the track to get a sense of pace (7:08 for 1, then 3:43 - trying for 3:45 for 1/2). Then a back around the fields to the school.

As long as the kids aren't intimidated by the course, they will do quite well tomorrow. They have to realize you can have a great race and not get a PR.

No running today, since there was no XC practice, and I was too lazy to run on my own.

Did play volleyball - our team had never won 3 games in one night, and now we still haven't, since we managed to win all 4. My upper back (right deltoid?) was still sore from last week, and I did some more damage to it tonight - the pain is radiating around to my collarbone.