Training Log Archive: Kat

I met a really cool guy named Greg Long at the handicap race last Thursday and he invited me to come running with his Sunday group. So I was picked up this morning at 6:30 and off we went to the foothills. We started off running about 1+ mile uphill on pavement, then we ran on scruffy trails till we reached the Pino trailhead. We had a short break (<1 minute) to drink some water, then headed up.

The group decided ahead of time that we would run 20 minutes up the Pino trail, then turn around. I stuck right behind Greg for this. After a few minutes of going up we were running on switchbacks in the shade. There were actual trees there! This was definitely tough. Greg's pace was slightly faster than easy pace for me would have been, but I think this was good because it meant I was running rather than dragging my body up and practicing bad mechanics. The trail felt like a rollercoaster in some places - lots of ups and downs. But the last several minutes were a real killer. I lost the power to talk and found myself getting desperate. I was literally counting down the seconds till we could turn around. It was uphill, uphill, and more uphill.

After we turned around, the trip back down to the trailhead was *fast.* I didn't realize how much we had climbed until we started going back down. We were flying, only slowing down around some of the steeper curves in the trail to avoid falling off the trail. I had a lot more respect for what we'd accomplished then!

Down along trails and some pavement back to the car park with Ireena. This part of the run was either flat or gradual downhill. I went extra slowly so that she could keep up, but I was actually feeling quite good.

Stretching in a small spot of shade after the run. I needed this!

I got a lift to the NMO event at Doc Long with a very nice family. They had a Chinese student from some Texan university staying with them and this was his first time orienteering. So I took him out on a yellow course. I figured this would be short and sweet, taking no more than 30 minutes max. But it was tougher than I thought it would be. The first few times the straight line went on the side of a steep hill, I convinced Daniel that it wasn't worth it, but one time he wanted to try it and we wound up first climbing a really steep and green hill, then climbing down (in his case, sliding down) the other side. We also went across several steep rocky areas towards the end of the course. I was definitely feeling somewhat dehydrated and a bit tired when we finished, so I figure I'll put it down as 10 minutes instead of the 60 it actually was.

After I drank some water and ate an apple, I set off on the red course. The map quality was pretty poor and after a badly-misplaced control on the yellow course, I was almost surprised each time I found a control in the right place. Three were also two occasions on which I made parallel errors and took a long time in convincing myself I wasn't at the right spot, again for the same reason.
I did the first eight controls, then headed in to the finish, because doing the last few would have meant running a long way downhill on th paved road. Plus, I was dehydrated and figured I had done enough hill climbing for the day.
When I got back, I drank loads of water and ate fruit salad, which went a long way towards making me feel human again.

Running to the finish once I hit the road (uphill).

I was only going to do this for 20 minutes, but the movie showing was Ferris Bueller's Day Off so I had to stay a while longer. I put the elliptical on grade 13-19 (usually 15), level 4-5.

All of the usual things, except only did one set of leg extensions (quads are sore).

My knees are really worrying me. They ache and the left one is especially puffy and sore. Of course I have been through all of this before. I've had knee problems since I started running 1.5 years ago and the problems never really went away, they just became manageable. But now I'm afraid that, for some reason, the pain is back. Grrr.

C • running downhill 3

To and from the golf course.

7AM run. Another two laps around the golf course, this time with a short break in between to stretch. My knees felt a bit better today, but my body still felt really heavy. Running after biking is *hard*! I think this is the main reason why I've been feeling so sluggish these last couple of days. But I'm going to have to deal with it because almost every single run I'm going to do this summer will be after a bike ride of 15-60 minutes.

Warm-up run. Both knees were hurting, which is worrying. Before I came back to the States, my knees seemed fine and I hadn't really felt any significant pain in weeks. Then I went for that one short easy run in New York and everything started hurting again.

Albuquerque Road Runners trail race in the Four Hills area. I got there by taking a bus and then having one of the other runners pick me up at the bus stop and take me to the trailhead. This was a very laid-back handicap race (meaning starts were staggered) where runners did three short loops. The first was relatively flat, the second had a pretty significant climb, and the third had a very long (something like 0.6 mile) gradual hill. Doing a fast run was not in my plans for today, but I adjusted. I started off relatively easy and then picked up the pace when I felt good. I walked a bit on the last loop, on the long gradual uphill. It's not that I couldn't keep running, but I thought that there would be another big climb and I wanted to save my strength. As it turned out, this was unnecessary because this was the hardest part of the loop. Next time I'll know!

Cool-down with one of the guys. This is maybe the first time I've "cooled down" by running uphill....

I rode down to the UNM golf course and ran the sandy gravel loop surrounding it twice. My body did not like this. First, by Oxford and Uppsala standards, this loop is hilly. Second, I was still a bit full from lunch, my knees and hips felt sore, and my legs felt really heavy. I hope that in a few weeks, once I've adjusted, running will feel easier.

I now have a pass to the UNM gym, so I'll be coming here at least twice a week.

Again, I did a lot more biking than the actual time I'm logging, but I didn't bother to use a stopwatch and I stopped often to consult the map (although not as often as yesterday). I explored the bike path along the Rio Grande this morning. Cristina said it is a pretty path so I decided to bike over there and have a look. Getting there was not easy. The bike map claimed that the street I was planning to ride on would have light traffic, but in fact it felt like a three-lane highway. (This may have something to do with the fact that this map is six years old.) When I finally got to the place where I thought the bike path should be, I saw a measly little river (perhaps "stream" is more appropriate) with a garbage-littered dirt path running along it. I decided I must not have gone far enough because there is no way the Rio Grande is that narrow, no matter how out-of-scale and out-of-date the map is. So I went a bit further and did indeed find the real bike path. I was a bit disappointed to see that I could not actually see the river (just trees), but I was happy to finally be biking without traffic lights and cars. I had taken too long in getting there, so after a few minutes of riding on the path, I cut back through the streets to the university.

After showing me some math and ordering a bunch of biking supplies I never knew I needed, Mike showed me how to get to the Diversion Channel from campus. The path was narrow and paved the entire way, so it would be a terrible place to run, but a nice place to ride. I got my first flat tire along here and Mike spent ten minutes fixing it for me. I am really lucky that this happened before we split up to go our separate ways or else I would have had to drag the bike all the way home.

After getting home, I took a break to do some math, then went out again. First to a shoe store (where I failed to find Nike Pegasus), then to a Walmart superstore (where I was amazed to see an entire aisle dedicated to detergent and washing-up liquid), then back home. With all of the biking I'll be doing, I'll know Albuquerque inside out by the time I leave.

C • NIke Pegasus 2007 5