Training Log Archive: AliC

To Port Meadow from Helen Rd., then around the Nature Reserve twice. The tow path to Port Meadow is very flooded in places- I took my shoes off for the first bit that was ankle-deep, but gave up on the second and just started running through them- would never have gotten there otherwise! Definitely knee deep right by the bridge to Port Meadow. Felt ok, throat is still a bit iffy from the cold.

C • England 2

Not really intervals, just wanted to wake my legs up a little, so did 5 x 2 min at 5k pace. Not at all hard, just a bit quicker.

Run along the river to Port Meadow, around the nature reserve and back with SGB, before the conference.

Felt pretty ok, except when running through the park almost back to the house- and I had major problems breathing. I'm not sure exactly what brought it on, but it wasn't very fun. I've had breathing problems before, but that was different- I couldn't breathe out and it was caused by my vocal chords getting too tight. This was defintely asthma as I couldn't breathe in.

My guesses for why it happened- I've got a cold, and we just had entered a field of freshly mown grass, which I'm probably allergic to or something....

Sprint to catch the bus back to Oxford from Blenheim Palace!! We were set to catch it from right outside of the gate the bus dropped us off at, but apparently that gate is locked after 4:45.... What do they expect normal people to do that can't run around to the other exit in 10 minutes??

Run to Hill End with SGB (3 miles? less? more?) and some bouncing around before the start.

And orienteering back in the UK! Hill End is a bitty area with some open park stuff and some confusing trails in patches of somewhat yucky woods. I had X, Y then Z backwards, and the first two were fine, not so confused and made decent route choices and at least didn't falter even when I made the wrong one, have to just keep going.

Then came the backwards Z loop. I knew exactly where the first control was, so I didn't concentrate and ended up somewhere entirely different than where I thought I was going. Recovered, then messed up again on the next control. In retrospect, it really was just being over confident and thinking I had things figured out as I'd been past all the places those first two controls were. Still need to look at my compass! Anyways, then there was a long uphill leg, and I was way tired-er than I thought I should be. Maybe it's being used to the flats of the Netherlands, but I think the cold didn't help. Saw Jon in front of me and just couldn't manage to chase him down, which I think I could do if healthy!

Oh, and had a spectacular sprint finish with Emma, but I was coming from the uphill side and she from a flat, so despite my slide into the finish (think baseball style into home plate!), she just got me.

Collecting controls for the first half of the X loop. Good to be able to look at the map while going more slowly.

Warm down and back to the house.

Few laps around Uni Parks. Had to fit it into the crazy schedule for the conference given by my supervisor which kept me busy from 8am til 6pm straight, then should have been 7pm-9pm and 11pm-1am, except I got out of those, actually. So just a really quick run between 6 and 7!

On another note, my throat seems to be healing, and I don't feel ill. Yay!

Club circuits!! Fun times, good to do strength with people! And another astrophysicist from the conference joined us for a bit.

I have a very scratchy throat, so taking things easy...