Training Log Archive: cporter

Event: SVO Susquehanna Stumble XI
 

Susquehanna Stumble (Long) at King's Gap - so I made it through the Stumble, but it wasn't pretty. I think I was recovered enough to "run" the long Stumble, but I hadn't anticipated the amount of climb that we'd have. Also, the blueberry bushes were everywhere! Picking up my knees became quite difficult and was somehting my legs were not ready for, especially over such a prolonged period of time. So needless to say I was very slow.

My navigation wasn't the cleanest either and I think I made a series of bad route choices in the windows where you could visit controls in any order you liked (I generally made route choices based on avoiding climb as much as possible.) I didn't do too badly on the first loop with no mistakes trying to find the controls, but just slow route choices, also my calves cramped up really early in the race which slowed me down. I had three pretty big mistakes on the second loop that added up to at least 12 min of error, but probably more. All of them were bingo controls with charcoal terraces on the sides of other wise completely bland hill sides that were easy to miss. Still it was frustrating, and relocating was a night mare. About 3-4km from the end of the race I was so tired that I couldn't do more than walk anyway.

So running the long Stumble was doable, but probablynot the best decision after running a marathon less than a week before, but there was no way I was going to miss it! Despite it all I had a great time!

Kickboxing - lots of agility training today with the cardio and worked with the punching bag today rather than sparring. I prefer to spar, but at least with the bag you can hit as hard as you want without worrying about hurting someone...so I worked my frustrations out pretty good.

So my co-worker and girlfriend, Joey randomly decided a couple of weeks ago that she wants to run a 10K for...the heck of it. She's not a runner, but she said she's been able to make it through 5K's in the past without training for them, but wants to get into shape and decided that to do so she needed to have a goal to work toward. She asked me if I was planning to run or knew of any road races coming up and I suggested she run the Jingle All the Way 10K that I will be running in December as a team with some other QOC members (Jon T, Andy B, and Kenny W I believe.) Its an ambitious goal for her, but she was pretty psyched about it so I'm "coaching" her in prep for the race. I have her mostly running on her own because our schedules don't match up well, but we do have our Wed. lunch free so we had our first run together today. We jogged three 1km loops around the walking path around our building and then power walked one more. She did good I think for just starting and it worked well for me since it acted as a recovery run for me (although I may run a bit more after work), but we have a long way to go to get her ready to at least be able to finish the 10K.

Walked one more km after jogging.

Just a little more cardio in addition to my lunch time jog with Joey, bu without the impact.

Nice long stretch after the eliptical.

Kickboxing

Core Workout Class - standard core class with mostly crunches, planks, etc. Primary focus was on abs today which I was thankful for. Only really had trouble with the reverse crunches we did right at the end of class because we were supposed to keep a medicine ball between our knees, lay on our back and pull our legs into our chest with our lower abs. My lower abs are definitely not as strong as my upper abs to begin with and the combination of that and trying to squeeze a 6 lb medicine ball while my inner thighs are still sore from the marathon (but thankfully the only muscle that really is sore) was a bit too much to handle.

Ended with Susan's nice long stretching session too which was much appreciated.

Arrived a little early for my core class so I jumped on the eliptical machine for a nice easy warm-up (about 10 min) then jumped back on after class to just give my muscles an easy, impact-free working for another 30 min. My pace was pretty easy, had a couple twinges of knee pain when I sped up a bit too much, but otherwise I felt fine.

So people will probably hate me, but I woke up this morning virtually pain-free from the marathon. I was a little nervous last night because as the hours after the marathon progressed my knees were getting more and more stiff and sensitive to moving in any direction other than straight back (i.e trying to roll out of bed was painful whereas sitting up and then standing up was only difficult because of tightness) so I wasn't sure how today would go. But morning came and I rolled out of bed, stood up and walked right down stairs before it hit me that doing so shouldn't have been so easy. We'll see if 48 hour rule applys tomorrow, but for now I'm feeling good - as is evidenced by the fact that I went to the gym today without a problem.

Oh and one more thing while I'm thinking of it...during the marathon I had someone (a male) call out my name while I was running through Georgetown. I never saw who it was so I have no idea who it could have been. None of my non-orienteering friends were planning to spectate (that I know of) also, it could have been a co-worker (I took today off, so I haven't spoken to anyone at work yet), but thought I would throw the question out there in case it was an orienteer (maybe someone from QOC that didn't go to the NEOC A-meet?)

Marine Corps Marathon - We'll its finally over with and I'll say that I am pleased with how the race went, although I had been hoping for a little faster time. I actually had a fantastic half-marathon, especially considering I got a little late start to the run (I decided it was worth it to stretch a little more and get one more trip to the port-a-potty in rather than be right up at my pace flag for the start.) I managed to make it to the start for the actually start of the race, but was stuck back at the 5:00 hour pace flag. It didn't give me too much trouble, but I did have to do a lot of quick weaving for the first couple miles whilst trying not to cut people off too much. One thing I was surprised by was how dense the pack of people remained, really throughout the entire race, but especially in the first 10 miles. Philly did have less runners, but I also think that MCM's course was narrower in a lot of places. Anyway, like I said, I felt really good at the start of the race. We had all of our climb in the first 8 miles (except the finish) but nothing too bad. I definitely felt very light on my feet and was having a blast right on through the half and my pace showed it. I don't actually have my half time, but I was running a projected finish time of 3:45 at the time which I was quite pleased about. I continued to feel pretty good to OK until I hit mile 18 right by the Capital. Once we got by the Capital and hit some crowds again I felt a little revived, but then we had to cross over the Potomac on I-395 back to VA. Its sligtly uphill most of the way, its a dead zone for specators, its hot, sunny and a DAMN long bridge! I didn't feel terrible yet, but it was at about this time (mile 21ish) that I started looking longingly in the direction of the Pentagon, wishing the race was over. I think that was the general consensus among the runners too - everyone was super-quiet, heads down, just trying to get through. The crowd returned as soon as we hit VA for the Crystal City loop, but it was another psychologically tough spot since it's just a short dog leg (less than 3 miles total). Then there's the last 2 miles of the race, which historically seem to be the worst for me (I guess I can say that now that I've run 3 marathons). MCM's last few miles are pretty boring too. There's no spectators and you just run around one side of the Pentagon, through where we started, and then up a short, but steep hill for the last .2 miles into the Finish. The hill itself wasn't that bad for me, at that point its just a matter of one foot infront of the other, but the entire last 1.2 miles I was desperatly trying to look a head to find where the finish was. I just needed something to fixate on and run to because I was going crazy just running with no end point in sight...it was obvious that the end was near, the crowd was increadible, almost clausterphobic, but just no sight of the damn arches that marked the finish. It wasn't until I was on the hill that the course finally turned enough that I could see the end. From then on I just pushed it till the end.

So I definitely got a little impatient toward the end. It was tough too because every mile after about 18 I just watched my pace creep up and up. Interestingly I think I guessed at about that point that I'd have a finishing time of 3:52, which didn't really please me, but hey it's still a PR. I think I can safely say that this will be the last road marathon (maybe a trail marathon or another orienteering marathon sooner) I do for a while. Also, any marathon I take on in the future I will be sure to do it (training at least) with a partner - in the end that probably hurt me the most. Overall though it was a great experience. Its always a great feeling to finish. I also headed to the Ferguson's for Linda's most excellent cooking afterward so it was nice to have some fellow runner to both celebrate and commiserate with. Thanks again Chuck and Linda for being such great hosts, as always!

C • Congratulations! 14