Training Log Archive: jfredrickson

Stretching and warmup for an Orienteering race.

I ran my first Orienteering course today, in two weeks. There was quite a bit of competition, so a group of us decided to get together and start at 3 minute intervals as in an A-meet. Afterwards, we planned to run an Orange course with a chase start based on our finish times from the Red course.

I felt pretty good at the start, and after Fridays race, I was confident that my running would be good enough. I was mostly worried about my technique since I haven't Orienteered in two weeks. I went out at a good pace, feeling quite good, and I was concentrating well. I continued at a pretty good pace, and my navigation was nearly perfect. I continued to navigate perfectly, only making one small error at number 14, but as the course drew on, I began to get more and more tired. Apparently, I wasn't fully recoverd from my bout with poisen, so after my race, I did not do the Orange course. Anyway, considering my performance technique wise, I am confident that I can get back into shape for the US Champs. Sergei Zhyk had a great run and beat us all by 5 or more minutes. I don't think I could have beat his time even if I had felt perfect physically, but I think I could have been close. See my splits from the course.

Red - Splits

Warmup for a Cross Country meet.

We had a Cross Country meet today. I felt surprisingly good despite my recent inactivity. I started out pretty fast, but about halfway through the course Mike and Erin caught me. We ran the rest of the course together, encouaraging and pushing each other. It was great to run in a pack where we were all pushing each other to run faster. For a while we had ideas of catching the lead runner, but as the race grew on we realized he was out of our reach. I was able to pull ahead of Mike and Erin at the end and came in second. The course was a little long, so my time of 19:30 was pretty good. I would say the course is about the same difficulty as our course. It is longer, but it has less hills so the times should be about the same. If that is the case, I had a great run.

After the race we did a short cool down run.

Stretching and warmup for Cross Country practice.

Today was my first time running in nearly 2 weeks. I was in bed all last week with poisen ivy on my face that made it swell up so that my left eye was swollen shut. I basically haven't had any exercise since I last ran a week and a half ago, so my legs felt rather stiff and old. My joints didn't quite feel right at first, but as I worked into the workout, I began to feel better. Also, I haven't been getting much sleep lately, so I was mentally dead for the whole practice.

We did our usual hill sprints followed by sprints on the field. It was good to be running again. The cold air really hit my lungs hard since I am not yet accustomed to it, but for the most part I felt anaerobically fit.

My legs didn't feel too tired at the end of the workout, although I did take it easy. I felt great in the sprints at the end and I was really able to take off. It was great to get out again after such a long time wasting away inside.