Training Log Archive: marie

Chiropractor visit

More crackin and poppin, Dr Gina said I should just move in there, she has a lot of work to do on me. Painful treatment of the left side sacroiliac joint & hamstring. Strict instructions to take it really easy for the next week or else I will aggravate the muscles and undo her work.
Stretch, ice/moist heat.

C • easy 3

Easy ride with Mike through the Westville neighborhoods. This, vacuuming the house and mowing the lawn had to be it for me today :( antsy.

knees sensitive after falling off the bike Saturday but could do all the exercises

to & from downtown dinner with Mike, body still a bit sore from the weekend

C • Adventure race 5

The Shag Adventure Race in New Jersey. 3 person coed with Joe & Jeff.

I've been wanting to try AR, was still a bit hesitant when Joe asked me to join them.. debuting with a 12 hr one(!)
And an approaching hurricane added to the excitement, like it said on the website answering people asking if the race was still on: " Besides, this is adventure racing - not a fun run. We can take whatever mother nature sends our way."

Up at 5am after camping out in the parking lot where the start and TA1 (transit area) was. Sign in. Get all the gear ready. Meeting with more instructions at 6am. We got the maps. Both Joe & Jeff had raced here before and Joe started planning our routes.

First leg was kayak on Greenwood Lake. We ran down to the lake wearing life jackets and carrying the paddles. 2 person sit on top kayaks, we teamed up with soloist Scott and towed one boat. Unfortunately Joe & Scott's kayak had a hole in it, so they were getting slower and slower as we approached the first control. Jeff had to give me a lot of pointers while this was my first time kayaking. I had a hard time getting into the fast rhythm, being used to canoeing with longer strokes. We were among the first ones at the first control but the others caught up while Joe & Scott had to empty their water filled boat and switch to tow that instead. Two more mandatory controls, we skipped the two optional ones. My arms were tired at the end of this and the legs felt really stiff running back up to TA1.

C • Congrats 6

I changed into dry clothes and shoes. Throughout the race we had to carry personal mandatory gear: headlamp with two batteries, knife, emergency space blanket, whistle, compass, rain jacket, long sleeve wicking shirt, food & water. Plus there was mandatory team equipment like first aid kit and bike fixing stuff that the guys carried

Bike ride from TA1 to TA2, paved roads uphill. Woo, legs already tired. Jeff gave me a few pushes in the back and then hooked me up with his dog leash thingy and gave me a little pull.

(didn't take split times so it's one long GPS track for the whole thing, total climb according to the Garmin was 1189m)

At TA2 we dropped our bikes & helmets to go out on the "trek". We only got one map per team and Joe was in charge of navigating. J & J said they've always seen bear in these woods and also rattle snakes. Yikes. We jogged on flats and downhill and hiked the rest. Lots of bushwhacking and I was happy I borrowed Joe's arm warmers for my calves. It was a comfortable temperature and grey skies, occasional light drizzle. We got a little off course on a few controls, though corrected pretty quickly. The map was a rough 1:25000 with contours roads & trails. The control points were for example: hill top, cliff, trail junction, marsh inlet, river/stream junction, boulder on top of spur, pond.

Before leaving TA1 I poured out some water from my camelback while I knew there would be water at TA2, just forgot to fill it up when we were there. Ran out of water when we had about 1.5 hours left of the trek, took a few sips from Jeff's. Joe filled up his bladder in a somewhat clean looking marsh and purified it. My left hamstring was acting up a bit but I tried to stretch whenever we stopped. With 2 controls left we hooked up with Scott. At the last control there was a lot of trash laying around and we had been given garbage bags for an "environmental project", we could get 6 bonus points for bringing a full bag back.

Back at TA2 they had a whiteboard where they had drawn hurricane Irene and a dot saying "you are here" right on the edge of it. I changed into a dry shirt and bike shorts. We had not even gotten on the trails when the skies opened and it was pouring rain + windy. Great. Still warm out though so we decided not to put our jackets on. The mountain biking was a mix of double and single track. Some rooty, rocky parts where we pushed the bikes. And controls were mostly off the trail, so we would leave our bikes and run in/out. I'm not very confident on the bike, especially going downhill and when it was this wet & slippery. I had a wipeout when I hesitated going over a slippery log downhill, the bike slid sideways and I fell forward to catch myself on my hands & knees, ouch! Looked pretty cool for a while though when my knees were all covered with blood. We never saw any bears or snakes although Joe thought he saw a bear cub or it could have been a dog, but then we met another guy who confirmed it was a cub while he had just seen a mama bear with two cubs.
I was getting tired. Jeff told me to just hang in there for another hour (when it was probably more like another 2 hours).

We had to be back at the finish by 7pm and Joe had planned the route well and estimated how much time we would need to ride back down. Yes, the last part was that long paved road hill that we previously had gone up to TA2. That was scary going down. With slick roads and my brake pads almost all worn down after riding in those conditions, I could squeeze the brake all the way to the handle bar. But we made it back safely with I think 5min to spare. Yay body for holding up! So happy to be done and there was a spread of pizza, soda and cupcakes!

what I ate & drank during the race:

2 "espresso love" gu (they were good!)
1 chocolate gu (loosing energy in the end and got one from Joe)
2 bananas
1 clif bar
1 meal replacement protein PB/pretzel bar (yuck, made my stomach upset)
pasta
1 lära bar
pretzels
water & gatorade, maybe a total of 2 liters

I was carrying a lot more that I didn't eat.

We won our category which was also the preliminary one. And we had the second highest score of all teams. Definitely helped to have such experienced team-mates.

Then it was another adventure driving home, rainy & windy but roads were almost empty.

at West Rock, slippery rocky trails on top

Chiropractor visit

Time to get more aggressive with fixing this lower back pain I've dealt with for almost 2 years. A colleague recommended a chiropractor in Cheshire. She was great! A short examination, I told her my story, then she got to it - bam! A lot of crackin & poppin (that's not suppose to happen with a healthy body), painful workin out knots, moist heat and I will need to do lots of stretching. Sore after the treatment but I could feel a difference right away, muscles less tight. I have a long way to go but this was a good start!

C • Hurrah for less back pain 3

Short loop at West Rock

Exploring the trails in Old Saybrook with Mike. Quite a lot of lifting the bike over fallen down trees and other stuff. Some really nice parts and good climbs. At one point we ended up by this train cart graveyard and old overgrown train tracks, spent some time there. I saw a huge black snake(!) along the trail, I've heard about them and been fearing I'll run into one. Forgot to start the watch a few times in the end of the ride.
Afterward we went for a dip in the sound and there were actually waves.

with Mike around Maltby Lakes

to & from downtown New Haven

at Racebrook Tract with Mike

One short lap to test how it feels running with the camelback backpack

After work ride at Naugatuck SF with Mike & my colleague Jeff. Pretty wet and muddy out there, but nice to see a new place. Jeff showed us the loop and there were some tricky parts, like a rocky stream bed downhill. I got off and ran with the bike a few times.

around Lake Wintergreen in the rain

It rained non-stop today. Pretty nice. After spending most of the day inside we decided to get some fresh air and hiked up West Rock.

Nice ride with Mike. Stopped in Chester for lunch, took the ferry across the river, Joshuatown Rd is beautiful - with some tough climbs and some scary downhills, made another stop once we got to Old Saybrook and bought a gatorade then rode the shoreline loop and back.

with Mike on the streets in Westville + a loop at Maltby lakes. Lots of deer, one with huge antlers & two bambis.

Not a problem getting up early for April's class.

Back in US and the humidity. Slow run with Mike at Maltby lakes.

And then the leaving-Sweden-anxiety.. Running is my therapy. Saw a big fox.

to the beach from grandma's and then home

FR 6.782km

D21 - Splits

to & from the beach with mom, dad & Mike

Evening run around home. Got caught in some cut down woods and muddy fields.

to & from the beach with Mike