Training Log Archive: runninghils

Rest day today - Packing for USARA Nationals tonight, a couple "shake out" workouts this week and that's it! Woo!
Looks like rain for the race weekend, but it's supposed to be warm, at least. It could be worse - cold and rainy.

C • Do you leave Thursday morning? 4

Red Course. Today's performance would threaten to get me banned from the map in future races. ;)
Missed the existing boardwalk from the start to 1 and went around to the road. 2 and 3 were ok, though I did miss my attack point on 3 and had to run back. 4 on the other hand, I was all over the place. There were all kinds of trails that weren't on the map, which is unexpected in orienteering (unlike AR and USGS maps, where it's a given.) I was super close but thought I'd made a mistake so I went back to the trail to attack, made a super-inefficient path to it through the rocky depressions. Finally got it. Was expecting more of a hill for some reason
Slowed down a bit for 5, but still hit it a bit on the south end of the clearing. Not too bad, though.
Going to 6, I saw a "boardwalk" across a swamp and thought I'd found a shortcut. I got there and it was just a dock. No swimming for me today, so I had to backtrack and change plans.
7 and 8 went fairly well. Then 9. More like nein. I was right by it multiple times and couldn't see the flag nor the large orange bucket. Did 2 different attacks from the trail in the wrong direction thinking I was somewhere on the trail that looking back, I was obviously not at. Finally, I got it, but I have to admit that it was mostly because a couple people on another course found it and I saw them. Ay!
10 and 11 to the finish was uneventful. I really only messed up badly with 4 and 9, but I didn't ever feel like "wow, I really nailed that one awesomely" today. Didn't really kill myself either - tapering, you know.

Distance is estimated since I lost my foot pod out there at 8.2 miles. No idea where it went. Thought for a moment that maybe someone found it or that it might be somewhere close. No way. I'm sure a vine or something claimed it in a thick region. Bummer. Anyway, I definitely went more than 8.2 miles, but not sure how much more.

C • #9 7

3 sets of 5x 30 second uphill sprints with 3 minutes easy riding between and 5 minutes between sets.

Started with a 20 minute warm-up, did the intervals, and then rode easy the rest of the time. Taper time! (sort of) Enjoyed this workout, though I often wondered what the people were thinking whose houses I passed 32 times were thinking. Why does this person keep riding this small stretch of road back and forth? 32 turn-arounds in a 90 minute ride! Wow.

Trail run with pack at Pine Haven.

Ran a variety of paces - hard on the hills, sometimes faster on flats. Really just did what I felt like doing. Kind of fun. Felt good. Got out of work a bit late for a Friday due to many issues, so I cut it REAL close to running out of light. I did trip and fall once, but it was before it even got dark.

Oh, man... big overhead squat and abs day! My weaknesses are overhead squats and toes to bar. I guess they had to follow a workout that played to my strengths with one that was all my weaknesses (except sit ups... I can do those just fine)

Strength - Overhead Squat
5 rounds of 4 lifts every 2 minutes
55*55*60*60*65

Workout:
50 OHS (33 lb)
100 Sit ups
25 OHS (43 lb)
50 toes to bar
10 OHS (58 lb)
25 knees to elbows
Time: 21:17

Kept the weight conservative on the workout to avoid shoulder issues. Everything was good! No rotator cuff pain!

Warmed up easy ride out to the Fairview hill - about 20 minutes
Did 5 repeats of 1:00 seated hard uphill riding+30 seconds standing high intensity (about 13 minutes)
Followed by 20 minutes of high intensity riding on the rolling terrain. I think I'm getting this higher intensity biking figured out - really gotta focus on the legs and try to keep the breathing deep and controlled. I think before I was letting my breathing get too fast. Today, the 20 minutes were good - I was able to hold HR around 160 and the speed around 20ish.
Cool down - easy ride rest of the way back to the car.

Got my run in before work because I have an outing to meet my new work team in the afternoon. Feeling a cold coming on and had some difficulty with the breath because of it. Not as fast as last week's similar run (where it was 60 minutes of alternating hard and harder) but I wouldn't expect 15 minutes more to slow me down that much. Forgot to hit Lap at the start of the fast part.

Overall, though, despite the cold, I felt fine. Maybe a bit tired, but that's not too surprising because I did this early rather than my preferred evening run... plus it was only 12 hours after finishing the ride last night.

C • Early Bird 2

Strength: Back Squat 5 rounds of 4 every 2 min
115*125*125*125*130

Workout:
3 rounds for time:
Run 400m
50 double unders
10 burpees
time - 12:18
First place at the 5:30 am class! Like Tony said, this is my kind of workout. Would have been even better if I'd strung together the double unders as well as on my first round.

Skill:
6 minutes, alternate between 3 strict pull-ups and 3 strict toes to bar
Maybe did 8 rounds? forgot to count. Used blue band on the pull-ups, didn't quite get the toes to the bar. I rely on kipping too much.

Did the Jam Store route. There were 6 of us, and the second half was the headwind section. What the?! We usually try to get the tail wind for the way home.

Small group again. Tom took off randomly about halfway through. No idea where he went.

Run right after the paddle. Got the boat on the car, said goodbye, and took off running. Took the paved trail, and yesterday's ankle turn didn't bother me, so good thing! I enjoyed this run - it was a nice temperature out for running. It didn't even seem to take that long to shake my paddling legs out. My shoes were pretty wet, but they stopped feeling sloshy pretty quickly - after about a half mile. Toward the end, some old dude on a bike said to me (as he passed me) "wow, you're really moving." The funny thing is that I was thinking the opposite about him. I just said "Thank you."

Took the canoe out at Island Lake with Barbara and Maria. Fun time canoeing with the ladies! Maria was a good sport and sat on cushions in the middle since I don't have a middle seat yet. (It comes in on Wednesday)
Plan was 10 steady, 30 tempo, repeating. Maybe my tempo lost a bit of quality today, but we were fighting the wind quite a bit and I felt like that helped me to go harder in those parts, though avg HR was a bit lower than planned. Maybe was having too much fun. I was feeling my core though, so that was good.

I think having a 3rd in the boat really messed up the boat's handling in the wind, and it made things hard on Barbara, who got stuck with the stern. At some point, I told her to not fight it and let the boat go where it will. Well, it really wanted to go in circles. Ha! Oh well, we got in a good out and back, and once we got some shelter from the wind, we could actually go straight without her paddling on 1 side 100% of the time. :)

C • Middle 5

Red course. Had a few errors and a few times that I was literally right next to the CP and did not see the flag. Overall, I was happy and had a fun time.

Forgot the foot pod, so I didn't get an actual distance, so 8 miles is approximate.

Ride with the ladies - fun and relaxed. Highland is actually pretty technical. Didn't go as long as expected due to planned dinner meeting time looming.

Glad I put the light on my bike (finally) tonight because I needed it.
8 trips up the hill shifting up and down throughout. Then, 6 standing sprints for about 1.5 min. Ride back to the car. Climb #4 was not the best because 2/3 the way up, a minivan slowed down next to me and the old couple inside started asking me lots of questions about where they were and how to get where they were going. Unfortunately, they weren't trying to get to the Ogemaw Hills Pathway or I-75, which are the only things I could have helped them out on. People always assume if you're exercising somewhere that you must live there and/or know about how to get everywhere.

Anyway, good workout, but sometimes I think I need to focus more on my legs and keeping my breath under control to be sure that my breathing really matches the effort.

Battery died on HR belt, apparently. So, no HR data.
Strength: Overhead squat 5 x 5 (every 2 min)
55*55*55*60*60
Increased the weight by 5 pounds and shoulder seemed OK still

Workout:
Row 2000m then, 3 rounds:
50 slam balls
20 chest to bar pull-ups
Row was 8:35, total time was 26:07

Warm-up - 10:01 (1 mile) AHR 142
Speed - 1:00:17 AHR 173 7.3 miles Avg Pace - 8:16
Cool down - 3:53

Well, I fully cut out all gluten starting on 9/9 and haven't had any candy or junk since then with the exception of last Friday when I had some chips and a few drinks. The plan was to see if I felt and ran better by keeping the diet clean. Answer so far is yes. Today was good. It was hard, but I was going fast and feeling strong. Granted, I started out the speed section a bit faster than I finished it (<8/mile the first 3 miles) but overall quite happy with this one. Varied the fast/faster sections between 1-2 minutes each running a little longer on the fast recovery sections than the Z5 stuff. HR drifted a bit on this - started out on lower end of expected range, but then after a mile or two was staying in the 170s.

C • When's the next 5k time trial? 12

Strength - Front squat
5x5 every 2 min
95*105*115*115*125

Workout: 4 rounds, 1 minute each exercise, 1 minute rest between rounds:
Wall balls (14 lb)
Sumo deadlift high pull (65 lb)
Over-bar burpees (jump over the bar each time)
Push Press (65 lb)
Score - 237

Small group today. I guess now that road racing season is over and it's getting "cold" (like 60) people are done with the ride. Well, I'm still there. We had a steady group today. Again, walking over the bridge with the construction. There was a LOT of traffic on the rail trail that slowed us way down at the start/end sections. Anyway, good ride, took lots of good 1 mile+ pulls at around 21-23 (depending on the road and wind). The group stayed at about 21-23 the whole time other than the high traffic sections, where we had to slow down to 18ish.

C • I love the slaughterfest reports 2

6 NOODLES!!! Yes, on today's paddle, I encountered 6 pool noodles and there was no crying. Actually, they were taped together, so it really looked like 3 bigger noodles. I saw the first floating down the river, so I saved it and put it on the dock while waiting for my GPS to sync. Then, as I was coming back to the dock at the end of the paddle, I saw the other two. Someone lost a lot of noodles.

Feeling much better today - must have been something bad I ate. I am blaming Marty for cross-contaminating the brats or something.

Paddle was 10 steady, 20 faster, repeat the entire time. Still need to stay focused on paddling with the core by twisting at the waist. I feel like my upper body gets tired before I can really get the HR up. Was feeling cold today, so maybe that had something to do with it. Also, it rained off and on the whole paddle, but on for the entire second half.

C • Noodles 2

Was going to drive up to Traverse today to ride the Vasa trails, and then at 5:30 am, my body had another idea. Not sure what I ate that's causing trouble, but umm... man. Hoping it's not something I'm still eating.

C • Ive been feeling under the ... 3

Workout:
Run 800m
30 Deadlifts (155 lb)
Run 800m
Time - 8:33 (fastest in the whole group, only one Rx on Deadlifts)

Skill
Row 2000m recovery
Focus on technique
9:15 - was doing a good job of pulling hard and then slow recovery return to the catch position about 17-20 strokes/minute

Stopped watch after the row
Did shoulder physical therapy exercises because Doc says it's not quite there yet.

8 climbs on the Fairview hill then 6 sprint climbs. I almost didn't get enough time to do the whole thing because I couldn't leave work until 5:15 and then there was an accident on 75 and i had to re-route. Squeezed it all in just in time. I was breathing hard and going hard on the hills, but I couldn't get my heartrate above the 150s. Hmm.

Yesterday, I interviewed for a new job (still at Dow Corning) and today I got the phone call that I got it! I can't tell anyone yet until they announce to the other candidates, but I figure nobody on here is going to be talking to people from my work. So, YEAH! Excited - cool new job helping people pick out the best silicone product for their application. I get to learn about everything we make and how it's used. No on call either and when I go away for racing/vacation, I don't have a huge pile of work stacked up and waiting for me. Nice!

C • Congrats on the new job. 4

10 minute warm up
then 40 min alternating between moderately hard and very hard for 1-2 minute intervals.
5 min cool down

got 8 minutes into the 40 and had to stop for a bathroom break. Grr. Felt better after that, though. Sun ran out so I did a short loop and then ran up and down the streets of Auburn. Seemed like I was having a hard time going fast, but once I saw the distance i went, I guess it wasn't too bad. Was really fighting the urge to just slow it down and jog today.

Warm-up - 2x400m, some core work

Workout - 4 rounds for time:
10 knees to elbows
10 hand release push ups
Time 6:26

Skill: 3 rounds untimed:
10 pistol squats (used a 9" box with a 25# plate, tried to just touch and not sit on the target)
50 double unders - was sometimes getting up to 20 in a row. Not too bad.

Group was getting crazy today, so Tom and I took off separately and rode a slightly different route. Got lots of time pulling and LOTS of wind. Wow, was it windy. Fun! Overall pace was slower than when riding with the whole group, but lots of great time at effort!

Wearing race pack. OK, this did not go as planned. First, had to stop running and walk back to my the parking lot after about 8 minutes for a bathroom trip. Then, my legs just felt heavy like lead. I was trying, but couldn't move them. The biggest issue was that about 30 minutes into the run, I was starting to feel the bllister on my right foot bothering me again. I don't think it really ever healed. By the time I got back to the car at the end of lap 1, I realized I was curling my toes on the right foot. Figured it was smart to stop there. Disappointed because I was looking forward to seeing what I could do on a "best pace" run for this time/trail - even hit the lap key.

This time, I think I took the proper care of the blister. Probably should stick to roads until it's 100%

West Branch. Early ride for me :)
Nice ride. Got in 3 loops. On the North Loop (not sure it has a name) I did the other option from 14 to 15 compared to last time. The map says that they're the same, but I'm pretty sure the other route is about a mile longer. I'm going to verify this next time.

Went hard up the hills, steady everywhere else. Tried to do a bit more standing than usual. HRM kept setting laps, and I thought it was stopping and starting. Maybe I was pressing the button with my wrist.

Alternate 10 minutes easy, 20 tempo. Harder to get/hold HR above the 120s, but I was getting a good rhythm and working hard on the tempo sections, so that was good.

Went out 1:08 because I was thinking that last time I turned around too soon. Well, the river was back to stagnant today, i guess, because it still took me an hour to get back. I'm not very good at my own game of guessing how long to go out to meet a time goal. :) Oh well.

Rail trail run after the paddle

Warm-up: 10:03, 0.92 Mi, 132 HR

Tempo: 45:01, 5.33 mi, 171 HR (8:28/mile)

Cool down: 5:57, 0.54 mi, 171 HR (? really?)

At my last marathon, I ran the first half in 1:50. That was 2002. I WILL get back to this pace being easy enough that I can hold it for a half marathon or longer.

10 Min. Warm-up
25 minutes alternating Z4 and Z5 running 1-2 minutes. This was definitely challenging, and I was seeing some drift in HR compared to perceived effort over the course of the run, but I did feel good overall.
Cool down remainder of the time ~10 min.
Yeah! Haven't done this loop in this kind of time for a long time! It's nice to see progress. I just listened to an endurance planet podcast this morning where they mentioned how people want to get better in a matter of months, but it actually takes years. I lost a lot of speed over the past years compared to college, but I know I can get it back and I am... just have to be patient.
Side note: I graduated from college 10 years ago. What??!!?

C • Wow 2

Warm-up with jump rope and various activities
Strength:
Deadlift 1*1*1*1*1
Goal was to find a new 1 rep max today and it was jut not happening for me. Probably 5:30 am was not helping. Worked up during warm-up and did 225*225*225*225*215 because I couldn't pick up the 225 the last time. Previous max was 265, but that was when I did a lot of crossfit.

Workout:
10 minute AMRAP, 2 minute rest, 10 Minute AMRAP
5 Burpees
25 double unders
10 Burpees
50 double unders
Completed: 4 rounds +62 reps
Struggled the first two rounds to get my rhythm on the DUs, but finally found it on round three and could get 10-14 in a row.

West Branch Fairview Hill. Really was cutting it close because I didn't leave work until 5:15 and had to stop home.

Did 8 x 5 minute climbs up the hill
Then, 6 x 1:15-1:20 standing climbs. After #5, instead of riding back to the bottom, I shifted to a light gear and spun it out up the hill for a minute and then did #6 for about 2:00 to get to the top of the hill. Rode easy back to the car.

Lots of warm-up and skill practice. Also did a lot of hip stretching which was good after yesterday's run
Strength: Overhead Squat
Was supposed to go for 1RM today, but since shoulder bothered me last week even at 75 lb, I did 5x5 again. 45*50*55*55*55 lb

WOD:
5 rounds for time:
9 chest-to-bar pull-ups (red band)
10 Squat snatch (43 lb)
20 Slam balls (20 lb)
Time: 21:46

Oh man, this was a crazy ride. No HR data because the group started taking off before I could grab my watch and I had to go or get left behind. Felt like I was playing catch up all the time. Waiting for one flat reunited me with the group. Then, some miles later, we were going faster and faster until I looked down and saw 29.3 on my speedometer as the group pulled away on the flats. These guys are crazy fast. Grouped up with some others who got dropped and we kept a good 21-23 pace to the regrouping point. Lasted another 5 miles or so with the main group before getting dropped on an "uphill" after a turn. I think my problem is often that I don't accelerate fast enough out of the turns. Again, grouped up with some other dropped riders and we kept a strong pace, picking up 2 more who had stopped for a flat along the way. Was a little worried at the start, but it ended up being a good ride and a great workout. Despite several stops for flats, we still made it back before dark!

Drove up to West Branch to run the trails I rode yesterday. Plan was to run hard on the hills and steady/endurance pace on the flats. There were a fair number of hills! About 30 minutes in, I realized that this run was going really well. After the first loop, I looked at my distance, and I was under 10 minutes/mile. This is the first time I have done that on a long trail run with the pack! By 1:15, I was feeling so awesome it was like YES! YES! THIS is what running is supposed to feel like. I would describe it as feeling "light and free" though that sounds like a yogurt ad.

It took until about 2:30 for my legs to get tired, but it wasn't so bad to drop my pace way down. As soon as I stopped, my legs suddenly sent the message that they were toast and I had about 10 minutes of the "restless legs" in the car. As soon as I got some subway in me, I felt great. I thought about it, but didn't end up eating during the run. I wasn't hungry and I was feeling so good that I didn't want to mess with it.

This was hands down my best long trail run with the pack all year! Whoo!

West Branch Ogemaw Hills Pathway with pack

I finally go around to riding this and it was stupid close to where I do my hill repeats. It would be closer for me to warm up on the trail and then ride the hill than to ride there from the park. No bathrooms is the downside.

This is a REALLY nice trail with lots of hills. It's a bit bumpy/rooty in places and can be a bit of a speed suck, but that's actually where I need to improve, so it's perfect for me. There are other parts that are smoother. This trail is apparently hardly ridden at all. Sunday evening, I could only see that two people had ridden it all weekend! What?

Anyway, tried to go hard up the hills. Did two loops of the first part of the trail and one loop of the second. Second loop was a few minutes faster than the first (probably mostly because I knew where to go after doing it once.) It was the perfect day to ride and had that fall smell in the air. Awesome. Computer randomly reset itself at 50 minutes in, so I just estimated total distance based on my pace for the rest of the ride.

C • Bathrooms? 5