Training Log Archive: runninghils

Run 400 warm-up, 30-20-30 warm up

Workout - for time:
50 wall balls (14 lb)
40 pull ups (15 with purple, 25 with red)
30 box jumps (21" box)
20 thrusters (25# dumbbells)
10 muscle up transitions
time: 13:36

Strength:
Back Squats: 3 every 2 minutes for 5 rounds at 80% 1RM
round 1 @125, rounds 2-5 @145 lb

Exactly what I needed today!

Dear Diary,

I was feeling some knee pain at my last ride and still some lingering today, so I decided to take a nice easy road ride. It was a beautiful day. The rail trail was like a big green tunnel of trees. There were so many great fresh spring scents to take in... trees, grass, honeysuckle, that tree that stinks but I still like it in a weird way, etc. It was one of those days that you get on your bike and all is right with the world. Somewhere along the way, I saw two girls playing in the trees between the rail trail and the road. That is totally something I would have done when I was their age. It was just enough trees to spark the imagination, but not so much that you could get lost.

Right now, there are thunder storms and tornado warnings. Glad I got my ride in before all that business started.

Love,

Hilary

C • For some reason 4

Paddled the Chippewa from the tridge up to and into the Pine a bit. I haven't been able to paddle very often on the Pine because the water is usually too low. The water flowed FAST in some spots. The last 200m leading up to the Pine seemed to take forever and I had to fight pretty hard for it.

Here's a math problem for you. I travelled upstream 3.4 miles in 2:06 and used the same effort to travel back downstream in 0:37. What is the average speed of the river?

C • 2 mph 4

Took out the FS bike today since my Superfly was still in the shop when I left to come here. I felt SO uncomfortable on this set up. The seat was too low and far forward. Plus, I'd put some old cushiony seat on it for a friend and it sucked. How did I ever ride with this saddle before? I didn't have tools since they were on my other bike, so I had to live with it. I never unpacked my Rage pack, so I was able to just grab it, refill the water, and go.

Rode the back roads around my parents' place and went into state land to do about 7 miles of sandy two-tracks. I rode up every sand hill! Woo! No walking. It was great practice.

Finished the ride up on the roads back to their house. Knee actually bothered me a bit the whole time and when on foot, but not terribly. I'll just paddle tomorrow and call it good.

Not sure about time or distance since I accidentally stopped my watch partway through this. Ditched my bike in some bushes at state land and tried to explore a trail/road that Google Maps says goes through, but I knew better. Well, it looks like it goes through and after some random bushwacking and following "old two tracks" that I may or may not have been inventing, I decided that this was a task for another day when the swamp around the small stream/swamp was a bit drier or when I feel like getting my shoes wet. The "road" splits at a turnaround point, and you have to go over a berm to continue on the very overgrown two track. I explored both splits and figured out that they do meet back up at one point. A random dude and grandson walking down the trail informed me that they do go through and acted like it wasn't a total swamp down there and totally passable. I think he hadn't been down to that part yet because they didn't look like they were about to go trudging through a swampy stream bed in their jeans and all.

Knee was feeling pretty good today, so I figured I'd do Crossfit because I could sub things out pretty easily if it started bothering me. It felt great the whole time. YES! Back at it before the weekend!

5 rounds for time:
20 wall balls (14 lb ball)
20 chest to bar pull-ups (red+purple bands)
19:29

Then:
3x5 back squats warm rounds
5x5 every 2 minutes working sets
did working sets at 125 lb

No knee problems, but I am BEAT.

C • Yay! 2

Knee still hurts today, but the pain was about 75% better and swelling has noticeably decreased.

Yoga felt good - took it easy on a few of the more knee bending poses, but otherwise, it was the thing to do today.

C • Knee 2

Right knee is still sore from the Rage. I am giving it the RICE treatment, but I will probably have to focus on paddling and maybe road biking for the first few days back. If the forecast improves for Thursday, I'll take the kayak out. People don't seem to want to join me for a canoe trip after work. Probably because it doesn't involve beer.

We pushed hard - couldn't beat DART NUUN, but we were able to beat the rest of the local teams for a 2nd place overall finish. This was our best race yet. My training has paid off and the adjustments I made over last year resulted noticeable improvements in my trekking and biking. We also did a great job with the nav with only a few small errors and managing to deal well with non-recently updated maps and surprise differences between the maps and reality. Overall, I am VERY happy with this race.

Things for improvement:
Speed on the single track. Partly, this is hill-related. Maybe I just need to do more of my miles on single track and going fast. I wasn't braking a lot, but I still felt like I was working REALLY hard and not keeping up compared to efforts on the road. Perhaps it's the roots and standing for things like that? Maybe I'd be faster on my full suspension. I should time trial this out to test it.
Hills. This one is pretty obvious. Could be combined with the single track by working in some trips to Hanson Hills, Poto, etc on the weekend and riding a couple loops as fast as I can. Now that the sledding hill is no longer wet, I could do some hill repeats after riding at City Forest.
Running long with the pack. Recent running with the pack has helped, but once we got 20+ miles, I was dragging. Continuing to run with a pack and on longer runs should help this. Possibly contributing to this was a bad stomach - didn't feel like eating anything from mid-coasteering section on, but did manage to get some Ensures down.

C • Awesome! Very exciting! 14

C • Well gee..... 2

Event: Adventure Rage 24 hour AR
 

Active recovery - last thing to do before the Rage Saturday! :-D Super excited!

Easy taper run (no pack) with the Wednesday night "run Midland" group at City Forest. Nice social time to run and chat with friends. The group stopped several times to let the stragglers catch up or to talk about some feature of the trail/forest, but I didn't stop my watch.

Just did a nice easy spin around City Forest after the run. Funny when you do the most technical parts first, the beginning seems so fast and flowy by comparison even though City Forest could in no means be described as fast and flowy. Well, maybe there's a mile or so in there that could be...

10 lb pack
Took about a mile and a half to get into it. Then, I found my stride and got a lot more fluid.

Salzburg loop with 10 lb pack. Felt slow, but was able to hold proper running form. This new MS-1 feels good - probably the best fitting pack I've ever had, especially for its size.

Time to start the taper. I can't believe the Rage is already next week!

C • I can't believe it either. 2

Ugh, left work SUPER late today. Wanted to ride with the crew at Burns Road, but barely had time to ride City Forest. Thought about bailing, but I didn't get up at 5:00 for Crossfit this morning just to skip my ride in the evening.

I was still sore from an intense day on Tuesday, so I turned this into more of a recovery ride. Trails are significantly drier than they were last week, which is great.

20 Minute AMRAP:
Deadlift, full clean, front squat, jerk
32 rounds at 75 lb

5x5 handstand push ups (2 boards)

Active recovery

Jam Store Route Backwards
So, was doing awesome on the ride... then, there was a breakaway about mile 6 and I happened to be in the back crowd that opened a gap. I tried to bridge the gap for about a mile and I got fairly close, but I soon realized that the gap was getting bigger, so I slowed down to wait for a few other guys who were dropped to catch up to me. The rest of the ride was cooperative and fun. We caught back up to the group at the "regroup" point about halfway and everyone rode together the rest of the ride.

5 rounds for time:
Run 400m
50 air squats
Time- 15:30

Then:
2 rounds of 15 pull-ups (using band to do continuously - red)

Then:

5 rounds of 5 overhead squats (every 2 min, approx)
30
50
60
65
65 (2 squats, quit due to feeling shoulder a bit - no pain after stopping, though)

Tried to really focus on form - didn't get it 100% of the time, but it's getting easier. The river was still really moving, so it was slow going upstream. I did 1:13 upstream and 0:35 back down stream, including time to eat something after the turnaround. Beautiful day for a paddle.

Oh, man... I had figured the red course would take me about 90 minutes. When I got there and found out that Ali took that long, I reset a new expectation of 2 hours. Then, I made several small mistakes (running past CP2, trying to cross the swamp from 5 to 6 and going in up to my waist, having to re-route on dry land, trying to push through the dense brush instead of just going up higher where it was clearer...) Then, I made one big mistake from 6 to 7, identified where I was, went right past the CP and then looping all the way back and attacking it from the ridge, which was the angle where you could see it. I hit 9 dead on. Next weekend... no mistakes.

C • Just finishing that course was an accomplishment 3

Stopped at the Poto trailhead on the way home for a bit of riding... though I could have just ridden out from where I was because I rode some of the same trails I'd just run in the O-meet. Started on the Poto and at marker 4 hopped onto the Crooked Lake trail. There was a nice lady at the start who handed me her printed copy of the map to take with me. It wasn't really needed since there were maps and markers at almost every corner... until I got to the end and missed the turn back to the parking lot and saw a sign going to 3. I realized I needed to just take the road back to the start. The trail was in great condition and good to get some climbing in when I was already tired from orienteering.

Event: Get Your Bearings Beginner AR
 

Raced "Get your Bearings" with Marty. We were the first team out on the O-course, but only by about a minute. I made one mistake on one checkpoint that seemed to only cost us couple minutes, but it was probably more like 5 - one place. Also, Marty had never done any running off-trail and was not very comfortable with it. So, for once, I wasn't the one lagging behind while trekking off trail. Anyway, it was a good time and good training.

C • nice job 12

Workout:
5 Rounds for Time:
100m run
12 box jumps (20" Box)
Time - 5:47

Strength:
2 reps every 2 minutes for 5 rounds of front squats
Did 135 lb for all 5 rounds - it felt heavy, but I managed.

Skill:
10 toes to bar
30 double unders
5 rounds, untimed

Rode with a few TCC friends. Definitely feeling yesterday's Slaughterfest! Whew! That's how you know it was a good workout.

City Forest was still pretty wet in places. We skipped the dismal swamp, which is mostly underwater right now. We also skipped the creekside sections because those would be wet/underwater. Fortunately, the parts we rode had minimal actual mud - a lot of the "armored" sections were underwater and you had to ride on the cement chunks or the minibridges.