NC Hiking, Wedding, Cross-fit Trial Class, Sleeping Hard, Geocaching (May 20-Jun 13)

After the epic Battlefrog Extreme, I took 3 days completely off, followed by a single super slow recovery run.

Wednesday, May 20:
4.6 in 46:11, 10:00 average, at the park, in the evening.  I had to use bandaids on my ankles all week, since the skin was rubbed away.  I had to take the last lap tenderly, because of the additional chafing of the bandaid against the raw skin.  My right pointer toe felt like it was getting bruised.  My left bottom rib bone had stabbing pains, too... probably a phantom pain, though.  0.75 mi splits> 7:47, 7:48, 7:45, 7:36, 7:42, 7:29.  Took another 2 days off after this.

Saturday, May 23:
50 min body weight strength session.  Did this at 3am, after sleeping from 8pm-2am the previous night.  I woke up with my body feeling somewhat normal again. 

Later that day, met up with a friend in Western NC, to hike Grandfather Mountain.  It was the most expensive mountain I've ever hiked, at $20 per person!  Not even per car!  My local mountain is $2, and even that is more than the $0 that I'm used to from other places.  To their credit, they have nice facilities, lots of crew members along the trail, a nature museum and animal zoo,  a swinging bridge, and some hard-core trails to maintain.  You get a CD of an audio tour to play in your car as you drive towards the trailhead, too.

 

What made these trails special was the fact that some sections are passable only by ladder.  Some of the ladders (not the one pictured) were pretty much on cliff faces, too, with some not insignificant wind blowing against you as you try to make your way up the giant rungs.  Don't look down!  

The views were great.  I didn't even notice the Grandfather's face in the rock until I was looking at pictures with my dad, afterwards, and he pointed it out.

 

Some parts had ropes to help you get up the steep rocks, too.  On the steep downhills, I ended up using my triceps a lot to let myself down easy, and to try to make things easier on my knees.

 

The following day, I headed down to the Asheville and Montreat area.  I stopped by Thirsty Monk to try a nice local brew, before going to a wedding of a very sweet friend from college.

 

Monday, May 25:

Run at the park, with zombies.  7.5 in 59:52, 7:59 average.  Felt good.  My heart needed the air and cardio, after a recovery week from Battlefrog.  

Wednesday, May 27:

More zombies at the park.  5.3 in 48:39, 9:03 average.  Trying to get back into the swing of normal training after cycles of hard racing and hard recovery.  Started really slow b/c I had eaten too much pre-run, as always.  

Friday, May 29:

Zombies again.  7.7 in 1:08:23, 8:53 average.  Legs were pretty fresh, but I was soooo tired physically and mentally... I groaned and feared falling asleep while running.  It got a bit better as time went on and temps went down.

Sunday, May 31:

Tried a free trial Crossfit class at Swamp Rabbit.  Quick 300m warmup, then 3x [arm range-of-motion stretches, 10x 38lb Russian kettlebell swings, 20 mountain climbers, 30second plank].  The 20 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) was quick but intense.  After each round, you collected a chip, to track how many you did.  I got in 5 full sets of [15 ab mat situps, 15 24 lb Russian kettlebell swings, 10 burpees, 300M run] and got the 6th round all the way to right before the run, just behind the first place girl who finished her burpees right before I did.  I thought I was in shape, but a couple of people were beating me for much of the AMRAP.  My abs had a tough time the last couple of rounds during situps, and the runs got progressively harder.  Short, but spent.  Efficient way to get in a workout.

Monday, Jun 1:

Treadmill 2 degree run.  1st time in the Adidas Adios Boost, which was pretty minimalist.  6.5 in 53:37, 8:15 average = 7:55 effort.   Splits> 8:28, 26, 22, 18, 13, 02, 3:45 for 0.5.  Upper arms, quads, and even abs were sore today, from the Cross-fit demo!

Wednesday, Jun 3:
Zombies at the park.  6.1 in 54:51, 8:55 average. 

Thursday, Jun 4:
55 min strength session.  Right upper arm and front deltoids oddly strained, maybe from Cross-fit this weekend.  Somewhat phoned this one in, since I needed to be careful with my arm and tibialis anterior.

Saturday, Jun 6:
Run at the park.   Wanted a long run... did 9.2 in 1:30:00, 9:44 average.  That's fine.  0.75 mi lap splits> 8:04, 7:42, 36, 34, 33, 32, 28, 28, 20, 24, 10, 04.  Legs stiff.  Could feel like my glutes weren't pulling their weight, since they had to do all the work instead of the rest of my legs which were spent.  Outrunning the duration of my podcast was my motivation.

Slept ALL DAY Sunday... ate, napped, ate, napped, etc.

Monday, Jun 8:
First speedwork in a looong time!  4.0 in 29:03, 7:16 average.  1 mi warmup in 8:03, 3x [5:01 for 0.75 mi @ 9mph, 1:59 for 0.25 mi @ 7.5mph].  Suprised I got that last rep in, instead of stopping at 0.5 mi.  9mph didn't feel too strenuous, maybe because of Zombie efforts being harder.

Rested the next 3 days, since work has been extremely fast-paced and draining... would sleep early at night and still not feel quite rested.

Friday, Jun 12:
Zombies at the park.  7.0 in 1:00:39, 8:40 average.  Ate fairly lightly.  Left arch had been complaining since the speed session on Monday, but it held up during the run.

Saturday, Jun 13:
50 min strength session.

Earlier that day, I tried Geocahcing for the first time.  People hide boxes or smaller containers and post their coordinates.  People find them and either sign the log, or, if it's a box, trade items, too.

 

 

(Find #1 - took me maybe 30 min.... had to step up on a wall and realize that the well-disguized bolt was actually a container!)

There were 3 close to my apartment, and I found them all.  Two were very hard, and I had nearly given up or missed them.  The third was easy.  Interesting hobby.

(Find #2 much easier and intuitive)

Now, you can try find #3.... also a hard one... here's a broad picture....

 

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scroll down for the answer

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Fun!  I want to try one with a box and trade things, though.