TRAINING LEAD-UP
Sunday, Mar 15:
Rucked 1.5 mi in 1:03:51 with my parents on Cattail Trail wearing MACV2s and a v3 shorty rucker with 30#. It was active recovery, and I wanted to try to walk off the rolled ankle.
Before the ruck, we checked out the Quest Nature Center for the first time. I hadn't been to the new facility and had only seen their exhibits back when they were in the old building.
Later that day, I did Regulate Your Nervous System & Home - Day 17 - Synchronize yoga with Adriene.
Monday, Mar 16:
Morning Yoga Flow & Day 11 - Mobility - MOVE yoga with Adriene
Wednesday, Mar 17:
Went to uptown with my parents for free museum night at Bechtler Museum of Modern Art and the Mint Museum. We went to Romare Bearden Park beforehand to check out the cherry blossoms.
Romare Bearden:
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art:
Mint Museum:
The Mint Museum is gigantic.
Back at home, I did glute and pec PT in 31:22, with my left ankle still tender. Then, I did 18A "Hanging Abs" in 24:40. I did a 3 min high plank with a 30#RPC as a finisher.
Thursday, Mar 19:
I rucked 3.5 mi in 2:12:38 at Renaissance Park playing Ingress in my MACV2 8"s with 30# in the rucker shorty v3.
Friday, Mar 20:
18A "Upper Body Prep" in 24:48, then "Pull-up" in 32:31, followed by "Hollow" 16 min TABATA.
For the first time, I was a DNS at an event. With my ankle, I decided to skip GBF Operation Thunder Light. It was the right move. I wasn't sad to miss potential ticks, either. They're supposed to be really bad on that trail. This year is supposedly extra bad overall for ticks in the US.
Saturday, Mar 21:
Now that my dad was introduced to the trolls, he could join my mom and I on the next phase of our Dambo Troll Hunt, which involved finding the remaining NC trolls and figuring out where the Grandmother Tree was. It was funny when I was explaining the process to my dad... you had to visit the trolls in CLT, High Point, and Raleigh to get symbols from each of the trolls, to break the code and get the location of the Grandmother Tree.
We left early in the morning. Our first stop was High Point, to see Little Sally. She ended up being my dad's favorite. It is neat that it's kind of in the middle of a random industrial area, but it's still tucked away in a place that makes it feel like a nice little secret.
While the troll has been around for a few months, its plaque didn't arrive until very recently, so we got to be one of the first to see it. Not all of the trolls have plaques (Rita didn't), but they tell the backstory of the troll.
You can actually see the back of the troll from the small road where you can park and walk the short bit in. I saw it when we were still on the road. It's fun to be the first one to spot the troll, since they are surprisingly camouflaged. My mom had been the first to spot Pete, which was funny.
Our next stop was Dix Park in Raleigh. It's close enough to the city that you can see the downtown area from some spots, including where Daddy Bird Eye was. He was the first one that we saw while driving in, and we visited him first. The other 4 were in a different section of the park.
The other 4 weren't super far away, so we decided to walk over to them. There are plenty of parking places for those who don't want to walk, though. The park had some neat (and large) sculptures even before the trolls came, so they were nice to look at while we were there. There were flowers on the trees, too. My mom enjoyed the flowers.
It was late morning by the time we got to Raleigh, so the crowds had gotten pretty big. People take turns with the trolls, though, and help each other take group pictures.
Dux and his brother Dax are located very close to each other, but like I mentioned earlier, they are really good at hiding, so you don't realize at first how close you already are to Dax, when you're visiting Dux.
Dix is funny because he's standing at the edge of the forest, holding the end of what ends up being his mom's tail, while his mom takes a nap.
You can follow the tail to find the mom.
I love all the little details of the trolls.
Now that I had all the symbols, I plugged them in to Dambo's troll tracking website to see a map of where the Grandmother Tree was located. Some of it was a little tricky, since the orientation of the symbols in the website was sometimes turned like 90 degrees from what they were on the necklaces.
Within Dix Park, I had rucked 1.5 mi in 1:55:58 during this troll hunt (while playing Ingress).
Now, on to XXXXXX to find the Grandmother Tree! (Spoiler alerts ahead!)
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I found what looked like a decent parking lot to use as the attack point for the location of the Grandmother Tree. From there, you have to take a few turns on trails, but you go with the left vs right fork based on what seems to make the most sense. Using that approach, we were able to find it.
My dad was underwhelmed. On FB, I had heard numerous people say that it wasn't what they expected to find.
Me and my troll hunting Mama!
My dad had headed back early, since it was slightly warm that day. I rucked 1.5 mi in 40:32 for the Grandmother Tree.
Sunday, Mar 22:
Went to Coleman's to do the March Armored Eagle Training Drill.
No luck for me.
I enjoyed playing with the Honey Badger afterwards, though.
And then I went to the Rimfire Range to get in some good <10cpr "long range" practice.
I shot out to 200yd from a big metal wheel, a tree stump, and the wooden frame barricade.
Monday, Mar 23:
18A "Lower Body Prep" in 19:10, then HDT-KB 10.3.1 (LEGS) in 29:54 with my ankle still swollen and without full ROM. I finished with 2:30 of dead hang as a finisher, with enough fighting to stay on that I got a bit of callouses.
Tuesday, Mar 24:
7 mi z2 trail run at Renaissance Park in 2:08:05 while playing Ingress. I did 2 of my "usual" loops, wearing the Brooks Pure Flows.
Wednesday, Mar 25:
Thursday, Mar 26:
Yoga for Vulnerability & Prana - Day 8 Bonus! with Adreiene
Friday, Mar 27:
I wasn't going to taper for the neighborhood 5K, since I wasn't making this an A-race and there were no prizes for the top 3 or anything.
I did 18A "Upper Body Prep" in 25:33, then "Push-up" in 1:04:35.
NEIGHBORHOOD 5K
This is an annual event, put on by volunteers from the neighborhood, as part of the Easter celebration. I often have other events scheduled, but I was able to make it out for the first time this year.
It would be a nice test of my fitness, to see how fast I can go on ~monthly zone 2 runs and a seasonal 2-mi time trial plus normal strength training and slow rucking.
A few of us started with a fast pace. We go up a hill early on. There's one guy ahead of me. I pass him with about a mile to go. His bunny ears were falling off because it was windy. I had originally planned to wear bunny ears, but mine had been blowing off during my usual pre-5K warmup, so I had ditched them.
About halfway into the race, we saw someone dressed up in an Easter bunny costume, which was a nice touch.
The 5K route takes us zigging and zagging a bit, and crossing back over older parts of the route at times, but it's well marked and manned by volunteers. It is nice to be able to see glimpses of other runners on course. They even had a water station, but I think I skipped it.
While I was alone near the end, I had to do a full stop because my post nasal drip was making me gag as I was pushing harder and breathing harder. That was not pleasant. I held it all in, though, and ended up holding my position.
My dad had signed up, too, so I got to cheer for him as he came in.
The course was perfectly measured by a volunteer organizer who seemed like he might've been a former XC coach or something. I finished 3.1 in 23:48, 7:37 ave. I was pushing hard to get that. There were hills, and I did do a full stop (plus one or two other slow-downs), though... maybe without the stop, I'd have saved 30-48 seconds.
After the race, I went out to bike at Airline Park and visited Pete again. He's still my favorite. His face looks so friendly.
I rode Concourse 2x and Kitty Hawk 3x, covering 8.4 mi in 1:17:34.
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