Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Epic day part one. Left home at 6:40 to get to Windblown at 8 for the last day of skiing. Hit the trail and it was fast and fun. Climbed and descended the Open Slope a couple of times, and then hit the trails/crust for awesome. It was softening a bit by 9:00 but just in certain aspects, and when I hit some open crust it was fantastic. Still a lot of snow at Windblown, although nothing on the drive up until you go up the big hill.

Epic Day Part Two. After skiing, I jumped in my car and sped back to Cambridge. I was in the door by 11, and out a couple minutes later, now dressed for running in 50˚ temperatures after skiing in 25˚. I ran to the Red Line and *just* missed a train, but caught the next one and arrived at the #EasterHashHunt with two minutes to spare. I made it from the trailhead at Windblown to the start at Park Street in 1:45, including driving home, changing, running to the T and taking the train. That in itself is pretty impressive.

The race started and I saw Liza (roommate) very randomly, she was not planning to run the race, but I told her to run! We followed chalk and some white substance down the Common, through Chinatown and by my office out towards the Southwest Corridor. I was running with the lead group which included (friend) George Heinrichs and we were laying down pretty good times. Strava says we ran two 6 minute miles but Strava sucks running amongst tall buildings. Probably closer to 7s. The course went down Mass Ave and across the Harvard Bridge. Then (after high-fiving the 4 milers on the bridge) we took a left on Pearl Street—hey, I'm going home—and then I caught the "hashers" who were throwing flour on the sidewalk (not a bad idea) and we slowed down, which was good, because I was about to die. (Apparently Liza got home, said "the hell with it" and went upstairs and took a shower.) Ran the rest of the way, about 8 miles, then stopped for good and drank beer. Oh and then went home and wrote an incoherent log entry, which I have now edited from exerdrinkcise to English. Good times!

Pretty cool event, and kind of ingenious to use flour to mark the course. It is probably something that could be co-opted for after Park-O for a midsummer street-o type event.

So you know what happens when you don't do O for, oh, eight months and then you run a 7+ km course? You get lost in the woods and wind up running 9 miles! After deciding not to go ski this morning (sleeping in after yesterday's debacle) I went to the O meet. I carpooled with Alex (yay, carpooling!) and then proceeded to make it back just before the time cutoff. And then the SI stick I'd borrowed from Ed didn't quite download right (it downloaded all my splits, but had some extra nonsense on it. So that was a thing.

Controls:

1—ran the trail, then got cute through the woods, but found.
2—horror show. 24 minutes of wandering around. According to Strava I made four loops around the control and only found it with some help from Alex who had warmed up beforehand. The map wasn't great for this, with nonexistent trails and such, but I looked too low, then too high. Then too low. Ugly x1000. 18 minutes, and it seemed longer.
3—Road. Found pretty easily. The footprints through the snow didn't hurt (yeah, some snow on certain shaded areas and aspects).
4—Did this one okay. Wandered around a little but I was still finding my back to reading terrain and features.
5—Goofed this up too, but not as badly as #1. I found a trail, and ran to the area, and found some extra trails, and wandered around for about 8 minutes, until some other guys wandered in to the area, and we found the control.
6—Ran with others. Not spiked, but not too bad.
7—My kind of control! Find some trails and run them. Outran one of the other guys, and found the control pretty easily. Feeling better about myself.
8—Navigated well! Read terrain! Found the control where it was supposed to be! Exciting!
9—Decided to take the trail around, but go so jazzed about trail running I ran right past the attack point. By about two minutes. Then had to read the terrain to find it, which was ugly. But it was where it was supposed to be (shocking)
10—Overran this on a trail, then backtracked to find a pretty faint stone wall.
11—Ran to the road, cut in, found the esker, found the rock. Sort of.
12—Spiked. Pretty excited.
13—Almost spiked. For me, totally spiked. Second rock I looked behind.
14—Spiked coming across the road.
15—Found the trails, ran to the hill, found the hill, and misread the cue sheet. But not by that much.
16—Tried to get cute, instead got stupid. Got totally lost, then figured out where I was, then ran some trails and stuff.
17—This one I found pretty well (left cliff, hey look a control), and then ran to the finish.

So, yeah. Running in the woods is fun. And this was good practice, by the end I was definitely not having my stupid wander around the woods aimlessly for 20 minutes looking for controls (they seemed easier, but I think I was just getting more back in to the swing of things). Park-O should help, as should some O this spring. Going in to the Billygoat having done a real map should make it much easier than last year, when I 20-minuted a control there pretty early on. Anyway, playing in the woods is fun, my legs hurt, and I have to play with Birkie data. But it's so beautiful out I might ride bikes instead. (Or clean the kitchen.)

Fun times at November Project. I felt okay on the hills and took it relatively easy, although I pushed it on the last one because that is what we do. Hill splits in the mid 3s, so not too bad but not that fast. Think I'll need to run 10 this afternoon, then.

So here's an idea: Run hills in the morning. Go to work. Eat three granola bars and drink a little water. Eat a wrap for lunch. Drink some water. Buy Reese's cups at 4:45 because you are hungry. Eat half the bag of them. Drink some water. Run 8 miles.

Yeah so that was fun. Somehow ran around Fresh Pond without booting, but waves of lower GI pain the last four miles. Stopped once to lie on a bench (boom) and ran through one of last year's park-o courses which was open thanks to, you know, it being March. Survived. Barely.

So it's an all NP week this week. Had an early work event today, now it's raining, I've been up before 6 three days so far and am aiming at another one today, I stayed at work way too long, and I'm just generally bitter. I guess this is a week off. I guess I will go do some core now so I don't feel too sorry for myself.

Run to/from NP. Faster there, slower back. Hands got cold on the way back as I slowed down.

November Project got "kicked out" of the stadium today. Apparently we don't want to show up the Harvard Football Team. (Fight Fiercely, indeed) And George came, for his first time. I believe we were the only ones there who knew the lyrics to Fight Fiercely, Harvard. Anyhow, workout was 10x 400s with 10 burpees in between. Except for a minor issue of a hamstring that precluded some burpees (pushups instead) it was a good time. Didn't feel that fast running, though.

100 burpees. Well, about 85, and 15 pushups. And a little rest between sprints, good times.

So bad. I was going to go for a run, but after the passover hangover I just wanted to go to sleep. Oh, or to another seder. Damn you religion I don't believe in. I should have told my folks I was going to the latest-ever Tuesday Night Worlds. Oh, well. Only one glass of wine = possibility of NP tomorrow.

Feeling really awful is no excuse for skipping November Project. After some quality time in the restroom at home, I cheated and too the T part way to the deck, but still got a couple miles running in (with a pack) to and from the site. And some sprints there.

After core kicked my ass a couple weeks ago (and left me sore all week) I took it a bit easier this week. And the circuits were a bit easier, with planks, "sprints" (jogs) intermixed with push ups, burpees and mountain climbers. I think I will be able to walk later this week.

Ran to Whole Paycheck. Really nice day for running; would have done more except I was in the kitchen making yummy charoset for passover. But I needed apples and pistachios. Felt pretty good jogging and still <7:30 miles, not bad for not doing much running. Hopefully this weather holds until about June and I can get some good long runs in.

Gravity ski day! Haven't gone gravity skiing in about three years, but friends, borrowed tele skis and $30 half day tickets at Mt Abram were reason enough. (Apparently all the big hills were on wind hold anyway.) Things I learned/remembered about gravity skiing:

1) You spend a lot of time not skiing for the time you spend skiing.
2) What I'd be comfortable nordic skiing in at -10 I'm comfortable gravity skiing at 30.
3) Edges and 5" wide skis are easy.
4) If you can make parallel turns on your skate skis, you can make them on gravity skis.
5) Telemark turns are much harder than parallel turns, but also cooler.

By the end of the day I was telemarking down the steeper trails, which is good times. Didn't feel like I got much of a workout, and wasn't even sore the day after.

Pretty good NP this morning. I felt pretty meh, but was happy to have taken the bus to the train rather than hoofed it three miles to Brookline with a pack. Or biked on ice (although it was mostly dry). We were told to warm up three times and then sprint—and there were cameras taking pictures of … something. And police escort! Full on negative splits (5:39 with pack, 4:09, 3:45, 3:43, 3:00), although 12 seconds slower than my fastest time up (2:48, which according to Strava is still the fastest recorded, although some of the boys definitely ran faster today). Brogan put me in the lead group and I did not stay with the top guys, but a) it's March, b) I didn't get enough sleep and c) I felt not great so I can't say I'm disappointed, because I got hills in and got to high-five about 100 people on the way down to the T. At my desk by 8, to boot. (Overall "intensity" L2 but the last hill was definitely L4 or close to it.)

Did not skip work and did not go skiing at Windblown. I also was not at a work event until 10 last night. The snow was rumored to be perfect powder, if soft in spots, and the kick was supposedly nice on blue wax. And ripping turns down the Open Slope was great, apparently, as was climbing the mountain a few times. Not that I would know.

NP this morning was interesting. We were supposed to be filmed by New Balance, but with the snow the stadium was unrunnable (even with Microspikes). You could slowly walk it but there were two issues. 1) Walking is for sissies and 2) You still might fall and crack your skull open. So, next time. We went and took pictures and then went and ran sprints in the snow, so it was sort of slow, ankle-building sprints. It was late so then I ran to the T to go to work. Icy!

So it started off snowing, then changed to rain, then sleet, then back to rain, and then to snow. Lots of water, lots of ice, not a lot of running. I wonder if anyone went to the slushfest night-o in the snow at Hale Reservation. I sort of hope not. I valiantly took the day off.

C • Hale 2

Ran with a pack to November Project. Then did core. Then ran another half mile to the T, and then to work.

A full deck, plus a bunch (I did mostly planks for the push ups as after 200 push ups my form was le merde). We'll see how sore I am tomorrow. Probably very.

Wild goose chase to see northern lights running up Mount Watatic in the dark. Didn't see anything, except a guy who'd skinned up. One day too late. Boo. But night hiking!

Awesome day at the Sugarloaf Marathon. Last year the marathon course melted out as the race went on, this year was the COMPLETE opposite. Temps around 20, sunny but solidly frozen. Good times.

The drive up was a little snowy and an inch of fresh snow meant I could use the soft (fast) skis, although the course wasn't super fast. I got to the start pen after a short warm-up with 3 minutes to spare, which meant I was in the back. AND I got boxed out. I wound up behind Jess and Viktoria and—yeah, that wasn't happening.

I caught and dropped a group at the first feed and shot down the first downhill and caught an old dude in front of me and had to scrub speed and scrubbed a soft spot and yardsaled across the trail. But I full-on barrel-rolled and popped up basically on to my skis on the edge of the trail—a perfect fall.

I soon got behind a group of girls from _____ college who were going really slow right down the middle of the trail. I stayed behind them way too long and finally passed them on an uphill and got yelled at by the master there who I also dropped like a bad metaphor. At the lap I caught a group of four, and pretty quickly wound up skiing behind a skier Williams pants. Not that fast, but I had burned a bunch of matches and could use the ride.

I offered to pull later in the lap and she turned to me and said, "wait, are you Ari?" I had worked with her sister a couple falls ago at Mizpah Spring Hut; we've met a few times. So we had a grand old time skiing together for the rest of the race, not seeing anyone in front of or behind us. In fact, one person finished within six minutes in front of us. We didn't push the pace, but had a very lovely end of the season Sunday ski. The race course is only 40k or so (let's say 42) and I finished in 2:12, respectable but not fast. Got schooled by a bunch of college boys, but as Lincoln pointed out to me: "you have a job."

That's the sad truth. But it was a great day on the skiings.

Cool down after the race with Emily and we ran in to—completely randomly!—a former coworker of mine. She was no-poles skiing for fun. I mostly no-poled around the course. It was still in the 20s and just really fantastic skiing.

Skied up to the Sugarloaf base, with a couple breaks for some turns, for burgers. We finished right at 4 and we should have skied farther up the now-closed mountain for fun and awesomeness. Came ripping down a downhill slope and through a super-sketch tunnel before we turned back on to the nordic trails.

Ugh. Still sore from going too hard on Monday (!) doing core. Which means I am WEAK where I need to be strong. Did some stretching, hopefully I won't go in to a 50k with a bad back.

The NP this morning was 3x 19 stadia. I was all about that until about two-thirds of the way through the second one, when I realized I am skiing 50k on Saturday and want to be able to walk tomorrow. So I valiantly gave up. Felt pretty good though … it was about 40 so I was down to just shorts by the second time through.

Oh god so sore. Need to do more core so this doesn't happen and so I can ski faster.

Sore from core/circuits yesterday and it is raining and I haven't had a good day off in a while, so, day off.

First Monday November Project. Ran to work, basically, with a pack. Pack was not that comfortable.

Destination Deck was a 20 minute circuit, 5x on each of burpees, air squats, mountain climbers and high walks. 45 on, 15 off. Brogan yelled at me for my poor mountain climber form.

C • Destination Deck 2

Had a meeting near Windblown. Went to Windblown. It was SUPER slow and pretty soft but certainly skatable. I decided to play on the mountain, so I got 1250+ feet of climbing in, and took some sweet turns down the open slope. I want it to get cold! (That's coming.) Sort of fake L3 because I was bonking the whole time but still trying to go fast on the slow, sucky snow.

In order to be healthy, I ate peanut M&Ms and potato chips for lunch and forgot my drink belt. Good times!

OH MY GOD it was so worth waking up at 7 (but really 6) to go to Windblown. I was the first one on the freshly-groomed snow which was either transformed and fast ice or, in places, powder. I self-embargoed myself to the mountain after Aims told me to ignore the controls I saw (no way I wasn't skiing) and had a very awesome 40 minutes of skiing up and down hills before the Ski-O race. I made my dad do Ski-O too. And I bought a map-holder from Larry and Sara Mae. Nice to live down the street from them (although I picked it up at Windblown). Ooh, new toy!

Ugh, forgot to start my clock until about a mile in to the race, so no full track. I know Windblown's trails pretty well but the snow was great for Ski-O and deep, and the narrow trails were sketchy and deep and narrow, although much of the course was on the wide.

Skied 1-3 pretty easy, starting my phone just before 3. 3-4 looked like a nice go down the narrow trail then go through the deep sort of crust but maybe powder snow, except the downhill on the narrow hadn't been dragged but was just a straight snowmobile track and there was NO WAY TO STOP. I yardsaled and picked my way down and through the woods once I stopped, and pretty well spiked 4. 4-5 was an easy off-trail. (Aims said that when he hung the controls on Thursday, there was good crust everywhere. Then it snowed 18".)

5-6 was easy, but I shot down a narrow trail to 7 and overran the control, and yanked it off the tree where it was perched (punch controls) so that cost a few seconds. I went on trail to 8 and then decided not to try to go through deep snow uphill but take a longer, on-trail route to 9, since the first half was fast down a hill and then up the Open Slope which was good skating. No idea if that was a good idea. 9-10-11 I stayed on the trails, and then 12-13 was pretty easy. 13-14 was awkward skate up a narrow trail (I started calling narrow trails "awkwards") and I stayed on big trails rather than careen down the awkwards and shoot across beginner trails blindly on a busy day (also I would have crashed lots. 17 was in the wrong place, but apparently that was the same for everyone, except Aims who insisted it was in the right place. 42:15, which might have won but I didn't stay around long enough for everyone to come in.

No big mistakes this time, no getting cutesy and losing lots of time (this is my second Ski-O this year, both at Windblown). Lots of fun, and I felt like I went hard. Even though I don't really care since it's March.

Oh there are no results, so no way to know if I won or not. Last time I lost by 15 secs, but last time I made about 6 really dumb mistakes. Still can't find results but apparently I won. Success?

My dad was on a short course and I went to try to find him. It seemed like Harry Potter marauders map O, since I had to guess his route choice in the other direction. Oh and he'd never done O before. I must have missed him at some point. The snow slowed down a lot and it was time to go, but I got a fun little cool down in, so that's a thing.